The Beggars || The Family Business Pt.3 || Pastor Adam Mesa

Welcome to the ALS podcast. Here at ALC, we seek the loss,

teach the found, and send the disciples. We truly hope you're encouraged by

this week's message. I'm excited to jump into the Word as we continue this

conversation about family business and understanding how God views our finances but also views our

character and our finances. So would you guys join me. If you have

your Bible, would you turn to Luke chapter twelve. Luke chapter twelve,

verse thirteen. That's what we're gonna launch out for today. And as God

speaks to us in the Word, when you are ready, you can stand

on your feet as we honor God with the reading of his Word today.

Here's what it says in the Word of God. It says someone in the

crowd said to him, speaking to Jesus, teacher, tell my brother to

divide the inheritance with me. Jesus replied, man who appointed me a judge

or arbitrator between you. Then he said him, watch out, be on

your guard against all kinds of greed. Life does not consist in an abundance

of possessions. And he told them a parable the ground of a certain rich

man yielded in an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, what shall I

do? I have no place to store my crops. Then he said this,

this is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and I

will build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And

I'll say to myself, you have plenty grain laid up for many years.

Take life easy, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said

to him, you fool, This very night your life will be demanded from

you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? Everybody say

yourself, this is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves

but is not rich towards God. Let's pray this morning. God, we

thank you so much for your word today. Lord, as we uncom your

truth and your message today, God, not only may it stretch us and

challenge us, but God, may it bless us today that as we walk

here, we understand that the moment we start to make your kingdom the priority

in our lives is the moment we start to see You in a way that

we could only have dreamed them. God, we thank you for your faithfulness.

We thank you for your mercy. Today, would you speak to us

through your word today in Jesus' name. Amen, Amen, you may be

seated, God bless you. I just want to talk about today with the

few moments that we have about three characters that we can see in the area

of the Bible when it comes to how they view their finances. And so

if you're taking notes, I'm going to give you the three points on the

front end. And it's found in characters. And I wonder what we would

view ourselves at in this what one of the three would we view ourselves when

it comes to our finances. So the three areas that we're going to talk

about today is the person that's the beggar, the person that's the borrower,

and the person that's the blesser. We have to talk about the beggar,

the borrower, and the blesser. I want to illustrate this with you.

Here's the perspective and the mentality before we go to what we read. Thank

you so much, Pastercinni. Here's what we read today is so far we

have read about the bagger, which we'll talk about in a few moments.

And so how many of you guys ever heard someone say before, oh,

I'm out here getting that bread. They talking about their money and getting their

bread. So I got some bread today here for you guys, and I

want you to view it the way that we would see in the characters of

the Bible. That we're gonna see that if this was my bread, if

this was my finances, here's what the beggar does. The beggar looks at

this bread and says, I just need more bread. I need more.

Every single day they're begging for more. They're begging God for more. They're

begging people for more. They're begging their business for more. There begging their

boss for more. It's just I always need more. Every day is another

day than I need more bread, need more bread a lot of times.

Traditionally we think of a beggar a person who's on the side of the road

with a cup in their hand, dangling some change, saying could I get

some money please. That's a type of beggar. But another type of beggar

is a person who drives a Mercedes, who has a nice house and wakes

up and says, God, I don't need the Mercedes anymore. I need

a Rose Royce. Next. I need more. I need more, God

I like this house. It's comfortable. Our every child has a bedroom,

every child has a place to sleep. But I would love ten thousand more

square feed or two thousand more square feed and we can't qualify it. Though

it's not because of any legitimate reasons. It's just because why because I ought

to have more? I just need more. That's a beggar. I go

to God every day in a bag, beg for more. The borrower is

the person that sees a loaf of bread and says, I wonder if I

give two pieces away, if there's an neighbor next to me who can give

me four. And so they may be giving some things away, but they're

expecting more in return all the time. They're borrowing more so that person who's

borrowing. We borrow everything. We borrow to upgrade, we borrow to get,

we borrow to have and some of it. In today's age, it

may be not necessary say, man, I can't go to college without borrowing.

Okay, well there's a case for that. But if you had to

borrow and it took you fifteen years, could maybe we get to a case

where we start a college fund for our children where they don't have to do

the same. Maybe we start viewing the bread another way instead of sometimes we

say, well I didn't have or I didn't grow up, or I didn't

get and so therefore I spend all my money on me and everyone else can

fend for themselves. And so the borrower is the person who's always borrowing but

looking to get more. I need moore, and then I'll pay off little

bit and then I'll just add more and I'll just keep adding more. It's

the thing that when we believe God, that say God, I can't wait

to pay off my car, and then we pay it, and then we

say, I wonder how much equity is in my car. Maybe I can

now get twenty thousand to buy a ninety thousand dollars one. You know,

it just we celebrate something in the moment, but then we think, Okay,

when can I upgrade? When can I grow? When can I get

more? And then the blesser is the person that says, what is absolutely

necessary for me not only to live but to enjoy life and to be generous?

And how much is it that I need? And how can I just

give away the rest? How can I bless the rest? So maybe for

you it's I need eight loaves to live. That's that's my kids, that's

my morgus. I need one, two, three, four, five,

six, seven eight. So here, this is what I need. This

is the bread I need. That's what I need for the next twelve months.

So now I have six pieces of bread left over, and so maybe

I take one and I save it. I got okay, this goes into

a saving, this goes into something. Well, I still have four.

You see the banker we just read about that. Jesus told us this person

said I could help other people with this. I could give this in the

Kingdom of God. I could give this to my church. I could give

this to others. But instead, I'm gonna build a garage and I'm gonna

start storing some toys in the garage. I'm just gonna create a ness egg,

not because I need it, but just because I want it and I

can have it, and it's mine and I deserved it. And so the

blesser is the person that says, this is what I need and I can

help for you. Right now in your season, you only may be able

to give half of one of these. And guess what, that's okay,

because you're still living in a place where you're looking for an opportunity to give,

not to get. That's what God is looking for. When in my

life am I looking for opportunities to give to something or someone else rather than

looking for every opportunity to get? Do my prayers have giving a part of

what I'm getting? Does it? And so when we talk about getting bread,

we see from the first passage we read who the beggar really is.

The beggar is a rich man who looks at all of his crops and he

can help his local region, and he can help the people around him,

and he decides, you know what, no, and he reminds you he

already has a barn, he's already storing a retirement. But in this story,

he decides, I can just get a build a bigger barn and store

more for retirement than I can really kick my feet up, and I can

really enjoy life. But what he doesn't know is there's been in a point

today that he's gonna die, and he's completely unaware of it. And so

he's living life assuming he's gonna make it to a hundred and two hundred and

three. And he says, well, I'm young, I'm in my fifties.

I'm in my forties, and so I got another fifty years. Yes,

Lord willing you have fifty years. But in this parable, Jesus says,

this guy didn't have fifty years. He had three years, and where

he could have lived a life of generosity where people talked about him when he

died in a way that was gration, in a way was a loving Everyone

views him when he dies as that greedy man who did and kept everything for

himself. And I can almost guarantee you if Jesus continued this parable, he

would say, and when that man died, if this man didn't have children,

everyone in the community came and took everything from his barn, everything he

had, They all just started grabbing it. And so we see what the

beggar's mentality is like. I want to show you what a beigger mentality is.

Like. There's a famous real estate agent. This guy's worth over one

hundred million dollars. He's really famous online. But I don't want to do

cause any attention to him or selling I'm making fun of him or any way.

But he's very famous. He's got everything you could imagine. He's got

fifteen sixteen cars cars worth anywhere between half a million to two to three million

dollars. And he famous on YouTube and TikTok and he's an older gentleman,

but he gets money and people follow him to take real estate advice and business

advice. There was a recent video where he holds up a piece of paper

and on the piece of paper it was a list, an Excel document of

all of his properties. They're all the properties he owns. And in the

video he makes this statement. I'm just gonna read his statement for you and

not play the video. He says this, this holding up the paper.

This My whole life is on one piece of paper. That represents my entire

existence in the world. Only your existence is what appears on paper. What

else is there? There's nothing else in your life but your financial existence.

What else is there. Money is what makes the world go round. There

is nothing more important than money. As long as you got money, you

can have anything else else you want in life. You want to be happy,

have money. Money will buy you anything you need. That's the perspective.

In the lens of a beggar. We look at that person and say,

there's no way they beg for their money and they're living. Yes,

he does. He wakes up every day begging because, in his view,

he said, everything that matters in his life is what's on an Excel document.

It's not who he wakes up next to in the morning. It's not

who the kids he gets to kiss goodbye when they leave the house. It's

not he says, it's on one paper. I would agree in some degree,

I would say, you know what, Our entire existence is not written

on one paper. It's written on many papers. That's where our existence can

be told, and our story can be told. It is You're right.

You're right to a certain degree. Our existence is on one paper. But

it's not that paper you're talking about. I could have not a nickel to

my name. But if I still have God, if I still have his

favor, if I still have his hand, if I still have my family,

if I still have my children, then I can wake up every day

and say, God, I may only be able to afford one apple,

but I have you, and that's what I need to make it to tomorrow.

That's why I need because one day I'll stand before God. And when

he stands before God, this man, God's gonna say, what do you

have for me? He's gonna say I left my paper behind. I'll have

it no more. He's gonna say, you won't believe it. Back on

earth, I was worth one hundred and fifty million dollars. And then God,

God will say that that's nice. I created that earth. So imagine

how much wealth I have and how much Imagine how much more I could have

gave you if you gave me your wealth. And so we see the beggar's

mentality. You see, the Bible says the famous verse we know First Timothy,

chapter six, verse ten says this, for the love of money is

a root of all kinds of evil. A lot of times it's twisted,

and it's the root of evil. It's not the root of evil, it's

root of many kinds of evil. And so for the love of money is

a root of all kinds of evil. It is through craving that some have

wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains, with many pains,

because the person who solely pursues money for money's sake will never have enough,

never content, never happy, if every dollar is a dollar to their

pocket, and they will never give anything away, or they will never be

a blessing to anyone else. Then you will be subjected and chained to that

thing like a slave. Everything that the dollar tells you to do, or

every time you lose a dollar, you will live by that and you could

possibly lose everything else around it. You know, when I was sixteen years

old, I got my driver's license, and both of my brothers when they

got their driver's license when they were eighteen, they were a little older when

they got theirs. And so moment I turned sixteen, I got my driver's

license. So leading up to it, I kept telling my dad. I

said, Dad, are you gonna get me a car when I turned sixteen?

He said, absolutely not. You're not getting a car when you turn

sixteen. I said, Dad, I want a car. When I toured

sixteen, he said, your brothers didn't get cards till they turned eighteens.

I say yes, because they were nerds and they didn't have any friends.

They didn't have a car, they didn't need to take their car anywhere else.

They just were home all day. And so I got a job and

I started working at Zoomie's skate shop at Victoria Gardens. This was my first

job ever. I got hired as a seasonal employee during the Natesgiving holidays.

My first day of work was on Black Friday. And so I get my

job and I go to my dad. I say, Dad, i'm working

now. None of my brothers had a job or they currently still don't have

a job. Can you get me a car now? My dad said absolutely

not, it's not going to happen. And so I'd walk out huffy and

I'd walk out angry, and he say, listen, if you want to

get a car, you got a job. Now, you can go work

and you can save up, you can get your car. I'm thinking,

this is bogus. I'm just asking to get me my car two years earlier

than my brothers. That's it. That's not a hard request. How many

guys have teenagers, you know, they're the rationale of a teenager sometimes don't

make no sense. And so I'm saying, I got a job now.

They didn't have a job at sixteen. I need it. He says,

man, I'm sorry, I don't know what to tell you. Well,

there was some documentation airs when I got employed at Zuomi's, so it took

them about a month and a half to two months to pay me my first

paycheck. So it was four pay periods that I had to wait, and

so I was working November December. So finally they fixed my pace. So

I got a pretty good chunk of change. In mind, you it was

like a part time job. I was in high school. So you know,

if I remember right this, over two months, the paycheck was about

four hundred and fifty or four hundred and seventy five dollars. I was working

through the holidays. So for me, I mean, but I mean,

that's a lot of gwap. I mean, that's a lot of bread.

So I'm thinking, Man, I'm buying me some Jordans. I'm a,

I'm a I'm gonna buy a grill. I'm gonna do like I'm just thinking,

I'm gonna I'm gonna play this thing up. So it just so happened.

During that same season, Pastor Diego was in a series on finances.

He was in some type of series where he was talking about money. And

I heard my dad every single week talking about tithing, talking about honoring God

with your finances, talking about doing these things. And so I'm sitting there

and I'm listening to sermon. It just so happened. The day before,

I had cashed my paycheck. So I'm sitting in church on a Sunday and

I had it all cashed out because I wanted to show my friends how much

money I made during the holidays, and so I'm there to stunt, you

know, And so I have it cashed out because I'm like, oh,

I'm gonna tell me I look at my money from my job. And so

I'm sitting in service and I felt like God said, you know, God

doesn't And it didn't appear to me in a robe or glowing or anything like

that, just a strong intuition, a strong impression that I felt like God

said, Adam, give me all the money that you have, give me

everything that's in your pocket. I was like, no, God, I

got plans for this money. It's the first money I've ever had in my

life that wasn't more than just an allowance. I'm saying, Lord, I

think that word is for my neighbor. I'll I'll tell them after church that

whatever is in their pocket God wants, I'm gonna tell them. I felt

like God said, no, this this specifically for you, Adam. And

so in a moment, I went from begging and begging. Remember I'm begging

my dad for a car. Begging my dad for a car in this moment,

mind you, there's nothing in my head think this is. This is

seven months later that I first started asking for a car. I sit there,

I say, okay, God, and so I pulled out four hundred

and fifty dollars and I put it in the offering bucket and I just say,

Okay, God, I honor you with the first fruits. That's what

Pastor Diego was talking about at the time. He's talking about first fruits.

Honor God with your first fruits. So I thought, Okay, this whole

paycheck is my first fruits. I'm gonna give the whole paycheck to God.

The next day is a Monday. I come home from school and my dad,

who has no awareness of what I did the day before, he has

no idea. He says, Adam, guess what. You won't believe it.

I said, what happened? He said, my cousin, your second

cousin, who recently got married. Her father in law has like a bunch

of cars, and he has this nineteen ninety six lexus, and he remembered

they were in conversation and they were talking about you. And they thought.

One called Diego and say because he knews, he had three sons, and

hey, Diego, do you have any sons who need a car? Right

now? My father, my father in law, will practically give it to

you. Give it to you for a couple thousand dollars. I mean,

this thing had It was a nineteen ninety six, so it was ten years

old. It had three thousand miles on it. It was the thing.

It was brand new. It was brand new. It was Alexus ES three

hundred. Imagine at sixteen years old driving a Lexus ES three hundred. That

was no good for myself. So so my dad tells me, you won't

believe it. They called me, they asked me, and he goes,

So your mom and I had decided it was such a great deal, was

so generous. We bought you the car. It's coming this afternoon. You're

gonna have a car so you can start going to work. And I said,

I said, what about when I turn eighteen? And he said,

it's fine. They reached out, it worked out. It's fine. Your

mom and I aren't concerned about that. You've been working hard, you're doing

a good job, you're doing good at school. We got you the car.

We want you to have it so that you can have it. And

at that moment God solidified in my heart that if you take care of my

business, I'll take care of yours. If you stop begging for everything that

you need and everything that you want and everything I went from seven months earlier,

at least you have teenagers at least six times a week telling my dad,

when you're gonna get me a car, When you're gonna get me a

car, when you get When I finally just shut my mouth, went to

work, honored God with my life and my giving. God said, I'll

take you. Don't have to beg anymore. Stop begging, stopp being a

beggar for every dollar that you need. You take care of my business,

I'll take care of yours. That's what I believe God looks at in our

life, and it in the scriptures we see. The next person is the

borrower. The borrowers found in Mark twelve Versus forty one to forty four.

Many of us know this passage. It says in Mark twelve forty one to

forty four, speaking of Jesus, and he sat down opposite the treasury and

watched the people putting money into the offering box. So Jesus at this time

he's in church, he's in the synagogue, and he's watching everybody give their

offering. And so Jesus maybe something like you guys, you guys come to

church and you just look at everyone around you, and you just observe and

you're looking at everything. Is Jesus doing. He's in church, he's looking

at everyone and the way it was really a social gathering back then, and

so also so what happens is says, many rich people put in large sums

of money in and a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins,

which make a piny. And he called his disciples to him and said

to them, truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put

more, has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering

box, for they are contributing out of their abundance. But she, out

of her poverty, has put in everything she had and all she had to

live on. She has put in everything she had. Here's what we have

to remember about this story and the times Jesus in. In the times that

Jesus is in, it wasn't the type of government that you and I have

today. You and I have a lot of social support from the government.

So you have a lot of programs for those who don't have money. You

have housing programs, living programs, you have welfare, you have a social

security program. So there's a lot of programs that work that when someone is

going through it, or someone loses someone, they get gifted their beneficiary as

a social seer. There's a lot of stuff like that. In Jesus day,

none of that existed. None of that existed, and so it was

built into the Jewish laws that number one, if you were wealthy, you

were obligated to help the poor and help widows. That's why many of Jesus's

statements are if you take care of the widows and the orphans, a call

to take care of the widows and the orphans, because there was no government

who would do that, and many times people would say, well, that's

not my problem, that's not my issue, that's not my family. And

so Jesus is looking where there are these wealthy individuals. And the way they

did it back then is they did it for show. Everyone would gather and

everyone would publicly give their giving. So everyone saw that's why the New Testament

encourages us to give in privately and to go and discuss with God what number

you should give, and don't feel like you're giving. And it's forced because

in the Jewish religion it was forced in order to be in the community,

you had to financially give something. And so here's these rich people and though

they may be tithing really to God in their life, it's a tip.

They're giving God a tip. So they're coming in front of everyone, they're

given a tithe, but they're really giving God a tip. And you know

that when you get that jama juice and they turn the screen over and they

ask for sixty percent tip, eighty percent tipnight, whatever they do nowadays,

I'm thinking, you know, I'll get a cup of coffee of star Wicks.

They did this, They turned the thing around and you're like, the

tip of So that's the culture. We're in a big tip culture right now.

You know. The thing is we do that a lot of times with

God. Is that that's what they were doing, is they're just giving God

a tip, just a little something for you God, not too much.

While all of a sudden, in their same eyesight they see a woman whose

husband has died, who has one he left to her name? And instead

of someone interjecting and saying, ma'am man, no, you don't need to

do that, come with me. We need to man, we need we

need to take care of you. We need to look out for you.

Everybody's looking. Everyone's letting her put everything that she has in the table.

No one's stopping it, no one's helping her, no one's looking after her.

And in their day, all she would have had is her church community.

There was no government who would have helped her. So as Jesus is

looking at this, he's seeing a woman who's in desperation for God her forest

favor because she understands and she understood, man, if I look after God,

if I take care of God, and I just honor him with these

finance. But again it was abused in the synagogue back then because what happened

was is God was looking for their community to look after her. And so

what they don't realize in that moment is what they're really doing is they're borrowing

God's goodness. They're borrowing God's favor for finance. They're borrowing God's hand a

provision in the wealthiest life but yet they're letting a widow give her last dollar

where she can't now even leave and eat. And so they've gotten to a

place in their life where they're more about the show of their finances rather than

they are using their finances to show up for someone else. And so Jesus

looks at it, and he tells them these guys are abusing God's goodness in

their life because they're not doing their job in the kingdom, which is to

look after this widow. And so what ultimately happens is if we don't look

out for each other, and we don't be there for each other, and

we don't let the Kingdom of God be the kingdom of God, then what

happens is is Proverbs twenty two to seven says the ritual over the poor and

the borrower is slave to the lender, And we live in that age today.

The systems are meant to be slave to lenders. That's the whole world.

And there are many countries who don't, who make it illegal to lend.

With the massive amount of percentages of interest that we charge in America,

in many countries it's completely illegal to charge interest because they view that as a

morally wrong thing to take someone who needs something and say, yeah, you're

gonna pay interest on that in a massive way. They many countries view that

as unfair. But we live in that world today, and so we live

in a world and so many people will oftentimes come to the church and they'll

say it is the physical church, building the people, the name of the

church. It's their job to look after everyone. Now, I would say,

to a degree, I agree with that if everyone did their part.

But unfortunately, in the church in America today, the average percentage of church

people that go to church who consider they regularly go, only twenty percent of

people who go to church actually give not tithe. Tithing is even less than

that, it's less than ten percent. So mind you, like here at

ALFCN, our church functions at about seventeen percent, only seventeen percent of people

who attend give a dollar seventeen percent. So when people come and say,

I think you guys should be doing this, I think you guys should be

doing that, the reality is we would if we could even get to fifty

percent, if we listen, if we were I'm telling you right now,

if we were at one hundred percent of people who came tithe there would not

be a need in the Inland Empire that we could not meet. I'm telling

you right, we wouldn't be like we would you if if just between we

got great churches in our neighborhood, we got Hillside up the street, water

of Live up the street. If just between three churches all the people who

call that church home all started tithing, there would literally not be a need

in San Bernardino County that our three churches could not fulfill. There would be

nothing. But that's what people don't understand is the money does not come out

of thin air, and generosity doesn't come out of thin air. So people

often have many great ideas of how we can serve people or look after people,

but those things can't happen until people start doing their sacrifice. And what

Jesus is looking at in this widow's life, He says, Oh, she's

not tipping God, She's sacrificing everything for God. And the story doesn't continue.

But you can only imagine what Jesus is nuancing how much God is gonna

take care of that widow because she has honored God fully in her sacrifice.

And so that's why in the church we say listen We're not looking for everyone

to give an equal number. We're just looking for equal sacrifice. If we

all sacrifice equally, then we all can not only meet the needs outside our

community, but meet the needs inside our community. There are people who go

through things inside of our community, and during COVID, our church blessed people

with up to forty thousand dollars worth of not individually but collectively forty thousand dollars

worth of payments. We help people pay their water bills, their electricity bills,

every but that is what we could do with our overflow. If we

just had everybody regularly tithing, there would be no one in our community who

had an open need. It wouldn't happen. And so in the Jewish community

that existed, but unfortunately everyone was tithing, but they weren't using the money

for what they needed to and what they were called to do, which was

to take care of that widow. And so you're right. There is an

element of church responsibility is there, and there's also an element of personal responsibility

we have to take or else. That's what we're showing God is that we're

just here to be a borrower in this life. Borrow time borrow blessing and

borrow favor. There's a woman named Elizabeth Bibesco. In the early nineteen hundred,

she said this, blessed are those who give without remembering and take without

forgetting. That's the key to living a generous life and a blessed life,

and a life that's a blessing. Is we understand that those who give,

I don't remember. People are really good nowadays with keeping ledgers about someone else

ever happened to you before someone comes up to you and says, hey,

hey, hey, I've said hi to you for the past week and you

never said high once. And you're thinking I thought I said hi, but

I'm sorry, or another person that comes you know what, the last two

times we got Starbucks, I paid. When are you gonna start paying for

Starbucks? You're thinking, Man, I didn't know this was a ledger.

I didn't know you had some type of tax document that every time you did

something for me you were expecting reciprocacy. I don't even know the word at

this point for it to be reciprocating. We're looking for it and we do

that. We do that in our marriages too. We think we think,

Okay, I'm gonna clean up in the in the house to get a reciprocation

where then someone comes and I'm not saying someone ought to do something and not.

And you're right, no one should take advantage of you. But when

we in our own heart start taking a tally, and we would start holding

a tally, then what happens. That person isn't the one changing. You're

the person changing. Your heart is starting to change, your trust is starting

to change, your joy is starting to change. Now you look at that

person, you go to coffee with them, you look at where their wallet

is. You're like, you're leaving the office. You're like, hey,

let's go to John Bajuice. Yeah're gonna grab your wallet. You want your

wallet. You forgot your wallet. Hey, don't forget your wallet. You're

taking you're taking a tally. Or that person. You guys go out,

you guys jump in the car and you go watch a movie, and that

person sends you a Venmo request for a dollar fifty of gas money because they

drove nigus. It's the beggar's mentality, It's the borrowers' mentality. It's the

hey, I keep a ledger in my heart that any time I do anything

for anyone, you gotta pay me back me. Do you need this a

dollar fifty? No? I don't, but it would just be right.

It's just right. Okay. Then that night that I gave you three hours

worth of counseling for you and your girlfriend, I'm charging you fifty bucks an

hour for that thing. If I want one hundred and fifty bucks for that

three hours I gave you at twelve at midnight, that's what I want.

If we're gonna start tick for attacking, I got some tax all up in

my pocket that I could give you. It's a dangerous game that ends up

corrupting the heart. Hebrews thirteen fifteen to sixteen says this. Therefore, let

us offer, through Jesus, a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming

our allegiance to his name, and don't forget to do good and share with

those in need. He says, Hey, don't be a person that lifts

your hands up on Sundays and says thank you Jesus. Pray man, we

had a beautiful gospel song. We sung the third song, and we're saying

thank you God, thank you God, thank you. Don't sing that song

if you're not a generous person, don't thank God in one hand and say

God, thank you, thank you for your deliverance, thank you for your

blessing, thank you for your provision. And then someone else next to you

is in need. He says, don't forget those that are in need,

because you cannot worship God with your mouth and not worship Him with your hands.

You can't do that. So it's a challenge to say, if your

mouth will worship Him and thank you, then make sure your hands do the

same. Make sure your heart does the same. And the last one is

this, and we close together is the blesser, the one God has called

all of us to be in our lives. And it's through the life of

zachiahs It says in lou nine nineteen one to ten, Jesus entered Jericho and

made his way through the town. There was a man there named Achias.

He was the chief tax collector in the region, and he had become very

rich. He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too

short to see over the crowd, so he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore

tree beside the road. For Jesus was going to pass that way. When

Jesus came by, he looked up at Zechias and called him by names Achias.

He said, quick, come down, I must be a guest in

your home today. Sakias quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house with

great excitement and joy. But the people were displeased. He has gone to

be a guest of a notorious sinner. They grumbled, because tax collectors would

take advantage of people and charge over taxes and pocket it. They'd become wealthy.

Meanwhile, Zakias stood before the lord and said, I will give half

of my wealth to the poor Lord, and if I've cheated people on their

taxes, I will give them back four times as much. Jesus responded,

Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to

be a true son of Abraham, for the son of Man who came to

seek and save those who are lost. You see, this story is a

story of a legitimate man who's legitimately wealthy, who has legitimately taken advantage of

people left and right. He's a swindler, and he's a shyster, and

he steals from people. When Rome would send him out as a Jewish person

to collect taxes. He was allowed because he had Roman guards with him.

He could charge whatever percentage on top that he wanted to and pocket whatever he

wanted. So these guys were wealthy guys. But when he meets Jesus and

he hears about God's kingdom and God's kingdom business, he makes a decision to

say, there are people I stolen from that I owe their money back.

And not only will I give their money back, I'm going to give it

four times back. And he says, on top of that, there are

people who are in need and who are poor, who it is the job

of the people of this community to serve. I'm gonna give up half of

what I have. I'm gonna give a fifty percent tithe for those that are

in need because I understand that God's kingdom is bigger than my kingdom. And

then Jesus looks at him, he says, is that keys, you get

it? You get it. Salvation has come to you not because of your

actions, but because your realization of who God is in your life and the

responsibility we have to be a blessing to other people. Winston Churchill said it

like this, we make a living by what we get, but we make

a life by what we give. You can make a living by what you

get, and you can show everyone how good of a living you have.

You can pull up a bank account, you can point to a risk,

you could do. There's many things you could do to show a person if

you've been favor oh this is what I have. But what you can really

do even if you don't have something, You say, I don't have much,

I don't have a nice car, and i'm a nice watch. You

can still make a life by what you give. There is always someone who

is still less off than you, especially in America, there's always someone else

else who is living worse off than you are. And so we can always

get to a place where we give as a blessing. I'll close with this.

There was a time in me and my wife's life in about in twenty

sixteen seventeen, maybe like you guys, we were at a place in our

life where we had enough money each month just to pay the mortgage. We

were house broke, you know, like we just I didn't think I was

going to meet a wife, and so I bought a house, my first

house, and it had four rooms. So I said, oh, if

I charge rent for these three rooms, I can make my mortgage every month.

What I didn't know would be that same month that I bought the house,

I would meet my girlfriend who two years later we'd be married. And

so now this house that I assumed i'd always have roommates and renters with,

now it's just me and her. And so would you know, we were

blessed we had a home, but I mean we didn't have any extra luxuries

in our life at all. And so we saved up for over a year

because one of my best friends, Pastor Hero and our youth pastor, was

getting married in Hawaii. And so me and Ashley we we saved up for

a year to pay This is my best friend and his family, her family

lived in Hawaii and it was easy for his family are who are Tonguins to

get to Hawaii. And so I'm like, Okay, that's what I gotta

do for my friends. So me and Ashley we I took extra jobs outside

just to get this vacation paid for it, even save some money because you're

like, oh, you're going to Hawaii, Let's save a little money so

we can go to restaurants. And if you ever been to Hawaii, you

know, rental cars are like ten times as much as anywhere else. So

it's like it's like it's like buying a Maserati over there just to rent a

car for a week. So we saved money to be able to rent a

car and all this. So we saved a few thousand dollars, you know,

we saved like three or four thousand dollars. And that's what we were

gonna take over there, and and it was gonna be our real first vacations

as a married couple. Now two years in or whatever it is, a

year in and so what happens is is that same month, there's been a

family who had gotten saved here at Abundant Living, and man, their whole

fa family, their kids, they were beaming with joy. And their husband

was disabled and but man, they were loving God, they were loving church.

They just engaged in this community. And because of their financial situation,

he was on disability. She would stay at home mom because they had multiple

children. They adopted a child. You know, in that moment, their

car, their only car, they had broke down. They didn't have a

car anymore. So I'd heard from someone that people were like picking them up

to come to church, the whole family, whole squad, a bunch of

kids. And I thought, man, someone ought to get them a car.

Someone ought to hook them up. Maybe Abundant Living Family Church can get

them a car. God was like, no, no, Bunnet Living Family

Church doesn't even get them a car, Adam, why don't you get them

a car? And I'm like, no, God, I don't have any

money. I don't have any extra money. How about that? God?

At first, I said, God, I don't have any money, and

He's like, no, you got money. I said no, What I

meant was extra money. I don't have extra money for what I'm already spending

money on. And so that I felt like. God was like, no,

that money you saved, you go find a car and you get it

for that family. I said, but God, I'm going to Hawaii.

What am I going to do in Hawaii? Eat Ham sandwiches? Like what

I can't get? So I reluctantly go talk to my wife. I'm like,

okay, God, if you confirm it with my wife, I'll do

it. I'm like, there's no way, my wife it's gonna go with

that. There's no way, she's gonna tell me. Yeah, Like so

that I could just go to God and say, God, it's this woman

you gave me if my heart was right, but her, so I go

tell it. I say, actually, here's the today. I feel like

the Lord's really putting on my heart that we go and we go find a

car for this family into what we can afford, and it's supposed to be

our money that we have saved for when we're in Hawaii. And Ashley goes,

oh, if that's what the Lord told you, I think you ought

to do that. I thought this is not the way I thought this conversation

was gonna go. So she said, well, what's gonna happen when we

go to Hawaii? I said, well, I thought about it, and

I thought she's really not going for this. So then this was gonna happen,

I said, I thought about it. I found a guy on Yelp.

He actually rents bikes. So what's gonna happen is is I'm gonna rent

two bikes for him. They're twenty five dollars each a week, and so

for fifty dollars, I'm gonna rent a bicycle from him, and then two

miles from our hotel is a grocery store, and so I was thinking,

we go to the hotel and then we bike to the grocery store, and

then we get groceries, and then we live off the groceries in the hotel

the whole week, like we naturally have budgeted for our house life, and

so we bike everywhere that we want to go. We want to go to

the beach, we ride a bike. We want to you know, we

want to go and see something, we go bike. So we were biking

some days up to seven miles to get to get to where we wanted to

go, a beach or what. And so I'm thinking, in that case,

she's not gonna go for it, so this is perfect. She says,

Oh, that sounds like that'll be an experience. Let's do it.

David's so sure enough. We took that money and then we went and bought

that family a car. Someone in our church had a neighbor who was in

his nineties in a very nice old Cadillac that was just taking care of perfectly,

and he had he couldn't drive anymore, And so I went over there.

I told the man the story because he wanted some big number and here's

the story. Here's all I have. Honestly, I'm trying to buy it

for them. And he said, you know what, me and my wife,

we bought that for our family to enjoy in the seventies. I'm gonna

I'll give it to you for what you have so that that family can enjoy

it. And still to this day, that family comes to abundant living.

They still serve, They still have that car in their family, and they

still use it. Sometimes. God has blessed them in new ways. It's

not their only car. God has looked after them. And I'll tell you

this, God has looked after me and my wife. He has taken care

of us. He has taken to us place that we could never make on

our own. But there are times in your life where God will challenge you

and he will stretch you, and he will speak to you to be a

blessing and be a blesser. And if you immediately start going to you don't

have any extra. This is what I don't have. I'm begging right now,

I'm borrowing myself. Then what happens is God can't be a blessing to

you. And so then if God can't be a blessing to you, then

you are doing it on your own, and so I'd rather do it God's

way, where He stretches me and challenges me, and He even challenges my

desire and love for money in a way that allows me to bless other people.

And then when I can honor God with my finances, then He can

truly honor me in new ways in my life where I can be a blessing

to other people. Let's pray this morning. God, we thank you so

much for this word today. Lord, we thank you so much for this

message. Father God. I pray you bless every person in this room,

Lord, as you've spoken to them today. Father God, may you encourage

them. Lord, encourage them to be a blessing with others. Lord,

encourage them to view their finances as an opportunity to take care of those needs.

Lord, to love their neighbor as their selves. God, that we

may also be a blessing to others. God, we also do pray for

those that do consider this their church home, that you do speak to them

in the same way that we grow from that fifteen percent of giving. Lord,

that we engage more people in this church that take the step to go

and give today, Father God, not because we need more, but because

the kingdom needs to do more, and there is more that needs to be

done. God. So we thank you Lord for speaking to us today in

Jesus' name. Amen and amen, if you give me two more minutes in

this place, I just want to encourage you in here. If you've never

given given your life to Jesus Christ, or you've never called Jesus your personal

Lord and savior, it's appointed. We read in the Parable today there was

a guy who lived every single day as if there was no tomorrow. He's

planning, he's planning to have crops, and he says, I'm gonna get

to a place where I just eat, drink, could be married. But

he had no idea that he would die someday. He knew, maybe far

far, far far down the line, I may die in my old age,

but surely not anytime soon. And that man's life in that parable,

he died sooner than he thought. Now it's our prayer that everyone lives a

long, long life, but any of us who go out in the real

world, we know that's not the case. Not everyone does live to be

an old age, and so for many of us, the question is have

reprepared not just for death, but when I meet God in death. And

the reality is Jesus came on this or to walk this, or to redeem

us, to restore us to the Father. It's God's desire, his whole

heart, his whole plan is to bring us in unity with him. And

when people say, why doesn't God just bring everyone to heaven, he can

if you go through Jesus. He made that opportunity. He afforded us that

opportunity. He's not cutting some people out, anyone who would call upon the

name of Jesus, anyone that would repent to their sins, anyone who would

believe that Jesus is death and resurrection is for them. The Bible says recordy

Romans, Chapter ten, verse nine and ten, You'll be saved. And

so God's requirement is not some type of donation. God's requirement is not some

type of prayer or some type of good deed. God's requirements for salvation is

to receive his son, to accept his son, to believe that Jesus Christ

died on the cross for you and for me, and for those that would

call upon the name of Jesus. Salvation is promised Bible says in the Book

of Revelation that for those that would call upon the name of Jesus, their

name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and it can never be

erased, it can never be taken out. It's a promise of God that

one day you and I will stand before Him and they will look your name

up in that book. And if your name is in that book, salvation

is yours. It's guaranteed, and it's only through Jesus. So if you're

here today and you want to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior,

whether you're in the cafe courtyard or you're in this place, I want to

encourage everyone right now to say this prayer with me. By no means,

the prayer is not the thing that saves you. What we're doing is affirming

that prayer in our heart, because the Holy Spirit's already at work right now.

So would you join me in praying this today, family, as some

people are going to be praying this for the very first time, say this,

Dear Lord Jesus, in this moment, I confess my sins. I

believe in my heart that you died on the cross and you rose three days

later. From this day forward, I commit to follow you for the rest

of my days in Jesus' name. Amen. We really hope you enjoyed the

message, and if you said yes to Jesus, we just want to say

congratulations and give you a free devotional to help you walk out your faith.

Click the link of the description or head over to grow dot Faith the download

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friends. Thanks for listening to ALSC podcasts and we hope you tune in again.