Sermon
From Obligation to Overflow: Masterclass on Tithing | Overflow | Aspostle Mike Signorelli
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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Number one in your notes.
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Write this down.
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Taylor Swift is not the only one who has eras.
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You know the eras tour.
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Okay.
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There are four eras of giving in scripture.
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Let's talk about eras.
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What I'm about to do, and I gotta do this as fast as I did it
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all day, I'm gonna blaze through this with you is let me help
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you understand.
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It's just like Star Wars.
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There's the prequels, then there's the Star wars series, then
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there's the new trash ones that Disney made that we don't like.
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So there.
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Amen.
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So there's eras of Star Wars.
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And then you find out, wow, Anakin turned and he wasn't always
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evil and blah, blah, blah.
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So in the Bible, there's eras like that, and you can trace the
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lineage.
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Okay, so let me help you, because you all have a spiritual
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lineage.
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Father Abraham, any sons, and many a.
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I'm just kidding.
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All right, all right.
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That's how we did it.
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So Father Abraham.
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Why do we call him Father Abraham?
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Because it was credited to him righteousness.
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When he chose to abandon paganism, the gods of his father,
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to actually go serve the Hebrew God.
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And as he went into a direction he knew not.
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That's what the Bible says.
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It was credited to him, righteousness.
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And he became the father of many nations.
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So if you accept Christ Jesus, then you trace the lineage of Jesus
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to David and from David to Abraham.
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Are we all on the same page?
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So those are eras.
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So I'm gonna take you through the eras.
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Now.
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Take a look at my Bible.
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And this Bible is the Protestant Bible.
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This is the true Bible.
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Okay, Now I'm gonna tell you it's true because there are 66 individual
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books that teams of scholars over the eons have scrutinized and
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determined that the 66 individual books are all inspired
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by God, which means they came through human hand, but they were
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written through a human hand, but inspired by God.
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And they compiled the 66 individual books to create the Bible.
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Does this make sense?
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And so anything in addition to this is not scripture.
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But this is scripture.
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And when you go to the book of Genesis and you read it all the way
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through the book of Revelation, you are essentially reading
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four eras.
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Okay, that's the way to thinking of it.
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So let's go faster.
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Pre Mosaic era.
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This is the first era that you see in the Book of Genesis.
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This means before the law of Moses.
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So this is before the law of Moses.
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This is the pre, meaning before Mosaic, meaning Moses.
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So this is what was happening before the law of Moses.
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Now, I'm going to read this to you to illustrate a point.
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Genesis, the 14th chapter.
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It says, and Melchizedek, King of Salem, brought out bread.
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This is intentional.
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Bread and wine.
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He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed him and said,
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blessed be Abram, by God Most High, possessor of heaven and the
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earth.
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And blessed be God Most High who.
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Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.
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Woo.
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That's powerful.
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And Abram, this is.
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And this is the cause and effect Abram gave him.
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Who's him?
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The priest of God Most High.
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Who's the priest of God Most High?
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Melchizedek.
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A tenth of everything.
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Okay, we gotta break this down because this is very foundational.
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Who's Melchizedek?
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Trick question.
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We don't know.
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Biblical scholars all offer different explanations, but I'm going
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to give you some clues.
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This mysterious priest shows up and he shows up with bread and
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wine.
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Who do you know that shows up with bread and wine?
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Yeshua.
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He shows up with bread and wine.
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What does the bread represent?
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His body.
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What does the wine represent?
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His blood.
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What does his body being broken and his blood being spilled
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represent?
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Covenant.
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Covenant.
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So Jesus shows up like this.
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So you have this mysterious priest named Melchizedek who shows
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up with bread and wine, and he is the priest of God Most High.
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I have a high priest who prays for me.
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Okay, come on, don't get me started with a praise break.
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We're already going over.
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I have a high priest who prays for me.
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Who's our high priest?
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Jesus.
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And Jesus has the ability to give you what God has for you.
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Am I right?
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He's an intermediary.
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He's an intercessor.
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And he is able to transact from God to you.
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So here's you.
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Here is Jesus, the intercessor.
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And here is God.
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So Jesus is interceding between both of you.
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And God wants to destroy you.
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But Jesus died for you, covered you with his blood.
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And then you receive the approval that Jesus received over
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him.
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Over you.
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Because when God sees you, he sees his blood.
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Are y'all with me?
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Is this good?
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And that's called the gospel.
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Okay.
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Are you with me?
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Let me ask you this.
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Is God poor?
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Does God lack anything?
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No.
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And if Jesus is the intercessor, then you're here and
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you're in relationship with Christ and you've been saved.
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You have come into covenant.
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With who?
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With God.
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And covenant means?
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Come on, women, let's talk about marrying a rich man.
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Oh, I heard the new V1 locations off of Wall Street.
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I'm going to the V1 Manhattan.
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Come on, somebody.
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Don't we understand that when you make a vow and you come together
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in covenant, whatever I have is yours and whatever you have is
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mine.
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Legally.
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Don't we understand that?
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Okay, so you get married to God.
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And it's almost as if you're saying, listen, you're getting a
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Sallie Mae bill, three credit cards, two of them are hidden.
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I'll tell you about those later.
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And you're giving to God.
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But then what happens is he has an unlimited supply.
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So you come into covenant with him, and you are the bride of Christ.
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And may I submit the idea to you that it makes God look good for
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you to be blessed if you are his bride.
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Cause Jesus ain't gonna have no busted bride.
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Jesus is gonna take care of you.
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Because when you look good, he looks good.
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Can somebody shout?
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I am the bride of Christ.
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Can somebody shout?
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He takes care of me.
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See, this is a revelation.
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Melchizedek, Christ represented bread and wine, covenant.
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The priest of God, a broker for covenant and blessing.
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But then what does Abram do?
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He gives away a tenth.
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Let's talk about 10th.
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Oh, no, I get it.
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He's gonna make me give all my money today.
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This whole service is a hijacking.
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Listen, I'm Italian.
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There are easier ways to get your money.
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I would have just jumped you on the street out there.
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I wouldn't be standing up here giving speeches if I wanted your
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money.
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And by the way, you just moved to New York so you can make money.
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This is the worst place to start a church and try to become
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a megachurch pastor.
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Go to Tulsa, go to the Bible Belt.
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Go where the cost of living is lower.
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You don't go to the most expensive region in the U.S.
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i am here not for what you can do for me, but what God can do for
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you if you will get out of your own way.
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And I'm trying to help you understand the word tenth.
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Okay, tenth is this.
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If you got a hundred dollars, What's a tenth?
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$10.
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If you get $1,000, what's a tenth?
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A hundred dollars.
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Okay, so this is what happened.
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Look at what Melchizedek said.
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I'm gonna deliver the enemies into your hand and I'm gonna bless
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you.
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And the response was, I'm gonna give you a tenth of everything.
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Abram said, I'm gonna give.
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Who told Abram to give a tenth of everything?
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Nobody.
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Lie, Number one.
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We don't have to tithe because Jesus came and he ended the law.
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And we're under the New Covenant.
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Wrong.
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Biblically illiterate hundreds of years before the law.
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Abram's most natural intrinsic response to being blessed by God
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on high was to give him a tenth of everything and nobody had
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to tell him to do it.
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And that means that when you experience the blessing and favor
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of God, what should happen if your heart is in the right condition,
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is you want to give back to him what's already his.
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Okay, let me break this down even deeper.
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You make wages.
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What is a wage?
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A wage is when you get what you earned.
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So I work 40 hours.
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You better give me my check.
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That's how they talk on the job sometime.
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Am I right?
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That's a wage.
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For the wages of sin is death.
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So you know what you get for everything you did?
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Death.
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For the wages of sin is death.
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I'm trying to help you.
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Wages is when you get what you deserve.
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But what is a blessing when you get what you didn't deserve,
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but the blessing of God?
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The gift of God is what?
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Salvation.
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So here's what I'm saying.
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Let's say you work a job, and for your 40 hours of work, you get
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$1,000.
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How much do you tithe?
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$100.
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But the thing about it is, if.
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Okay, oh, Lord, help me, Jesus.
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If you believe that you're the reason why you got that thousand
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dollars, then you don't understand how this whole thing works.
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Because guess what?
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Your heart is beating involuntarily.
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You know who's controlling it?
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Sovereign God.
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And let me just tell you, for those of you who have a past, can
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I remind you that when you were strung out on drugs, you should
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have never even got to this day.
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Can I just tell you, when you were drunk and you were high and
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you were sleeping around, you dodged death many times, but you
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didn't save yourself.
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You were saved by the Savior.
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And you don't even have the ability to live on anything other
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than grace.
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And so when I give God a 10, what I'm simply acknowledging is
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God, the only way I'm able to work this job is that you give animation
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and life to my body.
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And I'm going to bring you back what's already yours.
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Because without you, I am nothing.
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That's what Abraham said.
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10% of something I never should have got is a good deal.
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Tell your neighbor that's a good deal.
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10% of something you were never supposed to get is a pretty
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good deal.
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Am I right?
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Okay.
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Tithing existed before the law.
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Everybody say before the law.
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But here's the key.
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It was voluntary.
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Nobody told Abram to tithe.
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It just was the natural thing.
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It was intrinsic, which means internal.
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He just knew to do it like your kids.
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Have you ever been doing the dishes?
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And all of a sudden, one of your kids comes up to you, and they're
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like, mommy, can I help you with the dishes?
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And you're like, oh, you're such a good child.
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And then that other kid comes up, and while you're doing the dishes,
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they have a bowl full of cereal, they dump the whole thing
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in there, and they walk around.
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Shut up, Mom.
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I'm just kidding.
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Only white kids do that.
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Okay, I got your attention.
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I got your attention now.
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So what is the.
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Come on, don't get hung up on it.
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What is the difference between kids?
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One of them never had to be taught to help you.
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But something internal told them I should help.
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Because there are some people who are born helpers, then there
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are other people who are born takers.
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And the born helpers need to learn how to be served sometimes
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in life.
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And the born takers need to learn how to serve in life.
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And so both of them have a benefit and both of them have a burden.
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Because we have what's called inborn personality.
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Does this make sense?
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And so I got two girls, and one of them I have to teach to give,
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and one of them I have to teach to allow somebody to serve
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them.
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But that's their inborn personality.
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Are we all on the same page?
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So it was almost as if Abraham didn't need any training.
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Because when he got encountered by God, the most normal
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thing to him was to do what?
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To reciprocate.
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Reciprocate.
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Now, let's blaze through this.
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Then Jacob made a vow.
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Everybody say vow.
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Okay, when you get married, what do you do?
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You say your vows.
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And when you say your vows, you are making.
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Are you making a commitment?
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No.
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You are making a covenant.
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Okay, you're with me.
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Go back to Elizabethan times back in Shakespeare's day.
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They believed in the power of words and vows so much that you wouldn't
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even say a wedding ceremony amongst actors, because they would
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believe that to say the wedding ceremony would make it true.
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And you would end up accidentally marrying that person
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because that's how much your words matter.
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Isn't that mind blowing?
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You wouldn't even going back to their time.
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That's why when you read all the Shakespeare plays, you'll never
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see a real wedding ceremony conducted.
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It's only insinuated because the actors were like, I Can't even
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say pretend vows to you because there's no such thing as
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pretend vows.
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That's the way people believed just hundreds of years ago, not even
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thousands.
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Now our words mean nothing.
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Hey, I'll see you there at seven.
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Psych.
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Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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I'll be there for load in at 6:00am Psych.
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What?
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Y'all must be young.
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They don't remember.
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Psych.
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I'm from the 90s, y'all.
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And we used to say psych all the time.
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Psych.
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What that meant?
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You like that?
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You're like, man, he's wilding out.
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What did he drink before service?
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Listen, our words.
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Why do our words not mean anything?
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I want to live a kind of life where if I say it, I'm going to do
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it.
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I want to be a man of my word.
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We need to be people of our word.
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So Jacob made a vow.
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And he said, if God, if God will be with me and will keep me
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in this way, that I go and will give me bread to eat and clothing.
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Clothing to wear so that I come again to my Father's house in
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peace, then the Lord shall be my God.
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And this stone which I have set up for a pillar shall be God's
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house.
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And all that you give me, I will give a full tenth to you.
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This is the language of covenant.
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He's making a vow.
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Can I give you a quick side note?
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Your children may have left the faith, but Jacob is the grandson
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of Abram.
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And Abraham's encounter was not good enough for Jacob.
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How many of you know every generation has to have their own
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encounter?
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And let me just tell you, for some of you, you've been living off
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your grandma's prayers, and you need to get in the prayer closet.
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Let me speak to some of you young people.
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Your mama prayed you through some situations, but it's time that
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you take the prayer mantle from your mama.
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It's time for you to learn how to pray like your mom used to pray.
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You used to make fun of the way your mom prayed.
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But, homie, you're about to pray like your mom.
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It's time to take a mant.
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Jacob had something in his lineage, but he needed an encounter
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with God for himself.
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It was not good to hear about Granddad's encounter.
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He needed an encounter for himself.
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We have a generation that needs an encounter with the king
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for ourself.
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And this is what he's doing.
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Look, Will, Will, Will.
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He's saying, if you will, I will.
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How many of you have ever heard preachers talking about making
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a deal with God.
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How many of you have ever make a deal with God?
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Come on, you're on the toilet.
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Lord, if you save me from this, Lord, I promise, if you get
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me out of this, Lord, my guts are turning inside out.
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Come on.
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I've heard some of you, that's the only time you pray.
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We've all been in that situation.
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Oh, Jesus, I serve you all the days of my life.
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Now, why am I being funny?
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I'm putting a gas mask on you so I can cut you real deep.
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Because let me tell you, even watch this.
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My friend, Daniel Chand, Evangelist Daniel Chand.
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He's all over the United Kingdom.
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He's a renowned evangelist.
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He was a boxer that was facing a trial.
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He was going to jail.
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And he literally cried out to God and said, God, if there's any
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way, God, if you can save me from this, I will serve you.
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All the days of my life I will give.
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And it's so funny how many I got chills even getting ready to
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say this.
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How many stories have you heard great men of God say where
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they made a deal with God and God actually honored it?
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Do you want to know why?
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Because when people are making a deal with God, they're speaking
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the language of covenant.
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If you do this, I'll give you my whole life.
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And the Lord says, come sit at the table.
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I'll do a deal.
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See, because God is attracted to the language of covenant.
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God doesn't want to be your side chick.
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God doesn't want to be your boyfriend.
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God doesn't want to be your sugar daddy on the side.
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And there are some people that use this tithing message for the
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prosperity gospel so they can make him instead of Father God, sugar
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daddy.
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No, you have to commit to him.
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And then you got to go beyond the commitment to covenant to say
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God, in good days and bad days, when I'm up in the mountaintop
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or down in the valley, though you slay me, yet will I praise you
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if I get what I want?
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And if I don't get what I want, you are sovereign God and I
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will worship you no matter what.
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He's looking for a job.
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He's looking for Job.
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That's the language of covenant.
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When Job had his friends, all these idiot friends around, and some
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of you got Job's idiot friends, you haven't blocked yet,
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telling him stupid stuff.
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And Job was like, though he slayed me yet will I praise him in
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the good or the bad?
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I'm covenanted to God.
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I didn't serve him because he gave me a huge family.
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I didn't serve him because he gave me all of these material things.
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I served him because of who he is.
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He is worthy of all worship.
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He is matchless.
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He is holy.
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He is God alone.
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And he demands my worship.
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And because of that, he ended up getting double.
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This is the depth of it.
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Look at this language.
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Some of you have never covenanted with God.
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You've made agreements, you made commitments, but you never made
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covenant.
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And that's what this looks like.
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But everybody say full tenth.
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Okay, what is a full tenth?
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This doesn't even really make sense to me, and let me tell you
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why.
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Because mathematically it doesn't.
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It's, it's paradoxical.
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A tenth is 10%.
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So when you use the phrase full tenth, that sounds crazy.
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Let me help you.
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It's a heart posture in agricultural society.
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If you had 10 sheep and you said, well, how many would you give
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if you had 10 sheep?
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One.
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So a 10th would be one.
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So if you gave one sheep, you have a choice.
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Maybe I'll give God the one that's maimed and crippled and can't
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procreate.
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Maybe I'll give God the one I don't want.
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Maybe I'll give God the one that already cannot multiply itself.
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So you technically gave a tenth, but you didn't give a full
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tenth because the.
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Okay, watch this for your notes.
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Here's what a full 10th looks like.
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Oh, 10th.
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Here's what it looks like.
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Watch.
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What's first plus what's best.
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This is the equation in the spirit.
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See, in the natural realm.
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You could say, oh God, I gave you a tithe.
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I gave you a tenth.
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No.
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Did you give what was first and did you give what was best?
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That is the true definition of full tenth.
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And by the way, I didn't say this in the other services, but we're
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just doing a very deep Bible study right now.
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Melchizedek shows up and declares the blessing.
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Did Abram wait until he was blessed to give the tithe?
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It's almost like the first thing he did was tithe.
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Jacob is here now making a covenant.
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Did God actually enact his end of the covenant yet?
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No.
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So did he tithe before or after?
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See this?
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Because that requires what?
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This message is a life changing message.
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It requires faith.
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Watch.
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Oh, I feel something.
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I'm about to speak into the core of your wound.
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I'm about to speak into the core of your wound to give a tenth
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of everything before he upholds his end of the bargain.
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Reveals that you trust he is eventually going to do it.
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But to a group of people who have been burned by other people.
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Your trust has been fractured, and you're treating God like man,
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that's the wound.
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Thank you, Holy Ghost.
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I figured it out.
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It took me seven years.
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It took me seven.
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I literally figured it out on this stage right now.
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That's the problem with the Northeast is you've been broke.
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Your trust has been broken by politicians.
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Your trust has been broken by pastors.
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Your trust has been broken by spirit spouses.
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Your trust has been broken by employers.
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And you are now treating God like you treat man.
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That's why the Lord told me.
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Where's Bella?
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Bella, remember we had that conversation about hope versus faith?
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This is the meaning of it.
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Remember that?
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I am getting my mind blown.
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The Lord loves y'all so much.
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You have no idea.
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I was walking around the other day, and the Lord says, mike, you
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operate in faith, but you need to learn hope.
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And I've always looked at hope as a lesser value than faith.
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But how many of you know the scriptures talk about hope and faith?
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Faith and hope.
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Here's the difference.
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Hope is when you actually believe.
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You have an expectation that God is going to fulfill his promise.
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Faith is when you believe it, but hope is when you expect it.
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Oh.
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Faith is when you believe it.
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Oh, yeah.
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God will do it.
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But hope is when you say, oh, I'm so excited.
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Cause it's already on the way.
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I know that he cannot lie.
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And I'm gonna go ahead and give a 10th now because he's always
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gonna fulfill his end of the bargain.
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And he's gonna bless me so much greater than this 10th.
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Anyways.
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I don't just have faith.
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I also have hope.
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Somebody shout hope.
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Oh, come on.
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This thing was generational Abraham Tithe and then his grandson.
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Man, I believe one day I'm gonna have a grandson.
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And I believe my grandson is gonna carry on the lineage.
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And my grandson's gonna say, my grandfather came to New York City
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with nothing, and he ended up dominating this place for the kingdom
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because he believed in the tithe.
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And I have Father Abraham, and I'm gonna be J.
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Come on, somebody.
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I am not gonna patronize a mighty God with a little tip.
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I'm gonna and say, lord, you've already given me the nations
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for my inheritance.
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If only I would ask for them.
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I want to be that kid walking around with a holy, righteous God.
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Oh, yeah.
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You know what's funny?
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As the Lord changed my mind, I didn't realize that when there's
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signs up for real estate.
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My whole life, I never even thought I could have them.
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So I didn't even notice the signs.
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But when I started launching Church Across America, when I saw
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a for sale sign, my mind changed.
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Because I believe I can.
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I will shall.
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There are things that you believe you can't have.
-
Who told you you can't have them?
-
Who said that?
-
I remember walking around and it's so funny how little our prayers
-
are.
-
But I was off of in Palmetto, you know, with that whole Ridgewood
-
area, and I remember prayer walk in Ridgewood, and I saw this
-
little office space, and I would.
-
Jericho Mart said we couldn't even afford the $2,500 for that little
-
space.
-
And Lord, I need a.
-
I need a space.
-
And Lord, I claim this space.
-
This is my space.
-
Lord, I pray.
-
Thank you.
-
We're gonna have it, this little office space, and then, boom,
-
before you know, it's given to us, then I start streaming out of
-
this place.
-
And I kid you not, this is what happens.
-
In my comment section.
-
A guy says, I recognize where you're at.
-
It's the basement of a place that was where you rent videos, and
-
that was the pornography section.
-
And I was literally breaking the spirit of lust and perversion
-
from the basement of a space that had a history of being the porn
-
horn section of a rental space.
-
Isn't it just like God?
-
How many of you know that there are buildings in New York City
-
that we already own?
-
The deed just hasn't been transferred.
-
Oh, come on.
-
You got.
-
This is.
-
This is.
-
This is hope.
-
I have an expectation.
-
Why would I not?
-
He will store up the wealth of the wicked just to transfer it to
-
the righteous.
-
Oh, that's prosperity gospel.
-
Show me the poverty gospel in scripture.
-
Show me Jesus starving.
-
Show it.
-
Show me his disciples not having enough.
-
Show it to me.
-
Show me the.
-
Show me the poverty gospel.
-
Show me where Abraham had to.
-
I love.
-
Prophet Randall said this last week.
-
This is the biblical definition of wealth.
-
Never having to say no to God again.
-
That's the definition of wealth.
-
Never having to say no to God again.
-
How many of you want to be wealthy?
-
That's the definition of wealth.
-
I don't have to tell God no.
-
See, because we're operating in these principles, let's blaze
-
through the last bit of it.
-
Let's talk about Mosaic law.
-
Moses under the law, Leviticus 27.
-
Every tithe of the land.
-
Everybody say every land.
-
Say land.
-
Seed.
-
Say seed.
-
Okay.
-
Say fruit.
-
Okay, look at this.
-
The concept is the tithe is Total.
-
Is that how you say total?
-
Total.
-
Praise God.
-
I'm incrementally.
-
In another 60 years, I'll be fully bilingual.
-
Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or
-
the fruit, is the.
-
Who is it?
-
But I thought it was mine.
-
It's my land.
-
It's my, my.
-
No, no, no.
-
It's the Lord's, because you were never getting it without him.
-
And so 10% of it reserved for him.
-
Next.
-
The tithe belongs to God.
-
See, this is the word everything is hinging on.
-
This word belongs.
-
If you think that it's yours, you're never going to give it.
-
But it belongs to God.
-
And it's actually, from a biblical standpoint, it's not generosity,
-
it's actually obedience.
-
Because the Mosaic law said, hey, the law is intended to help
-
you understand God's heart.
-
And because of that, what God's saying is, the 10th is mine.
-
So you're not being generous, you're just bringing it.
-
So this is a key watch.
-
Bring.
-
You could write this in your notes.
-
Bring, bring versus give.
-
And I gotta correct something.
-
Theologically, when you give a tenth, you are actually not giving.
-
You are bringing beyond.
-
A tenth is giving.
-
So when we talk about this is the giving portion of service, the
-
assumption is, you've already brought.
-
And then according to the Holy Spirit, and you're trying to say,
-
okay, now what do I give?
-
That's the way of thinking about this, because the tithe belongs
-
to God.
-
Okay, I can sense the skepticism.
-
Oh, Pastor Mike, we're not under the law anymore.
-
Well, neither was Jacob and neither was Abram.
-
They didn't need it.
-
Then what was happening when Moses was on Sinai receiving the
-
tablets written by the finger of God, having a burning bush experience
-
with an elevation worship song playing and I'm just joking.
-
When all that stuff was happening, what was happening down
-
below?
-
Golden calf, am I right?
-
It was financial gold.
-
Let's melt down our gold.
-
And there's a financial component to it.
-
So they stepped out of obedience and they started serving
-
themselves.
-
Isn't it amazing that at Wall street, there's a big golden bull?
-
Do you know that historically, the golden bull, do you know what
-
God that was for baal?
-
So on Wall street, there's BAAL worship.
-
That's literally the same idea.
-
If you brought in a BAAL worshiper and you walked them through
-
Wall street and stopped them at that bull, they would literally
-
start worshiping.
-
They'd say, this is baal.
-
This is our God.
-
Did you know that Tim Keller did a study and discovered that historically
-
in America, for almost half of our existence, the highest point
-
in every town was almost always a church with a cross at the
-
top.
-
And then this invisible line happened and it turned into the McDonald's
-
arches and then eventually skyscrapers.
-
And what that's an indicator of is we went from one nation under
-
God where our highest value was God, to now, our highest value
-
being consumerism and materialism.
-
Because the highest point of every.
-
Okay, I wish I could, Lord, please give me five more hours.
-
So when I go to Sicily and retrace Paul's apostolic journeys,
-
the Greeks would always build their pantheons in the highest point.
-
They.
-
So you would see, when you go to Sicily, you see, they did not
-
build them down below.
-
They built them at the highest point because they were trying to
-
interact with the heavenlies.
-
The highest point always represents a supernatural experience.
-
That's why I believe partly God has called me to Manhattan to
-
bring down every false thing so that Christ would be resurrected
-
or not resurrected, Exalted.
-
Above all, we need to lift the cross above consumerism and materialism.
-
And it doesn't seem strange to me that God would put V1 church on
-
wall street because above the dollar is the king of all kings,
-
the one who owns it all.
-
And we are lifting up the name of Christ over all that f foolishness.
-
I'm almost done.
-
The Levites.
-
I've given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance to return
-
for their service.
-
What they do their service to the tent of meeting.
-
Okay?
-
The law established that the tithe comes into the tent of meeting
-
and then it is distributed to do the temple worship, including
-
amongst the Levites.
-
Let me detonate a lie from the enemy.
-
I'm not giving to this church because I'm not gonna help that pastor
-
have a better car than me.
-
And I'm not gonna help that pastor have a better house than me.
-
And I'm not gonna help them buy these LED walls and buy these
-
new cameras.
-
No thank you.
-
I'll just give to a nonprofit where it can go.
-
I'll give to the guy on the street.
-
No, no, that's biblical illiteracy.
-
Because in both testaments, old and new, when you gave the tithe,
-
you didn't give it to a non profit, you didn't give it to whatever
-
you didn't designate and say.
-
I'm gonna give you this money.
-
Make sure you buy a new furnace.
-
Make sure you buy what I want you to buy.
-
You gave it.
-
And the Levites were in charge of disseminating those funds and
-
determining It.
-
So when people come and say, oh, I'm not giving to the church
-
because I have it designated, look them in their eye and say, you're
-
in the wrong tribe.
-
You're not a Levite.
-
As a matter of fact, I've been to other churches where the finances
-
have been misappropriated.
-
But when you read the Bible in the New Testament, it says, when
-
you tithe, it's as if you give it directly to Jesus himself.
-
And so here's the thing.
-
Even if the church does the wrong thing with the money, you did
-
the right thing.
-
And the blessing and favor of God is upon your life.
-
And you don't have to worry about getting into manipulation and
-
control because God's already in control.
-
Ananias and Sapphira lied about what they did with money in
-
the New Covenant and they got struck down dead.
-
Who had to do their church discipline?
-
Nobody.
-
You think God's gonna let you take care of the church better than
-
he would?
-
Who do you trust?
-
Ooh.
-
Who do you trust?
-
The very first person that I hired for this church was not myself.
-
This is a true story, and I'm proud of this story.
-
The very first person I ever hired for this church was a non blood
-
related, independent CPA who did all of our bookkeeping.
-
And I was like, lord, I am not gonna let one penny come through
-
my hands that's used in the wrong way.
-
When we went to go buy the buildings in Indiana and Long island,
-
the lender that we work with literally told me to my face, I have
-
never seen church financials this clean before.
-
Because I.
-
Not because I fear you, but because I fear God.
-
I'm not.
-
I fear the Lord.
-
I actually believe there will come a day where I will stand before
-
God and he will say, I have brought all this money through you.
-
What did you do?
-
And that is going to be the moment where I'm going to say, come
-
on, God, you know what I did.
-
Come on, y'all.
-
Why are you playing like that?
-
You know exactly what I did.
-
Come on, tell them.
-
Tell them, God.
-
Tell them what I did.
-
Like, that's how I want to live my life before the Lord financially
-
on Judgment Day.
-
I'm sitting there smiling.
-
Yeah, tell them.
-
Tell them, God.
-
Show them what I did.
-
And if you can't say the same about your finances, today's the
-
day of freedom.
-
Today's the day of breakthrough for you.
-
Okay, so the tithe does not go to a nonprofit.
-
I am sick and tired.
-
Send this to all your entrepreneur friends who try to say
-
it's a biblical principle.
-
The biblical principle does not work without covenant to the
-
one who wrote the Bible.
-
And you have to understand, you don't give to a nonprofit because
-
the tithe doesn't belong to you to designate.
-
It belongs to God.
-
So you got to bring it back to his storehouse.
-
The tithe supported the house of God.
-
Casa de Dios.
-
See?
-
Did I say that right?
-
Will man rob God yet?
-
You are robbing me.
-
But you say you that.
-
But.
-
But have we robbed you in your tithes and contributions?
-
We're gonna go fast.
-
Tithe and contributions?
-
Why is this separated?
-
This is.
-
I'm trying to teach you something.
-
Tithe is separate than contributions because the tithe belongs
-
to God.
-
The tithe.
-
Watch, watch, watch, watch.
-
The tithe is what you bring back to God, and then the contribution
-
is what you give.
-
See?
-
It's even separate.
-
And Malachi.
-
Well, you know, prophets are always angry.
-
You know what I mean?
-
My friend Jeremiah Johnson, he's always mad.
-
You know, all my friends who are real prophets, they're always
-
angry, but, you know, because they have a sense of justice.
-
You know, prophets are like that.
-
This is wrong.
-
I'm gonna make it right.
-
I'm gonna set it right.
-
So Malachi, the book of Malachi is important because this
-
prophecy is going forth and the justice of God is saying, hey,
-
hey, hey, hey.
-
You think you're doing the right thing, but the Lord sees you,
-
and you're actually not giving a full tithe.
-
And what it says is, you're cursed with a curse, for you are
-
robbing me.
-
So the prophet is literally using the word me to denote.
-
This is God speaking through me right now.
-
And it's saying, bring the full.
-
Everybody say full tithe.
-
But why wait?
-
Almost slapped you on accident.
-
Didn't Jacob say the same thing?
-
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.
-
Didn't Jacob say, I will bring you a full tithe?
-
Didn't the book of Leviticus say the same thing?
-
I will bring a full tithe.
-
See?
-
Do you see the concept?
-
So what happens is people's heart always bends towards.
-
What can I get away with?
-
We always bend towards the minimums when the gospel is demanding
-
that we bend towards the maximums.
-
Y'all with me still?
-
Oh, I know you know this because when you go to five guys,
-
you're like, I don't want a baggie of fries.
-
I want fries in the big bag spilling over, and I want fries in
-
the little baggie.
-
Am I right?
-
Oh, don't act like you don't want that.
-
We in America.
-
Come on.
-
I Want fries so bad I haven't had carbs in weeks.
-
Lord Jesus.
-
But in America, we don't want what we paid for.
-
We want more because we're consumers and sometimes we go to
-
God.
-
How much can I get?
-
Oh, Lord Jesus, how much can I get from you?
-
And how little can I give in return?
-
Isn't that what happens when we go to a restaurant?
-
How much food can I get for the least amount of money?
-
Stop treating God like a fast food restaurant.
-
Stop treating God like a.
-
Oh, come on.
-
Consumerism is always, how much can I get for how little can
-
I give?
-
But it's the opposite.
-
In the kingdom, I'll give everything if I get nothing because
-
he's God.
-
This is called worship.
-
You feel the atmosphere shift, but this is how good your God is.
-
Covenant.
-
When you do this, he says, I'm actually gonna go above and beyond.
-
Now watch this.
-
Where's it at?
-
Where's it at?
-
There will be food in my.
-
Oh.
-
And thereby put me to the test.
-
Oh, this is one of my favorite scriptures.
-
It's one of the most loving scriptures.
-
It's like he says, I know you're scared.
-
I know that your family comes from multiple generations of poverty.
-
I know that you have been.
-
Your trust has been broken.
-
You can't test me on whatever you want, but on this, I know how
-
deep the pain goes.
-
So put me to the test.
-
You have permission to test God.
-
That's a big deal.
-
Look what it says and put me to the test.
-
Says who?
-
Who says it?
-
The Lord of hosts.
-
Who's the hosts?
-
See, you're skipping stuff.
-
Are you doing your daily growth journal?
-
I can, I do.
-
Julie, I do need to preach for two hours every Sunday to get you
-
all caught up through the week.
-
Who's the host?
-
The Lord of hosts.
-
He's saying, all of the angel armies, I command them.
-
All of the supernatural realm, I command them.
-
I am the Lord over all, the host.
-
Everything is under my dominion.
-
And I'm giving you permission to test me in the 10th.
-
The tithe.
-
A partial tithe is no tithe at all.
-
That's what we learn from this.
-
But I also got good news for you.
-
Two types of blessings come, material and spiritual.
-
And let me just because we're ending, we're ending.
-
We're about there.
-
Anybody who says that the material blessing is not something
-
that should be emphasized when you're preaching the word of God
-
has not done a close enough reading.
-
And they are over correcting out of faith, fear of man, and some
-
bogus bunk whack theology they heard from another church.
-
Because when I look at this book, I see provision and prosperity
-
and overflow, and I see God's people being richly blessed, and
-
I see them being able to shake the nations.
-
As a matter of fact, when you get to the New Testament, there are
-
no needs amongst each other because there's so much generosity
-
flowing that they met all their needs.
-
They don't need food stamps, government cheese, welfare, rent
-
subsidies, because they have the kingdom of heaven coming into
-
the earth, and it's flowing with so much power that there's nobody
-
poor among them.
-
That's what I'm looking for.
-
That's the kind of church I'm going to, Pastor.
-
I'm going to pastor the kind of church where we are given.
-
We're like.
-
I call Mayor Eric Adams Mayor.
-
We don't.
-
We're good.
-
We don't need the grant money because we've got generosity.
-
Oh, we're good.
-
We're good.
-
We don't need this.
-
See, there's something about when we take our rightful place as
-
royal priesthood and we say, God, I have everything through covenant,
-
then guess what's gonna happen?
-
We are gonna begin to operate in a level we've never seen before
-
in the earth.
-
And there's gonna be nobody that can stop us.
-
How many of you believe it?
-
Wait a second, Pastor.
-
But Jesus came to nullify the tithe.
-
Wrong.
-
Biblically illiterate.
-
But woe to you Pharisees, for you do right to tithe on mint and
-
rue and every herb.
-
Look at that word.
-
Every.
-
See, this is the same way Genesis talks.
-
This is the same way Malachi and Leviticus talks.
-
And now here we are in the book of Luke.
-
Why?
-
Because these are Jewish people under the Jewish law, which
-
means this was normal for them to think about this.
-
Okay, let's talk about Goya.
-
Adobo.
-
Sasson.
-
Am I doing good?
-
Green spice.
-
Sofrito.
-
I felt the anointing.
-
Sofrito.
-
What else?
-
What else?
-
Somebody help me out in the back.
-
Obey, they said.
-
Obey last service.
-
Praise God.
-
I felt the anointing on that.
-
I have a very multicultural stomach.
-
Can you tell?
-
So here's my point.
-
This is basically what was happening.
-
Jesus sees these Pharisees and he's watching them and he's observing
-
them, and he's saying, hey, you've done well to tithe on everything.
-
Imagine going to the grocery store and you get your sofritos,
-
you get your Goya, you get all your stuff, and you dump it all out
-
on the table, and you divide A tenth of all of it and say, this
-
is for the Lord.
-
And instead of Jesus saying, yo, yo, yo, yo, you don't have to
-
do that.
-
I love you.
-
I'm your buddy.
-
Give me whatever you want to give me, just give.
-
God loves a cheerful giver.
-
Give me $5.
-
Give your money to the homeless person.
-
Jesus does not talk the way American church pastors talk.
-
He literally said, hey, good job tithing.
-
You should tithe on everything.
-
But don't neglect justice and the love of God.
-
If Jesus was ever gonna have an opportunity to say, let's not
-
tithe anymore cause I'm here, that would have been the moment.
-
But he does the opposite.
-
He literally tells them, good job for tithing.
-
You should tithe, even.
-
Cause mint is really little, herbs are really little.
-
And what Jesus was saying is, you've done a good job tithing, even
-
on the most minute things, good job, but also love God with
-
your heart.
-
Does this make sense?
-
So when people say, I don't have to tithe, why did Jesus not
-
tell us to stop?
-
It's, you can't.
-
Because whether you're gospel coalition, reform, community, double
-
predestination, Calvinist, John Piper, Tim Keller, they actually
-
believe the same thing.
-
I'm telling you right now.
-
What they believe is that 10% is the minimum and that we shouldn't
-
be having an argument over this.
-
And I know that this offends people, but I'm telling you, I've
-
preached in Anglican churches, Baptist churches, Methodist churches,
-
I'm serious.
-
Liturgical churches, high church, low church, and every church
-
unanimously has had the same belief that 10% is a basis of a minimum,
-
not a maximum.
-
And it's weird because Christians very rarely unite on anything.
-
But the one thing that I've seen theologically is they unite
-
over this.
-
Now, why do I say that?
-
Jesus acknowledged and he affirmed tithing.
-
The issue is not just tithing, but it's also loving God.
-
And others do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the
-
prophets.
-
I have not come to abolish them, but fulfill.
-
Everybody say fulfill.
-
Okay, as we come to a close, the word fulfill is very intentional
-
here.
-
See, everybody thinks that Jesus abolished, but he actually
-
fulfilled.
-
What's the difference?
-
When I encountered my son Abram and I blessed him through Melchizedek,
-
he responded by giving me a tenth of everything.
-
Two generations.
-
When I came as this mysterious angel of the Lord and wrestled Jacob
-
and I blessed his life, he responded with covenant.
-
The question is, now that he is encountering you, do you understand
-
how to Respond with the covenant as well.
-
The other way to say this is, hey, before I was saved, my heart
-
couldn't do this.
-
But now that I'm saved, my heart can do things my heart never
-
did.
-
Raise your hand if after you accepted Jesus, you were able to
-
do things that you were not able to do before.
-
I'm being serious, okay?
-
Because when you accept Jesus, when someone's like, I get it, you
-
go to church.
-
No, no, no, I'm not a churchgoer.
-
No, I get it.
-
You're going to all these events all the time.
-
Oh, I get it.
-
You listen to Christian music.
-
No, no, you don't understand.
-
It's not about that.
-
I wasn't bad and now I'm good.
-
I was dead and now I am alive.
-
This is the thing.
-
I'm trying to help you understand.
-
This Speedy Du Santo could help my heart.
-
Forgive my abuser, forgive my tormentor.
-
I can bless those who curse me.
-
I can actually pray for my enemies.
-
My heart, my Sicilian Italian heart couldn't do this.
-
But my regenerated gospel heart can do this.
-
And the things that I didn't have power to do, the Holy Ghost
-
gave me power to do.
-
That is the gospel.
-
So when people are like, I can't give perfect love, cast out
-
all fear, it's the gospel.
-
So he came to fulfill it.
-
Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service
-
get their food from the temple?
-
And those who serve at the altar share in the sacrifice sacrificial
-
offerings.
-
In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim
-
the gospel should get their living finances from the gospel.
-
Doesn't this sound just like Leviticus?
-
This is the thing.
-
Anybody who would try to argue me on any of the points I've made,
-
when you look at all four eras of the Bible, they talk to each other.
-
They're redundancies for each other.
-
They say the same things.
-
This is the apostle.
-
And the apostle is speaking to the church at Corinth.
-
And now Jesus has resurrected and ascended to heaven.
-
And Jesus literally says, you should tithe.
-
You're good to tithe.
-
Then Paul shows up, and Paul's like, hey, do you know how the pagans
-
have temple worship and they receive money so that they can carry
-
on the work of the temple?
-
And he was echoing Leviticus also, the people who provide the
-
temple worship for the house of God should receive finances to
-
continue the work of God.
-
And the reason why he had to say it to the church at Corinth is
-
because over the last 2,000 years, we have the same problem as
-
the Church of Corinth.
-
We need a reminder that we are not giving to the house of God for
-
the work of God.
-
We are giving to God himself.
-
And he is administrating the work of God.
-
His own will is being worked out through it, and we got to learn
-
how to trust.
-
The point is this.
-
Whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly.
-
And whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
-
Each one must give, must give as he has decided in his heart.
-
And if you're looking at this word heart, this is everything.
-
We're gonna end on this exercise, not reluctantly or under
-
compulsion.
-
What's that alluding to the law?
-
It's alluding to the law.
-
For God loves a cheerful giver.
-
This is identity.
-
What happened when you got saved?
-
You got a new identity.
-
So what?
-
This scripture is used.
-
It's actually abused.
-
And I want even all of my pastors to hear this.
-
All my campus pastors, all of my ministers, all of my V1 college
-
students, all of my congregates.
-
I am sick and tired of this scripture being misquoted and misinterpreted
-
as an excuse to come below the tithe.
-
Because people who have the fear of man, they'll use this scripture
-
to say, you don't have to give under compulsion.
-
Just give.
-
God loves a cheerful giver.
-
But see, what they're actually doing is they're taking an ancient
-
scripture that was actually inspired by God, written through
-
a Jewish man, and they're listening it through modern ears
-
and distorting it.
-
Let me break it down a little bit deeper.
-
Think about this, okay?
-
Before I even break it down and for real, we're done.
-
How many of you as a teenager were ever grounded for a really long
-
time?
-
Anybody?
-
Okay.
-
A lot of you.
-
Man, we got some bad kids at this church.
-
Okay, Too many of you raised your hand.
-
Now I'm a little scared.
-
So what happens is, when you're grounded for a long time and
-
you get privileges removed, when you get them back, you appreciate
-
them more because you're like, man, I was sitting in my room, I
-
didn't have nothing.
-
Now you get what I'm saying?
-
It's like somebody who's been in prison for years eating prison
-
food, and then you take them to Applebee's and they're smashing
-
all those half apps like it's the best thing ever happened to them.
-
Because there's something about restriction that actually makes
-
freedom taste so much better.
-
So what?
-
This is actually Saying is a Jewish man is saying, we've been
-
under the law.
-
We've been under the law.
-
We know that there's consequences for not doing the things
-
according to God.
-
We had to tithe.
-
And I read this tongue in cheek.
-
I read this to say, each one of us must give as he's decided in
-
his heart.
-
But the little wink that he's doing is, you know your heart that
-
Jesus transformed.
-
You know your heart that the Holy Ghost of God lives on the inside?
-
You know your heart that used to be selfish, now it's selfless.
-
You know your heart that used to be full of fear and malice and
-
distrust, and now it's full of the freedom of the Holy Ghost.
-
Yeah, give what that heart decided to give.
-
It's almost like he's saying, duh, we've all been free, and whom
-
the sun sets free is free indeed.
-
So, hey, you don't have to give under compulsion, but give what
-
your heart that's fully been set free tells you to give.
-
Only a heart that's in captivity would tip God instead of
-
tithe.
-
So I don't read this as the cause.
-
I am an apostle, and I don't read this as an apostle being like,
-
hey, it's all right.
-
Jesus is your buddy.
-
Just give whatever you feel like.
-
God loves a cheerful giver.
-
Can you imagine being.
-
How many of you have ever been a waiter or waitress?
-
Can you imagine somebody being so happy to give you a dollar?
-
Oh, wow, you're gonna love this.
-
And you're like, I'm gonna get kicked out of my apartment.
-
Cheerful giver.
-
That term has been so distorted in the American church.
-
What's cheerful is I can give in a way that my fearful heart would
-
have never let me give, and that makes it cheerful.
-
I'm able to do something that my natural mind could never do.
-
Three realms.
-
Mental, emotional, spiritual.
-
For the history of this church, there's many of you that
-
are trapped in mental.
-
Some of the most stingy people I've ever met are theologians.
-
The higher their iq, the lower their giving.
-
The more they study the Scriptures, the less generous they
-
are.
-
That's what Jesus was pointing out.
-
He was basically saying, you're tithing off of all your spices
-
and stuff, but you don't even love God.
-
And so you just want people to think you're doing the right thing.
-
Then all of a sudden, the emotional people, sometimes there's
-
Pentecostals, charismatics, and if I tell a whole bunch of good
-
stories about how God blessed, then they'll give out of their Emotions.
-
And then they'll never give again until I make them emotional
-
again.
-
I grew up in churches where if you were preaching real good, they
-
would literally bring up money like you were a stripper and throw
-
it on the stage.
-
But in that tradition they were like, man, you're preaching
-
good, so I'll give more the better.
-
You preach performance based giving, but then their spirit.
-
Would you stand to your feet for a moment?
-
Somebody say identity.
-
So here's how I want to end.
-
I want to show you how this is the way that God treated you.
-
Because I think we read the scripture as like, you should be
-
a cheerful giver.
-
But how many of you notice that Jesus is God Tithe.
-
He's the firstborn of all creation.
-
He's the alpha and the omega.
-
So God.
-
Okay, okay, let me give you another one.
-
Remember we talked about 10 sheep?
-
This is gonna blow your mind.
-
His only begotten son.
-
That's tithe language.
-
Then we miss it because God didn't say, I have 10 sons and I'm
-
gonna give you the bad one and he can die for you because I hope
-
he dies anyway.
-
Think about was the language of tithe.
-
I'm gonna give you my only begotten son.
-
And in the beginning was the firstborn of all creation.
-
He gave you his best and he gave you his first.
-
He bankrupted heaven by tithing Jesus.
-
Now let me read this scripture again.
-
And I'm going to read it as if God is speaking to you.
-
I sowed generously into you when I gave you Jesus, but I will
-
reap generously when you reciprocate.
-
Now see how it says each one must give as he's decided in his
-
heart.
-
I have decided to give you Jesus.
-
Jesus has decided to go all the way through with the cross.
-
Not reluctantly, not under compulsion.
-
Oh, he didn't have to die.
-
He chose to die.
-
He.
-
In a moment he could have called Michael the Archangel and
-
a legion of warrior angels and said, get me off of this cross and
-
slaughter all these Romans.
-
But the Bible says he willfully gave his life while you
-
were yet sinner.
-
He put his life out on the line and died for you without any
-
promise that you would receive him.
-
So when he asks us to give, this is spiritual formation.
-
This is me discipling you.
-
I'm not asking you to give to the church.
-
I'm asking you to become like God, your Father.
-
That's what this scripture, the real interpretation of this scripture
-
is.
-
I don't have to do this.
-
I'm not under compulsion.
-
I willfully surrendered my life.
-
For God loves a cheerful giver.
-
Let me rephrase that.
-
For God loves when people, his own children, act like him.
-
Think about how deep this goes when you're a mom or a dad and you
-
see your children mimicking the bad side of you.
-
No, no, don't say the cuss word.
-
Mommy shouldn't have said it.
-
You shouldn't say it.
-
But then there's other times where I've come into the room and
-
I've seen my daughters praying for each other.
-
See, God delights when we act like God.
-
And this is what this is all about right here, is we are going
-
to become like the one that we behold.
-
So close your eyes and bow your head.
-
I want to remove all the distractions across every location
-
right now.
-
If there's some areas of your heart that you're still like, oh,
-
Pastor Mike, Apostle Mike.
-
I just feel like I can't.
-
In this area, there's still something.
-
There's fear, there's reservations, there's hurt, there's
-
distrust.
-
Would you just lift your hand with nobody looking?
-
Just show me your hand.
-
Okay.
-
There's a lot of you.
-
Okay, you can put your hands down.
-
Just take a look at me for a second.
-
I started this church with 18 people.
-
I don't know how much any of you give, because I don't want to
-
know.
-
Our pastors and leaders know this.
-
I've stayed out of it for as long as I could stay out of it because
-
it's between you and God.
-
I didn't launch seven locations because I had ambition
-
to.
-
Just how many churches can I launch?
-
I just wanted to disciple people.
-
This is your discipleship moment.
-
But I will.
-
I'm gonna make you a promise.
-
The Lord says, test me in this way.
-
Right now, we're gonna do two more things real quick, and then
-
you're gonna give an opportunity to test him.
-
And I promise you, not because of me, but the Lord, that if you
-
step up into this, that God will open up the windows of heaven
-
and pour out a blessing that you can't contain.
-
But guess what?
-
You don't have to.
-
This is not a salvation issue.
-
This is not a heaven or hell issue.
-
But I do think that this is an issue of what's next for your life.
-
So if you raise your hand, I want you to pray, and I want all
-
of you to pray together.
-
Just so we don't leave anybody out.
-
We're gonna pray a prayer of confession, and then we're gonna
-
end with one last thing.
-
So repeat after me.
-
Heavenly Father, I plead your blood over my heart, over my mind.
-
I surrender every area for you to change and transform and mold
-
me.
-
Heavenly Father, empower me by your holy spirit to give, to serve,
-
and to live.
-
By faith.
-
I choose to receive a new identity through the gospel, empowered
-
to do the things that the generations before me could never
-
do.
-
It starts with me today in Jesus name.
-
Now, the word Amen means let it be so.
-
Can somebody say let it be so?
-
Okay, now hold this moment and go take a seat for a little bit longer.
-
And we're about to get out of here, so just take a seat.
-
Now here's we're gonna do.
-
Now this is the next form of warfare.
-
In Malachi, chapter three, it says that when we tithe, he will
-
rebuke the devourer on our behalf.
-
How many of you know that the devil came to kill, to steal and
-
destroy?
-
So we have ushers across every location.
-
We're where are the ushers Here.
-
And if you are writing a check, they're here.
-
There he is.
-
If you need a pen or an envelope, and then if you have a
-
phone, right in front of you at every seat at both locations right
-
now.
-
Indiana, New York, all over the US Online.
-
What I want you to do is there's a link to give online, but
-
right in front of you is actually an orange disc and it's
-
overflow.
-
That's our giving platform.
-
Now, I'm going to give you some time, but the Bible says if
-
you will tithe, if you will give a tenth.
-
And I believe that this is something my family's been doing
-
for years, and it's brought us to levels we never could imagine.
-
The Bible says he will rebuke the devourer on your behalf.
-
And I believe that these are principles for all believers.
-
So what I want you to do is this.
-
Take your phone out, I want you to tap the orange disc.
-
If you have Apple pay, if you have Google pay, you can set it up
-
right now.
-
And this is a holy moment.
-
What does the word holy mean?
-
Separate.
-
Oh, come on, I heard you say it.
-
You're getting it.
-
The word holy, all it means is separate.
-
You set it aside.
-
So when you say God, you are holy, holy, holy, what you're actually
-
declaring is God, you are separate, meaning God, there's none
-
like you.
-
Doctors treat, but you're holy.
-
You heal.
-
You're separate.
-
You're not like them.
-
Man will abandon and walk out.
-
But you're holy.
-
You'll never leave me nor forsake me.
-
So the question right now, in this moment is.
-
Have you ever designated the tithe to separate your money, to
-
be holy unto the Lord?
-
Separate.
-
Separate.
-
So right now, I want to give you an opportunity with your phone
-
to do that, to tithe and test God.
-
As a matter of fact, I want to make sure I say this the right way.
-
I believe so much in this moment that there's many of you that
-
you can tithe right now.
-
And I would say, give it some time and come back to me and tell
-
me that God did not work a miracle in your life.
-
There's something about seek first the kingdom, and all these
-
things will be added unto you.
-
When you put it first, everything else comes into alignment.
-
I have no other explanation for the favor that I've seen on my
-
life than my wife.
-
And I have continually tithed.
-
So right now, I see a lot of phones out.
-
So I want to make sure I give you ample time.
-
You just.
-
I'm a boomer.
-
I'll be honest with you.
-
I still actually use real cards with plastic and checks.
-
I know that's embarrassing, but if you use your phone, I guess
-
that's the thing, people tap their phone.
-
So you can tap your phone on that orange disk and then just take
-
the time to go through and sign up to tithe.
-
And this is a holy moment.
-
This is different than any other moment.
-
Oh, and the ushers are passing the buckets.
-
Thank you.
-
If you are giving physical now, there's two groups of people
-
right now as we just wrap up the next minute or so.
-
There's people who are disobedient, who are giving an opportunity
-
to be obedient.
-
They're bringing the tithe.
-
Then there are others that are obedient.
-
But now they're going to become generous because maybe the
-
Lord's speaking to you for contributions.
-
And so I just want to give you an opportunity to respond.
-
So step into the tithe or go from the tithe to generosity.
-
This, I believe, is an opportunity.
-
My wife and I were sitting in a service just like this years ago,
-
before the pandemic.
-
The pastor that was preaching said that he was raising money to
-
buy cameras to reach Muslims with the gospel.
-
And the Lord spoke to me and said, give $5,000 right now.
-
And at that time, $5,000 was near impossible.
-
But I did it.
-
As a matter of fact, I had my phone open just like many of you
-
have your phone open.
-
You're setting it up.
-
And I put $5,000 in the phone.
-
And my wife nudged me because she was watching me.
-
And she said, mike, the Holy Spirit Told me the same number, and
-
I gave that money.
-
And it was a hard thing to do, but I did it.
-
Did you know that within months, the global pandemic happened?
-
I went online, and then my online ministry exploded.
-
And before that, I was getting two or three likes on everything
-
I would post.
-
I didn't really even care about social media.
-
But something shifted, and here's the principle from that.
-
You have to sow into the area you want to grow.
-
If you want to grow online, sow online.
-
If you want to grow in ministry, sow in ministry.
-
You sow where you want to grow.
-
So right now, there's an opportunity to go beyond obedience
-
into generosity.
-
If you sow.
-
And there's three voices you hear.
-
You hear yours, the devil's and the Holy Spirit.
-
And I believe that the Holy Spirit is leading you into generosity.
-
So I'm going to take just a minute more because let y'all wrap
-
up on your phones, and then I want to pray for you because the
-
Bible says he will rebuke the devourer for your sake.
-
Amen, man.
-
Mark my words, over the next several weeks, there is going to
-
be an avalanche of testimonies.
-
A tidal wave of testimonies from this church.
-
I'm talking like you have never seen before.
-
It is about, mark my words.
-
After today, people are gonna point back to these services this
-
Sunday and they're gonna say, that changed my life forever.
-
Cause there's something about the root of giving.
-
All right, let me.
-
Can I pray for you, Father?
-
I thank you right now for each and every one.
-
Lord, this has been a journey throughout the entire Bible, all
-
four eras of giving.
-
And Lord, we know your heart concerning us.
-
And I pray God that you would rebuke the devourer on our behalf.
-
I thank you for promotions on the job.
-
I thank you for new jobs.
-
I thank you for doors of entrepreneurship being open.
-
I thank you, God, that even inheritances and unexpected finances
-
and things will come.
-
And Lord, those that were faithful with little will now be
-
made ruler over much.
-
In Jesus name.
-
Can somebody shout Amen?
-
Okay, now we got one last aspect to all this.
-
So stand your feet one more time.
-
I know you're tired.
-
Stay with me.
-
Let's fire up.
-
I'm gonna teach you one last spiritual lesson.
-
Are you ready?
-
So did Abraham tithe before or after the blessing?
-
Okay.
-
Did Jacob tithe before or after the blessing?
-
Before.
-
So what we're gonna do is take 15 seconds and worship God before
-
the breakthrough, before the financial release.
-
Before.
-
As an act of faith.
-
Come on.
-
Are y'all with me.
-
Come on.
-
Father, we thank you before it happens that we are blessed in the
-
city, blessed in the field.
-
We are the head and not the tail.
-
Come on, somebody.
-
And we thank you, Jesus.
-
Someone shout hallelujah.
-
Come on.