Living Without Financial Fear

We're going to start a new series today, and it'll go on for a few weeks,

and I'm excited about it. I've been announcing it.

We're going to be talking about managing our money.

We're going to get into biblical prosperity.

We're going to talk about finances, and we're going to talk about what the kingdom

says regarding the possessions, the material,

the goods, the wealth that God has bestowed upon us in our life.

One of the areas that I feel called to preach, there are three areas I feel

really called to preach. It's faith.

I believe when I preach faith, I see results in people's lives.

They grow closer to the Lord and they begin to take opportunities to step out on the word of God.

Family, I believe preaching family and living a lifestyle that is a good role

model to you, I think is really, really important.

And I believe that finances, finances

are very important. When I speak on finances, people seem to prosper.

Amen. So if you stick with me long enough, I'm telling you, you're going to prosper.

You say, is that the goal? That's not the goal. That's just the byproduct.

Amen. The goal is to grow closer to him and be able to do what he says do at

any time he says to do it. Amen.

And so the question I want to ask you today is who is calling the shots in your life?

Who is calling the shots in your life? I did some research, and four out of

five adults report feeling stressed about money and experience anxiety about

their financial situations.

Four out of five adults.

Financial worries are significantly associated with psychological distress.

Matter of fact, more people are getting divorced over the reasons of finances

than really any other reason.

Experts in behavioral finance estimate that the average person thinks about

money 10 to 20 times per day, 10 to 20 times per day.

I was caught up in this. I used to sit at the stoplight and pull up my Wells

Fargo app just to make sure I still had money in the account.

I'm telling on myself, but I'm telling you, how many used to go to the ATM before

there was apps and you just go and just to check your balance?

You know what I'm talking about. You just went just to check the balance.

We were thinking a lot about money. Or I should say it this way.

We are thinking a lot about money. Five out of 10 adults report that money negatively

impacts their mental health.

Five out of 10. Again, a study reported that many Americans feel financially

frozen, overwhelmed, or unsure about their financial decisions.

And so over the next several weeks, we're going to be talking about money,

and we're going to be talking about how God calls us to handle it and how to get more of it.

Because the purpose is to be a blessing. How are we going to help people if we're poor?

How are we going to be a blessing if we're struggling? How are you going to

expand and advance the kingdom if you can't pay your light bill?

And so God wants us to prosper. He wants us to be in health even as our soul prosper.

So we got to get this money situation right.

We've got to have a right relationship with money.

And so Matthew 6, 24 says, no one can serve two masters, for either he will

hate the one and love the other,

or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and mammon.

And so we notice here Jesus is talking to us, and Jesus, our Lord and Savior,

is telling us it is impossible to serve two masters.

It's impossible to have priorities divided amongst two masters.

You're either going to hate the one and love the other, or you're going to despise

the one and draw near to the other.

But watch this, you cannot, watch this, he says it, you cannot serve God,

who is a master, and mammon, who is also a master.

Mammon is the Aramaic translation for money. It was also the name of the Syrian god of riches.

So in the medieval times, Mammon is known as the spirit associated with riches and wealth.

And so if you want to know who your master is, you're going to have to look at what controls you.

Mammon is a God who is after your heart wanting to enslave you.

God is a father who is also after your heart.

Mammon is looking for worshipers, people to worship money.

God is looking for worshipers, people to worship the true and living God.

So they are diametrically opposed to one another.

One of them wants you to serve it and be enslaved. That's what the word serve

means, to be enslaved under the control of mammon or money.

And the other is God saying, just be a servant, be a slave of me,

and I will take care of everything else in your life.

Money is neither good nor bad it's neutral what

matters is who is influencing your decisions who is influencing your decisions

is mammon influencing your decisions with money or is God influencing your decisions

with money mammon is that demon spirit that rests on money,

Mammon is the voice of money. How many of you have ever heard money talk to you?

Every time I sit down to pay some bills, I hear money talking to me.

You're going to run out of me. You're going to run out.

You're going to run. You bet not do that. You bet not. You bet not.

You bet not. You're going to run out. You're going to need this money. You're going to run out.

There are times that money will begin to talk to me when I go to sleep. and say, you know what?

You got more month than you do me.

And if you don't put your trust in me, in mammon, then you are going to be embarrassed.

You are going to lose everything.

Mammon will tell you to go out and get two and three and four jobs so that you

can meet your own need instead of depending on our God who promised us that

he shall supply, how many?

All of our need according to his riches in glory.

And so Mammon wants you to replace God with money.

And many times as believers, unintentionally, we walk around as if we are Christian

atheists, as if God does not even exist.

We walk around as if we have to take care of ourself and we've got to provide

for ourself and we've got to do all these things for ourself as if God, the provider himself,

the all-sufficient one, Jehovah Jireh, the provider himself is not with us.

And we worry and we're concerned and we replace God with money.

If you choose not to serve the spirit of God, you will serve the spirit of mammon by default,

If you choose not to serve the spirit of God, you're going to serve the spirit of mammon by default,

Don't serve your money Let your money serve the Lord and then it will serve

you Say this after me I do not serve money.

I serve God. Money serves me.

Money is a tool that should serve you.

All money is, is a median of exchange for goods and services.

It's not a God. It's a terrible God.

It's just a tool that should be used to provide for our needs and our desires.

You know, Timothy tells us that God wants us to enjoy life.

Jesus said that I came to give you life and life more abundantly.

Amen. Somebody say amen to that.

Mammon wants to produce the attitude that you do not need God.

If you had more money, then everything would be okay. How many know Jesus never said that?

Jesus never said what you need now is more money. That's what you need. Jesus never said that.

Because mammon is trying to tell you that you need more money in order to be

sufficient in what God's called you to do.

You don't need more money. You need more of the word of God.

You need to know how much you're loved by God. How much he will provide for you.

How much he's willing to take care of you. How much he's willing to sustain you. You need God.

But mammon will say you need money. Mammon loves to say this as well.

Mammon loves to say and I hear people say this all time when I win the lottery,

You're not gonna win the lottery Let me just let you know you are not going to win the lottery.

Jesus never said you were gonna win the lottery and you're not gonna win But

mammon will tell you that when you now when you win the lottery This is what

you should do with the money.

I hear people tell me all time now pastor when I win the lottery I'm gonna pay

I'm gonna buy true life a new church God Didn't say you were gonna win the lottery.

Now, he is asking you to give out of your resource of what you currently have,

and he's not looking at what you don't have. He's looking at what you do have.

And when I win the lottery, that is madman, because you think if I just had

more money, everything is going to be okay.

It's even like when people say, oh, I wish I was a millionaire.

You don't want to be a millionaire. You just want to spend a million dollars.

That's all it is. Oh, no, you just want to spend more money.

We're going to drive this mammon spirit out of here in Jesus. Amen.

Some of y'all might be getting nervous right now, but I'm telling you,

we're going to drive him out of here and we are servants of the Lord. Say amen to that.

If Christ is not Lord over our money, then he is not our Lord.

If he is not Lord of our money, then he is not our Lord.

And so Jesus says, hey, use money. Money is a tool. he has got no problem with

you having a lot of money.

Abraham was rich.

Well, what was he rich in? Scripture says he was rich in silver and gold.

Solomon was rich. And I love the book of Ecclesiastes.

If you get the time, read it. Zabin read it the other day and we were talking a little bit about it.

He's basically saying, I was wise, I was rich, but none of it mattered if I didn't have the Lord.

At the end of the day, all of it is meaningless without Jesus.

And so we want to talk about our relationship with money.

I want to say it this way, our emotional relationship with money.

Money can tap into emotions that you and I don't even know that we have.

Let someone steal some money from you and see how you feel.

Let someone not pay you back. I'm going to pay you back and they ain't paid

you back yet. You know what I'm talking about?

You're like, hey, hey, hey, I see you with them New Jordans.

How come I ain't got my $300 back? You know what I'm talking about.

All of a sudden, you got emotions in you. You want to fight and you want to

get in somebody's face. And you're like, I'm not normally like that.

Because money will invoke some emotions.

And I want to talk about our right relationship with money.

I'll tell the story a particular time. We were early on in the ministry.

We invited a guest speaker in this was early on in our ministry and He said

he had no charge and we don't you know, I don't play that charge stuff Anyway,

if he had a charge he wasn't coming.

Okay, so he said he had no charge or whatever I don't play all that and he's

I said well, come on in we brought him in and we covered everything and man We blessed him man.

We this is a this is a church that want to bless people. Amen And we blessed him.

Well, then he called and said that we owed him some money and.

I said, what? He said, y'all owe me some money.

I said, man, you... And so he left a message, and I called back,

and by God's grace, he didn't answer the phone because he's going to see another

side of Pastor Devon that he ain't never seen.

He didn't answer. I thank God he didn't answer the phone.

Well, then I got back with him, and then he apologized for the call.

He said, man, I was wrong for that call, this, that, and the third. I said, no, brother.

I said, you said that we owed you some money. He said, no, no,

I was just sorry about that. I shouldn't have done that, this, that, and the third.

And the Lord said, send him. He said, we owed him $300.

And I wasn't going to send it, but the Lord said, send him the $300.

But I was angry at first, but I said, no, I'm going to send the $300 because

I'm going to obey God. Money doesn't rule me.

Amen. The Lord said, send him the $300 that you say that you owed him.

And I wanted to get it out of my hands so fast. I overnighted it.

I went to UPS and put it in an overnight. Like, you got your money.

And so I sent the money. And I said, you know what? I ain't going to let money

come between this relationship or friendship.

I ain't going to do it. I'm going to send the money.

I sent the money. Within one week, the Lord sent the money back to us a hundred times more.

Hallelujah. So when you, yeah,

you can clap. Put your hands together for that. I said clap for that.

The Lord, when you have a right relationship with it. Now, I could have sat

there and said, no, no, we're going to argue over this $300.

We're just going to argue. No, I ain't talking to you. You ain't talking to

me. No, I ain't going to give you money.

Man, I just said, I ain't got time for all that. It's just money.

Listen to me now. When you start thinking this way, you'll start now putting

yourself under the servitude of the Lord.

And he will always provide more than you feel like you've lost.

Somebody say amen to that.

And so, I didn't mean to tell that story. I may have to take it out of the sermon, praise God, but...

Maybe it helps somebody, but it's, but the relationship, there was a friend

of mine. He's still, we've been friends since third grade. We're still friends today.

We said there were two things we would never break up our friendship, girls and money.

We're just not doing it. We're not doing it. We're not because it's not that big of a deal. Amen.

God, if you, if you, and I'm talking to somebody today, if you will just relax

and put your trust in the Lord, then God himself will take care of you.

Somebody say amen to that.

Look here in verse 25. No, you know what? Matthew 6, I want to read 24 again,

but then I'm going to also read it in verse 25.

Verse 24 says, no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one

and serve the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and mammon.

Paul, do me a favor. I think that's my phone. Just cut it off if you don't mind.

I think that's my phone making that noise. Look at verse 25.

Therefore, I say to you, watch this, do not worry about your life.

What you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body,

what you will put on is not life more than food and the body more than clothing.

So notice, This is in succession with him saying, you can't serve two masters.

So the next thing he says after he says, Jesus said, you can't serve two masters,

is he says, don't worry about your life.

So if you are worried about your life, that tells me you are serving mammon.

Notice, and when he says don't worry about your life, he goes ahead there and

says, what you shall eat, does that cost money?

You better believe and it's costing a whole lot more today than it used to cost,

I told Stacey just don't even tell me what the grocery bill is we gotta eat,

I don't even wanna know what it is okay.

Does he say what you shall eat, what you shall wear, does clothing cost money?

You best believe you didn't get nothing free up in here. You came in here and

had to spend some money to put the clothes on when you arrived,

right? Somebody say amen to that.

And then what's the next part he said? What you'll eat, what you shall drink,

or what you shall wear. Notice all these things cost money.

But he says don't worry about these things. So if you are enslaved to God,

you're serving him, you don't have to worry about your life.

Come on, now get what I'm saying to you. You don't even have to worry.

Well, how are we going to take care of that bill?

The Lord's going to take care of that bill. How are we going to handle this? We're coming up short.

Somehow, someway, the Lord's going to provide. There were several years ago,

we were, the church was, we were in an incubate state.

It was, the money was coming in, but it was less, it was less.

And we had a, well, I shouldn't say it was less. Let me correct that.

It was on pace with where we were, okay?

And we had a, it was a bad winter. And we had a $700 lighting heating bill in the church, $700.

Now, we're only in here, you know, four to six times a month.

Why are the bills so high?

And I'm sitting there like, how are we going to pay this $700, $800 light bill?

I did not get up in front of you and say, won't you help me?

I need some help. I didn't do that. I need some help. I need somebody over here, somebody over here.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I need 10 people in the $100 line here.

No, no, no, no, no. I grabbed the bill and I said, Jesus, you have mail.

And I put the bill back on my desk and I walked away.

By God's grace, additional funds came in, covered that bill.

Come on, somebody say amen to that.

You're going to have to get to the place where you can boldly do that. Lord, you got mail.

Lord, you're going to take care of this. I'm going to go to sleep tonight.

I'm not going to worry about it. And if somebody got to wait,

they just going to have to wait.

I know it was due yesterday, but God's going to come through at some point and take care of this bill.

Just give me some more time. Amen.

And so he says here in verse 25, put that on the screen again,

guys. Jesus said, this is the most ignored.

I believe this is the most ignored verse in scripture.

Jesus said, do not worry.

Now, that wasn't a suggestion.

Wasn't good advice. It's a commandment. So if you're worried, you're in sin.

If you are worried about it, you're in sin. You need to repent if you're worried about it.

Because Jesus said, don't worry about it. What does worry mean? To divide the mind.

To divide the mind. He said, don't worry about it. And so if you're in worry, you're in sin.

Why not? Because I serve God.

Verse 26, he says, go ahead, look at the birds.

Behold, consider the birds. If you've never done that, I encourage you to do

that, especially now in spring.

Sit down on your porch, go outside, and just look at the birds.

I've done it before. They ain't worried about nothing.

They just flying around chirping, making noise, singing, ain't worried about

a thing. The scripture says, look at the birds in the air.

Listen, they don't even give, and they don't even receive, and they don't even save.

Are you listening to me? Yet your heavenly father takes care of them.

Wow. Some of you are thinking, I wish I had enough money to save.

And we're going to talk about saving in this series as well.

But maybe you're at a place that it is just so tight.

God said, I'm still going to take care of you.

Just look at the birds. I'm going to still take care of you and we'll get you to the place.

Start where you are and we'll get you to the place where you begin to save.

But Jesus tells us here, consider the birds. Behold the birds. Look at the birds.

They don't give, they don't sow, they don't reap, they don't receive,

they don't save, they don't gather in the barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Now watch this. Are you more valuable than the birds?

That's the question. Are you more valuable than the birds? Yes.

So if he's going to take care of the birds, he's going to take care of me.

Say that. Say that. He's going to take care of me. He's going to take care of me.

He's going to take care of me. So that tells me that if you are a servant of

the Lord, then worry is unnatural.

Listen to me now. Worry is unnatural if you serve the Lord.

Say amen to that. Verse 27, which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

Does worrying help you grow?

Not at all. Does worrying provide you more income?

No. So it tells me if you're the servant of the Lord and you're serving the Lord and not mammon,

then worry is unhelpful You know if hope which is our theme this year,

this is our year of hopes fulfilled if hope is an expectation of good,

We're expecting God to do something good.

Then what is worry an expectation of something bad?

An expectation that something bad is going to happen, and so you're worried about it.

But the Lord says that if you serve me, worry is unnatural.

Worry is unhelpful. Look at verse 28. So why do you worry about clothing?

Consider the lilies of the field. Watch this. The lilies of the field, how they grow.

Consider how they grow. They don't toil nor spin. They're not working,

working, working, working, working. They just grow.

They're not toiling, they're not spinning, they're not worried about it.

But what if this fails and my business gets shut down?

Then I ain't going to worry about it.

Amen. When we first started the church, the devil used to attack me all the time.

What if the people stopped coming? What if the people stopped giving?

And I used to, oh, Lord, wake up in the night. Oh, what if the people don't come no more? Oh, Lord.

What if they stopped giving? And finally, I just said, well,

if they just do that, then they just do it. I'll go get a job somewhere.

I've got to make money. Amen.

I'm doing what the gods called me to do. I said, Lord, if people stop coming

and people stop giving, then I'm going to blame you.

And you know what he said? Deal.

He said, deal. You trust me, then I'll always take care of you.

You do what I say to do, then I'm going to always provide for you.

Now, if you do what you want to do, that's a whole nother thing.

But if you do what the Lord says, he's going to always provide.

So I'm not worried if people don't give no more, people don't show.

I ain't worried not one bit.

Amen. I'm not worried not one ounce because I trust God. Somebody say, I trust God.

So he said, consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.

They neither toil nor spin. Yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of them.

Solomon, who was known, if you factor in what do they call that?

Not inflation, but what was it called with the money back in the day and money today?

Who knows what that's called? Well, I don't know. You know what I'm talking

about. What money was worth back then and what it would be worth today.

Solomon was a trillionaire.

That's how much he was worth back then, if we factor in what it's called today.

And so he's saying Solomon didn't even look as good as them.

Wow. Verse 30. Now, if God so clothes the grass of the field,

which tomorrow is or which today is, I'm sorry, and tomorrow is thrown in the

oven or it die, will he not much more clothes you?

Oh, you little. Oh, you of little faith.

There was a time I went out to eat with this guy, and this guy is a multimillionaire.

And he said, hey, let's go grab a quick bite to eat. I was in another city with him.

And we were headed to the airport, but before we went to the airport,

he wanted to grab a bite to eat.

He was flying to his state. I was coming back to North Carolina.

And I went with him, and we ordered. The menu came out, and he said, what do you want?

What do you want? And I was like, well, I'm just looking. He goes, you want an appetizer?

And I said, no, no, because we normally don't get appetizers.

Nothing wrong with it. We just normally don't. And I said, no.

And he said, well, I won't...

He told the waitress, and he's an alpha male, kind of, you know,

he'd take control, you know. He called the waitress. He goes,

I want one of everything.

So we got all the appetizers. So I'm sitting there like, okay,

now, table full of appetizers, okay?

He said, okay. I said, okay. He said, you're going to help me eat it.

I said, okay, yeah. And then we get to the order. He goes, you want a steak?

I said, I don't want a steak.

Pastor D will take a steak. I was like, okay, medium, medium, medium, okay.

Okay. And then he ordered. You want dessert? I want dessert.

And then he had, I want, and he ordered three or four different desserts.

So the table is full of food, okay?

And he had, there was another guy with us there as well.

And it was full of food, and we haven't even put a dent, really,

into all the food that was on the table.

We get up, and we walk, and we leave all that food. And I'm struggling, guys.

I'm struggling. Like, we have so much food on this table. We just leaving it.

And I'm starting like, oh, gosh.

Oh, Lord, I'm walking, like looking back at the, like, oh.

And somebody asked when I told you, did you box it up? I was about to hop on

the plane. Want to take it to Stacy?

Look, Stacy, here's some old steak we got four hours ago. I couldn't do that.

And I'm like, and I said, I get in the plane and I'm struggling.

Like, I can't believe we just wasted all of that.

And the Lord began to talk to me. Now, if you're mature enough,

you'll hear what the Lord's going to say through you to this.

He said, why are you so upset?

I said, we just wasted all this food and all this money.

He said, did he ask you to pay? I said, well, no.

No, I didn't pay for it. He said, did you order all the food?

I said, well, no. He said, so why do you care?

And I said, well, yeah, why do I care? He said, and this is what he said to me.

If you look at this verse, this is what he said to me. He said,

we are so concerned about being wasteful.

Then we are concerned about God taking care of us.

And this verse says here, this grass of the field grows today and is dead tomorrow.

I would think that's wasteful for a certain grass in the field to grow today

and then die. There are certain plants and flowers that live less than 24 hours.

And if I'm a creator like God, why would I create that? It appears to be wasteful.

We have a wasteful mentality to where we don't even want to even buy new toothpaste

when we're about to run out.

We get the back of the toothpaste and we push up just to get all of the toothpaste.

How many of you know what I'm talking about?

I bet not waste. There's a little bit more in there.

That's a poverty mentality.

It's a poverty mentality to where Stacy and I were talking about this.

And when we were when we first got married, we started having children.

If they left any bite of food on the plate, she was acting a fit.

Eat all your food.

Why is that? Because we have a poverty, wasteful mentality. Fatality.

And then we wonder why people are not in good, healthy conditions because we

were kids. We had to eat all of the food.

Now, we do tell them, you know, no cookie until you finish this portion here.

Or or if you're hungry, that will be we'll have that.

We'll have that right there later for you to finish.

If you get because, you know, they always hungry before bed.

Oh, here we go. Let's get that food that we left for you.

Didn't eat for dinner. Right. That's another thing. but we've got to come out

of this place and this may be another message but we've got to come out of this

place that we're so poverty stricken,

that we're going to run out and all we think about is just running out running

out we're going to run out we're going to run out when we should be thinking about running over,

say amen to that our thoughts should be about what am I going to do with the

extra because I'm about to run over amen man, Lord, say this,

Lord, what do you want me to do with the extra?

This is where we should be. And so this man who, that was his money,

that he ordered all the food, and I ended up talking a little bit later,

I said, man, why are we ordering so many apathons?

He goes, I wanted a taste of all of it. I said, well, that's your prerogative, right?

His money, it's not my place. If God wanted to create some plants that last

less than 24 hours, what they got to do with me?

Nothing. Nothing. God's saying here, are you tracking with me today?

I only three people. Are you tracking with me today? Look at verse 29 again.

He says, and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Verse 30, now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is,

and the very next day it's dead, will he not much more clothe you or you a little face?

So worry if you serve in the Lord is unnecessary.

So not only is it unnatural, it's unhelpful. Now we found out that it's unnecessary, verse 31.

Therefore, do not worry. How do you know you worry? You start saying, what are we going to do?

What shall we eat? What shall we drink? Or what shall we wear?

What are we going to do? What are we going to do? What are we going to do?

What are we going to do? It doesn't look like this is going to happen.

What are we going to do? What are we going to do?

And you get worried about a bill that's due on Friday, and it's only Sunday.

You got five additional days the Lord has to take care of your need,

but you're worried about it.

You're dragging tomorrow's cares into today, which is zapping you of the joy

and strength that you have for today.

That's what worry does. It goes into the future and drags future problems in

and brings them into your current setting.

And scripture is going to tell us we're reading here that sufficient for the

day is our concern we should only be thinking about today you know we're supposed to live day by day.

We're supposed to give us this day our daily. Notice that in the Old Testament,

when Moses was being led and he was providing through God manna,

they weren't given like three months worth of manna to save and allocate.

It was day by day by day.

And on Saturday, he gave them two days so they could rest on Sunday. Amen.

And so, we are so worried about something that's going to happen in the future

when we should just be thinking about today. What's the best decision for today?

God, you know that's on the calendar there. I believe that you are going to

provide. Come on, somebody say amen.

Verse 32, for after all these things. 31 says that you're worried,

so you're saying, oh, what are we going to do? What are we going to do?

What are we going to do? verse 32, after all these things, the Gentiles seek.

The Gentiles are unbelievers, people that are serving mammon,

people that don't serve the Lord.

After all these things, the Gentiles seek. What are they seeking? What to do?

What am I to do? What am I to do? What am I to do? What am I to do?

You know a believer shouldn't be seeking the same thing?

What am I to do? What am I to do? What am I to do? What am I to do?

What am I to do? That shows that we're serving mammon.

He says, for your Heavenly Father, verse 32, knows that you need all these things.

God already knows what you need. He already knows what you need.

So if he knows what I need, I don't need to worry about it. Amen?

He says here in verse 33 is where I want to get to. Watch this.

This is what a servant of the Lord will do.

But if you seek first the kingdom of God, the house of God,

you seek first the things of God and his righteousness, his right way of doing

things, and all these things shall be added to you.

Notice everything you need will be added if you just simply seek first the kingdom.

See, this is why I'm not worried about finances and money. I'm not saying the

temptation doesn't come.

I'm saying I'm not worried about it because I know I seek first the kingdom.

I put the kingdom first. I put the house of God first.

I put his priorities first. And he says, he promises here that if I seek the

kingdom first, he's going to add everything I need.

So that includes unexpected bills. Come on, say amen to that.

That includes, you know, bills that come up that, you know, shouldn't have come

up or different payments or different sort of things that takes place.

If we seek first the kingdom, if we aim at and strive after,

and this is God's order, the kingdom first, he says, now you are a servant of me.

You're not serving mammon, you're

serving me, and what I'll do is I'll add everything you need in this life.

So your response is to seek first the kingdom.

God's response is to add everything you need. So don't do God's part.

You're trying to add what you need.

And not seek the kingdom first. When God said, just seek the kingdom first financially.

In your tithing, in your giving, in your offering. If you see someone in need, help them out.

I think I was talking to Wayne earlier. He was saying there was a widow that

he helps out monthly financially.

Because he just wants to be a blessing. Whatever it might be,

he's seeking the kingdom first.

And God is adding.

He'll add. But what we try to do is add. Well, how can I add more money?

What can I do to get more money? I know.

Here's a scheme. What I'll do is if I get four people to sign up,

now y'all sign up and now we're in a pyramid scheme trying to add more money

to ourself if we just simply seek the kingdom first.

I believe the Lord said, if you focus on what I need, I'll focus on what you need.

If you focus on what I need, I'll focus on what you need. If you seek the kingdom,

I'll take care of your needs.

Giving to the kingdom of God first ensures that God's kingdom is funded ahead of yours.

Now, this is where it gets real quiet in here because we're talking about money.

And there's a demon that tries to, you know, money is amoral.

It's neither good nor bad. If I had $100 laying on the ground here,

that's neither good nor bad.

Whoever picks it up is going to determine if that money is good or bad.

And a demon rests on it trying to tell you, oh, Lord, oh, watch out.

No, I'm trying to get your bills paid.

I'm trying to get you to the place where you can be a blessing and you can pay somebody else's bills.

I thought I'd get more amens than that. I said you can pay somebody else's bills.

Putting the kingdom of God first by giving shows that you trust him to take

care of you and your needs.

You're saying, God, your plans before mine. and I know you've got me covered.

Your plans before mine, and I know you got me covered.

As we seek first the kingdom, that is a sign that we are serving the Lord. The Lord is our master.

That's a sign that the Lord is our master, and then he promises to take care of you and I.

But if you begin to try to

provide for yourself and try to

do everything yourself and try to pay

for everything yourself notice I didn't say be lazy I did not say sit up and

kick your legs up eat some Doritos and expect a bird to bring some money and

put it at the door no you if you don't work you don't eat put your hand and

have some purpose do something I'm saying don't worry about it.

Don't worry about it. I'm trying to show you how to live financially free.

How to just simply say, no, you know, can you do this? Can you do that? You ain't got the money.

No, I can't do it. I ain't worried about it though. I can't do it right now.

I ain't worried about it.

One day I will be able to do that or wherever it might be. And when you get

to this place, God will begin to show you.

Miraculous ways that he can provide for you.

I want to end with this story. There's a friend of mine, he was really tight financially.

He had just had twins and he and his new wife were not doing well financially at all.

And he went to church and the Lord was laying on his heart, you need to tithe.

He said, I don't have it. He said, the Lord, he said, man, you need to tithe. Put my kingdom first.

He said, I don't got it. I don't got it. I don't got it.

He said, he kept hearing the Lord say, tithe, tithe. And so he said his tithe was $120.

He said, that's all I had really. I mean, we needed to get through the week

or two, but that's all I had. He said he gave it in the offering.

And he said before he left church that day, someone walked up to him,

unbeknownst of anything, and said, the Lord told me to give you $120.

Before he left. And the Lord said, that's just the beginning.

Now the man's doing very well financially and his family's doing well.

His kids are growing now.

But his family is doing well and he's doing well. He said, that day showed me

before I could even get out of the house of the Lord.

God already gave it right back to me. And he said more came in that additional week.

Say amen to that. When you begin to seek the Lord first and begin to have a

right relationship with money.

Money is a tool that should be used for goods and services. That's it.

That's it. It ain't a master. It ain't a leader. It ain't a boss.

It wants to be, but it's not your master leader or boss. It is used for goods and services.

And when we begin to depend on the Lord financially, watch and see how many

ways he has to bless you, open doors, divine connections, phone calls,

unexpected income, promotion.

He has ways to get more to you than you even realize.

I'm starting to see in my own life just the unlimited ways that the Lord has

blessed Stacey and I, just even personally.

It's like, Lord, you would do that? He says, I would do it because you serve me.

And I'll take care of you. Say amen to that.