“You Cannot Outgive God” | Sunday AM | Pastor David K. Caruthers

I'm just going to read one verse of scripture to begin with.

Matthew chapter 19, verse 27.

Matthew 19:27

Brother Tyler did a great job teaching this morning.

And this is our this is our theme today is giving to God and uh getting back on track.

It was his sort of focus in that and giving in different ways.

But I I want to preach to you from Matthew 19, verse 27.

Matthew 19:27

It'll be kind of the key verse.

The word of the Lord says, Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all and followed thee.

What shall we have therefore?

And tonight, today I want to preach to you, cannot outgive God.

Let's pray together, Lord.

Thank you for your blessings, your grace, your goodness.

Thank you for every person that has joined here today, and those that have joined with us online.

We pray that your grace, your goodness, your kindness would rest upon us.

We pray that your anointing would be upon us to receive, to speak, and to respond to your word today.

We thank you for this moment, this time, and every person that has joined here with us.

We pray in the name of Jesus.

Everybody say in Jesus' name, smile at somebody, shake their hand before you're seated.

We're glad you're here.

Some of you got to smile out, some of you left your teeth at home and you're afraid to smile.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you so much.

You may be seated.

Now I know that uh that some churches, in an effort to not be accused of the church being all about money, uh, no longer uh talk about money.

Many some churches don't receive offerings any longer.

Uh they they uh avoid asking people to give.

But the Bible makes it clear if we do not give, that we are missing the blessings that God wants to give us.

And we are shirking our responsibility that God has laid upon us.

So giving is important for us as a church to talk about.

And we don't talk about it every week.

You just happen to be here on a week where we are talking about it, though.

And so we're we we want you to understand that.

And I I I want to say that as Brother Tyler has stressed, we're gonna talk about this in the in the vein of giving, in the sense of giving offerings, giving tithes, giving our our our resources to God.

But this is a principle that goes throughout the word of God, not just about your money.

All right, it's not just about the money.

And uh so I want to make that clear.

It's not, you know, we're not gonna preach this and then have a big offering afterwards.

You know, I don't know.

Sometimes evangelists come and not to our church, but I've seen them come in other places at least, where they uh want to take their own offering.

I'm not taking my own offering, I'm not doing any of that today, so you can just breathe a sigh of relief.

I'm not gonna make you hand your wallet to me and let me pull out the offering and all the other tricks that preachers have done over the years, you know, to for offerings.

I'm not gonna do any of that today, so I just want you to take a deep breath.

Everybody take a deep breath, let it out slowly.

But if God speaks to your heart, I ask you to hear God speaking to you today.

All right?

I want you to hear God speaking to you today.

And so we give because it's not about the money, it's about the resources that God uses for his kingdom and in the blessings of others.

And so I want to just point to this text where Peter responds to the uh conversation Jesus has had with the rich man, and uh and Peter responds to what Jesus said to this rich man, and he says, We have forsaken everything.

We have given it all.

Now keep in mind that the disciples were young.

They were, most of them were probably very young by our standards.

They were probably late teens when Jesus called them.

Uh uh, and so they were very young.

So when they say they gave it all, they don't have 50 years of accumulating to talk about.

Uh they don't have that much to give.

Uh they they're talking about giving their lives.

They're talking about giving all that they had, literally, not just an offering.

And so and so Peter says, We have forsaken everything and followed you.

And then he asked that question, what shall we therefore have in the King James?

So what do we get out of it?

So what are we gonna get in return?

And I Peter's all, I mean, he's he's already in that transactional mindset, like we Americans are.

You know, I did all this, now what do I get in return?

What do we get in return because of what Jesus had just spoken to the rich man?

And Jesus responded to that question.

I want you to notice that in verse number 29, Jesus said, Verily I say to you, or truly I say to you, that you which have followed me.

So he's talking to the disciples right there.

He's talking immediately to these group of people, this group, in response to Peter and the followers of Jesus, right here in this moment.

Jesus says, You have followed me, and in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit on his throne of glory, you will also sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Wow.

Now we often don't think about the response of being something directly related, but Jesus directly related to Peter, and I would say the apostles, he directly related to Peter that because you have given all, not because you gave an offering, because you gave all and followed me, you're going to be rulers over Israel.

That's quite astounding, isn't it?

I mean, that's quite astonishing that Jesus revealed this to the disciples at this moment.

And we can read about that some later.

But Jesus did not stop there because he said, and everyone, and who is everyone?

Is that you?

All right, everyone.

And everyone that has forsaken houses or brethren or sisters or fathers or mothers or wife or children or lands for my sake shall receive a hundredfold and shall inherit everlasting life.

So what will you have?

Jesus responded that if you give up, if you forsake, if you give what you have for my sake, you will be blessed a hundredfold.

But not only that, that you will receive eternal blessings.

Not only earthly blessings, but eternal blessings from your submission of giving.

In summary, Jesus said, you can't outgive God.

No matter what you give, God's gonna give you more.

Well, no matter what you feel like you contributed, you're gonna end up with so much more, not only because you end up with more in the sense of having a large bank account, but because God's gifts are beyond this life.

God's gifts are both temporal and eternal, and there's no way you can purchase that with whatever you have.

And so you can't outgive God.

Now, to really grasp this story and get in context, you have to talk about the rich young ruler.

And uh, I want to go back to that conversation for a moment.

That conversation is Mark 10, Matthew 19, Luke 18, and and this uh this young man comes to Jesus with a heart hungry for for more of God.

He kneels down at Jesus' feet and he said, What shall I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus said to him, Why are you calling me good?

There is none good but one that is God.

You know the commandments do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, defraud not honor your father and mother.

And the young man answered and said, Master, all these have I observed from my youth.

And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and Jesus said, One thing you lack, go your way, sell whatever you have, give it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven, and come and take up your cross and follow me.

And the young man was very saddened by that saying, and he went away grieved because he had great possessions.

Now Jesus was not trying to tell him some new way to be saved.

Jesus was trying to tell him, if you want to receive what I will give you, you're gonna have to let go of some of what you have.

And I mentioned this a while back, uh, so it's not new if you if you paid attention, but I'm not uh foolish enough to think you really hear all the things I say when I'm preaching.

In fact, sometimes I hope you don't hear what I said because you know I got stumbled upon my words.

Jesus said to this young man, You have so much in your hands.

You have status, you have education, you have wealth, you're hungry for something, but but your hands are so full of all your other stuff that you don't have room to receive what I want to give you.

And so you're gonna have to empty your hands of some things before you can get what I want to give you because you don't have any space for it anymore.

You're gonna stack it in the stack of your storage room and not gonna realize what you're really getting.

And so you need to clear out some stuff.

Sometimes we're so full we don't have room for anything else.

Sometimes we're so full our schedules are full, our minds are full, our hands are full, our hearts are full, we're full of all kinds of things.

It's not all bad stuff, sometimes it's not all good stuff either, but we're full, and we we have to find a way to make room for God to do something in our lives and to work in our lives.

And when our lives are so packed to the margins, we don't really have room to receive what God wants to give us.

And that's the reason why when we come to God, one of the things we do is not only do we believe God, but when we walk down that path of obedience, we begin to repent.

We ask God to forgive us because our hearts are filled with stuff that needs to be moved out so that we can receive what God wants to give us.

God's not willing that any perish, but that all come to repentance.

That your that's your part.

God doesn't do that part for you.

God forgives you, but your part's repentance.

My part's repentance.

That's emptying myself of the stuff that's in the way, that's keeping me from receiving what God wants to give to me.

Repentance.

That doesn't mean you come and confess to me.

Thank God.

Hallelujah.

That just means you go to God with repentance.

God forgive me.

God, I want this stuff out of my life.

I want this sin out of my life, I want this stuff that's been controlling me out of my life.

I want to be free of it.

You don't have to have the power to be free of it.

You just have to make the decision to repent.

And God will give you the power to be free.

God will release you from it, but you've got to come to the place where you're willing to empty your hands.

But too many times we come to God, our hands are full, and we're saying, Give me more.

We don't even have room to put it.

Give me more.

Give me more.

And so Jesus said to this young man, Go sell what you have, give it to that's not, thank God, that is not the plan of salvation.

Some of you might find that easier, some might you might find that harder.

But that's not the plan of salvation.

What God was saying to this young man is you need to let go of some stuff so you can receive what you want.

And of course, there's all kinds of other things we could read into that.

I don't have time to stay there today, but only to say that we are blessed as God gives, and that anything that we give to God, God gives us so much more.

God gives us so much more.

I always say it's kind of like it's kind of like we come to God and we act as though we're making a sacrifice.

You know, I bring my, you know, 15-year-old car that's beat up, it's got dents, and it's and it's it's just barely hobbling along.

I'm spending more money, keeping it going, then I could just buy a new car.

And I bring that beat up thing and I trade it.

I just trade it for a really nice car.

And then I walk away from that and say, I sacrifice so much.

I had to give up my old car.

I've got so many memories.

You know, the windows didn't roll up and it was mildewed.

But but I but I had to sacrifice my car to get this new car.

I mean, that's kind of the mentality we have sometimes when we come to God, like we're gonna sacrifice.

We're not really gonna sacrifice, we're just gonna give up something, and God's gonna give us so much more in return.

God's gonna bless us so much more in return.

God's gonna help us so much more in return.

What we're gonna receive from God is so much greater than we're than we're letting go.

We can't call it a sacrifice, we can't call it something difficult because God has given us so much more in return.

And so God has this pattern throughout Scripture of how this works.

And Brother Tyler read it earlier: God's got this giving cycle, give and it shall be given to you.

Luke chapter 6, verse 38.

Luke 6:38

Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over shall men give in your bosom, for with the same measure that you meet with all, it shall be measured with you again.

God's way of doing things is different.

God says, if you give, then it it circles back around.

There's sort of a cycle of it that happens, and and it comes back in different ways.

It doesn't always come back with the same dollar bills.

But it comes back in different ways how God blesses and God gives you more than than what you you gave.

And there's this cycle of giving.

But but when we stop that cycle because we won't give, then we stop the cycle.

God didn't stop it, we stopped it.

And so we give, we offer it, we we give it to God.

God's economy is just different from our culture.

Our culture says, keep it, hold on to it, keep what you have, you know.

Build bigger and bigger barns and find a place to put it.

That's a parable in the New Testament, in case you didn't know.

Build bigger and bigger barns so you can store it up, but that's not God's plan.

God's plan is for you to give it, God's plan is you to release it.

God's plan is for you to trust in him.

God's plan is for you to trust that he can work.

And if you will, if you will do that, God will respond.

I've I've shared this sometime in the past.

I don't know how long ago it was at this point, but shared this sometime in the past.

When I was when I was a teenager, I was working a job.

I can't remember exactly which job I was working at the moment.

You know, you're a teenager.

So it was either at the grocery store or the clothes store.

I'm not sure which one it was.

It was one of those, you know, where you make the big bucks, especially as a teenager.

I think just to wow, some of you teenagers, I think the minimum wage back then was like$2.85 an hour.

Just now all you young people saying, he is really old.

Yeah, old.

So, so you know, I'm working, I'm a teenager, I have this job, and uh, and and uh so too much to explain, but I was actually working a full-time job while I was in high school, and so man, I'm making the big bucks.

I'm working in these little stores, I'm making, you know,$2.95 an hour because I got a little more than minimum wage or whatever it was, it's like three bucks an hour or less.

And I'm working 30 hours a week, 35 hours a week, depending on the weeks, you know, sometimes.

And and back in those days, the clothes stores are actually closed on Sundays.

Man, I've sound old to you guys.

Anyway, so I'm working this job, you know, I've got some money.

Uh, um, I'm able to do some things, you know, go out to eat, pay gas for my car, buy the insurance uh for my parents' car, excuse me, that I was driving at the time.

And uh, you know, we had a church service and and it was like give to missions, and and it was just and you're a young person and you're thinking what you can give.

God just really laid on my hearts to give$50 a month.

$50 a month to missions.

Now, and just just to give you some idea, in in today's dollars, that's$180 a month.

So I pledged$50 a month.

And uh so I gave my$50 a month and my tithes to the church because that's what God laid on my heart.

And somehow from that, I didn't get a big raise on my job, but somehow from that, God blessed.

God blessed.

I always had more jobs than I could do, I always had more work than I could have time for.

I could have worked as many hours as the company would have let me.

I could even work overtime a lot of times in these jobs, which was unusual back then, especially for teenagers, uh, you know, because there's restrictions and all that.

And so I'm working these full-time jobs and working all these hours.

So it made a little bit of difference there, but it made difference in other ways.

God opened doors for me and helped me to advance, but God also opened doors and provided opportunities that I could have never created for myself.

And so when I went to college, I got a scholarship.

It paid for the first year tuition almost entirely of school, and that that paid that.

So it's like that's just a scholarship.

It's just, you know, I don't know how I got it or why I mean I applied, but I don't know how they qualified me to get it.

I have no idea how I qualified to get it.

I didn't know anybody, I didn't have any connections.

My parents weren't ministers, you know, or any of those things where they were connected to people that could help me get it, but but God provided.

And then I went to work when I was in college, so I worked.

And now I'm not saying uh, you know, I worked.

I'm not saying I was lazy.

I wasn't just standing there waiting on the check to flow in.

I worked, I worked a job, started working a job, and uh I got laid off from the job, and I had to go back to the grocery store where I used to work because I couldn't find any other jobs.

And so I went back to the grocery store, and the man at the grocery store said, you know what?

Uh you were a great worker here, and we don't want to hire you in this store.

We're gonna put you over in this other store so that we can pay you more.

Yeah, that's what happened.

And oh, we want you to go to this at the time, the busiest store in Houston.

We're gonna put you in this busiest store in Houston, and we're gonna promote you.

And so I was 19 years old and in college, and at the time I was making just under$11 an hour back then in the Stone Ages.

They paid for all my benefits.

I had full insurance, full all that stuff.

They paid for everything in addition to your salary back then.

I made$11 an hour, and you say$11 an hour, that's not much.

We make$12, but you got to remember that was in 1982.

1982.

That would be$35 an hour today.

I'm just telling you that you cannot outgive God.

You just you just cannot outgive God.

You you cannot outgive God.

And and I I wasn't saying there wasn't anything special about me, but somehow they moved me around, they bypassed all kinds of rules, they put me as if I had been working for there for for like five years for them, and and they gave me the top pay, and they made me a supervisor, and they did all these things, and I'm 19 years old.

Get that in your mind.

I got 35 people out here I'm supervising, and I'm 19 years old.

Now that didn't seem so young then, but it seems very young now.

I'm responsible for all the money coming into this store and back then.

Then I'm talking 82 and 83.

I'm talking back then.

That store sold$100,000 worth of groceries on a Saturday.

That would be like$300,000 worth of groceries today.

And I'm responsible for all that money coming in.

Back then, there was checks and cash, nobody used credit cards.

And I'm 19 and 20 years old.

I graduated from college the first time I was 21.

Because God blessed.

Wasn't because of me, I worked hard, I'm not saying I didn't work hard, but God blessed, God provided, God made a way.

And it's been that pattern my whole life.

Now, I will tell you, we've had some days where we wondered where we would eat.

We wondered how we're gonna make it next week.

We've had those days, but God always came through.

It wasn't always with$35 an hour.

Wish it would have been, but it wasn't.

It wasn't always with that.

Sometimes it was not enough to survive in my paycheck, but somehow God made the difference.

Somehow God helped us survive.

Somehow God made things last.

Somehow God made our cars keep working and made our house keep working and all the things that we needed.

And somehow God provided.

Sometimes it was just barely by the skin of my teeth and just barely getting there.

And sometimes God provided with additional blessings.

And it's been the same way here at Calvary.

It's been the same.

I don't have time to tell you all the stories of Calvary and how God is blessed.

We gave to help miracle offerings all over the place from the very beginning.

Every time we've had a building project, we always gave a big offering to somebody else first.

Because we said if if God, if if we need a miracle, then we need to be a miracle.

And most of the time, somebody's miracle is a lot less than yours.

And so we can find somebody that needs a lesser miracle that we can take care of.

Not as big as the miracle we need, but it's somebody that needs a miracle.

So we can find somebody.

And so through the years, we've always given some special offerings.

We paid to build churches.

We bought a bunch of baptismal tanks for the mission field, and I think they used most of that money to build another church instead of the baptismal tanks.

They bought some baptismal tanks, but I was told later that they built the church with the rest of that money.

We've paid for evangelistic crusades overseas.

We've given offerings to churches small and some churches not so small that had needs.

We just heard about a need, and God laid it on our hearts, and we gave, and you've always responded to that, and because of that, God's always provided.

When God provided for us to get this land, and we were able to sell the ground lease of perpetual easement for the towers and the cell towers in the back so that we could get here.

And God blessed us to sell those for$725,000.

We decided when that happened that we were going to give a tithe on$725,000.

Now we didn't have the money to do that.

It took us three years.

In three years, we gave$72,500 to missions.

Why?

Because we believe that you can't out give God.

You can't outgive God.

That God will provide, that God, God works, and God does a miracle, and God keeps doing miracles, and it keeps working in our lives.

And so I want you to know if you're new or maybe you don't know the stories.

There's so many stories of God's blessings and God's goodness.

And in just, you know, no money has ever rained down from heaven.

I still haven't found.

I keep trying every time I go fishing, I keep trying to find that coin, that that wonderful silver or gold coin in the mouth of a fish.

Never happened.

God's always given it through other people, and oftentimes those other people did not even know the need.

I just can't tell you how many times that God has blessed.

Even when we added on to the little room in the back for our youth, but now our youth have outgrown that.

Thank God.

And now one of the Sunday school classes are there, a year and a half ago.

Well, you gave some money to help, but then somebody gave money that paid for half of that building, and they didn't even know.

Because we blessed somebody else first, and then God blessed us.

And so I want you to know that this is the way, this is the way it works.

This is how God works.

Philippians 4.19 says, My God shall supply all your need.

According to whose measure?

According to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Not according to my riches, according to his riches.

I'm not trying to get rich.

I'm not driving a huge expensive car and flying in on a jet to speak to y'all today.

That's not what we're talking about.

We're talking about how God provides and how we give and God blesses, and God measures it by his resources, not ours.

And he challenges us to test him, to try him, to see if he won't do it.

He challenges us to test.

See if it won't happen.

In Malachi chapter 3, it says, verse number 8 through 10, will a man rob God?

Malachi 3 · chapter mention

And you, but you have robbed me.

But you say, How have we robbed you?

And God responds, in tithes and offerings.

You are cursed with a curse because you have robbed me, even this whole nation.

These are pretty strong words from God.

You've robbed me.

Bring all your tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in my house and prove me.

And prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open to you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

Now we don't give our tithes to get something in return.

We give our tithes out of grateful hearts because God has provided.

And God owns all of it.

And so we're not giving him back 10%.

We're keeping 90%.

We're not really giving 10%, we're keeping 90.

It's all belongs to God.

He's given us the 90%.

And so if we if we will do that, if we will follow through that, God says to his people, try me, test me, see if I won't do it.

And that that principle continues throughout the scriptures.

Proverbs chapter 3, verse 9 and 10 says, Honor the Lord with thy substance and with thy first fruit of all thine increase.

Proverbs 3:9

Now you may not know what first fruit means because you're not a farmer.

But first fruit is tithes.

It's how the farmer pays tithes.

They don't know what 10% of their crop is, so the first pass of the harvest goes to God.

And then the rest of the harvest belongs to the farmer.

But it's talking about your tithes, the first fruits of all thine increases.

And if you do that, so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.

2 Corinthians 9 7, for those that weren't here in the Bible class this morning, the word of the Lord says, Every man according as he has purpose in his heart, so let him give not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Acts is 20, Acts 20, 35.

Remember the words of the Lord Jesus when he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

And if you're around here, you've heard me say there's a gift in giving that cannot be received in receiving.

It's blessed.

We are blessed to give.

That's why we celebrate when we give.

Because we're blessed to give.

That's why we're joyful when we give.

We're blessed to give.

We're not giving grudgingly.

We're giving and we're blessed to give.

It blesses us.

And we know what happens.

When we give our gift to God, it's multiplied in his hands.

Again, whether you look at the 4,000 or the 5,000, when those small things were given to Jesus to break, when those small lunches were given to Jesus to break and to provide for the 5,000 or the 4,000 crowd, there were seven baskets or 12 baskets, always more left over than they began with.

Even after the need was met, God provided.

We know there's a principle that's that's in the Word of God, and it's just it's not just money, but when we give to God, we cannot outgive God.

And it works just like it worked a while ago.

When you start praising God, I'm gonna tell you, it's a it's a it's a misunderstanding to think I have to feel something before I praise God.

I don't have to feel a thing before I praise God.

God is worthy of my praise, and I am honored to offer it.

I don't have to have tingling up and down my spine, I don't have to have excitement in my heart, I don't have to have any of those things that we would like to have and we enjoy.

I don't have to have any of that.

It's all deserving to God anyway, and I'm privileged and blessed to offer a gift to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, that he will receive my simple worship as a gift to him is an honor for me.

But if I worship him, something changes.

If I start praising him, something changes.

It changes in me.

My circumstances may be exactly the same as they were when I walk out as when I came in, and when I walk out, they may be exactly the same, but I'm gonna be different because God is gonna minister to me.

God's gonna bless me, God's gonna strengthen me.

I cannot outgive God.

Whatever I give to him, he always blesses me in return.

He always provides for me in return, he always helps me in return.

Amen.

But here's what the enemy does the enemy constantly encourages us to pour our resources, whatever they are, pour our lives into what is temporary.

And the purpose of that is so we have nothing left to pour into what is eternal.

John 10, 10, Jesus said the thief comes not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy.

That's what the thief is coming for.

And of course, he's referring to the enemy, to Satan.

He comes to steal, to kill, and destroy.

That's always the motivation, no matter what the package looks like.

No matter how pretty the bow, it's always steal, kill, destroy.

That's what it is.

But Jesus said, I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Say more abundantly.

More, not just abundantly, more abundantly.

More than we can ask or think, more than we can figure out ourselves.

That's what God offers us.

You cannot out give God.

You cannot outgive God.

What he gives to you has eternal value.

In the book of Hebrews, it tells us that Moses rejected the pleasures of sin for a season.

That sin has seasonal pleasures.

They last for a short period.

There's some excitement.

There's some pleasant feelings.

Something that can make you happy momentarily.

But Moses rejected the temporary to receive the permanent, to receive all that God did in his life, to receive the communication that he had with God.

Moses talked to God face to face, like no other person in the Old Testament.

He gained so much more.

He said, Well, he left Egypt and went out in the desert.

He did.

He went out in the wilderness.

He went from the palace to the pasture, keeping sheep.

But he met God there in a burning bush.

And God commissioned him for the work that the rest of his life fulfilled.

And we talk about him today, not because he was from Egypt, but because he surrendered his life to God.

And he chose to give himself to God and for God's purpose.

The rich young ruler, on the other hand, could not let go.

He could not release what he held in his hands.

And because of that, he walked away sad.

Excuse me, Peter and the disciples let go of their lives and follow Jesus.

And they discovered that Jesus was right.

Would you stand with me?

It's your choice today.

Do you want to try to keep everything you have?

You want to try to hold it tightly?

You want to use it only for yourself?

You're going to discover that the more you squeeze your grip, the more it slips through your fingers, and the less satisfaction you gain.

You can continue to live your life that way, or you can trust God.

You can willingly give your life, give yourself, give your time, not just money today, but to give yourself, your talents, your life to God, and watch how God multiplies.

Because you can't outgive God.

You can't outgive God.

He always gives so much more in return.

The lesson is the same for us today.

When we trust God with our lives, with our possessions, with our time, with our talents, with our resources, we discover that powerful truth that we cannot outgive God.

That somehow He just blesses us and helps us, and His hand is upon our lives in so many ways that are so much more valuable than anything we can receive in this life.

Would you just thank God together right now as you've experienced that you cannot outgive him?

Would you thank him for how he's responded with the simple gifts that you've given?

The simple life that you've given, the simple offering you've made to him.

He's taken it in his hands and somehow used it in a powerful way, in a glorious way, in a way that you could not imagine.

Somehow he's provided and opened doors and made ways for it.

I know oftentimes, even as Brother Tyler mentioned, oftentimes we take credit for it.

It's because we worked hard, it's because we knew people, it's because, but no, it's the hand of God, it's the provident hand of God in his grace when we give ourselves to him, when we place ourselves in his hands, we let go of everything we're trying to hold and just release ourselves, open our hands, and say, Here we are, God.

God receives us and does something so much more when we surrender to him.