Rise Up and Reap | Pastor John Greiner

Let's lift our Bibles up, made Jesus glad and the devil wrapped.

Just that devil mad.

Let's just uh wave those Bibles around, wave them around.

Let devil see this right here.

Your end is in this book right here.

We're gonna be there to see it.

Praise God.

Let's say this together.

Say, Heavenly Father, I'm so glad to be here today in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation among people of like precious faith.

Love plus unity equals miracles.

There is a miracle atmosphere here today, and I plan on tapping into it and giving God all the glory for it.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

You can be seated.

And uh let's turn in our Bibles first of all to Malachi.

You know, when I first got saved, I thought it was Malachi.

Nobody told me.

Thought he was like a one of the mafia or something.

I'm part of the Malachi family, you better be careful.

No, uh chapter uh three, verse seven.

And you know, just to let you know, Malachi was the last prophet in the Old Testament, and there was no other prophet after him until John the Baptist, 400 years later, arrived to prepare the way of the Lord and get Israel ready for her Messiah.

And so uh, how many of you believe it was pretty significant what Malachi had to say?

And what he had to say to really he was writing to the priests who had let things fall apart in Israel.

They weren't doing their job.

So let's pick it up in verse 7.

Even from the days of your fathers, you're gone away from mine ordinances and have not kept them.

Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts.

We've been singing the Lord of hosts this morning.

But you said, Wherein shall we return?

I mean, they're so they're so messed up, they don't even know they're lost.

It's kind of like America.

When I read this, I think about America and how we've departed from what we knew to be true.

And we've adopted a lot of crazy things, little by little by little, until who could ever believe that we would have the scum that's right that's absolutely running for office today saying the things they're saying.

I mean, it's just breathtaking.

We've got to rise up and do something, folks.

He said, Wherein shall we return?

And and and the prophet speaking for God answers a question with another question.

Will a man rob God?

The word rob there means to defraud, to hide.

Really, it in modern terms, it means to embezzle.

To embezzle.

Will a man embezzle God?

Are you stupid?

I've known two Christians, known them well, that went to prison for embezzlement.

Yeah.

I was I was at one of them's house just a few weeks before she was indicted.

She stole from a law firm.

She's broke, you're working for a bunch of lawyers, and you didn't think you'd get caught.

That's how messed up some Christians are.

They get so far away from God, they put their little flat, fat toe over the line enough to where they just finally don't even feel it anymore.

They don't even have uh, you know, any kind of conscience anymore.

Their conscience is seared.

And I knew another guy real well, trained him to do some things that another church I won't even name.

Got caught.

Cheating.

You know, it wasn't embezzlement, the same thing.

Went to prison, ruined his family, ruined his, ruined his whole life.

Wherein shall we return?

Will a man defraud and embezzle God?

Yet you have robbed me.

But you say, wherein have we robbed you?

In tithes and offerings.

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

Now here's the cure.

Bring all the tithes into the storehouse.

That there be meat, there may be meat in mine house.

And prove me now herewith.

Here with what?

Here with your tithes and offerings.

See, it's the only place in the Bible that I know of where God invites us to test him, to prove him, to see if he's not uh telling the truth.

There's nowhere else that I find that.

And so he says, you know, prove me now with your tithes and offerings.

It may not make sense to you, you may not, you might, it might not make economic sense, or your arithmetic doesn't work.

I mean, it it may it may seem like your budget says that you can't possibly do that.

But he said, prove me now here with your tithes, if I will not open you the windows of heaven.

I will not throw open the windows of heaven and pour you out.

My margin says, empty out, empty out a blessing that shall not be room enough to receive it.

And I and then number two, see, he's not through with giving you the benefits of if you'll bring all the tithe and offerings into the storehouse.

What else is gonna happen?

Well, I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast a fruit for its time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.

He's talking about their income.

They're an agricultural nation.

He's talking about how crop failures can occur.

He's also talking about children.

Listen, tithing and honoring God with your tithes and offerings extends to more than just finances.

It impacts your entire life.

And so, neither shall your vine cast your fruit before it's time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.

And then verse 12, and all they say, and everybody say and.

See, there's he just keeps on going with the benefits.

You know, you'd think if he was mad, he said, you know, just stand aside, I'm fixing to kill all of you.

But he didn't.

He said, just get back to me, start doing what you should do, and I'm gonna do this, this, and this.

The third thing is, I all nations shall call you blessed, for you shall be on the delights of land, saith the Lord of hosts.

All right, and then let's look at 2 Corinthians chapter 9, or 8, rather, 2 Corinthians 8 9, and if you don't mind, put it up there in the Passion Translation.

2 Corinthians 9 · chapter mention

I'll read it in the King James first.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you might, through his poverty, might be rich.

Might means it's on us.

We have to appropriate rich means abundant supply.

God wants you to have an abundant supply.

He suffered the loss of everything.

He hung on a cross naked.

I mean, don't let don't let you know the religious world fool you.

He was naked on the cross.

He lost everything.

None of his friends were there, just his mother and John.

The rest of them fled to hide.

And uh, I mean, you talk about poverty.

He wasn't impoverished till the cross.

He was he had plenty of money all of his life on earth.

He he had an endowment given to him by the kings of the East.

I mean, they go bought gold, frankincense, and my don't talk about Jesus was so poor.

He was never poor a day in his life till the cross.

That's when he suffered the loss of everything.

And why did he do it for us?

It's just as redemptive a work for our wealth and finances as it is for our sin and sickness.

This is a full gospel, church.

We believe in the full gospel.

Don't just preach the part about going to heaven.

Do we we believe in that part?

Well, that's the most important part, but it's not the only part.

And uh, did you find the passion translation?

Yes, God is more than ready to overwhelm you with every form of grace, so that you will have more than enough of everything, every moment and in every way.

He will make you overflow with abundance.

That's the wrong verse, but that's a good one.

In every good thing you do.

Now go back to 8.9.

That's a good one, though.

I don't mind reading that one.

That's really good.

Just see how much there's in the Bible about your finances.

There's a whole lot in there.

Oh, 2 Corinthians 8.9, please, if you can find it.

Because I want you to see the language that's in the Bible.

Sometimes we have to study a little bit more and see what all it really says.

For you've experienced the extravagant grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that although he was infinitely rich, he impoverished himself for our sake, so that by his poverty we could become rich beyond measure.

How many of you have ever experienced that?

That's why I'm preaching this.

Because I, you know, really we we just need this message.

It's not a new one.

I've preached it before.

I even wrote a book, this one right here, Rise Up and Reap, that contains more of what that I can preach in a couple of three Sundays.

I'd have to spend a year probably preaching this, and I'm not going to do that.

But this time, you know, the prophetic word we heard, we're a fruitful vine.

And we're we're spreading quickly and we're breaking through obstacles.

And one of the major obstacles for the end time harvest is money.

You know, in Romans 10, he said, how that, how that, you know, in fact, I just want to read it to you.

I mean, it just comes right through.

Verse 13, chapter 10, verse 13, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Boy, that's a hallelujah verse.

Glory to God.

But then it says, How then shall they call on him in whom they've not believed?

Oh.

And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?

And how shall they hear without a preacher?

And how shall they preach except they be sent, as it is written?

How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things.

So it's just the you know, we can have a hallelujah about whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, but they've got to hear it.

They've got to hear the good news, and that takes a preacher, and he has to be what?

Sent, and that takes what?

Money?

It takes money.

We spend a lot of money on missions.

We spend a lot of money in this building.

We're not just here to have church, we're here to make disciples that will be in that spreading vine that will go out into their world and preach the message, give your testimony.

Well, Pastor, I'm just not a preacher.

Well, you can share truth.

You can tell people what Jesus did for you.

So uh I'm preaching this message entitled Rise Up and Reap.

It happens to be the name of my book.

And uh I guess you were if you weren't here last week, be sure and get the message, uh, the media, because I last week I I talked about a very important subject, uh 9-11 countdown.

And we're in the countdown for the return of the Lord, and I gave gave you all the reasons that God had been dealing with me over 30 some odd years about this subject.

And you know, the message in really March of 99, March 1st, 99, just five weeks after Brother Osteen went to heaven, God visited me in my home and he woke me up and he said, I want you to wake up the church.

He gave me a mandate, and I didn't even understand what it meant.

But wake up and rise up mean about the same thing.

And you can kind of understand, yeah, Jesus is coming soon.

That's not a new message, and people have been saying that for 2,000 years.

And he said it for a long time without any revelation, without any prophetic evidence, without any real knowledge that it was that close.

But we're living where God woke me up again then, about, you know, uh, and told me in just right after 9-11, and I shared that with you last week, that uh that 2001 was a premier year, the first in a series of years.

It was a countdown year, one, two, three, four.

It's been 25 now.

When is the when is Jesus coming back?

I don't know, but we're 25 years closer.

It's not a new message, but God keeps ex he keeps underlining it, he keeps communicating Jesus is coming soon.

I heard Jesse DePlantis in 1988 came to Lakewood Church and preached his testimony where he was at a meeting and he was staying at a motel, not a hotel.

You know the difference.

He's in a motel and he suddenly just felt a burden to pray, and he he was eating, and so he ran across the street, got in his motel room, knelt by the side of his bed, and the next thing he knew he was in heaven.

And he's going through and he's and he describes all the things that he saw.

But the reason he was there, he came to see Jesus, and Jesus says, I want you to tell my people I'm coming soon.

And he said, Lord, they they know that.

He said, They don't know that.

I want you to go and tell my people I'm coming soon.

This is 1988.

It's almost 40 years ago.

And he said, Well, they they know that.

Lord, Lord, they know that.

They don't know that.

Hey's flashed, he raised his voice, he was angry.

They don't know that.

Oh my.

So, you know, he hasn't quit.

He told me in 2001.

And so I've been, I've been, you know, I've been preaching the wake-up call.

I've been preaching it and all of that.

And then in 2004, I heard about Dr.

Orl Roberts had retired.

He was no longer in Tulsa, he'd moved to Newport Beach, California, and just, you know, it's got off the you know, off the front lines.

He's in his 80s.

And uh, but I saw uh I heard that he had had a visitation where in his home there, uh, a blood and fire and vapor smoke and a loud voice that said that, you know, basically Jesus is coming soon, and he called it the wake-up call.

Well, you know, when I heard that, I thought, wow, this is confirmation from a general of the faith who back in the 70s, I don't know if you know this, but in the 70s, Oral Roberts' name was the fourth most known name on the planet.

Now he's not well known now.

Why?

Because he's gone and he's no longer on television.

His son's on TV a little bit, but not.

I mean, I saw Oral Roberts on the Johnny Carson show.

I mean, he was way ahead of his time.

We had, I got the honor of pastoring Lonnie Rex and Betty Rex.

How many of you remember Brother Lonnie and Betty?

And Royce, his son, is with us.

Way at, where were you, Roy?

There's Royce.

Well, you know, Lonnie Rex put Orl Roberts on television in the 50s.

Look at the things that God did to connect me to all of this revelation.

And this man was way ahead of this game, and and Oral Roberts, as far as I ever knew, he was a positive person.

He never dwelt on sin, he never dwelt on negatives, he never dwelt on any shortcomings.

He his main message was God is a good God.

And he would and he came from Pentecostal holiness background, which they don't really necessarily preach that or believe that.

They believe God is ready to spank you or beat you or kill you at any moment.

And you better not miss the rapture.

The the idea of the rapture of the church was used as a hammer to make you live right.

How many of you ever grew up in a Pentecostal church and that's all they'd preach on the rapture and say, he, you could miss the rapture, you know.

That's no, it's supposed to be a comfort.

And so when I heard him say that God told him the church was not ready for the second coming, he said the world is not ready.

He said, America's not ready.

He said, My people, the Jews are not ready, and my church is not ready, and there is a wasting of power in the church.

I heard some of this, and man, I knew it was confirmation.

I just, so I saw he was going to be on Christian television.

I saw the interview, and I was real disappointed because there's two preachers.

I won't mention names, but they were two preachers, and preachers don't know how to interview necessarily, they just know how to talk.

And they yapped and yapped and didn't ask him enough questions.

And I knew by, I mean, what limited experience I've had with supernatural and spectacular guidance.

If you don't write it down, you forget it.

I mean, in 15 minutes, you can't remember what God said or what you saw.

If you don't write it down right now, I've trained myself.

If I have a dream, I get up right then.

I don't care if it's three o'clock, four o'clock, I go in my study and I write it all down.

Well, you know, I knew that he wasn't getting the right question to pull the revelation out of him.

I was, I want to throw something at the television.

And then a couple of weeks later, another preacher had him on.

Same thing, and I was just so aggravated.

I thought they didn't get anything out of that interview except the bear.

He's got a lot more that God showed him.

We need to get this.

This is a man of general of the faith who's never been this way.

He's never been a negative.

This was a warning, this was a spanking.

You don't think God can chasten you?

He doesn't.

Listen, God does not use a car wreck and cancer, he uses his word.

And when he speaks his word like that, it hurts more than a physical pain.

You feel it.

I felt it.

Even though I thought I was still doing the job, I thought, well, I'm not doing a good enough job because here he is and he's got his attention now.

You know, just as soon as Brother Roberts released all this responsibility for Oral Roberts University and Oral Roberts Evangelist, so all that, man, that was weighing on him.

Raising the money to pay for it, building the city of faith.

They were way in debt.

That was weighing on him.

As soon as he got out of town and got alone with God, God dealt with him and gave him a message for the church.

So God opened a door for me to go, and we took a team in January of the following 05 and did an interview.

And before we went, I went away to pray.

And uh and I said, God, I this is a real weighty uh thing here.

I have an opportunity to get more light about what you told me.

I consider it, you know, confirmation.

Here's a man that's that's accomplished so much.

There's no telling how many thousands of people he's laid hands on for healing.

There's no telling how many millions have gotten the gospel because of him.

I mean, he's done a mighty work, built a university.

I mean, he's a man of great accomplishments, and to be able to go and talk to him, I want to be prepared.

I don't want to do the talking.

I want him, I want to ask the right questions.

So I went to Galveston and I prayed, fasted, and prayed, and I had five questions.

Four of the first four were all about the wake-up call.

The fifth one was kind of for me because I've always believed and I've preached that there's a transfer of wealth from the hands of the wicked to the hands of the righteous for the purposes of reaping the harvest.

That's in James chapter five.

I prophesied that to the Indian preachers in 1994 with Brother Osteen.

I've had a revelation of that, of that, all these years, but I've never really had it preached very much.

I've never heard much teaching on the transfer of wealth.

So Here we are, and he showed me where this visitation occurred.

And I won't go into all this in the book.

I've got about 96 copies left.

And uh so after the service, I'll go out, and if you want a copy, I'll sign it.

And you can have this.

If you've already got how many of you already got a copy of this book?

I urge you to read it again.

It's for today.

It's for right now.

It's a legacy message God gave me.

It's never gonna die till he comes back.

So uh so we we had two cameras, and we, you know, he was very, you know, very uh gracious, and Evelyn, his wife, was so sweet.

And uh and so he began to tell me about the Acts chapter 2 wake wake up call, and and uh and and he said, when this sign comes, billions of people will be make decisions.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

There's gonna be a great darvest of souls.

What was this sign?

It's similar to what Acts chapter 2: blood and fire, vapor, smoke.

He was walking through his home on his way from the bedroom to the kitchen, this little hallway.

He showed it to me exactly where it happened.

He said, suddenly I heard this grand, just tremendously loud sound, and it blew my sweater open like this.

Poof.

Like sound waves would be so powerful, it would move his sweater.

And then he heard the voice of God, and then he said, you know, the church is not ready for the coming of my son.

And then he saw this gigantic cloud and it descended over New York City.

Well, New York 9-11 had already happened.

So here's a cloud coming back over New York City.

And he said, I was reminded of the blood and the fire and vapor smoke.

It was boiling, it had all those qualities, Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And then it spread up and down the eastern seaboard, and then it spread across America, and then it spread all the way around the world.

And he said, you know, um, he said, you know, we uh there's gonna be a great harvest of souls.

And so I had four questions that brought that out, and and he talked about it at length.

And finally I got to my fifth question, which had to do with the transfer of wealth, but one of the things that I wanted his confirmation of.

And I said, uh, Dr.

Roberts, I've got one more question.

He said, make it your last.

I'm tired.

And I thought, oh my God, I've lost this whole interview.

I mean, he's he because I had exhausted him.

I had pulled on him and pulled on him, and he was laboring to get it all out and stuff that he didn't say on television, he hadn't said it anybody else.

He never did write a book about it.

Because I'm surprised.

I think I'm the only one that did.

But anyway, so he he said, make it your last, and we did edit that part out of the video.

And with trepidation, I said, uh, Dr.

Robert, since you see such a huge harvest of souls being coming into the kingdom of God, do you therefore see a corresponding transfer of wealth from the hands of the world into the hands of the church for the purposes of this harvest?

And he looked at me and he went like this.

He'd raised that index finger, his eyebrows went up, and he said, I'm glad you asked that question.

I thought, I'm gladder than you are.

He was re-energized.

All it was like we just started the interview.

He said, after this visitation, God came to him.

See, this was another visitation he hadn't talked about.

Are y'all listening this?

He said, God told me, he said, uh, that the church is out of position for the end time harvest.

The church is out of position.

Everybody say out of position.

Number one, they have crushing debt.

Credit card debt is, and that's been, you know, a long time ago.

That's been 2005.

So that's 20 almost 22 years ago now, in January.

It's a lot worse now than it was in 2005.

A lot worse.

I said it's a lot worse because they figured out ways to hide to to make going into debt so easy now.

How about student loans?

I mean, they're they're they're almost impossible to pay them back.

It's so easy to get them, so hard to pay them back.

So he said, My church is out of position, they're in crushing debt, many don't tithe, and allow God to superabundantly bless them.

He said, God said, tell my people to bring all the tithes into the storehouse.

And I'll open them to them, the windows of heaven, and pour them out a blessing.

There's not room to receive.

He's basically quoting Malachi chapter 3, verse 10.

Malachi 3:10

And to Brother Roberts.

And Brother Robert says, wait just a minute, Lord.

Interrupted God.

Wait, just that index finger.

Wait just a minute, God.

I've been tithing for 50 years, and I have never been in a position where I had more than I could handle.

Isn't that what you've asked?

When you're sitting at your dining room table, and here you are a faithful tither, and here you are a faithful giver, and you give to the gospel, and you, and yeah, God has blessed you after a measure, but have you ever been in a place where you think, where is the blessing?

Where is the harvest on my giving?

I mean, I need it now.

I'm just about broke.

I'm I'm this is a mountain here.

What, you know?

I know I'm the only one, I guess.

He said, wait just a minute, Lord.

I've been tithing 50 years.

I've never been in a place where I had more than I could handle.

He said, Well, you're looking for the wrong thing.

I don't have money to give you.

Everything you need is on the earth.

The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.

All the gold, I have, all the gold, all the silver is mine, says the Lord.

The cattle on a thousand hills.

Everything you need is down there.

What I pour out of heaven are ideas, concepts, and insights.

Now, this is Brother Robert talking to me.

He's telling me what God told him.

He said, if you'll do this, he said, John, you've got a, you've got a you've got a God will give you ideas.

Be looking for ideas.

And when he gives you that idea, that idea, you pray over it.

And you and you look and you start investigating with this idea.

And you start, and you, and and then it'll and and you turn it into a concept by actually obeying it, actually putting work, and you you begin to be your lifestyle.

You've got this idea from heaven, and you put it with a concept, and you start moving.

And then after you do that, you look, and there's insights that come to help you adjust uh to what you're already doing.

You and and and that's that's how he puts you in position to receive the wealth of because he knows where the cattle is, he knows where the gold coin is, he knows right the right person you need to be uh supernaturally hooked up with, he knows everything.

And and and we don't even have to wait on the windows of heaven.

Why?

Because we have the Holy Ghost on the inside.

We're not even waiting for God to open windows because windows was old testament for them.

We have the Holy Ghost in us that can give us the ideas we need.

In fact, when you when you look up the word blessing, barak baraka, I'll pour out a blessing.

There's not room enough to receive, it's the source of blessing.

The source.

He doesn't pour out money, he pours out the source of the blessing.

He gives you the source.

Everybody say the source.

You can see right now that if you're if you're expecting a certain thing from being a tither and a giver, and well, we are expecting a harvest, aren't we?

But then if we're if we're not have the right thinking, if our revelation of what God is truly saying here, if we don't get our line our ourselves lined up with what the way he works, we'll miss the idea.

We won't get the idea.

The idea will float by us and land somewhere else, and then we're, you know, we're left to just you know the normal things.

You know, God's gonna bless you as far as he can.

He will give you raises, bonuses, he'll he'll give you favor.

In fact, it you know, the second thing he said, he's he he worded it this way: the second thing he said, I'll rebuke the devour.

You know what Brother Robert said?

He said, he said, I'll protect your assets.

See, isn't that what he his means there?

I like the way that Brother Roberts took it and modernized the King James and gave me something that I could understand more, because I don't have a crop.

I don't grow anything like that.

But I have assets.

Do you have assets?

An asset is anything that you hold dear.

I mean, an asset can be your children, an asset can be your husband or your wife, an asset, uh your family, an asset can be, yeah, your your livelihood, yeah, your house, your, you know, your car, anything that's uh it's worth something to you is an asset, and God said, I'll protect it if you'll tithe.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't have insurance, but it means that he's in charge.

You've got somebody to go to.

He makes himself responsible if you trust him.

And then the last thing, he said, uh, you you know, all nations will call you blessed and you shall be a delightsome land.

What does that mean?

It means he'll give you favor.

In fact, he means he'll give you directional favor.

I deal with this extensively in the book.

Not just 360-degree favor anywhere you go.

God will lead you in a direction you're, if you follow your favor, you'll always follow the plan of God because he gives you favor in the direction that he wants you to travel.

Y'all are looking at me kind of silent, but we don't we need favor right now.

So, you know, I mean my heart was just beating, and I was just so, I'd never heard this.

I'd been, I listen, I I was broke at Lakewood Church.

I had holes in my, you've heard my testimony.

I'm here I am on the platform, you know, opening the services and prayer clubs, you know, doing weddings, doing funerals.

I'm an ordained minister, and I got holes in my shoes where every time it rains, I might, I get my feet get wet.

I got one pair of dress shoes and they've got holes in them.

And I've got two outfits, one suit and one sport coat, and I, you know, that's it.

And I I learned to look a little different by buying different shirts and ties and trying to just, you know, go like that so people wouldn't notice.

Oh, you just wore that, you know.

When you stand up before 7,000 people, you kind of don't want to look like a stooge.

You want to look like you have that you represent Jesus.

And so anyway, uh I I had to at that point in time, Brother Osteen decided to preach 32 straight messages Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night on on finances.

And you know, I I I knew all of it, I liked it, but it wasn't producing for me, and I was frustrated.

I don't mind telling you, I was have you ever been frustrated?

Have you ever thought, now you're not gonna you're not gonna say, I doubt it, I doubt God, but you just don't understand.

You know somehow it's on you, but you don't even know how it's on you.

You don't even know what you're doing wrong.

This is gonna answer, it's gonna connect a lot of dots.

A lot of it is just number one, if you don't tithe, that's right, number one.

Number two, if you don't give over and above the tithe, that's number two.

But then after you've done that, what else?

Well, you need to believe God for the right thing.

You need to believe God for ideas, concepts, and insights, which takes work on your part because it means that you need to pray and you need to have a prayer life and a word life and stay with him long enough for him to be able to communicate that to you.

And then faith to get out of your comfort zone and actually put that idea into practice.

So uh and so he said, I'll give you so many ideas, there's not hardly any room for them.

All right, so uh we we just had a wonderful time uh at his home, and I was just overflowing with just with awe, and I've never heard this, never heard it ever.

And I'd heard a lot of the best preachers.

In fact, I backed myself all the way up to just weeks after I got saved.

I was in a meeting downtown.

Lakewood sponsored the the Thanksgiving meetings every year downtown at the Houston Coliseum.

They would have, they would rent the Houston Coliseum, set it set uh it seated 5,000 people.

And for whatever reason, Brother Osteen would invite these preachers, and night that I went there the whole week.

And the first night I went, Orl Roberts was the main speaker.

And that night, you know, they took an offering in Gladys and I committed to giving$10,000.

And the year before, I didn't have$10,000 to my name.

When I started tithing, God started blessing me.

And I mean, I couldn't, I mean, I was so nervous, I couldn't believe that I was gonna get, I mean, I've just about emptied out my bank again.

But I'm telling you, God knew what he was doing.

So I've heard the man preach, but I never heard ideas, concepts, and insights.

And I'm so excited.

And you know, he asked us, we asked him to pray over us, and he laid hands on my family, me and Gladys and our family, and then he asked us to pray for him.

He said, This shoulder.

It it just hurts all the time because I've laid hands on so many people, stretching out my hand, his right shoulder.

I stretching out my hand, sitting on a platform, thousands of people.

It's just my shoulders is really hurting.

And we laid our hands, he said, Oh, Evelyn.

She's got, and Evelyn, Gladys laid hands on Evelyn, and she said, Oh, I feel my Holy Ghost.

I mean, she got drunk in the Holy Ghost right there in her living room.

An honor, an honor to give.

They ask us to pray for them.

So I left there.

I was on cloud nine.

But on the way back to my hotel, I was not in a motel, praise the Lord.

In my hotel room, I'm looking out the window, Southern California, Newport Beach, and sunshiny day.

January, and it was about 75.

Looking out the window, and I'm thinking, God, ideas, concepts, and insights.

How can I preach that?

It's not in the Bible.

I mean, it's just it the word says blessings.

What do I do?

I can't just preach this just because he said it.

I believe it.

I believe he's not lying.

You told him this, but I have to preach the word.

I can't just come in here and preach what Brother Roberts preached.

I have a responsibility, you know, to preach the word.

So, what what you know what about this?

Ideas, concepts, and insights.

And he just like this.

Just like, I mean, just as soon as I shut up.

He said, What about Jacob?

And I thought, what about Jacob?

And I started thinking about the story of Jacob.

Well, and then I couldn't hardly wait to get back to my hotel room and get my Bible open, you know, to Genesis and start reading Jacob.

And I knew Jacob's story, but I started reading Jacob's story, and in Jacob's story, I saw everything that Brother Roberts was talking about.

I saw ideas, concepts, and insights.

So uh so in Genesis here, I'm not gonna read all of it.

Uh how many of you are familiar with the story of Jacob, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?

And uh Jacob was a twin to Esau.

And uh Esau was the firstborn, but when he came out of his mother's womb in birth, Jacob had hold of his heel.

And uh Esau was red and hairy and kind of an underachiever, if I could say that, kind of dumb.

Kind of a dunce.

And Jacob is more like his mother, and he looks totally, they're fraternal friends, they don't look anything alike.

And uh Esau was a hunter, and his daddy liked it because he would bring him deer meat and all of that.

He was a manly man, and Jacob was like a mama's boy, and a little soft, and and uh, and so you know the story where uh Esau is hungry, and here Jacob has cooked this soup, uh, and and Esau is starving.

Give me some of that soup.

I tell you what, I'll give it to you if you'll give me your birthright.

I mean, that's pretty mean.

Why wouldn't you just give your brother some soup?

But he made him give, and that doofus, he gave up his birthright as firstborn to his brother just for a bowl of soup.

Not very smart.

I mean, he's not the brightest lie on the tree.

Elevator doesn't go all the way to the top, he's the Fredo.

Well, I don't get into good.

But anyway, and so then later on, it came time, you know, where uh Isaac is gonna give his firstborn blessing.

See, the birthright and the blessing.

The blessing of the firstborn is a double portion.

And so it belongs to Esau, but anybody could see that he's not worthy of it.

He's gonna blow it, he's not gonna be able to be in charge of it.

And so his mother divided this plan.

I'm gonna put these these skins on you, and you're gonna feel like your brother, because you're gonna have lamb's fur on you, and all of that, and your your daddy's blind, he can't see, and you get him to pray the prayer over you.

He's about to pray the firstborn blessing over you, and that's exactly what he said.

Well, you know, you feel like Esau, but you smell like Jacob.

And so he he lied to his daddy.

And she lied.

I mean, so his name Jacob means supplanter.

He supplanted his brother.

It was God's plan, but the but not the way they did it.

What the way they did it was not right.

It was God's, they should have left it more to God.

God would have taken care of that at some point if they had not gotten their uh hands in it.

So then after that happened, you know, it came out that that Jacob had blessed uh that Isaac had blessed Jacob instead of Esau, and Esau was in tears.

You know, is there nothing left for me?

He said, Listen, I've already laid hands on your brother and he's blessed, and he shall be blessed.

There was no undoing it.

See, that's powerful right there.

When you're blessed, there's no undoing it.

The devil can't undo your blessing.

Only you can undo it.

Only you can mess around and get out from under where he has you.

We've been redeemed from the curse, but if we if we walk on our own way and we don't take advantage of what's given to us and get in line with God's laws, there's laws of of prosperity just as, in fact, stronger than the law of gravity.

What happens when you when you get crosswazed with the law of gravity?

I mean, what happens?

What happens if you fall out of the airplane?

What happens if you fall off the cliff?

You fall out of the tree.

I mean, you know, it's damage.

Gravity.

The only way to overcome gravity is the law of lift, which is airplane wing and all of that.

We discovered, it took a long time for us to discover how to fly.

We had to get one law to supersede another.

But I'm telling you, the law of giving and receiving, the way God has it in the Bible, we ignore his laws to our peril.

And I'm talking to mostly, you know, I'm talking to mostly tithers and givers.

If you weren't, we wouldn't be what we're, we wouldn't be doing what we're doing.

So I salute you.

But my point is not so much to try to win some of you over.

There might be some of you that aren't tithing.

I do want to win you over because I want you blessed.

I don't need, it's not your money I'm after.

I'm after you to occupy your place in the kingdom business.

So then, you know, when he found out he wanted to murder his son.

I mean, his brother.

I mean, Esau hated his brother, and and so they had to send him away.

So, so, you know, Rebekah said, Okay, you send you to my brother Laban in Syria, just go on over there, and he'll he'll take care of you.

And you need to get out of Dodge because he's gonna kill you if you stay here.

So he flees for his life.

And on the way, he's really, you know, he's he's really hurting and he's he's afraid, he's going to an unfamiliar place.

So he he got to talking with God and he said, God, if you'll if you'll if you'll lead me and give me favor where I'm going and bring me back again, surely the tenth I will give unto thee.

In other words, he committed to be a tither.

A tither is not just 10%, it's the first tenth.

Get that straight.

It's never left over.

It's never after you pay everything else.

That's why everybody can tithe, but not everybody does.

Some people have arranged a lifestyle and a budget, and they budgeted God out.

And so now when they look at their budget, they say, Oh, I can't tithe.

Well, you can, you just won't.

He said, prove me.

So it takes faith to start tithing.

Are you going to wait till circumstances get better?

They're never going to get better.

Because you're cursed with a curse already.

And now that you know to tithe and you refuse to tithe, actually you're going to be worse off.

Because now God can't watch after your assets.

He can't give you favor.

Why?

Because you're outside of his word.

Are y'all getting any of this?

Alright.

So the story of Jacob, the supplanter.

So he promised God the tithe of his increase.

And he gets over to Laban's house.

The first thing he does is he lays eyes on Rachel.

And he just, boy, Rachel, he fell in love with Rachel.

And he said, Oh, I'm glad to see you there, nephew.

How's the family?

Everything.

Yeah, well, okay, I heard a little bit about Esau, uh-huh.

Well, uh, yeah, I guess you can come work for me.

What do you what do you want me to pay?

He said, You don't have to pay me nothing, I just want Rachel.

I'll work seven years.

Now that wasn't a very good bargain, I don't think, but that's what he did.

He, I'll work seven years for this woman.

And so, yes, they had the wedding, and oh, you know, when he woke up after the wedding night, it wasn't Rachel, it was Leah, you know.

And Leah was a sturdy woman, but she's not Rachel.

She's a baby factory, but she's not Rachel.

I mean, she's not beautiful, she's not, you know, she's Leah.

She's sturdier than she's older than Rachel, which is why.

See, he's a supplanter, so what happened to him?

He got he got the same treatment, see.

He's he he should, I mean, he needed to repent from that.

He never did do that.

He never did say, God, I didn't get this right.

This was not right what I did to my brother.

He could have avoided a lot of trouble if he'd have just done that, but he didn't do it.

He just, you know, sometimes we can tithe, but we don't have other things straightened out.

So he starts working, and he said, you know, it's the Bible says it seven years just seem to go by.

And so then he said, All right, I'll work another seven years for Rachel after he got over the shock of having Leah.

And Leah starts having babies, and she's a baby factory, see, and Rachel is uh not able to have kids right away, and now there's this kind of a tension in the house.

You know, you've got women that don't get along at well, sisters that are not that happy, and and uh he just I don't know how he did it.

So 14 years, 14, everybody say 14 years.

He doesn't have anything of his own, everything has been for Laban, and Laban has gotten very rich.

He has his flocks have have expanded, and after 14 years, and all these kids, and finally, you know, Rachel had some kids, and now they're in competition, and you know, they've got I mean the 12 tribes are coming out of him, see.

I mean, you know, so uh he you know, he was prophesied over you.

Kings will come out of you.

And the king of kings came out of him.

Are y'all with me now?

So uh so all this time he'd just been uh working for pitily wages enough to, you know, and eating out of the flock and drinking the milk of the flock and all that kind of thing, but really not at uh accumulating any any wealth for himself.

And so he he he he just he gets, you know, and and and so he starts thinking about, you know, I want to I want to get out of here.

And he has this dream, and in this dream, and you've got to read because the dream comes later and it's not chronological, so you have to kind of put all the put all the dots together.

So that's what I'm doing this morning.

But he had a dream, and what was that?

An idea.

And in the dream he saw the ring-straped, speckled, and brown cattle.

And when I'm talking about cattle, I'm talking about sheep, sheep and goats, not longhorns and bramas.

Okay, this they didn't beef cattle, it's not beef cattle, it's it's cattle means goats and sheep.

And so he saw them uh reproducing.

He saw them reproducing, and they were considered to be inferior, white, white sheep and white goats, that was what you were after, but every now and then you because of genetics, you'd get these other colors, and for whatever reason, they just thought that was not as uh valuable.

But in the dream, he saw a bunch of that.

That was that was a blessing.

So he goes, he said, I tell you what, I'm gonna get, you know, let me have my kids and my wives, and I'm gonna go, I'm leaving.

He said, Oh no, don't don't leave, don't leave.

I I've I've I understand that I'm blessed for your sake.

So he at least knew and he didn't even help the man.

That's his son-in-law, that's his daughter, two daughters.

He could have blessed him, but he's a skin flint.

See, that's what happens when you sow that kind of seed.

God, you know, you get you get hooked in with skin flints that'll cheat you.

Change these wages ten times what little wages he had.

You'll never get rich on wages.

I'll leave that for later.

So he he he said, uh, you know, I've learned by experience that that I'm blessed on your what do you what will I pay you?

What do you want me to pay?

He said, You're not gonna give me anything.

I'm gonna go through your flocks today, and I'm gonna take all the brown, the speckled, the ring straight, and the brown cattle, and I'm gonna take them, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna take, that's gonna be my hire, and I'll still take care of your flock, and we'll have separate flocks.

And if you ever see a white cattle in my group, deal count it as stolen.

So he was, they were three days' journey apart.

So now let me get this land up, how much extra work that was for him.

He had to really work much harder now to mind his flock and Laban's, because it's three days apart.

And he's got to watch both of them.

Are you, you know, you're gonna have you're gonna have a part to play in your blessing.

This idea came, and so this this first idea, he had he just the first part of the idea was to divide the flocks, and he and that's what he did.

And so then, you know, later on, you know, he he had the uh and he was practicing that.

He's he's raising his, and so then an insight came about how to increase that.

He he saw uh this, he he he got the idea of whittling sticks.

He'd take the birch and the poplar and different wood, and he'd he'd he'd scar it and take some of the bark off and put it in the ground before the watering troughs at mating season.

And so when the speckled cattle came up and they saw those speckled and streaked uh stakes in the ground, how many of you know that makes no sense that they didn't teach that at Texas AM in the animal science department?

They don't tell you to whittle sticks and set them in the ground.

So what was that?

It was an idea from God, it was a foolish thing, really in the natural, but it was super natural.

And so he and then he saw additionally he would hold back the weaker cattle and not let them mate, and only the stronger cattle would mate.

And so out in the process of six years, his wealth grew.

He was a very rich man, and Laban's wealth shrunk.

And you could say that God's judgment against him, or you could say that's more the same kind of treatment that he's used to giving.

I mean, Jacob is still Jacob, he's the supplanter.

I don't know which way it went, but I just know the end result was that he got rich and he left town.

He said, Okay, we're leaving.

In fact, he didn't even tell it.

He just got he just wanted to leave it.

And so you know the story.

Well, when he got out there, he had to have a wrestling match.

He got on alone with God and he had a wrestling match.

And how many of you know it wasn't an angel, it was Jesus that he wrestled with.

And he wrestled till the break of day, and and he wouldn't let Jesus go until he blessed him.

He said, I'm not letting you go.

He let me go, I'm not letting you go till you bless me.

And so he blessed him.

And then he changed his name to Israel.

See, he had a name change like Abraham did.

Didn't he need a name?

He needed a name change because he's still not right.

He's still kind of a slippery, you know, uh underhanded.

I mean, he snuck out of town, you know, and all that.

I mean, he still he needed a different, he needed to be changed.

Are y'all getting any of this?

Glory to God.

Come on, lift your hand right now.

Ideas, concepts, and insights is what he demonstrated.

When I saw that in my hotel room, I mean to tell you.

I got back in my church, we started preaching this.

And as I preached it, I got more and more and more.

I started seeing this whole thing in all of the Bible.

I saw this over repeated, but it's sick, it's kind of camouflaged.

It's sort of, you don't, it's not obvious what's going on.

Are y'all getting this at all?

But when it's obvious to you what to believe for, you're gonna quit chasing the dollar and quit chasing the job and start listening to for ideas.

God knows everything that you need.

He's the smartest thing.

He's got the you've got the Holy Ghost, he'll make you look really smart.

Amen.

So Laban's flocks were weaker and smaller, Jacob's flocks were larger and stronger, and he became very rich with servants, camels, donkeys.

So much that on his way back, he had the courage to go back to meet his brother, and he sent, he sent bunches of gifts.

He sent his, he had a whole bunch of servants.

He'd send his servants ahead and he kept his children away, his children he kept protected, his wives.

But the servants went ahead and they'd have a forty head of cattle, or they'd have this, or they'd have that, and they would came in droves, and here comes Esau and all these droves of gifts, you know, over and over and over.

Finally he gets there.

Brother, what's all this?

I don't need this, I'm fine.

He said, Well, I just wanted to bless you.

Oh, keep it for yourself.

I don't need any of this.

And they hugged and kissed, and they they had a they had a good uh reunion.

Esau's seed is one of the major enemies of Israel unto this day.

And so you see, that's that's one of those Bible things.

I mean, certain things, and that's one of the reasons why he didn't get the birthright or the blessing.

Are you with me?

So um, so you have to, Brother Roberts, he said, now you've got to you've got to study this idea until it becomes a concept, a way of life, and then God gives you insight, which is wisdom and revelation about implementing the concepts.

And uh and said, God wants to lift us uh uh up higher.

He's got things in mind for each of you.

I can hear some of you saying, Well, I'm on a fixed income.

Well, who fixed it?

I mean, you know, you're not on a fixed income.

Quit saying that because it's it's you're not living by that anyway.

One idea can change everything.

Well, I'm not gonna ever be a rocket scientist.

It's probably true.

The ideas he gives you are usually inconsistent with what you already know, anyway, what you've already done.

I mean, God doesn't reinvent the wheel.

He's not gonna have you be a rocket scientist when you're an accountant.

I mean, he's gonna give you ideas that have to do with what your experience is.

And I'm not talking about sitting around the house and brainstorming.

This has nothing to do with your brain, it has everything to do with your spirit.

God is going to give you these ideas in your spirit.

And how do you get them out of your spirit into your understanding?

Praying in the Holy Ghost.

And then pray a while and then be silent a while.

Are y'all getting this now?

Pray a while and be silent a while.

I mean, some of the ideas that he can give you.

Remember, uh, Brother Robert said that God told him, My people are out of position.

He said they're in crushing debt.

So then that has to be addressed if you've got debt.

It has to be addressed.

How will God will give you ideas of how to get out of it?

God will give you supernatural supply to get rid of that debt.

I said, God will give you supernatural supply to get out of that debt.

It's not wrong to borrow money, it's wrong to borrow money to live off of and project a lifestyle that you haven't earned.

Debt in the Jewish sense is when you owe something that you can't pay.

And that's what happens to credit cards.

Eventually, if you keep using credit cards to live on and your credit card balance keeps going up and up and up, it finally is going to come to an over your limit.

And they're going to start charging you an over limit fee.

I had that.

The over limit fee was as much as the payment.

Oh my goodness, you talk about hurt you.

You can you can never get out of it.

Unless God helps you.

God help me.

I said, God help me to get out of it.

It's not wrong to borrow money.

I borrowed lots of money in my life, but what what you do is you borrowed money is, I mean, nobody probably have a house or a car if you didn't borrow money to buy it.

It's not wrong to borrow money to buy something.

It's wrong to borrow something so high that you can't ever really repay it, that you can't, that you're gonna start having to rob Peter to pay ball and juggle and juggle.

And a lot of people have done this.

It's a snowball the wrong direction.

It's a snowball running down the hill that becomes an avalanche, it's gonna hit you and bury you.

No, no, you got to get ahead of it.

We've got to show you how don't be intimidated, don't don't be ashamed, just just let level with God and say, This is I need some ideas about this debt.

I want to get rid of it.

And then, you know, one way to work on uh being blessed is to work on the outgo.

Debt is one thing, but just what you're spending money on.

I said, what you're spending money on.

I mean, you know, I just read where Starbucks is closing a whole bunch more stores.

More and more people are realizing they don't need a$7 cup of coffee.

Five days a week, 20 days a month.

In fact, sometimes sometimes they go on Saturday and Sunday, so it's seven days a week.

And so I'm not against it, but I'm just saying if you put that on a credit card and then you roll that over and you don't pay that that off, well then that cup of coffee is gonna cost you$40 down the road.

See, you've got to get rid of that.

Why?

Because that that's that's holding up your blessing.

God, God wants to bless you, but He wants to see that you're gonna be what?

A good steward.

When you tithe, you prove to God, you know, I'm a good steward.

I put you first, this is the first.

When you give over and above the tithe, you say, God, this is a proof of my love.

I love you.

I'm grateful for everything you've done for me.

That's what tithes and offerings do.

When you have that, you know you have a real good, close relationship with God in that way.

It it supercharges your prayer life.

But when you're stingy, when you defraud or embezzle, do you really expect that he's gonna do a lot of conversation with you?

You might go to heaven when you die, but he's not pleased.

I've heard people say, oh, that's Old Testament.

No, it's Bible.

It started in the Garden of Eden, it went all the way through Abraham tithed, and that was way before, that was 400 years before the law.

That was before the Bible.

Isaac thed before the Bible, Jacob tithed before the Bible.

They all tithed.

How did they know?

Adam told them somebody down the line.

That's how they they approached life.

God gave humanity a way to approach him and be blessed.

God wants to bless his children.

Are you with me now?

So forget about Old Testament, New Testament, it's just simply a law.

And uh when you get on the right side of it, oh, it's such a wonderful blessing.

I said it's a wonderful blessing.

God wants to lift you up higher.

He wants to take you out of the comfort zone, get you walking by faith.

And uh and he just wants to bless you.

He wants to increase what is available to give to you if you increase what you give to the gospel.

Brother Robert said, John preached this often.

He said, This is the guts of the gospel.

This is the guts of the gospel.

How so?

Because I just read it in Romans 10.

There's no sending someone without money.

It's gonna take money.

And if you really believe that billions of people, and I do, I believe billions are coming into the kingdom.

What do you expect that they just go out in the parking lot, that they just stay where they are?

No, they're gonna have to have a preacher.

I mean, television isn't even gonna do it.

A lot of them don't have TVs.

Television's great, but it can't do the whole thing.

We're gonna have to have preachers, we're gonna have to have laborers.

And so, really, the whole this whole idea of evangelism and missions hinges on our receiving ideas.

The idea we get is a resource, just like I I tell my staff this all the time.

God has given us three resources people, time, and money.

If you give your time at this church and help us do anything, you're a resource.

If you give your time, that's a resource.

Money is a resource.

And guess what?

Ideas are the main resource.

Ideas connect you with the source of the blessing.

Glory to God.

So, you know, to be a good steward, that means you gotta get a hold on the outgo, which includes the debt.

Uh, you know, God will give you ideas about how to save money, how not to spend certain things.

Sometimes God will have you just cut off things, cut off services that you're paying for.

I read where there's an app where you can sign up this app and they'll tell you all the places where you didn't even know they're charging you every money.

I mean, there's an icky out there.

When you order something online, a lot of times they they they get you automatically hooked in to some kind of a clay, they're charging you five dollars a month.

And I tell you also, there's just all the scanners.

I mean, I I had both credit cards had to be canceled and give me a brand new credit card because some Google found me, and and uh try to open a Google Play, like a Google Pay account in my name or in Gladys' name.

So we had to get two brand new credit cards.

So for the first time in a long time, I'm carrying cash so I can pay cash because I can't put it on the card because my card's not here yet.

I mean, you know, listen, we we have to be good stewards of our money.

Are you with me?

We'll be watching the outgoing, and then God will talk to you about the income.

I mean, he will increase your income, he will bless you, he will cause you to have such an abundance, there's not room enough to receive it.

Come on, lift your hands and receive today.