Seed for the Sower | Pastor Jeremy Saylor | Sunday Service

Thank you, Pastor Noah.

Good morning, church.

It is good to be in the house of the Lord with you this morning.

Good to be here in the presence of the Lord.

He's active in the house.

We were just talking about it.

But how many guys believe Jesus is the difference?

I'm gonna ask that again for those in the back of the room.

How many of you guys think Jesus is the difference?

Take the world, but give me Jesus.

Jesus is the difference.

And as we come as his followers and surrender and submit our lives to him, he changes us, he transforms us.

The Bible says, from glory to glory.

From glory to glory, we are changed and transformed by the person of Jesus.

Can I just say it as you I want to know him more?

I'm thankful for the revelation that I have received to this point.

But the Bible says that Jesus was the mystery that God kept secret until the appointed time for it to be revealed.

And when it revealed, it changed everything.

I want to know him who changed everything.

Can I tell you, I just don't want to know him, I want to follow him.

I want to submit to him.

I want to make him the Lord of my life.

And can I tell you right now, that's the key to the Christian journey.

The key to the Christian journey is that Jesus is not just your Savior, but he's your Lord.

That you submit everything that you are and everything that you hope to be, every dream, every desire, every hope, every ambition, you submit it to the Lordship of Jesus and you declare what Paul declared.

For me to live as Christ and to die as King.

Jesus, your Lord.

Can I just say I'm in love with Jesus?

How about you this morning?

We're in a series right now entitled, What Do You See?

And the whole focus of this series is to look at doorways that Jesus is inviting us into so that we can live the life that He came to give us.

That we can step into the kingdom of Jesus and live everything that He came to give us.

We've stepped through several doorways thus far.

We've stepped into the doorway of His presence.

We've stepped into the doorway of radical faith, outrageous love, and intentional growth.

And as we step into and through those doorways, we begin to live the life that Jesus came to give us.

We begin to step into kingdom living.

And today the doorway that I want to look at, the doorway I want to explore with you, is the doorway of irrational generosity.

Everybody say that after me this morning.

Irrational generosity.

I'm so excited to teach on this doorway because I believe that as much, if not more so, than any doorway we're going to look at through this series, this doorway has the greatest potential to impact you practically and tangibly in your life.

And when you're impacted practically and tangibly, you are changed.

See, the Bible teaches us that it's impossible to sow and not reap.

What does that mean?

It means that if we will take Jesus at his word and give, he will respond.

And when you see God's response in your life, it changes you.

And that's what we're going to look at together this morning.

I I love the passage in the Old Testament.

I think I love the challenge in the book of Malachi.

Where God says, test me in this.

Test me in your giving and see if I do not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out blessing upon your life that you are unable to contain.

Do you know this is the only place in Scripture?

Only place.

Everybody say only place.

Only place in scripture where God challenges us to test him.

As a matter of fact, the general rule throughout Scripture is don't test God.

As a matter of fact, when the enemy came to tempt Jesus, Jesus responded with one of the temptations by saying, It is written, do not test the Lord their God.

Yet in this one place, God places a challenge before us.

He says, In this area, I want you to test me.

Test me and see if I won't be faithful.

Test me and see if I don't come through.

Test me and see if you don't discover my nature and my character and come to know me in ways that you've never known me.

Oh, I want to test him and know him, church.

That's what we're gonna look at together this morning through a story in the Old Testament.

If you have your Bibles, turn with me this morning to the book of 1 Kings.

1 Kings chapter 17.

1 Kings 17 · chapter mention

1 Kings chapter 17.

1 Kings 17 · chapter mention

Is what we're did y'all study that this morning?

How do you know God's up to something when the Sunday school class has studied what the pastor's getting ready to preach on?

I think there's a message that God's trying to communicate.

This morning, what I want to do through the story of the widow of Zarepath in 1 Kings chapter 17.

1 Kings 17 · chapter mention

I want to show you how to manage your money God's way.

How to manage your money God's way.

And if you're gonna manage your money God's way and step into kingdom living, here's what you have to understand about money.

In Scripture, there's one metaphor that is used above and beyond every other metaphor to speak of money.

And that metaphor is seed.

And so what you have to understand is that money is really seed.

The money that God has blessed you with, the money that God has entrusted it to your care, the money that you have is really nothing more than seed, and there's three things you can do with seed.

You gotta get this, and I'm gonna break it down for you.

Three things you can do with seed.

You can consume it, you can store it, or you can sow it.

Money in Scripture is nothing more than seed, and there's three things you can do with seed.

You can consume it, you can store it, or you can sow it.

The reality of it is, church, we need to do some of all three.

But the problem is we do one or two, and not all three, or we do them in the wrong order or in the wrong proportions, and we miss God's best for our life.

And that's what we're gonna look at together this morning.

Stand with me as we read God's word together.

1 Kings chapter 17, verse 8 is where we will read from.

1 Kings 17:8

Then the word of the Lord came to him, came to Elijah the prophet.

Go at once to Zarepath in the region of Sidon and stay there.

I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.

So he went to Zarepath, and when he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks.

He called to her and asked, Would you bring me a little water and a jar so that I may have a drink?

And as she was going to get it, he called, and bring me, please, a piece of bread.

As surely as the Lord your God lives, she replied, I don't have any bread.

Only a handful of flour and a jar and a little olive oil in a jug.

I'm gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.

Elijah said to her, Do not be afraid.

Don't be afraid.

Go home and do as you have said, but first, first make a small loaf of bread from me, from what you have, and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son.

For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says the jar of flour will not be used up, and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.

She went away and did as Elijah told her.

So there was food every day.

So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family.

For the jar of flour was not used up, and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah the prophet.

Church, this is God's word, and the title of my message this morning is simply this seed for the sower.

Say that after me today.

Seed for the sower.

Turn to your neighbor and say, There is seed for the sower.

Turn to your other neighbor and say, You will have seed for the sower.

Turn around the person behind you and say, We have seed for the sower.

Father, we thank you for your word this morning.

Your word is a lamp into our feet and a light into our path that shows us the way to go and how to arrive there safely.

And I pray, Lord, this morning, we would not just be hearers of your word, but doers of it.

In Jesus' mighty name, everybody said, Amen.

You may be seated.

Thank you, Caleb.

In the story we read together this morning, there is a sentence that I believe is one of the saddest sentences recorded in all of Scripture.

And it's in verse 12.

It says, A widow was gathering a few sticks to make a meal for her and her son, that they may eat it and die.

How many guys know that's a sad sentence?

That's a sad state of affairs.

You know you've come to the end of yourself, to the end of everything around you.

When you make that kind of statement, we're gonna eat this and die.

That is throwing in the white flag, throwing in the town.

I'm done, it's over.

We've done everything that we know to do, nothing's worked.

We're done.

Let me give you a little context.

The Bible tells us about this story that there was famine in Israel.

And the famine was because King Ahab and Jezebel had turned the nation of Israel from God.

And so God had responded with famine, and famine had been going on for years at this point, and food had become very scarce.

And so God sends his prophet Elijah to a widow in Zarepath to be provided for.

Now I want you to think about this logically for a moment.

If there's famine in the land and food is scarce, would you choose to send your servant to be provided for in a place of poverty?

I don't know how you would think about that, but that's not how I would think about that.

If I'm gonna send my prophet to a place to be provided for, I'm not sending him to a place of poverty, I'm sending him to a place of abundance.

Come on, church.

Is that that's a rational, logical, analytical way of thinking about things?

If if there isn't enough here, I'm gonna go try to find a place where there is more than enough.

I'm not gonna go to another place where there isn't enough.

That doesn't make any sense whatsoever to our logical mind to for God to send his prophet.

Actually, let me take this a step further, outside of the nation of Israel.

Zarepath was outside of Israel to send his prophet outside of the promised land to a place of poverty in order to be provided for.

We just gotta start right here.

This is illogical.

And when there's places in scripture that seem illogical, we need to take a step back and take stock of what's going on here so that we can really understand what God's trying to communicate.

See, I believe that part of the reason that God sent Elijah to a widow of Zarepath that had nothing and was at the end of her rope is because he's trying through this story to teach us a little bit about the nature of giving.

How he reveals himself to us and through us to the world around us.

And just like this woman in Zerapath, this widow who is at the end of her robe, she's standing with the resources that she has at her disposal and asking a question.

What do I do with this?

What do I do with the resources that God has placed in my hand?

What do I do with this?

Do I consume them?

Do I store them or do I sow them?

That same question that she was wrestling with is the same question that each of us have to wrestle with in our lives.

What do we do with what God has placed in our hands?

And I and you say, Well, what do you mean that about that, Pastor?

I work for my bread.

Can I tell you all gifts come from God?

He is the giver of all good gifts.

We live, we move, and we have our being because of him.

So what's in my hand really isn't mine to begin with.

Come on, church.

What I have in my hand is ultimately a gift from God.

So what do I do with this gift?

Do I consume it?

Do I store it?

Or do I sow it?

Let's break these three things down together this morning.

Number one, the first thing that we can do with the seed that God has placed in our hand is we can consume it.

Now, let me be clear about something that's very important.

God isn't against you eating.

Can I get a praise the Lord?

Hallelujah.

Thank you, Jesus.

God isn't against you eating.

As a matter of fact, the Bible tells us a lot of stories that happened around the table.

Jesus did some of his best ministry around the table.

Do you know that the beginning basically the Bible is bookended with these two images?

In Genesis chapter 2, God takes Adam and Eve and places them in a garden and says, Eat freely.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

Praise the Lord, hallelujah.

Thank you, Jesus.

At the end of the book, the Bible says Jesus is going to come back to get us, and what is he taking us to?

The marriage, supper.

Come on, somebody.

Supper of the Lamb.

God's not against us eating.

The three festivals that really govern the annual cycle of Israel were actually three feasts.

God's not against you eating.

But hear me.

If all we ever do is turn seed into bread, we never have a harvest.

If all I ever do is eat what's in my hand, I never have a harvest in the future.

And can I tell you right now, God doesn't want you to live hand to mouth.

God wants to pour out his blessing upon you so that you have harvest upon harvest upon harvest in your future.

But if all you're doing is eating what's in your hand, you never get to have a harvest.

And that's where the widow is in this story.

Her plan on the surface makes incredible sense.

This is all we have.

This is what we've got left.

And I'm gonna turn this little bit of seed into bread, and we are going to eat it, and then we're going to die.

That makes a lot of sense.

But I want you to look at what Elijah says in verse 13.

Elijah said to her, Do not be afraid.

Go home and do as you have said.

But first, everybody say, but first, but first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me.

Then make something for yourself and your son.

If I am that widow and I hear Elijah say that to me, I might get offended.

Well, who are you to take the bread from me and my son?

That would be rude.

How many guys would think that would be rude?

But I want you to notice the order.

Everybody say order.

The order of what he is establishing here.

He's not telling her not to eat, he's just changing the order that she eats from.

He says, first, feed me.

The prophet is representative of God.

And so what God is trying to communicate to this widow and to us today is that there is an order that we need to understand in how we release what's in our hands.

But first, everybody say first.

But first, make a small loaf.

First, give what you have to the Lord and then make something for yourself.

See, instead of you first, then God, God is saying God first, then you.

And that is how we're supposed to manage the resources in our hands.

It's God first, and let me tell you why.

Because what you give to first reveals what you love and trust in the most.

And the Bible is clear from beginning to end.

If God's not first, he's nowhere on the chart.

See, God doesn't want our leftovers, he wants our first.

I may say first.

And really, church, that's what the tithe is.

The tithe is the first 10% of our income that we bring to the house of the Lord, and we say, God, you're first in our lives.

And we're going to give this as a way of demonstrating nothing comes before you in my life.

You're my first, you are the best, and I love you the most.

And I'm going to demonstrate it by giving you the first 10% of my income.

And I learned a long time ago, church.

I can say I love Meg.

Mm-hmm.

But there's only one way to prove it.

I gotta show it.

There has to be a demonstration of our love.

And that's what God is trying to communicate to us through the first.

In Proverbs chapter 3, verses 9 and 10, the writer says, Honor, honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits.

Proverbs 3:9

The first fruits.

There's that word first again, first fruits of all of your crops.

Then, then, if you honor God first, if you give to him first, then your barns will be filled to overflowing and your vats will brim over with new wine.

See, so the point here is not that we don't get to consume some of the seed, but that we honor God first with the seed, then ourselves God first, a second.

That's what honor is.

Honor is all about order.

Honor is not about the amount that you give.

Honor is about the order of your giving.

It's giving God the first.

God, I'm gonna honor you above anything and everything else in my life.

There is an order to our honor.

God says, I want it first.

I'm gonna give you the best.

We find this principle established all the way back in the book of Genesis with Cain and Abel.

The Bible says that Abel brought God the first fruits of his flock, where Cain brought him the leftovers.

Listen, God doesn't want your leftovers, he wants your first.

Let me tell you, there's a lot of reasons why.

I'll give you a couple of reasons why.

Number one is this is that without faith, the Bible says it's impossible to please God.

And so if I want to live a life of pleasing to God, then I've got to live by faith.

And one of the primary ways that we demonstrate our faith in God is by giving him the first 10% of our income and trusting him to bless the rest.

This is how the Bible tells us we're to manage our resources and church.

When we step through this doorway of irrational generosity, it's irrational to give the first 10%.

It's irrational not to think about all of the bills and all of the expenses and figure all that out and then give the leftovers.

That's what that what makes sense, but that's not living by faith.

God calls us to live by faith, and to live by faith means I've got to give him the 10% first.

And when I do that, God's saying, I'm gonna come through for you.

Because you've demonstrated your love and faith in me first.

First.

So the first reason that we give it is to honor God.

Honor God.

Years ago, right after I became pastor here, I had a gentleman that started attending our church and came to me and says, Pastor, I tithe.

I said, Well, praise God.

What do you want me to do for you?

He said, But I tithe to missions.

And I said, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait.

I applaud your giving to missions, but your giving is out of order.

The Bible's clear of the order of our giving is God's first, and that flows from the house of God out to the world.

The local church is the beating heart of the kingdom of God.

Do you know there's no missions without the local church?

There's no outreach without the local church.

There's no ministry to the community without the local church.

There is an order that matters to God in how we give, and that we give first 10% to his house so that there is food in his house to do what the great commission calls us to do.

And then after we tithe, we give to missions.

Then we give to offerings, then we give to building campaigns.

All of that is secondary.

The first is God, I'm going to honor you with the first 10% so there's food in your house to accomplish the Great Commission.

That's the order.

You say, Pastor, that's very strong.

It's not me.

If you don't like it, you can take it up with the king.

In his name is Jesus, not Jeremy.

That's the order that God has established for blessings to flow in us so they can flow through us to the world around us.

The first reason we give is to honor God.

Second reason we give, number two, second thing that we can do with seed is that we can store it.

Everybody say, store it.

We can store it.

And and and I want to be I want to be careful here because storing has two sides, and I want to distinguish between the two.

Storing can be saving, which the Bible commends and recommends.

But storing, if it's not careful, can also become hoarding, which the Bible rejects as godlessness.

Let me see if I can differentiate between the two.

Here's the difference saving plans while hoarding protects.

Saving plans for the future while hoarding protects from the future.

Do you see the posture is different?

Saving is preparation because you know God has more.

You know that God's up to something.

You know there's a call and a destiny, a purpose and a plan upon your life to achieve his will in your life.

And saving plans for that, but hoarding tries to protect you from catastrophe that may come.

It tries to build a wall of security around your world so that nothing impacts you negatively.

Do you know that when you do that, you're walling God out?

Saving says, God help me steward this for the future you've given me.

While hoarding says, I have to secure the future myself because I'm my source.

Look at look at this.

Listen to the widow again.

She said, I don't have any bread.

I only have a little handful of flour and a little olive oil.

So I have to do this for me and my son.

We have to secure ourselves.

Can I tell you the problem with hoarding?

The problem with hoarding is that it's not greed most of the time.

It's fear disguised as wisdom.

Hoarding, more often than not, is all about protecting yourself and not trusting God.

It's I've got to secure this for me and my son.

I've got to make sure we're okay.

I because I'm afraid we're gonna get to a place where we're not going to have enough.

And so, in order to secure the enough that I think we're going to need, we have to do this for us now.

That is fear-based, not faith-based.

Faith is saving for the future that God has for you.

Hoarding is responding to fear of not having enough.

In verse 13, look at listen to what Elijah says.

He's addressing this issue in the widow.

In verse 13, he begins with just three little words.

Don't be afraid.

He's addressing the fear in her heart that they're not going to have enough.

And it sounds like he's addressing hunger, but it's not really the hunger that's driving her, it's the fear.

And so God is changing the order.

He's addressing the fear in an attempt to shift her from fear to faith.

And in order to do that, he's got to loosen the grip of what's in her hands by loosening fear's grip on her heart.

See, if fear has your heart, you'll never be able to give what's in your hand.

Because the fear is what's in my hand is never going to be enough.

And when that is the state of our minds, we either hoard it or we consume it.

We never plan it for the future.

I'm afraid that we live in a world today where fear is guiding more of our decisions and our management than anything else.

Where we feel like we have to secure ourselves.

We've got to build a hedge of protection.

Can I tell you real clearly?

The Bible says you only have one hedge, and his name is Jesus.

There's nothing that we can do to protect ourselves from the world around us except placing our hope and trust in Jesus.

There's not a stock market, there's not a system, there's nothing that can secure your future except Jesus.

Let me tell you a time that I did not want to let go.

Years ago, the kids were little, we were going through one of the most difficult financial seasons of our lives.

We were pretty much hand-to-mouth.

We had no margin.

We had no savings.

We were doing our absolute dead level best to make it.

It was kind of one of those seasons where you don't ask, what can we do?

You ask the question, what don't we have to do?

What can we cut?

What can we skip?

What, what, what can we move past and not have to do?

And we had filled out our taxes and we were getting a little back on our taxes, and we were absolutely thrilled to death.

I remember running in and telling Meg, we're going to have a little bit of margin.

We're going to have a little bit in savings.

Praise the Lord.

Hallelujah.

Thank you, Jesus.

That spring, when we were going through all that, there was an announcement at the church that we were part of at the time that a missionary was coming through.

It's going to be there in a few weeks.

And I remember when the pastor made that announcement about that missionary coming through.

Jesus.

Are you serious?

Have you ever had a conversation like that with Jesus?

You just asked him, seriously?

Right now?

Are you kidding me?

You're going to have to tell Meg I ain't doing it.

I went to arguing with Jesus.

And I used the same, I didn't realize I was doing it, but I used the same argument that the widow used of Zarepath.

Jesus, you know it's wise to have margin.

Jesus, you know it's wise to have money and savings.

Jesus, you know that we're a young family and we don't have very much and it's tight, and I'm trying to raise two kids, and it's not easy.

Jesus, you know it's smart to put the money in the bank.

Come somebody say amen to that.

I'm arguing with him.

Arguing up and down.

And finally I get exasperated.

And I say, okay, well, I'm going to go tell, I'm going to go talk to Meg.

And we have to be on the same page because that's what a married couple has to do.

Never mind.

I'd never done it before.

So I went to Meg and I said, um, maybe I want to talk to you about something.

I uh I uh I kind of had a thought the other day.

I don't know that it was gonna, I'm I'm I'm low plating it.

I kind of thought the other day, I think that you know that maybe we should give our tax returns to the to the missionary when he comes through.

And she looked at me with fire in her eyes and pointed her finger at me, and she says, if you think that's what God said, then that's exactly what we need to do.

Dad gummit.

She was my out.

She was she was the one that was gonna get me free from this word from the Lord.

And so that missionary came through and and and we gave that gift.

And can I tell you what that did in our lives as much as anything else?

Is it broke fear off our hearts.

See, there's one way that you can break fear of not having enough off your life is by giving what God says to give.

See, as long as you're holding on to it, you're trusting yourself more than you're trusting God.

And as long as you trust yourself more than you trust God, fear of not having enough is going to grip your heart.

But once you let it go freely, then all of a sudden there's a chink in fear's armor.

No longer does it have the ability because but to hold you captive because God is faithful and he always meets our needs according to his riches and glory.

Let me tell you something.

I think I alluded to this a couple weeks ago.

It has been uncanny in my life.

Uncanny, how often God has asked me to give a supernatural gift for Jeremy and Meg.

Ask us to give a gift.

When it didn't seem like we had it to give.

But it's when things have been tighter, when things have been strapped, when things don't make logical sense, it's in that moment that God tends to ask us to give what looks like our last.

Why?

Because he doesn't ever want fear to hold you captive.

And when we have some and give it, it's not faith.

But when we don't feel like we have it and we give it, fear is broken and faith is built.

I want to challenge you, church.

Save wisely, but don't be a hoarder.

Don't let fear cause you to hoard the blessings of God that He has placed upon your life.

See, the second reason that we give is to break fear by acknowledging God is more than enough.

Everybody say, He's my source.

Third thing we can do with money is we can sow it.

Third thing that we can do with money is sow it.

When you don't have much, sowing seed can seem like the most illogical thing you could possibly do.

It felt that way for Meg and I when we gave that gift years ago.

It doesn't make sense because it it feels like we've lost something, that something is missed.

But what I have come to understand is that when I sow into God's kingdom, whatever I give isn't lost, it's just planted.

You need to hear that this morning.

What you give to the Lord and to his house into missions and offerings and to building campaigns, that money isn't gone.

It's just planted.

And if you want to have a harvest, you gotta plant some seed.

There's only one way to have a harvest, and that is to plant some seed.

Sowing seed is the only way to multiply seed.

Verse Kings 17.

Look at this story.

Elijah tells her, first make me some bread and then yourself.

And in verse 15, she went away and and did.

She did, she did as Elijah told her to do.

What did Elijah tell her to do?

He said, Don't give in to fear.

Give God the first, so first, then yourself.

Honor him, acknowledge him as your source.

Do that first.

And then look what happened.

So there was food every day, because she honored God first, because she took care of the man that God had placed in her life first, then what was in her hand didn't go away.

It actually multiplied.

There's only one way seed multiplies, and that's if we plant it, if we give it, if we sow it.

Every day there was food in the house for Elijah, for the woman, her family.

The flour was not used up, and the jug of oil did not run dry.

I want you to think about she sold her last.

This was all she had.

She didn't have anything else.

By her own words, she was gonna take what little she had left in her hand and make some bread for her and her son to eat, and then they were gonna die.

That's the end of the road, church.

That's the end of the rope.

There's nothing else.

This is all she has, but instead of consuming it, instead of hoarding it, no, she first sowed it.

And because she sowed it, God multiplied it, met her need day after day after day.

If you want to harvest, you have to plant some seed.

Let me show you what God does for sowers from the book of 2 Corinthians.

2 Corinthians chapter 9, Paul speaks of this.

2 Corinthians 9 · chapter mention

He says this in verse 10.

Now he, speaking of God, who supplies seed to the to who?

One more time, real loud, to who?

God supplies seed to the sower, not to the consumer, not to the hoarder.

God supplies seed to the sower.

Why?

Because if you're a sower, he can trust that you're not gonna consume it or hoard it all, but you're gonna keep sowing it.

A sower just keeps sowing.

Do they use some for food?

Absolutely.

Do they save some for the future?

Absolutely.

But they don't take everything that they receive.

No, they have a sower mentality that what I have received isn't just for Jeremy, it isn't just for Meg.

It isn't just for our family, it isn't just for you.

No, I have something that God has placed in my hand that I've got a plant for the future.

Supply seed to the sower.

Verse, continue in verse 10.

Now he supplies seed to the sower and bread.

So you're not just a sower.

No, he's gonna meet your needs according to his riches and glory, and we'll also increase your store, your store of seed.

So now I've got food to eat.

If I'm a sower, I'm gonna have food to eat, I'm gonna have savings to plan for the future, and we'll enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.

You will be enriched on every way so that you can be generous on every occasion.

See, when we make it our ambition to sow, I'm gonna be a sower, not just a consumer.

I'm gonna be a sower, not just a saver.

I'm gonna be a So I'm gonna give.

The promise of the scripture is this God will continue to provide your seed.

He provides seed to the sower.

Now let me finish my story.

About six months after we gave that offering in a side business that I had at the time.

I made a sale that was ten times the amount that we gave.

That gift became the down payment on the house that we live in today.

We'd been renters for many years and been trying and planning and praying about getting into a home and we had dreams and and it came about in a way that I would have never imagined.

It came in a way through sowing and God providing.

Because whatever a man sows, that's what he's going to reap.

And I wanted you to hear me this morning.

There's a harvest that God has for you.

There's a harvest that he has planned for you.

There's a harvest that he's organizing for you and orchestrating for you.

There's a harvest in his heart that he's wanting to pour out upon your life, but you've got to get the seed in the ground for the harvest to come.

You've got to give.

Irrational generosity is an invitation.

It's an invitation through a doorway of kingdom living that'll change you.

It'll change your family, and it'll change the world around you.

Because nobody will be able to deny God's hand upon your life.

Because you're a sower.

You stand with me where you are this morning, all across the congregation.

With every head bowed and every eye closed, I just want to ask a couple of questions and conclusions this morning.

How many of you would say, Pastor, there's a fear of not having enough that is dominating my heart.

There's a fear of lack, of insufficiency that is at the forefront of my mind and it's holding me captive.

I know it beyond a shadow of a doubt because I think about it all the time.

If that's you with every head bowed and every eye closed, and you would admit fear of not having enough is a struggle in your life.

You just raise your hand right where you stand because I want to pray with you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Oh my God.

Church, can you just look at me for a second?

There was a lot of hands that went up.

And I want you to know that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

And I just want to break a spirit of fear today in Jesus' name.

Because as long as fear holds your heart captive, you can't move forward into the future that God has for you.

If you raise your hand with everybody's heads bowed a moment ago, and you want to walk free from fear and filled with faith, we want to pray for you today.

And this is how I want to do it.

With everybody looking around, we're going to pray for one another.

If you raise your hand a moment ago and you want fear to be broken off of your life, will you raise your hand again right now, wherever you are?

And church, if you see somebody with their hand up, I want you to get out of your seat.

I want you to lay your hand on their shoulder and just begin to intercede on their behalf right now.

Just begin to pray over them.

This is why we exist as the body of believers to bear one another's burdens.

And so we're going to rebuke a spirit of fear today in Jesus' name.

In particular, the fear of not having enough, the fear of light, the fear of insufficiency, the fear that would hold us back from the Father.

In the name of Jesus today, I rebuke a spirit of fear.

I declare, fear, bow the knee to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

Fear, bow the knee to Jesus.

You have no place in our hearts, you have no place in our lives.

We rebuke you.

We don't bow to fear, we bow to Jesus today.

We declare that Jesus is the Lord of our lives, and we will surrender and we will submit to his will and his word and his way.

And Lord, we will choose to move forward in faith.

And I pray, Father, with every step of faith we take, fear breaks just a little bit more.

In Jesus' name.

In Jesus' name, God, we declare freedom in the house.

Freedom for every person today.

I release faith, faith in the name of Jesus to take the step that He's calling you to take.

We declare faith over fear in Jesus' name.

Faith over fear in Jesus' name.

Now, this is what I want to tell you is that faith requires action.

It's not just enough to say it, you got to do something about it.

James says, faith without works is dead.

As I was going through these three things this morning, there was one of those three that the Holy Spirit was pricking your heart that it's time for you to start doing.

And I want to challenge you to give.

I want to challenge you to honor the Lord with your tithe, with the first fruits of your income.

And do it faithfully and watch Him come through in your life.

Take a step of faith.

Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray over our congregation gathered in this room and everybody joining us online today.

I pray, God, that we would take a step of faith and that we would honor you with the tithe.

God, that we would honor you with our offerings.

God, that we would honor you with the resources that you have placed in our hands.

And I pray, God, that we would not limit our giving by what we think we have, but God, that we would honor you and your word and give and do what you've commanded us to do.

So the lost can be found, broken can be healed, the empty can be filled, the gospel can go to the ends of the earth.

We thank you for it in Jesus' mighty name.

When everybody said, Amen.

Amen.