WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:06.160 We are in a subject here that makes most people uncomfortable. 00:07.960 --> 00:11.160 We're in this about... this is our sixth message. 00:12.480 --> 00:17.140 So there's going to be a little bit of a shift this morning in what I'm presenting. 00:18.260 --> 00:24.280 I feel like the Lord is wanting us to deal with financial giving and tithing 00:25.100 --> 00:29.060 from more of the mature person's perspective. 00:31.260 --> 00:35.140 To this point, you know, it seems so many people are caught up in, 00:35.380 --> 00:39.220 well, I don't see, you know, it's Old Testament law and I don't see where we have to 00:39.220 --> 00:42.940 and I think just churches trying to just take my money and bomb... 00:42.940 --> 00:45.580 all the childish stuff, childish reasoning. 00:46.320 --> 00:51.500 And you have to dispel that in order to be able to go beyond it. 00:52.480 --> 00:56.080 And I think we did a fairly decent job of dispelling that to this point. 00:56.760 --> 01:00.300 Hopefully, if not, go listen to it again, maybe it'll work second time around. 01:02.920 --> 01:09.120 But this morning, we're going to talk a little bit more about covenant and that side of it. 01:10.460 --> 01:13.340 I woke up this morning and the Lord asked me this question, 01:13.480 --> 01:15.440 why do I want my people to tithe? 01:17.340 --> 01:20.980 And I thought, well, I already gave the four reasons you want your people to tithe. 01:24.070 --> 01:27.350 Which is like, yeah, there's something different he wants to say here. 01:27.490 --> 01:32.710 It's like, whenever he asks you a question, it's not because you know the answer. 01:35.690 --> 01:37.070 But let's review a bit. 01:37.410 --> 01:39.050 What are the four reasons we looked at? 01:39.190 --> 01:41.930 What financial giving or tithing? What are the four reasons? 01:47.980 --> 01:50.380 Pardon me. Fund the kingdom. 01:51.480 --> 01:52.380 Good job. 01:55.820 --> 01:57.220 Test our heart for what? 01:57.520 --> 01:58.060 Love. 01:58.280 --> 01:58.560 Love. 01:59.140 --> 02:01.100 Bingo. Second Corinthians 8-8. 02:01.700 --> 02:02.120 What else? 02:07.600 --> 02:08.420 I hear mumbling. 02:11.890 --> 02:16.430 So that we can get into a position where we can receive more blessing. 02:16.890 --> 02:19.370 Correct? That's number three. And what was the first one? 02:23.190 --> 02:25.390 Returning to him what is already his. 02:25.390 --> 02:26.150 Obedience. 02:27.570 --> 02:30.070 So those are the four that we've covered. 02:30.930 --> 02:33.010 So we're going to shift a little bit here this morning. 02:34.930 --> 02:41.310 Once you get past the idea that God is after you to take something from you. 02:44.270 --> 02:53.090 And actually mature in that a little bit and come over to the side of anything God asks of us in the end benefits us. 02:53.890 --> 02:54.250 Anything. 02:56.090 --> 02:59.150 He is a good father who loves us. 03:00.150 --> 03:09.170 And a good father does not take things from his children or demand things of his children that don't benefit them somehow down the road. 03:09.690 --> 03:12.810 You're always better off doing what dad said. 03:13.850 --> 03:15.230 It'll benefit you. 03:16.310 --> 03:17.450 And he is a good father. 03:19.990 --> 03:27.950 A more mature view of tithing or financial giving is this word. 03:29.450 --> 03:29.890 Partnership. 03:33.120 --> 03:34.080 Partnership. 03:35.140 --> 03:36.920 Paul said two places. 03:37.820 --> 03:40.180 First Corinthians three and second Corinthians six. 03:40.480 --> 03:46.080 He said we are laborers together with God. 03:46.980 --> 03:53.520 See when you look at covenant and understand covenant the exchange he gives us what he has we give him what we have. 03:54.260 --> 03:56.980 This is a partnership God is after. 03:57.740 --> 04:03.620 This isn't God trying to just be down on us and command us and push us around. 04:03.760 --> 04:07.900 Tell us what we're supposed to do and what we're not supposed to do and on and on and on. 04:08.000 --> 04:11.800 This is a partnership he's after. 04:11.800 --> 04:20.040 Where we supply he supplies which opens something up spiritually that things really can happen. 04:20.940 --> 04:24.360 I'm going to take you back. Can you bring up it's in the NIV. 04:25.120 --> 04:28.020 I want you to bring up Genesis. 04:29.800 --> 04:31.720 I'm going to go there. It's not on the PowerPoint. 04:33.420 --> 04:34.660 We're adding it in. 04:37.340 --> 04:40.000 Genesis 14. Go to Genesis 14. 04:41.180 --> 04:44.020 This is the first recorded instance of tithing. 04:44.140 --> 04:49.480 I want to point something out to you here now that that we never even brought up first time through. 04:50.060 --> 04:52.360 But it points out what I'm talking about here. 04:53.700 --> 04:57.660 So if you go to the beginning of the chapter in my version. 04:58.100 --> 05:02.120 I'm in the NIV in mine. It says Abraham rescues lot. 05:03.220 --> 05:07.100 Lot was in trouble. Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah were in trouble. 05:07.100 --> 05:12.360 And Abraham went and rescued the kings and the people. 05:12.700 --> 05:15.640 And Lot his nephew and he rescued them all. 05:16.820 --> 05:20.560 So on the way home, verse number 18. Let's jump in there. 05:24.140 --> 05:29.140 Then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. 05:29.880 --> 05:32.380 What is bread and wine for? Communion. 05:33.000 --> 05:36.320 What does communion talk about? Covenant. 05:36.320 --> 05:42.560 Communion is this is the new covenant in my blood. Covenant. 05:43.400 --> 05:51.400 So immediately from the beginning, Melchizedek, priest of God, king of Salem, brought out covenant emblems. 05:51.880 --> 05:54.680 He was the priest of the Most High God and he blessed Abraham saying, 05:54.680 --> 05:58.980 blessed be Abraham by God Most High creator of heaven and earth. 05:59.780 --> 06:06.960 And blessed be God Most High who delivered your enemies into your hand. 06:07.880 --> 06:13.100 Who defeated the enemies that Abraham was after to get his nephew back? 06:14.260 --> 06:15.240 God did. 06:17.200 --> 06:19.560 You said, well Abraham had to go and do some fighting. 06:19.840 --> 06:21.560 Yeah, but he could have been whipped silly. 06:21.560 --> 06:25.280 He could have lost the whole thing. 06:26.760 --> 06:31.480 So the credit goes to God. Melchizedek knew that. 06:32.020 --> 06:37.540 He said, the only reason you're coming back victorious is God handed your enemies over to you. 06:37.600 --> 06:39.280 He delivered them over to you. 06:41.880 --> 06:48.300 Then Abraham gave him Melchizedek, the representative of God, the priest of God, a tense of everything he gave him the tithe. 06:49.440 --> 06:51.980 Do you see a partnership? 06:56.390 --> 06:58.090 God said, I did this for you. 06:59.730 --> 07:03.790 Now reciprocate on that covenant beginning. 07:04.630 --> 07:06.950 And I'm sure tithing happened way before this. 07:07.210 --> 07:11.110 I mean these guys didn't have to sit down and say, what do we do with this now and figure it out. 07:12.190 --> 07:14.670 Melchizedek showed up. He already had the emblems. 07:14.790 --> 07:16.150 He knew what they were supposed to do. 07:16.430 --> 07:17.650 The exchange was to be made. 07:17.650 --> 07:24.830 This whole thing of covenant exchange and the tenth or the tithe being a reciprocation and the covenant blessings. 07:25.170 --> 07:28.430 That was already in place. This is just the first place we find it in Scripture. 07:30.870 --> 07:32.650 He delivered your enemies into your hand. 07:33.290 --> 07:36.750 Then Abraham reciprocated and gave the tithe on what? 07:37.510 --> 07:43.410 The covenant promise that was fulfilled by God to take care of Abraham. 07:43.410 --> 07:49.410 Which was, if people curse you or bless you... 07:51.130 --> 07:52.050 Remember that? 07:54.350 --> 07:55.550 You don't remember that. 07:58.030 --> 08:04.190 Anybody who curses Abraham or blesses Abraham or his lineage will receive like kind. 08:05.290 --> 08:08.410 They bless you, you'll be blessed. If they curse you, you'll be cursed. 08:08.550 --> 08:10.450 That's why we need to stand with Israel. 08:10.450 --> 08:13.950 That promise is still in effect. 08:15.870 --> 08:18.910 So here we've got that covenant exchange taking place. 08:19.310 --> 08:24.470 Part of the exchange that God looks for in covenant is the tithe. 08:25.510 --> 08:30.810 It's our partial reciprocation of what he gives to us. 08:32.230 --> 08:36.670 Verse 21, then the king of Sodom said to Abraham, give me the people and keep the goods for yourself. 08:36.670 --> 08:39.310 Now notice what Abraham said, verse 22. 08:47.710 --> 08:50.610 So there's stuff that's going on in the background here. 08:51.690 --> 08:53.190 He said, I've already done this. 08:54.230 --> 08:56.870 When it comes to the stuff, I don't want any of it. 08:57.730 --> 09:05.090 I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or a thong of a sandal 09:05.090 --> 09:12.310 so that you will never be able to say, I made Abraham rich. 09:14.090 --> 09:16.510 Whoa, here's a man who understands covenant. 09:18.010 --> 09:24.370 I'm not even going to give you the opportunity to say, you're the one who blessed my life. 09:25.950 --> 09:27.450 I'm in covenant with God. 09:28.090 --> 09:31.250 If I get rich, it's going to be because God did it. 09:32.650 --> 09:38.610 And the whole thing is based on covenant, based on tithing. 09:40.050 --> 09:41.330 It's partnership. 09:42.290 --> 09:47.590 God says, if you will get in partnership with me, I will get in partnership with you. 09:47.830 --> 09:53.070 That is a more mature way of looking at tithing or giving. 09:54.070 --> 10:00.090 He's asking us to do something for him so that he can then turn around and do something for us. 10:00.090 --> 10:03.910 Or when he does something for us, he wants us to turn around and reciprocate. 10:05.310 --> 10:07.350 Make this thing go back and forth. 10:08.950 --> 10:18.000 So it's kind of interesting to be in a partnership with someone, you have to love what they love. 10:20.140 --> 10:24.920 I mean, if you're going to be in a good partnership with your spouse, you have to have some common interests. 10:26.780 --> 10:31.100 Yeah? I mean, you got to kind of love the same thing. 10:33.100 --> 10:39.020 If you love camping and sleeping under a tree on a blanket, and she loves Holiday Inn, 10:41.020 --> 10:42.340 this could be hard. 10:45.480 --> 10:51.460 There has to be some agreement on some things and it becomes a partnership then. 10:51.780 --> 10:55.840 Otherwise, it's, ooh, you want to go camping? 10:56.480 --> 10:58.040 There's no partnership there. 11:00.360 --> 11:02.720 Let's go to the water park with the Holiday Inn. 11:02.980 --> 11:05.640 I want to go to the water park with, I want to go camping, seeing right away. 11:07.420 --> 11:08.280 We're hitting heads. 11:09.120 --> 11:14.200 Partnership means agreement. You've got to love, you've got to enjoy what the other person enjoys. 11:14.740 --> 11:17.860 And we had something just this last week that I thought was really interesting, 11:18.380 --> 11:20.700 because it was setting me up for this. 11:21.740 --> 11:24.900 We did, by the way, get the air conditioners in at Red Lake. 11:25.800 --> 11:26.880 We got them in on Thursday. 11:30.530 --> 11:31.710 That's a thank you to you. 11:35.570 --> 11:43.410 And got up at four in the morning, left at five, and got back about 12.15 the next day. 11:44.510 --> 11:47.310 So this was 20 hours ish. 11:49.130 --> 11:51.690 Okay, is what it is. You get, you know, do what you do. 11:53.170 --> 11:55.630 God asked me a question or he made a statement to me, 11:55.630 --> 12:01.450 but he made it in a question form, so I'd get the point he's trying to make. 12:01.730 --> 12:04.610 Holy Spirit told me after he said, 12:05.890 --> 12:09.710 just so you know, the father was watching you that day. 12:12.590 --> 12:14.030 He's got nothing better to do. 12:15.570 --> 12:18.950 I mean, that could have been fairly boring. 12:20.770 --> 12:25.310 I don't think that was the point though, but he said the father was watching you that day. 12:25.630 --> 12:26.710 He said, really, why? 12:29.740 --> 12:32.740 He said he wants to know if you love what he loves. 12:36.440 --> 12:45.420 Were you willing to inconvenience yourself to do something that he loves? 12:49.360 --> 12:50.640 See, that's partnership. 12:52.600 --> 12:53.480 That's partnership. 12:56.300 --> 13:00.380 And when people are against tithing to me, it just simply says they don't understand. 13:01.080 --> 13:03.060 You can take me back to the PowerPoint. 13:03.700 --> 13:05.280 They just don't understand. 13:05.660 --> 13:13.280 It's still the immature reasoning of why should I have to and what is God, why does he need this? 13:13.400 --> 13:14.620 And is he taking it from me? 13:14.680 --> 13:19.300 Maybe it's just the church wants money and this isn't God at all. 13:19.440 --> 13:30.140 It's all this immature reasoning and we don't understand the benefits of being a partner in covenant. 13:31.100 --> 13:32.300 With Almighty God. 13:33.320 --> 13:36.160 And we talked about it some last week. 13:36.340 --> 13:40.700 I'm going to pick up there again this morning and just talk about that some more. 13:40.780 --> 13:43.720 We already laid out it is for the New Testament. 13:44.020 --> 13:46.220 It is a covenant thing. It's not under the law. 13:46.760 --> 13:49.420 We laid that out. We took three messages to lay that out. 13:49.500 --> 13:50.240 I think that's there. 13:51.840 --> 13:58.020 And last Sunday, we started talking some about the New Testament and what God says if we will be faithful in this. 13:59.880 --> 14:01.720 So we're going to pick it up there. 14:01.800 --> 14:11.120 But before we do, can I get that mic back because every Sunday we've been having different people share about their tithing experience. 14:12.860 --> 14:15.700 And this morning it's going to be Pastor Dave and Vicki. 14:16.320 --> 14:25.120 So come on up and we'll let you give us some of your insight you learned over the years and why you're a tither. 14:30.590 --> 14:35.650 Well, we started out writing this thing out and so on. 14:35.790 --> 14:40.290 But there's so much I think the Lord has done in our lives. 14:40.570 --> 14:46.330 It was hard to kind of narrow it down to what we really wanted to share. 14:47.790 --> 14:53.490 Basically, I think I'm going to just go back and start at the beginning before we were married. 14:53.490 --> 15:06.450 And even before that, I guess, when I was young, my mom and dad went into a very big shift in our family. 15:06.690 --> 15:10.810 And that was accepting Christ and becoming born again. 15:11.110 --> 15:13.630 And so that was just shifted everything. 15:13.810 --> 15:21.230 It just changed everything to the point where my mom and dad started doing things differently. 15:21.230 --> 15:24.990 And one of the things they emphasized was tithing. 15:25.830 --> 15:32.950 And we lived on a farm, so my mom or my dad would always give us kids. 15:33.150 --> 15:38.130 It would be like we'd get livestock or something for helping out in the farm. 15:38.510 --> 15:46.430 Well, they taught us that when you get livestock like that and we ship it and get the money in, then we'd tithe on that. 15:47.130 --> 15:57.670 And so that made a big emphasis in my life to the point that it's really important to do that because of what my mom was teaching. 15:58.090 --> 16:01.950 And one of the favorite verses that she would always share would be, 16:02.350 --> 16:05.510 Siki, first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added. 16:06.390 --> 16:09.490 And so it's funny how you brought that up this morning. 16:10.250 --> 16:15.690 But anyway, the whole thing in that is when we put God first in it, 16:16.430 --> 16:22.510 and we're making that commitment to Him of that, 16:22.710 --> 16:28.310 that He blesses back in all different ways, of course, not just monetary. 16:29.190 --> 16:35.090 But as we did that, I learned that, and as time went, me and Vicki got married. 16:35.870 --> 16:43.230 And in that marriage, we came together and decided that we were going to tithe. 16:43.230 --> 16:47.770 And we decided that we're tithing 10% regardless. 16:48.490 --> 16:51.410 And so we started right at the beginning of 10%. 16:51.930 --> 16:58.670 And we were no way in the position of doing a lot of this. 16:59.290 --> 17:04.170 A lot of times we were just barely making it, but making it. 17:04.970 --> 17:05.970 But we were tithing. 17:05.970 --> 17:12.070 And I don't know, there came a point where they had energy assistance for us, 17:12.170 --> 17:13.690 so we had to apply for it, of course. 17:14.390 --> 17:19.010 And so we applied and the lady took the papers and we filled them all out. 17:19.070 --> 17:21.370 We took the papers to her and she looked at me and she says, 17:21.370 --> 17:23.290 there's no way that you're making it. 17:23.930 --> 17:27.290 You got to quit sending this much to the church. 17:27.810 --> 17:33.910 And I said, if we stopped that, we're not going to make it. 17:35.270 --> 17:36.170 Simple truth. 17:37.010 --> 17:40.050 And so we learned from there to just keep tithing. 17:40.370 --> 17:41.710 And that was a great emphasis. 17:42.050 --> 17:44.550 And there was some things, you know, that Vicki pointed out, 17:44.650 --> 17:46.390 a couple that she did. 17:50.830 --> 17:59.370 When I was pregnant with Lexi and I needed to get my vitamins 17:59.370 --> 18:06.370 and this was just, I don't know, shortly after we started the tithing thing. 18:07.270 --> 18:12.750 And it was like, okay, I'm going up to the counter and going, okay, God, 18:12.990 --> 18:14.130 this was like a test. 18:15.290 --> 18:16.730 We did everything. 18:17.170 --> 18:18.050 We're tithing. 18:18.310 --> 18:19.630 We haven't spent money on things. 18:19.830 --> 18:21.090 We shouldn't, can't spend them on. 18:21.630 --> 18:22.290 I need these. 18:22.910 --> 18:23.990 I don't know how they're going to do this. 18:24.430 --> 18:27.810 I went up to the counter and asked for my prescription. 18:29.370 --> 18:34.470 He apologizes that he could only fill it halfway because they were short on the vitamins, 18:34.650 --> 18:37.150 but I had enough to cover the half. 18:37.810 --> 18:42.690 And I know it sounds kind of silly, but that really, really grew my faith just right there. 18:43.490 --> 18:52.390 And then there was a time later down the road that I'm not saying you should do this 18:52.390 --> 18:54.250 unless God tells you to do this. 18:54.250 --> 19:01.470 But we, I had to write out the payment for the car and put it in the mail and get it there. 19:02.030 --> 19:06.650 I mean, it was like, if I didn't do this now, it was going to be late payment and then you get charged more. 19:06.830 --> 19:13.690 So I was going in the mail and again, it was like, okay, God, we haven't been spending on things. 19:13.810 --> 19:14.930 We shouldn't spend anything on. 19:15.490 --> 19:16.890 We lived pretty meagerly. 19:17.730 --> 19:19.510 But God always met our needs. 19:19.510 --> 19:25.790 But I had faith, just simple faith, put that in there and asked God to bless it and make something happen. 19:26.370 --> 19:38.810 And when I went and got the mail out of the mailbox that day, there was a check from some crazy place that covered what I sent out. 19:39.510 --> 19:44.010 I mean, so these things just really built our faith in the process of it. 19:45.690 --> 19:50.170 Yeah, just lots of, if you want to tell me when you broke your leg. 19:51.050 --> 19:58.090 Yeah, so then early on in our marriage, I broke my leg and we were laid up for like six months or so. 19:58.730 --> 20:01.310 So anyway, so there was nothing coming in. 20:02.410 --> 20:06.130 But somehow we kept making our payments. 20:06.830 --> 20:14.990 And just through the, I don't know, there was nothing I could do, which was really difficult for me. 20:16.010 --> 20:18.610 But at the same time, God was working in it. 20:19.030 --> 20:28.530 I really believe that God takes like situations or I call them opportunities now where you can't do it. 20:29.770 --> 20:34.910 But he'll use that to set you up for what's coming. 20:36.270 --> 20:45.200 And if you hold tight to what your faith is in him, which at that point in our marriage, we were... 20:46.390 --> 20:49.930 I don't like saying it this way, but you get kind of the drift of it. 20:50.010 --> 21:01.010 We were in the Lutheran church and so in the Lutheran church, there's not a lot of born again or gifts flowing or that type of thing. 21:01.010 --> 21:06.290 But at the same time, we were moving toward that direction. 21:06.370 --> 21:11.030 I really believe God was preparing us in a sense for what was coming. 21:11.590 --> 21:20.910 And so in those situations when you're going through a rough time or rough thing, know that God is preparing you for something that's great or common. 21:21.390 --> 21:26.190 And that doesn't mean that it's bad. It means that he's got it. 21:26.190 --> 21:32.650 I think that's one of the things we learned early on, too, is that he's got it. 21:33.510 --> 21:35.510 And we've got to start trusting him. 21:35.890 --> 21:45.090 But it wasn't until later on that we really started to grow in faith because we got out of that church and went into different churches and so on and so forth. 21:45.590 --> 21:47.350 And life always throws curveballs. 21:48.370 --> 21:51.010 I mean, you're going to go through stuff. 21:52.070 --> 21:54.030 Especially, we were not perfect. 21:54.290 --> 22:05.470 We had some things together, but boy, for the most part, we were still really learning a lot of principles to put in our life. 22:05.790 --> 22:10.010 And so with that, I'll let you tell them about the house and how... 22:12.750 --> 22:23.010 So when the economy went bad in 2000, I don't know what it was, 7 somewhere in there, we... 22:24.690 --> 22:28.370 Dave had right before then decided that he was going to start a business. 22:28.790 --> 22:35.330 So he quit the job he'd been working at for 20 years and started a handyman business. 22:35.330 --> 22:40.390 And then things just really went south with the economy and it was really bad timing. 22:41.310 --> 22:57.570 So we...in all that, we...let's say, we could have done bankruptcy, but for us, I'm not seeing anything bad if that's something you've done. 22:57.690 --> 23:01.530 But God told us, for us, we weren't supposed to do that then. 23:01.530 --> 23:08.590 So we lost our house, but we never ended up homeless. 23:08.910 --> 23:16.930 I mean, he made a place for us to be and we got through that with...he showed us he provides. 23:19.270 --> 23:23.430 But also, I kind of lost my train of thought, sorry. 23:23.430 --> 23:35.850 In that too, then we had started listening to some faith messages and learning to grow in that. 23:36.550 --> 23:45.470 And so we were growing in that and we had heard Jerry Savelle speak on a program and he talked about making a petition. 23:45.890 --> 23:49.030 So we made a petition to God for a house. 23:50.310 --> 23:55.830 And we were over our head in debt, but we managed, we paid that. 23:55.950 --> 23:59.210 We also went through Dave Ramsey and we learned some principles there. 23:59.390 --> 24:06.810 We paid all the stuff off, but three years from when we made the petition, we had a house. 24:06.950 --> 24:13.550 The house that we are in now, which is an absolute miracle of God because it was way beyond our means. 24:13.770 --> 24:17.550 Way beyond...we couldn't, in the natural, qualify for this house. 24:17.550 --> 24:21.070 But the owners gave it to us for a dollar down. 24:22.290 --> 24:30.990 And they carried us until we got to where we could get our mortgage, get enough stuff back on it. 24:31.410 --> 24:33.050 Yeah, to be able to get our mortgage. 24:33.570 --> 24:40.230 So we got the house we have now, which is way beyond what we could have imagined or even thought about. 24:40.450 --> 24:43.450 I mean, when I would think about houses, I was not thinking this big. 24:43.450 --> 24:47.450 But God's the God of big and He's the God of blessing. 24:50.090 --> 25:03.450 So in that, you know, we came to a point of understanding that there's so much more that God has for us than what we tend to always want to believe. 25:04.710 --> 25:09.050 And so it really stretched our faith in knowing that God will take care of that. 25:09.050 --> 25:13.130 And one of the verses, well, a couple of the verses was in Malachi. 25:15.290 --> 25:19.290 And there's, it's three, ten and eleven. 25:19.950 --> 25:25.910 And the ten was telling us that, you know, God is faithful and test them in it. 25:26.130 --> 25:28.610 And He'll open the windows of heaven and fill the room. 25:28.850 --> 25:33.370 Well, then there's, the next one goes on and says, and He'll rebuke the devourer. 25:33.370 --> 25:38.950 And so there was instances when we were still learning, we missed this, 25:39.010 --> 25:48.630 but I wanted to emphasize it because we had to take authority over the devourer on certain situations where it just seemed like every time we turned around, 25:48.710 --> 25:53.450 our vehicles were getting crunched or smashed or hit in a deer or whatever it may be. 25:53.730 --> 25:57.070 And we had to take a stand on it. 25:57.290 --> 26:00.310 And I remember we did it right in the middle of the road. 26:01.070 --> 26:09.490 Yeah, we were, you know, both mad and just came out and just really did, you know, so we have that authority. 26:10.690 --> 26:14.010 So over your finances through Christ, we have that authority. 26:14.490 --> 26:19.290 And through that we took, and that made a big difference in a lot of different things. 26:19.510 --> 26:24.750 But there's a lot of maturity that came out of that later on when we learned actually what we did. 26:25.790 --> 26:30.850 Yeah, so it was actually quite a move. 26:31.190 --> 26:34.010 And the last verse that I want to throw out is the, 26:35.410 --> 26:38.050 you'll meet all your needs according to the riches in heaven. 26:38.570 --> 26:42.830 And that's immense. That's totally over what we could ever imagine. 26:43.250 --> 26:50.010 And that's the same way I feel about how he took us from a little house. 26:51.550 --> 26:56.570 Yeah, one bedroom, you know, in a kitchen, and it was little. 26:57.990 --> 27:06.010 Yeah, and he took us all the way from that to where we are now, where it's just amazing what God can do. 27:06.430 --> 27:08.770 And it's through tithing. 27:09.230 --> 27:16.390 I mean, you know, he's blessing over that tithing and the covenant that we had with him that he carried us this far. 27:16.390 --> 27:19.090 Amen. Awesome. Thank you. 27:24.630 --> 27:29.650 They hit a few points that if we get far enough this morning, I'll be hitting, which is everything comes by faith. 27:30.290 --> 27:35.050 I mean, we've got a lot of promises, but they don't automatically happen. 27:36.250 --> 27:39.250 Everything comes by faith when it comes to the kingdom of God. 27:39.730 --> 27:41.630 So here's where we left off last Sunday. 27:43.230 --> 27:45.070 So we'll just get a running start on this. 27:45.070 --> 27:51.630 Remember this, whoever so sparingly will also reap sparingly. Whoever so generously will also reap generously. 27:51.850 --> 27:55.910 Of course, that is a principle that farmers live by. 27:57.070 --> 28:03.090 It's just a principle of if you put two tomato seeds in your garden, don't expect a whole row of tomatoes. 28:04.430 --> 28:08.730 You know, you got to put more in if you want to get more. Simple. 28:09.670 --> 28:11.030 That is a covenant statement. 28:12.410 --> 28:15.410 Those top two lines, that's a covenant statement. 28:16.470 --> 28:23.290 What you give to God is dictating how much you can get back from God. 28:23.450 --> 28:26.250 Not because he doesn't want to give you more. 28:27.870 --> 28:29.590 You're setting the pace. 28:31.470 --> 28:36.350 We decide how this works. Whoever so sparingly, this is how it's going to work. 28:38.150 --> 28:40.830 Didn't Jesus say be careful how you measure it? 28:41.190 --> 28:46.770 Because the way we measure it, it is measured back to us. 28:47.170 --> 28:48.650 That is a covenant principle. 28:49.810 --> 28:53.830 He waits for us to choose and then he reciprocates. 28:54.490 --> 28:57.410 That's why it says draw nigh to God. 28:58.170 --> 29:01.010 That's us sowing. That's us starting, measuring. 29:01.770 --> 29:04.150 And then he will draw nigh to you. 29:05.230 --> 29:08.210 How close to him do you want to get? 29:08.990 --> 29:10.010 We decide that. 29:11.190 --> 29:12.610 He doesn't decide that. 29:13.630 --> 29:17.610 Oh, I wish I could have as close a relationship with God as some people have. 29:18.710 --> 29:22.110 Well, if you really want it, just push closer. 29:24.030 --> 29:26.190 We're the ones deciding it, not God. 29:27.890 --> 29:29.430 That's a covenant statement there. 29:29.430 --> 29:30.290 Verse 7, 29:31.250 --> 29:39.310 God loves a cheerful giver, takes a little bit of maturity to be a cheerful giver. 29:40.150 --> 29:43.330 I remember the beginning, it was kind of like under compulsion. 29:46.370 --> 29:49.210 And these are all lessons you learn. This is how you grow. 29:49.650 --> 29:50.650 But it is a thermometer. 29:53.450 --> 29:56.910 Each man should give what he has decided to give, 29:58.310 --> 29:59.910 not reluctantly or under compulsion. 30:01.950 --> 30:05.750 That's the person who is still struggling a bit, a little more immature, 30:06.310 --> 30:10.150 hasn't gotten to the point where they understand this very well. 30:11.810 --> 30:14.130 The cheerful giver, the one that God says, 30:14.230 --> 30:15.370 hey, come on, come on, come on. 30:15.930 --> 30:17.430 Don't feel like it's under the law. 30:17.530 --> 30:18.910 Don't feel like this is a rule. 30:19.070 --> 30:20.450 And if you don't do it, I'll beat you on the head. 30:21.190 --> 30:24.390 Get over here to where you can actually feel good about giving. 30:27.170 --> 30:32.810 Because that brings us into a different realm with him. 30:33.790 --> 30:35.590 We can be obedient over there, 30:36.530 --> 30:39.390 but it's hard to get into that partnership with him 30:39.390 --> 30:41.770 when all we're doing is grumbling. 30:43.470 --> 30:44.710 Remember that first example? 30:44.950 --> 30:46.830 Okay, honey, I'll go camping with you, 30:46.850 --> 30:48.490 but this is going to stink the whole way. 30:48.650 --> 30:52.410 You know, I don't even want to pack for this stupid trip. 30:53.430 --> 30:55.590 Camping. I suppose you want to go to the boundary waters, too, 30:55.670 --> 30:57.870 where there's nothing. We can't even get cell service. 30:58.870 --> 31:02.470 Fine, fine. I'll go with you. You're my husband. 31:02.850 --> 31:08.250 I'll do this. See, that's kind of a reluctant under compulsion camper. 31:13.650 --> 31:15.930 Versus, honey, the car's packed. We're ready to go. 31:16.050 --> 31:17.850 I didn't get my stuff. I got it for you. 31:17.930 --> 31:18.670 Come on, let's just go. 31:20.990 --> 31:24.310 Who do you want to go with? Which one? 31:27.430 --> 31:29.330 Who does God want to partner with? 31:31.990 --> 31:33.470 That's what it's telling us. 31:34.170 --> 31:36.830 His point is we determine the amount of the harvest. 31:37.550 --> 31:40.370 It's not just a tie. This is in everything. 31:42.290 --> 31:44.610 You sparingly give to your wife. 31:46.330 --> 31:47.670 You don't talk to her. 31:48.830 --> 31:50.970 You grunt at her in the morning when you leave. 31:53.190 --> 31:54.870 That's about all she gets out of you. 31:55.810 --> 31:59.510 When you come home, you're expecting everything to be done for you 31:59.510 --> 32:01.550 while you sit in your chair with your feet in the air. 32:02.750 --> 32:04.610 You go ahead and sew like that for a while. 32:06.290 --> 32:07.950 Let's see how that turns out for you. 32:09.270 --> 32:10.970 It works in all realms. 32:11.930 --> 32:14.630 Verse 7, ultimately each person has to decide 32:14.630 --> 32:16.870 if they are going to give ties, offerings, or alms. 32:17.410 --> 32:19.590 We decide how we're going to do this. 32:19.710 --> 32:21.750 If we're going to do it, if we're going to do it cheerfully, 32:22.170 --> 32:26.010 we decide if we're going to do one important thing that Cindy hit 32:26.010 --> 32:28.870 as well as Dave and Vicki hit this morning is, 32:29.850 --> 32:31.150 and it's in my message, 32:32.410 --> 32:35.150 don't expect if you put ten bucks in this week 32:35.150 --> 32:38.290 all of a sudden you're going to get five raises and promotions at work 32:38.290 --> 32:41.310 and everything's going to happen before the week's over. 32:42.030 --> 32:42.510 You might, 32:43.830 --> 32:46.690 but my experience is God tests us. 32:48.030 --> 32:50.110 How serious we are about this? 32:50.210 --> 32:52.290 Because he's not into money making schemes. 32:54.590 --> 33:00.350 Paul said, don't think that godliness is a mean to financial gain. 33:03.050 --> 33:06.350 So okay, I'm going to tie it because it will bring money in then. 33:06.750 --> 33:07.570 Probably won't work. 33:08.850 --> 33:11.590 You know why we tied? Because it's his, we give it back to him. 33:12.090 --> 33:15.530 We're supporting the kingdom and it shows him we love what he loves. 33:16.350 --> 33:18.890 We're trying to get something done in this earth for him. 33:19.710 --> 33:22.790 The fourth one will happen if the first three are in place. 33:27.460 --> 33:32.020 But tithing is not a get rich quick scheme. 33:35.260 --> 33:37.200 Tithing is God looking at us and saying, 33:37.720 --> 33:41.160 are you partnering with me or not? Where are you at in this whole thing? 33:41.560 --> 33:42.700 How much can I trust you? 33:42.940 --> 33:47.460 How much are you going to pull the load with me that I'm trying to pull? 33:48.140 --> 33:49.680 But we're trying to make happen here. 33:50.620 --> 33:51.580 That's what tithing is. 33:55.140 --> 33:57.200 And, whoop, went two of them. 33:58.260 --> 34:00.360 And I put in the numbers one, two, three, four, five. 34:01.560 --> 34:07.800 And coming out of this verse, remember this, whoever is so aspiringly, 34:08.040 --> 34:12.220 so forth each one should decide be a cheerful giver, next verse. 34:16.260 --> 34:20.380 And, here's the benefits for getting into partnership with God. 34:22.640 --> 34:25.140 You know that David and Vicki referred to Malachi. 34:25.460 --> 34:28.500 And Malachi is a good verse, the Old Testament verse, so we're not under that covenant. 34:28.820 --> 34:31.920 But it's still a good verse in that if we'll bring the tithe in, 34:31.980 --> 34:36.480 then he'll open the windows of heaven and pour out such a blessing that we will not be able to contain it. 34:37.200 --> 34:39.040 Okay? That's great. This is better. 34:40.960 --> 34:44.520 And God is able to make all grace abound to you. 34:45.520 --> 34:51.280 Anything that salvation has bought for us can be ours. 34:51.540 --> 34:54.760 And not just barely get by, but abound to us. 34:55.020 --> 34:56.600 Abound means you got more than you need. 34:58.040 --> 35:03.820 So that in all things, not just finances, but in all things, 35:03.820 --> 35:10.760 you can't name something that God won't put grace into and make it work for you. 35:12.120 --> 35:15.860 All things. Every air of your life gets touched. 35:16.940 --> 35:19.100 At all times. 35:22.180 --> 35:25.840 Having all that you need. 35:28.520 --> 35:28.960 Huh. 35:30.120 --> 35:33.460 You will abound in every good work. 35:36.040 --> 35:41.580 You know, if we would put that in a business mindset and we went to some place to get hired 35:41.580 --> 35:44.920 and the boss liked us and he said, if you come work for this company, 35:46.000 --> 35:49.940 I'm going to make everything in this company abound to your account 35:50.480 --> 35:55.100 so that in every area of your life, every day of your life, 35:55.340 --> 36:00.980 you're going to have all you need and will abound beyond anything you need. 36:02.760 --> 36:03.820 We want you. 36:05.580 --> 36:06.720 Will you come work for us? 36:08.320 --> 36:08.940 No. 36:11.340 --> 36:14.140 I don't know if the offer is good enough. 36:19.140 --> 36:19.760 Really? 36:20.440 --> 36:21.980 How much better offer you need? 36:24.340 --> 36:25.380 Here's the offer. 36:27.740 --> 36:29.760 Remember how you sold. 36:31.840 --> 36:34.920 Because you're going to decide how good this offer is. 36:36.060 --> 36:38.920 Get in partnership with me. Be a cheerful giver. 36:40.060 --> 36:41.000 Here's the offer. 36:44.640 --> 36:49.920 See, if Christians understood that, they wouldn't whine a bellyache so much about tithing. 36:51.820 --> 36:54.820 Because when you whine a bellyache about something, you're not in faith. 36:56.320 --> 36:58.580 You're complaining. You're griping. You're murmuring. 36:59.440 --> 37:02.260 You're not in faith. You're not putting it out there and saying, 37:02.260 --> 37:06.760 and in the name of Jesus, everything God promised to me will manifest in my life. 37:07.300 --> 37:10.220 This has to happen because he's the one who made the offer. 37:11.120 --> 37:15.860 And I'm taking him up on his offer and it's going to be part of my life. 37:16.060 --> 37:18.160 And you pull on it by faith. 37:18.620 --> 37:21.620 No, when we're whining and griping... 37:21.620 --> 37:23.680 Honey, you didn't write out the tide check yet, did you? 37:25.180 --> 37:27.620 Good, because I got some things I want to spend it on. 37:28.800 --> 37:32.300 Yeah, he's just that... I mean, put that in a business setting. 37:32.880 --> 37:36.280 The boss is just going to be jumping up and down with excitement over that attitude. 37:38.060 --> 37:42.300 It's just that, you know, there is a way to approach this. 37:42.780 --> 37:47.100 He's able to make everything we need at all times. 37:47.300 --> 37:53.480 I gave you the story last Sunday about Jess and what happened to him as a baby in the spinal meningitis 37:53.480 --> 37:58.140 and how that through by faith pulling on the covenant, 37:58.520 --> 38:01.760 not being such a faith person that I spoke it into existence, 38:02.140 --> 38:07.520 just saying, hey, God, I'm taking you up on what you said and reminding them. 38:08.680 --> 38:11.840 Instantly, an instant miracle made whole. Remember that story? 38:14.320 --> 38:18.840 That was directly tied to covenant and that's where we want to go this morning 38:18.840 --> 38:22.140 because tithing is a reciprocation on covenant. 38:22.140 --> 38:23.380 It's where it's at. 38:26.660 --> 38:30.060 Here are the New Testament earthly rewards. I'll just remind you again. 38:30.800 --> 38:32.600 And harvest is not just financial. 38:33.660 --> 38:37.780 In fact, financial might be the smallest part of what we reap. 38:41.370 --> 38:45.550 There's a lot of people seemingly... I don't know if, you know, 38:47.270 --> 38:49.530 after I say this, you're going to ask in your mind, 38:49.530 --> 38:52.530 I wonder if he's a conspiracy theorist. 38:54.350 --> 38:55.930 So I'm going to answer that right up front. 38:56.830 --> 38:58.970 I am not a conspiracy theorist. 38:59.230 --> 39:01.850 I know there's a conspiracy going on at all times. 39:08.120 --> 39:09.440 This is not a theory. 39:10.760 --> 39:13.620 There's too many pieces of evidence that say this is a fact. 39:16.340 --> 39:20.160 But there is a lot of people, to me, a lot. 39:21.540 --> 39:26.020 Who are really struggling to find a reason to live. 39:29.520 --> 39:31.880 There's too many people dying young. 39:32.260 --> 39:33.840 There's too many suicides. 39:34.180 --> 39:38.340 There's too many people questioning whether they should live. 39:38.580 --> 39:40.840 And should I just end it all and get out of this? 39:41.260 --> 39:46.480 And the harvest that we reap in all things... 39:47.620 --> 39:51.160 Parents, let me just put it in your lap. 39:51.380 --> 39:52.700 I'm not going to apply it any place, but parents, 39:55.320 --> 40:00.020 your children being willing and not only willing, 40:00.280 --> 40:03.980 but excited to live life, move forward, 40:04.300 --> 40:06.160 and see what God does for them, 40:06.520 --> 40:10.300 is far greater return than money. 40:10.800 --> 40:14.180 Or land. Or wealth. 40:15.280 --> 40:16.640 Far greater return. 40:18.980 --> 40:24.760 It has to be a horrible thing for a parent to have a child commit suicide. 40:25.080 --> 40:28.920 I mean, that has to test you in many, many, many ways. 40:30.940 --> 40:34.960 You say, do you actually think that tithing would change that? 40:37.360 --> 40:40.740 Well, I... you know, I don't know. 40:47.400 --> 40:48.420 What do you think? 40:52.990 --> 40:55.950 Because tithing in its truest form is a covenant exchange. 40:57.330 --> 41:00.750 And I will reciprocate on what God's doing for me, 41:00.810 --> 41:02.690 and if I'll get that partnership rolling, 41:03.850 --> 41:05.990 covenant is not just for me and my wife. 41:06.170 --> 41:08.350 Covenant flows down into your lineage, 41:09.310 --> 41:10.670 if you study it at all. 41:12.370 --> 41:15.090 We just, you know, sometimes we're the ones who just get it started. 41:15.470 --> 41:17.030 They receive more of the benefit. 41:17.210 --> 41:18.890 So yeah, I think it could make a difference. 41:21.130 --> 41:21.810 No matter what God said. 41:22.250 --> 41:23.670 Let me back up and find where we're at. 41:26.530 --> 41:27.590 Abounding in everything. 41:28.950 --> 41:30.090 However, notice this. 41:30.790 --> 41:34.730 If giving opens up for us to receive those five things listed, 41:35.770 --> 41:38.950 a lack of giving can close those five things to us. 41:39.730 --> 41:40.950 Remember, he said it. 41:41.630 --> 41:43.410 If you sow generously, you reap generously. 41:43.690 --> 41:46.030 If you sow sparingly, that's what you're getting. 41:46.490 --> 41:49.090 How you measure it, be careful how you measure this. 41:50.410 --> 41:53.230 How much of a partner with him do you want to be? 41:54.170 --> 41:55.890 Well, be a little bit of a partner with him. 41:55.970 --> 41:57.710 Well, then he'll be a little bit of a partner with you. 42:00.650 --> 42:02.210 We're the one measuring this. 42:04.150 --> 42:06.410 The lack is not a curse. 42:07.670 --> 42:08.770 Well, if I don't die, 42:08.870 --> 42:10.270 I suppose I'm going to come under a curse. 42:10.670 --> 42:12.490 No, not saying that. 42:12.630 --> 42:13.310 Lack's not a curse. 42:13.510 --> 42:14.850 I mean, Jesus dealt with the curses. 42:15.570 --> 42:17.350 Not a curse that's active in our life. 42:19.090 --> 42:22.730 Not understanding and not having the faith to just step out and do it. 42:24.290 --> 42:27.250 If doing it opens it to us, 42:27.490 --> 42:29.910 not doing it closes it to us. 42:31.770 --> 42:32.730 Not a curse. 42:34.910 --> 42:36.730 Either you turn the faucet open, 42:37.190 --> 42:39.190 or you turn the faucet shut. 42:41.090 --> 42:43.050 It determines how much comes out. 42:45.110 --> 42:47.450 And remember, Dave and Vicki said this, 42:47.450 --> 42:49.650 everything we receive comes by faith. 42:51.330 --> 42:53.050 Everything we get from God's kingdom. 42:53.230 --> 42:55.850 He has bought us so many things, 42:56.070 --> 42:58.250 but we have to receive them by faith. 42:58.610 --> 43:00.570 They mentioned one I read underneath. 43:02.010 --> 43:05.450 There was some kind of generational thing going on in their lives 43:06.210 --> 43:08.190 that was stealing from them. 43:08.490 --> 43:10.630 Car accidents, deer running in, too. 43:10.790 --> 43:13.230 I mean, just always losing money. 43:14.590 --> 43:16.590 Until by faith, they said, 43:16.590 --> 43:17.770 yeah, we're done with that now. 43:18.830 --> 43:22.130 You say, well, Jesus took care of that on the cross. 43:22.370 --> 43:23.170 Yes, he did. 43:24.170 --> 43:25.730 But everything comes by faith. 43:27.150 --> 43:30.510 Just because he did it on the cross doesn't mean we're living in it. 43:31.550 --> 43:33.730 We have to apply it by faith. 43:34.250 --> 43:36.070 And when they stepped up by faith and said, 43:36.150 --> 43:36.910 yeah, we're done with that. 43:37.990 --> 43:39.690 Ooh, all of a sudden things change. 43:39.810 --> 43:40.350 Surprise, surprise. 43:41.530 --> 43:42.510 Comes by faith. 43:43.070 --> 43:44.570 But pastor, I can't afford to give. 43:46.590 --> 43:47.410 I'll go to the next verses. 43:47.630 --> 43:48.490 Paul understood that. 43:48.670 --> 43:49.770 The Holy Spirit understood that. 43:50.590 --> 43:53.010 Now, he who supplies seed to the sower, 43:54.250 --> 43:56.810 he's going to give you seeds so you can plant it and get a harvest. 43:57.430 --> 43:59.330 He's also going to give you bread for food. 44:00.030 --> 44:02.970 So he's not going to let you starve while you're planting. 44:05.390 --> 44:09.950 He will also supply and increase your store of seeds. 44:10.110 --> 44:11.930 Now we're talking harvest cycles. 44:13.130 --> 44:16.010 And enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 44:18.150 --> 44:23.470 So when you're sowing, there's going to be times you're wondering 44:23.470 --> 44:25.650 if you have enough leftover to eat. 44:28.150 --> 44:30.750 Use that verse and call it by faith. 44:31.870 --> 44:34.030 You said you'd give me the money to tithe. 44:34.410 --> 44:39.630 And you said you'd give us food while we're getting this whole thing rolling. 44:40.310 --> 44:41.830 Put your faith to that verse. 44:41.950 --> 44:42.550 That's a promise. 44:43.850 --> 44:47.870 He who supplies seed and bread will. 44:48.990 --> 44:51.210 He's the one, he's promising he'll do this. 44:52.010 --> 44:53.690 And then he's going to get it rolling. 44:54.070 --> 44:57.150 And all of a sudden more harvest is going to come in. 44:57.210 --> 44:59.110 And here's just a thought. I'm going to just hit it and run. 45:00.230 --> 45:03.310 Don't eat your seed for the next harvest. 45:05.330 --> 45:09.170 All of a sudden money came in and if you quit tithing 45:09.170 --> 45:11.630 you've got enough money to buy that pickup you've wanted. 45:12.550 --> 45:14.090 Woo hoo, thank you Jesus. 45:15.530 --> 45:16.450 It works. 45:17.110 --> 45:18.310 I got a new pickup now. 45:18.670 --> 45:20.730 Are you still planting seed? No, no, no. 45:20.950 --> 45:23.250 Guess what? Now you're headed back down the wrong way again. 45:24.670 --> 45:25.890 Don't eat your seed. 45:27.330 --> 45:30.990 He'll give you enough to live on and replant 45:31.390 --> 45:34.670 and let that get rolling and mushroom. 45:35.550 --> 45:38.990 In the business world it's called compound interest. 45:41.690 --> 45:45.250 You earn a little bit on some money one year. 45:45.710 --> 45:48.890 Don't pull it out and spend it. Leave it in there. 45:49.890 --> 45:53.850 And next year you earn a little bit compounded on that. 45:54.090 --> 45:54.690 A little bit more. 45:55.890 --> 45:57.850 You know what? You figure that out a few years. 45:58.170 --> 45:59.150 That thing starts rolling. 46:00.250 --> 46:04.410 And snowballing and just don't eat your seed. 46:06.470 --> 46:08.110 And there is seed time on harvest again. 46:10.070 --> 46:12.090 So there's one thing in there we have to talk about. 46:14.690 --> 46:17.190 If we do that and let the system work, 46:18.470 --> 46:23.090 you will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion. 46:23.950 --> 46:26.770 Two points there. Number one, God wants us rich 46:26.770 --> 46:28.810 and in America we're kind of there already. 46:29.590 --> 46:37.030 And number two, rich is not determined by the amount of dollars like the system tries to tell us. 46:37.310 --> 46:39.750 Rich is determined by generosity. 46:41.730 --> 46:45.090 God does not look and say oh they got a million dollars. They're rich. 46:45.390 --> 46:48.210 They only have five thousand in the bank. They're poor. Nope. 46:48.670 --> 46:50.010 That's not how God measures it. 46:51.290 --> 46:55.190 This guy may give nothing that God wants him to give. 46:55.710 --> 46:57.830 This person is giving a lot. 46:58.870 --> 46:59.870 There's the rich one. 47:00.890 --> 47:03.570 There's the one who's going to get the big reward. That one won't. 47:04.830 --> 47:05.790 Does that make any sense? 47:07.270 --> 47:09.050 Richness is determined by generosity. 47:09.350 --> 47:12.450 Well, I tell you what, it's really hard to be generous on every occasion 47:12.450 --> 47:15.410 if you don't have something to be generous with. 47:17.570 --> 47:20.750 So God wasn't born yesterday. He knows how this works. 47:21.970 --> 47:24.950 If he wants us to be generous on every occasion, 47:26.070 --> 47:28.030 he has to get it in our hand 47:30.890 --> 47:32.730 Right? Does that make sense? 47:34.390 --> 47:35.990 So, he makes us rich. 47:36.430 --> 47:38.630 You say, well that's spiritually rich, really. 47:39.510 --> 47:42.090 There's nothing in this whole section of scripture 47:42.090 --> 47:44.270 that talks about something other than finances. 47:45.090 --> 47:47.430 Material things. This whole section of scripture is talking about 47:47.430 --> 47:48.730 finances and material things. 47:49.350 --> 47:51.370 So to pull that out and I've had people do that to me. 47:51.450 --> 47:53.930 Well that doesn't mean physically rich. That means spiritually rich. 47:55.590 --> 47:57.830 Well, you're kind of stretching the scripture there. 47:58.970 --> 48:01.530 Because, if it makes me spiritually rich, 48:01.750 --> 48:05.390 so that on every occasion I can be generous with my spiritually rich. 48:06.450 --> 48:08.290 How do you give away spiritually rich? 48:13.030 --> 48:15.310 Doing really good spiritually this last week. 48:15.450 --> 48:19.590 Here, let me give you some so you can do really spiritually good next week. 48:23.230 --> 48:24.090 That don't work. 48:25.090 --> 48:28.130 So you're stressing the context, even make it say that. 48:28.410 --> 48:31.010 Besides, go home, use your strong concordance, 48:31.010 --> 48:33.790 look up that word rich and see where that appears in the New Testament. 48:34.530 --> 48:38.210 That is the same word used every time where it talks about finances or money. 48:40.130 --> 48:41.670 So you say, what does God want? 48:42.250 --> 48:43.150 There's what he wants. 48:44.530 --> 48:47.810 He wants us to start the process 48:48.410 --> 48:50.790 and let it cycle a few times. 48:51.630 --> 48:52.690 Don't eat your seed. 48:53.390 --> 48:55.050 Let it cycle a few times. 48:55.730 --> 48:58.910 So that you can get to the point financially, 48:58.910 --> 49:05.590 you can be generous on every occasion when a need or an assignment shows up. 49:09.650 --> 49:11.970 That results in thanksgiving to God. 49:13.430 --> 49:16.070 Okay, so now we have to take a little bit of a sidetrack here. 49:16.930 --> 49:22.350 But pastor, doesn't 1 Timothy 6 say that we should not desire to be rich? 49:23.030 --> 49:29.790 Because those who desire to be rich fall into many harmful temptations, the NIV says. 49:31.530 --> 49:31.930 Exactly. 49:32.730 --> 49:34.050 That's exactly what it says. 49:34.230 --> 49:35.650 And I agree with it 100%. 49:35.650 --> 49:37.330 Well, how can you say that and say that? 49:39.050 --> 49:41.270 Okay, so let me put it in this. 49:41.450 --> 49:44.170 Let me say it this way and then we'll try to give you some examples. 49:46.530 --> 49:50.330 Don't pursue money or land or wealth. 49:51.730 --> 49:53.970 Seek ye first the kingdom. 49:56.250 --> 49:58.190 And then this other stuff take care of itself. 49:58.190 --> 50:02.850 And by the way, when Jesus said that, he was talking about the material world also. 50:03.010 --> 50:05.330 What you eat, what you drink, what you wear, that realm. 50:06.150 --> 50:07.850 He said, seek the kingdom first. 50:08.710 --> 50:09.870 This will take care of this. 50:10.730 --> 50:12.270 See, it's not a get rich quick scheme. 50:12.950 --> 50:15.830 Well, I'm just going to do this and man, I'm going to get rich. 50:15.930 --> 50:18.010 It may not work for you because you're in with the wrong motives. 50:18.410 --> 50:19.750 You're in with out faith. 50:19.990 --> 50:21.330 You're just trying to play the system. 50:22.450 --> 50:23.730 Seek the kingdom first. 50:23.890 --> 50:25.930 Now, do you know what's going to happen when you seek the kingdom first? 50:27.430 --> 50:30.330 He's going to ask you to give stuff away you don't want to give away. 50:32.250 --> 50:33.450 He's testing your heart. 50:34.050 --> 50:35.090 Can I trust you? 50:36.530 --> 50:37.730 That's just the way it works. 50:39.330 --> 50:44.230 Well, but doesn't it kind of mean like we should want to get rich? 50:45.490 --> 50:47.490 Okay, so here's where it takes a little maturity. 50:49.110 --> 50:54.130 If we will seek the kingdom, not seek riches. 50:54.130 --> 50:59.630 Everything through scripture says do not seek money, lands, wealth. 51:00.250 --> 51:02.510 Do not pursue. That's not the goal. 51:03.270 --> 51:04.510 All of you going into college. 51:04.810 --> 51:06.490 That is not the goal. 51:07.930 --> 51:10.070 All of you want to start your own business. 51:10.270 --> 51:12.170 That is not the goal. 51:12.950 --> 51:19.190 If you're in this to get money, you're going to fall into temptations that are going to harm you. 51:20.610 --> 51:21.550 First Timothy 6. 51:22.570 --> 51:24.770 If you will seek the kingdom first. 51:26.730 --> 51:29.510 So now here's where you got to put your thinking caps on a little bit. 51:31.470 --> 51:35.070 If you seek his kingdom first and get in partnership with him. 51:35.890 --> 51:37.730 And just live this thing cheerfully. 51:39.070 --> 51:41.550 You end up with a bunch of finances. 51:43.010 --> 51:44.150 You didn't seek them. 51:45.210 --> 51:46.030 You get them. 51:46.950 --> 51:47.610 It's a paradox. 51:48.270 --> 51:50.330 And it's hard for the human brain to figure out. 51:50.330 --> 51:52.650 What did Jesus say to live? 51:53.650 --> 51:54.050 You must. 51:56.110 --> 51:56.830 What? 51:59.330 --> 52:02.550 To be strong, you must become. 52:06.890 --> 52:08.910 And many different. It's a paradox. 52:09.530 --> 52:13.330 So you're telling me if I will follow God's kingdom first. 52:14.750 --> 52:16.090 That shows up. 52:16.590 --> 52:16.870 Yes. 52:17.770 --> 52:21.010 And I'm also telling you if you make this your life's goal. 52:21.010 --> 52:22.430 You're going to miss that. 52:23.990 --> 52:26.810 You're going to miss the things God has for you in the kingdom. 52:27.110 --> 52:28.990 And wanting to be part of the kingdom. 52:31.870 --> 52:33.310 Let's go on a sidetrack here. 52:34.090 --> 52:35.250 Can you bring up Proverbs? 52:36.490 --> 52:38.890 This isn't in the PowerPoint so you're going to have to bring it up. 52:39.730 --> 52:40.630 Let's go on a sidetrack. 52:42.950 --> 52:43.750 Proverbs 3. 52:45.270 --> 52:48.030 Let's start at verse 5. 52:49.390 --> 52:50.030 NIV version. 52:52.170 --> 52:54.510 Here's my two favorite scriptures been all my life. 52:54.770 --> 52:57.250 Trust in the Lord of all your heartly, not in your own understanding. 52:58.830 --> 53:00.410 In all your ways acknowledge him. 53:01.630 --> 53:03.210 And he will make your paths straight. 53:03.370 --> 53:04.870 I can quote it in King James NIV. 53:05.030 --> 53:06.890 I have to look at it because it's a little bit different. 53:08.650 --> 53:10.590 As soon as you find that, bring that up. 53:10.970 --> 53:13.410 Because I want him to see some things so I'm waiting on you. 53:13.490 --> 53:15.010 And I know I put you in a hard spot here. 53:15.130 --> 53:16.870 But there you go. 53:18.710 --> 53:19.410 Verse 6. 53:19.530 --> 53:20.610 In all your ways acknowledge him. 53:22.010 --> 53:24.310 He will make your paths straight or direct your paths. 53:25.230 --> 53:25.850 Verse 7. 53:27.350 --> 53:29.130 Do not be wise in your own eyes. 53:30.850 --> 53:32.290 We're going to figure this thing out. 53:32.710 --> 53:33.830 That may not work well. 53:34.850 --> 53:36.430 Fear the Lord and shun evil. 53:36.910 --> 53:37.850 Well what did Jesus say? 53:37.950 --> 53:38.430 Seek the kingdom. 53:39.190 --> 53:40.110 That's how you fear the Lord. 53:42.270 --> 53:44.190 Do not be wise in your own eyes. 53:44.450 --> 53:45.470 Fear the Lord shun evil. 53:45.470 --> 53:46.210 Next verse. 53:49.760 --> 53:53.240 This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. 53:54.380 --> 53:56.420 If you're struggling with your health, 53:57.860 --> 53:59.360 go back to verse 7. 54:01.820 --> 54:02.700 Start there. 54:09.210 --> 54:10.850 Well aren't we supposed to pursue health? 54:11.230 --> 54:15.330 No, we're actually supposed to not try to figure it all out in our own thinking. 54:15.810 --> 54:17.350 Fear the Lord shun evil. 54:17.570 --> 54:19.590 I mean there's stuff we're doing to our bodies we need to quit. 54:19.670 --> 54:20.010 It's evil. 54:21.470 --> 54:22.230 And fear the Lord. 54:22.510 --> 54:24.570 This will be the beginning of the next verse. 54:24.890 --> 54:25.910 Flip it over to the next verse. 54:27.050 --> 54:30.130 And this will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. 54:31.610 --> 54:35.770 You're not seeking God to get healthy and whole. 54:36.270 --> 54:39.130 You're seeking God for what he wants you to seek him for. 54:39.530 --> 54:43.070 Seek the kingdom first and all the stuff gets added to you. 54:44.030 --> 54:44.810 Go to the next verse. 54:45.070 --> 54:47.810 Honor the Lord with your wealth and the first fruit of your crops. 54:48.530 --> 54:48.810 Okay? 54:49.830 --> 54:50.530 Next verse. 54:52.710 --> 54:55.930 Then, if you do that your barns will be filled to overflowing 54:55.930 --> 54:58.490 and your vats will brim over with new vine. 54:59.750 --> 55:00.110 Wine. 55:00.750 --> 55:01.170 New wine. 55:01.590 --> 55:02.070 I said vine. 55:02.330 --> 55:02.390 Wine. 55:04.190 --> 55:05.010 New wine. 55:07.690 --> 55:12.470 Are we seeking our barns to be full and the vats to be flowing over? 55:12.810 --> 55:13.010 No. 55:13.170 --> 55:14.010 Go back to verse 9. 55:16.750 --> 55:18.110 Go back to verse 9. 55:18.110 --> 55:18.770 Thank you. 55:19.310 --> 55:20.650 Honor the Lord with your wealth. 55:20.870 --> 55:21.830 I'm going to do that for a while. 55:21.870 --> 55:22.750 I'm going to flip you back and forth. 55:23.230 --> 55:26.810 Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your crops. 55:28.510 --> 55:32.370 What is God asking us to do with the little bitties given us? 55:34.270 --> 55:37.730 Because if you partner with him and do that, 55:37.870 --> 55:43.010 you can't partner with the one who created it all, owns it all. 55:43.450 --> 55:46.770 If he needs more, he just makes more and not end up there. 55:48.310 --> 55:49.910 You don't have to seek that. 55:50.210 --> 55:52.130 You partner with him, you'll get that. 55:54.250 --> 55:56.050 So Paul's 100% correct. 55:56.230 --> 55:57.250 He said, don't seek it. 55:58.090 --> 55:59.450 It's going to put you in a bad spot. 56:00.010 --> 56:00.890 Partner with God. 56:01.310 --> 56:01.770 Read on. 56:02.930 --> 56:05.150 Let's jump to verse 13. 56:05.370 --> 56:08.530 Blessed is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. 56:09.830 --> 56:11.990 So what are we supposed to go after? 56:15.320 --> 56:16.380 Wisdom and understanding. 56:16.680 --> 56:17.660 Just making sure you're still awake. 56:19.120 --> 56:20.420 Blessed is the man. 56:20.580 --> 56:23.800 Of course, blessed means empowered to prosper and have success down the road. 56:23.900 --> 56:24.860 That doesn't mean financially. 56:25.040 --> 56:26.140 It means every area of life. 56:26.780 --> 56:33.860 It's just wise not to grunt at your wife when you take the first bite of the food that she set before you. 56:36.460 --> 56:37.480 Don't do that. 56:37.580 --> 56:38.660 It's just not wisdom. 56:40.520 --> 56:45.400 Because it will not help you prosper and success in that marriage. 56:47.660 --> 56:49.440 Blessed is the man who finds wisdom. 56:50.920 --> 56:55.240 A lot of our trouble is not the demonic or the devil attacking us. 56:56.040 --> 56:57.180 A lot of our trouble is us. 56:58.200 --> 56:59.220 We don't have any wisdom. 57:01.160 --> 57:05.580 Blessed, empowered to prosper is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. 57:07.800 --> 57:08.880 Okay, I'll be blessed. 57:09.080 --> 57:09.700 What does that mean? 57:09.820 --> 57:10.380 Verse 14. 57:11.440 --> 57:16.060 For she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. 57:16.060 --> 57:17.640 Verse 15. 57:18.440 --> 57:20.300 She is more precious than rubies. 57:20.780 --> 57:23.160 Nothing you desire can compare with her. 57:23.780 --> 57:24.800 Verse 16. 57:24.980 --> 57:25.720 Here's what you get. 57:26.680 --> 57:34.060 Long life is in her right hand and in her left hand are riches and honor. 57:36.160 --> 57:39.880 Well, I'm going to try to live long and just be rich. 57:40.500 --> 57:41.780 That's not what you seek. 57:42.580 --> 57:44.960 No, that's going to mess things up. 57:44.960 --> 57:47.580 Verse 13 is what we seek. 57:48.620 --> 57:52.160 Blessed is the man who finds wisdom. 57:52.460 --> 57:54.580 That means we were looking for it. 57:56.600 --> 57:57.720 There's a concept. 57:59.100 --> 58:00.680 We're looking for wisdom. 58:01.240 --> 58:05.760 And when we see some, we grab it, we gain it, we get that understanding. 58:06.960 --> 58:09.260 That will produce verse 16. 58:09.860 --> 58:13.960 Long life in her right hand and in her left hand are riches and honor. 58:15.660 --> 58:18.620 I agree with Paul 100% verse 10 of these six. 58:18.780 --> 58:21.580 Do not desire to be rich. 58:22.240 --> 58:25.780 It's going to cause trouble in your life beyond anything. 58:25.980 --> 58:29.200 And most college students go for the purpose of where can I make the most money? 58:29.980 --> 58:32.680 Wrong, wrong, wrong, double wrong. 58:33.660 --> 58:36.220 What did God put you on this earth for? 58:36.940 --> 58:37.680 Seek that. 58:38.940 --> 58:40.260 Well, I might be poor. 58:41.320 --> 58:42.500 I don't think so. 58:42.500 --> 58:46.980 Well, he's going to make sure it ends well. 58:48.080 --> 58:54.740 You can't be hooked up with the God who has it all, partnered with him, 58:55.640 --> 58:57.460 and not end up looking like him. 58:58.940 --> 58:59.880 You just can't. 59:00.120 --> 59:01.180 It's not how it works. 59:01.340 --> 59:02.760 It's not how he set it up. 59:03.660 --> 59:06.020 So seek what he wants. 59:06.380 --> 59:08.040 Wisdom, get understanding. 59:08.760 --> 59:12.760 And long life and riches are going to end up in your hand. 59:16.140 --> 59:17.940 So let's go back to the PowerPoint. 59:24.100 --> 59:26.460 Again, let me just try to restress this. 59:27.160 --> 59:28.780 Don't seek after the riches. 59:29.680 --> 59:30.380 Seek after God. 59:31.480 --> 59:32.900 Partner with him. 59:33.560 --> 59:36.340 And there will be times he will test your partnership, 59:37.820 --> 59:39.880 especially when you start this process. 59:41.180 --> 59:44.960 Will you keep it up even though it's really hard? 59:48.810 --> 59:51.250 Any of you ever partner with someone and start a company? 59:52.110 --> 59:53.130 Anybody ever do that? 59:53.250 --> 59:55.830 One, two, three, a few of you. 59:56.810 --> 59:58.990 Within the first year, you were all millionaires, weren't you? 01:00:01.150 --> 01:00:02.430 That's exactly right. 01:00:03.190 --> 01:00:03.750 That's funny. 01:00:06.010 --> 01:00:09.510 The average company, they say, takes three to five years to get on its feet 01:00:09.510 --> 01:00:11.310 before it can even pay its own bills. 01:00:13.010 --> 01:00:14.850 Well, I didn't get into it for this. 01:00:18.600 --> 01:00:22.560 That's the test to determine whether you're going to make it well or not. 01:00:23.620 --> 01:00:25.440 And it works spiritually the same way. 01:00:27.000 --> 01:00:31.320 God will say, OK, let's see if you'll follow through with what I'm asking you to do. 01:00:33.560 --> 01:00:36.200 That's why we have to have points one, two, and three 01:00:36.200 --> 01:00:39.220 before number four reason why we tithe. 01:00:40.800 --> 01:00:41.880 Dave quoted this. 01:00:42.020 --> 01:00:44.780 I've got to put this out there because there's a key in here. 01:00:45.660 --> 01:00:49.300 Philippians four, moreover, as you Philippians know in the early days of your acquaintance 01:00:49.300 --> 01:00:52.500 with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, 01:00:52.660 --> 01:00:55.680 no one in the church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, 01:00:55.900 --> 01:00:57.720 he's talking money, except you. 01:00:57.980 --> 01:00:59.780 Just the Philippians supported him financially. 01:01:00.300 --> 01:01:04.140 For even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again 01:01:04.140 --> 01:01:05.120 when I was in need. 01:01:05.440 --> 01:01:06.280 Oh, here's my question. 01:01:06.400 --> 01:01:08.060 What was the Thessalonica church doing? 01:01:08.060 --> 01:01:10.900 Why weren't they taking care of him? 01:01:10.920 --> 01:01:12.240 He was there ministering. 01:01:13.500 --> 01:01:14.240 I don't know. 01:01:14.440 --> 01:01:17.280 But the Philippians, he said, you stuck with me and supported me. 01:01:17.520 --> 01:01:18.040 Notice this. 01:01:18.700 --> 01:01:20.380 Not that I'm looking for a gift. 01:01:20.500 --> 01:01:22.440 He said, I'm not dropping hints here so you give me more. 01:01:23.460 --> 01:01:26.680 I am looking for what may be credited to your account. 01:01:27.620 --> 01:01:33.000 So I'm bringing this up because my faith is set that you receive on what you gave. 01:01:33.760 --> 01:01:35.920 I have received full payment and even more. 01:01:35.920 --> 01:01:38.260 I'm amply supplied for I don't need you to send any money. 01:01:38.460 --> 01:01:38.900 I'm good. 01:01:39.820 --> 01:01:41.500 Epaphroditus brought the gifts you sent. 01:01:41.700 --> 01:01:41.920 We're good. 01:01:42.520 --> 01:01:43.140 Verse 19, 01:01:45.200 --> 01:01:50.060 My God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in heaven. 01:01:51.960 --> 01:01:56.260 I am looking that something may be credited to your account. 01:01:56.900 --> 01:02:03.600 What He wants credited is God meeting all their needs according to glorious riches in heaven. 01:02:04.380 --> 01:02:06.620 How did they get in a position? 01:02:06.880 --> 01:02:12.780 Paul could go to the throne of God and say, Father, this is what they did. 01:02:13.260 --> 01:02:15.060 This is what I want them to have. 01:02:15.300 --> 01:02:16.700 How did they qualify for that? 01:02:21.380 --> 01:02:22.200 What does it say? 01:02:23.260 --> 01:02:25.860 They were the ones who gave. 01:02:31.760 --> 01:02:35.800 People who aren't in partnership with God, don't have His heart, don't love what He loves, 01:02:35.940 --> 01:02:38.780 run around quoting that verse all the time. 01:02:38.780 --> 01:02:41.480 And God will meet all my needs according to His riches and glory. 01:02:41.720 --> 01:02:43.600 You're not even qualified for that promise. 01:02:44.980 --> 01:02:48.600 The qualifications for that promise are right there. 01:02:52.320 --> 01:03:02.080 You can't receive that promise without following through on the qualifications of the promise. 01:03:06.060 --> 01:03:11.620 So always remember that when God asks us to do something, it will always benefit us. 01:03:20.180 --> 01:03:30.280 God is looking to and fro on the earth, looking for a man who will stand in the gap. 01:03:31.000 --> 01:03:32.620 Do you know what he's looking for? 01:03:33.640 --> 01:03:34.580 A partner. 01:03:37.000 --> 01:03:39.260 He's always been looking for a partner. 01:03:40.960 --> 01:03:44.420 He wanted to save this world and everybody in it. 01:03:45.040 --> 01:03:45.880 He looked for Abraham. 01:03:47.540 --> 01:03:49.140 I need a partner in this. 01:03:51.560 --> 01:03:53.880 He wanted to build the temple. 01:03:55.340 --> 01:03:56.520 He looked for David. 01:04:00.930 --> 01:04:06.030 See, the end result God was after was a number of things, but he wanted that temple built. 01:04:08.790 --> 01:04:18.970 He knew if he would let David get in the driver's seat and take via war, this is how David got rich, 01:04:19.770 --> 01:04:25.630 all the enemies of God that attacked Israel, he would go wipe them out and take all their wealth. 01:04:27.390 --> 01:04:28.550 He was a man of war. 01:04:29.630 --> 01:04:30.290 God knew. 01:04:31.390 --> 01:04:32.730 Let's put this kid in charge. 01:04:32.730 --> 01:04:35.310 He's willing to run out a giant with a stone. 01:04:38.270 --> 01:04:39.150 This is good. 01:04:40.730 --> 01:04:42.390 In the name of Jehovah's of both. 01:04:42.530 --> 01:04:45.970 He said, you come to me with your spear and your sword, talking to Goliath. 01:04:46.770 --> 01:04:51.930 He said, I'm coming to you in the name of Jehovah's of both, the covenant God of war, service, and appointed time. 01:04:52.850 --> 01:04:53.590 See my sling? 01:04:53.830 --> 01:04:55.650 That guy must have thought this kid's nuts. 01:04:56.710 --> 01:05:01.250 Till all of a sudden something smacked him in the head and boom, we went down. 01:05:03.830 --> 01:05:07.730 See that's the God needs to partner with people. 01:05:08.190 --> 01:05:09.990 He's looking to partner. 01:05:10.670 --> 01:05:21.010 And if we will take that step of faith and partner with him, who he is in covenant will dump on us. 01:05:22.570 --> 01:05:24.310 It'll just dump on us. 01:05:26.130 --> 01:05:32.770 It's the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 01:05:34.230 --> 01:05:35.670 The kingdom. 01:05:35.990 --> 01:05:37.750 That's the whole tamale. 01:05:38.930 --> 01:05:40.550 It's the whole works. 01:05:43.290 --> 01:05:47.110 We're the ones who decide how that exchange takes place. 01:05:51.990 --> 01:05:54.530 So let's start with the basics of partnering. 01:05:55.850 --> 01:05:57.830 Have we made Jesus our savior? 01:05:58.970 --> 01:06:01.210 Have we said, Lord, I need you. 01:06:02.630 --> 01:06:03.570 Forgive my sins. 01:06:03.790 --> 01:06:06.570 I want you to be my master, my owner, my ruler. 01:06:06.730 --> 01:06:07.990 I want you to be Jesus to me. 01:06:09.370 --> 01:06:10.910 That's where partnering starts. 01:06:12.810 --> 01:06:16.150 That gets us in the door and we go on from there. 01:06:18.070 --> 01:06:21.510 And then by faith we see this and we go, hey, I'm going to go after that. 01:06:22.030 --> 01:06:23.850 And then God says, I want you to do this. 01:06:24.010 --> 01:06:25.990 And our faith said, I don't have enough faith to do that. 01:06:26.030 --> 01:06:26.850 We can't do that. 01:06:27.610 --> 01:06:29.190 And the Holy Spirit says, just do it. 01:06:29.570 --> 01:06:29.930 Just do it. 01:06:29.990 --> 01:06:30.750 Come on, come on, come on. 01:06:31.210 --> 01:06:32.350 Find some verses on it. 01:06:32.430 --> 01:06:33.010 Let me tell you. 01:06:33.130 --> 01:06:34.750 Let me give you some Raymond knowledge on it. 01:06:34.790 --> 01:06:35.470 I want you to do this. 01:06:35.690 --> 01:06:36.870 Oh, God, we're going on this. 01:06:36.970 --> 01:06:37.470 This is bad. 01:06:37.830 --> 01:06:38.330 This is bad. 01:06:39.730 --> 01:06:44.110 But finally we take the step of faith and we do it. 01:06:44.930 --> 01:06:48.950 And just like Vicki said, what the world, it worked. 01:06:50.310 --> 01:06:51.830 And your faith grows a little bit. 01:06:53.250 --> 01:06:55.370 And step at a time, step at a time. 01:06:55.710 --> 01:07:03.310 We become bigger and bigger, larger, larger, more committed partners with him than where we ever started. 01:07:05.310 --> 01:07:06.830 God is looking for partners. 01:07:07.090 --> 01:07:09.350 Now we're in a tithing giving series. 01:07:09.830 --> 01:07:13.970 So God is looking for partners who are willing to reciprocate on the covenant. 01:07:15.210 --> 01:07:16.510 And say, I'll be a tither. 01:07:17.190 --> 01:07:18.290 I'll partner with you. 01:07:19.350 --> 01:07:22.370 I want in on this covenant thing. 01:07:22.450 --> 01:07:28.970 And we never got to the point where in reality covenant means he has all of me, not just my tithe. 01:07:30.190 --> 01:07:31.030 That's covenant. 01:07:31.610 --> 01:07:32.690 We didn't get to that point. 01:07:32.790 --> 01:07:33.990 We'll catch that next message. 01:07:34.910 --> 01:07:36.870 He wants all of us. 01:07:37.610 --> 01:07:38.990 Why would he want all of me? 01:07:39.490 --> 01:07:41.530 So you can get all of him. 01:07:41.670 --> 01:07:45.270 Remember how you measure it is how it's measured. 01:07:45.270 --> 01:07:48.330 Go sparingly, you reap sparingly. 01:07:49.470 --> 01:07:57.130 Covenant, true covenant is 100% giving to the other person, entity, and them giving 100% back. 01:07:58.530 --> 01:07:59.550 That's his goal. 01:07:59.810 --> 01:08:00.270 That's partnership. 01:08:00.710 --> 01:08:02.290 That's the partnership he's looking for. 01:08:02.990 --> 01:08:03.950 That's what he's after. 01:08:05.370 --> 01:08:07.310 And he's calling for partners this morning. 01:08:07.450 --> 01:08:08.790 All the way from the beginning of... 01:08:08.790 --> 01:08:09.270 Well, I don't even... 01:08:10.850 --> 01:08:12.970 God, that's a whole new concept to me. 01:08:13.070 --> 01:08:14.630 This whole God thing is a new concept to me. 01:08:14.630 --> 01:08:15.410 I don't... 01:08:15.410 --> 01:08:16.770 I don't have gotten my life. 01:08:16.850 --> 01:08:17.550 Well, let's start there. 01:08:19.410 --> 01:08:20.230 Let's start there. 01:08:21.230 --> 01:08:23.690 And then some of us are further down the road and it's like, 01:08:23.750 --> 01:08:25.910 yeah, we need to understand this concept of partnering 01:08:26.850 --> 01:08:31.190 and get to the point where we're believing to tithe. 01:08:31.670 --> 01:08:35.830 And like I said, you know, don't go curl cold turkey unless God tells you to. 01:08:36.690 --> 01:08:38.590 To where you're just going to walk on water one day 01:08:38.590 --> 01:08:40.730 and you're going to be a tithe there and you can't even pay your rent. 01:08:41.310 --> 01:08:42.870 You know, you don't have to do that. 01:08:43.990 --> 01:08:45.310 Grow your faith. 01:08:47.070 --> 01:08:49.290 Start consistently with five bucks a week. 01:08:49.490 --> 01:08:52.270 Move it up, but your goal's the 10%. 01:08:52.270 --> 01:08:53.630 Grow your faith. 01:08:55.050 --> 01:08:58.830 And then God is looking for partners who are willing to give anything He asked for. 01:09:01.070 --> 01:09:02.430 Anything He asked for. 01:09:02.490 --> 01:09:04.090 That's where extravagant givers come in. 01:09:06.030 --> 01:09:10.690 There's the book of Acts when they sold property and gave it. 01:09:12.090 --> 01:09:13.610 Why? Because God said, I want that. 01:09:15.210 --> 01:09:18.310 I want that field you bought two years ago that doubled in price. 01:09:18.530 --> 01:09:19.590 I want you to sell it and give it. 01:09:20.490 --> 01:09:20.930 What? 01:09:21.810 --> 01:09:24.910 Yep, it's mine anyway because right we're in covenant. 01:09:25.350 --> 01:09:25.590 Are we? 01:09:29.700 --> 01:09:32.460 We're in covenant. Covenant means everything that I have is yours. 01:09:32.740 --> 01:09:34.700 It's all available to you and everything you have is mine. 01:09:34.820 --> 01:09:35.740 It's all available to me. 01:09:37.340 --> 01:09:39.060 He's looking for those kind of partners. 01:09:40.700 --> 01:09:44.620 So we're going to put this thing in one big basket and anybody who wants to partner with God 01:09:44.620 --> 01:09:49.100 you just stand where you're at, whether it's making Jesus your savior for the first time 01:09:49.100 --> 01:09:52.400 or you're over here saying, yeah, I'm going for extravagant giving. 01:09:52.580 --> 01:09:53.780 I want to partner with God. 01:09:54.140 --> 01:09:55.700 Stand where you're at, we're going to agree in prayer. 01:09:59.890 --> 01:10:05.690 Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus, it is exactly what was said earlier. 01:10:05.690 --> 01:10:11.830 It is an honor to be able to tithe and give to you. 01:10:12.770 --> 01:10:19.970 It is a reciprocating on the covenant that is available to us, which is so far beyond anything 01:10:19.970 --> 01:10:21.710 we can understand or grasp. 01:10:22.730 --> 01:10:30.570 It is an honor that you've made a way to say, I want to partner with you. 01:10:30.670 --> 01:10:33.130 Just test me in this. I'll partner with you. 01:10:33.130 --> 01:10:37.450 You bring the tithe. I'll partner with you. Just test me. 01:10:37.770 --> 01:10:39.410 God, you're the one who said that. 01:10:40.410 --> 01:10:42.830 It is an honor to partner with you. 01:10:43.590 --> 01:10:49.150 And for those of us who are just beginning, let's do this. 01:10:49.330 --> 01:10:50.190 Let's pray a prayer. 01:10:50.650 --> 01:10:54.290 Most of us are probably already born again, but let's pray a prayer together 01:10:54.290 --> 01:10:59.370 so those who aren't can begin their partnership this morning. 01:10:59.970 --> 01:11:01.210 So just repeat after me. 01:11:01.210 --> 01:11:04.350 Dear Jesus, forgive me for my sin. 01:11:05.970 --> 01:11:07.430 I submit my life to you. 01:11:08.970 --> 01:11:12.150 I want you to be my savior. 01:11:13.190 --> 01:11:19.710 I want to partner with you in every area of my life. 01:11:21.610 --> 01:11:25.850 Forgive me. Cleanse me. I make you my master. 01:11:27.630 --> 01:11:27.750 Amen. 01:11:29.230 --> 01:11:33.030 And Lord, we pray for the next... 01:11:33.030 --> 01:11:38.110 Wherever we're at in our growth process, whether it's... 01:11:38.110 --> 01:11:39.950 We're still believing to tithe. 01:11:40.310 --> 01:11:43.110 Or we can, and we're just trying to obey. 01:11:43.490 --> 01:11:45.810 Or we're beyond the tithe. We're giving offerings. 01:11:46.010 --> 01:11:48.450 We're giving alms, and we're wanting more. 01:11:48.670 --> 01:11:51.150 Or we're over here knocking on the door of saying, 01:11:51.290 --> 01:11:55.490 I want to extravagantly give. 01:11:56.410 --> 01:11:59.810 Whatever God gave to me, it's all his. 01:12:00.690 --> 01:12:02.950 That's the statement of an extravagant giver. 01:12:03.530 --> 01:12:05.510 Whatever he gave to me, it's all his. 01:12:05.770 --> 01:12:09.770 Cars, lands, homes, whatever it is, all his. 01:12:10.030 --> 01:12:12.170 If he needs it, if he wants it, I'm here. 01:12:12.290 --> 01:12:13.230 I'm an extravagant giver. 01:12:13.730 --> 01:12:15.410 You ask it, you've got it. 01:12:16.750 --> 01:12:20.330 I come into agreement with all these people 01:12:20.330 --> 01:12:22.610 who are saying, I want to partner with you in covenant, God. 01:12:23.850 --> 01:12:25.450 I want to partner with you. 01:12:26.690 --> 01:12:28.870 And we are going to. 01:12:30.070 --> 01:12:31.810 We are going to. 01:12:33.210 --> 01:12:36.870 We are going to keep this the focus of 01:12:36.870 --> 01:12:39.970 seek ye first the kingdom. 01:12:41.350 --> 01:12:43.190 We're going to learn to hear your voice. 01:12:43.330 --> 01:12:44.490 We're going to stay in your word. 01:12:44.650 --> 01:12:46.850 We're going to follow you. We're going to obey you. 01:12:47.030 --> 01:12:49.310 We are partnering with you. 01:12:49.990 --> 01:12:54.010 And according to your word, that opens up the heavens to us. 01:12:54.750 --> 01:12:55.770 Everything can come back. 01:12:56.010 --> 01:12:57.670 No matter what we need. 01:12:58.030 --> 01:13:01.410 Healing, miracles, a marriage that's fixed. 01:13:02.470 --> 01:13:04.050 Whatever, no matter what we need. 01:13:04.970 --> 01:13:06.510 It opens it up to us. 01:13:06.770 --> 01:13:09.070 We receive that, we agree on that. 01:13:10.450 --> 01:13:12.770 Do we receive that and agree on that? 01:13:13.810 --> 01:13:16.370 We receive it and agree on it in Jesus' name. 01:13:16.990 --> 01:13:17.210 Amen. 01:13:17.210 --> 01:13:17.730 Amen.