WEBVTT

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So we're going to talk about... I've got two Sundays left on tithing. This Sunday,

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next Sunday, next Sunday, I have a couple of testimonies I want people to share.

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One was sent in and another one live one. So if you have questions, please get them to me.

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I want to try to answer everything before we're done. But what we're dealing with this morning

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is do we tithe on the net income or the gross income? So we're at the end of this series.

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It's the first tithing series. I've given series I've done since we're in Minnesota and that's 21

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years, over 21 years now. So it's not like we harp on this, but it is something that really needs to

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be understood. One of the major things a pastor is supposed to instill into his people is how

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to live the Christian life. That's one of our jobs. And this series is... tithing series is an

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example of that. As a church, we are not a special event. We're not a special meeting. We're not a

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conference. We're a church. That means that we walk this out with you. We've been here 21 years.

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We've walked some things out with people and that's part of what a church is supposed to do.

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You can go to a special event like Mary's speaking at a conference. Some of our ladies

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are up there this weekend speaking at a conference in Duluth and there's all kinds of women there and

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then when that conference is over and all those women go home and they have problems. Who's going

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to counsel them? Anybody from that conference? Who's going to visit them in the hospital?

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Anybody from that conference? Who is going to help them get through the tough times with

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their family or whatever? Anybody from that conference? Who's going to say, hey, let's figure

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this out. Let's go to God and let's hear what He's saying about your situation. Anybody from

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that conference? No, it's a conference. You go, you receive what you get. But long term,

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it's the church's job to walk it out and to make it happen. Our job is to cover the

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broad stroke of life and not just come, dump a load, and disappear. Even though what Bruce

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Fanata said last weekend was really good. Good impartation into us. But you know what? He's

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not here today by day, week by week, month by month, plan that building, believe for that

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building, keep pursuing that building. He's not here for that. That's a church's job. That's

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pastor's job. That's our job. And this series on tithing and financial giving

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is part of learning how to live out our Christian life. Tithing is one of the most underrated

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tools that God has given to the church. It's probably one of the most underrated of all of

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them in full gospel, charismatic, Pentecostal circles. It's just not dealt with. We like to

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deal with other things, but not so much with this. Learning and understanding this principle

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is literally one of the major keys to living overcomingly. Many times people will come to

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me with a problem saying, God's just not moving in our life. And the first question I'll ask

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is, are you tithing? Well, it has nothing to do with it. No, it has everything to do with it.

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We don't understand the importance of it. And hopefully by I'm done this morning,

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you'll understand it even more. But it never ceases to amaze me how that Christians will

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have problems. They're not getting prayers answered. Nobody's getting healed. The checkbook

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is just always underwater. There's no peace. We're having demonic issues, whatever.

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And we will run around the world to get help. But we refuse to do what we know we're supposed to do.

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We know we're supposed to tithe. I mean, if we haven't gotten that in these first six,

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seven messages, you don't want to see it. I mean, it's pretty plain in Scripture.

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We know we're supposed to do it. We don't do it. But then when we don't get answers,

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oh, we got to get somebody bigger and better to pray for us. No, maybe you actually just need to obey

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and get the process flowing. So our job is, as your pastors, is to emphasize to teach you

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how to do it. And some of you get aggravated with me because I'm not going to do it for you.

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I refuse to raise a bunch of spiritual babies and children. I will try to instruct you

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to make sure you know what to do. That's why I've written so many booklets. We've got 33, 35 booklets,

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something like that, covering all kinds of topics. So you know what to do. Once you know what to do,

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I'm not going to do it for you. Now, come alongside you and help you, but I'm not going

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to work harder than you for you to get your answer. We got to grow up. We got to mature.

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That's part of the church's job to make that happen. So we have to answer questions. I've always

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said the church has to answer every question we can answer. And those we can't, we got to find the

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answer to. This is one of the questions right here. Get asked that a lot. So let's jump in

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and let's talk about this. Here was the questions I wanted to answer in this series. This came

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out in the first message. God wants us to have money and financial resources. Has he provided

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ways for us to get it? Yeah, we talked about that. Is tithing one of these ways? Yep, it is.

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What is tithing offering in alms? Now you know. Is tithing in the New Testament? Yes,

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over and over and over. Do we give because of the Old Testament law has nothing to do with

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the law. It has to do with Abraham and the covenant. Are we under a curse if we don't tithe? No,

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we're not under the law. We are not under a curse if we don't do it. How do we get enough money

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so I can afford to do this? Dean just told you. And I've told you before. Start. Start some place.

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Give a buck a week every week. Give five bucks. Give ten bucks. And believe God to increase it.

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And it'll only take a matter of time. You'll be giving him the tithe. He's not

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legalistic. He just wants to see effort. Why should we give? Well, we talked about the four

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reasons why tithing is necessary. We'll rehearse them a little bit this morning.

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Why does God want us to tithe? Well, it kind of goes with the previous question. All goes

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together. Should we expect to receive from our giving? What was the Bible say? Absolutely.

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It's seed time and harvest. Absolutely. Giving is part of being a disciple.

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Talked about that. So here's the last one. Do I give on my gross or net income? Well,

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we're going to hit that this morning. Do I tithe in my benefits at work? We'll hit that this

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morning. What do we need to watch out for? We'll hit part of that this morning and finish

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that next week. And does God actually need my money? We'll hit that next week.

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So those were all the questions that I said. Well, we're going to have to answer these.

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So hopefully we'll get everything done. I think we've got most of them done.

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So here's the one we're looking at this morning. Do I give on my gross income or my net income?

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I presume everybody knows the difference, but gross income is the total amount of your

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employee. It's the total amount your employee gives to you. Whether it's pay, benefits,

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everything together, that's your gross. Your take home is usually considered your net.

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Now, if you want to get more specific, you go to your tax return, etc. But that's kind of a

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broad explanation. Do I give on my gross income or do I give on my net income? Well,

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I'm going to show you what the scripture says, and then you're going to have to

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figure it out from there. Like I said, tithing began with Abraham. It's not a law thing,

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but the law opened up and developed on what Abraham started. God saying, and this is what

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I want to see in tithing. He said that in the law. Doesn't mean tithing started in the

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law. It started under Abraham. It was explained in the law. So let's look at a few scriptures

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here. Some of these are reruns. Abraham tithed on the gross. He's with Melchizedek here in Genesis 14,

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and they blessed the God most high who delivered your enemies into your hand. That's Melchizedek

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talking. They were standing there taking communion and honoring covenant. They blessed

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God most high who has delivered your enemies into your hand.

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And Abraham, the he there is Abraham, and Abraham gave him, him as Melchizedek, a tithe of all.

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Abraham tithed on the gross. He did not tithe on the net. He looked at all of it

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and gave him a tenth of it. Now later in the scripture, and sometimes people bring this up,

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they said, well, yeah, but later they took their expenses out. Yeah, but that wasn't for the tithe.

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Now the king of Sodom said to Abraham, give me the persons and take the goods for yourself.

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Abraham said, no, I'm not going to go there because then you're going to say,

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you made me rich. So apparently there was a lot of goods. He said, I will not take anything

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that is yours. However, the thing I do want taken out of what's left is the young, only

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what the young men have eaten, the warriors, the soldiers, and the portion of the men who

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went with me. Let them take their portion and he names three of the leaders. Let them take their

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portion and let them get back, you know, what they ate. Pull that out. The rest stays with you.

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I don't want it. It stays with you. That had nothing to do with the tithe. That was Abraham

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settling up with the king of Sodom. So don't confuse those two. Abraham tithed on the

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gross. Okay, let's move on. And all, this is Leviticus 27, explanation of tithe. And all the tithe,

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or tenth, I put the tenth in part there in parentheses, all the tenth of the land,

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whether of the seed of the land or the fruit of the tree is the Lord's. It is holy to the

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Lord. All of the tithe, one tenth of everything is the Lord's. Well, that's speaking gross.

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Verse 31, if a man wants to, at all, to redeem any of his tithes, he has to add one fifth or 20%

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of the original amount of the tithe to it. What that meant is this. I can't afford to give it

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when it's supposed to be given. So I'm going to hold it back and do with it what I want,

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and I'll give it later. And God said, yeah, you can do that. You can redeem it that way.

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He said, but when you give it later, you got to give 20% more than what the original tithe was.

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So if you hold back 100, when you finally give that 100, now turned into 120.

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I mean, that's just the explanation for them. That's what God was saying.

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And concerning the tithe, the 10% of the herd of the flock,

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of whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the Lord.

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So they ran all the calves through the chute. One, two, three, they counted them with their rod.

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One, two, three, four, number 10, pull that one out. That's God's. One, two, three,

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number 10, pull that out. That's God's. Giving on the gross, not on the net.

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And one other thing, and he shall not inquire, when you're counting the calves,

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he shall not inquire whether it's a good one or a bad one, nor shall he exchange it.

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If he exchanges it and gets caught, then both the one that was supposed to be given and the

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one that he exchanged it for are now God. Shall be holy. You don't redeem anything.

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So in other words, you're running them through the chute and the tenth one is like, oh man,

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I want to keep that one. Gorgeous animal. So I'm going to flip that one for this one.

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We'll give number nine, not number 10. God says, no, I got both nine and 10.

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This is the holy stuff you're dealing with. Don't mess with me. It's kind of what God's saying.

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So God is explaining how he wants this to work. Well, what he explained there

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is on the gross income. Say, let's look at Deuteronomy.

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Thou shalt surely tithe all of the increase or all the increase of thy seed

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that the field bringeth fourth year by year.

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Not part of the increase. Not after the expenses. Give the increase. Tithe all the increase. He's

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talking gross income. At the end of three years, now this is the third tithe. Remember,

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they had three different tithes. I'll explain that here in a bit. Just to remind you, we

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talked about it, but this is referring to the third tithe. Every year, they gave 10%. Every other

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year, they gave 10%. Second year, they gave 20% because there was a second tithe. Third year,

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they gave 10%. And another tithe, which brought it up to 20. The third tithe. This is referring

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to that. At the end of three years, Thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase in the same

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year and shall lay it up within thy gates. This is talking about gross, not net. We're going to

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explain that in a bit. But remember here the word increase. That's very important. We know tithe

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means 10%. Now, he's giving us some idea of how we look at it. Increase, okay? Moving on to Deuteronomy,

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when Thou hast made an end of tithing, all the tithes of thine increase. Again, he's dealing

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with increase. Here's the, remember the three tithes. The first one went to the temple or the

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church, the Levites, the priests. Second one paid the people's expenses for the pilgrimages.

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Remember, they had to go twice a year to Jerusalem as a family and show up at Jerusalem.

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Well, that all cost money. God said, that's okay. I'll count it as a second tithe there. You do that

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to pay for your expenses. And then the third tithe every three years went for the poor and the land.

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So he's letting us off easy. I can't give 10%. They gave a whole lot more. Besides, every time they

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sinned, they had to take an animal in and give it away and get it sacrificed to cover their sin.

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And every seven years, these were all farmers basically, every seven years they had no crop at all

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because they had to leave the land rest. You add all the things up that God required of the

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Israelites. They were giving over 50% of their income back to God. And you know one of the

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reasons they are so hated around the world? Because Jews are always wealthy.

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Well, how can you give 50% away and be wealthy? That's how God does it.

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He'll just keep piling it on. That you can give half away and it's like, well, I still got way

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more than I need. That's how God does it. So the New Testament agrees with that. First day of

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the week, Sunday, that's when they met to have church, store up, lay up in store, bring it in

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as God has prospered him. So prosperity is another way to, okay, how much have you prospered

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this last week? Tie the courting to it. The word prosperity means you've succeeded.

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You've succeeded in business affairs. How much have you succeeded? Okay, well that could indicate

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gross, could indicate net depending upon how you look at it. So let's break it down. Tithing

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is giving one tenth of your income. Well, there's the problem. What is considered my income?

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Well, the scripture we read in Leviticus 27, every tenth animal that passes under the rod

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is God's. You keep nine, I get one. Well, that was dealing with the gross. In Deuteronomy,

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it talks about tithing the increase. The NIV uses the word produce, a tenth of all that your

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fields produce. Well, that would be gross income. The amplified says a tithe of the yield that your

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seed produced. Well, how much did you, you know, we, I grew up in a farm and every year varies,

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but you always want to know how many bushels per acre you're getting. What's the yield?

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Well, when you figure out the yield, you just figured out the tithe.

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Oh, awesome year. We got four, you know, we're on western side of North Dakota where it's dryland

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farming and they didn't have the techniques they're using now. So, if you could get 40 bushels an

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acre on wheat, that was like, we got 40 bushels an acre average this year. Tithe all the yield

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of your seed produced by your field each year. So, what's the tithe of the 40? It's four

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bushels. Yeah, but we got expenses, pastor. You should have told God that.

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Because he's not taking in expenses here. Tithe all of your increase. Now, personally,

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I believe it's saying gross income and I'm going to keep talking about it and give you why.

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You're going to have to figure it out. This is between you and God. This is not me laying

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down a rule saying this is what you got to do. No, this is between you and God.

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We're not under the law anymore. We're in the New Testament now. We decide how we live for God.

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So, you're going to have to figure it out. But he's using pharma rancher language because

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he's applying it. That's basically what they were back then. But the same principle applies

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to the wage earner, the 40 hour a week person. So, let's talk about both of them.

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In there, it just says what I just said. I should have said that. Should have turned it a little

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bit before. Let me go back and go over this. This is a pharma rancher language. As a

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pharma rancher, every 10th animal would be gross income of the business.

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And just stop and let that soak in a little bit. Gross income of the business.

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Wow. You apply it to employees. Increase can speak of either gross or net income,

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depending upon, again, how you look at it. Produce and yield are speaking of your gross

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or net, depending upon how you look at it. So, we're going to take that apart a little bit.

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And especially for employees, but even for business people. Well, what is the increase?

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What did I actually increase or produce or what was actually yielded?

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Profit or loss is not the language that God used when he was referring to giving and tithing.

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Profit and loss takes us into tax returns, end of year taxes, things like that.

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Shift your head out of profit and loss. The language that God used was increase, produce,

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yield, not profit or loss. Because business people especially tend to go to profit or loss.

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So, let's talk about this with the wage earner. Not a business person, wage earner.

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You work for a company, they pay you X amount a week, salary or weight or hourly, what everything.

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Everything you get paid, including your benefits, increases you somehow. It produces in your life,

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it yields something that helps you. Those are the three words that talks about tithing.

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And I know that very few Christians tithe on their benefits at work.

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Some are real faithful to tithe on their take on pay. Very few tithe on their benefits because they

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don't see it as producing in their life. Really, so your health insurance doesn't produce anything

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for you ever? Why don't you just tell the company then to say, I don't need health insurance,

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just cancel it? Oh, I never do that. So it is producing something even if nothing more than

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peace of mind. It's yielding something, it's increasing you. Why do people like government

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jobs versus private sector jobs? The benefits. Government jobs tend to have lots more benefits

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than the private sector. So when people say, well, I'm going to take this job,

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pay is not quite as good, but the benefits also the benefits are increasing you somehow.

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Oh, yeah. Then according to Scripture, we need to tithe on the benefits.

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Just think, not expecting any amens right here because it might be one of these things are

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like, what? Just think about it. They're the three words God bases everything on.

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Let's go back. I'll leave those three words up. I think I skipped. Here it is. Skip the slide.

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I say God views the hourly or salary wage earner as tithing on everything, gross and benefits.

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And here's my reasoning. Of course, the three words lays it out, but here's my reasoning.

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Key question to help both an hourly person and a business person. Who controls or owns it?

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Now, don't get super spiritual on me. Say, well, God owns it all. I don't know.

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Who controls your income? When the federal government comes knocking at your business

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door, are they looking for God or you? They're probably looking for you.

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So kind of flip that into your mind. Who owns your hourly wage? You're working

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for whoever. Who do they say controls or owns what is going on there? You do.

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Even your withheld taxes, your insurances, your benefits. Who is considered the beneficiary

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by the company you work for? You. You're the one. If we control it on the earth, so to speak,

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we own it. So what it's giving to us, whatever prosperity it's giving in our life, is ours.

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And see, that's why sometimes people like to go to a company and work for a company for an hourly

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wage rather than being a business owner because the company by law has to provide

24:37.620 --> 24:43.740
certain benefits. A business owner doesn't always have the money, especially if they're

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starting the business to provide the benefits. And it's like, well, I got a family of five. I

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can't go without health insurance. So I'm going to go get a job where they have to provide it.

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So it is producing something in your life, isn't it? How much is it costing the company to provide

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that? How much is it costing you that they take out of your paycheck before you bring it home?

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Those are all increased to you.

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Even the taxes you pay, well taxes, I mean that's just expenses. That can't benefit me at all.

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Really? Try not paying them for a few years. See what happens.

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There is an upside to paying taxes. You stay out of jail. I mean it's just a small thing,

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but there is an upside to doing it. If we control it, technically it's ours. It's benefiting us. I had

25:46.380 --> 25:52.720
one guy, he was trying to, I had talked a couple messages in Colorado about tithing, and he came

25:52.720 --> 25:56.720
up to me after the second one. He said, well, he said, pastor, because I never got into it as

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deep as we are. I just kind of laid out some principles. He said, well, pastor, he said,

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the way I look at it, God owes me money. Every time the plate goes by, I should be taken it

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out. Not putting it in. Which told me, number one, yeah, you don't understand it. You don't get it,

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and the benefits, obviously, of it are not active in your life. I said, well, how do you figure that?

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Well, he went to tax return thinking. He said, well, my tax return, I lose money every year.

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So technically, I'm not making a thing. I said, okay, so let's talk business.

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That new skidster you bought for your business, which you deducted on your taxes, did that increase

26:42.510 --> 26:49.930
your business in any way? Oh, yeah, that's helped a lot. Well, then the money you spent for that

26:49.930 --> 26:59.070
actually counts as income. Yeah, but it's an expense. I'm not talking tax return. I'm talking

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God. He gave you $60,000 to go buy that skidster. You're saying that doesn't benefit me at all. I

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don't have pay taxes tied on that $60,000. Well, then give away the skidster. It's not doing

27:14.470 --> 27:20.170
you any good, right? It's not yielding anything, producing anything in your life.

27:22.730 --> 27:26.730
What about that office buyer? What about that warehouse you're using to house all your stuff?

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This person was in the trade, so he had a big, you know, he had stuff and he had a house stuff

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and so forth. Well, that's all right off. I'm losing money every year. I said, are you?

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I said, they haven't thrown you out. You're renting it, right? Yep, I'm renting it. They

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haven't thrown you out yet. Nope, still there making my payments and where you get

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the money to make the payments. You're getting money someplace to make the payments on your

27:55.550 --> 28:01.890
storage. Yeah, but that's tax deductible. Yeah, but the money coming in from God's perspective

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is someplace that's being produced and it's increasing your life to the point you now

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can store your machinery in a rented storage. It's producing something in your life, isn't it?

28:20.730 --> 28:29.570
Huh? You still with me? So, the time we were done talking, he was very confused.

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I hadn't won him over yet because I hadn't gotten as thorough as I did with this series,

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but he was very confused. He's saying, so you're telling me I'm supposed to pay

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tithes on, if a customer writes me a check for $15,000, I'm supposed to pay tithes on

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the 15? I can't take out my... and then he went, this is... he said, I've always thought I take

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out my house payment, I take out clothes for the kids, I take out my food, I take... and by the

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time he's done, he's like $5,000 in the red. And I said, your food, does that benefit you at all?

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Does your food produce anything in your life? Your kids having clothes on rather than

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running to school naked, does that help at all? Who gave you the money to do that?

29:17.710 --> 29:23.270
Because it's producing something in your life. Well, that was just like he was blinking on,

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because he thought he had it figured out. Just remember these three words. That's what God bases

29:30.270 --> 29:38.270
it on. If it's increasing us, if it's producing for us, if it's yielding for us, it's considered

29:38.270 --> 29:42.570
something God, according to his language, he wants it tithed on. Do your benefits at work

29:42.570 --> 29:48.550
increase your life? Does your house produce anything for you? Does your car yield anything for you?

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Clothes, paying your taxes. I'm going to save that one for later. So hopefully I don't forget,

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I'll come back to it. I don't feel like I'm supposed to throw it in here. For the average

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wage earner, everything that we get as income, whether it's tangible or it's being paid for

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by the company. Half of your Social Security Medicare is paid for by the company if you're a wage

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earner. Does that benefit you, produce anything for you, increase you at all? Talk to a self-employed

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person, they'll say, we got to pay 15.3 percent. We got to pay the whole shebang.

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Wage earners only pay seven point something. So the other seven, that's free money being

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given to you. It just never gets in your hand. It goes straight to the government for you. If

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the business didn't do it for you, you'd get to pay it. So I'm just trying to get you to

30:58.850 --> 31:09.010
think here this morning. It increases you. So let's talk about the business person, the

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company. Remember the three words? God never gave different words for businesses. It's how the

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scripture defines it. So the difference with a self-employed or owner of a company is how

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you look at those three words. Do you see the increase, the produce, the yield? Do you see it

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as coming to you personally or is this the company that's being increased or it's producing in the

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company? There's a difference. And it's looked at both ways and you're going to have to figure

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out how you're going to look at it. Typically, it's the business owner who asks, was this

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gross or net? Not the employee, because the employee might forget a bunch of things that

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actually are increasing their life. But it's the business owner who's concerned because...

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Well, I talked to my friend not that long ago who's a farmer renter now and I was talking

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about how do you ever get to the point where you're borrowing almost a million dollars in the

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spring to plant your crops and pay your rents, get everything going. And you can actually sleep

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at night. He said, you just grow into it. Every year it increases and increases and increases.

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And 15 years down the road, you look back and go, yeah, we used to only borrow 50. Now we're

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up to 250, 300. And another 10, 15 years later, you look back and go, remember when we only

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borrowed $250,000 every spring? Now we're borrowing 650. He said, it just sneaks up on you.

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You just keep doing what you have to do. I said, well, what do you get a year? Income.

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He said, well, our expenses are... He said, this is with... And there was two of them. It was

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him and his son who were farming. He says, and we can't live on what my parents used

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to live on. He said, have you noticed things have gone up? I said, yeah, notice that.

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He says, well, I'm not talking about machinery. I'm not talking about feeding the cattle.

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I'm not talking about rents or fertilize any of that. I'm talking about what do we need to live?

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He said, and I won't tell you what he said. We need X amount to live. And actually, I thought,

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well, yeah, that's right in the ballpark. He said, so when you add that in, we need

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a million three, a million four every year to pay all the expenses of the farm and live.

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I said, what are your expenses? Right at a million. He said at the end of the year,

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it's always around a million, a little above, a little below. It's always right in that area,

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depending upon how many breakdowns you had and et cetera. It's always in that area.

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So when you say, okay, a million four or five is what you get a year. Yeah, it's in the area.

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It's all spent, but that's what we get. We were supposed to tie it in a million four,

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a million five. A business owner goes, how am I going to do that?

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That's 150,000. No, we take all the expenses out, and then what's left, we'll tie it on that.

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Okay, that's between you and God. Like I said, some of you are beginning to frown at me. Don't

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frown at me. I'm not telling you what you need to do. This is between you and God.

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All I'm saying is from God's perspective, he wants your goal to be to tie the gross,

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not net. Now it's not legalism. You're not going to hell if you don't.

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But he wants you to go for that. Okay, following me? So it depends upon how you look at that.

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If you see it as personal, everything that comes in on my farm, the million five,

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is personal gain to me somehow. Well, but it's not because I paid $200,000 for fuel.

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How is that personal gain? Well, what if you didn't have the $200,000 to pay for the fuel?

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How would have you put your crop in? How would you take it off? And how would you

35:27.330 --> 35:29.030
got the truck to town to pick up the fertilizer?

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See, it did increase you to have that $200,000 to pay for the fuel, didn't it?

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See the looks on your faces. I wish I could pop that up on the screen.

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But you have to figure out, is this company, is it personal, what is it? So let's take it apart

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even a little bit more. If you're self-employed, who controls it? Who owns this? Now, yeah,

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ultimately we know God owns everything, but for the sake of talking earthly stuff here now,

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who owns it? Well, the friend I talked to, he owns the farm and he's in the process

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trying to give it to the son or get it to the son. Well, who owns it? You do. Well, that means

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everything attached to that is increasing, producing, is yielding for you because you own the farm.

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It's not that the farm is a separate entity from you and you get a paycheck from the farm.

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This is sole proprietorship, might be corporation, but let's say it's sole proprietorship.

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And what the farm earns, you're over both. This is sole proprietorship. And if you get behind

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on taxes and the government guy shows up, you don't say, he doesn't go, I want to talk to the

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farm, not you because you're not responsible for the taxes, the farm is. He doesn't do that.

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He says, I want to talk to the owner of the farm. Well, that's you. So everything that farm

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ultimately produces or yields benefits you. Right?

37:21.760 --> 37:41.340
You can say amen to that at least. Most small businesses are sole proprietorships. We're

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personally owned corporations and stuff, but most small business are typically sole proprietor,

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self-employed. One person owns or controls it, which means everything that comes in is prospering

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you. And on your taxes, you deduct all kinds of expenses. If you didn't have the money to

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actually buy or pay for what you're deducting on your taxes, if God didn't give you enough

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increase to pay for that piece of equipment, you wouldn't have that piece of equipment.

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That piece of equipment is prospering your company or whatever you're doing, which means that is

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increasing you. I'm just making you think. Does the new vehicle increase or produce anything?

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Does the electricity for the business, the business insurance, the building cost?

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Does that produce, you know, you got a building. Well, it costs us a lot of money.

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Well, get rid of it. Well, we couldn't run our business without it. So it is producing

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something in your life, isn't it? It's increasing you because without it you can't run your business.

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Don't mind about how much it costs. Get rid of it. Well, I got to have it to run my

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business. So God is giving you the money to pay for the building. That's increased to you.

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Right? What if you're publicly, you're a corporation,

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public corporation. Well, now you've got a group of people controlling this. It's,

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you might not be on the stock market yet, but you've got investors and you've got a group of

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people on the board and you've got to keep the board happy. If you're personally working

39:29.420 --> 39:37.560
as an employee of a corporation, the tithe is, again, like an employee. What you receive from the

39:37.560 --> 39:46.140
corporation, that's increasing you. If your business is a closed corporation, because I don't think

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we have any public corporations here. I don't think I have to go any deeper in that one,

39:49.300 --> 39:53.260
do I? If we do, come talk to me later. But I don't think we have any publicly

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traded corporations or publicly funded corporations. But we might have some closed

39:57.760 --> 40:02.600
corporations. It's usually a small group of people, sometimes Christians, sometimes a closed

40:02.600 --> 40:09.120
corporation is a family-owned corporation. It's a business where the family has put the business

40:09.120 --> 40:15.060
under corporation. Here I say this, consider having the corporation tithe annually on how

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it's increased, because the way corporation works, all the money flows into the corporation

40:18.780 --> 40:25.120
and then the family is paid salaries out of the corporation and whatever's left over stays

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in the corporation and then the corporation has to pay its own taxes on what's left there.

40:34.560 --> 40:42.200
We'll let the corporation pay tithes. Have you ever heard of that?

40:45.240 --> 40:49.240
I mean, it's increasing the corporation, let the corporation pay tithes.

40:49.740 --> 40:51.840
Just saying, it's a thought, think about it.

40:53.520 --> 40:58.000
Well, somebody's going to say, we shouldn't have to tithe on the income that is used

40:58.000 --> 41:04.360
for expenses. It's not doing anything for us. Well, number one, we shouldn't have to tithe.

41:05.180 --> 41:11.820
That concept of tithing is wrong. You don't have to tithe. We're not under the law.

41:13.460 --> 41:20.520
But there are reasons for tithing. Test time, what are the four reasons for tithing?

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We've been over this number of times. So between all of us, we should be able to

41:26.400 --> 41:31.080
remember it. What are the four reasons for tithing? Why does God in the New Testament want us to tithe?

41:32.780 --> 41:42.350
It's a test of our love or our heart to provide for the kingdom.

41:44.450 --> 41:51.110
Obedience, someone said it's obedience. If you love me, you will obey me. So obedience comes in under love.

41:52.450 --> 41:55.490
Love, test of our heart, provide for the kingdom.

41:59.890 --> 42:05.230
Give back what belongs to him. It actually all belongs to him, but he asked for the tenth of it.

42:05.550 --> 42:07.710
Why does he want that tenth? The last one is?

42:11.000 --> 42:15.400
Provide for the kingdom. No, my mistake, that's not the last one. That was the second one.

42:15.560 --> 42:17.420
Provide for the kingdom. I got the last one of my notes.

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Test of your heart. Provide for the kingdom. Give back to God what's his.

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God says there's something in it for you if you'll do this.

42:31.980 --> 42:44.440
God uses it to open the door for prosperity for us. He uses it to open the door for prosperity

42:45.040 --> 42:51.740
for us. And there's... I mean, the Old Testament scriptures are good on it, but the New Testament

42:51.740 --> 42:57.620
are even better. I mean, when God says, just check this out.

42:58.220 --> 43:03.880
Test me sometime. Bring your tithes and I'll open the windows of heaven and dump a blessing on you.

43:04.080 --> 43:18.070
You will not have a way to contain it all. That's Old Testament. I mean, that's not a bad reason to

43:18.070 --> 43:33.410
try it. Yeah? So you don't have to tithe. We're not under law, but there's many good reasons to

43:33.410 --> 43:39.470
do it. We've talked about them. I don't want to go over it. Number two, do your expenses increase,

43:39.770 --> 43:46.650
produce, yield anything for you? Of course they do. Now, let me just give you my experience.

43:47.330 --> 43:51.370
My experience, ministers are self-employed. We take deductions on our taxes. We're considered

43:51.370 --> 43:57.270
sole proprietors, blah, blah, blah, blah. I believe what Paul said about the things of

43:57.270 --> 44:02.490
abounding and being abased or having more than enough or not having enough. I believe

44:02.490 --> 44:09.270
what he has said about them. In my perspective, both are good. We love abounding more,

44:09.550 --> 44:16.790
but being abased or having a really, really tight financial picture is good for us during

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certain seasons of life. So let me explain to you why I say that. Number one, it helps us learn

44:27.190 --> 44:38.850
both sides, but I will say this. When you're abased and you just are scraping by, that's

44:38.850 --> 44:47.710
where you actually learn faith. That's where you learn it. Dear God, if he doesn't step in,

44:48.530 --> 44:54.110
we're in trouble. You know what? You're going to start exercising your faith in those times

44:54.670 --> 44:59.250
way, way more. You're going to start studying faith. You're going to start trying to grow in it

44:59.250 --> 45:06.230
way, way more than if you've got two years worth of money laying in the bank and everything is fine.

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You're going to depend on that. You're not going to be walking around claiming things by faith

45:11.590 --> 45:18.710
unless you've already learned, you know, things can get tight. So we've got to learn

45:18.710 --> 45:25.050
faith and we've got to stay in faith. When you've got two years extra for your whole

45:25.050 --> 45:30.650
business laying in the bank, stay in faith. Keep calling it, keep pushing it. Do not back out of

45:30.650 --> 45:38.190
faith. You back out of faith, all of a sudden that starts evaporating. Stay in faith. So

45:38.190 --> 45:43.170
personal example. In 1989, I had a friend who died in Colorado and they wanted me to do the

45:43.170 --> 45:49.190
funeral. The church out there was about three years old at that point, really struggling to survive

45:49.190 --> 45:56.250
financially. And I had a drive to Greeley and up to Estes Park in the mountains and back to

45:56.250 --> 46:02.030
northern Denver, about 145 mile round trip. And I did not have the money to pay for the gas

46:02.030 --> 46:07.390
for that trip. I had to put the gas for that trip on credit card because I didn't have the

46:07.390 --> 46:17.710
money to pay for the gas. Okay? Technically, that gas was an expense to me. And at the end

46:17.710 --> 46:24.790
of the year, when I did taxes, I would deduct the cost of that gas. But do you know what he

46:24.790 --> 46:32.610
taught me that weekend? Even what you think are expenses that you deduct in your taxes?

46:34.530 --> 46:43.610
Somehow producing your life, don't they? So, tithe on what you need for gas in the vehicle.

46:43.890 --> 46:47.670
Well, I'll write that off. Well, you don't have to write it off if you don't have it.

46:50.290 --> 46:55.270
So, believe God to have it. Tithe on it and then you can write off the expense in your

46:55.270 --> 47:01.530
taxes. I learned that. You say, why did you learn that? Because we were in an abased

47:03.250 --> 47:11.150
situation. We were so close to going under. That's when the flesh tries to figure out

47:11.150 --> 47:19.210
how to get out of tithing. Surely, God wouldn't want me to tithe with the financial situation

47:19.210 --> 47:24.790
we're in. No, you're actually the one who needs it the most. Because there's promises tied to

47:24.790 --> 47:29.670
it. And if you'll be faithful to it, you won't be in that situation for the rest of your life.

47:30.650 --> 47:37.750
Tires on your car, heat and electricity in the house, etc. They actually produce something in

47:37.750 --> 47:45.050
your life. I learned it that weekend. So, things that we actually have to

47:45.050 --> 47:51.030
fath for, we learn how to do that when we have to fath for it.

47:52.410 --> 47:58.090
That's why we do our children a huge injustice if we give them everything and not make them

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believe or earn or work for some things. You just keep handing it to them. They're going to come

48:04.010 --> 48:10.750
into adulthood and have a horrible shock. Where is the money supposed to come from?

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You failed as a parent. You should have taught them that when they were early teenagers.

48:17.530 --> 48:20.370
You're going to have to set your alarm clock, go out and get a job and work.

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That's where the money comes from. I thought you would give it to me.

48:24.830 --> 48:30.430
Well, at some point that ends, hopefully. Some parents it doesn't end with, but I mean

48:32.690 --> 48:40.230
you learn certain scriptural principles when you are shoved in a corner and it's like,

48:40.910 --> 48:45.490
this is not God. So, I'm going to learn some things here and come out of this situation.

48:46.370 --> 48:52.610
So, let's make a run for the end here. No one can serve two masters. You're either

48:52.610 --> 48:55.870
going to be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

48:56.990 --> 49:03.790
Notice, love one and despise the other and then he ties love and despising to God and money.

49:05.030 --> 49:11.230
It is possible to love money. That's why Paul said the love of money is the root of all evil.

49:12.230 --> 49:17.330
You want evil to break loose in your house? Love your money more than what God's asking

49:17.330 --> 49:25.510
you to do and don't tithe. It is the root of all evil. It will just break out every direction.

49:26.350 --> 49:30.250
No servant is this how the Amplified reads it. No servant can serve two masters. He will

49:30.250 --> 49:34.230
either hate one and love the other. He'll stand by and be devoted to one and despise the other.

49:34.310 --> 49:40.170
You cannot serve God and mammon or riches or anything in which you trust and you rely on.

49:41.030 --> 49:48.190
A couple real quick examples. Where this church is at now and Red Lake being an outreach for us,

49:48.470 --> 49:51.870
there are certain things we have to do. I have to run up there today and there's stuff we're

49:51.870 --> 49:56.530
going to be doing service tonight and stuff. And sometimes you got to spend money to do the

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stuff to buy what you need to do. Where the church is at now, it's like, cool, we'll just

50:02.830 --> 50:07.870
right check out and go get what we need and go up and take care of it. In 2011,

50:07.870 --> 50:15.390
I believe it was 11, when God asked Mary and I and Jim and the band to go to North Dakota,

50:15.570 --> 50:21.050
hold some special meetings, not in a church, alongside a church, to try to kick it back

50:21.050 --> 50:24.470
into gear. That was our assignment to try to kick that church back into gear.

50:26.630 --> 50:28.290
We didn't have the money to do that.

50:30.710 --> 50:38.090
That was Jim was living in Denver. We flew him up. We had a rent room in a motel.

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We all stayed at people's houses. I think most of us paid our own expenses.

50:45.850 --> 50:50.830
It was tight. So we were believing God was going to supply the money.

50:51.490 --> 50:54.770
Because when it's tight, that's when you actually go, I better use my faith.

50:56.330 --> 50:59.210
When you got plenty, you just pulled the checkbook out. But when it's tight, it's like,

50:59.370 --> 51:03.890
you know, I probably should start believing for something here. So when it was over,

51:05.690 --> 51:08.690
my brother who lives there, he was part of what we were doing. He asked, he said,

51:08.750 --> 51:10.950
so how did the finances turn out for this? I said, awesome.

51:13.050 --> 51:16.470
He said, really? I said, yeah, we broke even. Now, he's a businessman.

51:18.210 --> 51:24.610
I said, we broke even. Our major expenses all got paid. Well, how much you get out of it?

51:25.730 --> 51:28.110
Okay. Now, listen, brother, I'm going to talk to you about ministry now.

51:30.270 --> 51:32.650
This isn't a business venture. This is ministry.

51:33.750 --> 51:38.510
When you step out and do a ministry kind of thing, and you actually break even,

51:39.510 --> 51:46.290
you rejoice, don't you, Jim? Because many times you pay for it comes out of your checkbook.

51:46.790 --> 51:52.790
I said, we broke even. This is great. You know what he said? I don't think I could

51:52.790 --> 51:57.670
live like that. Well, that's why you're not in the ministry and I am.

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It was all expenses to us, but we were thankful for the money to pay the expenses. Here's my point.

52:07.110 --> 52:11.830
There's a difference between a bounding and being a based. When you have the resources,

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the decision can be made on whether God is asking you to do something or he's not asking

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you. It's not made on the basis of money because you've got the money. When you don't have the

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resources or fear, selfishness kind of thing gets in charge, the decision is often made on

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the basis of money. Can we afford it? Not on whether God is asking you to do it or not.

52:44.970 --> 52:53.930
Now go back to that scripture. No one can serve two masters. Well, we can't do this because we

52:53.930 --> 52:57.910
don't have the money, but I thought you said God's asking us to do it. Well, he is, but we don't have

52:57.910 --> 53:03.530
the money, so we're not doing it. Who are you serving? God or money? Which one are you serving?

53:04.110 --> 53:07.310
You're serving money. Money is telling you what you can and you can't do.

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Now worry not, faith people, somebody's going to say this.

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Well, pastor, that's when you need to step out in faith. 100% agreement with you.

53:19.650 --> 53:23.970
So let me put the shoe off of my foot and slip it onto yours.

53:25.770 --> 53:29.410
You know that number that God dropped in your heart that you're supposed to give

53:29.410 --> 53:34.550
to the building fund? Well, yeah, we can't afford that. You need to step out in faith.

53:38.820 --> 53:43.060
Don't tell me to wear the faith shoe and you're dancing around out here and you don't

53:43.060 --> 53:47.980
have to put it on. God's going to ask you to put it on too and I'm in agreement with you.

53:48.460 --> 53:53.180
When God says do something, do it. We made that trip. We didn't have the money.

53:55.080 --> 53:57.660
Mary and I were going to pay for that trip out of our own account.

53:58.920 --> 54:03.320
That's how you looked at it. You ministered. The word minister means to serve at your own

54:03.320 --> 54:07.880
expense. God told us to do it. We're doing it. So whether we have the money or not,

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God told us to do it. We're doing it. And then you believe God to pay for it.

54:17.100 --> 54:26.000
That's serving God. Serving money is, well, we don't have the resources.

54:28.640 --> 54:35.120
So I guess we just can't do it. You can't serve both. Well, I love God with all my

54:35.120 --> 54:39.220
heart. We just don't have the money. Wait a second. He said money and love are tied

54:39.220 --> 54:46.940
together when it comes to God. You either love God and obey Him or you love money and you despise God.

54:49.620 --> 54:52.920
So when he asks us to do this building thing, it's like, well,

54:53.260 --> 55:00.080
to begin with, I lost sleep over that. It's like, are you serious, God?

55:02.280 --> 55:09.520
Multi-million dollar building? My flesh was going, there's no way. There's no way. This is stupid.

55:09.900 --> 55:15.440
Don't even try. You're going to look stupid. No way. That's why we had like 10 or 15

55:15.440 --> 55:20.300
confirmations. If you go back and watch that original message, we had like 10 or 15 different

55:20.300 --> 55:24.820
confirmations. We're supposed to do this. Well, see now I'm going to decide what I love the most.

55:26.180 --> 55:30.500
Am I going to love God enough to abandon? We don't have the money. God didn't care

55:30.500 --> 55:33.720
whether we had the money or not. In fact, usually when he asks you to do something,

55:33.840 --> 55:40.520
you don't have the money because that's how God works. So you stay in faith. Are we going to

55:40.520 --> 55:44.600
do this? Or are we going to say we don't have the money so God, we can't do it?

55:45.620 --> 55:48.280
Which one are you serving? Which one are you loving?

55:51.060 --> 55:58.540
Huh. When we're abased is when we truly decide who we're going to serve, God or money.

55:59.240 --> 56:04.820
When he asks you to build a building and you've got 50,000 in the building fund and he wants

56:04.820 --> 56:12.620
100 times that, 10 times that, whatever, in our case 100 times that,

56:13.720 --> 56:18.540
now you're going to decide who you truly serve. It's where we learn faith.

56:22.850 --> 56:30.590
Side thought, that's why church boards that ultimately control the finances of the church

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typically do a horrible job. Now some church boards are not bad, but most of the time

56:41.480 --> 56:47.080
the church board that decides what the church is going to spend money on do a horrible job

56:47.080 --> 56:54.080
because they look at it from the money side, not what God told them to do.

56:55.560 --> 57:03.380
We can't afford it. We're businessmen. We know there's not enough money here,

57:03.660 --> 57:06.520
but God told us to do it. Well, I'm sorry, we can't do it.

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Well, there you go. Now you're going to be disobedient to God. Oh, but we love God.

57:13.320 --> 57:16.140
That's not an issue. No, you actually love money more than God because you're not even

57:16.140 --> 57:21.160
willing to believe for it. You're just going to next the whole project.

57:22.940 --> 57:27.700
Serving God no matter what is learned in seasons when we don't have enough money,

57:28.080 --> 57:31.160
but God tells us to do something and you find a way to do it anyway.

57:32.120 --> 57:38.020
He will prove himself faithful in that. Now living in abundance and abounding has

57:38.020 --> 57:42.980
lessons too. Here's the biggest one. Some of you might not like this. Here's the biggest

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lesson I've seen that needs to be learned by people who have a lot of money.

57:47.800 --> 57:50.840
Get out of your sense and reasoning and learn to follow the Holy Spirit.

57:54.600 --> 58:02.260
Businessmen tend to be the worst at this. It has to make sense on paper or we're not doing it.

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Where's God in all this? Get out of your head, follow the Spirit. You say,

58:11.690 --> 58:18.470
why? Because the mind of the flesh which is sense and reasoning without the Holy Spirit is death.

58:20.630 --> 58:26.790
That's why we have to follow the Spirit. Whether we're abased or we're abounding,

58:27.110 --> 58:32.090
we have to follow the Spirit. So from my perspective, Scripture indicates tithing should

58:32.090 --> 58:36.710
be done on the gross income. Some exceptions, corporations, especially a closed corporation

58:36.710 --> 58:43.690
or private corporation. Bottom line is you. You will need to come to the conclusion of what

58:43.690 --> 58:49.130
you're going to do. Entithing, giving offerings, giving a net, the gross, be extravagant,

58:49.250 --> 58:54.330
give or whatever. Is it a heaven or hell issue? No, because we're not under law.

58:55.170 --> 59:00.370
But it is a love issue. I mean that shows up in Scripture over and over. Paul flat

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out said it. He said, I'm testing to see how much you love God by looking at your giving.

59:06.750 --> 59:13.810
No, it's not a heaven or hell issue. Unless God commands you to do something and you rebelle

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on him, well now it could become a heaven or hell issue. Not because of the money,

59:18.470 --> 59:24.030
but because you rebelled. That's now the issue. But in and of itself, you say, well, I'm not

59:24.030 --> 59:27.530
a tither. Am I going to hell? I don't know. I'm not the judge. Ask him.

59:29.510 --> 59:34.570
Scriptureally, I don't think you are. But let me ask you a couple questions.

59:36.130 --> 59:39.510
In the big picture of life, not just finances, in the big picture of life,

59:39.650 --> 59:43.050
how is your marriage doing? How is your family doing? How is your health doing?

59:43.450 --> 59:49.290
How is all this stuff going? Because see, financial giving affects it all. That's what

59:49.290 --> 59:55.530
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 9. Affects it all. So here's what I want to leave you with,

59:55.530 --> 01:00:00.270
and we're not going to have a prayer line, so this is something you do take home and chew on.

01:00:02.250 --> 01:00:07.610
Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest

01:00:07.610 --> 01:00:13.770
with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in

01:00:13.770 --> 01:00:20.950
handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? This is Jesus talking.

01:00:21.510 --> 01:00:25.050
And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property,

01:00:26.330 --> 01:00:29.970
who will give you property of your own? Now there's a couple of questions here.

01:00:31.370 --> 01:00:33.370
Jesus is saying, can I trust you?

01:00:36.170 --> 01:00:40.550
Well, how is he going to figure that one out? He just told you.

01:00:42.050 --> 01:00:51.870
I am going to give you physical financial money, wealth, and how you handle that will

01:00:51.870 --> 01:01:00.870
tell me if I can trust you with the real riches. That's not the real riches, not the true riches.

01:01:01.690 --> 01:01:08.670
How you deal with that will show me if you're trustworthy. His point is this,

01:01:09.810 --> 01:01:14.770
there are the two questions. Here's his point. If we can't handle worldly wealth,

01:01:15.190 --> 01:01:21.590
which includes money and tithing, if we can't do that correctly, we are disqualifying ourselves

01:01:21.590 --> 01:01:31.330
for God's true riches. If you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property,

01:01:31.870 --> 01:01:34.490
scripturally, the tithe doesn't belong to us, please, belongs to God.

01:01:36.290 --> 01:01:41.750
You can't be trusted with property of your own. Now it's not talking physical property,

01:01:41.870 --> 01:01:46.710
that's talking true riches that he referenced in there. We don't have the time to go into that.

01:01:46.830 --> 01:01:52.730
What is true riches? But I can sum it up this way. It's anything that produces for eternity

01:01:54.010 --> 01:02:01.370
is a true rich, true riches. But his point is if you can't handle the almighty dollar,

01:02:01.370 --> 01:02:09.030
so to speak, do you ever wonder where that phrase comes from? The almighty dollar.

01:02:11.090 --> 01:02:15.310
I thought he was the almighty. Oh no, it's the almighty dollar.

01:02:17.710 --> 01:02:20.750
I mean, just think about that. It's like, yeah, we got that one out of order.

01:02:22.570 --> 01:02:27.250
He's the almighty. The dollar is just this little piddly thing down here. But

01:02:28.650 --> 01:02:33.930
he wants to trust us with true riches. Now notice this, no servant can serve two masters. He's

01:02:33.930 --> 01:02:37.310
either going to hate the one, love the other. We read that. You cannot serve both God and money.

01:02:38.290 --> 01:02:47.890
The Pharisees who loved money heard this and sneered at Jesus. What a fool. He's trying

01:02:47.890 --> 01:02:55.050
to get our money. He said to them, you are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men,

01:02:55.050 --> 01:03:02.350
but God knows your heart. What is highly valued among men? He's talking to Pharisees who love money.

01:03:02.890 --> 01:03:10.350
He could have said, what you love, which is money, that love of money is detestable in God's sight.

01:03:11.690 --> 01:03:22.800
Money is not detestable, but the love of it is. God detests that. So the big question is,

01:03:24.700 --> 01:03:34.770
can God trust us with money? We'll see financial giving and tithing and all kinds of stuff is

01:03:34.770 --> 01:03:40.250
into that. Alms is all part of that. It's not just tithing. It goes way bigger than that.

01:03:41.530 --> 01:03:45.230
James 2 says we're supposed to help our brother in need, not just pay for them, but actually

01:03:45.230 --> 01:03:52.390
give them something to help them. Matthew 6 says focus on spiritual priorities over gaining wealth.

01:03:52.390 --> 01:04:00.610
Seek ye first the kingdom and his righteousness, then these things will be added to you.

01:04:01.090 --> 01:04:09.370
Which one are we speaking the most in our heart? What God wants or financial prosperity?

01:04:10.990 --> 01:04:22.370
Matthew 6, don't worry about supplying your own needs. So literally when we're in that

01:04:22.370 --> 01:04:30.460
with money, I mean, you ever think about that? He said, don't worry about it. I got it.

01:04:32.140 --> 01:04:35.480
We don't have enough money for the house payment. I don't know what we're gonna do.

01:04:35.920 --> 01:04:38.000
He's looking at me and saying, yeah, I can't trust you with money

01:04:39.880 --> 01:04:42.960
because I just told you how to look at money and you refused to do it.

01:04:43.880 --> 01:04:46.440
Trust me, not money. I'll get you the money for your house payment.

01:04:48.560 --> 01:04:49.060
Walmart's hiring.

01:04:53.300 --> 01:05:01.750
Go get a job. You see, you can't be serious. I am serious. I have people sit in my office who

01:05:01.750 --> 01:05:07.210
are not working saying we can't afford our house. Get a job. Those who don't work should not eat.

01:05:07.670 --> 01:05:16.110
Read that someplace. Get a job. Well, I don't like to work. Join humanity.

01:05:20.530 --> 01:05:24.650
Do not love money. Don't focus on getting rich. First him of the sex.

01:05:27.650 --> 01:05:34.070
Don't focus on getting rich. That's one of the ways God's measuring us to see if we know

01:05:34.070 --> 01:05:40.290
how to handle money. Is money serving us? Or are we so focused on getting rich that now

01:05:40.290 --> 01:05:49.110
we're serving it? If he can trust us with money, we cannot be focused on

01:05:49.670 --> 01:05:54.990
I'm going to get rich. We have to be focused on I'm going to seek his kingdom first.

01:05:56.570 --> 01:06:01.030
And I'll do my jobs down here. And if it turns out I get rich, so be it. But if I don't,

01:06:02.210 --> 01:06:08.570
the correct order is don't try to focus on getting rich. It's wrong.

01:06:10.310 --> 01:06:17.850
When you give, do it cheerfully. That's one of the rules he's looking at to say,

01:06:17.850 --> 01:06:22.030
hey, can I trust you with money? You know that $100 you got in your bill full-throw in the offering?

01:06:23.270 --> 01:06:28.970
Dear God, what? The whole thing? Can I rip it in half? Give the other half some different?

01:06:31.390 --> 01:06:35.030
I ain't doing that. Now he just wants a cheerful giver. Oh, you want that? Cool.

01:06:35.450 --> 01:06:39.930
Thank you, Jesus. I can give away $100 that I already was planning to spend. But it's

01:06:39.930 --> 01:06:46.290
yours now. Glory to God. He's looking at that to see if he can give you a thousand dollars.

01:06:51.140 --> 01:06:56.340
Lay ups for yourself treasures in heaven, not on earth. How do you do that by giving to the poor?

01:06:56.620 --> 01:07:04.240
Matthew 6. Tied to your church. Matthew 23, 1 Corinthians 9, 1 Corinthians 16, Hebrew 7.

01:07:05.900 --> 01:07:09.760
Pay your taxes. Matthew 22. Can I trust you with money?

01:07:13.900 --> 01:07:20.180
When you file your taxes, he's watching. Pay your taxes.

01:07:21.880 --> 01:07:26.880
That doesn't have anything to do with living in prosperity. That has everything to do with it.

01:07:27.640 --> 01:07:36.140
Because for God to give you the true riches, he's watching how you handle money and finances.

01:07:37.380 --> 01:07:42.300
You say, well, how are they connected? Well, when you get sick and you can't run your business

01:07:42.300 --> 01:07:48.400
and it's starting to go backwards because it's not gaining income and you go to God to get

01:07:48.400 --> 01:07:52.860
healed and nothing happens and you go to doctors and they say we're trying but we can't do much.

01:07:54.100 --> 01:08:03.040
You know what you need right there? Some true riches. You need healing. You need a miracle.

01:08:03.960 --> 01:08:07.020
And God's looking at you and saying, well, I can't trust you with one

01:08:08.320 --> 01:08:14.960
because you keep ripping off the government. I told you, give Caesar what is Caesar's?

01:08:14.960 --> 01:08:19.780
Pay your taxes. Show me that and I can give you some true riches here.

01:08:22.340 --> 01:08:25.380
I mean, there are sometimes Christians we paint ourselves on our own corner.

01:08:27.540 --> 01:08:33.940
Can God trust us? Boy, I was rattling around in my mind when Igor was talking about a

01:08:33.940 --> 01:08:39.100
bride church this morning. Is God going to marry somebody he can't trust?

01:08:41.420 --> 01:08:43.220
I wouldn't marry somebody I can't trust.

01:08:48.920 --> 01:08:53.720
No wonder so many Christians struggle to get answers to prayer or get answers to promises in the word.

01:08:54.540 --> 01:09:00.140
We've proven our self untrustworthy to God. He can't give us the true riches of the kingdom.

01:09:04.180 --> 01:09:07.800
How do you fall in under that principle? Are you trustworthy to God?

01:09:09.020 --> 01:09:13.940
Well, how would he know? By he's watching your finances. He gave all kinds of things in the

01:09:13.940 --> 01:09:16.740
scripture that says this how you handle it and just stay in the New Testament if you

01:09:16.740 --> 01:09:20.540
want. This how you handle your finances. He's watching to see if you do it that way.

01:09:21.400 --> 01:09:28.040
If you do it that way, he trusts you with true riches. He trusts you. Are we trustworthy?

01:09:29.480 --> 01:09:33.220
But pastor, I'm struggling so much financially I can't see how I could give a tithe.

01:09:34.440 --> 01:09:40.600
Cool. We've all been there. Step out in faith and give five dollars a week every week

01:09:41.180 --> 01:09:46.120
and believe for the income to come in that you can give 10 and work it up.

01:09:46.800 --> 01:09:52.920
God said, test me on this. He loves to be tested whether he can come through for us or not.

01:09:54.580 --> 01:10:00.800
Test him on it. But pastor, I don't trust the church. I've been hurt by the church.

01:10:02.080 --> 01:10:05.660
I can't give 10% of the church. Church hurt me really bad.

01:10:06.580 --> 01:10:09.220
Well, let me give you a news flash from this side of the fence.

01:10:11.180 --> 01:10:19.600
If the church hurt you and it could have, I'd almost guarantee you've also hurt the church

01:10:19.600 --> 01:10:29.100
with your mouth, with your gossip, with your attitude, with your criticism.

01:10:31.480 --> 01:10:34.560
You've done the church damage. Well, the church hurt me. Well, what have you done?

01:10:35.800 --> 01:10:39.980
You've hurt the church. So how about we all grow up and move on?

01:10:42.140 --> 01:10:47.440
What about that for a concept? How about we all just grow up? Yeah, the church hurt me.

01:10:47.540 --> 01:10:53.720
And you know what? Yeah, you hurt me too. And you hurt our endeavor. So how about I forgive you

01:10:53.720 --> 01:10:59.800
and you forgive me? And we just move on, rather than just being locked down here going,

01:10:59.800 --> 01:11:11.570
why can't I grow? Get over it. Grow. Or you'll be stuck the rest of your life.

01:11:12.750 --> 01:11:20.170
Tithing, financial giving is one of the most underrated tools God has given us

01:11:20.170 --> 01:11:29.390
to succeed in all of life. Every part of our life is touched by our tithe, our financial

01:11:29.390 --> 01:11:39.730
giving, and whether he can trust us or not. So, whoa, now we've got five reasons

01:11:40.810 --> 01:11:47.850
for tithing or financial giving. You listed the four. The fifth one is he's watching how we

01:11:47.850 --> 01:11:54.370
handle earthly possessions to see if we're trustworthy to be given the true riches.

01:11:56.330 --> 01:12:02.790
Many times the true riches are not active in Christians' lives. Oh, God never answers my prayers.

01:12:02.990 --> 01:12:07.850
It's not like God's presence ever shows up in my house. I said, are you a tither?

01:12:08.930 --> 01:12:13.810
Well, I don't see where they're connected. I do. He don't trust you.

01:12:17.580 --> 01:12:24.580
You've proven you're untrustworthy. See, that had been a good spot for you to go.

01:12:27.770 --> 01:12:34.550
Not to the thought that we're untrustworthy, but to the fact now you actually see your answer.

01:12:38.420 --> 01:12:43.280
This is one of the answers why Christians don't live victoriously or overcomingly.

01:12:44.280 --> 01:12:48.960
God doesn't trust this enough to give us what we need to do it. The true riches.

01:12:50.080 --> 01:12:54.360
Because we don't trust God enough. We're full of fear. We're full of selfishness. We're

01:12:54.360 --> 01:12:57.680
whatever. We don't trust God enough to give him what he's asking for.

01:12:59.320 --> 01:13:00.380
See, time of harvest.

01:13:03.200 --> 01:13:06.600
So that should give you something to chew on this week.

01:13:10.460 --> 01:13:13.440
And you have to figure out, what is God asking you to do?

01:13:15.520 --> 01:13:20.200
You may be legitimately in a position. There is absolutely no way I could afford to tithe.

01:13:20.560 --> 01:13:22.200
It's okay. What is he asking you to do?

01:13:23.760 --> 01:13:28.820
Because if you will prove yourself at least making the effort to be trustworthy.

01:13:30.860 --> 01:13:38.340
What does scripture say? Hebrews 11, 6, God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

01:13:39.440 --> 01:13:46.540
Seek to do the right thing. Make the effort. God rewards effort. Make the effort and you

01:13:46.540 --> 01:13:52.060
will find he will start rewarding that. And it won't take very long. It might take a year.

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It might take two years, three years, depending upon how deep the hole is that you have already dug.

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It won't take very long. You'll be going, oh yeah. Remember when we used to sweat bullets to give

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five bucks a Sunday? That's nothing to us now. Why? Because you proved yourself trustworthy.

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Keep growing. Keep growing. I'm done. This is for somebody, somebody's.

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Don't put a limit on what God can ask of you concerning his property. Remember the covenant

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thing? Everything I own technically is God's. I say I own it, but technically it's God's. The

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whole earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Don't put a limit on how much you can

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give. Take the limit off and make it a goal. God's asking some of us to give $10,000, $50,000,

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and this is not a bidding war. I'm trying to say in our head we've said I will never give more than

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$100 one time. Well, you got yourself in shackles. What if God asked you to give

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$500? Well, you ain't going to do it. Well, as you measure it, it'll be measured back to you.

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I don't understand why we're always scraping to get by. Because you're not willing to take the

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shackles off and obey God. The first time Mary and I gave $500 thought we were going to die.

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It's like $500. This is 40 years ago. It's when a good paying job was 10 bucks an hour.

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So $500 is like the time they take taxes out and everything else. That's almost two weeks work.

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$500? You got to be kidding me.

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And then he asked for $1,000. Then he asked for $5,000. Then he asked for $10,000.

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God, we don't have $10,000. You know what he said? Check your savings.

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See, somehow we think our savings is ours and our checkbook is his.

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Well, it's my savings. No, actually it's his. He gave you the money to put in there and now

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he's asking for some back. I won't give you the number that made us swallow the hardest.

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It's irrelevant. The point is, when he asks, get rid of the ceiling.

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And say, you know what? We've only been able to give $100 at a time. The day's coming, I'm going

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to give $1,000. And it won't affect our living whatsoever. We will live just fine. And we're

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going to have enough, I can give $1,000. We're going to have enough, I can give $5,000.

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Rather than the reverse of, oh God, don't ever ask me for $5,000. I don't know if I could

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ever do that. No, the day's coming. This is a goal, bucket list. The day's coming,

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I'm going to give $5,000. Days coming, some of us might be $100,000. I don't know. The day's coming,

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I can give that. And you know what? We're still going to live just fine. We will have prospered to

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that point. That's the goal. That's how Christians should look at it. That's cheerful giving.

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I'm looking for the day. I can write out the check. Here you go, missionary. $50,000.

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Quit running around to churches trying to get support. Just get on the field. That's my goal.

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Rather than, oh, they still need $50,000. I wonder if they're ever going to make it.

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I sure don't have that. I only have $750,000 in my savings.

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But that's for retirement. It's my money. What if God says I want $50,000 of it?

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Don't be moaned that. Grow in faith. Remember, you told me, well, pastor,

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you just got to believe God's going to supply. Let me say that back to you.

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Well, people, you just got to believe God's going to supply.

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Yes. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

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And I don't know how that fits in this, but it's an old saying.

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That's what my parents always said. Well, we got to do it. You got to do it too.

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It's good for the goose and good for the gander. Who's the gander and who's the goose?

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That's not the point. The point is we all have to do our share.

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So Lord, I'm asking, increase us in the faith you've already given us. Help us to

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learn to live in it. If we have faith as a grain of mustard seed,

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we can say to the mountain, the mountain might be that $10 donation. The mountain might be that

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$500,000 donation. We can say to the mountain,

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be thou removed and cast into the seed. The day is coming. I'm giving it.

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And I'm believing God will prosper me to the point where it will be there.

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Change our thinking, Father. Holy Spirit, work on us to where we're trustworthy.

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Trustworthy. To where the Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, you can look at us and say,

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I trust that person. I trust them. We've earned that trust. Get us to that point.

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If we're already there, grow us in our faith so we take the ceilings off.

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And we start realizing, hey, this is all about the kingdom and not about me getting rich.

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Me getting rich is showing God he can't trust me. Me saying, okay, God, kingdom's first. Yeah,

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I need my need supplied and I need to grow. And I love to get some wealth here so I can spread

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some around. But the kingdom's first. Now he can trust us. Grow us. Grow us. In Jesus' name.

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Grow us. In Jesus' name. Grow us. In Jesus' name. It may be evening before you get out of here.

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Grow us. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You're dismissed.