Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Worship in Giving Pt.4

Chuck was just reminding me that--we're excited tonight. We're having our first service tonight in Umoja, our new location in Nairobi, so--in fact; they've already had their service. We're running late. It's an exciting thing to see what God's doing. So just continue to be in prayer, and as the church is fellowshipping there, some good reports.

We're getting great reports back from Kakamega. Tony was out visiting, and the spirit of the people, excited--people that are wanting to do things according to the Word of God. It's truly a remnant in that--I don't even know really, how to describe the region to you other than the spiritual oppression is beyond imagination. The spirit of religion is so dominant that the gospel has been so diluted and so perverted--everyone believing that they're Christians. Kenya is probably as close to the days of Constantine as you can ever get. The government believes it's a Christian nation; it affects itself accordingly, and it's deluded. In the midst of that there's a light shining, praise God!

It's because of your faithfulness. We just ask you to continue to pray, and just as you warred in the heavenlies for the ability for us to come into the nation and get the registration, the battle is still raging. It's not less; it's going to be more. So when you pray, pray accordingly. Pray diligently and fervently, and we'll be able to see the miracles continue. It's exciting to see what God's doing. As we shared with you, now the church in Eldoret is one that we're looking at very strongly to lend oversight to, and it's exciting to see churches growing and people growing. So we just encourage you in that particular way.

Let me share one other thing. I must not have made it clear as we were talking about our giving over the next number of months. So if it wasn't clear--if I messed it up and made it as clear as mud--maybe this will be easier. Okay, we'll try one more time--third time. The question keeps being asked, Are we supposed to give 5% of our income, of our tithe, etc, etc.? Look, this will be easier, okay? Instead of giving 10% we're going to give 15%. Does that help? Of our salaries. Instead of 10% (the tithe), we're going to give 15% (an extra 5%) over that period of time. So hopefully that clears it up and makes things a lot easier for us.

Let's go to the book of Proverbs. We want to pick up where we started here, our foundational Scripture, and refresh our minds for just a moment before we go on to another aspect of honoring the Lord with our lives and our giving. In Proverbs, chapter 3, where we started the study, very well known verse to all of us, or to most of us. In verses 5 and 6, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him [And what does He do?], and he shall direct thy paths." Then He goes on, and He says to us at this particular juncture, (verse 7), "Be not wise in thine own eyes [don't trust in your own strength, your own ability; trust in the Lord with all of your heart; be not wise in your own eyes]: fear the Lord, and depart from evil" [the evil of being wise in your own eyes]. He refers back to verse 1, the wisdom of God, the law of God, the Word of God. "It [the Word of God, God's wisdom--in departing from wisdom and trust and self--God's wisdom] shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all of thine increase" (Proverbs 3:8-9).

So we have been talking about honoring the Lord with our giving, and not just giving, but honoring God. We looked at many of the different passages, and we saw the privilege that it was to give, and--who are we, and my people, that You would bestow this privilege upon us, that we could be involved in the worship of Your holy name? And Lord, continue to remind us that all we're doing is giving of Your own; we don't have anything of ourselves. Everything we give, You gave us (1 Chronicles 29:14-16). So we worship Him in our giving.

We looked into Malachi, and we saw that the Lord demanded honor. He said, I'm a Father, and I'm a Lord; and I demand of you honor, and I will not take your scraps. It's interesting then what we saw to be the scraps. If you remember in the study, He talked about bringing the halt and the maim and the blind; and it wasn't just the condition of those offerings, or in our vernacular of today, it wasn't just the amount. It was the motivation; it was the worship. When God said, You despise Me, and you've robbed from Me My honor, what He is basically saying is: you didn't honor Me with your giving. You didn't give out of hearts that recognized Me as the source--you did not realize and recognize My worth. So when the halt and the maim and the blind were referred to, He was referring to the condition of their hearts--that which caused them to despise Him.

Do you remember in that passage in Malachi, He said, You've despised the table of the Lord! Part of that despising was--is what's going to get into some of our study tonight--He said, You've despised the table of the Lord. You've despised My worship because you said it's vanity. In other words, I'm not alive. If I was alive and different from all of the idols and all of the other deaf gods, then shouldn't we--this is the people responding--shouldn't we then be experiencing Your presence in our lives?

So they were judging God's worth on what they were receiving from God rather than His worth based upon the revelation of Himself. They were responding to God based upon how they felt--whether God, in their eyes, was justified to receive this rather than God declaring Himself worthy and by faith bringing honor to God and by--and this is the most important thing--by revelation (a perception, a knowing, a communion with God) being able to honor Him then with their substance.

Proverbs 3 and Malachi 3 make a great conclusion, though, to true biblical worship in our giving. This is one of the things that we want to talk about tonight. When you come to God in faith and you honor the Lord with your substance, with the firstfruits of all of your increase--when you come to honor God, Malachi says, "...prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it" (Malachi 3: 10).

Proverbs 3 says it this way. Look at the next verse, and we'd be remiss not to go into verse 10. If all we did was talk about verse 9, we wouldn't be representing God's will in giving. "Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all of thine increase: [verse 10] So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine." God wants to bless His people, but He doesn't bless us on merit. God does not bless us because we gave "x" number of dollars. God's response to us is in direct correlation to the purity of our hearts and our worship of Him: the innocence of our hearts, the purity of our hearts, the diligence of our pursuit. And God says, those that honor Me, I'm going to bless them.

So we want to talk a little bit about preparing ourselves for the blessings of the Lord, because what's tragic is many of us come to the place of having our hearts filled when we encounter the glory of God, and we realize the value of the blood of Jesus and the free gift of God, and we experience reconciliation and deliverance from the power of sin. We see ourselves now free from all of the lust that used to hold us in bondage, and to those that are forgiven much, the Scripture says we love much. When we're first free in that liberty we come like those did in the building of the tabernacle, and we just can't bring enough to God. Then all of a sudden, because of that, God is present and we're victorious and we're blessed and all of our needs are being met. Then, the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the lust of other things begin to express themselves as the great enemy of our souls. Blessings of God can become a curse if you lose the worship, if you lose the honor--if somewhere along the line you begin to think you're worthy, or that you've earned, or that there's a merit. "This is mine. Because I gave, God must give to me." God is under no obligation to bless you. It's the fruit of His character; it's who He is as the lover of our souls.

So when we begin to look into the Scriptures we see then that as we honor God with our substance (with the firstfruits of all of our increase--we sow and worship into His presence) there's a natural byproduct of that. And that's His presence in our lives because the Scripture says the Lord inhabits the worship, the praise, of His people. What is, then, prosperity? Prosperity is the presence of God in our lives because it manifests itself in every area. His presence brings healing. His presence brings peace and joy and strength, victory over our enemies, illumination, revelation of whatever paths we're to find ourselves on, etc.

It's all about His presence. As we begin to train our children up for this generation that we're coming into, that's what we want to leave them as their treasure. We don't want to see our children trusting in a portfolio. We want to see our children trusting in a presence. Now there may be some type of a portfolio that's been set aside. You may have a little bit of savings, and you have your different accounts and whatever it is, but as we're going to see in the Scriptures, these things have a tendency, the Scripture says, to take wings and fly away. They're not forever, the Scripture says. There's no guarantee, to paraphrase God's Word to us, that it's going to go into that next generation. So what is it that we're causing our children to trust in and to hope in? We need to cause them to understand God wants to bless them in their lives, and it's part of the byproduct again of true biblical worship. When you seek first the Kingdom of God, His righteousness, all of the necessities then of life, the Scripture says, are added to us.

So as the blessings begin to come, let's make a distinction then, everyone of us in our minds, whether this increase is a blessing or a curse. You want me to tell you how to know the difference? The increase, the increase--is it a blessing, or is it a curse? Well, it all is contingent upon the source. If it's come by worldly methods, it's a curse because it's all under the curse. If it has come by spiritual methods, Proverbs 10:22, "The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it." When we see the source being the presence of God, it is the blessing.

So let's watch ourselves. So many of us say, "Oh man, God just blessed me with..." What did He bless you with? It's too bad that we're not in Charlotte, North Carolina, because it would be a better story in Charlotte. The Redskins are too good of a team. So it would be better to be down where the Panthers are, but--"God just blessed me with season tickets!" Okay? And the team never wins. So you miss church service six weeks out of the year to get frustrated, and that's the blessing of God? "God just blessed me with a new boat." So now every time the weather is good I'm on the lake or on the Bay or wherever it might be. "God just blessed me with a new cabin" somewhere. Now see, most of us don't have as much of a visible problem with that because we're not allowed to. How many of you know if you started spending every weekend on the Bay in your new Bayliner, somebody would probably be talking to you? Amen? Don't you have brothers and sisters that love you enough to say, "What's happening to you? You gone brain dead?"

The point that I want you to see is that every one of these things that some people would say is a blessing, the question we have to ask is: is it? Where did it come from? What is it being used for? What kind of worth have I placed upon it? We begin to look at substance in a different way, because substance as it increases, according to Proverbs 3, must still be used to what? Honor God. Now God blesses you. He says, You honor Me, and I will what? Bless you--I will prosper you. Well, now I've got more. Now when I get more, what does that verse require of me to do? Honor God. So once the honoring of God is out of the equation, it's now becoming a curse in our lives.

I just said all of that to say this: don't believe that all increase is a blessing. Begin to ask, "Where did it come from? How did I get it? Was it in the arm of the flesh (was it by worldly wisdom and worldly methods), or is this God's working and blessing me?" "Well, does that mean I stay at home and pray, and ravens fly it all in?" No, we're not talking about that. We're not saying that you don't live by the sweat of your brow and you don't go to a job. What we're talking about is recognizing what is bringing this. Is it the gift of God, and in the process, am I faithful? As I'm out here being faithful (going to work, doing what God's called me to do), am I representing Him in the process? Do I ever compromise His presence or His values to acquire increase? "Well, no. I don't lie to people and try to cheat them." I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about His values. I'm talking about: to get more, to increase, to be blessed of the Lord, are you spending an inordinate amount of time away from other responsibilities--seeing your children raised up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord? What about the fellowship of the saints? What about all of the different areas of responsibility that we have in the Kingdom of God--honoring Him? Many times, to honor God is to do without increase from the arm of the flesh and then in His time and His method, let Him bless us--because the blessings of the Lord make rich and they add no sorrow.

Deuteronomy, chapter 8, verse 18. Let's look at a couple of Scriptures here and understand then that God wants us blessed. Just don't let it be a curse. Now, we've heard the perverted teachings, haven't we? We've talked about them for decades--the people that try to tell us that "God wants to prosper you, and therefore He set up this system. Every dollar you give, He will give you a hundred back." We just shared with you that is not a biblical principle. You cannot find it in the Scriptures--it is not evidenced in anybody's life in that manner; there's no evidence of it working. It's just deception. It's a lie. It doesn't work that way.

What we do know is, the Scripture says, "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom..." (Luke 6:38). God uses the system. God will give you favor in the eyes of men and let you come and hire you and pay you a fair price for the work done, etc. God blesses you, and these things manifest in your life. We rejoice in the goodness of the Lord as long as all of the other things are orderly in our lives. But what is it that we're doing in the process of looking to honor God?

Deuteronomy 8:18 says, "But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he [and we know this passage] that giveth thee power to get wealth..." A lot of people say it's not God. You see, there's a lot of people that have a misconception and think that we're called to a form of asceticism and that the poorer you are and the more you do without in the material realm, the holier you are. That's not a biblical principle. Now, God sovereignly will bless some to a greater degree than others, and it has nothing to do with spiritual maturity, spiritual worth, spirituality. It has to do with sovereignty.

Now because this false doctrine was so prevalent in the church, the apostle John had to speak toward it because there were some people that said, Hey, the more spiritual you are the more prosperous you will be. They supposed then, the Scripture tells us, that gain is godliness). From such withdraw yourself, the Scripture says (1 Timothy 6:5). It's an abomination; it's heretical teaching--it's a lie. So settle that in your minds right now, and all this nonsense like the article that we read by T. D. Jakes the other night and all of the Kenneth Copeland and all of those guys are of that exact spirit--supposing that gain is godliness. "The more spiritual you are, the more committed to God you are, the richer you will become." Not so! Period! But God wants to prosper all of us.

Now, we've got to balance this out in our minds. The real safety feature of all of this comes when you realize, in this passage that we're looking at in chapter 8, it is the Lord that gives you power to get wealth, "...that he might [What?] Establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day." God gives us power to obtain wealth, but the reason is that something might happen--that He might establish what? His covenant.

Now, what does that mean? Well, a lot of these ministers we talked about said, The Lord will give you power to get wealth to support my vision. That's not what this is saying. The Lord gives you power to obtain wealth to establish what? His covenant. His covenant transcends both the ecclesiastical in the sense of the community, and it also has to do with the domestic; and it also, as always and most importantly, has to do with the individual relationship. The power that God is giving you to obtain substance (the increase of your substance, the filling of your barns, the breaking out of your presses)--when God's the source of it, it will be to establish, for whatever purpose in His sovereignty, these covenant promises: that I'll never leave you nor forsake you; that if you'll seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, all of these other things will be added unto you. To what degree will this increase come? I don't know; God's sovereign. However He chooses to increase your substance. But the one thing we do know is this: we don't know the amount, but we do know the source.

So the source of all wealth, the source of all prosperity to the believer is--say it. Who is it? God. It's the Lord that gives you power to obtain wealth. The blessings of the Lord make rich and add no sorrow. We're sharing all this because I shared Sunday my concern as we're coming into this new generation, and we see the spirit that's out there in the churches, as I read the little article from the T. D. Jakes thing. What an abomination! This man is standing there teaching preachers, as we shared the quote with you, you need to know more than the Bible; the Bible is not enough. I want to tell you it is enough! I want you young people to understand something: it is enough. There's nothing wrong with going on and getting an education. There's nothing wrong with learning different principles of business and how to apply these laws as we are in the world but not of it. There's nothing wrong with being in the world; it's being of it, the spirit.

Now, how do we keep ourselves separate? You see, it's not a visible thing; it's a spiritual thing. Those that worship the Lord worship Him in spirit and in truth. You can be in the world, but you're not of the world. The enemy has come, the Lord said, but he has nothing in Me (John 14:30). There's nothing in Me that he can take a hold of. I don't have any of those secret ambitions and lusts that are dominating My life. There isn't the hypocrisy and the pharisaical approach of spirituality that gives him place in My life, where there's dualism. God is My source!

Now, being in ministry, I've shared with you, so many times over the years it just--all the preachers, especially years ago--man, I hate using this phrase, and it just almost came out of my mouth so I'll go ahead and say it. Years ago, when I was younger, these preachers would come to me and say, "You know what you need to do? Right now, you need to start a business on the side." A very prominent business among preachers was Amway. Prey on your flock. Sell them suds, and make a living. Then, in the same pyramid method, they came up with cookware. Basically the preachers were--many preachers were insurance salesmen. Guess who they sold insurance to. So many people would share with me, "You need to get something, because one of these days you're going to get old." And I'm not, but I'm older. I've never taken a dime from any source other than God, and in the process have never sought any increase for myself.

So when we stand and share these principles, they're not only doctrine, they're a lifestyle. They're something that we've lived, and because of that, over the years we've never been able to be bought. Our lives have been free because we've never been able to be bought. Nobody can buy you off if God is your source, if your treasures and your values are on the spiritual, the unseen. So as we look at this and we begin to recognize God as the source and that riches and honor come of Him, 1 Chronicles 29 says, and if God wants me to prosper, then He's going to prosper me. He's the source, and it's a blessing of the Lord that makes rich and adds no sorrow.

Ecclesiastes 5 speaks very clearly to God's desire for you in this increase also, and it's something that I think is important for us to understand. Ecclesiastes 5:19, "Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth..." The source is who? God. Every man whom God has given riches and wealth. Let's say it another way. Let's say it based upon our foundational passage: every man that has honored God with their substance and then God has filled their treasuries and their presses are bursting out with new wine (increase)--every man who honors God and seeks God first. "Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God" (Ecclesiastes 5:19).

Let me share something with you. If you get increase and you're so fearful that you have to hoard it up and can't enjoy it, it's not from God. How fearful are you? How fearful are you that what is "God's" might go away? Where's your trust? Now, don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I'm not saying go out here and blow all your money. That's not what this is saying, but the blessings of the Lord make rich and add no sorrow. Increase is for a purpose. It's to be enjoyed; it's to be used. It's to glory in God and His provision, and so many are so bound in thinking that blessings are just counting numbers. If you're in that way, you're never free, as the rich man of 1 Timothy 6, to give to those that are in our midst because you're always counting numbers and trying to get more. You don't realize this stuff is to be enjoyed, and if not by you, guess what? This guy needs some of it; he needs a little joy. Can somebody out there say, Amen? Say, "I'm a volunteer. Send me some joy."

But see, this is the spirit of it all. This is what he's talking about. God wants to bless you, and it's not a blessing if it's just sitting there. He gives you power to eat. Aren't you glad that you're healthy enough to enjoy the blessings? Aren't you glad that all of God's "blessings" that have come to you, you're well enough to enjoy! It's no fun lying in a sick bed and having the guy come and give you a number count every week. "Guess what! Today you're worth this much." Well, what good does it do, man? "How much? [Wheeze, wheeze] How much? Thank you." Who cares? What's that all about? The blessings of the Lord. We need to see then that our prosperity is in being able to enjoy His presence and to not only have monetary, material gain, but to be healthy in our bodies and to be free in our spirits to give and to enjoy and to love our families.

I've shared with you so many times over the years, Janet and I--we've, with the kids, just tried to enjoy things with them now. When we're gone--who wants a chunk of change when you're gone? It's really funny--inheritances. Inheritances come when you don't need them. My mom--my grandmother is 93 years old--my mom is still waiting for her inheritance. I'm 55; I haven't got a dime. If my mom lives to be 90, I'm going to be 70--still, "Man, I can't wait to get my hands on that inheritance!" What's that all about? Enjoy it when you're young, praise God, and can enjoy it with your kids when they need it. I'll tell you when I needed it was when we were buying our first house. I mean that thing was a fortune. There was no way in the world to come up with that $500 down payment. I said a house, not a vacuum cleaner. We bought that 3-bedroom house for $11,000. That's when I needed it. I don't need it now.

Just trying to point out a spirit to you--that God wants us, in our prosperity, to be able to bless others and to enjoy the substance. I'm not talking again about squandering. The Bible makes it very clear--and I'm not going to get into that tonight--the fact that we need to save and we need to be wise in the way that we would invest in these particular areas in preparation, but we're seeing right now that true riches and wealth are the power to eat and to take the portion and to rejoice in the labor. This is the gift of God.

How about letting your kids watch you use some of this prosperity to bless some of those among us that aren't as blessed? We talked about that ability to give. It is more blessed to give than to receive. So this is the spirit that we're looking at in being able to honor God as the source of all of our substance, and we can honor Him when we're free of the fear and having to somehow try to hoard and--can I share something with you? When you get old, God isn't. He's not going to get old and decrepit like you. He'll still be able to take care of you, praise God. If we're afraid and we act any differently, then who are we really trusting in now? Our youth and our own strength, or God? So it's very important for us to understand our hearts and realize that God does want to bless us. As we faithfully honor Him, He's going to bless us proportionately to His sovereign purposes, and we're not all going to be the same. The church is not socialistic, communistic.

So many times people--we talked about the respect of persons and the respect of the poor. I had a couple of people come up to me afterwards. They said, "This is really a tough thing to deal with." You look around and there are needs that are here. You look around, even in the pastoral role, and people have different levels of how God has blessed them. "I just don't know how to respond. How do I respond to these things?" The way you respond is this: to realize you are not the equalizer, okay? You're not the equalizer. There's a reason why there's a difference. Does anybody know what the reason is? God is the reason. Because it's the Lord that gives power to obtain.

Now, I can throw out a whole bunch of things just to make a point. I don't want to get sidetracked with this, but there's a reason; and it's sovereignly, God chooses to bless some. Some is the fact that some don't manage as well as others. Some might be that others have chosen forms of pursuit in their lives and God directed them at different areas to minister in different realms to where there's not as great a percentage. For instance, if God had called you and you're preaching right now, and the first twenty years of your life, before you'd come on staff, for instance, is in Kentucky, Butcher Holler--the tithe is a bottle cap, one nickel, and a dead chicken--then you're going to be at a different level than the guy that happens to be ministering in Palm Beach. And you know what? That just doesn't seem fair. The call and gifts are God's; He's the source. I'm saying all that for you to understand the spirit again that we can't ever allow in our midst. We are not communists; the church is not communistic or socialistic. We don't all have to be equal! God chooses to bless us distinctly, according to His purposes!

Now, in the midst of that He gives us all responsibilities as to how we interrelate to one another, and we all have responsibilities from our role. Now, some of us that think we need to be the equalizer--and when I say equalizer, I don't mean just in giving to this one as opposed to that one. It's something that within our own hearts, many times we become the equalizer for ourselves. "Hey, this isn't getting it. These people have this. I'd like that. I deserve that. I'm as good as them. No. Better! It doesn't seem right, so therefore I will equalize. And in doing so, since God hasn't chosen to bless me, I'm going to bless myself."

Then we run into this. Deuteronomy 8:13 says--this is an admonition to men whom God has blessed, but I want you to pick the spirit of it up for just a moment--"And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied." Can you say, "Praise God! Hallelujah! Amen! Even so, quickly Lord"? When we talk about increase (and we're talking about money), we're talking about where every one of us lives. Money answers all matters. We all know the power of it. We all know the need of it in our society. If you try to imply that you really don't have any interest in it, you're lying to yourself; and we sure don't believe you. So I understand the power.

1 Timothy 6 talks about the power of it. It's phenomenal, the power of finance! There's a spiritual force attached with it that says the love of it is the root of all evil, that are spoken of in that context. To love it will kill you. To properly acquire it and apply it is one of the greater blessings that God gives us. How do we balance this thing? Well, first of all, we said we have to recognize that God is the source. It's the Lord that gives us power to obtain wealth; riches and honor come of Him. It's the Lord that makes us rich and adds no sorrow with it. Where do we get into trouble then? When it all multiplies, verse 14, "Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God..."

Now your heart can be lifted up because you say, according to the Scriptures, Look what I've gotten by my own hands--look what I have built! That's one of the problems. The other one is, God was the source, but now we begin to worship self and we begin to worship the substance instead of the source. We begin to trust in uncertain riches. The rich man trusts, the Scripture says, in the strength of his own arm and might and in these riches. We begin to think that somehow they make us better.

Ask yourself this. Next time you go out somewhere and you encounter a service--it's hard to find today somebody to serve you--but you go to a restaurant, you go--I started to say a service station, but they don't come out and do that any more, do they? But somewhere where somebody waits on you. In our society, there's like an expected gratuity. If you can--I don't know if you can or not, but if you can--try to analyze how you now respond to these folks. You're a "dot-com" "e-moola" guy now. Last week you were working in a service station; now you're "dot-com". That's not a good one for now because they've all collapsed, but anyway, let's go back a few months. See, riches take wings and fly away. "I was a millionaire last week." "Really?" "Yeah." That's him pumping your gas.

Watch it with certain people and find--do you think this makes you better? Are you better now than--are you too good to--I went through this in Richmond a number of months back. Janet and I were down there, and we went to this place. It was like a private, an independent, Sizzler or Golden Corral type thing. It was right next to the motel we were at, and I can't remember--it was Hampton Inn or something there we were staying at, and this was across the street. So we go in there and we sit down. I'm telling you, man, the people are coming in--these guys are coming in--they've got overalls on and John Deere hats; the women have every other tooth. You all have eaten there, right? The steaks--they're recycled tire tread. When I go to those places I usually order a baked potato. It's tough to kill a baked potato. But anyway, we're in there; and I'm sitting there, and I'm watching these people. I turn to Janet and I say, "These are our people, man. That's my dad! There's Uncle Ikey. Oh, no--that's that guy's wife."

What do you have that God hasn't blessed you with? Who are you? Who do you think you are just because you have a little more money than you used to? It's a spirit. We've got to guard against these things and understand that God is the source, and if He's chosen to increase, then praise God! Enjoy it, but don't say that my heart can now be lifted up and forget the Lord your God. That's the spirit that He wants us to operate in and to realize that we're dealing with a spiritual force that can kill you. In the affluence that we know as a nation and the affluence that we know in this region that we're in and the affluence that many or our children experience (they've never known anything else), we must teach them this out of Psalm 62, verse 10. We cannot get our gain through oppression and robbery. Now, I want to tell you something. To increase by robbery, by lying, by selling somebody something that's not worth what you're charging them and then going away and saying, "I got one over on them. Praise God. Look how the Lord's blessed me."

I shared with you, back when I was a kid, just gotten married, and we were selling--I shared the story with you--selling that insulation back there. I can still remember part of the presentation. The coolest part of the whole presentation is when you took out this one-inch piece of insulation and you'd put it on your hand. You'd throw a penny up there, and you'd light this torch (Pastor makes a sound like a blazing fire). You hold it, you melt the penny, and it just chars--no heat--1200 degrees. You tell these little old people, "If you get a fire in your basement, look what happens to this standard insulation (Pastor makes a sound like something burning up). You've got this molten glob over your head, and you'll die in your sleep!" (Pastor imitates a frightened response), "Where do I sign?" I went out and it was my first sale, and I sold these old people. They're talking. They're literally talking, and they're saying, Well, yeah, if we eat dog food two days a week, and whatever, then we can buy it. And I said, you guys can't afford this. It took me twice as long to talk them out of this thing as it did to get them to buy it. I thought, I can't do this; this isn't right. Go in there and take these old people's money. I was a brand new Christian. That's what made me know I was saved! Before, I would have sold them that stuff, and when they went inside to get the deposit I would have stolen something from their house.

The Scripture speaks, "Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery: if riches increase, [look what it says] set not your heart upon them" (Psalm 62:10). If it begins to increase, you've got to be careful--the lust, the desire for more when you see what it does. Money is nice--having more money is nice. I like having more money than when I didn't have as much. I like to do--it's nice. When you see what it does (when you see what money can do), then what's the natural response? "I want some more! This is good." There's never enough then when you move into that mode. Don't set your heart upon the increase. Let God be the source. Let Him determine how much is enough for you. Anything more will kill you.

So it's important for us, because Proverbs 28, verse 20 says--and I'm talking to you young people primarily tonight that are getting ready to go out into the workforce--"A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent." If you've got to be rich quickly, you will never get it properly. There is no proper way, outside supernatural provision, to do it quickly. It's not talking about getting an inheritance; it's not talking about these different areas. It's talking about an attitude; it's talking about the fact that you begin to be that oppressor and that robber. When you make haste you will not be innocent.

Now, that richness again comes in a lot of different ways. This same spirit is what gets us in trouble with our credit cards--this same spirit. We get generations, and my parents--I still remember my parents saying the same thing to me. "You're too impatient. You want to start off with what it took us 30 years to get." And I said, "Yeah, but you know, but if I get these things now, I'll have that inheritance, and I'll pay these babies off, man." I'm still waiting for that inheritance. Praise God, I got the credit cards paid off. We didn't start that way. What my parents were saying was true. I would have loved to have started there, but we started the way so many of you started. I've told you the stories. You look back, and you say it, but it's--I've already told you that having more is better if there's no sorrow with it. More is better if there's no sorrow with it. I'm not going to lie to you. More is better! If there's no sorrow with it. But we were so happy and so content.

Let me tell you kids something--some of you newlyweds and some of you young adults that are going to be getting married and stuff. Some of you young wives or wives-to-be that have to start off with the house and the sterling silver and the china and the furnishings and all of these different things--it's not there, man. If you are not happy in the Lord and you're not just absolutely thrilled out of your mind and the presence of your husband isn't sufficient, then you shouldn't get married.

I know as we got married as young people--and I can still remember it. I've shared the stories with you, but I can still remember that first chest of drawers that we had. Like I said, you'd pull on the knob, and the drawer didn't open. Just the front would come off, and then you'd reach in and try to find your socks or whatever. The springs were coming through our sofa; we had to have a quilt over those things. When you invited friends over you'd always say, "Have a seat there [boing, boing--like a coil spring sound]." It's always fun entertainment. The mattress we had, Janet had to sleep literally with one arm--she would sleep on her stomach with one arm over the edge and tucked under because she would roll into the hole, the black hole. Our dinette table did not have a Formica top; it was only the pressboard. We couldn't afford the attachments for the galvanized pipe to screw into so we just screwed the galvanized pipe into the pressboard. So when you ate it was like you were on ship. (Leans back and forth) So we started our marriage on a cruise. Godliness with contentment is great gain.

I just want to share something with you: it's better, but it won't make you happy. It's not the source of happiness or contentment. Being in the will of God, knowing the presence of God in your life is great gain! So as we look at these different aspects be very careful that you don't allow the deceitfulness of riches and the lust of things to choke God's Word out of your life.

I was going to end tonight, but it doesn't look like we're going to. There are still some things I think I'd like to speak toward, especially for some of our young people. I'm convinced that as the Scripture says, in these last days as that secret power of lawlessness arises, the Scripture says that the spirit of Antichrist, he's going to destroy them with their prosperity. If that's the case, then we need to get our weaponry and our armor in line to combat the spirit in these last days.

Now, thank God. As long as God is the source, as long as we're living in a nation of abundance, as long as we're able to take these particular things and have the ability to, the power to, eat of it and to rejoice in the labor of our hands, then praise God for it! But it's not always going to be here. And is God the source of it and not the spirit of the age? What compromises have you made to get what you have? Have you found yourself being the oppressor, the robber? What's the motivation? Equality? Lack of self-worth? To "right" the injustice of God? When we look at this topic, one of the most powerful subjects--I mean, the Scripture talks a lot about money and the power of it and the misuse and the proper use--it always becomes a heart issue. If your finances are out of order, it's because your heart is out of order, and that's something that we need to take note of.

Father, we thank You for the Word of God. We just ask that You continue to open our eyes to this hour that we're living in. Open our hearts to this ability to worship You with our substance, to honor You with the firstfruits of all of our increase. Father, put us in the proper perspective of not being ascetics, nor to be those who are moving in opulence. Help us to realize the source and that Your covenant is being established in us to where we can use, to where we can give, and Father, to where we can have enough faith and character to receive. Not take--not take from one another, not con one another, not feign needs, not put an improper value on our worth so others should serve us. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about a humility to receive. Don't let pride get in the way of you receiving from God.

We're going to talk about some of the practical things in our men's breakfast again. We've addressed this before, but as a community, making sure that we're not abusing one another here by, "Can you come over and fix this and help me with this?" Then there's no remuneration--it's because he's a brother? That brother has other stuff to do than to give you freebies. That brother has got enough to do with that skill, because there are frankly some people here that have needs. We have people that can't get around physically that need some help. We have people here that are in financial conditions that really do need some help, and you're just trying to save a few bucks because you're too tight? Wrong spirit. That's not what the community is about. So when we talk about blessings of the Lord we want to make sure that it's the blessings of the Lord. So we'll talk about some of those practical aspects of it. So there's a lot that has to do with how we interact in our prosperity and in our community and how God blesses us. Men give into our bosom (Luke 6:38). How God blesses us. Sometimes the blessing is from within the community. Sometimes it's God enabling us to sow without and to reap from our talents, but the blessings of the Lord are never because of your manipulation, conning, and worldly wisdom.

So we ask, Father, for Your wisdom in understanding the source and that as You increase the plenty of our barns, that we could honor You more. In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen. Let's stand before the Lord tonight.

Honor the Lord with your substance. He'll fill your barns. Prove Me, saith the Lord, if I will not open the windows of heaven. If your heart's motive is pure and your worship is true, you can expect God to bless you according to His sovereign purposes. Don't expect anything less. As the offerings were brought they prayed and said, Lord, receive Your honor and Your glory, and look down from Your holy habitation and bless Your people, that the nations might understand that there's a God among us. You want to know the blessings? You're going to be a blessing to God. The covenant is going to be established when the guy you work next to, that makes the same amount of money that you make, can't understand why you have what you have--knowing that you honor God. He hoards to his destruction, and you scatter to your increase.

I personally believe that worship in our finances can be one small part of the covenant of divine healing. I believe that God heals us many times and that's prosperity. We didn't have to spend $1.99 for a bottle of aspirin; God healed us as we worshipped in His presence. Now I'm blessed, praise God! My tires lasted 100,000 miles. The bigger picture of God's provision for us--His presence is our prosperity.

Let's sing it together. Hallelujah! "I worship You..." We do declare Your glory, Lord. Hallelujah! Lord, help us to know Your desire to move in our midst and to commune with us, and let us see it as the greatest treasure. Help us; Father, to establish what the real blessings are. It's Your presence. It's our family. It's our friends.

A few weeks back, a month maybe ago, as a man was over at the house--we had damage to our swimming pool and they were doing repairs on that and different things. The guy was coming over and was going to fix these things, and in the midst of this trial we're in with Janet, I looked around and I said, "Who cares. Fill the thing in." It doesn't mean anything. It was all for the purpose of sharing it in love and enjoying it with the soul mates that God has given us. None of it means anything when you hold it up against the real treasures. Let's not allow the enemy to rob us of the real treasures by being distracted by all of these temporal things that are going to go up in smoke.

Continue to pray for Janet. We got some good news today and then some that is just still the sobering awareness of the battle that we're in. The good news is, as I shared with you, that the tumor markers--a person like you and I, most of us that are normal, the tumor markers are about like 17. As she went in a couple of months ago hers were 400, and after a number of the treatments he didn't have any idea whether it would stop the growth of this cancer or not. It's not good. As I said, it's 100% fatal. So he said, I don't have any idea if it's going to stop it or what, but we'll try this. And as we shared, the markers went from 400 to 260, so we're thankful for that. Today's report, the markers were 91, and so we're thankful it's going the right direction. The sobering thing is again, he said, You guys are going to be gone for a little bit, but you've got to get home as soon as you can. He is looking to the fact that it's just going to be a constant, nonstop treatment until the inevitable happens. We're believing for God to heal her. We're thankful for the way things have gone. We're believing for the intervention of God's Spirit and wholeness, and we just thank you for your prayers. We're believing God's presence to be the healing power. Don't wait for things like this to reestablish what your real treasures are.

Before you go just thank God for the treasures that are around you and get those that are close to you and hug them and say, "You're my treasure, praise God." Amen. Go in peace. God's love go with you.

Back to Top | Audio   |   Purchase Audio   |   Bible Teachings   |   Print