Wait 'Til I Get My Money Right (Part 4)

1:13 And this is a biblical perspective on finances and stewardship, generosity and giving. And I say a biblical perspective because a lot of people have worldly perspectives when it comes to finance. We're not taught much about it in school. our immediate family usually is the people who teach us about money so if they were broke or if they were um greedy or if they were whatever they were that usually is the bend that we get until we teach ourselves or find something else different and then a lot of times that doesn't have a biblical base and so the body of christ who love god and and are serving and all this other stuff, they're missing a key ingredient to living a truly fulfilled, blessed life. And so today I want us to go deeper into this because we've discovered over this entire series that giving is all about the what? It's all about the heart. God is not interested in amounts.

2:18 He's not interested in you compared to anybody else. It's all about your heart. And this past three weeks, I don't know about you, but I've been in heart surgery. Like every message is like, that hurt. Oh, I thought I was generous. Oh, no, I'm not.

2:39 And the reason I say that is because God's the only one that can deal with your heart. And this is the powerful thing about it. God is after your money, not the church. Hear what I'm saying? because some of y'all just got that mixed up and you was going to tweet that stop it god's after your money because it's the only test that proves that he has your heart that's it so what he says in his word in matthew is where your treasure is i know that your heart follows that and so when when we talk about finances many people check out and God says, I want you to check in because if you check in to this thing about finances in your heart, I came up with what I call a treasure. What did I call it?

3:30 I called it a treasure map or a treasure guideline so you can see something. And I wanna show you this real quick. If you could put that on the screen, it's an equation because I like math. And so if I can find out how things work, it helps me a lot better. If you give God your treasure, then he gets access to your heart if he gets access to your heart then he can transform your habits see a lot of people want God to change things about them and he does not have access to the thing that can change you and so when you give him access to your heart he can change or transform your habits and then you live a whole life and i don't want you to forget this because your treasure leads to your heart your heart leads to your habits and your habits lead to the type of life that you're going to live that's why when you put your treasure into vanity then your heart is now infected with insecurities and now those insecurities lead to habits of comparison and those habits of comparisons leave me living a life that's unfulfilled because what I have is never enough because I got to have what they have this works any way and anywhere you put your treasure and what God is saying is I have such a better way for you to live than what you've been living right now if you put your treasure in the kingdom and you honor me then I am the one who can get access to the thing that your dad couldn't fix, that money couldn't fix, that drugs couldn't fix. It's your heart. And then I'll transform your life. And then you can live the life that I created for you to live. So as I started looking at this equation, I said, okay, God, this is the last week of this series. You got to bring this thing home for me because I know there's some people out here that's been coming and you just been sitting like this the whole time. Just stank face.

5:31 and he said i heard about money and i tried this one time and i feel like when i was praying god gave me something that is going to flip the script on you today because i've learned that you only think on the level of your exposure like if you're exposed to a little that's all you think is there but when you get exposed to more the possibilities open I remember a story like my parents they had five sons and so they were creative with um fun things for us to do so we did um things like ride around in neighborhoods and claim houses all the time like that's my house no that was my house like that like and it was free so we did it often and And we used to go to wealthy neighborhoods and claim houses.

6:28 And we were exposed to more than what we lived in. And so I thought I had seen some big houses. And then I was about 18 or 19 and a friend was here in college and she was like, you should come to my house. And she invited me to her house out of state. And, you know, I knew the parents were kind of well off and stuff. But, you know, you just try to think. Yeah, you think I probably got a nice house. We pulled up to this complex. No, no, no, I'm not even playing. A complex with a limousine sitting out front covered. So they don't even drive it. I pull up. I said, what is this? This is my house. I said, you live here? she said most months of the year you have somewhere else you live on different months we pull up to this house this house has a nine-car garage with chandeliers in the garage y'all I mean I was so overwhelmed like like they literally could see I was just walking around just They had a two-story master bedroom.

7:49 your house ain't even two stories they had a two-story master bedroom an olympic-sized pool they had a conference room on the west wing of the house like a hotel conference room on the west wing i'm walking around and i'm like what is this even possible and i said where are we staying She said, y'all are staying out back. And I was like, hold on.

8:23 You got all this house you're about to put us in the outhouse? We came from that. I'm not going. No, I'm just playing. I ain't going back. No, I'm just. So she said, no, no, what you don't understand, we have four 1,800 square foot houses on the property that we built just for visitors. I said, how long can I visit? and literally i was sitting in a place that blew my it literally shattered what i thought was possible and i was asking is that even possible and i was looking that it was possible but many times when we're sitting here looking at what God can do, we're still asking ourselves, is it possible? And he's saying, I'm showing you it's possible. Why are you still questioning? Can I do it? And, and, and, and in that moment, what God did is he, he literally propelled or moved forward or thrusted my thinking into another place. And that's what I'm believing for somebody in here today is that you're asking yourself is it possible that that I can go from a place of not even wanting to give to a place that I'm not just uh asking God for things but I'm the answer to people's prayer when people call and they say a number of money I just is that it that's your answer like can God take you from being greedy can you take and he's saying it's possible but our our idea has to be expanded and so today what i want to do is i want to shatter and propel your perspective of possibilities and so i said god how are we going to do that this is rick burgess from the rick burgess show if you're still auto renewing your car insurance without shopping around you are probably throwing money away i'm telling you go check out insurify in about two minutes totally free you can compare quotes from over a hundred companies all in one

10:28 place. Now, here's what I love. Insurify actually monitors your rates and alerts you when prices drop so you never miss out on a better deal. Millions of people have used it to stop overpaying and there's no reason you shouldn't too. Do yourself a favor. See what you can say right now at insurify.com. He said, the first thing is you got to interpret scripture right, Mike.

10:49 I'm a pastor, God. I come before you every week and I seek your face and I try my best. he said but there's one scripture that the body of christ has had messed up and it's probably one of the most famous scriptures about tithing and offerings and he literally said this is me and god's relationship when we're talking he said you got me messed up and i said hold on now those are fighting words you understand what i'm saying god and he said no no you guys have misinterpreted what i meant in malachi 3 when i talked about will a man rob God? And I was like, hold on, what are you talking about? See, when we hear that scripture, how many people have heard that scripture or heard it said, will a man rob God? And usually people use that at offering time because how can a man rob God? In tithe an offering. And so we use it and infer almost that when we say, will a man rob God? Like when we don't tithe or when we don't give an offering, we're robbing God of money. And I really don't think that's what this scripture mean. As I begin to pray, God gave me revelation or revealed truth.

11:58 It's already there, but it's covered up. And I went back and read it again and he revealed something to me. And I've never seen this before. And I'm so excited to tell you because I think it's going to change. You see how I'm just building suspense right now. I'm so excited to tell you. And I wanted to just read the scripture, but I got to tell you the revelation first so you can see it in the scripture. When it says, will a man rob God? I think it's the complete opposite of what we've been preaching. I think it means, will a man rob God of the opportunity to bless them? because i'm convinced god doesn't need our money like just think about it like he doesn't need your money like like did he need you to create heaven and earth did he need you to do to part season he doesn't need our money what we're doing is we're robbing him of the opportunity to bless us and and and i begin to look at that and he said michael read the scripture again see can a man rob god and i said it's almost like god saying i would like to bless you i'd like to open the windows of heaven for you and pour out a blessing you don't have room enough to receive i'd like to rebuke the devourer for your sake but because you won't do it my way you are robbing me of the opportunity to bless you Thank you.

13:27 now i know it's i know it's messing with some people's religion right now and some people's like i just can't i just can't just just wait to the end of the service go to malachi 3 and we're going to go to verse 8 and we're going to add those few words on it anytime it says can a man rob god rob god i think it's saying can you rob him of the opportunity to bless you and so i'm going to add that and let's see if we get a different perspective of this scripture malachi 3 verse 8 will a man rob God of an opportunity to bless him yet you've robbed me of many opportunities to bless you but you say in what ways have I robbed you of the opportunity to bless us in tithes and offerings see when you don't tithe and when you don't give offering you're literally tying God's hands of blessings behind his back and he's saying if you would just tie and give offering you open me up so that I can bless you the way I've always wanted to bless you look let's keep reading see because the whole reason God invented the concept of tithing and giving was not to support the kingdom of God because if that was a thing we know by reading the bible he could have sent ravens to support the kingdom that's how he fed a man of God he sent ravens to literally they were the first uber eats they would just fly over and drop food think about it or if he wanted to provide he he could send manna from heaven because that's how he provided for the children of Israel or he could bring water from a rock so it makes me believe there's no way that God invented giving to provide for the work God didn't invent giving for his sake he invented giving for our sake it's the way

15:36 that we could have an opportunity at any time we feel led to be blessed and that's why he talks about giving more than anything else in the bible it's an opportunity for god to bless when we do it his way but because many of us don't do it his way and because many of us haven't done his way done it his way because we feel like 100 percent in our hands is better than 90% with his blessing. This is what happens. God says, I don't want this for you. Verse nine, but you're cursed with the curse. He said, for you have robbed me of the opportunity to bless you. This is what the scripture said. Even the whole nation. Think about our nation how in decline financially spiritually emotionally our nation i really think it has something to do with how we have robbed god of the opportunity to bless us like like not let's not even talk about the whole nation let's just talk about christians people who profess jesus who are not ashamed of the gospel of jesus christ seven to ten percent of christians tithe that's it y'all didn't even hear me so out of a thousand people that profess jesus only a hundred of the thousand actually honor god and that's why the church is so broke today he said you've tied my hands you've been trying to make it happen yourself and he said if you would just do it my way i would literally open up the heavens and you would give me opportunity Every time you get paid, it's an opportunity for you to get blessed.

17:24 If you would just honor me with what I have. But every first and 15th, you tie my hands. And then you blame me because you don't have nothing at the end of the month. Uh-oh. I stepped on somebody's toes over there. They hurt. and i just need us to see this that god is a good father like many men in here are good fathers you reward your kids when they do it your way no just think about it if you tell your kids wash the dishes and they go clean their room and they take out the trash but they didn't do what you said you don't reward you say that's great i mean maybe your father didn't but my dad is like that's great but you didn't do what i asked you to do that's the same with our god you gave to this charitable organization you helped that person but you didn't do what i asked you to do and the blessing was not tied to your sacrifice it was tied to your obedience oh y'all missed that well god i gave so much and i did what you said and he said but you didn't obey me and that's why i'm telling you young old black white whoever you are when we when we do not do it god's way we rob him of the opportunity to bless us look at verse 10 it says so bring all the tithes into the storehouse that always talks about the local church so if this is not your church wherever you go to church you bring the tithes into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house and try me now in this see i love this because god knows what resource he has and you don't and so he says i bet you if you do it see won't i do it y'all know how you know something and and you know something they don't know and it's like God saying I double dog dare you to trust me with 10% and if you do it my way

19:31 see won't I open the windows of heaven and just clown you no no no I'm gonna clown you I'm gonna have you looking like a clown when it's all said and done people gonna say how did that happen and you're gonna just be able to I don't even I don't I mean it was just and and he's like gotcha but that's what god is asking us to do he says he says prove me test me in this and i don't know about you but i like testing people you know what i'm saying and this is the only place that god tells us we are allowed to test him it says if see if i won't open up the windows of heaven pour you out such a blessing that there will not be room enough for you to receive it when there's not room enough for you to receive it that means you have to give more of it away so what you're missing is when you do it god's way you end up with more so you can give more and a lot of times we try to hoard so god wouldn't just in case i need to give and god's saying no no no if you do it my way i'm gonna bless you so much that anybody's surrounded by you anybody in your vicinity do y'all remember what jesus did when he told the when he told the fishermen the disciples cast your net on the other side that didn't make sense they were professional fishermen and he's telling us to cast that we've been out here all night who is he see sometimes doing it god's way doesn't make sense but he's not looking for it to make sense he's looking for it to make miracles and so when you obey they casting that on the other side this fool crazy he ain't never fish a day in his life and we don't cast it out what is that yo yo the fish and they literally pulled so many fish that they had to call nearby boats when i talk about blessings that you don't have room enough to they had to call other people who wasn't even a part of their crew you want to bless your enemy start doing it god's way they were in competition with these people and they got so blessed where they were able to bless their competition.

21:36 into my mic but there it is god is about to bless some of you so much that your competition's gonna be blessed by you god is about to bless some of you so much that the people who are your enemies are about to sit and say thank you oh y'all don't hear me I'm telling you, this is what doing it God's way does. He says, verse 11, and I will rebuke the devourer for your sake. Those three words, for your sake, say that, for your sake. That proves to me that this is not about God. It's about us. so he said when you do it my way the whole reason i made this up is for your sake like if it was for the kingdom of god to be provided for he would have said i want you to give for the kingdom's sake he said this ain't i i can take care of this we didn't run out of golden streets of heaven we got plenty over here he said i'm trying to get you to get an ordinary principle of mine so that you, it can bless you. And it's not for my sake, it's for your sake.

22:51 And when I look at that, I said, God, what are you, what are you trying to say? Verse 12, he says, and all the nations will call you. Somebody say me. I don't care how broke your family was. I don't care how many losses you've taken. I don't care how many bank rubs, rubsies you've gone through. I don't care how many times you've had to restart the business. God says at the end of this, they'll stand and call you blessed.

23:19 Some of y'all missed that. For you will be a delightful land, says the Lord of hosts. What are you saying, Pastor Mike? When we do it God's way, when we give 10% and we put him first, no matter what we have he says i rebuke the devourer and you give me an opportunity to bless you and so i told god i said i'm not about to rob you ever again of the opportunity to bless me and so when i look at this i remember there was someone that was believing God to pay their car off. And they told me about it. It was a young person that I really love. And it was like, I'm just believing God for $500 to be, and I will be out of my car payment.

24:13 And I'm a giver by nature. I'm generous. And so I said, okay, me and Pastor Natalie gonna take care of that for you. We're just gonna take care of it. And she said, oh my God. And she got excited and she cried and all that other stuff. And we took care of it. And I got in the car and I was on my way home. And the Holy Spirit said, why did you do that without talking to me? i said no no no no no i gave it was a sacrifice you know when you try to tell god like like no no that was a sacrifice he said you just robbed me of the opportunity to bless other people because i had it all set up you were supposed to give but you didn't consult me you were only supposed to give a hundred because i had three other people that were going to take care of the rest of it and you robbed me of the opportunity to bless them see that's a different mode of thinking right there y'all y'all ain't even thinking like that so god i gave he said you were supposed to obey me and you didn't even consult with me and you thought you were getting on your high horse because you had the resource but he said that's why i don't care how much resource you have i need you to obey me because you just robbed me of the chance to bless three other people today because when you give it's not for his sake it's for your sake and that was the day that I stopped giving because I had resource I only started giving because God told me to and y'all this principle is us robbing God of the opportunity to bless us Y'all just sitting there just looking at that.

25:57 So let me help you.

26:31 I want to give you the title of this message is There Are Levels to This. There are levels to this. Because I think for us, when I talk about expanding our capacity and seeing what God can do, we haven't really explored the levels. We're on the first level of just tithing. And so let me just give you that first level. Write it down. It's tithing. Like that's the first level of opportunities for God to bless us. When we tithe, we give God an opportunity to bless us. Look at Leviticus 2730. It says, and all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or the fruit of the trees, it is the Lord's. It's holy to the Lord. and and this is what I want to tell you because we've talked about this in past series go watch it because I really want to get on to the second level but but but the 10 percent it doesn't take faith to give it after you've done everything else it takes faith first to honor God first and what I'm telling you as a church as many of you have taken that step but I'm believing like my prayer has been God I thank you that you would touch people's hearts because if they could get this principle it would change everything in their life and god wants to bless you at the level of tithing see the bible gives only two distinctions and i know this is a heavy word and it's very in your face and it's very either you do it or you don't but god says you have two options with it he says either you return the tithe and it's consecrated or you steal it those are the only two options and many people are saying i don't steal from god i didn't do it guys if it's in your bank account and you won't honor god you've taken it from him and what you did is you tied his hands and what i'm saying to you is this is the hardest barrier to break pastor mike why are you sweating and why are you so passionate about this because if you break the tithing barrier to other levels will happen like like this is the one that

28:43 has the most resistance this is the one that like i'm not gonna have enough and i'm just gonna be it's worth changing your lifestyle you can get rid of netflix and cable to honor god why are you saying that you got an expensive car that you bought just to prove to somebody who moved to another state that you were something and god says you're honoring vanity more than you're honoring me i'll give you the car if you do it my way i'll pay the debt off if you'll do it my way he said but you're trusting in your resource and not in my resource and i want everybody to hear me with passion i'm not preaching this because the church needs money this is the greatest financial season our church has ever been in. I'm preaching this because I want you blessed. I do not want you standing here next year and it looks like a rerun of this year. but the definition of insanity is doing the same exact thing expecting a different result so i'm asking some of you to step out on faith i know it looks like there's nothing there i know it looks like you're walking on water but if you would obey god he'll do something that nobody else can take credit for there's levels to this thing so let me tell you about the second level the second level is offerings see a lot of people think these are the same things but when you give offerings above the tithe like you gave your 10 but you say god says hey your tithe was a hundred dollars give five more dollars god no no no no i gave my hun i gave the hundo god you saw my sacrifice and he says just give five more give 10 more give 20 more give 100 more and a lot of times that's the place where decisions made because god i honored you now now now now why you asking me for more he says because offerings have the ability to multiply see see god is a god of multiplication that's his favorite type of math so after you return what is his anything you give

30:57 above that is the money maker hear what i'm saying to you god will multiply when you have the heart to obey him and giving i promise you i've seen it in my life and i'm going to prove it to you in the word i want you to go to um matthew and matthew chapter 6 or no let's go to luke for time luke chapter 9 see because god is a god of multiplication and and and when i read this scripture how can a man rob God of opportunities to bless him, I couldn't reconcile two words. It says you rob him and tithe. I get that. That's a 10%. But how can you rob God of an offering? Because the Bible says clearly to give a free will offering, give whatever you want to give, whatever God places on your heart. So how are you robbing somebody of a free will offering? He said, you can't. The only way you can rob God is of the opportunity to bless you. So hear me, when God tells you to tithe and you do that and then you feel an unction to give an offering, God said, don't rob me. Don't rob me of this opportunity. That $5, that $10, that $20, that $100 that you were about to give that doesn't make sense. Like I already honored you. Why would I give above what I've honored you? God said, oh, I dare you to. I dare you to obey me. I dare you. He said, because that's the portion that has the opportunity to multiply. Prove it to you. How many have heard of the story of Jesus feeding 5,000 with the long John Silver snack pack. Two fish and five hush puppies, okay?

32:36 Can I break this story down to you? Jesus is literally speaking to the largest crowd that he's ever spoke to. They call it the story of feeding 5,000, but they were only talking about men's per capita. At the time, the family was three or four people. So just for a conservative number. If there was 5,000 men, there was 20 to 25,000 people there that he was saying that they needed to feed. So Jesus starts preaching to them. And you can read it all in Matthew 6, because I don't have time. I got to paraphrase it for you. But long story short, he starts feeding them and Jesus is just going in. Like he starts early in the morning and he just preaches. Nine o'clock, 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock, 12 o'clock, one o'clock. The disciples are looking at each other's like this is great that he's preaching a whole series in one day but i'm hungry and like can we get out of here two o'clock three o'clock four o'clock he's still preaching all day i promise you because if you look at luke chapter 9 verse 10 it says when the day began to wear away like he started in the morning and the day was wore out like the day was like thank you thank you Jesus thank you he said so then the disciples I I just in my holy imagination I believe they got together and was like y'all we got to do something because if I don't eat soon I'm gonna die and some of y'all y'all hangry like that too y'all get angry and hungry at the same time hangry and it's like we got to do something and I got they got in a group and they were like yo go tell Jesus that the people need something to eat I think that's because he loves the people He don't care about us because obviously we've been here set up, tear down everything.

34:18 He don't care about us. But the people, he loves the people. So literally in verse 12, a disciple comes up and says, hey, hey, JC. Hey, man. Wow. Wow. Look at this. This has been a phenomenal day of ministry, a whole day of ministry. And it's been great. Um, but you know, Jesus, we really feel like it's getting late and all the Denny's are about to close here. And, um, the people really need to be let go so they can get something to eat. And Jesus said, let me get this straight. The people are hungry. And so you want to dismiss the service so they can get something to God. I mean, all for the people.

35:04 And he says, okay, look what it says. Well, you feed them. Excuse me. I mean, just put yourself there. No, no, no. You feed them. Go back and tell your little posse, y'all gonna feed all these people. Yes, Lord, whatever you say. If you can use anything, you can use me. did you did you tell him we need to close for the people i told him that i said it exactly like that and what did he say he said we need to feed the people what he said we have to feed the people they said oh what are you talking about we gotta feed the people we don't have enough and so i can just see peter he sees a little kid walking and he sees his long john silvers bag and he said if Y'all ain't going to eat. I'm going to eat. Peter's kind of wild. And so he stole from the little boy and he just bit into one of the hush puppies. Just like, I'm hungry.

36:00 And they said, Peter, stop. That's all we have. And one of the other disciples said, that's it. That's it. Let's tell Jesus this is all we have. Let's go up to him and say we can't do this miracle because this is all we have. do it sounds like many of us i can't tithe god because this is all we have god i can't give because this is all i have so they go to jesus and say wow man we you're still going powerful powerful my god um So I did what you said. We tried to get it together. They're not delivering here right now. And so all we have. This is Rick Burgess from The Rick Burgess Show.

36:53 If you're still auto renewing your car insurance without shopping around, you are probably throwing money away. I'm telling you, go check out Insurify. In about two minutes, totally free, you can compare quotes from over 100 companies all in one place. Now, here's what I love. insureify actually monitors your rates and alerts you when prices drop so you never miss out on a better deal millions of people have used it to stop overpaying and there's no reason you shouldn't do yourself a favor see what you can say right now at insureify.com are two fish and four and a half puppies peter you know he okay and he said i know peter so okay he said let me get this straight This is Jesus. All you have is two fish and four loaves and a half loaves. And he said, yes, God. And just think about this. If that was you before you ever heard this story, you had twenty five thousand people that needed to be fed.

37:52 And all you had was two fish and almost five rolls. I mean, he should dismiss the service. He should say this is over. I understand. What does Jesus say? That's perfect. Sit them down in groups of 50. What? Go sit them down in groups of 50. He had to go back to the people again. Did you tell him? I said it. Maybe one of y'all need to go. But what did he say to God to do? He said, sit them down in groups of 50. So they begin to sit them in groups of 50, moving in faith. With not enough, but Jesus in the middle of it.

38:42 They begin to move in faith with not enough by natural standards, but Jesus in the middle of it. See, some of y'all don't believe me. Y'all think I'm just telling a story. Look at verse 16 of Luke 9, verse 16. it says then jesus took the the five loaves and two fish and he looked up to heaven and he blessed it he broke it and he gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude okay i want you to see something you probably never saw what he did he took the piece of bread he said god they've honored me and brought it to me first they didn't give it away first they brought it to me so I'm asking you to bless this that's what happens when we tithe when you say god it's not enough to meet my needs but i'm honoring with you with this first and i'm asking you to bless it and he broke it and he gave half of it back to peter and peter you know if i was peter i'd be like hold on i gave you the whole thing you know we already don't got enough why didn't you give me the whole thing back he said because when you are not enough and when you don't have enough i become the miracle so he said now go go give it away now this doesn't make no sense like i already gave you what i had and it's not enough now you're asking me to give beyond what I asked you what I gave you he didn't tell the disciples to eat it think he blessed it he broke it he gave a piece back to them not the whole amount a piece back a 90% of it and then he said on top of this I want you to go give it to other people

40:47 if I was Peter I'd be like okay take just a little take just a little you know you would just be going through take you greedy a little and he gets down to where there's a crumb in his hand and he's looking at this crumb and right before his eyes this crumb expands into another loaf of bread and then he was able to get more generous because he saw God work a miracle in his y'all y'all come on i need y'all to go with me right here see what you're trying to do is figure it out before you give it you're trying to make it make it won't make sense until you give god the first he blesses it he breaks it he gives it back to you and then you give it away what would have happened if the disciples would have ate it it wouldn't have multiplied because listen many people think it multiplied when jesus prayed it didn't read the scripture it multiplied when they started giving it away and that's why there's levels to this thing some of y'all just like i'm doing good to just tithe but god said if you would just level up and come to the next level and if you would just listen to me and just give when i tell you and and give to that organization give to that single mother and give to that family just when You ain't got to do it in front of everybody.

42:29 And when everybody looks, just do what I say. He said, I am going to bless your socks off. He says, because it doesn't happen. Hear this. The miracle doesn't happen in Jesus's hands. the miracle happens in the hands of the disciples as they give it away i'm telling y'all that some of y'all about to become giving machines i mean you're just gonna be just you're just gonna just anybody that comes just not at the strip club don't do it no don't do it at the strip club okay just there's not a blessing there for you There's a curse, okay? Y'all pray for me, I'm still getting saved. see when you give the tithe you give god an opportunity to bless you when you level up and you give an offering you give him another opportunity to bless he multiplies whatever you give and let me just give you two little nuggets these are like chicken nuggets that you can dip in some sweet and sour sauce just on this it must be blessed before it can be multiplied So so a lot of people are here saying i'm giving an offering. No, you're not giving an offering You're just giving towards your tithe because you didn't honor god first So so you gotta do that first When you honor him first, then it has the ability to multiply the second thing It has to be given away before it can multiply And so some of you need to after you start tithing you need to ask god. Okay, what do you need me to give?

44:08 What do you want me to give? how do you want me to sow? Because some of you have been drinking and eating your blessing. I gotta have my Starbucks every morning. It's just, it just gets me. Go to bed earlier. No, practical. Go to sleep. So that you can take that $8.95 over 52 weeks and that can be your blessing that you start giving away. God's saying you are eating your blessing. you're wearing your blessing you you are driving your mouth y'all don't hear me you you're doing things that are tying my hands and so when i ask you to give you can't because you already ate it or spent it or wearing it y'all hear what i'm saying so i want you to everybody say level up this church i'm prophesying over you that we're gonna move from just tithing the average church has like seven to 10% of tithers. I'm believing that over 60% of our church is going to be a tithing church. I dare you to just believe it with me. No, I dare you to just believe it with me because some of y'all ain't never going to get this. And we're going to pray for you every year about the same thing every year. God, just please help me. If you do this, he said, test me.

45:26 But some of us are going to level up beyond that. And we're going to say, we don't want the basic level of this thing. We want that multiplication and we're going to start giving offerings. Let me give you the third, the last one. Okay. The level three is sacrificial offerings, or I like to call them offerings that hurt.

45:50 The offerings that the Bible calls extravagant offerings. And, and, and this is the beautiful thing about it. If you get to the point that you're tithing, you get the opportunity to do these things and God will test you. And he'll, he'll say, why don't you give that away? You'll say, Ooh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That can't be God. I get behind me. Satan. But what he's doing is he's trying to test you. Can he give you what he really has for you? But it's in exchange for something that will take a sacrifice. This is Rick Burgess from The Rick Burgess Show. If you're still auto-renewing your car insurance without shopping around, you are probably throwing money away, I'm telling you. Go check out Insurify. In about two minutes, totally free, you can compare quotes from over 100 companies all in one place. Now, here's what I love.

46:44 Insurify actually monitors your rates and alerts you when prices drop so you never miss out on a better deal. Millions of people have used it to stop overpaying, and there's no reason you shouldn't too. Do yourself a favor. See what you can say right now at insurify.com. There's a woman in this church. I heard this testimony this past week that she had never been really faithful in her tithing. It was spotty. It was just whenever God would do it. She started listening to the message, and at the beginning of January, We were talking about striding and we did a fast. And she said, I'm going to stride, Father. I need to get out of debt, but I'm going to start obeying you. We started the series. And she said, I'm going to tithe consistently. I'm not making enough money, but I'm going to trust you in this. She's in the room right now. And I heard this testimony, y'all. It just hit me. She said, I trusted God with what I had. And I listened whenever he told me to give anything else. She leveled up.

47:37 Before the miracle. Before anything happened. She said a couple of Fridays ago, she was in her office building and the president of the company came to her and said, hey, you know, we're hiring for different job positions. Why haven't you applied? And she said, I'm striding using the message. I love it. She said, if you want me. Now, she tells this to the president. She says, if you want me in a position, you tell me which one to apply for and I'll apply for it. Later that day, she got an email and said, hey, I want you to apply for this position, but I need you to do it now. This is on a Friday. She said Monday they interviewed her. That next Friday they formally offered her a job. But wait.

48:24 The job wasn't just an increase of pay. She went from making $32,000 a year and in one week she went up to $75,000. Oh, y'all can't rejoice with somebody else? The Lord tells us to rejoice with those who rejoice. God didn't God did not just bless her he doubled he multiplied he went exceedingly abundantly above all she could ask or think I double dog dare you and look what god did he gave her so much that now she can give more away to see y'all y'all are it's too low god says level up give extravagant give and and and we see this all through the bible david most theologians believe gave 21 billion dollars to the building of the temple solomon when he was anointed as king it's customary for them to sacrifice one bull he sacrificed a thousand bulls when they required one he gave a thousand we think about the woman anointing jesus feet before he was crucified with the year's wages of perfume she poured it on his feet she gave an extravagant offering and the greatest sacrifice ever given was God who gave Jesus for a maybe. So when you get to this level of extravagant giving, of giving with the sacrifice, see this one might encourage you. In Mark 12 41, there's a woman that gave two mites. It says verse 41, now Jesus sat opposite of the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. It's amazing how they said how Jesus was not concerned about how much he was concerned about how their heart posture. And he was watching that verse 42.

50:27 It says, then poor woman came in through two mites, which makes a quadrant. So he called his disciples to himself. He said, did y'all see that? Did y'all see that? Assuredly, I say to you that This poor woman has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury for they all put in out of their abundance. But she put in out of her poverty. She put in all that she had her whole livelihood. What God said is she sacrificed to give this amount. And when you get to a place where your heart is right and God says, give that last ten dollars. And you say, God, this was the gas for this week. He said, I'm asking for a sacrifice so that I can open up the windows of heaven.

51:21 Today, God told me, he said, Michael, I want you to model this in your service. He said, I want you to lead your church in generosity. And I told you all at the beginning of this series, I already felt God stirring in me that I was going to have to give something. i had to give something significant away because anytime god starts talking about generosity he's gonna test that and he's gonna test it with the leader so a year ago thank you holy spirit a year ago there's a woman in our church who heard this message and she said pastor mike i'm tithing I'm not making a lot of money right now. She was like this woman, but I'm going to give sacrificially and I'm tithing, but God's telling me to sow. And I want to sow, but it's so insignificant that it just feels embarrassing. And I told her, I said, it's not about the amount.

52:23 It's about your obedience. I said, how much does God want you to sow? She said, well, God told me to sow $10 into you and pastor Natalie every month. And I said, girl, do that. Obey God. I said, he's not looking for amounts. He's looking for consistency. And every month, this young lady would come find me and give me an envelope with $10 in it. She said, I'm going to move and I'm going to sacrificially give. And so the first time she gave me the envelope, I was like, cool, enough $10. I'll give my kids some Happy Meals and keep moving. And the Holy Spirit, as soon as I was about to put that money in my wallet, he said, save it. I said, huh? He said, don't spend it at all. Keep it in the envelope. And every time she gives you money, I want you to save it. And I'll tell you when to give it back to her. Wow.

53:19 And this month, she gave me the 12th envelope. where she's put ten dollars in this envelope every month and sowed an extravagant seed oh it's ten dollars to you but you living in abundance right now but this was this meant something to her and as I was preparing this week he said I want you to call her up at the end of your service and I want you to give her back all the money that she thought she was sowing into you because I'm the God of multiplication and I want you to give it back to her Mr. Rhonda will you come here real quick i'm so proud of you the first time you gave a seed god saw this moment so today i give you back the seed that you gave me because god is pleased because you obeyed him but he didn't stop there.

54:39 He said, Michael, I'm the God of multiplication. So he said, I don't want you to do it from the church. I want you and Pastor Natalie. Can you give me that, Aaron? He said, I want you to give her $1,200. Oh, y'all can rejoice with her right now. my God is y'all better y'all better rejoice with me my God is a God of multiplication

55:16 Oh, I dare somebody to rejoice with her. Come on. Free and clear. Come on. God is thinking about you. He's trying to level you up. He's trying to take you from glory to glory to glory. listen i wrestled i wrestled whether to do that publicly because i'm not doing that to get any type of fame god said that he was about to start a chain reaction of generosity in this church that he's going to speak to you and what you do is going to make a difference a year ago god spoke to me and said I'll tell you when I'll tell you how much and I'll tell you how that is a practical miracle to what God wants to do in you and through you as you go to the next level of giving.

56:21 Start tithing. Be faithful then give an offer. And whenever God asks you for an extravagant gift, don't fight him. Don't grieve over it. Because it's more blessed to give than it is to receive. Lift your hands all over this place. Father, I thank you that you have brought us here to remind us of the greatest gift ever given, and that's your son.

56:51 And with that backdrop, anything we have is yours. So, Father, I thank you that our hearts are turning and that we won't just hear the principle of a blessed life, but we will live a blessed life and God our consistency to obey you is going to produce miracles tithing doesn't make sense giving over and beyond doesn't make sense extravagance doesn't make sense but it makes miracles and I declare that this church will live to be walking talking living miracles as you bless us beyond what we could ever imagine shatter our perspective god and let us take the limits off of what you can do through us in jesus name we agree we expect amen can we give god a shout of praise in this place oh come on