Waters Church

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Truth About Money Part two. Here's the title. When
God is first, it's never cursed. They talk about the
tithe Then I know you're excited about that.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Amen.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
And if you are not in house, we're going to
go to Waterschurch dot guide It looks like that and
you click on today's message and the notes are digitally.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Available to you right there.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
The Truth about Money Part two. When God is, Oh,
can I get through more than two people to say it?
When God is, it's never do it again? And when
God is it's never. Now start swaying when God is.
Genesis chapter fourteen a very interesting passage of scripture. It's

(00:47):
about a war. It's about a battle. Abram's dwelling in
the land of the Promise and his nephew Lot gets
stolen in the middle of a war, and Abrams to
springing to act, go into.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
The battle and rescue his nephew Lot.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
And it's verse thirteen where we're picking up the story,
or actually verse fourteen we're picking up the story. He says,
when Abram heard that his kinsmen had been taken captive,
he led forth his trained men born in his house,
three hundred and eighteen of them, and went and pursued
as far as Dan, and he divided the forces against them.
By night he and his servants and defeated them and
pursued them to Hoba, north of Damascus. Then he brought

(01:26):
back all the possessions, and also brought back his kinsman
Lot with his possessions, and the women and the people.
After his return from the war, says this the King
of Sodom, the King of Sodom. The King of Sodom
went out to meet him. This is Abram at the

(01:47):
valley of Chava, that is the king's valley. And Melchizedek,
King of Salem, he gives.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Salem, the King of Sodom.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
And the King of Salem, Melchizedek, King of Salem, brought
out bread and wine.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
He was priest of God most High.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
And he blessed him and said, blessed be Abram by
God most High, possessor of heaven and Earth. And blessed
be God most High, who has delivered your enemies into
your hand.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
And the King of Sodom said to Abram, give me
the persons, but take the goods for yourself. And Abram
said to the King of Sodom. I have lifted my
hands to the Lord God, Most High, possessor of heaven Earth,
that I will not take a thread or a sandal
strap or anything that is yours, lest you King of Sodom,
lest you should say I have made Abram rich. This

(02:36):
is God's word. Let's pray together and dig into it. Heavenly. Father,
I asked that you're speaking through me today. I ask
God that my words are what you want them to be,
that our ears are open, that our hearts are receptive,
that our eyes are lifted up the current cultural conditions
of our world. And we stare into heaven and we
see you, God Most High, and help us Lord to

(03:00):
know that you are our provider, and you are our protector,
and you are our sure and certain reward.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
And we asked him we might see Jesus in his name.
We pray.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
Everybody said, Hey man, God, bless you have a sea.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Good news Waters Church.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
We had a wonderful, wonderful opening at our South Coast location.
We also started a messageries on the truth about money.
So South Coast is our sixth location.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
It opened last Sunday. Grand opening last Sunday.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
They'd been doing practice services before then, so now they finally.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Got it right.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
We had a full service, and so I was there
in person, I was here on video and everywhere else
on video. We had one hundred and eighty people show
up to the grand opening.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Of our South Coast location. I think the highest.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
Grand opening number we've ever had in any of our locations.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
But the best part was we.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Had twelve people get saved at our South Coast locations
last weekend and locations wide church wide. On a weekend
where I started talking about money, we had forty four
people say yes to Jesus at all locations of Water Church.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
For some reason, a lot.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
Of people get saved when I talk about Monday, and
when I talk about money, people don't get offended. And
I don't know why, because I offend everybody with everything else,
but this subject I don't know. So we're gonna talk
about something that I have practiced my whole life is
called the tie. That's why the title of the message
is when God is first, has never cursed. It is
something that I watched my parents' practice. My parents were

(04:26):
not ministers. They were not or at least hired by
the church. My father was a truck driver. He would
get up at four am and he would come home
at eight pm every night. He worked hard. My mother
was a social worker. She was a high school math
teacher and then she had kids and it, you know,
kind of rearranged her life and she became a social worker.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
And so that's their story.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
And what they always did, though, was they put God first.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Here's how you raise great kids. Bring him to church.
You're there already.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
You should be comprom fierce out for Heaven's sakes. My
parents never took me to baseball over Sunday service, never
took me out of soccer over Sunday service.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
God's house came first. I'm the result of that.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
And I remember coming my father coming home late at night.
He would have a cold dinner plate reheated in the
microwave and sit down at the dinner table, and then
he would do the checks, pay the bills, and he
would open up how many remember those three check binders?
Remember the three check binders and then the little memo
thing on the left that you would tear it away
the tab so that you could remember. This was before
the days of these devices. You know what I'm saying.

(05:36):
We used to have something called paper. How many remember that,
and so anyway, he would write the checks out, and
I remember him writing out the check to the church,
one of the largest checks every month, and there he
would put it next to a little tab tithe I
would watch a ten year old kid. I'd watch this happen,
and there was no question in my mind. My father
and my mother said, God's house comes first. They retired

(06:01):
at the age of sixty two. He was a truck driver,
didn't make a lot of money. My mother didn't make
me a lot of money, social worker. But they managed
to put God first, budget their finances, make sure that
they didn't overextend themselves in excessive living. And they retired
at the age of sixty two to the Great Free
State of Florida.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
I say, I couldn't help myself, I could help with them,
and they've been living there ever since, and they have
been enjoying the last twenty plus years in retirement because
God blesses those who put Him first. I watched it,
I picked up on it, I'd do it.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
I'm not going to ask you to do anything that
I don't do, and I'm gonna ask you, by the
end of this message, that you try it and I'm
gonna make an offer. Try it for three months. If
it doesn't work, we'll give you your money back.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
And I mean that I've done this before. I am
so confident that God is good.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
He's gonna prove himself faithful, He's gonna bless socks off.
Then you're gonna see that there's no possible way you
can ever outgive our generous God. So let's get to
the text. Let's talk about this. In Genesis chapter fourteen,
war breaks out.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
Why does war break out?

Speaker 1 (07:14):
It says that the enemy took all the possessions of
Sodom and Gomorrah and all their provisions and went their way.

Speaker 2 (07:18):
Look what it says in verse twelve. They also took
who Lot? What a weird name.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
By the way, Lot was Abram's what nephew, the son
of his brother, and he was dwelling in Sodom, and
his possessions and all his stuff were taken in this
war that broke out against the city of Sodom and Gomorrah.
How did Lot, Abram's nephew, end up in Sodom? Well,

(07:46):
the scripture says, all I gotta do is back up
one chapter to Genesis chapter fifteen and you will see
that what happened thirteen, sorry, and you will see that
what happened was there was a fight between Abram and
Lott's herdsman. They're shepherds, if you will. And Abram takes
the high road, and he says, listen, Lot, this shouldn't continue.
We shouldn't fight like this. We're family. So you pick

(08:07):
the plane that you want. I'll pick the plane that
you don't choose. I would take whatever's left over. Abram
takes the high road, and the Bible says in Genesis
thirteen that Abram looked at the valley of Jordan, and
he saw that it was well watered, and it looked
like eatam Eden, and it looked like Egypt, and it
looked prosperous and successful, and it looked like a place
where he could get ahead.

Speaker 2 (08:28):
And so he chose for himself the plane of the Jordan.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
And then it says further that he settled on the
far side of the plane, toward the.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
City of Sodom. What Lot wanted was the good life.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
What Lot wanted was the high end neighborhood, the blessings.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
That this world could give him.

Speaker 1 (08:47):
And so he decides to settle near so he should
be in the Promised Lan, he should be close to
his uncle Abram, he should be where God's blessing is.
But he's got a wondering eye and he wants to
be where where the good life is. And when you know,
war breaks out, he's caught up in the middle of it,
and he's taken captive, and all of his stuff is

(09:08):
taken captive. It's the symbol, it's a story, it's a
picture for you and for me that if we choose
to follow the mantras and the messagings of this world,
we will fall for a lie and before we know what,
we're caught up in the conflict of this age. And
what we are seeing in our country right now, what
we're seeing in our world right now, is we're seeing

(09:28):
conflict over money, conflict over who's got what, and the
rich are blamed by the poor, and men are blamed
by women, and old people are blamed by young people
because everybody's got a beef with someone else for wine.
They don't got the good life that they deserve. And
this past Tuesday, we went to the polls, we voted,

(09:49):
and now all the news is coming out that there
was one major issue that young women voted on, and
the issue was the issue of abortion. Because abortion has
been turned into a political issue.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
I don't understand how.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
But if it turned to a political issue and a
false promise that if you have the ability to put
to death your unwonted pregnancy, then you will prosper, and
that is where we are as a country. And this
is where I see a lot of Christians getting caught up.
And a lot of Christians are like Lot, and they're
getting up in that camp thinking, yes, I think I
should have autonomy over my life so that I can
chase and pursue the good life.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
But we are not.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
If you're a Christian of this world, we do not
belong to America. We belong to Heaven.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
And our citizenship is with Jesus, and.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
We know that he's coming back and he's gonna set
things right, and so we don't put our trust in
politicians or in Democrats Republicans.

Speaker 2 (10:39):
We put our trust in him.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
But a Lot is a picture for us of how
easy it is to get caught up and chase in
the good life, and then before you know what, you've
lost your life. So Abram springs into action. He goes
into the battle he fights. Did you see that he's
got three hundred and eighteen men in his house? Three
hundred and eighteen men in his house? Do you know
what that makes Abram.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
Rich?

Speaker 1 (11:03):
He's very rich. I don't got three hundred and eighteen
men in my house. Anybody got three hundred and eighteen men.
This guy's phenomenally rich. Riches are not evil. Rich people
are not automatically evil. Neither are poor people automatically virtuous.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
And am appreciate to anybody this morning.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
Scripture says in Leviticus, do not bend justice.

Speaker 2 (11:30):
For the rich or the poor. And so Abram springs
an action.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
He's got three hundred and eighteen men, and he springs
into action, and he fights the bat on.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
He wins, and he.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
Brings back all the possessions. He brings back all of
lots of possessions. Moreover, he brings back all of Sodom's possessions.
And Sodom at this point was a wicked city, he
says it in Genesis thirteen, a wicked, rebellious city toward
God Sodom. But Abram has a heart for his crazy nephew,
and he goes and he says and brings back. He's
won a battle, and he's got the blessing.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
But here's the deal about it.

Speaker 1 (12:06):
After the battle physically comes the battle spiritually.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
And I don't know if you saw what I saw,
whether he was meant by two kings.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
Two kings come and see Abram on the heels of
his great blessing. Look with me at verse nineteen and
says this an in Melchissedic, that's.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
The first one. He blessed him.

Speaker 1 (12:25):
He blessed him and said, blessed be Abram by God
most High, possessor of heaven and Earth.

Speaker 2 (12:29):
And blessed be God most High. Look at that next line.
Who has what? Who has delivered your enemies into your hand?

Speaker 1 (12:36):
And what Melchizedeck is telling Abram is listen, Abram, you one,
but God did it. Blessed be God and blessed be Abram.
Because God has given Abram's enemies into Abram's hand. And
Abram responds by giving him the Tithe. This hithe starts
with Abram. People say the tithe is the Law, No,

(12:59):
the tie. It starts five hundred years before the law
with a guy named Abram. Abram commenced the tithe his
grandson Jacob two generations later, continued the tithe said, Lord,
if're gonna bless me, I'm gonna give a tenth of
everything that's in Genesis twenty eight.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
Moses shows up five hundred years later, and then he
commands the tithe in the law.

Speaker 1 (13:17):
And then Jesus shows up hundreds of years later, two
thousand years later, almost and he commends the tithe in
Matthew twenty three twenty three, saying to the Pharisees, you've
got a problem because you tithe, but you don't care
about people. He says, I want you to care about
people and tithe. That's Matthew twenty three, twenty three. So
Abram commenced the tithe. Jacob continued the tithe. Moses commanded
the tithe, Jesus commended the tithe. Who am I to

(13:40):
cancel the tithe? And so Abram gives him a tenth
because he is acknowledging this is what he's doing. He's
acknowledging you're right, Melchizedet, I got this blessing, but I
got it because God gave it to me. And then
shortly after Melchizedic arrives, King arrives, the King of Sodom

(14:01):
verse twenty one, and the King of Sodom comes to Abram.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
With the deal.

Speaker 1 (14:05):
He says, you just give me the persons. I just
look at what Sodom wants. He wants to what the people.
What do we talk about last week? That the enemy
wants you, The government wants you. The government wants to
control you, the government wants to own you. The government
wants you dependent. Because a good dependent population is a
controllable population. And you've got to remind yourself of this

(14:28):
continually lest you fall into the lives of the enemy.
Give me the persons, but take the I'll pay you
for the people. That's the enemy's strategy since the Garden
of Eden. I'll give you what you want as long
as I can have you. This is the spiritual battle
for finances in our lives, and we've got to break
free from it.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
We got to break free from it.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
Because they always lie and they always decide. Our president
promised our poor, highly indebted young people who've got student
loans through up to the up to the mountaintops that
if if you vote for them, you're gonna get through
student loan forgiveness. And then two days after the election,
Hello lawsuit was brought as judge stop the whole program.

(15:12):
Millennials and gen z welcome to American democracy. They promise
what they never provide. And I hope you're listening and learning,
learn quick, because it's going to happen to you over
and over and over again. But you got to put
your trust not in the government, and not in the people,
and not in the kings of this age. You've got
to put your trust in the God who made you
and can bless you. Here's what Abram, though, is going

(15:36):
to experience. And here's what he experienced. Here's what we're
all going to experience.

Speaker 2 (15:39):
He comes out of the battle, he's got the blessing,
and two.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
Kings meet him. The King of Salem, the King of Peace.
Salem means peace. Ancient city of Salem might have been Jerusalem.
Melchizedek means King of Righteousness. Melchizedic is a picture. It's
a picture of Christ. Christ is the King of Peace.
Christ is the King of Righteousness.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
And he comes and he.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
Offers bread and wine and blesses Abram. And then Sodom,
the King of Sodom. So two kings meet the guy
on the heels of the blessing.

Speaker 2 (16:05):
Here's where I'm getting. I want you to write this down.

Speaker 1 (16:07):
The question in every blessing is this, who has made
me rich?

Speaker 2 (16:14):
Every time you.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
Get a blessing, you've got to answer this question, where
did this come from?

Speaker 2 (16:20):
You say, well, I'm not rich. Yes you are.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
If you are in America, you are rich. The people
in Guatemala ras hear us right now. You should see
how they live compared to us. You should see how
Peru lives compared to us. Dirt floors, sleeping on a
cot with maybe one sheet, and.

Speaker 2 (16:44):
They are happy about it.

Speaker 1 (16:45):
My wife and I were in Seweta, South Africa, where
apartheid literally started to break. We were in the middle
of that neighborhood filled with children who have hardly anything,
and they come running out to them, to the people
as they come into the city, smiles in the face.
They don't got Xbox, they don't got PlayStation, they just
got smiles. Remember that when you enter into the Christmas

(17:07):
shopping season, parents, and what you have to understand is
that you are rich if you're an American.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
If you are an American, you're in.

Speaker 1 (17:14):
The top eight percent of the richest people in the
world just by being an American. So America, you got
to cry, who has made you rich? She said, Well,
I really worked hard, Pastor. I went to school, I
put myself through school. I worked extra hours.

Speaker 2 (17:28):
I did.

Speaker 1 (17:29):
Yes, but somebody gave you that opportunity. Back up the truck. Well, yes,
they helped me out, and yeah I got the opportunity.
Yes I applied and they accepted me. Okay, yeah, but
back up the truck. You for somebody fed you when
you were a baby. Somebody produced your goods.

Speaker 2 (17:44):
So that you could survive long enough to get to
that educator, get to that opportunity. Oh and by the way,
somebody's providing you with oxygen right now.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
There's no such thing as a self made person, no
such thing. You are not the result of your efforts.
In many cases, you're the result of a bunch of blessings,
some luck, some happenstance, some happy accidents, and a bunch
of your talent or a bunch of your ability as well,
that was put in you by others who came before you.

Speaker 2 (18:15):
And is You're back all the way after the beginning.
It all comes from God.

Speaker 1 (18:19):
And when God was telling the people of Israid to
enter into the promised land, he told him in Genos.
In Deuteronomy chapter eighteen, he said, you shall remember that
is the Lord, your God, who gives you the ability
to a claim to a clue to a crue.

Speaker 2 (18:31):
Wealth is not your own doing, it's not your own hand.
God is the one who makes me who I am.

Speaker 1 (18:37):
And don't ever forget it, or you'll fall into this
traps of this age and fall into the lives of
this enemy. This is what you've got to remember. This
is what you're going to be asked. Every time you
get paid, you get blessed. Every time you get a paycheck,
you take a test, and the test is the first
question on the test is where'd this come from?

Speaker 2 (19:00):
Got to be gone if you want to have your
heart right about money.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
The truth, it all comes from Him, and I love
when Abram is presented with this moment between the King
of Salem and the King of Sodom, that he speaks
to the King of Sodom on his offer.

Speaker 2 (19:15):
Did you hear what he said when the.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
King of Saidam said, He's give me the people. I
just went here, here's the stuff here, I'll bless you
some more. Abe, I'll give you more stuff. Just give
me the people. I love what Abram says in verse
twenty two. But Abram said to the King of Sodom,
I've lifted my hand. Ooh, I love that I've lifted
my hand to the Lord, the God most High. Look

(19:37):
at what he just says, possessor of I know who
owns everything, and I lifted my hand to him in
a vow, and I said, I will never ever proffer
profit and prosper on the heels of this age, because
I know.

Speaker 2 (19:54):
In who I believe, and I know he holds me
in his hand. I know he's got all things in
his hand, and he's my source.

Speaker 1 (20:01):
Not you. Some of you gotta tell that to yourself,
right Some of you gotta tell that to your spouse
right now.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
Somebody you gotta tell that to your mom or dad.
You're your child, right now, you.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
Can say, God is our source, not this world.

Speaker 2 (20:13):
God is in charge, not my customers. God is in charge,
not my competition, and not my government. God holds the
world in the palm of his hand, and he's got
me there too. That's what I gotta do. I gotta
settle this in my heart.

Speaker 1 (20:27):
So I want to talk to you about passing the
testing of blessing number one, three points were done, but
then point two has three points under that, So what's
that six points?

Speaker 3 (20:36):
Good?

Speaker 2 (20:36):
All right, there we go.

Speaker 1 (20:38):
I must decide first that God is first. I must
and the two first are on purpose. Okay, I must
decide first that God is first. In other words, you
have to predecide this before the blessing comes. That's what
Abram does, doesn't he? He says, off, lifted my hand.

(20:58):
Here's the opportunity to get rid which on sodom, Abram,
just like your nephew Lot did. Nope, proop stop already
made a decision about that. I already made a decision
before you came with the offer that you're not my
source and I'm not gonna let you do this. Are
you telling me passion that I should reject getting paid? No, no, no, no,

(21:19):
that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is you
got to make a decision that ultimately the Lord is
the one who provides. He might use the paycheck to
do it, but that's just a means to his ultimate ends.
And every time we get paid and blessed, we got
to tell him God, I know this comes from you.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
I've lifted my hand to the Lord. I've made a
decision before.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
I'm not gonna let this world shape me by promising
me the good life. I'm not gonna let my progeny,
the people that came before me or after me shape
how I handle what God gives me.

Speaker 2 (21:59):
I I love this. And then when melchizedeic comes and says.

Speaker 1 (22:02):
Blessed be God, Abram, and blessed, Blessed be you, Abram,
and blessed be the God who did this for you.
The immediate response of Abram is what verse twenty. And
Abram gave him a tenth of everything. That's the tithe
He said, Okay, this is to you God. I'm recognizing that.
And that's how we tell our hearts that it comes
from God. This is yours, Lord, This is not from

(22:26):
the world. This is yours. And now Melchizedek is a
picture and Hebrews chapter seven.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
Talks about this. He's a picture of Christ.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
Hebrews chapter seven, verse two says he Melchizedek is first
by translation to the name king of righteousness.

Speaker 2 (22:37):
That's what Melchizedec means, King of Salem. That means king
of peace.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
And then verse three says he is without father, a
mother or genealogy. He has neither beginning of days nor
end of life, but resembling the.

Speaker 2 (22:50):
Son of God. What does Hebrews say? He says, listen,
this is what Melchizedek is. He's a picture of Christ.

Speaker 1 (22:56):
Christ showed up in front of Abram and Christ God
Abram's tenth and Christ blessed abral and Abram acknowledged that
only because of the blessing of Christ.

Speaker 2 (23:06):
Could he have what he had.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
Hever, chapter seven, verse seven says, this is this, without dispute,
that the inferior is blessed by the superior.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
Here's what we do when we tithe.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
We tell God, you are the superior one in my life.
You are more important than my paycheck. You are more
important than the stock market. You are more important than bitcoin.
You are more important than what I think is gonna

(23:36):
bless No.

Speaker 2 (23:36):
God, you are superior in my life. What are you
telling with your finances is superior?

Speaker 1 (23:46):
Now, I've met two kinds of people concerning the tithe too,
And every mode of my life has only been two people.
I've met, the people who can tithe and the people
who don't think they can tithe. And it's always the
people who can tithe who realize that it is far
easier than they originally anticipated to tithe because here's what
they know about the tithe in the scriptures.

Speaker 2 (24:06):
Are you ready for it? Write this down?

Speaker 1 (24:07):
The tithe is a test. You're like, I hate tests.
It's not a test for you. It's a test for God.
It's a test for God. And actually God tells us
to test him in it. Look what it says in
Malachi chapter three. And I know some of you love
this verse. Bring the full tithe. Tithe means tenth. That's

(24:30):
what the Hebrew means. Hebrew means a tenth into the storehouse,
that there may be food in my house.

Speaker 2 (24:35):
And thereby God says, put me what to thee Just
circle test there. God's like, I challenge you to challenge me.
You're like, doesn't Jesus say that we should not put
the Lord, our God to the test.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
Yes, except for when he tells us to do it.
If he tells you to do it, you got to
make exception to the rule. Test me and see if
I will not look at this. Throw open the windows.
I've having a pour down for you, a blessing until
there's no more need. This is the best thing about God.
He can open doors in heaven when doors on earth

(25:15):
are closed. Oh that was a good preacher, right there,
pastor Amen.

Speaker 2 (25:21):
He can open doors you can't open. He can open
windows you don't know that exists.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
He can open financial windfalls that.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
Are waiting for you to put him first. And here's
the next verse.

Speaker 1 (25:35):
And I love the next verse, and I will rebuke
the devourer for you.

Speaker 2 (25:41):
Inflation is a devourer.

Speaker 1 (25:45):
I was amused this week when the news came out
that inflation was only seven point seven percent, and it
was like, great news, winning, Yes, that just means this
means prices are still going way up, They're just not
going as high up as they were last month. So yeah,
I guess if you want to call that Winning is

(26:06):
a devourer and is teaching our society to stress about
money because they think money is their source. And guy says,
here's what you do. You put me first, and you
teach your heart that I'm first, and I will make
sure that that inflation number doesn't affect you. I'll rebuke

(26:29):
it for it. I don't know about you, but I
want God's rebuke over my enemies. I don't know about you,
but I want that. I'll rebuke the devourers. That won't
destroy your soil. You won't destroy your field, won't destroy
your vine.

Speaker 2 (26:39):
I'll do that. You put me first testimy in this
Proverbs three to nine.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
And I love the fact that people say, well, that's
old Testament, that's Malachi. Okay, let's go to Proverbs three.
You know Proverbs three five and six. Everybody loves Proverbs
three five and six.

Speaker 2 (26:51):
Love it.

Speaker 1 (26:51):
Trust in the Lord of all your heart, and lean
not on your own sending and all your ways. Acknowledge Him,
and he shall out direct your past. Oh I love
that promise. That's on my coffee cap.

Speaker 2 (26:58):
How they do you?

Speaker 1 (27:01):
Four verses later, here's where the rubber hits the road
with trusted the Lord with all your heart, Honor the
Lord with your wealth.

Speaker 2 (27:09):
Oh I don't know about that one on my coffee cap.

Speaker 1 (27:12):
With the first fruits, first fruits of your produce, then
all your advis that's will be filled with wine.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
Okay. So here's what you do.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
You do the tithe first. When I get paid, the
very first thing out of my paycheck is the tithe
ten ten percent right back to this church. I'm not
asking you to do anything I don't do, and I've
seen God bless me more than I deserve as a result,
I've just done it.

Speaker 2 (27:38):
It's like automatic too. I've put it in my.

Speaker 1 (27:42):
Online banking, so that just happens because I know that
if I have to make that decision every week, I'll
have to wrestle in my heart and if I have
a low weak financially, I'll have to do a little
argument with my head, like I don't know if I
can trust God this week, because you know what I'm say.
I got a lot of things going no, no, no,
it's already done, is done, is happening. It's set. It's
not forgotten because it's a lot, but it's set, and

(28:02):
it goes first and then and we're gonna get to
this next week. I save next, and I save ten percent,
we save our family saves ten percent. So here's how
we do it, give save live. We'll talk about that
next week. But anyway, ten percent first of God, it
just happens. And some of you don't do it first,

(28:22):
and that's why you don't think you can do it,
because here's what you do.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
First.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
You say, well, Lord, I will tithe after all my
bills are paid, I'm gonna pay my mortgage bill and
my electric building, my phone build, and I gotta buy
my kid the Xbox game, and I do all kinds
oft lah blah blah. Let me just tell you something.
Your mortgage company can't bless you. Why do you put
it first? Your electric company cannot bless you. Why do

(28:46):
you put them first? Your kids cannot bless you, at
least for the first forty five years of their life.
I don't know if maybe some of you have a testimony,
you could come up and tell us that this actually
turns around and your face.

Speaker 2 (29:00):
But anyway, it's amazing how we put the things that
stress us before the thing that blesses us. Oh that
was good preaching right there.

Speaker 1 (29:11):
It's amazing how we put the things that stress us
before the person who can bless us.

Speaker 2 (29:16):
That's how I should have said it. Don't put your
stresses before your blesser. And you got to learn how
to do this. He's got to come first.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
Otherwise the proper would say, honor the Lord with your
wealth when you get around to it, it doesn't say
that with the first fruits and the Old Testament law
first born flock comes to me.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
The Bible says that Abe.

Speaker 1 (29:35):
That God looked on Adam, I'm sorry, able with favor
on his offering, and did not regard Cain's offering.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
And I'm always amazed at people who get baffled by that.
Why did God look with favor on Abel's offering but
not Cain's offering.

Speaker 1 (29:47):
Well, it's in the text, it's right. It says that
Abel brought the first born of his flocks to God.
And then it goes on and it says and in
the course of time, Cain brought some of the produce
of his field. In the course of time, what could
be translated when.

Speaker 2 (30:04):
Cain got around to it, he gave God some leftovers.
How do you.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
Give the one who gave you everything the leftovers.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
Of your life? And listen to me very carefully. It's
not like God needs it. You gotta get that through
your too. And Water Church doesn't need it. You need
to do it. Water Church is well provided for. We
are good. Could be a little bit better, but we're good.
We just saw your church. We're broke right now. That's
how it works. We stretch ourselves out financially. God blesses

(30:32):
that church and then it comes back.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
But what I'm trying to tell you is that this
is not abound raising money for the church. This is
about an issue of your heart to put God first financially.
Because here's what I want you to write down. When
we honor God financially, we tell ourselves and this world,
God is superior.

Speaker 2 (30:49):
You are my blesser. You come before my stressors. Point
number two. I must determine that life with God is
better than more. Life with God is better than more.
This world teaches you constantly you gotta get more. You
gotta get more, You gotta get more, and you gotta

(31:10):
have more because if you have more, you'll have more life.
That's not true.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
Like I told you about the kids in Soweto, South Africa,
they don't they.

Speaker 2 (31:19):
Don't worry and stress some miles of your dear You go.

Speaker 1 (31:22):
Down and call them, go on one of our missions
ships and meet those kids and you give them a candy.

Speaker 2 (31:28):
It's like they just won the lottery. And here's what.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
Here's what history teaches Americans better than any other country.

Speaker 2 (31:35):
Getting more oftentimes makes people more miserable. Not all the time,
not all, but many times.

Speaker 1 (31:44):
And I believe you can only handle more when you
trust that God is the one that's the source of
it all.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
I do so three differences between Sodomon and Milkizedic.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
The king of Sodom, Melchizedeic is a picture of what
the devil offers, what the world.

Speaker 2 (31:56):
Offers, what God offers.

Speaker 1 (31:57):
Letter A God brings simplicity, the world offers complicated lovey,
how many of you know this from experience that when
you get more life gets more complicated. I always get
a kick out of people who say, well, when I
win a lottery pastor, the first thing I'm going to
do is give the church ten percent. No, you won't, No,
you won't stop saying that, stop lying, because you will
do with more what you're currently doing with less. Money

(32:21):
does not change you. It just it just amplifies who
you already are.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
That's all it does.

Speaker 4 (32:29):
A couple about a decade ago, this area Florida, Painton,
this area of Massachude, right where we are down the street,
this area was shocked and horrified because a New England
Patriots player shot someone to death.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
And then it was exposed about how bad this guy was,
how evil, how his heart was dark and in such
a terrible way. And everybody this there, right down the
street from us is where it happened, about a.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
Mile away literally, and I have a freaked out. And
then the question that.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
Kept coming out was, how on earth can somebody was
such a life do that kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (33:02):
Is not the money. It's who you are with little
is who you are with a lot.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
So get this right in your heart now, so that
when God blesses you with a lot, you're is not changed.

Speaker 2 (33:15):
You're just generous and blessed and exalting the name of
Jesus through your life. That's what you gotta do. And
when you think about when I win the lotter, when
you win the lottery.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
Your second cousin twice removed is gonna call you up
and ask you for money, and then another one's gonna
come tomorrow, and then another one's gonna come tomorrow. Before
you know, you're swallowed up in all of this complication
that wasn't there before you got the money. So put
God first now, to tell him your first God, you
are my source before anything else. What does Melchizedek bring?

(33:50):
He brings out bread and wine, simplicity. Bread and wine
is a picture of something we should all know.

Speaker 4 (33:55):
What is that?

Speaker 1 (33:56):
The picture of communion, the picture of the Lord's table.
We'll get to that in just a moment. The King
of Sodom offers up this beautiful picture of the good life,
but it ends up in captivity. That's what Lot saw Genesis,
chapter thirteen, verse ten.

Speaker 2 (34:09):
He lifted up his eyes. He saw the Jordan valley
well watered.

Speaker 1 (34:12):
It looked like the good life, and he chased it,
and he got caught in it, and he got enslaved
by it.

Speaker 2 (34:17):
And Abrah had to come and save him. Let her be.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
God brings intimacy. The world offers isolation through increase. One
of the things they don't tell you is that the
more you make, the more lonely you feel. The higher
you climb, the more isolator you are is very lonely.

Speaker 2 (34:31):
At the top.

Speaker 1 (34:32):
We all hear those stories, we all hear those lines,
but they're true. And the enemy loves to isolate. That's
actually his main game. And if he can isolate you
through increase, he'll do it so that you're all alone
and you're fighting your own battles, and you're fighting your
own demons, and you have nobody to talk to you
and nobody to relate to. Because you are, you have
to You have to now filter our relationship in your
life through the lens of do these people only love

(34:53):
me because of my money or do they really care
about me? It's very isolating to put God first because
he brings intimacy. That's what God wants with you, and
that's why the scripture says that he brought out bread
and wine verse eighteen. Again, he brought out bread and wine.
The king of Sodom said, take the goods. But God's
king brings bread and simplicity and intimacy, and the bread

(35:16):
and wine is a picture of communion. When Jesus shows
up at the Last Supper with the disciples, what does
he say? In Luke chapter twenty two, verse fifteen, he says,
I've he eagerly desired to eat this passover with you before,
so I want to be with you. Jesus is on
the heels on the on the on the threshold of
the cross and suffering and being whipped and being his
having this beard pulled out and a kind of thorn
showing his skull, and he's on the threshold of all that, and.

Speaker 2 (35:39):
He tells his disciples, I want to be with you.
This is how I live.

Speaker 1 (35:43):
This is what really matters to me. I want to
do life with you. Guys, ladies, and gentlemen. That's what
God wants for every single one of you. He wants
to do life with you. Some of you are on
the threshold of suffering yourself. You gotta put God first
so that he's there when you go through it. You
gotta put God first of it. You're in mind, you
set him up.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
He is Lord, he is Source, he is provider, not
these things of the world.

Speaker 1 (36:05):
Let her see. God brings eternity. The world offers what's temporary.
Where did Lot go? He went to Sodom in Genesis
chapter fourteen. By the way, you want to hear the
real kicker, this is astounding to me. Abram goes into Sodom,
He fights the battle, he defeats the enemy of Sodom.

(36:27):
He rescues Lot from Sodom, and afterwards Lot goes back.

Speaker 2 (36:38):
To Sodom.

Speaker 1 (36:40):
Because you just gotta fast forward back into Genesis chapter eighteen,
and there he is again, and he's at the gates
of Sodom when the angels come to destroy the city.

Speaker 2 (36:49):
Went right back to it. Man, the pull of the
world is strong. Even when we get said to pull
out of it. We just kind of like want to
write back into it, don't we.

Speaker 1 (36:58):
This is the stronghold we're dealing with in our American
age right now, in our age of promise and prosperity.

Speaker 2 (37:04):
This is the stronghold and is all listen to me,
very carely, temporary.

Speaker 1 (37:10):
There's another place in the Bible where he talks about
melchizedeic in Psalm one ten, verse four, and it's a
royal psalm.

Speaker 2 (37:16):
It means that this psalm is talking about Jesus.

Speaker 1 (37:18):
And the way that this psalm decides to tell us
about Jesus is by referencing Melchizedec And it says this
in verse four, you the Lord.

Speaker 2 (37:24):
Has sworn forever.

Speaker 1 (37:25):
You are a priest forever after the order of who
the Lord is at your right hand. Now this is
talking about Jesus. The Lord is at your right hand.
He will shatter kings. On the day of his he
will shatter who. He will shader who kings.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
He'll shatter the people who look like they can offer
you the goods.

Speaker 1 (37:48):
On the day of his wrath he will verse six,
he will execute judgment among the what nations, filling them
with court. He'll shatter the chiefs oh with wi in
other words, there's one king, and that king is coming
back in judgment. And when everybody is chasing the good
life and ignoring the scriptures and ignoring Christ right now,

(38:09):
doesn't realize is that it's just a waiting game and
the clock is kicking down on the final judgment of
God's true and righteous melchizedec As King, Jesus Christ, who's
coming back in judgment. And right now America is playing
a foos game thinking we're getting away with anything. Scripture

(38:33):
talks about the end time judgment that's coming upon the
world at the hands of God's true King. In Revelation eighteen,
there's another city that shows up. It's called Babylon. It's
an ancient city. Babylon in Revelation is a picture for
a nation that's going to show up and seduce the
rest of the nations in the end times. And look

(38:56):
at the descriptor of this kingdom of Babylon. This shock
you shocked me when I was reading it this week. Fallen,
Fallen is Babbylon the great. She has become a dwelling
place for what demons, a hunt for every unclean spirit,
a hunt for every unclean bird, a hunt for every unclean.

Speaker 2 (39:11):
And detestable beast.

Speaker 1 (39:13):
For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion
of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth
have committed a more morality with her, and the merchants
of the earth have grown rich from the power of
her luxurious living. And when I read that text, there's
only one nation that I can think of that fits
that bill.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
This one. This nation makes nations rich and poor depending
on this nation's best interests.

Speaker 1 (39:37):
This nation exports sexual immorality around the world. America is
the greatest exporter of pornography through the Internet and through film.
America is not only exporting pornography, it's sorting. It's exporting
sexual confusion and homosexuality around the world, and transgenderism around

(39:59):
the world. So bad that last year, in this time,
the President of France, Emmanuel Macran said, France needs to
stop importing the values of America. You know your nation
is off course. When France says enough, I'm just saying,
like I think it's ready to do their constitution. You
should commit adultery over there. And they're saying, what, that's enough, America,

(40:23):
thank you, We're done. This country is Babylon and here's
what's gonna happen at.

Speaker 2 (40:29):
The end time when Jesus comes back.

Speaker 1 (40:31):
In verse nine, it says this, and the kings of
the earth, who committed a sexual morality and lived in
luxury with her, will weep and wail over her. When
they see the smoke of her burning. They will stand
far off in fear of her torment, as say, alas,
you great city, you mighty city, Babylon. For in a
single hour, your judgment has come.

Speaker 2 (40:48):
And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her,
since no one buys their cargo anymore. There's coming a
judgment at the.

Speaker 1 (40:55):
End day, when all that we think is important will
come crashing down, and the Lord Lord, the righteous Judge,
will stand on the earth and settle all the debts
and settle all the scores. And I'm telling you, you
got to stand in the righteous judgment of God for
your sins at the cross, or you're waiting for that
righteous judgment to come at the end time. I thank
God Jesus bore my sins on the cross so that

(41:15):
when he comes back in judgment, I'm.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
Standing with him on the earth.

Speaker 1 (41:22):
He's my true king, and I'll put my faith in him,
not just my spiritual faith, but my flinancial faith. I
always ask this question, and I want you to write
down so you can take it home with you and
think about it. If I can trust Jesus with my
eternal salvation, how can I not trust him with my
temporal provisions? Somebody you're like, I can't do it, but

(41:45):
you're trusting him to get you to heaven? Can you
trust him about that? Right, small potatoes friend, compared to
trusting him with your eternal salvation? And Romans chapter eight
thirty two backs me up on this. He who did
not spare his own son, but gave him up for
us all, how will he not also, with him graciously
give us all things. In other words, he gave you salvation,

(42:09):
He's gonna give you everything else. He's never gonna see
you suffer. He's never gonna let you struggle. He's never
gonna let you go endlessly in power. And even if
life is struggling down here, life up there is glorious.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
Number three.

Speaker 1 (42:24):
And finally, I must define my life according to God's riches, because.

Speaker 2 (42:30):
The world can offer me it's riches, but only God
could offer me his riches.

Speaker 1 (42:33):
And I love the proverb that says, the blessing of
the Lord as wealth and he brings no problems with it.
I love that proverb. I don't have it on my notes.
I don't have it on the slies. You can look
it up later. The blessing of the Lord brings wealth
and he has no problem. There's wealth of this world
and there's a bunch of problems that come with it.

(42:54):
But there's wealth that comes from God and there's no
problems with it. And so what you have to understand
is said.

Speaker 2 (43:00):
And I love this. I live well when we're talking.

Speaker 1 (43:02):
I lived it up my hand to the Lord, and
I said, I will not take a thing from you
Verse twenty three.

Speaker 2 (43:06):
I won't take a thread, I won't take a sandal strap.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
I'm taking nothing from you because you are not going
to be the one who defines me. You're not going
to be my source Philippians, chapter fourth, nineteen. And my
God shall supply all your needs according to as riches
in Christ, Jesus, let me tell you about our church,
six locations in three states and in two countries. How
on earth did we get here? February twenty thirteen. Pastor

(43:35):
goes to a conference here's another pastor say, here's what
we did. It changed our church's world. We started tithing
as a church, and I, like you, said, oh, that'll
never work. And the lawd started to work on my
heart and worked on our executive pastor Shane Parson's heart.

Speaker 2 (43:51):
We worked on it together. We came together. We said, look,
we got to do this.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
And at that time, we were bringing as a church
maybe about seventy thousand dollars a month. That's not small change,
that's big, and we maybe around five hundred people maybe,
And we decided February twelve, twenty thirteen, we're gonna tithe
ten percent first, and we started to pick up organizations
that preach the gospel that don't belong to us, and

(44:16):
we're gonna give money away and we're gonna tithe as
ac ten percent of everything that you bring in goes out,
which is kind of ironic because some of you don't
even give ten percent. Somebody give like one percent, and
we still tie ten percent on your one percent.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
And so we just decided to do it.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
It just we just made the decision, either God is
our source or not. One year later, our regular offerings doubled.
Two years later, we launched another church. Three years later,
we launched another church. And in twenty twenty to twenty
twenty two, while the whole world was languishing under the
scourge of COVID, we opened not one, not two, but

(44:54):
three locations.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
And God has blessed us abundantly again and again and
again because you can't outgive him. You can't out give him.
And here's what I see for some of you.

Speaker 1 (45:08):
There is a whole area of knowing God that you
are about to partake in when you test him in this,
when you trust him it.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
There's a whole area.

Speaker 1 (45:17):
You want success in your business, but you're not putting
the source on the throne of your success. And you're
gonna see when you put him on the throne of
your success. When you put him on the throne of
your source, the success from areas that you didn't even
know windows could open. I'm gonna come into your life
and I can't explain it, but it happens every single time,
and it'll happen for you.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
Is it happened for me, and it has happened for
this church.

Speaker 1 (45:40):
Last thing I want you to write down is kind
of like the summation of all I've talked about I
can trust God most High because he will never let
me down.

Speaker 2 (45:50):
Now, never let me down. And when you think about it,
is way more than just about.

Speaker 3 (45:55):
You, way more than just about you. I'm up here
today preaching the gospel of you because at ten years old,
I screwed my chair up next to my father and
watched him write a check to the church.

Speaker 2 (46:11):
And when I watched God bless him and my mother,
their socks offen.

Speaker 3 (46:16):
What will happen to your kids when God comes first?