September 28, 2025 • 43 mins
What if the secret to abundance isn't getting more, but stewarding well what you already have? This eye-opening message explores the surprising revelation that transformed a struggling church into one experiencing supernatural overflow.
"I've never seen a U-Haul following a hearse." This stark truth cuts through our consumer-driven mindset, challenging us to examine what we're truly accumulating. While we obsessively track Amazon packages minutes after ordering and sign up for endless subscriptions, many of us fail to invest in the one relationship that offers eternal returns.
The revelation shared is both simple and profound: faithful stewardship creates supernatural provision. When church leaders began making prayerful, intentional financial decisions rather than impulsive purchases, they witnessed money miraculously stretching beyond natural explanation. Even after writing a substantial check for renovations, the church account remained mysteriously full – a testament to God's faithfulness when we honor Him with our resources.
Our culture bombards us with messages to buy more, have more, and be more. Yet Scripture paints a completely different picture of success. "Those who love money will never have enough," warns Ecclesiastes, while Jesus directly challenges us: "You cannot serve both God and money." The message gets uncomfortably personal when asking whether we possess things or our possessions possess us. Those emotional shopping sprees when feeling empty? They're just chasing dopamine hits that quickly fade, leaving us still unfulfilled.
Perhaps most revealing is the parallel between our subscription-addicted culture and our spiritual lives. We mindlessly pay monthly for services we rarely use while neglecting our subscription to the Kingdom. The difference? Jesus isn't asking for monthly payments – He's already paid in full for your salvation.
Take the challenge today: examine what you're investing in, cancel your subscription to fear and materialism, and redirect your heart toward the only treasure that lasts forever.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
We had a really great revelation in that
meeting, and it was this.
Our church has seen a great dealof success.
We've been living in theoverflow for about the past
year.
And we've been trying to figureout how, like, how do you put a
bow on that?
How do you figure it out?
Like what happened in that yearthat made such a difference for
us?
Am I not working?
Is it working?
(00:20):
Okay.
I couldn't figure out for thelife of me what had changed in
that year.
And I finally realized it and Iwas able to voice it to council
and to Pastor Roger and PastorHolly.
And do you know what it is?
Because I'm gonna tell you, butdoes anybody have an idea?
It's having a faithful councilthat tithes back into this
(00:42):
building.
It's hard to believe, but it'strue.
Now here's the reason I say thatthey understand what it means to
give to the house, so theyresponsibly spend the money of
the house, right?
It's about stewardship, consumerculture, right?
(01:02):
Instead of just buying to buy,instead of just doing to do, we
prayerfully consider everysingle action.
Now I shared this with somepeople, I haven't shared it with
everybody.
And again, we are living in theoverflow and we realize that we
recognize it, but I have toshare this because I don't think
you understand what the overflowactually looks like for us.
Okay.
(01:23):
So we wrote a check for about$6,500 to buy carpet.
Of the$10,000 we raised, morethan half was spent on carpet.
That was to do the stage and thegym floor.
It's done, it looks beautiful,that's wonderful.
But when we wrote check, I saidto my wife, I said, that's
really gonna hurt to watch thatcome out of the checking
(01:44):
account, right?
Because we've had all of thismoney sitting there and it felt
so nice.
And so I was uh I was working onsome reports for council,
trade-off, and I said to mywife, I said, that check hasn't
cleared yet.
And she said, What do you meanit hasn't cleared yet?
I said, Well, I wrote the check,but it hasn't come out of the
(02:05):
account yet, and we couldn'tfigure out what was going on.
And I looked and the check hadcome out, but we didn't lose any
money.
How does that happen?
Because we had a council thatmade wise decisions with the
money of the builder, right?
We didn't just make a decisionon the fly.
We have been praying about thisfor so long and believing that
(02:27):
God would do something great.
Now, the best part of this isthere's still a grant sitting
out there that we may get evenpart of it given back to us yet,
right?
God has been so good to us, butso often we get wrapped up in
the consumer culture and theidea that if we buy or get or
have or whatever the case maybe, that we will grow.
I want you to look around for asecond.
(02:48):
We're not growing because wehave things, right?
Look at this carpet, right?
We are not growing because wehave things, we're growing
because we are being obedientand being good stewards of what
God has blessed us with, amen.
And I believe thatwholeheartedly.
This isn't about what we'redoing or how we are.
(03:08):
This is because we are trustingin God to move in this place,
amen.
Okay.
Today we live in aconsumer-driven world, amen.
Right?
How many of you shop on Amazon?
Right?
How many of you get two-dayprime?
How many of you get upset whenit doesn't show up in two days?
(03:28):
Right?
I'm like, I'm tracking it 15seconds after I bought it to see
if it's shipped yet and to seewhat day it's gonna show up in
my house.
That's ridiculous, right?
Can we agree on that?
It sounds crazy.
You guys remember when you usedto get mail and you didn't know
when it was coming?
Right?
When you opened the mailbox,that's when you knew you were
getting something.
See, even today, we're able tosee our mail long before it
(03:51):
comes through an app.
If you didn't know that, youshould get it because it is
wonderful.
But through the app, you cantell what you're gonna get in
the mail for that day.
There are things that we havejust become so accustomed to
that we can't get past it.
If you look at how many of youhave ever thought of something
and then it pops up on a socialmedia ad, you only have to say
it sometimes, you think it, andthere it is.
That's scary, right?
(04:13):
Like, and I think of a lot ofreally weird things that somehow
still magically appear on there.
Here's the here's the deal: commercials, social media, (04:18):
undefined
billboards, our phones,everything that we touch,
everything that we look at saysbuy more, have more, be more,
right?
Buy more, have more, be more.
The more you have, the betteroff you are.
Amen.
If I go buy a brand new car, I'mbetter off.
Right?
(04:40):
It won't break down.
But likely I'm in debt, right?
Likely I've taken on a paymentthat maybe I can afford, but can
you imagine what you what elseyou can do with that money?
Right?
Let me tell you something.
Marcus and Jenny had beenpraying for a second vehicle for
a long time, right?
A long time.
Marcus calls me, says, Hey, I'mgoing to pick up a car.
(05:02):
And I said, What do you meanyou're going to pick up a car?
He said, paid$500 for it.
Right?
Now that sounds crazy becausesome of us are like, I would
never drive a$500 car.
I'm gonna tell you something.
You go, you go through FinancialPeace University, you learn to
live like no other so that youcan live like no other.
Amen.
If I want to go out to dinner, Ican't afford it if I got a$900 a
(05:23):
month car payment, right?
The problem is, is every time welook at the internet, we watch
TV.
How many of you guys get suckedinto like QVC and those
infomercials, right?
But wait, there's more, right?
For only separate shipping andhandling, right?
You guys remember the sham wow?
Sham wow, wow, every time, shamwow, right?
That guy was crazy.
(05:44):
I think he was on drugs.
I don't know for sure, but I'msaying he was convincing, right?
You wanted to buy the sham wow,you didn't know if it worked or
not, but you were willing totake a risk because the man was
convincing.
The problem is that every timewe look at something, we say, if
we buy more, we can be more.
If we have more, we can be more.
That is not the truth.
(06:05):
It is not the truth.
I'm gonna start uh with apassage of scripture.
We're gonna start in Matthew 6.
We're gonna start in uh verse19, chapter 6, verse 19.
We're gonna go to 21.
Uh, if you've got your Bibles,you can go ahead and get those
out.
It says, Don't store uptreasures here on earth where
moths eat them and rust destroysthem, and where thieves break in
(06:28):
and steal.
Store your treasures in heavenwhere moths and rust cannot
destroy, and thieves do notbreak in and steal.
Whatever your treasure is, therethe desires of your heart will
also be.
See, Jesus never told us, buymore, have more, be more.
(06:51):
He never said that.
Instead, Jesus says, whereveryour treasure is, there the
desires of your heart will alsobe.
So I ask you a question today.
What are the desires of yourheart?
Right?
What are the desires of yourheart?
When you think about what youwant today, what is it?
(07:14):
Because when I ask you what youwant, you immediately go to the
list of things you've got readyfor Christmas, right?
How many of you have gotten thekids' Christmas catalogs
already?
What in the have they alwayscome that early?
Or are we just starting to likereally getting in on this?
We got the Walmart one the otherday in the mail.
(07:36):
And I picked it up and I said tomy postmaster, I said, Man, is
it really time for thesealready?
And he said, Sure is.
And then he said to me, How manykids do you have at home?
I said, three little, twobigger.
And he goes, Here, here's twomore magazines.
He's like, Well, I know they'llfight over it, and at least this
way they'll each have their own.
And I'm like, Chuck, Iappreciate you, my friend, but I
(08:00):
don't want him to have any ofthem, right?
Because we've started to consumemore and more.
I bet if I opened Easton'smagazine right now, everything
is marked, including the MyLittle Pony and the Barbies,
right?
He doesn't actually want them.
He doesn't want those things,but he sees it in the magazine,
and that magazine creates thedopamine, right?
That desire to have, that desireto buy.
(08:22):
How many of you listen to theradio?
And every time on the radio,it's you've got a car ad, right?
They tell you zero percentinterest for well-qualified
buyers, right?
Anyone know what awell-qualified buyer is?
Because it ain't me.
It ain't me.
I'm telling you, I don't thinkthey have 0% financing.
I think they just say it to sayit, right?
(08:44):
When they add that forwell-qualified, the problem is
though, we will run out and findout whether or not we are well
qualified, right?
Because if I can get it for 0%,right?
12 months, same as cash.
Anybody ever bought on 12months, same as cash?
Did you know that if you don'tpay it off in 12 months, they
hit you with interest for thewhole purchase?
(09:05):
Right?
How many of us have ever beenhit with that?
Right?
That doesn't feel good, right?
The problem is, is we areconvinced to spend, convinced to
have, so that we can be.
And again, Jesus tells us thatwherever our tra wherever your
treasure is, the desires of yourheart will be also.
(09:27):
The question is, do you havepossessions or do your
possessions have you?
And today I will tell you thetruth.
Some of my possessions have me,right?
There are things that you couldsay, but Pastor Michael, do you
need that?
You should get rid of it.
And I would laugh at you.
Right?
I'm not gonna give you my stuff.
(09:48):
Right?
I have I have been stashing thisstuff for years.
What?
Okay.
I was like, she's laughing at meright now?
Rhonda, I like you, but I willfight you.
unknown (10:06):
I'm related.
SPEAKER_00 (10:08):
Okay, all right.
And there are some things, andyou move it from place to place,
and you carry this box and youopen it, you go, oh, I don't
need that, and you just stick itin the basement on the shelf,
right?
Sometimes our possessions haveus.
Amen.
And I'll tell you, I've gotpossession.
Listen, I got two totes full ofmagic tricks that I like to do
for the kids.
I see, I use them once a year atEaster.
(10:32):
Once a year, but for some reasonI can't let that stuff go,
right?
It would be like asking PastorHolly to purge her shoes or to
go through her she shed, right?
It's not she says that's notgonna happen.
They're gonna shop your shoesand your she shed.
(10:52):
Just yard sale.
But what I'm realizing is thatmany times we forget what it
means to be good stewards ofwhat God has blessed us with,
right?
And that we become obsessed withthe things that we can get with
God's gifts, right?
So when I think about what Godhas done in my life, I think of
a lot of different things.
(11:13):
But the one that always strikesme, and I tell this story
regularly, is when Alyssa and Ibought our first home, right?
We walked into this house, wehad a laundry list of things
that this house had to be inorder for us to buy it, okay?
We knew what we wanted.
We had to have a garage, we hadto have what was it, three or
four bedrooms, whatever thatnumber was.
We had a laundry list of things.
We walked into this house and ithad none of them.
(11:35):
And yet, some for some reason webought it.
Right?
It doesn't make a whole lot ofsense.
But God knew what he was doingin that moment.
We lived in that house forseveral years.
We were blessed to have had it,we were able to do a ton of work
to it, and when we sold it, wemade almost a hundred thousand
dollars selling it.
That's what God was doing inthat moment, right?
(11:58):
It was so that he could move usto the next place.
It had nothing to do with us, ithad nothing to do with that
house, to do with what he wantedto do next.
But we had to be obedient withwhat he had given us.
Amen.
That's hard to do, church.
Amen.
You think it's hard for youpersonally?
Imagine when it doesn't hit yourpocketbook.
(12:20):
When you don't feel it, whenyou're spending somebody else's
money.
I'm telling you, when you havepeople who understand what God
is doing in the house, thechurch will continue to thrive.
All right.
Jesus warned us not to store notto store up our treasures on
earth, and everything in thisworld that we chase is
(12:41):
temporary.
Amen.
You can have the nicest car, butif you don't take care of it,
it's gonna rust away.
Amen.
You can have the most beautifulhome, but if you don't take care
of it, it's gonna fall apart.
Clothes will fade.
Heck, when you buy technology,it's outdated before you get it
(13:01):
home.
You buy a computer today,they're already working on the
next best thing.
Amen.
But we are so consumed withhaving the next best thing all
the time.
I just saw that some phonecompanies are doing a program
where you can trade in yourphone every year.
I'm not shaming anybody thatdoes this, just to be clear.
But you can trade in your phoneevery year for an extra like$10
(13:22):
or$12 a month on your bill.
You know you're not getting thatphone for free, right?
That$10 to$12 a month you'repaying on that phone bill covers
the cost of that phone in thatyear's time.
But for some reason, we're soobsessed that we have to have
the latest and greatest,especially if you're an iPhone
user.
Amen.
(13:44):
Let's be honest with each other.
Have any has anybody seen thenew iPhone?
They put the camera across thetop of the back now rather than
just in that little square.
That's fancy.
It don't do anything different,folks.
It's all the same.
But the problem is, is it looksshiny, it looks pretty, and so
we become obsessed with it.
Now I want to ask you aquestion, and this is a serious
(14:05):
question.
Since I've started working atthe bank, I've realized this.
Are you sweaty, Dale?
I'm burning up over here.
Okay, I was making sure itwasn't just me.
Anybody got their blankets onyet?
Nobody yet?
Well, you might be able to kickthe oh, she's cold.
I since I started working at thebank, I'm across the street from
the funeral home pretty muchevery day.
And I leave the office everyday, go home for lunch, go out
(14:27):
for lunch, whatever.
Sometimes I just sit in my car.
But I realized there are a lotof funerals.
A lot of funerals.
You know the number one cause offunerals?
Death.
That's it's it's crazy how thathappens.
But here's one thing that I havenever seen in all of the
funerals that I have seen.
You want me to tell you what itis?
I've never seen a U-Haulfollowing a hearse.
(14:53):
You can't take it with you,right?
Now you might want to, right?
Some of us, I'm gonna buy theplot next to me, bury the
jumpsuits in there with me.
My wife can go somewhere else.
I just need those right there.
But every time, every time wethink about stuff that we have,
(15:14):
it elicits this emotionalfeeling for us, amen.
Right when you like, listen, I'mgonna tell you something.
Every time I walk in the gymright now, I cry a little bit.
I'm not kidding.
I was standing back there duringworship and I started to tear up
because I was thinking, God hasso good to us, so good to us,
and that is such a blessing forus, amen.
And so I just every time I thinkabout it, I tear up a little
(15:36):
bit, and I think, man, howwonderful it is that we've been
able to be such good stewardswith his money that he would
give us such a blessing atvirtually no cost, right?
At virtually no cost, other thana little bit of time, well, a
lot of bit of time, but Pastorand Roger and I have committed
to this.
When that project is done,nothing's on the books for a
(15:58):
little while, right?
Like I'm pretty sure my familydoesn't even know me anymore.
I come home, change, and I leaveagain.
But God has been good to us, andso we want to continue to live
out what He has called us to do.
Ecclesiastes 5:10.
It says, is that right?
Is that where we are?
(16:18):
We can be thank you.
Those who love money will neverhave enough.
How meaningless to think thatwealth brings true happiness.
Jenny, where are you at?
Stand up, sweetheart.
I'm talking to us right now.
Some probably some more of you,but I know her and I, we've
talked about this.
Have you ever felt depressed orvoid and immediately go shopping
(16:41):
and buy something that youabsolutely do not need?
Yes, hallelujah! Do you know whyyou do that?
Because that dopamine kick makesyou feel like you've fulfilled
that void.
And then what you find is that20, 30, 40 minutes later.
Well, I don't know that I'veever had that.
(17:02):
I realize that the void is stillthere and I need to buy
something else.
Buyer's remorse?
Yuck.
That sounds ew.
What does does that mean youfeel bad that you bought it?
Because I don't think I've everdone that.
I don't think I've ever donethat.
(17:30):
If our identity is wrapped up inwhat we own, we will always be
empty.
Amen.
If we are always wrapped up inwhat we own, we will always be
empty.
The devil wants us to chasethings that are going to burn,
but God wants us to store up thetreasure that will shine forever
in the kingdom of God.
(17:50):
Amen.
Amen.
Hallelujah.
Paul wrote, truly goodness withcontentment is itself great
wealth in 1 Timothy.
Amen.
That means that if we arecontent with what we have, there
is great joy in that.
Now listen, I'm happy with whatI have.
I have a fear of losing what Ihave sometimes.
(18:12):
And so then I fight and I clawand I grab to keep whatever that
is.
But the problem is sometimes Godsays, I need you to let go of
it.
Amen.
I need you to let go of it sothat I can put you into that
overflow.
And we become distant or ordiscontented with whatever we
(18:34):
think that God is going to do.
Contentment is not laziness, itis living free from greed.
Amen.
Now I mean that in the desire towant things, right?
I don't mean that contentment inI just come in on Sunday morning
and sit in my seat.
Hey, turn the air up because itis hot in here and there are
(18:54):
people fanning themselves.
It can be 12 degrees in hereright now and still be too hot.
Get your coats out.
Hebrews 13, 5.
It says, Don't love money, besatisfied with what you have,
(19:18):
for God has said, I will neverfail you, I will never abandon
you.
Amen.
I will never fail you.
I will never abandon you.
I think back to that statement,and I think of all of the times
when we struggled as a ministry.
God, where are you?
Why aren't you showing up likewe expect you to show up?
(19:38):
And he said, I need you to beobedient.
I need you to wait until thetime has come.
The time has come.
Amen.
He has he has pulled us into theoverflow.
We had to learn to live withlittle so that we could feel
blessed in living with much.
Amen.
Now here's the thing (19:57):
he can take all of this away tomorrow,
right?
And we have to be content withliving in little again.
We cannot be angry, we cannot bedistant from God because we have
little.
Can I just I want to stop for asecond?
I'm gonna hop course and I justwant to say this out loud.
I have experienced in this pastcouple of weeks people who don't
(20:20):
like the vision that we have forthis building.
Okay.
This is not new, this is not newnews, this is something that's
been going on since I firststarted talking about it.
And I want to tell you that ifyou don't like it, that's okay.
And you're welcome to tell methat you don't like it.
That is perfectly okay as well.
But don't be offended when Idon't care.
Okay?
And it's not that I like I valuewho you are as a person, but you
(20:41):
didn't get my vision, right?
God didn't speak to you in thenighttime hours and say that you
were going to do somethinggreater, right?
Is that fair?
Right?
And so listen, everybody's gonnahave an opinion, and that's
okay.
I'm gonna listen to you, I'mgonna nod and smile, but when it
doesn't happen, that's the wayit needs to be.
And if you're if you're mad atme after that, hey, come talk to
me.
(21:01):
It's okay if you're upset withme.
It is not okay to be upset withme and then run and hide.
Because when you're upset andyou run and hide, you look
childish.
And it tells me that your levelof spiritual maturity is
probably less than that of mychildren.
Amen.
Amen.
Is that a fair statement?
(21:22):
All right, I'm done.
I'm off my soapbox.
Okay.
Whew.
What was that?
What was I talking about?
Was that Hebrews 13 5?
Okay.
Our security does not come fromthe stock market, it's not in
our job and it's not in our bankaccounts.
Our security is in God all thetime.
(21:42):
Amen.
It doesn't matter how big thatchecking account is, if you
don't have a relationship withGod, if you don't understand who
Jesus is, all of us wanderedaway onto worthless things.
Amen.
Just like I tell Beth, I wouldrather spend the money that we
have to feed God's people thanto sit on it for no good reason,
(22:03):
right?
If we are blessed, our communityshould be blessed.
If we are living in theoverflow, our community should
get to live in the overflow,right?
Because that's ourresponsibility.
See, we can show Jesus, we canbe Jesus, but we have to act
that way.
We can't just, well, you know,there are people who call here
all the time who want$20, theywant$50, they want this, they
(22:26):
want that.
And we have to we have tobalance that because good
stewardship requires that,right?
And so we ask a lot ofquestions.
There have been times when we'vegiven people gas cards, there
have been times when we've givenpeople gift certificates to
makeos.
We need groceries.
Hey, listen, this was before thefood pantry.
Listen, I can't just give you a$50 Walmart gift card.
You know why I can't give you a$50 Walmart gift card?
(22:47):
Because you might go spend thaton something that is not food
for your children, like you'retelling me.
It's not my responsibility totell them what to do with it,
but it is my responsibility toGod to honor what He's given us.
Amen.
And so we're careful about it,but we're also very generous
with it.
Psalms 37, 25.
It says, Once I was young andnow I am old.
(23:09):
That is the truth today.
Hallelujah.
Lord have mercy.
I don't know what happened, butlike one day I woke up feeling
old, right?
Anyone ever been there?
Once I was young, but now I amold, yet I have never seen the
godly abandoned or theirchildren begging for bread.
(23:30):
Amen.
When I was young, God was goodto me.
So I was, you know how Facebookgives you your memories and
you're able to see some of thestuff that you posted years ago.
I often don't look at minebecause I realized just how
cringy I was as a Christian veryearly on.
What do I mean by that?
(23:51):
Saturday night, I'm posting onFacebook.
Can't wait to go to churchtomorrow morning and get my
Jesus on.
This is the dumbest thing in theworld.
Now, but here's the thing giveme grace, umbrella of grace.
I was young and I was immature,right?
I was trying to show the worldthat I was something that I was
not truly in that moment.
(24:11):
Right?
I wanted the world to believethat I was righteous, redeemed,
but I was still smoking andswearing and doing stupid
things, right?
But see, the problem is I had apastor that didn't take my crap
ever.
She was one of the few people inmy life that would call me out
for the stupid things that I wasdoing.
(24:33):
And I never once took offense towhat she said to me because I
realized she was right and I waswrong.
I humbled myself before herauthority and before her
relationship with the HolySpirit, because she had
something that I didn't have.
Amen.
That was hard to do as a youngimmature Christian.
(24:54):
And now I don't even post aboutgoing to church.
I don't post about going tochurch.
Because if you know me, you knowthat.
If you know me, you know that.
And you know that it is apriority in my life in all
things.
When I was young, I once I wasyoung, and now I am old, yet I
have I have never seen the godlyabandoned or their children out
(25:18):
begging for bread.
When you've got Jesus, you'vealready got enough.
Amen.
When you've got Jesus, you'vealready got enough.
Joy cannot be bought fromAmazon, from Walmart.
I would argue from Target,because Target brings me a lot
(25:38):
of joy, I'm just saying.
Especially you hit it when it'son clearance.
There's a lot of joy.
But but real joy is poured outfrom the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Real joy does not come frompurchasing things.
Real joy comes from being inrelationship with Christ and the
Holy Spirit moving and acting inyour life in ways that you
(26:01):
cannot imagine.
Amen.
I have never, never once everexperienced the move of the
Spirit that has ever brought mesorrow.
Now, sometimes it's put me in myplace, it's made me question my
life decisions, but it has notbrought me sorrow.
Paul said, the love of money isthe root of all kinds of evil.
(26:22):
Evil in 1 Timothy 6 10.
Money itself is not evil.
Right?
Can we agree on that?
Having money does not make you abad person, it's the love of
money.
Right?
Mr.
Crab, Scrooge McDuck, they wouldbe considered hard-hearted
(26:43):
people with their money, right?
Money, money, money, money.
They just got all of this wealthbuilt up on earth that they are
receiving nothing in heaven.
I will promise you this thereare some of us who know people
like that in our lives.
There are plenty of us who knowpeople like that.
Money itself is not evil, it's atool.
(27:05):
But when money becomes yourmaster, you are its slave.
You become bound to that love,and you will do anything to have
more of it, including some verydishonest things.
I watched a documentary aboutthis really strange guy who had
built a tree house.
(27:27):
Real tree house, like Swissfamily Robinson style.
Okay?
And he was running out of money,so he decided to rob a bank.
And he did successfully multipletimes.
And then he finally got caught,and guess what?
He got shot and killed.
(27:49):
The love of money is the root ofall evil.
You can have it, and nothing badmight happen to you for a little
while.
But eventually, your desire tohave money is going to take over
and it's going to cost youdearly.
None of us are promisedtomorrow.
And so if we are hoarding and weare sitting on and we are not
(28:12):
blessing, then we will learn thehard way when God calls us home.
Amen.
You know, the the the Christianworld has been hit hard the past
couple of weeks with withpastors who have been passing
away that are large pastors.
And I think to myself every day,those churches, I hope, I hope
that they have been goods withtheir money.
(28:32):
Amen.
I hope that they have given totheir communities.
I hope, because those pastorshave to answer for that too.
Not just their own finances, butthe finances of their house.
And that's a scary thought.
That is a scary, scary thought.
Matthew 6, 24.
This is one of my favoritepassages of scripture ever.
No one can serve two masters,for you will hate one and love
(28:56):
the other.
You will be devoted to one anddespise the other.
You cannot serve God and beenslaved to money.
Amen.
You cannot love God and beenslaved to anything else.
To me, this is that number onein all things sinful.
You cannot be addicted tosomething and live your life for
(29:16):
it and also love God and livefor God.
You know, there's a and itprobably many of you have shared
it, which is why I've seen it.
There's a Facebook post runningaround that says you can't love
God and hate people at the sametime, right?
It's true.
It's true.
You cannot love God and hatepeople.
(29:37):
Your love of God should be anatural love of God's people.
Amen.
Thank you.
Because I'm sorry I was startingto wonder if maybe I was the
only one that knew that.
I know that it's hard tocomprehend.
Listen, we're all gonna gothrough struggles with people in
our lives.
We're all gonna meet people wedon't like.
I got a handful of them, butguess what?
(29:58):
I still love them regardless.
Regardless, doesn't mean that Itake whatever they throw at me.
Sometimes I have to say, hey,listen, I know matter, I'm gonna
just give you an example.
I had to do a Zoom call with alady from um a company that we
that we do business with, andshe's supposed to be a trainer,
(30:19):
and she's supposed to teach ushow to balance certain things.
And I everybody that I talked tobefore I went on that call, they
said, good luck.
Right?
So she's got a reputation forbeing very hard and being very
mean.
And I hopped on, and I knewright away, my heart was already
like, You better, you bettercalm yourself down because
(30:39):
you're already walking intothis, ready to fight this lady.
Right?
I don't even know her, neverheard her voice before I was
ready to fight her.
And we get on the Zoom call, andI work in a cubicle, so there
are lots of people around me,and I asked her a question, and
her response, and I'm notexaggerating when I say this, is
well, I don't know what you wantme to tell you.
Just like that.
And I said, Lord, guide myresponse.
(31:04):
And I said, I'm sorry, I've gotto stop you for just a minute.
What you just said to me wasincredibly rude and
disrespectful, and all I'masking for is your help.
She immediately apologized, andthat call was probably one of
the warmest and most uminformative calls I'd ever been
on before.
Sometimes we have to understandthat those people are being, I
(31:29):
my opinion of her was formedfrom the opinion of other
people, right?
And so I was willing to fightwith her over something that I
we hadn't even had yet.
But when I humbled myself and Isaid, I am gonna love her
regardless, and I'm gonna makethis work regardless.
I had to tell her, We've gotta,we've gotta come to an agreement
here.
I want to, I want to be able tounderstand what you're saying to
(31:50):
me.
I want to give you theinformation you need.
She was willing to have thatconversation with me.
She didn't apologize once.
At the end of the phone call,she said to me, She said, I
think I'm starting to go crazy.
She said, rude and crazy,probably not something I should
be proud of.
I ended up having a call thenext day.
We talked for about 40 minutesand she said, Hey, I just wanted
(32:11):
to say I'm sorry about yesterdayagain.
She's like, Sometimes I get thatway, and I didn't mean to be
that way.
Do you realize that sometimespeople need to be led into what
God wants for them?
I don't know if this lady's abeliever or not.
Right?
I have no idea, I still don'tknow to this day, but here's
what I do know.
I I know that I was gonna showher Jesus regardless.
(32:33):
I could have yelled back, Icould have told her to quit
treating me like I was stupid,right?
I could have done all of thosethings.
But my choice was to show her alittle bit of Jesus because if I
were to serve the world in theway that I treated her, I could
not possibly serve God at thesame time, right?
(32:54):
And I knew that I couldn't dothat because it wouldn't be fair
to her, to me, or our ministry.
Some of us are out chasingpaper, we're trying to get
money, we're trying to get thethe accolades the next best
thing, but we are not pursuingGod's presence.
Right?
Some of us are sitting in heretoday saying, I showed up
(33:16):
because I was told I had to showup.
Because pastor will call me if Idon't show up.
Right?
I'd get a text message, I'vecalled Dale from the pulpit.
Where are you?
Right?
Some of you know.
I'll text you during worship.
Where are you at?
Beth, Beth's probably gottenthat a couple of times, Marcus
(33:36):
has gotten it a couple of times,and my dad has gotten it.
Like, why are you not here?
Right?
I don't want you here because Iwant to fill a seat.
I want you here because you'remissing out, right?
You are missing out, and I don'twant that for any of you.
I don't want you to be chasingthe world, I want you to be
(33:56):
chasing the presence of God.
All right, I'm gonna skip thatpoint.
I apologize if you guys want mynotes, I'll give them to you.
But this is the part that Ireally want to get to because I
think we're all experiencingthis right now in our lives.
Everything we have is asubscription, right?
(34:17):
Do any of us own anythinganymore?
Hulu, Netflix, let's see.
Uh, Paramount Plus, Disney Plus,what else we got?
Peacock, ESPN, YouTube TV,Amazon Prime.
What else we got, folks?
(34:38):
What?
unknown (34:38):
Hallmark.
SPEAKER_00 (34:39):
You have to pay for Hallmark?
That's disappointing.
I don't think I'd ever pay forthat anyway.
It's the same 12 movies everyday, right?
They just change.
I just, I'm sorry if I offendedanybody.
Just know that that was not myart.
But everything, I mean, if yougo to Walmart now, you can sign
(35:02):
up for Walmart Plus and they'llshop for your groceries, deliver
them to you.
Instacart, Uber Eats, you nameit, everything is a
subscription.
Amen.
The problem is, as we focus onthese subscriptions every day.
And listen, your phone plan,right?
How many of us buy our phones ona payment plan through our phone
bill?
We don't even feel it anymore,right?
(35:23):
As a matter of fact, if you havea phone with ATT, they charge
you more if you buy your phoneoutright.
If I were to pay you a thousanddollars for my phone and own it,
my bill goes up ten dollars amonth.
How does that make any sense?
Because they want you locked into a subscription.
The gym, your groceries,everything has a monthly charge.
(35:44):
You sign up, you agree to theterms, and you pay the price.
Amen.
The truth is life is not asubscription, right?
The only subscription that wehave to have is to the kingdom
of God.
See, when we subscribe to theword, when we subscribe to
(36:05):
devotion, what is the cost ofthat?
Nothing.
It is free.
The word is written, and listen,if you're like, well, I had to
buy my Bible, I'll get one.
Because when I think about it,and I think about the fact that
that we're paying for all ofthese things, and some of us pay
for the the the uh uh Bible app,we get the extra translations
(36:25):
and all that stuff.
How many of you pay for theBible app?
Good, thank you, Jesus.
Because the word of God shouldbe free.
Listen, you get me going.
I have a real hard time.
Anyone going to see uh StephenFurtick preach in a stadium?
Do you know why?
Cost you$75 to get in there,another 45 to park, and the
(36:46):
gospel of Jesus Christ is free.
Amen.
If I charged you a cover chargeevery Sunday to walk through the
door, you guys wouldn't show up.
Right?
You go, that guy's nuts.
Now listen, I might not belooking, I might not be able to
sing like him, but the gospel isfree.
(37:07):
There is no charge for thegospel of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
And it drives me crazy to thinkthat we that we prostitute the
pre the the the presence of theHoly Spirit, amen.
And that we that we charge youto get in to receive a healing.
Can I promise you that God willheal you in your own home?
God will heal you wherever youare.
(37:28):
You do not have to be in thepresence of anybody except the
Holy Spirit in order to receivethat.
Amen.
And I'm thankful that there'struth in this ministry, that we
can say that to one another,that we can look at each other
and say, hey, listen, we don'thave to pay for those things.
I'm not getting down on you ifyou like to go see Brandon Lake
in concert.
That's wonderful, right?
Alva gets to go see Brandon Lakepretty soon, right?
(37:50):
That's wonderful.
I'm not saying there's anythingwrong with that, but you have to
remember what it is.
You're going for a concert,you'll get the Holy Spirit,
right?
But you're paying for theentertainment in that in that
point, right?
Uh there's a difference, butwhen you're going to hear a
pastor preach, like you don't goto World Harvest Church and pay
(38:11):
to get in, right?
There's nobody taking tickets atthe door.
That's what churches aresupposed to be like.
Their door should be open, itshould be free to enter.
Amen.
I'm just thankful that we'reable to understand that it that
you don't have to pay for whatJesus has done in your life
because he has already paid theprice in full.
(38:32):
Amen.
When Jesus died on the cross, hepaid for the gospel to be
preached everywhere.
There should be no shame in whatJesus has done.
Some of you are faithfullypaying for things that will
entertain your flesh whileignoring that eternal
subscription.
You are ignoring that place inheaven that is set aside for you
(38:54):
because you're more worriedabout whether or not that
Netflix subscription is gonnaauto-renew next month.
Now, listen, some of us don'tneed Netflix.
How many of you have asubscription you never use?
Right?
It's like probably you probablydon't even know you're paying
for it, right?
I'm the same way.
Like I get this$12 bill on my myphone every month.
I get a notification that saysthat that Apple has just charged
(39:17):
$12 to my debit card.
I have no idea what that$12 isfor.
No idea.
I've got a subscription, but Idon't know what it is.
And then I look and I realizeit's peacock.
What's on peacock?
And why do I have it on myphone?
The Olympics, you're exactlyright.
(39:37):
That's what it was.
That's exactly what it was.
See?
It's exactly what it was becausewe had to watch Simone Biles and
we weren't allowed to missgymnastics, right?
But here's the thing, now that Iknow that I've got it, you would
think that I would go and cancelit, right?
But I don't.
I just let it continue to runand run and run.
(39:59):
But then the problem is I becomeso focused on all of these
subscriptions that I forget tofocus on the one thing that
matters.
I pay for the monthlysubscription, but I forget to
subscribe to faithfulness thatwill transform my soul.
Amen.
Now, I know there are some of ussitting here thinking that this
guy's lost his mind.
(40:20):
But I promise you this the worldwill continue to tell you to
sign up for more, but Jesustells you to simply sign up for
the kingdom.
He's not asking you for anythingmore, he's simply saying, sign
up for the kingdom.
Pay monthly for happiness, butJesus says, I have already paid
in full for your salvation.
(40:41):
Amen.
The only thing that is going toget each of us to eternity is a
centered on Jesus Christ.
I was thinking the other day asI was going through some of my
notes.
I say that a lot.
But can I tell you why I say itand it's the truth?
(41:03):
I'm worried that there arepeople sitting in this room that
aren't gonna make it.
Because we say it with ourmouth, but we don't live it with
our heart.
We say it with our mouth, but wedon't live it out when we're in
the streets.
Amen.
You have to cancel yoursubscription to greed, you have
to cancel the subscription tofear, cancel it to consumerism.
(41:24):
You have to subscribe to theonly thing that matters, and
that is the kingdom of God.
Because when you do, you areinvesting in a treasure that
will never go away.
Amen.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, I just thankyou and praise you, Lord, for
your presence in this place andFather, for your anointed word.
I pray that as we move from thisplace, that our hearts start to
(41:45):
inspect all of the things thatit's subscribed to.
Father, I pray that you look atour hearts and you realize that
this is all junk and we don'tneed it, and you help us to
throw it out so that there ismore space for you, Father God.
Lord, my heart, my mind, it'scentered on you today.
(42:06):
And Lord, I want more of you andless of the world.
More of you and less of metoday, Father God.
And I pray that every heart inthis place is feeling that same
way.
Lord, I pray for my counsel asthey continue to make financial
decisions for this church, Lord,as they continue to understand
(42:28):
the vision that you have castupon this place, and Lord, great
and mighty things will continueto happen because of their
faithfulness to your kingdom,your vision, and all of the
things that you have called themto do.
Lord, I thank you for thepatience of our people.
As this project has taken muchlonger than I had originally
(42:50):
hoped, Lord, I pray that youjust continue to lead us, guide
us, and direct us.
Father, we pray all of thesethings in your precious Son
Jesus' name in the church says,Amen.
We had a really great revelation in that
meeting, and it was this.
Our church has seen a great dealof success.
We've been living in theoverflow for about the past
year.
And we've been trying to figureout how, like, how do you put a
bow on that?
How do you figure it out?
Like what happened in that yearthat made such a difference for
us?
Am I not working?
Is it working?
(00:20):
Okay.
I couldn't figure out for thelife of me what had changed in
that year.
And I finally realized it and Iwas able to voice it to council
and to Pastor Roger and PastorHolly.
And do you know what it is?
Because I'm gonna tell you, butdoes anybody have an idea?
It's having a faithful councilthat tithes back into this
(00:42):
building.
It's hard to believe, but it'strue.
Now here's the reason I say thatthey understand what it means to
give to the house, so theyresponsibly spend the money of
the house, right?
It's about stewardship, consumerculture, right?
(01:02):
Instead of just buying to buy,instead of just doing to do, we
prayerfully consider everysingle action.
Now I shared this with somepeople, I haven't shared it with
everybody.
And again, we are living in theoverflow and we realize that we
recognize it, but I have toshare this because I don't think
you understand what the overflowactually looks like for us.
Okay.
(01:23):
So we wrote a check for about$6,500 to buy carpet.
Of the$10,000 we raised, morethan half was spent on carpet.
That was to do the stage and thegym floor.
It's done, it looks beautiful,that's wonderful.
But when we wrote check, I saidto my wife, I said, that's
really gonna hurt to watch thatcome out of the checking
(01:44):
account, right?
Because we've had all of thismoney sitting there and it felt
so nice.
And so I was uh I was working onsome reports for council,
trade-off, and I said to mywife, I said, that check hasn't
cleared yet.
And she said, What do you meanit hasn't cleared yet?
I said, Well, I wrote the check,but it hasn't come out of the
(02:05):
account yet, and we couldn'tfigure out what was going on.
And I looked and the check hadcome out, but we didn't lose any
money.
How does that happen?
Because we had a council thatmade wise decisions with the
money of the builder, right?
We didn't just make a decisionon the fly.
We have been praying about thisfor so long and believing that
(02:27):
God would do something great.
Now, the best part of this isthere's still a grant sitting
out there that we may get evenpart of it given back to us yet,
right?
God has been so good to us, butso often we get wrapped up in
the consumer culture and theidea that if we buy or get or
have or whatever the case maybe, that we will grow.
I want you to look around for asecond.
(02:48):
We're not growing because wehave things, right?
Look at this carpet, right?
We are not growing because wehave things, we're growing
because we are being obedientand being good stewards of what
God has blessed us with, amen.
And I believe thatwholeheartedly.
This isn't about what we'redoing or how we are.
(03:08):
This is because we are trustingin God to move in this place,
amen.
Okay.
Today we live in aconsumer-driven world, amen.
Right?
How many of you shop on Amazon?
Right?
How many of you get two-dayprime?
How many of you get upset whenit doesn't show up in two days?
(03:28):
Right?
I'm like, I'm tracking it 15seconds after I bought it to see
if it's shipped yet and to seewhat day it's gonna show up in
my house.
That's ridiculous, right?
Can we agree on that?
It sounds crazy.
You guys remember when you usedto get mail and you didn't know
when it was coming?
Right?
When you opened the mailbox,that's when you knew you were
getting something.
See, even today, we're able tosee our mail long before it
(03:51):
comes through an app.
If you didn't know that, youshould get it because it is
wonderful.
But through the app, you cantell what you're gonna get in
the mail for that day.
There are things that we havejust become so accustomed to
that we can't get past it.
If you look at how many of youhave ever thought of something
and then it pops up on a socialmedia ad, you only have to say
it sometimes, you think it, andthere it is.
That's scary, right?
(04:13):
Like, and I think of a lot ofreally weird things that somehow
still magically appear on there.
Here's the here's the deal: commercials, social media, (04:18):
undefined
billboards, our phones,everything that we touch,
everything that we look at saysbuy more, have more, be more,
right?
Buy more, have more, be more.
The more you have, the betteroff you are.
Amen.
If I go buy a brand new car, I'mbetter off.
Right?
(04:40):
It won't break down.
But likely I'm in debt, right?
Likely I've taken on a paymentthat maybe I can afford, but can
you imagine what you what elseyou can do with that money?
Right?
Let me tell you something.
Marcus and Jenny had beenpraying for a second vehicle for
a long time, right?
A long time.
Marcus calls me, says, Hey, I'mgoing to pick up a car.
(05:02):
And I said, What do you meanyou're going to pick up a car?
He said, paid$500 for it.
Right?
Now that sounds crazy becausesome of us are like, I would
never drive a$500 car.
I'm gonna tell you something.
You go, you go through FinancialPeace University, you learn to
live like no other so that youcan live like no other.
Amen.
If I want to go out to dinner, Ican't afford it if I got a$900 a
(05:23):
month car payment, right?
The problem is, is every time welook at the internet, we watch
TV.
How many of you guys get suckedinto like QVC and those
infomercials, right?
But wait, there's more, right?
For only separate shipping andhandling, right?
You guys remember the sham wow?
Sham wow, wow, every time, shamwow, right?
That guy was crazy.
(05:44):
I think he was on drugs.
I don't know for sure, but I'msaying he was convincing, right?
You wanted to buy the sham wow,you didn't know if it worked or
not, but you were willing totake a risk because the man was
convincing.
The problem is that every timewe look at something, we say, if
we buy more, we can be more.
If we have more, we can be more.
That is not the truth.
(06:05):
It is not the truth.
I'm gonna start uh with apassage of scripture.
We're gonna start in Matthew 6.
We're gonna start in uh verse19, chapter 6, verse 19.
We're gonna go to 21.
Uh, if you've got your Bibles,you can go ahead and get those
out.
It says, Don't store uptreasures here on earth where
moths eat them and rust destroysthem, and where thieves break in
(06:28):
and steal.
Store your treasures in heavenwhere moths and rust cannot
destroy, and thieves do notbreak in and steal.
Whatever your treasure is, therethe desires of your heart will
also be.
See, Jesus never told us, buymore, have more, be more.
(06:51):
He never said that.
Instead, Jesus says, whereveryour treasure is, there the
desires of your heart will alsobe.
So I ask you a question today.
What are the desires of yourheart?
Right?
What are the desires of yourheart?
When you think about what youwant today, what is it?
(07:14):
Because when I ask you what youwant, you immediately go to the
list of things you've got readyfor Christmas, right?
How many of you have gotten thekids' Christmas catalogs
already?
What in the have they alwayscome that early?
Or are we just starting to likereally getting in on this?
We got the Walmart one the otherday in the mail.
(07:36):
And I picked it up and I said tomy postmaster, I said, Man, is
it really time for thesealready?
And he said, Sure is.
And then he said to me, How manykids do you have at home?
I said, three little, twobigger.
And he goes, Here, here's twomore magazines.
He's like, Well, I know they'llfight over it, and at least this
way they'll each have their own.
And I'm like, Chuck, Iappreciate you, my friend, but I
(08:00):
don't want him to have any ofthem, right?
Because we've started to consumemore and more.
I bet if I opened Easton'smagazine right now, everything
is marked, including the MyLittle Pony and the Barbies,
right?
He doesn't actually want them.
He doesn't want those things,but he sees it in the magazine,
and that magazine creates thedopamine, right?
That desire to have, that desireto buy.
(08:22):
How many of you listen to theradio?
And every time on the radio,it's you've got a car ad, right?
They tell you zero percentinterest for well-qualified
buyers, right?
Anyone know what awell-qualified buyer is?
Because it ain't me.
It ain't me.
I'm telling you, I don't thinkthey have 0% financing.
I think they just say it to sayit, right?
(08:44):
When they add that forwell-qualified, the problem is
though, we will run out and findout whether or not we are well
qualified, right?
Because if I can get it for 0%,right?
12 months, same as cash.
Anybody ever bought on 12months, same as cash?
Did you know that if you don'tpay it off in 12 months, they
hit you with interest for thewhole purchase?
(09:05):
Right?
How many of us have ever beenhit with that?
Right?
That doesn't feel good, right?
The problem is, is we areconvinced to spend, convinced to
have, so that we can be.
And again, Jesus tells us thatwherever our tra wherever your
treasure is, the desires of yourheart will be also.
(09:27):
The question is, do you havepossessions or do your
possessions have you?
And today I will tell you thetruth.
Some of my possessions have me,right?
There are things that you couldsay, but Pastor Michael, do you
need that?
You should get rid of it.
And I would laugh at you.
Right?
I'm not gonna give you my stuff.
(09:48):
Right?
I have I have been stashing thisstuff for years.
What?
Okay.
I was like, she's laughing at meright now?
Rhonda, I like you, but I willfight you.
unknown (10:06):
I'm related.
SPEAKER_00 (10:08):
Okay, all right.
And there are some things, andyou move it from place to place,
and you carry this box and youopen it, you go, oh, I don't
need that, and you just stick itin the basement on the shelf,
right?
Sometimes our possessions haveus.
Amen.
And I'll tell you, I've gotpossession.
Listen, I got two totes full ofmagic tricks that I like to do
for the kids.
I see, I use them once a year atEaster.
(10:32):
Once a year, but for some reasonI can't let that stuff go,
right?
It would be like asking PastorHolly to purge her shoes or to
go through her she shed, right?
It's not she says that's notgonna happen.
They're gonna shop your shoesand your she shed.
(10:52):
Just yard sale.
But what I'm realizing is thatmany times we forget what it
means to be good stewards ofwhat God has blessed us with,
right?
And that we become obsessed withthe things that we can get with
God's gifts, right?
So when I think about what Godhas done in my life, I think of
a lot of different things.
(11:13):
But the one that always strikesme, and I tell this story
regularly, is when Alyssa and Ibought our first home, right?
We walked into this house, wehad a laundry list of things
that this house had to be inorder for us to buy it, okay?
We knew what we wanted.
We had to have a garage, we hadto have what was it, three or
four bedrooms, whatever thatnumber was.
We had a laundry list of things.
We walked into this house and ithad none of them.
(11:35):
And yet, some for some reason webought it.
Right?
It doesn't make a whole lot ofsense.
But God knew what he was doingin that moment.
We lived in that house forseveral years.
We were blessed to have had it,we were able to do a ton of work
to it, and when we sold it, wemade almost a hundred thousand
dollars selling it.
That's what God was doing inthat moment, right?
(11:58):
It was so that he could move usto the next place.
It had nothing to do with us, ithad nothing to do with that
house, to do with what he wantedto do next.
But we had to be obedient withwhat he had given us.
Amen.
That's hard to do, church.
Amen.
You think it's hard for youpersonally?
Imagine when it doesn't hit yourpocketbook.
(12:20):
When you don't feel it, whenyou're spending somebody else's
money.
I'm telling you, when you havepeople who understand what God
is doing in the house, thechurch will continue to thrive.
All right.
Jesus warned us not to store notto store up our treasures on
earth, and everything in thisworld that we chase is
(12:41):
temporary.
Amen.
You can have the nicest car, butif you don't take care of it,
it's gonna rust away.
Amen.
You can have the most beautifulhome, but if you don't take care
of it, it's gonna fall apart.
Clothes will fade.
Heck, when you buy technology,it's outdated before you get it
(13:01):
home.
You buy a computer today,they're already working on the
next best thing.
Amen.
But we are so consumed withhaving the next best thing all
the time.
I just saw that some phonecompanies are doing a program
where you can trade in yourphone every year.
I'm not shaming anybody thatdoes this, just to be clear.
But you can trade in your phoneevery year for an extra like$10
(13:22):
or$12 a month on your bill.
You know you're not getting thatphone for free, right?
That$10 to$12 a month you'repaying on that phone bill covers
the cost of that phone in thatyear's time.
But for some reason, we're soobsessed that we have to have
the latest and greatest,especially if you're an iPhone
user.
Amen.
(13:44):
Let's be honest with each other.
Have any has anybody seen thenew iPhone?
They put the camera across thetop of the back now rather than
just in that little square.
That's fancy.
It don't do anything different,folks.
It's all the same.
But the problem is, is it looksshiny, it looks pretty, and so
we become obsessed with it.
Now I want to ask you aquestion, and this is a serious
(14:05):
question.
Since I've started working atthe bank, I've realized this.
Are you sweaty, Dale?
I'm burning up over here.
Okay, I was making sure itwasn't just me.
Anybody got their blankets onyet?
Nobody yet?
Well, you might be able to kickthe oh, she's cold.
I since I started working at thebank, I'm across the street from
the funeral home pretty muchevery day.
And I leave the office everyday, go home for lunch, go out
(14:27):
for lunch, whatever.
Sometimes I just sit in my car.
But I realized there are a lotof funerals.
A lot of funerals.
You know the number one cause offunerals?
Death.
That's it's it's crazy how thathappens.
But here's one thing that I havenever seen in all of the
funerals that I have seen.
You want me to tell you what itis?
I've never seen a U-Haulfollowing a hearse.
(14:53):
You can't take it with you,right?
Now you might want to, right?
Some of us, I'm gonna buy theplot next to me, bury the
jumpsuits in there with me.
My wife can go somewhere else.
I just need those right there.
But every time, every time wethink about stuff that we have,
(15:14):
it elicits this emotionalfeeling for us, amen.
Right when you like, listen, I'mgonna tell you something.
Every time I walk in the gymright now, I cry a little bit.
I'm not kidding.
I was standing back there duringworship and I started to tear up
because I was thinking, God hasso good to us, so good to us,
and that is such a blessing forus, amen.
And so I just every time I thinkabout it, I tear up a little
(15:36):
bit, and I think, man, howwonderful it is that we've been
able to be such good stewardswith his money that he would
give us such a blessing atvirtually no cost, right?
At virtually no cost, other thana little bit of time, well, a
lot of bit of time, but Pastorand Roger and I have committed
to this.
When that project is done,nothing's on the books for a
(15:58):
little while, right?
Like I'm pretty sure my familydoesn't even know me anymore.
I come home, change, and I leaveagain.
But God has been good to us, andso we want to continue to live
out what He has called us to do.
Ecclesiastes 5:10.
It says, is that right?
Is that where we are?
(16:18):
We can be thank you.
Those who love money will neverhave enough.
How meaningless to think thatwealth brings true happiness.
Jenny, where are you at?
Stand up, sweetheart.
I'm talking to us right now.
Some probably some more of you,but I know her and I, we've
talked about this.
Have you ever felt depressed orvoid and immediately go shopping
(16:41):
and buy something that youabsolutely do not need?
Yes, hallelujah! Do you know whyyou do that?
Because that dopamine kick makesyou feel like you've fulfilled
that void.
And then what you find is that20, 30, 40 minutes later.
Well, I don't know that I'veever had that.
(17:02):
I realize that the void is stillthere and I need to buy
something else.
Buyer's remorse?
Yuck.
That sounds ew.
What does does that mean youfeel bad that you bought it?
Because I don't think I've everdone that.
I don't think I've ever donethat.
(17:30):
If our identity is wrapped up inwhat we own, we will always be
empty.
Amen.
If we are always wrapped up inwhat we own, we will always be
empty.
The devil wants us to chasethings that are going to burn,
but God wants us to store up thetreasure that will shine forever
in the kingdom of God.
(17:50):
Amen.
Amen.
Hallelujah.
Paul wrote, truly goodness withcontentment is itself great
wealth in 1 Timothy.
Amen.
That means that if we arecontent with what we have, there
is great joy in that.
Now listen, I'm happy with whatI have.
I have a fear of losing what Ihave sometimes.
(18:12):
And so then I fight and I clawand I grab to keep whatever that
is.
But the problem is sometimes Godsays, I need you to let go of
it.
Amen.
I need you to let go of it sothat I can put you into that
overflow.
And we become distant or ordiscontented with whatever we
(18:34):
think that God is going to do.
Contentment is not laziness, itis living free from greed.
Amen.
Now I mean that in the desire towant things, right?
I don't mean that contentment inI just come in on Sunday morning
and sit in my seat.
Hey, turn the air up because itis hot in here and there are
(18:54):
people fanning themselves.
It can be 12 degrees in hereright now and still be too hot.
Get your coats out.
Hebrews 13, 5.
It says, Don't love money, besatisfied with what you have,
(19:18):
for God has said, I will neverfail you, I will never abandon
you.
Amen.
I will never fail you.
I will never abandon you.
I think back to that statement,and I think of all of the times
when we struggled as a ministry.
God, where are you?
Why aren't you showing up likewe expect you to show up?
(19:38):
And he said, I need you to beobedient.
I need you to wait until thetime has come.
The time has come.
Amen.
He has he has pulled us into theoverflow.
We had to learn to live withlittle so that we could feel
blessed in living with much.
Amen.
Now here's the thing (19:57):
he can take all of this away tomorrow,
right?
And we have to be content withliving in little again.
We cannot be angry, we cannot bedistant from God because we have
little.
Can I just I want to stop for asecond?
I'm gonna hop course and I justwant to say this out loud.
I have experienced in this pastcouple of weeks people who don't
(20:20):
like the vision that we have forthis building.
Okay.
This is not new, this is not newnews, this is something that's
been going on since I firststarted talking about it.
And I want to tell you that ifyou don't like it, that's okay.
And you're welcome to tell methat you don't like it.
That is perfectly okay as well.
But don't be offended when Idon't care.
Okay?
And it's not that I like I valuewho you are as a person, but you
(20:41):
didn't get my vision, right?
God didn't speak to you in thenighttime hours and say that you
were going to do somethinggreater, right?
Is that fair?
Right?
And so listen, everybody's gonnahave an opinion, and that's
okay.
I'm gonna listen to you, I'mgonna nod and smile, but when it
doesn't happen, that's the wayit needs to be.
And if you're if you're mad atme after that, hey, come talk to
me.
(21:01):
It's okay if you're upset withme.
It is not okay to be upset withme and then run and hide.
Because when you're upset andyou run and hide, you look
childish.
And it tells me that your levelof spiritual maturity is
probably less than that of mychildren.
Amen.
Amen.
Is that a fair statement?
(21:22):
All right, I'm done.
I'm off my soapbox.
Okay.
Whew.
What was that?
What was I talking about?
Was that Hebrews 13 5?
Okay.
Our security does not come fromthe stock market, it's not in
our job and it's not in our bankaccounts.
Our security is in God all thetime.
(21:42):
Amen.
It doesn't matter how big thatchecking account is, if you
don't have a relationship withGod, if you don't understand who
Jesus is, all of us wanderedaway onto worthless things.
Amen.
Just like I tell Beth, I wouldrather spend the money that we
have to feed God's people thanto sit on it for no good reason,
(22:03):
right?
If we are blessed, our communityshould be blessed.
If we are living in theoverflow, our community should
get to live in the overflow,right?
Because that's ourresponsibility.
See, we can show Jesus, we canbe Jesus, but we have to act
that way.
We can't just, well, you know,there are people who call here
all the time who want$20, theywant$50, they want this, they
(22:26):
want that.
And we have to we have tobalance that because good
stewardship requires that,right?
And so we ask a lot ofquestions.
There have been times when we'vegiven people gas cards, there
have been times when we've givenpeople gift certificates to
makeos.
We need groceries.
Hey, listen, this was before thefood pantry.
Listen, I can't just give you a$50 Walmart gift card.
You know why I can't give you a$50 Walmart gift card?
(22:47):
Because you might go spend thaton something that is not food
for your children, like you'retelling me.
It's not my responsibility totell them what to do with it,
but it is my responsibility toGod to honor what He's given us.
Amen.
And so we're careful about it,but we're also very generous
with it.
Psalms 37, 25.
It says, Once I was young andnow I am old.
(23:09):
That is the truth today.
Hallelujah.
Lord have mercy.
I don't know what happened, butlike one day I woke up feeling
old, right?
Anyone ever been there?
Once I was young, but now I amold, yet I have never seen the
godly abandoned or theirchildren begging for bread.
(23:30):
Amen.
When I was young, God was goodto me.
So I was, you know how Facebookgives you your memories and
you're able to see some of thestuff that you posted years ago.
I often don't look at minebecause I realized just how
cringy I was as a Christian veryearly on.
What do I mean by that?
(23:51):
Saturday night, I'm posting onFacebook.
Can't wait to go to churchtomorrow morning and get my
Jesus on.
This is the dumbest thing in theworld.
Now, but here's the thing giveme grace, umbrella of grace.
I was young and I was immature,right?
I was trying to show the worldthat I was something that I was
not truly in that moment.
(24:11):
Right?
I wanted the world to believethat I was righteous, redeemed,
but I was still smoking andswearing and doing stupid
things, right?
But see, the problem is I had apastor that didn't take my crap
ever.
She was one of the few people inmy life that would call me out
for the stupid things that I wasdoing.
(24:33):
And I never once took offense towhat she said to me because I
realized she was right and I waswrong.
I humbled myself before herauthority and before her
relationship with the HolySpirit, because she had
something that I didn't have.
Amen.
That was hard to do as a youngimmature Christian.
(24:54):
And now I don't even post aboutgoing to church.
I don't post about going tochurch.
Because if you know me, you knowthat.
If you know me, you know that.
And you know that it is apriority in my life in all
things.
When I was young, I once I wasyoung, and now I am old, yet I
have I have never seen the godlyabandoned or their children out
(25:18):
begging for bread.
When you've got Jesus, you'vealready got enough.
Amen.
When you've got Jesus, you'vealready got enough.
Joy cannot be bought fromAmazon, from Walmart.
I would argue from Target,because Target brings me a lot
(25:38):
of joy, I'm just saying.
Especially you hit it when it'son clearance.
There's a lot of joy.
But but real joy is poured outfrom the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Real joy does not come frompurchasing things.
Real joy comes from being inrelationship with Christ and the
Holy Spirit moving and acting inyour life in ways that you
(26:01):
cannot imagine.
Amen.
I have never, never once everexperienced the move of the
Spirit that has ever brought mesorrow.
Now, sometimes it's put me in myplace, it's made me question my
life decisions, but it has notbrought me sorrow.
Paul said, the love of money isthe root of all kinds of evil.
(26:22):
Evil in 1 Timothy 6 10.
Money itself is not evil.
Right?
Can we agree on that?
Having money does not make you abad person, it's the love of
money.
Right?
Mr.
Crab, Scrooge McDuck, they wouldbe considered hard-hearted
(26:43):
people with their money, right?
Money, money, money, money.
They just got all of this wealthbuilt up on earth that they are
receiving nothing in heaven.
I will promise you this thereare some of us who know people
like that in our lives.
There are plenty of us who knowpeople like that.
Money itself is not evil, it's atool.
(27:05):
But when money becomes yourmaster, you are its slave.
You become bound to that love,and you will do anything to have
more of it, including some verydishonest things.
I watched a documentary aboutthis really strange guy who had
built a tree house.
(27:27):
Real tree house, like Swissfamily Robinson style.
Okay?
And he was running out of money,so he decided to rob a bank.
And he did successfully multipletimes.
And then he finally got caught,and guess what?
He got shot and killed.
(27:49):
The love of money is the root ofall evil.
You can have it, and nothing badmight happen to you for a little
while.
But eventually, your desire tohave money is going to take over
and it's going to cost youdearly.
None of us are promisedtomorrow.
And so if we are hoarding and weare sitting on and we are not
(28:12):
blessing, then we will learn thehard way when God calls us home.
Amen.
You know, the the the Christianworld has been hit hard the past
couple of weeks with withpastors who have been passing
away that are large pastors.
And I think to myself every day,those churches, I hope, I hope
that they have been goods withtheir money.
(28:32):
Amen.
I hope that they have given totheir communities.
I hope, because those pastorshave to answer for that too.
Not just their own finances, butthe finances of their house.
And that's a scary thought.
That is a scary, scary thought.
Matthew 6, 24.
This is one of my favoritepassages of scripture ever.
No one can serve two masters,for you will hate one and love
(28:56):
the other.
You will be devoted to one anddespise the other.
You cannot serve God and beenslaved to money.
Amen.
You cannot love God and beenslaved to anything else.
To me, this is that number onein all things sinful.
You cannot be addicted tosomething and live your life for
(29:16):
it and also love God and livefor God.
You know, there's a and itprobably many of you have shared
it, which is why I've seen it.
There's a Facebook post runningaround that says you can't love
God and hate people at the sametime, right?
It's true.
It's true.
You cannot love God and hatepeople.
(29:37):
Your love of God should be anatural love of God's people.
Amen.
Thank you.
Because I'm sorry I was startingto wonder if maybe I was the
only one that knew that.
I know that it's hard tocomprehend.
Listen, we're all gonna gothrough struggles with people in
our lives.
We're all gonna meet people wedon't like.
I got a handful of them, butguess what?
(29:58):
I still love them regardless.
Regardless, doesn't mean that Itake whatever they throw at me.
Sometimes I have to say, hey,listen, I know matter, I'm gonna
just give you an example.
I had to do a Zoom call with alady from um a company that we
that we do business with, andshe's supposed to be a trainer,
(30:19):
and she's supposed to teach ushow to balance certain things.
And I everybody that I talked tobefore I went on that call, they
said, good luck.
Right?
So she's got a reputation forbeing very hard and being very
mean.
And I hopped on, and I knewright away, my heart was already
like, You better, you bettercalm yourself down because
(30:39):
you're already walking intothis, ready to fight this lady.
Right?
I don't even know her, neverheard her voice before I was
ready to fight her.
And we get on the Zoom call, andI work in a cubicle, so there
are lots of people around me,and I asked her a question, and
her response, and I'm notexaggerating when I say this, is
well, I don't know what you wantme to tell you.
Just like that.
And I said, Lord, guide myresponse.
(31:04):
And I said, I'm sorry, I've gotto stop you for just a minute.
What you just said to me wasincredibly rude and
disrespectful, and all I'masking for is your help.
She immediately apologized, andthat call was probably one of
the warmest and most uminformative calls I'd ever been
on before.
Sometimes we have to understandthat those people are being, I
(31:29):
my opinion of her was formedfrom the opinion of other
people, right?
And so I was willing to fightwith her over something that I
we hadn't even had yet.
But when I humbled myself and Isaid, I am gonna love her
regardless, and I'm gonna makethis work regardless.
I had to tell her, We've gotta,we've gotta come to an agreement
here.
I want to, I want to be able tounderstand what you're saying to
(31:50):
me.
I want to give you theinformation you need.
She was willing to have thatconversation with me.
She didn't apologize once.
At the end of the phone call,she said to me, She said, I
think I'm starting to go crazy.
She said, rude and crazy,probably not something I should
be proud of.
I ended up having a call thenext day.
We talked for about 40 minutesand she said, Hey, I just wanted
(32:11):
to say I'm sorry about yesterdayagain.
She's like, Sometimes I get thatway, and I didn't mean to be
that way.
Do you realize that sometimespeople need to be led into what
God wants for them?
I don't know if this lady's abeliever or not.
Right?
I have no idea, I still don'tknow to this day, but here's
what I do know.
I I know that I was gonna showher Jesus regardless.
(32:33):
I could have yelled back, Icould have told her to quit
treating me like I was stupid,right?
I could have done all of thosethings.
But my choice was to show her alittle bit of Jesus because if I
were to serve the world in theway that I treated her, I could
not possibly serve God at thesame time, right?
(32:54):
And I knew that I couldn't dothat because it wouldn't be fair
to her, to me, or our ministry.
Some of us are out chasingpaper, we're trying to get
money, we're trying to get thethe accolades the next best
thing, but we are not pursuingGod's presence.
Right?
Some of us are sitting in heretoday saying, I showed up
(33:16):
because I was told I had to showup.
Because pastor will call me if Idon't show up.
Right?
I'd get a text message, I'vecalled Dale from the pulpit.
Where are you?
Right?
Some of you know.
I'll text you during worship.
Where are you at?
Beth, Beth's probably gottenthat a couple of times, Marcus
(33:36):
has gotten it a couple of times,and my dad has gotten it.
Like, why are you not here?
Right?
I don't want you here because Iwant to fill a seat.
I want you here because you'remissing out, right?
You are missing out, and I don'twant that for any of you.
I don't want you to be chasingthe world, I want you to be
(33:56):
chasing the presence of God.
All right, I'm gonna skip thatpoint.
I apologize if you guys want mynotes, I'll give them to you.
But this is the part that Ireally want to get to because I
think we're all experiencingthis right now in our lives.
Everything we have is asubscription, right?
(34:17):
Do any of us own anythinganymore?
Hulu, Netflix, let's see.
Uh, Paramount Plus, Disney Plus,what else we got?
Peacock, ESPN, YouTube TV,Amazon Prime.
What else we got, folks?
(34:38):
What?
unknown (34:38):
Hallmark.
SPEAKER_00 (34:39):
You have to pay for Hallmark?
That's disappointing.
I don't think I'd ever pay forthat anyway.
It's the same 12 movies everyday, right?
They just change.
I just, I'm sorry if I offendedanybody.
Just know that that was not myart.
But everything, I mean, if yougo to Walmart now, you can sign
(35:02):
up for Walmart Plus and they'llshop for your groceries, deliver
them to you.
Instacart, Uber Eats, you nameit, everything is a
subscription.
Amen.
The problem is, as we focus onthese subscriptions every day.
And listen, your phone plan,right?
How many of us buy our phones ona payment plan through our phone
bill?
We don't even feel it anymore,right?
(35:23):
As a matter of fact, if you havea phone with ATT, they charge
you more if you buy your phoneoutright.
If I were to pay you a thousanddollars for my phone and own it,
my bill goes up ten dollars amonth.
How does that make any sense?
Because they want you locked into a subscription.
The gym, your groceries,everything has a monthly charge.
(35:44):
You sign up, you agree to theterms, and you pay the price.
Amen.
The truth is life is not asubscription, right?
The only subscription that wehave to have is to the kingdom
of God.
See, when we subscribe to theword, when we subscribe to
(36:05):
devotion, what is the cost ofthat?
Nothing.
It is free.
The word is written, and listen,if you're like, well, I had to
buy my Bible, I'll get one.
Because when I think about it,and I think about the fact that
that we're paying for all ofthese things, and some of us pay
for the the the uh uh Bible app,we get the extra translations
(36:25):
and all that stuff.
How many of you pay for theBible app?
Good, thank you, Jesus.
Because the word of God shouldbe free.
Listen, you get me going.
I have a real hard time.
Anyone going to see uh StephenFurtick preach in a stadium?
Do you know why?
Cost you$75 to get in there,another 45 to park, and the
(36:46):
gospel of Jesus Christ is free.
Amen.
If I charged you a cover chargeevery Sunday to walk through the
door, you guys wouldn't show up.
Right?
You go, that guy's nuts.
Now listen, I might not belooking, I might not be able to
sing like him, but the gospel isfree.
(37:07):
There is no charge for thegospel of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
And it drives me crazy to thinkthat we that we prostitute the
pre the the the presence of theHoly Spirit, amen.
And that we that we charge youto get in to receive a healing.
Can I promise you that God willheal you in your own home?
God will heal you wherever youare.
(37:28):
You do not have to be in thepresence of anybody except the
Holy Spirit in order to receivethat.
Amen.
And I'm thankful that there'struth in this ministry, that we
can say that to one another,that we can look at each other
and say, hey, listen, we don'thave to pay for those things.
I'm not getting down on you ifyou like to go see Brandon Lake
in concert.
That's wonderful, right?
Alva gets to go see Brandon Lakepretty soon, right?
(37:50):
That's wonderful.
I'm not saying there's anythingwrong with that, but you have to
remember what it is.
You're going for a concert,you'll get the Holy Spirit,
right?
But you're paying for theentertainment in that in that
point, right?
Uh there's a difference, butwhen you're going to hear a
pastor preach, like you don't goto World Harvest Church and pay
(38:11):
to get in, right?
There's nobody taking tickets atthe door.
That's what churches aresupposed to be like.
Their door should be open, itshould be free to enter.
Amen.
I'm just thankful that we'reable to understand that it that
you don't have to pay for whatJesus has done in your life
because he has already paid theprice in full.
(38:32):
Amen.
When Jesus died on the cross, hepaid for the gospel to be
preached everywhere.
There should be no shame in whatJesus has done.
Some of you are faithfullypaying for things that will
entertain your flesh whileignoring that eternal
subscription.
You are ignoring that place inheaven that is set aside for you
(38:54):
because you're more worriedabout whether or not that
Netflix subscription is gonnaauto-renew next month.
Now, listen, some of us don'tneed Netflix.
How many of you have asubscription you never use?
Right?
It's like probably you probablydon't even know you're paying
for it, right?
I'm the same way.
Like I get this$12 bill on my myphone every month.
I get a notification that saysthat that Apple has just charged
(39:17):
$12 to my debit card.
I have no idea what that$12 isfor.
No idea.
I've got a subscription, but Idon't know what it is.
And then I look and I realizeit's peacock.
What's on peacock?
And why do I have it on myphone?
The Olympics, you're exactlyright.
(39:37):
That's what it was.
That's exactly what it was.
See?
It's exactly what it was becausewe had to watch Simone Biles and
we weren't allowed to missgymnastics, right?
But here's the thing, now that Iknow that I've got it, you would
think that I would go and cancelit, right?
But I don't.
I just let it continue to runand run and run.
(39:59):
But then the problem is I becomeso focused on all of these
subscriptions that I forget tofocus on the one thing that
matters.
I pay for the monthlysubscription, but I forget to
subscribe to faithfulness thatwill transform my soul.
Amen.
Now, I know there are some of ussitting here thinking that this
guy's lost his mind.
(40:20):
But I promise you this the worldwill continue to tell you to
sign up for more, but Jesustells you to simply sign up for
the kingdom.
He's not asking you for anythingmore, he's simply saying, sign
up for the kingdom.
Pay monthly for happiness, butJesus says, I have already paid
in full for your salvation.
(40:41):
Amen.
The only thing that is going toget each of us to eternity is a
centered on Jesus Christ.
I was thinking the other day asI was going through some of my
notes.
I say that a lot.
But can I tell you why I say itand it's the truth?
(41:03):
I'm worried that there arepeople sitting in this room that
aren't gonna make it.
Because we say it with ourmouth, but we don't live it with
our heart.
We say it with our mouth, but wedon't live it out when we're in
the streets.
Amen.
You have to cancel yoursubscription to greed, you have
to cancel the subscription tofear, cancel it to consumerism.
(41:24):
You have to subscribe to theonly thing that matters, and
that is the kingdom of God.
Because when you do, you areinvesting in a treasure that
will never go away.
Amen.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, I just thankyou and praise you, Lord, for
your presence in this place andFather, for your anointed word.
I pray that as we move from thisplace, that our hearts start to
(41:45):
inspect all of the things thatit's subscribed to.
Father, I pray that you look atour hearts and you realize that
this is all junk and we don'tneed it, and you help us to
throw it out so that there ismore space for you, Father God.
Lord, my heart, my mind, it'scentered on you today.
(42:06):
And Lord, I want more of you andless of the world.
More of you and less of metoday, Father God.
And I pray that every heart inthis place is feeling that same
way.
Lord, I pray for my counsel asthey continue to make financial
decisions for this church, Lord,as they continue to understand
(42:28):
the vision that you have castupon this place, and Lord, great
and mighty things will continueto happen because of their
faithfulness to your kingdom,your vision, and all of the
things that you have called themto do.
Lord, I thank you for thepatience of our people.
As this project has taken muchlonger than I had originally
(42:50):
hoped, Lord, I pray that youjust continue to lead us, guide
us, and direct us.
Father, we pray all of thesethings in your precious Son
Jesus' name in the church says,Amen.
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