All About the Stewardship, Week 2

Tim Rivers | August 13, 2023

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Come on, make some crazy noise if you love Jesus in the house. Anybody excited to be in God's presence? Man doesn't feel good in here. Can we get up for the worship team?

Man, what a phenomenal job that they do day in and day out. Every Sunday we get to come and experience an amazing, amazing worship experience. I'm always amazed too, I look forward obviously, to coming on Sundays and I'm always like, man, they can't top last week. And then it's like, okay, they did it again. They must be praying during the week. We're so glad that you're here. If you're a guest with us, we want to say Welcome to Embassy City Church. We are so delighted that you are here. If you're watching us online, thank you so much for joining us. Hey, do us a favor. Let us know in the chat or in the comments where you are watching from. It is always a delight to see exactly how far our ministry is reaching and we just can't wait to continue to pray with you wherever you are so that God does what he does where you are.

You may be in Bangladesh, India, God's presence is the same everywhere and somebody say amen. Amen. Alright, I don't have a lot of time for preliminaries because I've got a lot of ground to cover in a short amount of time, so grab your Bibles. We're going to Deuteronomy chapter 28, Deuteronomy 28. Last week we started our series that we're calling all about the stewardship. I got some of y'all all about the stewardship and last week we started off talking about ownership. I can tell you this, if you don't define the owner of your finances, you won't steward it well. So first of all, we have to establish who the owner is, whose money is it. Anyway, was the topic of last week and this week we're going to start on what it means to steward well the resources that God has given us. Amen. Amen.

One more thing before I get cranked and started in October, we're going to have our very first fall carnival and it's going to be a phenomenal time. I promise you, you do not want to miss it, but this is also an opportunity to serve and so if you've been a part of Embassy City or you're new here, we are a serving church. We believe that God has given everyone gifts and talents to be utilized for the furthering of the kingdom of God, and so we'd love for you to be involved in the Fall Carnival. So sign up embassy city.com/events. Go down to the fall carnival event and sign up, register to serve, and let's all pull together and see God do some amazing things. Okay? Deuteronomy chapter 28, verse number eight, the Lord will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake, and he will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

The Lord will establish you as a people holy to himself as he has sworn to you. If you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways and all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord and they shall be afraid of you, and the Lord will make you abound in prosperity. Somebody say prosperity, prosperity in the fruit of your wombs, somebody say fruit. Fruit in the fruit of your womb, in the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground within the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give you, the Lord will open to you his good treasury, the heavens to give the reign into your land in its season and to bless all the works of your hand and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow and the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down.

Somebody'll be praising God right now if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them, and if you do not turn aside from any of the words I command you today to the right hand or to the left to go after other gods to serve them, man, I am so excited about this topic today. I can't even tell you and I hope I can do it in the time allotted. If not, I may go over it. Will anybody give me five minutes over? Come on. Lemme see your hand. If you give me five, it's 5, 10, 15, 20. Alright, we're going to be here all day. Praise God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your goodness and your mercy. I pray as we dig into your word, you would give us revelation. I pray that we would get a biblical understanding of how to handle the resources, the money, the finances that you've placed into our hand.

We give you name all the praise and the glory and the honor in Jesus name and everybody say amen. My topic for the day is this. The title is prosperity gospel is prosperity gospel. If you've been to church any length of time you have probably experience for yourself or at least observe some shady financial business going on in the church house. I remember a church that we attended for a little while. They had a little building or a little box, a little offering box that was shaped like the church had a little slid in it and we would go and we'd do the tithing march and the pastor would be the only one after service that would pull out the keys, grab the envelopes, put it in a bank bag, and then his wife would be the one that counted it. Shady business red flags. Be assured here at Embassy City, I as the pastor do not have personal access to money at all.

I don't know who gives what. I don't even set my own salary. I figured that if Jesus didn't carry the back, neither will I. I'm already preaching. We have accountability. We have a finance team. We audit our stuff. We do everything above board. We make sure that we are stewarding what God has placed into this house. Well, and I'm not going to get in the way of that. Unfortunately though there is a lot of shady financial stuff that goes on in the church and one of the most shady controversial topics is the idea of the prosperity gospel, also known as prosperity theology and let's define it unbiblical. I want to make sure that this is in the unbiblical. Prosperity theology promises a life of financial abundance, no suffering, health on demand and success. Lemme say that again. It promises a life of financial abundance, no suffering, health on demand and success. The problem with this theology is that there's too much Bible that points to the fact that many people of God go through times of suffering.

We got to ask Joseph who was sold into slavery, who was falsely accused, who went to prison about prosperity. We got to ask guys like David who ran for his life. We got to ask people like the children of Israel who were in exile dozens of times. We got to ask Jesus who said, I have no place to lay my head. We got to talk to the apostle Paul who said, I've been in sufferings often, I've been hungry, I've been thirsty. We got to talk to all the original disciples who all with the exception of one died by Martin dom. The only one that didn't die by Martin dom was John the Revelator, but he was exiled to an island called Patmos and boiled in hot oil. The issue with doctrines like prosperity theology or prosperity gospel is that it is a perversion or a dilution of what the Bible actually says about prosperity, what we have to do. It is not that the Bible doesn't speak about prosperity. It's that men and women in their pursuit of selfish desires have twisted the word of God to meet their own needs. So it is incumbent upon us as the people of God to go to the word of God and see what did God actually mean when he said prosperity? Because the fact is the words prosperity and gospel are in the word of God and the word gospel simply means the good news and prosperity, the biblical definition of prosperity means to do good.

I got to say it again. Biblical prosperity means to do good and so many pastors won't even use the word prosperity because they're afraid that they're going to be labeled a heretic and false prophets, but if it's in the word of God, we're going to teach it. Here's what I can tell you as a pastor, I don't have to defend myself if I stay in the book.

Here's what God told Israel and Deuteronomy chapter 28, he says, if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God being careful to do all his commandments that I have commanded you, you will be blessed and prosper. God says Biblical prosperity is a byproduct of faithful stewardship of what God has given you. The way to define prosperity biblically is have you done what God has asked you to do? Because if you handle wisely and are faithful with what God's committed into your hand, you will prosper. And here's what's amazing in Deuteronomy chapter 28, the word prosperity is the same word that we find in Matthew 25. Remember the story of which we read last week where the master is speaking to the servants and he says to the one that did five and the one that had two, he says, Hey, come here, let me see what you did. And he says, well done my good and faithful. Did you know that the word good is the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek word prosperity? In other words, this passage right here in Matthew 25 is the master saying, well done. And my prosperous and faithful servant cannot tell you the measure of prosperity according to the Bible is did you wisely steward the resources that God has placed in your hand? Prosperity has nothing to do with how much you made. It has everything to do with what did you do with what you had.

Is prosperity in the Bible? Yes, yes, but to prosper according to the Bible means to use what God has given you to do. Well, biblical prosperity is not about riches, it's about faithful stewardship of what God has entrusted to you. God says, you will do good, you will succeed, you will prosper, you will do well if you handle well. What I have given you, it's not about amounts, it's about what did you do? That's why the master didn't say to the servants, whoa, I'm impressed you had a hundred percent R O i. No, he didn't say, man, this was my return on investment. He says, you did well to use what I gave you.

Amen.

Can we continue in this word? Deuteronomy chapter 28, verse number 11, let's go back. Let's look at this. The Lord will make you abound in to say the word prosperity in the same, somebody say fruit. Fruit. The Lord will make you abound in prosperity in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground within the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give to you. I want you to notice something in this passage. There are two important words that we see here. Those words are prosperity and fruit. God says to the children of Israel, the measure of prosperity is fruitfulness. There is a direct correlation between prosperity and fruit. God says, if you will be fruitful, that is a sign that you have been prosperous prosperity. Biblical prosperity has to do with fruitfulness. Have you utilized what God has given you to yield fruit? Because if you bear fruit, you have been prosperous. It doesn't matter if you bore one fruit or five fruits, if you bore fruit, God says you have been counted as being prosperous prosperity. Write this down is the byproduct of fruitfulness. Fruitfulness is the byproduct of stewardship, and stewardship is the byproduct of faithfulness.

I got to read it again. Prosperity is the byproduct of fruitfulness. Fruitfulness is the byproduct of stewardship, and stewardship is the byproduct of faithfulness. You will see over and over in the Bible this correlation between prosperity or being prosperous and fruitfulness. Can we go to Psalm chapter one? Now? We all know this one, right? Amen. Psalm chapter one verse number one, what does it say? Somebody quote it for me.

Blessed is the man who walked down in the council of God, nor stands in the way of says nor city is the seat of the scorned, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law does he meditate both day night he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of living water, which gives forth its fruit in its season. His leaf also shout out with it and whatever he do it Chao. Can you see the correlation between fruitfulness and prospering prosperity is about you utilizing what God has given you in faithful stewardship. And if you do so, you'll be fruitful. And if you are fruitful, you are considered to be somebody who is experiencing biblical prosperity. Prosperity is measured by this question, have I been fruitful? God has designed us from the very beginning of time to be fruitful.

In fact, the very first words to Adam and Eve was to be fruitful. Why would God say that to Adam and Eve? Why did God feel like this was the most important thing important enough to mention as the first thing to Adam and Eve? It's because we are created in the image and likeness of God and God is fruitful. Oh, y'all want some word? I got you. Genesis chapter two. I'm just Bible studying right now. Genesis chapter two, verse number five. When no bush to the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up for the Lord, God had not caused it to rain on the land and there was no man to work the ground and amidst was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground, then the Lord God formed the man of the dust of the ground and breathe into his nostrils, their breath of life and man became a living creature.

And the Lord God say this with me, planted a garden in Eden in the east and there he put the man whom he had formed and out of the ground, the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the site and good for food and the tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil God who spoke everything into He spoke the sun into existence. He spoke the moon, the stars, the galaxy, the heavens, the earth, the waters. He could have spoken a garden into existence. And yet the Bible says that when he got ready to make the garden of Eden, he dug a hole in the ground, he planted a seed and then he put the dirt over the seed and he watched and waited for the seed to produce a harvest.

God could have spoken the garden into existence and yet God planted a garden and the only logical answer to why God would do this is because God loves to see things grow. The only logical reason why God would plant is because it is in his nature to sow and to reap, to plant and to harvest. It is within the nature of God to see things become fruitful. How do we know this? Genesis chapter one verse number 11 and God said, let the earth sprout vegetation plants yielding seed and fruit, trees bearing fruit in which is their seed each according to its kind on the earth and it was sow and the earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kind and the trees bearing fruit in which is their seed each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good and there was evening and there was mourning. The third day when God created vegetation, animals, trees, he created them with seeds. He created Adam and Eve with the ability to be fruitful. That's why God told Adam and Eve, I want you to be fruitful. If you want to be fruitful, you have to sow seeds.

If you want to grow apples, you got to plant a apple seed. Then you have to wait on that apple seed to germinate and once it germinates it'll come out of the crown. Then you got to watch it turn into a tree and once it turns into a tree it will yield fruit. You don't start off with apples, you start with a seed, but what you do with a seed will determine what type of fruit you get. I'm talking about stewardship. God told Adam and Eve, I want you to be fruitful and Adam's like, how am I going to do that? God says, well, I gave you the seed. I'm not going to give you the fruit, but I'm going to give you the seed with the ability to produce the fruit. And if you want the fruit, then you got to sow the seed. I don't want to get real graphic, but God says to Adam, Adam, here's what I'm going to do for you. I'm going to give you the seed and now you need a little bit of Luther Vandross, some dim lights. You ain't got to worry about cute outfits because y'all naked anyways.

But when you sow the seed, you'll produce the fruit. God has created us with seeds so that we can sow seeds to produce fruits. It's called the law of the harvest. It's called the law of the harvest. It means that when you sow seeds you expect there to be a return. God designed for all of us to be fruitful. Did you know that every day you do things expecting a return? Are you going to go into work tomorrow and be like, I'm just here for free. This is pro bono. Every one of us clock in to work expecting to get paid and if we don't get paid, they're going to question whether or not we saved. I just want to stick to HR real quick. I work 30 extra minutes.

We work expecting a return, right? Because when we sow with our work, we expect to get money back. God created you to expect the return on your investment. God created us to be fruitful and when we are fruitful we are prospering. Why? Because that's God's nature. God says, I'm going to give you seeds to produce fruits, but what does this have to do with money?

I'm glad you asked. Second Corinthians chapter nine verse number six. This is Paul speaking to the church of Corinth. He says, the point is this, whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver. Do you see the correlation? Paul is saying giving is sowing and sowing is giving and God is able to make all grace of boundaries so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work as it is written, he has distributed freely, he has given to the poor his righteousness. E endures for every he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.

You will be enriched in every way to be generous, in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving in God. What is Paul talking about? Paul is talking about money. Paul is literally talking to the church of Corinth who happens to be very wealthy. It's a very wealthy church and Paul is writing to them and in this context, Paul is telling the church of Corinth, Hey, I need y'all to sow some seed. I need y'all to give some of y'alls money to the church at Jerusalem who will suffer it. And what Paul is saying is giving your resources and your finances is like sowing seed. When you sow a seed, you expect a return. And Paul says that when you are generous, when you are sowing plentiful, you'll re plentiful. If you are sowing sparingly, you will also reap spring. The principle of sowing and reaping applies to every area of our life, including our finances. Am I still in the Bible? So I want to give you four principles of sowing and reaping, four principles of sowing and reaping. If you're writing this down, you want to write these down and if you're not writing these down, you want to write these down four principles of sowing and reaping. Number one is you will reap if you sow.

This seems like this should be so obvious, but you know how many people are expecting apple trees and ain't planting no seeds, right?

You know how many people expect the harvest but have never planted? How many people expect God to use them in a mighty way but have never offered their gifts? You know how many people want to see trees but never want to go under the ground? Oh Lord, how many people want to expose you but never want to be hidden? You know it's bad when I get excited about my own man because here's the thing, while I'm saying this, God has given me revelation. Galatians chapter six verse number seven, do not be deceived. This ain't no trick. God is not mocked. You can't make fun of God for whatsoever, for whatever one sows that will he also reap. Let's look at the sermon with the one talent. Remember he comes to the master and master says, Hey, what you got? He said, I got what you gave me. You ain't got no fruit. No. Why? Because you didn't steward well the talent, you hid your talent. You kept the seed in your pocket instead of investing. And that's why the master said you would've been better off taking the seed and putting it in with the bankers so I would've got a little bit of interest. We cannot expect the harvest from something we have not planted.

If you don't submit your money to the Lord, you can expect God to bless your finances. And I'm not talking about a particular location, I'm talking about a mindset, right? If you haven't given your finances to the Lord, why would you want the Lord to bless it? Where the old timers should say it is tight, but it's right. Money is a seed, not a fruit.

Money is a seed, not a fruit. What you reap from money is the fruit. What's your money harvesting?

What is your money producing? When you trace back your dollars and cents, what do you have to show for it? Oh Lord, when you plant a seed in the ground, you have to do so expecting a harvest. This is what the Bible said, accept the grain of wheat, falls of ground and dies. It abides alone. What does it mean? It is unfruitful if it is not planted. So you will reap if you sow. Here's the second principle, you'll reap where you sow. You can only reap in the area that you sow in. You cannot reap here and then harvest there. You cannot not reap in your family and expect the harvest from your family. Part of being a good steward is knowing where to sow your finances. Part of being a good steward, a faithful servant of God is knowing where am I placing my money, my resources, my seeds because it is going to produce a fruit, but what kind of fruit and where it is depends on where you placed it. So I want to give you four areas of giving that is outlined in the Bible. Number one is to God is to God. This is what Paul is writing about in two Corinthians chapter nine. He says, we should use our finances, our resources to support the work of God, right? We go back to Malachi chapter three and we can talk about the tithe, bringing the tithe into the storehouse and we all grew up understanding the tithe. But here's the thing, a lot of people get caught up in the tithe, the actual particular amount, and some people have made tithing, religious,

And so there's a lot of people who pay tithes. There's a difference between paying tithes and giving tithes because it is all about the heart. You can pay tithes and it not be a blessing because if your mindset is, well, God, take my temper, Paul clarifies it, we should not give reluctantly or out of compulsion for God loves a cheer giver. Everyone should give as he is determined in his heart, giving is a matter of posture before God and the goal is not a percentage. The goal is are you faithfully? I can tell you this, God's been so good to me that I'm like, God, whatever you got the whole thing. But God says, given to my storehouse, why? What is the storehouse? The storehouse is the place where you get food. So in a modern context, the storehouse is the place in a spiritual sense where you get spiritually fed, where you get spiritual nourishment. It's the church. It's the church that you're a part of. It's the place where you get spiritual nourishment and the Bible says that where your treasure is, there shall your heart be. Also, you know how many people come to church but their hearts are never in church

Because God tests us with our money. Am I still in the book?

So number one is you give to God. Here's the second area that you give to you give to you. You're like what You reap where you sow? When was the last time you sow into yourself? Have you looked at your finances and looked? Have I been fruitful myself? If you don't invest in yourself, you can't expect the harvest from yourself. What was the last time you sowed into your education? When was the last time you sowed into getting counseling? I'm just getting real practical Now, when was the last time you took your money and sowed into a health advisor or a financial advisor? A lot of people are sowing bad financial or reaping bad financial decisions because they never sow into getting financial help and literacy. Too many of us are reaping everywhere else except for good fruit from ourselves because we've sown everywhere else except for ourselves. And I'm not talking about self worship, I'm talking about invest in yourself because you will produce fruit if you sow. Right? Here's the third area, your family, oh, I'm about to step on some toes down. You can't expect, lemme talk to some dudes. You can't expect the harvest from your wife if you're only invested in PlayStation games.

Well, I just don't feel like we have a great relationship because all your money and time and treasure is going everywhere else except for to your family. You cannot expect there to be a great harvest from your children if you're spending all your resources on yourself or on other things, you reap where you sow, reap where you sow. Sow into your kids, sow into your wife, sow into your husband. When was the last time you just bought her flowers for no reason? When was the last time you bought him a PlayStation game for no reason? I'm telling you guys, you better sow and hope. Here's the fourth area is others. Number one is God. Number two is you. Number three is your family and number four is others. The Bible is very clear. We have to set aside some of our finances for the poor, the widows and the orphans in particular. God has given us seeds to be sown, to yield a harvest to use for the benefit of the entirety of the body. If you have to give, then give. Well, I don't know what they're going to do with the money that's between them and the Lord.

If the Lord, if you are sensitive to the Lord, there are times where the Lord has prompted me to give and I gave, but my flesh was like, they're not going to do right with this.

But I want to give you a story that I've experienced in my own life. This is 1998, I believe. 1998 Christmas time my dad was, this was actually Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve. Now in our family, because we lived in Germany for so long, we actually celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve because that's a traditional German way of celebrating. And so we were getting ready to celebrate us, the kids and my mom, we were at home, the food was ready. My dad was, he said he had to go do a run of errand and when he didn't come back for several hours, of course we didn't have cell phones, we had pagers. You know what I'm saying? We paged him. S oss, time to get home, it's time to eat. He didn't get a reply. Then really late he comes, we're all frustrated because we're ready to eat and get this celebration started.

He comes home and he's like, Hey, pack up the food. We got to go. And we're like, where are we going? He's like, just pack the food. We got to go. So we pack up the food in the car. My mom is very frustrated. We are also frustrated because we're supposed to be opening gifts. You know what I'm saying? So we get in the car, this is Christmas Eve, we drive to a shady part of East Dallas, no street streetlights. Now we're close to a bridge and it's sketchy. My dad gets out and he's like, all right, everybody pile out. And I'm like, listen, I don't know what type of stuff you done got into, but this ain't right. I can feel it. I can feel this ain't right. And so we get out of the car, I don't even know I'm trying to process now as I'm telling the story, what was my mom thinking? You know what I'm saying? But we get the food, we get out of the car and my dad takes us into the woods, into this field with the food. I feel like Isaac at this point, what I see, the wood, I see the fire.

Where the sacrifice at. So we go through this trail that's in this field and we happen to pond this tree and right by the tree is this massive tent made out of tarps and wood and sticks. And there is this couple named Amy and Danny who were homeless that were there and we brought our food and my dad said, Hey, I met them earlier. They were digging in the dumpster. They didn't have anywhere to celebrate, so we are going to share our resources with them. And so we sit down and the first thing you're thinking in your mind is how long y'all been homeless and how long have y'all been doing this? Turns out they've been homeless for about 10 years as a couple. And so we sat there in these makeshift crates and we started eating the food and we started singing Christmas carols and all that. And then we left and we came back. They said church was the next day. We came back and they said, oh, I'm about to get emotional. We came back the next day, it was Christmas day and we picked him up for Christmas service. And I remember getting in the car and we had a van, a little caravan, Plymouth, no, a Plymouth Voyager and we didn't have any space in the van. So me and my brother had to sit in the trunk.

And Amy and Danny sat in the last row right in front of us. And can I tell you that they didn't smell right because they hadn't taken a shower. It was bad news. They smelled like smoke. We took 'em to church. They got to church, they met Jesus. And then we decided, what are we going to do? We can't take you back out here to this tent. So we got some people together and we got some money together and we put 'em in a hotel for a few days and then they started doing good. So we gave them some money to get a few more days and then it was a week and then it was a month that they were there. And next thing you know Daniel, who had been unemployed for years, he ends up finding a janitorial service job. So he goes and gets the job.

And then Amy, who had been on all types of medication, got hooked on all types of medication and stuff. She got cleaned and she ended up getting a job. And now this has been over 20 something years. Amy and Danny are self-sufficient. They have their own home, they've been having jobs for years and God's been good to them. And I'm sitting here telling you that if you use your seeds and plant them in the right people, you'll yield the harvest. So don't discount. Don't try to explain what type of fruit's going to come from this. Just plant the seeds. Here's the third principle of sowing and reaping. You will reap after you sow.

You know how many people want to reap at the same season that they sow? It don't work that way when you sow. You got to have patience and wait for the reaping. When you sow, you've got to sow in faith and in hope that it will produce a harvest. When you sow it, you will not reap in the same season. It takes time for the seed to germinate and produce a fruit, but this is also why you have to continuously sow seed. See, oh Lord, Galatians chapter six verse nine, and let us not grow weary of doing good for in due season. We will reap if we do not give up. God doesn't give you fruits, he gives you seeds. That is a revelation right there. God doesn't give you fruits. He gives you seeds. How you faithfully steward seeds will determine what type of fruit you get. Where are you planting and sowing your seeds? Here's the fourth one and most exciting one, you always reap more than you sow.

You can't outgive God. You can try, but you will never outgive God because the word teaches us that if we are faithfully going to steward our seeds, that God will allow us to reap a harvest that'll far outnumber the seeds that we planted. If you give to God everything that you have, God will multiply from the seeds and produce a harvest that you can't contain. This is what two Corinthians chapter nine verse 10, Paul is saying, he says, he who has supplied seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the hardest of your righteousness. Did you know that you have the power to multiply by the seeds that God has given you? Did you know that within your hands you have the power to seed multiple? Can we talk about the boy with two fish and five loaves of bread? Jesus said, I just need somebody to sow some seed right now. I need somebody just to give me a little bit of lunch. And this boy rolled up and said, I got two fish and I got five lo of bread. And Jesus said, that's all I need. And Jesus took what he sown and Jesus multiplied it to feed 5,000 men and not counting women and children cannot tell you that every time you plant a seed into the ground, God will allow that seed to produce more than you planted.

Oh somebody ought to get excited about that. I'm not talking about riches, I'm talking about being fruitful. I'm talking about the woman, the widow of pha who she didn't get rich but she never ran out. Some people want to get rich. I just don't want to run out

And if I give to God what he has given to me, God will make sure that I'm taken care of. I don't have to worry about anything. God will send ravens to feed me. He'll make water come out of a rock. If I give to God, God will give back to me more than you got seeds in your pocket. Tim Ross preacher message not too long ago and he was talking about bread. He said, I got bread in my pocket. Well, in this sermon, I got seeds in my pocket. I got seeds in my pocket. I got somebody. Look at your neighbor and tell me I got seeds in my pocket. What are you doing with your seeds? What are doing with your seeds? Because it is instinct to hold onto our seeds and say, this is mine. Or brag about our seeds. Man, you don't even know how many seeds. I got apple seeds. I got orange seeds, I got lemon seeds. And God says, what are you doing with those seeds? Because if you want to harvest, you've got to, so you have to be willing to let go of what's in your hands so that God,

One plants, one waters, God gives the increase. Stop worrying about the fruit. The amount of fruit is not guaranteed when you sow, but you are guaranteed not to reap if you don't sow. What are you doing with what God has placed in your hand? Money is directly related to spiritual things because what your perception of tangible things are will affect your perception of spiritual things because some people get nervous of talking about money. Alright, lemme make it spiritual. I have a gift of speaking. Are you sowing it? I've got a gift. I just don't have a place to utilize it. There's a lot of ground to sow into for me when I realize, oh, I think I have a gift to preach. I went to my pastor, I feel called to preach. He said, great sign up for street ministry. Man ain't my ministry. I'm called more to platforms in pulpits, but I sowed on the street corner. I sowed in the nursing homes, I sowed in the care centers and I'll do it again today. I sowed in the juvenile halls. I sowed what God has given me in seeds. I sowed it and I let God take care of the rest.

What type of seeds has God given you and what have you done with it? We better give him hope. Abus, y'all give Amos a hand. Why am I preaching this? Because what you do with your paper is what you do with your purpose and the idea, the ideology within the Bible is the same. How you handle your finances says a lot. How you handle your spiritual life. Where have you sown your spiritual gifts? Have you sown your spiritual gifts? Well, I just don't know why things ain't opening up for me because you're still holding onto your seeds. Have you planted them? Well, I'm waiting for somebody to tell me what the harvest is. Pius the laborers are few. Pray therefore that the Lord of the harvest would send forth laborers into his harvest. What does a laborer do? They plant and reap. And so many people want to be reapers without sowers. I want God to bless my money. God said, no. You want me to bless your seeds? Where are you placing your seeds? How are you distributing the finances that God's given you? Are you giving to the Lord? Are you investing in yourself? Are you investing in your family? Are you investing in others

Or are you trying to build bigger barns? Get fancier cars. Lemme tell you something, you look at scripture, there's nothing wrong with wealth. There really isn't. It is a matter of the heart though, because some people, their heart can't handle driving a Bentley. Am I right? But they're the same people that their heart can't handle driving a Corolla.

They have a heart issue. God says, if you can be faithful with a little, I can trust you with more,

But I ain't going to give you more if you can't handle the little. You got. The God that had five was a faithful steward and ended up with 1515. I thought he doubled it. Yeah, he doubled. It aint the master gave him some more. It is prosperity gospel. That's where we started. Biblical prosperity

Is fruitfulness and fruitfulness is predicated on sowing. You reap what you sow. Oh, I'm so thankful that the Lord of the harvest is kind enough to supply all of our needs according to his richest and glory. So Lord, right now, I ask God that you would give us wisdom as stewards of the seeds that you've given us, of our finances and our money. I pray that we will be faithful stewards, God, that we will not heap unto ourselves the seeds that you've given us, but that we would wisely invest and plant them in the areas that you have shown us. Help us to be fruitful God and thereby help us to experience biblical prosperity, which means to do good, to succeed at bearing fruit. I thank you, God for every person that is here in this building and that is listening online. And I pray, God, in the next few hours and days and weeks that you would partner with us, God, that you would show us exactly how to handle what you've placed into our hands. We're quick to give your name, the praise, the glory, and the honor because you are worthy of it. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Somebody give Jesus some praise in this place.