Transcription
Hey YouTube family, my name is Kaylee and thank you for joining us today. If you haven't already, please subscribe to our YouTube channel so that you can stay up to date each week. And we believe that God has a powerful word for you. So let's dive right in.
If you are taking notes, the title of my sermon is mastering money. Mastering money. God has called you to master money. And money matters. And money matters. And it's not just about money, but it's about what God wants to do through money. It's about the snares of money. It's about the attack of money. God wants you to master money. He don't want you to be mastered by money. And I believe that if you struggle in any area, this series is going to be a blessing. I believe it's going to speak to you, empower you, impact you. Maybe you struggle with money. Maybe you've never been taught the things you should be taught about money.
Uh God's blessed me with a lot of uh wealthy friends and a lot of wealthy relationships. And not saying they know everything about money, but I've learned uh stewardship and how to manage money. I learned a lot about money from the Bible. And I learned a lot about money from mistakes. And everybody say, "Amen." Come on. Come on. You learn by mistakes. So So I learned a lot. And maybe you never been taught or maybe you never been given uh just principles concerning money. And over the next couple of weeks, I'm going to give you those principles. And in my own personal life, I've seen those principles uh bring great increase to my life. I've seen God uh water me. I've seen God bless me. I've lived a debt-free life. I'm telling you, you sleep different when you ain't got no debt. Now, I've had debt and I've not had debt. And when I ain't had debt, I sleep a lot better at night. Come on. The church said, "You sleep real good. You you could turn over each shoulder when you ain't got no debt." I mean, you know, you you you sleep good. you don't wake up in the middle of the night, you you rest a lot a lot better.
So, um I just think that uh Jesus talks so much about money, not for the sake of money, but it really ties to your heart. Money ties and connects to a lot of other things. And typically, if someone's money is out of order, it's a metric uh to their life. If your money's out of order, if your money's not managed well, then your life is probably out of order. If you don't do money right, then you probably don't do everything else in your life right as well. know money is a part of stewardship and uh and Jesus says clearly in the Bible that the children of darkness is better than the children of light at money. And the reason why I believe the children of darkness is better than the children of light when it comes to money is I don't believe that the church is allowed to talk about money. When I when I say there's a money series, I could feel a let's preach about something important. Let's let's talk about the gospel. But Jesus talked more about money than he talked about heaven and hell. A third of the parables in the Bibles are is about money. Over 2,000 verses is about money. And I believe that preachers don't preach about money. And if they do, they only talk about you giving the church money or they only talk about a name and claim it prosperity gospel. And they don't really see the heart and the emphasis behind money. So we're going to learn what did Jesus care so deeply about? Why did he bring this topic up so much? and how this can radically revolutionize your life and how when this is out of order, it opens you up to an attack of the enemy and it opens you up to a snare. You guys ready for today?
Okay. And um so the enemy attacks money coming from the church and you need to hear what God says about money and also God has ways for you to increase. Sometimes you want to get your money right, you leave the house of God and you leave the word of God to learn more about money. And Satan throughout throughout time, he discredits the church towards money. And yes, there's some pastors in some churches that don't handle money well, but most churches are poor. If you look on a grand scale of things, 90% of churches are poor. They can barely pay bills. They have less than uh two staff members. But the enemy discredits the church when it comes to money. And there's this notion in the world, all the church wants is my what? Money. All they want is my money. the pastor want to get a new Cadillac and and they have all these myths and notions concerning money and are there a couple of churches like that? Sure, right? There's always a couple bad apples, but for the most part, at least the friends I have, it's nothing like that. There's financial accountability and all kind of things in place. But check this out. The devil has started the myth, all the church wants is my money. But if you think about it, all anybody wants is YOUR MONEY. YEAH. WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN WHERE they did not want your money? You go to the movie theater today and guess what they want? Your money. And for you to sit in some seats just like these, you can't even get inside of there without money. You go to the restaurant, guess what they want? Your money. You go to Walmart, guess what they want? Your money. You go to the gas station, guess what? They want your money. WHEN I WALK IN THE HOUSE, GUESS WHAT? MY WIFE AND DAUGHTER WANT MY MONEY. EVERYWHERE I GO, SOMEBODY WANTS SOME MONEY. I GET ON THE PHONE. MY MAMA, we talking and stuff like that. And she like, "Yeah, go send something." I'm like, "What?" I was just checking in. What you mean send something? Like, like, like, like, "Where you want my money, mama? What you want for your birthday?" You send me some money. Like, why everybody want money? And everywhere you go, money is required except for church. This is the only place you can actually come and not be charged. Well, I hope churches ain't charging. That's a lot of crazy stuff going on in the world. They shouldn't be, but church is the one place you can go and not be charged. You can come to Radiant Church for the rest of your life and eat spiritually and never give a dollar and I'll never ever ask you to leave here. Why? Because I don't just want something from you. I want something for you. I want you to know Jesus, to encounter Jesus, to have your life impacted. I want your children here so they can know Jesus. So your children's children can know Jesus. So we can leave an eternal impact. So do you know the church is the one place where you don't have to bring money to come here. The church is the only place you can eat and not have to pay. That's how good God is and that's how God set it up. Because God didn't want you to give grudgingly or forcingly. He wanted you to give generously. And he wanted you to give not under compulsion but by generosity. He wanted you to give because you love him, because you trust him, because you trust his principles. And I believe most Christians are not all Christians have a desire to give. I know you probably have a desire to give because God, he is generous. And when he gave you a new spirit, generosity is embedded in that spirit. God is a generous God. God so loved the world, he gave his son. God gave us the Holy Spirit. God gave us the spirit of wisdom. God has given us gifts. Every good gift. God is a good father. He gives his children good gifts. So God is a God of generosity and he's put that inside of you. Generosity is inside of you. And if you don't give to church, it's probably because you can't.
It's probably because you don't have enough. It's probably because you're in debt. it's probably because you're struggling paying the bills. So, after this series, my goal is to help you get in a place financially to where you can, where you have options, where you have freedom to give. Because we've been so blessed to feed hundreds, if not thousands of people.
But one of the things I've noticed in praying for people and talking to people is this. People are struggling financially. I wasn't going to do a series. I was just going to do a one part a one part message and be done. But when I've seen the struggle, when I've seen the messages, when I've seen the things that people are going through, sometimes you can get so so caught up in your Christian bubble and you feel like God has blessed you that you forget about everybody else. And I saw people are struggling with this and the Bible has answers for this and Jesus has provision for this. We have to teach this. And up until this last week, I'll be honest, I've never been super comfortable talking about money in church because I always feel like there's more important things to talk about. But this is pretty important because I don't know if I want to hear about a Jesus when I'm hungry. I don't know if I want to hear about a Jesus when I have a light bill due. I don't know if I want to hear about Jesus when I ain't got no transportation. Sometimes the gospel is simply meeting a need so you can share a deeper need. Jesus fed the hungry. Jesus put clothes on people back. Jesus served people and met them where they were and then he opened them up to HEAR THE GOSPEL. I'M NOT INTO JUST GIVING out free handouts. I'm not. But what I am into doing is blessing someone so they can see that there's a God that loves them. There's a God that provides for them and there's a higher bigger blessing. We literally the motivation behind us giving people food was we wanted to feed people but then under that we wanted to be able to pray for people. We knew that most people we feed, we could pray for. We didn't just want to just feed them, but we wanted to pray. Why? Because God is into ROI. He's into return on his investment. So God is not into us just giving out money. No, God wants a return on his investment. When we give out money, we have to sit and answer a question. Every dollar that's spent in our church setting, we have to answer this one question. Where's the ROI on this? Where's the return on this? How does feeding people lead to the saving of souls? If we can't answer that question, then there's a problem. Everything God gives us to give, there has to be a ROI. Now, we don't want anything from people, but we want something for them. We want them to know God. We want them to find freedom. We want them to discover their purpose, and we want them to make a difference. If you want that for the world around you, come on, let's give God a shout of praise.
Okay, that was all free. We're going to start the sermon now. Okay, so why did God ask us to give money? God asks us to give money because he wanted to teach us a couple things. The first reason why God asks us to give money like tithes and offering is because God wanted us to create margin. He wanted us to learn how to live inside of limits. God wanted us to create margin in our life. Which means that you should have financial margin. If you don't have financial margin, if you spend everything you make, if you're living paycheck to paycheck, you're financially in the red zone. And it's okay. We're going to get you out of the red zone into the green zone. But God wants you to have financial margin. Do you know the amount of money determines what you're capable and what you're able to do? You set your margin by the amount of money. And most people don't even have a budget. You have to have a budget. You have to have a plan for your money. Because if you don't tell your money where to go, you're going to wonder where it went. If you don't tell your money where to go, you're going to wonder where it went. And if you don't name your dollar, your dollars are going to be unknown. Where you spend your money is going to be unknown.
God also tells us to give money because he wants to teach us discipline. He don't want you to just be reactive when it comes to money. He wants you to be intentional. Intentional with how you use your money, intentional with how you save your money, intentional with how you invest your money. Also, money builds order. Money builds order in your life. your finances. They can be a weapon against you or they can be a tool for you. A weapon against you or a tool for you. Your money is designed to be a tool to help you build the life that God has called you to live. Also, it sharpens management. If you can't steward, if you don't know how to manage something, then then then God God is saying you're not going to be able to flourish financially. Do you know in this life, anything you don't manage, you will lose. Yeah. Come on. Anything you don't manage, you will lose. If you don't manage your marriage, you will lose it. If you don't manage your children, you will lose them. If you don't manage your health, you will lose it. If you don't manage your car, it'll quit working. Try to not get a oil change for two years. See what happens. Anything you do not manage in this world, your hair, you will lose it. And some of y'all like, I lost my hair anyway. I managed it. I don't know. I'm praying for you. Um, but anything that's not managed will be lost. So God is saying you have to learn this principle of management because if you don't manage well, God can't bless you. God blesses those that manage well. And how can you manage well without a budget? Without a budget. Every September I spend months building the budget out for my company. Months building the personal budget out for my personal finances and months with our team building out the financial budget for the year of our church. And our budget is 90% of last year's income. So all the things from my business to our church to my personal life. We only create a budget on 90%. We leave 10% of margin. That's not even including our tide. We have margin. Which means that if we don't have more, we have to change what we do. We have to re-evaluate. We have to shrink some things and and change some things. We got to get resourceful. We probably can't buy new. We got to buy used. We have to manage.
Another reason God asks you to give is because it breaks greed and stinginess off of you. Come on. Giving stops money from mastering you and it gets you to master money. And the last thing is God God allows you to invest into the kingdom of God. He lets you give because when you give, you take a temporal dollar and turn it into an eternal dollar. Wow. So when you give into the kingdom of God, you're taking what's temporary and you're making it eternal. So God is saying that money isn't just about currency. Money is about character. Yeah. Money exposes you. Money reveals you. Money is a magnifier, which means whatever you are, money will make you more of that. If you are a stingy, greedy, selfish person, when you get money, you're going to be extremely greedy, extremely selfish. But if you are a generous person, a person that waters others, when you get money, you're going to be ridiculously generous. YOU'RE GOING TO BE SO GENEROUS WHEN YOU GET MONEY. BECAUSE MONEY DOESN'T CHANGE YOU. IT magnifies you. It makes you more of what you already are. If you're a sinful person, when you get money, you're going to be real sinful. almost cracked a joke about somebody, but we ain't even going to do that. Someone you all would know. But we ain't going to talk about no baby loyal. But um but but but but if you're sinful, you get some money, you're going to get real sinful. Money is going to magnify you. It's going to make you more than what you are. It's going to it's going to take it. If you're if you're a person that loves Jesus, when you get more money, you're going to love Jesus more. If you're a person that builds the kingdom of God, when you get more money, you're going to build the kingdom of God more. Money magnifies. Money magnifies. And and God says that he wants you to be generous to him because he wants to be generous to you. God started generosity. He gave his son. When you give to God, God gives back to you. But many times we don't give to God. We have a closed hand. But you got to know an open hand means an open heaven. An open hand means an open heaven. When you open up your hands, God can open up the heavens. And most of us are in bondage to money because we don't understand it.
One of the reasons why Jesus asks us to give money is because he wants us to be generous. Generosity isn't just what you do, it's who you are. It's an inward condition. God is generous. When you're godly, you should be generous. And when you begin to give money, you get generous. Um, you know, there's a famous saying and it says money don't bring happiness. And that's true unless you give it away. When you start giving away money, it actually releases forms of happiness. The Bible says it this way, "He that water shall be watered." When you start giving away money and you start watering other people, all of a sudden, heaven starts watering you. When you start serving other people, heaven starts serving you. When you start blessing other people, heaven starts blessing you. Even wicked people sometimes they're big philanthropists because when they begin to give out money, study shows they they sell they they give reports out and they start feeling happiness and peace and they're able to sleep. So people that don't even care about the poor, they start giving out money and giving to charity because they they reported they can sleep better and they can think better and and and anxiety just lets them go a little bit because they're watering others. And God has put a principle in place that when you water others, you will be watered as well. And God has built our world off of principles. He's built it off of principles. Which means that you don't get blessed based on luck. You get blessed based on laws. There are spiritual laws that are determining the blessing that's released over you. It's not just luck. GOD DON'T JUST give you money because you cry or you beg for it. He gives you money because you can manage it. He gives you money because you follow his principles. He gives you money because you follow his laws. This is how the kingdom of God works. When you water, you will be watered. The Bible says the word of the generous gets larger and larger. God says the more generous you are, the more your world is enlarged. So good. But the more stingy you are, the more your world shrinks. Can I dig a little deeper?
Proverbs 13:22 reads, it says, "A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, but the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous. It says a good man leaves an inheritance for his children's children. So the Bible is saying that God is calling you to leave an inheritance. Which means you're to leave something behind for your children's children. You should live in such a way that something that you've built outlives you. Income that you earned outlives you. So you should leave an inheritance for your children's children's. But in that inheritance, it's not just money. It's also wisdom. Not just finances, it's wisdom. Which means you're not just leaving money to your kids, you're leaving wisdom to your kids. And the reason why you're not just leaving money to them is because they said the second generation, 70% of the second generations of millionaires go back broke. And 90% of millionaires by the third generation is broke and bankrupt again. Which means the goal isn't just to leave money to them. The goal is to leave wisdom to them as well. You want to leave a legacy. You want to teach your kids about money. You want to teach them about income. You want to teach them about biblical principles concerning money. The job if of a parent isn't just to leave something to your kids. It's to leave something in your kids. Because if you leave more to them than you leave in them, they'll lose everything you left to them. But if you leave more in them, they can provide on their own. They can succeed on their own. They can build on their own. What are you leaving in them? First thing you should be doing as a parent is teaching your child to budget. Which means when my daughter is eight years old, when we go out of town, I would calculate roughly how much money do she, you know, daddy, I want that one, that one, that one, that one. How much? Okay. What would we spend? Okay. Let's say it's about 40 50 bucks. Give her an envelope. 50 bucks in there. And we going we going to be out of town for a whole week. And she can spread that 50 bucks. She can spend it all the first day. She can spread it out over a week. She can get all her toys at one time or she can buy them into she can buy them in portion. And I would give her a return on the money she do not spend. Why? Because I have to teach her delayed gratification. I can't teach her just, hey, every time you want something, you buy it. Because if you spend the 50 bucks, guess what? YOU GOT FIVE MORE DAYS WITH NO MONEY. YEAH. Which means that you can have everything the family does together. We're going to go places. We're going to pay. We're going to eat. We're going to have we're going to all do things together as a family. But if you want something individually, here's your envelope of money. And once you spend it, that's it. Because I have to teach her this while she's eight or she'll fight with this when she's 80. And I have to break the spirit of poverty off of my daughter. Because when Satan can't make you evil, he'll just make you poverty minded. He will put a spirit of poverty on you and that SPIRIT OF POVERTY WILL START MAKING YOU EVIL. IT'S A reason why there's a correlation between crime and poverty. Because when you're poor enough, it'll start making you do some crazy strange things for provision. So, what am I DOING? HOW DO I HOW DO I KEEP MY DAUGHTER AWAY FROM POVERTY? IT'S BY GIVING her financial and biblical principles. And many people are in poverty because they don't know delay gratification. When they see something, they just got to have it right now. And you got to learn how to have a plan, a strategy, and a budget. And to be able TO COUNT THE CALLS, YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE HOW many people are sitting under my voice without a financial plan. I should be able to ask any one of you guys, how much money do you make a month? How much is your bills? What percentage are you living on? You don't even know the percentage you cost every month. But you pray for God to give you more. Wow. If if the way you ran the way you run your finances, if someone was to put you over a company and if that company finances was ran just how your personal finances are ran, would that company grow or would it have to get closed down? Well, I want you to know you are a company. You are a company. And if you don't manage and steward your money well, God will not bring you more to waste. God is heavily into our oi return on investment.
Everyone gets really excited about this scripture. The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the righteous. We like that scripture and and yeah, it's cool. But if you look at it closely, it's kind of offensive. Okay. My question, God, and this is just how I read my Bible, why do THE SINNER GET THE WEALTH IN THE FIRST PLACE? I GET it laid up for me, but why couldn't I get it to to originate with? WHY IS THE WEALTH LAID UP FOR ME? WHY CAN'T I HAVE THE WEALTH? Now, here's what Jesus is saying. He's saying, "I had to give it to them because you would have wasted it." Oh my goodness. I had to give it to the sinner because you wouldn't have expanded it. I had to give it to the center because you wouldn't have grown it. I had to give it to the center because it wouldn't have been wealth. You would have SQUANDERED IT. SO GOD SAID, "I HAD AN INVESTMENT PLAN." HE SAID, "MY PEOPLE ARE SO BAD WITH MONEY, I LET THE EVIL people have the money, and by THE TIME YOU ACTUALLY GROW IN WISDOM AND financial discipline and financial principles, I've transferred it back to you." THAT YOUR BANK ACCOUNT IS IN THE HANDS OF THE WICKED. And in my life, I've seen this true that that when I look at the increase of my life, there was wicked people. And when I say wicked, just wasn't people of God. And they built certain things. And all of a sudden, when I got ready, when I grew, when I got to where I was going, it was laid out for me. Come on now. This facility right here, they got it and they started remodeling this building so there can be alcohol and and they can have all kind of crazy concerts in here that that would glorify the enemy. And the guy that we got this building from spent almost half a million dollars bringing this building back up to code. When he got done with it, all of a sudden everything went wrong and I walked in and all of his wealth was laid up to me. All of it. We got the facility half a million dollars stronger than it would have been if he didn't come here first. And God says, "I'M TRANSFERRING THE WEALTH, BUT I GOT TO WAIT FOR MY KIDS TO BE ABLE TO receive it." Uh, you you look LIKE YOU YOU LOOK LIKE YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME. SO, LET ME GIVE YOU SOME BIBLE. Joshua 24:13, IT SAYS, "I HAVE GIVEN YOU LANDS FOR WHICH YOU DID NOT LABOR, AND CITIES FOR WHICH you did not build, and you dwelt in them, and you eat of vineyards and OILS WHICH YOU DID NOT PLANT." WHICH MEANS YOU'RE GOING TO WALK IN THINGS YOU DID NOT BUILD. You're going to have land you did not labor for and you're going to eat things you DID NOT PLANT BECAUSE THE WEALTH OF THE SINNER IS LAID UP FOR THE RIGHTEOUS. BUT GOD WILL ONLY TRANSFER THIS WEALTH when the people of God can manage it. Which means it may be the next generation it gets transferred to. It may be four generations. BUT AT SOME POINT, WHAT THE SINNER HAS, HE HAS TO HAND BACK OVER TO GOD'S CHILDREN. YEAH.
WELL, Pastor KJ, why why is it laid up for the children of God? Why does the children of God even need money? Okay, I'll answer it. It's because money is for ministry. Money is for ministry. And I'm not just talking about raiding a church across the world. God uses money. Yes, he does. Because when money is used properly, the the poor is fed. Uh uh uh the the the broken is served. The disenfranchised is helped. And if money is spent properly, it leads to salvation. Now, salvation is a free gift to God. You can't pay for it. But what you can pay for is food that's going to bring people. We have a city called uh we have an event called food on God. Hundreds of people are going to come and get food. But they don't know this. They're going to get food on God. They're going to receive Jesus. They're going to receive prayer. So, the wealth is used to bring people to God. Then they can come and join the church. Some of you guys are sitting in this room. You went to gas on God. And now you're under my teaching learning how to break a spirit spirit of poverty off of you and a spirit of mammon off of you so you can change your family tree. All because someone gave something. I want you to know just because a seed has left your life just because a seed has left your hand doesn't mean it left your life. Every time you gave towards the kingdom of God, there's a return pressed down, shaken together, and running over. So wealth is for kingdom expansion and it's for kingdom impact. It's for the kingdom of God. See, many of you guys, you're sitting here and you want money. But my question is, why do you want money? Do you know that money is just fuel? It's just fuel. Uh what is fuel used for? Fuel is used to go somewhere. So if I set up here and I was like, "Hey, I want 100 gallons of gas." And if I had 100 gallons of gas and and we took that, that's about three full tanks in my vehicle. And you guys would think that's reasonable for me to have 100 gallons of gas because that's three full tanks. I got to go to work and I got places to go and that's enough fuel for my mission for me to go to work and maybe run to Dallas or Streetport or something for my company. 100 gallons of fuel is reasonable. Now, what if I said I need a million gallons of fuel and I had a million gallons of fuel all around me? You guys will look at me like you're an idiot. And why would I be an idiot? What am I GOING TO DO WITH A MILLION GALLONS OF FUEL? YEAH. Store it. look at it, waste it, squander it. It would make no sense unless I said, "I'm going to have a transporting company and we're going to distribute food all across the world and we need to fill the trucks to distribute it." All of a sudden, you would say, "The million gallons of fuel makes sense now." Why? Because I'm moving something. I'm going somewhere. So, my question is, why do you want a million dollars when you're not moving nothing? When you're not advancing nothing? When you're not going nowhere? Money is just for movement. Which means God, I'm not saying you can't get wealthy on your own, but God doesn't give wealth so it can sit and so it can rot. God said thieves break in and still rough rust and moth and all these things coming to destroy money. What's the point of you being wealthy so you can have good in good security about yourself and you can look in a mirror and say, "Hey, I'm wealthy." There was a guy and he said, "Man, I got so much money. I'm going to tear down my barns and I'm just going to build bigger barns cuz I got money to waste." And the Bible says, "Fool, your life will be required of you tonight." IT MADE GOD SO MAD THAT GOD SAID, "I'mma take his life." So God don't want you to just have money to have money. Money has mission. Money is for mission. Which means if you don't have a mission, you don't need money outside of self-provision. Money is about mission. The moment I understood what money was for, money became unlocked to me. I realized money was for mission. God has blessed me so I can bless others. God has watered me so I can water others. God has given to me so I can give to others and so I can give the mission. The money that God has given me, at least a part of it in the early days, not all of it because many generous people gave, but I was able to give towards this project of Radiant Church. We've seen over 2500 people give their life to God. over 700 people baptized kids come back to Jesus revival on college campuses and God's like that's why I gave you money for mission. God knew that I was so young to start a church no one would believe in me and give me no money. So God had to give it to me so I can believe in myself and put the money into there. He knew. He knew at that time I was so young I didn't even have a beard. Hey, we need some money. Just grow a beard. Come back in 10 years and we'll think about sewing into that. So God said, "Because I'm calling you to go young, I'm going to resource you so you can go." And God did that. Money is for mission. You don't need fuel unless you're going somewhere. Come on, let's give God a shout of praise.
Okay, if you have your Bibles, go to Luke chapter 16. And this gonna be real good. Luke 16. When you guys are there, say, "Ready." You guys enjoying this? Good deal. Luke 16 verse one and it reads, "He also said to his disciples, this is Jesus, there was a certain rich man who had a steward. That just means someone that managed his uh property and his wealth. And an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. So his store was wasting his goods. So he called him and said to him, "What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship." He said, "I need an account of your stewardship because you're wasting my goods. For you can no longer be my steward." In other words, you're fired, dude. You're wasting my goods. Then the steward said within himself, "What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig and I am ashamed to beg." In other words, he said, "I I can't I can't dig. I I can't I can't build my I can't build my own, and I'm ashamed to beg. I don't want to beg him for my job back or or anything." Verse four, he said, it says, "I have resolved what to do. That when I put out that when I'm put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses." So, he said, "I've resolved what to do. When I'm put out of this stewardship, I need the people to receive me into their houses." So watch what he did in verse 5. And this is evil by the way. It says, "So he called every one of his master's debtors." So everyone that borrowed from his master to him. And he said to the first, "How much do you owe my master?" And he said, "Uh, 100 measures of oil." And he said to him, "Take your bill, sit down quickly, and write 50." In other words, I'm going to cut your bill in half. Then he said to another, "And how much do you owe?" And he said, "100 measures a week." And he said to him, "Take your bill and write 80." So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewly or or are or or wickedly but shrewy wisely almost like a serpent. And then here's Jesus. He said, "For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light." Which means the sinners, they're smarter than the Christians. This is what Jesus is saying. Verse 9. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mamine, that when you fail, they may receive you into everlasting home. He who is faithful in what is least is also faithful in much. And he who is unjust in what is least is also unjust in much. Therefore, if you have if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who would commit to you and trust trust to you true riches? And if you have not been faithful on what's another's what's another's man's, who would give you what is your own?
Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Okay, let me break this down and I'm going to kind of give you some insight um into what this verse means because it's so powerful. Um here's what Jesus is saying. There was this steward and this steward wasn't just any kind of steward. This steward was a unjust steward. He was he was a sinful man. He was shrewd. Jesus is not condoning his sin. Don't don't don't go manipulating and cunning. Jesus isn't saying that. Don't miss the principle. But Jesus is saying that this man when he was about to get fired, he leveraged his final moments. And before he got fired, in his final moments, HE WAS LIKE, "SINCE I'M GOING TO GET fired and I have the account of all of all of my masters, I have the account of all of his records and he wants me to come and bring a report." He gathered all of the people that owed debt and he said, "Hey, your debt, I'm gonna cut it in half. You owe 100 grand, it's 50 grand. Okay, you you you own 100, okay, it's 80." And he cut as many people's debt in half or cut it down by 20% to everybody that owed his master. Now, why did he do this? Here's why he done it. He done it because he was going to get fired. He couldn't start a company, and he couldn't provide on his own. So he said, "I'm going to leverage my master's money with people because I'm about to leave and now these people are going to have to help me out. They're going to owe me, hey, I cut a h 100red grand off of your bill. I need somewhere to sleep. I need to stay in one of your apartments. I need to drive one of your cars. I need somewhere to go." So he leveraged quickly. He thought quickly in the moment of him getting fired. He thought about his future. and he thought quickly and even though it was ungodly and unjust, he was able to leverage what wasn't his so he can get a personal gain. And Jesus said he dealt shrewly. Jesus did not and Jesus didn't you Jesus says truly because it was ungodly. It wasn't right. It wasn't good. But Jesus was showing you the mentality of the world. Yes, they steal. Yes, they cheat. Yes, they're twisted and stuff like that. But you want to know what the church do? We come and we pray and we trust God and we stay broke. My god. That's what we doing. We we WE'RE WAITING ON GOD AND then sometimes it just feels like God never comes and God is saying I'm not not blessing you because I don't want to bless you but because you're a fool. You you don't think wisely and there's a way to be wise and godly in character and integrity at the same time. You don't do what that unjust steward did. But Jesus is saying look at his mentality. If you would have got fired you would have been crying. I just lost my job. He was spotting for his future. And Jesus was saying this. Jesus was showing you a deeper analogy because here's what Jesus was saying. This man cut their debts. He rescued them and he freed them with what wasn't his. So when he was in need, he can go to their home. And Jesus said this. He said unrighteous mamine is for making friends. Jesus is saying the purpose of you having money is to make friends. What is Jesus talking about? He's saying that when you serve people, you water people, you help people, when you give to the kingdom of God, you're going to make friends. And he said, "And when you make these friends, what's going to happen?" And he said, the Bible says when you fail, they'll they'll welcome you into eternal home. What was the Bible saying? The Bible was saying when that word said fail in the Greek, it meant die. It said when you die, you're going to get to heaven and there's going to BE A CROWD OF PEOPLE WELCOMING YOU INTO AN ETERNAL home because YOU USE YOUR MONEY to feed them. You use THEIR MONEY TO CLOTHE THEM. YOU USE YOUR MONEY TO BLESS THEM. He said, you use your money to water them. There is people that's in this room because of what someone else gave. And he said, "Because you use your money wisely in heaven, what you spent, even if you didn't know you led someone to Jesus, the money, the giving, the tithes that you gave, the people that was saved as a result of that, they're going to welcome you into an ETERNAL HOME." AND WHAT JESUS IS saying to you is this. YOU DON'T HAVE NO MONEY. IT'S MINE. YEAH. THE BIBLE SAYS THE EARTH AND THE FULLNESS THEREOF IS THE LORD'S. SO JESUS IS SAYING JUST LIKE THAT UNJUST STEWARD. YOU'RE JUST LIKE HIM. YOU DON'T HAVE ANYTHING. And every last one of you guys that think you have money, wait till you die. You will find out. Because your family will be fighting over what was left of you. THEY'LL BE SO BUSY DIVIDING YOUR SPOILS that they'll forget to grieve your name. Jesus, who gets the house? Who gets the car? Who gets this bank? Who gets that? They they THEY'RE GOING TO CASH LOTS WITH YOUR MATERIALS WHEN YOU DIE. You don't have no money. And you can't take anything out of this earth. That bank account YOU BUILT, YOU'RE GOING TO DIE and it's going to stay. That house you bought, you're going to die. It's going to stay. THAT CAR YOU BOUGHT, YOU'RE GOING TO DIE. IT'S GOING TO STAY. everything you think you have. The Bible says the earth AND THE FULLNESS THEREOF IS THE LORD. DO YOU KNOW you can't even take a penny with you to eternity? Do you know that you can't even take a piece OF YOUR HAIR WITH YOU to eternity? YOU CAN'T EVEN TAKE YOUR BODY WITH YOU TO ETERNITY. And every person that's ever came into this world leaves with nothing BECAUSE IT'S GOD DECLARING IT IS MINE. SO SINCE WE ESTABLISHED IT'S GOD'S, THEN WHY ARE you so stingy with it? SEE THE UNJUST STEWARD, HE WASN'T STINGY CUZ IT WASN'T HIS. AND HE SAID, "I'M GOING TO USE WHAT BELONGS TO MY MASTER TO GAIN FAVOR WITH OTHERS. THIS IS WHY YOU'RE GENEROUS. IT'S NOT YOUR MONEY. THIS IS WHY YOU GIVE TO THE KINGDOM OF GOD. IT'S NOT YOUR MONEY. THIS IS WHY YOU WATER OTHERS. It's not yours. BUT IF YOU GAVE TO PEOPLE WHEN YOU go to heaven, you get to lease what's God's and you get to REAP A RETURN ON WHAT'S GOD'S IN HEAVEN. NOW I'M IN HEAVEN AND I'M IN ETERNAL MANSIONS. SOME OF YOU GUYS GOING TO BE IN HEAVEN IN NO MANSION. COME ON. CUZ WON'T NOBODY BE THERE TO welcome you because your money saved helped water serve no one. That's good. I've been to plenty funerals and they all got one thing in common. There's never the there's never a U-Haul behind the hearse because you can't take stuff with you. So what you have to do is realize everything I have is God's. And if it's God's, why not leverage this? Why not leverage it? Why not leverage income for kingdom impact? Income is for impact. Why not Why not use money to Why not use money to build kingdom relationships in heaven or even physical relationships on earth? Because guess what? When you feed people, they're going to remember what church fed them. Yeah. And why wouldn't we feed them with money? Well, we're just going to get a nicer PAINT ON OUR WALL. WHY? YEAH. WELL, WE'RE at the end of the day, the wall's going to mess up at some point. I'm not saying we shouldn't invest stuff, but why not earn favor with the community based on what don't belong to us? Anyway, one of our overseers, and he probably listening to this, but I'm gonna share our conversation. up on getting in trouble. But he told me, he said, "You guys give away a little bit too much." And I and I I honor my authority, but I said, "Okay, I want to talk to you about it." And I shared this scripture with him. And he told me, he was like, "I never saw it that way." He said, "You were right. I never saw it that way." Cuz I told him, I said, "Hey, God's going to take care of us." But the reason why God gives you unrighteous mamine is to make friends. We want to make friends with the city of Texter Canaan. We want to make friends with them. When
They're hungry, we want them to think Radiant Church. When they need gas, we want them to think Radiant Church. When they need help, we want them to think Radiant Church. And that's not just me, but that's all of us.
And the money that you gave, when we get to heaven, these people are going to be swinging open matching doors, welcoming us into eternal homes because we leveraged what wasn't ours for others. And Jesus was saying this is wisdom. And he said the unjust, even though he was bad and evil, he got the principle. He realized I'm at my final moments. Let me preserve what's next.
One day you're going to be at your final moments in this life. Are you going to preserve what's next, which is eternity? Because the way you use money now determines you. You know, I'mma preach on this, but do you know there's two judgments? No one talks about it. There's the judgment where your name is written into the book of the lamb. But then there's a second judgment and that judgment is how did you use your resources? You're going to be judged on how you use your income. You're going to be judged and you can give to all kind of things. But the reason why I love giving to the church, I give to other charities, but 90, 80% most of what I give is to the church because I'm not just trying to meet needs. I'm trying to populate heaven.
Come on. Come on. I know when I give to the kingdom of God, there's not just a ROI, there's a K ROI, which is a kingdom return on investment. So when I get to the kingdom of God, I can do something that when I, that I can't do when I give to anything else. I can make what's temporary eternal. Yeah. When I get to the kingdom of God, I actually can take money with me. Come on. Well, how, how, Pastor Ka, you just said you can't take money with you. Yeah, I can take the effects and the impact of the money, though.
The Bible says that if you're not trusted with with earthly mammon, who will trust you with true riches? What is true riches? What is true riches? If Jesus said this, y'all, this isn't me. This is your Bible. This is your Bible. You go back and read it. He said that if you can't be trusted with worldly, earthly mana, you won't be trusted with true riches. Which means if you don't get money right, why would Jesus tie money to true riches? Because this is important. We'll deal with it more in the series, but let's go look at what true riches are. Let's go take a look.
True riches are people, that souls, lives, destinies. So money disappears but it lasts forever in people that go to heaven. It's spiritual authority. Authority in prayer. Authority in leadership. Authority in shifted atmospheres. Authority in casting out devils and demons. Authorities to lead with power and to lead with the Holy Spirit. Authority to shepherd people. Authority to speak in heaven backs it. It releases anointing. Anointing is true riches to break yolks, to heal hearts, to operating gifts, to carry divine power, to preach heaven's breath, to lead with spiritual weight, to open doors no man can shut it. Revelation is true riches, divine insight, wisdom, clarity, vision, prophetic clarity, discernment, wisdom from above, revelation from the scriptures, creativity from heaven, strategies, ideas, God thoughts, not good thoughts. This is revelation. Favor, doors open, opportunities, influence, open doors, relationships, access, divine timing, supernatural positioning, opportunities that money can't buy, eternal rewards, and that's laying up treasure in heaven. There's crowns, there's rewards, there's eternal honor, and there's heaven's responsibility. What you do with earthly money determines your heaven, your heavenly reward. This is the power of using money wisely. Now, before you can get to all this, you got to be able to take care of your house. And we're going to teach you how to do that. But this is the power. This is why God talks about money because it releases so much over your life.
Now, let's go deeper. Let's go deeper. When it comes to money, Satan has a plan to stop you from being generous and to stop you from giving. And here's his plan. Jesus said, "He that is faithful with little will be faithful with much. He that's unjust with little will be unjust with much." What Jesus was saying is this. He was saying, "If you're faithful with a little amount, you'll be faithful with a big amount." He said, "If you're unfaithful with a little amount, you will be unfaithful with a big amount." Why is he emphasizing little? Why is he emphasizing small? Because Satan uses small to insnare you.
Wow. Wow. He ensnares you. See, here's what Satan wants. Satan, you may not know God, but the devil does. And he knows God is a God of principle. And when God created principle, he removed discrimination outside of principles, which means gravity works. If you're a believer or not, you get on the top of this roof, you can speak in tongues, you jump off, you going to splat. Aerodynamics work. You can fly on a plane whether you believe in God or not. Aerodynamics works for the sinner and it works for the saint. He knew God and God created principles. And this is why the sinners get wealth because the principles work even when they don't trust in God.
So Satan knew principles. So he said before God gives them the wealth that's laid up to them, at least at least the ones that supposed to have it. I don't think everyone's supposed to have wealth, but at some point maybe your generation will. You, if you can't manage it, you shouldn't have it. But Satan says what I have to do to establish my kingdom against the children of God is I have to deceive them while they have little. I need to make you a liar when you have little. I need to make you a thief when you have little. I need to make sure you're not a giver when you have little. I need to make sure you're stingy when you have little. I need to make sure you don't tithe when you have little. I need to make sure you don't help nobody when you have little. I need to make sure you're selfish when you have little because if you're like that with little, you'll be like that with much. And if you will be like that with much, God won't bless you.
Wow. So, he uses little to scam the believer to never get to much. So, if you're not faithful with little, guess what God not going to do? He's not going to reward you with much. And this is why you've been broke your whole life. This is why you live paycheck to paycheck. This is why your bills aren't paid. This is why debt is up to your neck is because you keep violating God and wondering why you can't get ahead. And Satan is going to come and he's going to lie to you and he's going to make you fall in love with what you don't even have. How do you love money and you don't even got none? How you obsessed with what you can't acquire? He is deceiving you. He's deceiving you.
So, what you have to do is educate yourself in wisdom about this thing called money. And if you would listen to this series, I, I kid you not, God's revealed things to me in this Bible I've never heard. If you would commit to coming in the next couple of weeks, I assure you, you will get free from the snare of poverty and you will be able to have increase so you can take care of your family and build God's kingdom. Can we give him a shout of praise for that? Okay, I got to be quick because I'm running out of time. I got to be quick. I got to be quick. I got two points to hit. I got to be quick.
1 Timothy 6:9-10 says, "But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lust, which draw men in destructive and preditions. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through the many sorrows." So here's what the Bible is saying. The Bible is saying that if you desire to be rich, maybe some of you guys in here, you're like, man, I desire to be rich. You don't have to lift your hand because you'll probably get judged. So don't, don't lift your hand. You want to be rich? How sinful? How sinful are you? Why would you want that? Some of you guys right in your heart, you're like, I want to be a millionaire. Me, me, I millionaire line, sign me up. Like, and the Bible said if you desire to be rich, it just wants to inform you of something that you're going to fall into temptation and Satan will set a snare for you.
Now, he didn't say you will fall into sin. If he would say you'll fall into sin, that mean you can't do it. He's just saying, "I want you to know that temptation and a snare comes with this." Which means when you have wealth, there's a snare that comes with money. There's a temptation that comes with money. There's lust. Opportunities open up. All of a sudden, people, people like you that wouldn't have liked you. You can have girls you never thought you can have. You can have access. You can have opportunities. You can pay to play. Doors start swinging. Doors you didn't even know exist. Like that door, that's a door. I didn't even know that was a door. Stuff start opening up. People start targeting you, all kind of crazy things starts being unleashed. There's a temptation, there's a lust, there's a snare. And Jesus is just saying right here through the men of God, you might not want no beef with this. You might not want no smoke with this. You may not want no parts of this because it comes with a temptation and a snare. Which means if you ain't locked in God, if you're not righteous, the wealth of the sinner is laid up for who? The righteous. If you're not righteous, you better run for money.
Come on. Cuz some of you guys are alive because you can't, you don't have enough money to get yourself killed. And it's just the real. It's a snare. It's a lust. It's temptation. And many probably should just stay away from it. You probably should kill that desire. Jesus. Because if you're going to do it, you have to fully do it God's way or you want to run far away from it. And it said for the love of money is the root of all evil. I didn't say money, the love of money. It means that that when you see most evil in this world, it is rooted, which means it is sourced. It is planted in loving money. Not money, but loving it. Money is not the root of all evil. Money can be a tool to build God's kingdom. It's the love of money. Which means if you want to have great resources, step one, you got to fall out of love with it. You can't love money. You can't. My wife is a witness. We first got together, kind of loved money a little bit, be honest. And I became ridiculously generous cuz I had to fall out of love for money. Everywhere we would go, I paid for every meal. She's like, "Why do you do that?" I'm like, "Cuz I love this and I got to not love it." I would give it away. I would, I would go in grocery stores and I would buy our meals and everyone behind us and she's looking like, "Why are you doing this?" I'm like, "Cuz I still love it. I have to kill my devotion and my affection and my love for it and it keeps creeping back up and I give and I give and it and it keeps resurrecting and I can't love it because loving this can make me evil." Loving money is what makes you manipulate your church. Loving money is what makes you cheat your taxes. Loving money is what makes you immoral. You can't love it.
And the only cure to greed is generosity. So I give it and I give it and I give it because I don't love it. And I have to master it before it masters me. And I have to take authority over it before it takes authority over me. And the more of it you get, you get comfortable. You look at your accounts and you feel safe and you feel secured and you look at your investments and and you feel like you're okay. And God says, "I only am your." Only I'm the provider. I need you to know money will always make a promise that it cannot keep. Only God is a promise keeper. Can we give him a shout of praise?
So it says all types of evils. All types of evils. All types of evils. All types of evils is rooted, is rooted, is sourced. Drugs exist because of money. Alcoholism exists because of money. Pornography exists because of money. Most wars are here because of money. It is a snare.
Can I get my people on stage? Get my people on stage. Let me see. I need three people. There we go. Real quick. Okay, you guys can stand right here. I'mma read a scripture as you, you come up. You come up with all this stuff. Come. I'm read the scripture. Matthew 19:24 says, "And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." My question for you is this. If it's easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than a rich man enter the kingdom of heaven, why do you want riches? If it's harder for a camel to get through the eye of a needle, why would you want to be rich? Wealth makes it that much harder to get into the kingdom of heaven. I'm going to show you something. Can you guys face me here? Come this way. All right. Turn around now. Spin around. All right. I need you guys lock hands right here. Come closer. About right there. A little bit closer. Okay. In biblical times, an eye of a needle was a gate. And it was a gate that you would have to go through and you would have a camel. It was a really tight gate. And you would have a camel. And the camel would be packed down and you would try to go through the gate with this camel, but it has all this luggage, all this baggage, and your camel is packed down. And when Jesus was saying it's harder for a rich man to get to the king, harder for a camel to go through the eye of an eel than a rich man to get into the kingdom of God, it wasn't talking about a physical needle, that's not even possible. Jesus would be saying that a camel going into the eye of a needle, a real needle, a needle that you sew with, is is literally impossible. That would be Jesus saying you can't go to heaven if you're rich. He has Joseph of Arythea who paid for his grave site. He was rich. You can be rich and go to heaven. But he's just saying it's hard, but it is possible. So this is the eye of a needle. It's a gate. And people would travel with their camels and they would get to the eye of the needle and they would try to get through. But this would happen. They couldn't get through because it was too tight. They couldn't fit because the camel was packed down and they couldn't get through the eye of a needle.
And what was Jesus trying to tell him in this story? He was saying that what would have to happen is all of a sudden, what would have to happen is when they got to the eye of the needle, they would have to literally get unpacked. Everything would get unpacked and then they would have to now go through the eye of the needle unpacked. And then when they got through the eye of the needle, Jesus would now come pack everything back onto them that they unpacked. And this is what many of you guys look like. Jesus is saying before you come into the kingdom of God, I have to unpack you. And when you get inside of the kingdom, I will pack you back up. I will resource you back. I will water you again, but I have to unpack you. And now I have to pack you back up my way. You was packed up your way, but now you got to be packed up my way. Oh, come on. Give them a hand clap. Come on.
So Jesus is saying to enter the kingdom of heaven, you got to unpack what you trust. The, the, the trust in money, the trust in provision, all that. You have to unpack. And then also you have to kneel. The, the, the eye of the needle was short. You have to, you have to crouch down to get through the eye of the needle. Why? You got to humble yourself to get inside of the kingdom of God. Don't matter how much money or wealth you got, you got to be humble to get into the kingdom of God. And then when you enter, God will pack you back up his way.
Now, I want to show you this in real time. Matthew 19:20-21. Now, I get ready to close this. My band get ready to come up. It says the young man said to him, he's talking to Jesus. This is a rich young ruler. All these things I have kept from my youth. So he said, I kept all the commandments from my youth. He said, what do I still lack? Jesus said to him, if you want to be perfect, go sell what you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come and follow me. In other words, Jesus said, unpack at the gate. Yeah. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. He went away sorrowful. And then you know the Bible also says God makes one rich and he adds no sorrow. When you get unpacked and you come in God's way, he'll make you rich again, but he won't add no sorrow. The young man left sorrowful because wealth has sorrow when it's not from the kingdom of God. He left because of sorrow. But God says when I add wealth to you, you would have no sorrow.
So right here, this man was at the eye of a needle. He was asked to unpack everything and give it to the poor. And guess what he tried? He couldn't get through the gate. So he left sorrowful and he went to take another path. But there's only one way to the Father. And that way is through Jesus. And that way is through the gate. The Bible says narrow is the way. Few go there. Narrow is the way. So this man didn't make it through the auto needle.
Now I want to show you something and most preachers miss this. Most people, preachers miss this and it always aggravated me a little bit when I hear him preach it. They say the rich young ruler was a good man and he kept all the commandments since he was a youth. He only struggled with money. Boy, money is powerful. And I would say read the scripture closer because if you read the scripture closer, you will see the rich young ruler was a young liar. He was a liar. He didn't keep all the commandments from his youth. How do I know? It's because he was an idolater. Wow. He, he worshiped false idols. He was a worshiper of mammon. If you kept the commandments, you would be able to unpack at the gate. He didn't keep the commandments. He was a liar. He was a thief. He broke many commandments. Why? Because the love of money, which he clearly had, is the root of all kind of evils. You can't love money so much that you walk away from God and claim to not have evil.
Jesus didn't argue with him because Jesus never argued. Jesus just gave you an example of your foolishness. Jesus was saying, "Okay, if you kept the commandments and you truly done all this, you should be able to give all you have to the poor." Absolutely. Because you're, you, you're honoring God. You're taking the Sabbath. You're not a thief. You, your heart is intact now. You should be able to give all you have to the poor, but you couldn't do it. You left away sorrowful because you really broke all the commandments and you lied about it. You're a liar and you're a thief. And that's why he couldn't do it. He didn't keep the commandments since he was a boy. First of all, outside of Jesus, who has kept commandments since there was a boy? Not I. Have you? Come on. Only Jesus could keep the commandment and the law perfectly. He was a liar. Yeah. And it was exposed at the eye of the needle.
And I want to tell you, just like Jesus told him, if you love money, you won't make it through the eye of the needle. Jesus, you can have it. You can master it, but you cannot be mastered by it. And you cannot love it. Can we give God a shout of praise? Wow, what a powerful message. We hope that it blessed you. Make sure to share this message with your friends, your family, and even your co-workers so that they'll be blessed as well. Also, if you like to partner with us to give and invest in what we're doing here at Radiant Church, the giving link is provided below. Thank you for tuning in with us today.