Transcription
Let me start a little differently today, Pastor. Come give me a hand down these steps, will you? I do 13 steps several times a day up to my office, but I don't do it when a bunch of people are watching, so I take a little help. But to get started today, let me move maybe right out here. Let me find the right place. There's a seat right there. Can I sit right there by you? Amen. Amen. Amen. Okay. Well, at least I'll be safe with this big guy watching for me. My, look how nice it is where you sit. You know, I sat here for many a year, just right where you're sitting, in church. I got to be a tither, and uh, things started getting straight in my life. I got my bills were getting paid, and family life was good, and the kids were behaving themselves.
You might say, "Well, what are you doing out here?" Well, I saw a scripture one time that describes it in Ezekiel 3:14 and 15. It says, "So the spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of the Lord was strong upon me. Then I came to the captivity of Tilibab that dwell by the river Chebar, and I sat where they sat, and I was astonished." You know, I sat right here for a number of years, and all the things I was promised were coming to pass. But the one thing that was not coming to pass was how could I get to where I had exceedingly abundantly above all I could ask or think—not just enough, but more than enough. When I had enough, I couldn't feed children like I do now. Sister Pat and I, we feed 250 children breakfast every morning in Managua, Nicaragua. But we couldn't do that until we learned how to move the hand of God in our finances. And I want to share with you today when I learned this. Now truthfully, I say to you, I'm 83, but when I was 70, I had put aside already enough for my children to have an inheritance and my children's children. I'm not a college graduate of secular colleges. I started out as a bricklayer. Well, you start as a bricklayer, you start mixing mortar and carrying brick, you know that. And so I was a laborer, but God moved. Many years I lived in just barely enough. Then all of a sudden I learned something, and when I learned this, I went to exceedingly abundantly above all I could ask or think, and I want to share that with you today. Okay. Thank you for letting me sit with you. And someone help me back up on the platform. Amen. Did I get on your toe, Sugar? Thank you, Pastor.
Well, I don't know how to more graphically explain what happened to me down there in Largo, Florida, in First Baptist Church, Largo, Florida. I'm going to speak to you today on a subject that, if you listen closely, your finances will never be the same again. Never be the same again. I want to talk to you, beginning with just information about our God. He owns everything. Psalms 50:10 through 12. It says, "For even the beasts of the forests are mine, the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains, and the wild beasts of the field are mine." And then the 12th verse says, "If I was hungry, I wouldn't tell you, for the world is mine and the fullness thereof." Then you go a little bit further, he says in Haggai 2:8, "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts." You establish wealth. God is wealthy. And in Psalms 24, he says, "The earth is mine, and the fullness thereof, and all they that dwell therein."
Let me give you a proposition. Let's say that I asked you to sell a cow. And I asked you to sell a cow to God. Okay, now you have your cow, and you're going to God. But I'll give you a little hint before you get there: he's not a motivated buyer. He owns cattle on a thousand hills. So now you're trying to sell him this cow, and uh, oh, by the way, the cow also belongs to him that you're trying to sell. Now here's what we're finding from that: it's a little humorous, but God owns everything. There is nothing that he doesn't have. So it's impossible for God to set value. You understand what I mean? Value is set by shortage. Value is not set by abundance; it's set by shortage. And so we find that strange as it may seem, God, he doesn't—he couldn't tell you the value of this thing right here. He couldn't tell you the value of this. But in a moment, I'll show you how he does tell value. Look a little bit further with me, and you'll find that God thinks different than we do. He thinks different. Isaiah 55:8 and 9 says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways; for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."
Well, think just a minute with me. How would God establish value in a very familiar verse of scripture? If you turn with me, Mark 12:41-44, the woman with the little two mites that brings forth two mites in the offering. Now many people think—I've had people say to me, "No, Brother John, offering's going to be a little short today. It's going to just be two mites is all we have today." I said, "Well, if you give two mites, you'll give more than anyone in the room," because the two mites was all the woman had. She gave everything. So be careful with two mites, because two mites is a very big number. But anyway, the scripture says, "And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people gave money into the treasury." That word "how" is interrogative. He does an interrogation. He goes into the root feeling in the person's heart on what that offering means to them. And he goes on, and he says he saw how the people—not how much—but how the people gave money into the treasury. And many of the rich gave much. Very valuable, very valuable things were moving. Money is valuable. One penny has a value. But then he goes on, and he says, "And there came a certain woman with two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, this poor widow hath cast in more than all they which have cast into the treasury: for all they did cast in of their abundance; of their surplus; of their discretionary funds; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living." Now watch with me, please. Any money is valuable. Everything that was given was valuable. The rich people's offering was very valuable, but it was surplus. It says they gave out of their abundance, and that word actually means over their overflow—that which was more than what they had need for. But this woman, when she gave, she gave at the core of her life. She gave all her living. Now here's how God determines the value of an offering: God feels about your offering the way you feel about it. God evaluates your offering by the value you put on your offering. If your offering is insignificant to you, it will be insignificant to him. If it is valuable to you, it will be valuable to him. But then there's another dimension: precious. And when something becomes precious, God's hand immediately moves. And I don't say that because it's a nice thing to say; I can show it to you from one end of the Bible to the other. Every time the precious moves, God's hand moves. And I came out of those seats into the abundance that I have today, travel the earth, anything that my heart desires. Two domiciles I have now, dwelling places in two different parts of the United States, everything paid for cash. My cars are paid for cash. Most of them have come to me as a gift in the last few years. People give me—just the other day, a new Cadillac CT6 was driven to my house and given to me. How did that happen? Is it because I'm so good-looking? No, it's not that. Is it because I'm a dynamic speaker? I'm not a real dynamic speaker, but I do bring the truth very rapidly and powerfully, line upon line, principle upon principle. And also we've written 52 books. But you say, "Oh, your royalties…" No, I took all my copyrights off the books almost 20 years ago and gave them all away. Anybody can do anything they want with them. The Apostle Paul didn't have a copyright on his book. So God convicted me, and I took the copyright off my books. But what I'm saying to you is this: that that woman, she set the value of that offering. God determined it was the highest and the best offering, not because it was more money, not because it was of a greater—of a greater value—gold and over silver or something like that, but it was her evaluation. It was precious to her, and it immediately became precious to God. And if your offering is precious to God, the hand of God will move.
Now the Bible tells of a massive famine where only one widow was helped. It's in Luke 4, and when you get to 4:25 and 26… But of a truth I tell you… Luke 4:25, 26 amplified on this one… But I tell you… but… but I tell you… but in… excuse me… but in truth I tell you there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the heavens were closed up for three years and six months, so that there came now a great famine over all the land; and yet Elijah was not sent to any single one of them, but only to Zarephath, a city of Sidon, to a woman that was a widow. Here's a widow woman; she's a Gentile woman. All of the Jewish women were passed over. All the Jewish widows were passed over in that famine, but there's one out there that she was given a direct order to see about the man of God. Now I want you to notice: she's in famine; she has nothing almost left; but she's been commanded to see to it that the prophet is taken care of during this time. Child of God, I want you to understand: when God puts something on your heart, do not look in your pocket and see if you have the finances to do what he wants you to do. Begin to move towards what he wants you to do. He can put finances in your pocket at any given moment, any place you follow. I mean, and let me say this: if you think there's a shortage, there will be a shortage. But the truth is, there's almost more money in the world than there is anything else. If all the money in this state fell on this building, there'd be three days digging us out from under it. There is a glut of money. By the way, too, for every hundred-dollar bill that's—for every one-dollar bill that's printed, 70 hundreds are printed. If you're after the ones, you're after the ones that are in shortage. There's a shortage of ones. Drop the ones; start getting your mind on the hundreds. There's a plethora of them. Are you grasping a little what I'm saying to you? All right. In 1 Kings 17:8, we come on the scene, and the eighth verse… and the word of the Lord came unto him, saying (speaking of Elijah), "Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongs to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a woman there to sustain thee." So he rose, and he went to Zarephath. And when he gets there, the last part of that verse, he says, "Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink it." Now watch: the most valuable thing in the land that day was water, and he asked for the water. And the woman, she doesn't say a word; she brings him water. You can't say the woman's not a giver. A woman's a giver; she will release the valuable. But then he says something differently. And as the 11th verse… and as she was going to fetch it, he called her and said, "Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand." And she said, "As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering a little stick, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die." She had a dying son at the house. Now then we're going to see the difference between a bottle of valuable water and a dying son's last meal. This came into the realm of precious, and she moves the precious. But Elijah had to help her. And Elijah said, "Fear not…" Let me say this: be very careful not to kick against the pricks when you hear about finances, because the Bible—even Jesus—he said, "Go to the river, and you will catch a fish; and when thou hast opened his mouth, the coin does not automatically come out." Jesus said, "You will have to teach the fish how to open their mouth so that they can cough up the coin that God has placed there for preaching the gospel." Is that… is that too tough to hear? Thank God for your ministry. Thank God for your ministry, Sister Rhonda. There's a Bible character that was sent specifically to do what you do every morning. You might… I'll share it with you; maybe you can share it with the people sometime. But anyway, "Fear not." Here now, he has to help this lady because her tendency is going to be, "Look, I'll give you the water, son, but this is my son's last meal; I'm not going to be able to give it to you. It's precious." "Go, and do thou as I have said, and make thereof a cake first, and bring it unto me; and after make for thee and for thy son: for thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth." She went and did according to the saying of Elijah; and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days. And the barrel wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sent rain upon the earth. You see, this woman, she's got water; yes, she loves the Lord; she's a giver; she has water. But then there's something precious. Oh, no, look! He says, "No, come on, release it. No, no, no, don't give me what's left of it. Make first for me a piece of it, and then you and your son." And then she… the son ate all the time, and she was able to keep the command that God had given her. I want to say to you that when the precious moves, God's hand moves.
There's a woman called Hannah, gave her precious son. Her husband was Elkanah. And in the second verse of 1 Kings 1… 1 Samuel 1… and he had two wives. This Hannah had two wives. The name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other was Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children. But Hannah… Elkanah gave a very large portion to her; he favored her very much, but her womb was still closed. The tenth verse we come… and she… and she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore. And she vowed a vow, and said, "O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head." This woman, now, in years and years without a child—children in the house from another wife—her breasts ached for a child. And finally she says, "Lord, the most precious thing I could have is a child, but I don't have it. Give me the child, and I'll give him to you." Listen, sometimes we just have to make a promise; sometimes we have to make a vow and say, "Lord, I can't make this offering what I really want it to be in my present circumstances. I have to make a vow, and when I get it in my hand, I'll put it into the kingdom of God." And then people have asked me, said, "Do you think God… is it hard for God to put it in their hand?" No, I'll tell you what the hard part is: the hard part is after God puts it in people's hands that make a pledge to go ahead and release it into the kingdom of God. You have to be real careful when you start feeling the finance in your hand that then you can't release it. But this woman, she says, "You can have my son." And so the Bible goes on and tells us that Hannah has the baby, she brings him—his name is Samuel—and the Bible says seven other sons and daughters were born to her after she had given that child. When the precious moves, the hand of God moves. Hannah had been to that same meeting they went to for year after year after year after year. Nothing happened. But she knelt down there one day and gave the precious, and when she gave the precious, God's hand moved in the next few days. Does anybody understand what I'm saying to you? Well, you know Jews had great protocol. Jews had great protocol. One of the protocols of the Jews was that a Jew does not go in the house of a Gentile. Does not go in the house of a Gentile. But here's a circumstance that took place when Jewish protocol was broken with a precious offering. When you look in Luke 7:2-6… a certain centurion's servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die. And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus… when these elders of the Jews, they besought him instantly, saying—now watch this—they didn't beat around the bush; they instantly said that he was worthy for whom thou shouldst do this, for he loved our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue. And the sixth verse opens with a very strange thing, breaking Jewish protocol. It says, "Then Jesus went with him." Child of God, hear me: when the hand of… when the precious moves, the hand of God moves. Now you have to be real careful. You have to be real careful about Bible times. You know what I'm talking about—Bible times. You got to understand that they run all the way into today. This is still Bible times. We get this thing about Bible times… uh… listen, Bible times are still going on right now. These things that are happening right here are still happening all over the world, every place here, there, another place. I just heard testimonies of thousands of dollars changing hands in just a few minutes. Thousands changed hands just as the precious moved out of one hand into the other. I heard it while I was inside this building here this morning. I hear it everywhere I go, because when I'm around people, they start talking to me about the victories they have in finance—automobiles that come, businesses that come, houses that are paid off, illnesses that are cured. When the precious moves, the hand of God always moves. Go a little further. Let's look at another case. A precious offering brings the Apostle Peter to minister at the Gentile's house. The first Gentile… the first Gentile to hear the gospel. Acts 10:1-5… There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the… called the… of the band called the Italian band, a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always. He saw in a vision, about the ninth hour of the day, an angel of God coming unto him, and saying unto him, "Cornelius." And when he looked on him, and said, "What is it, Lord?" The angel said unto him, "Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. Now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon Peter, whose surname is Peter." Are you grasping what you just heard? You're just hearing about a Gentile. How did God pick the first Gentile? You're Gentiles. How did he pick the first Gentile to receive the gospel? Did he do paper, rock, scissors? How did he decide the first Gentile? No, it had to do with the precious, because it was a man that was giving continuously and flowing and into giving to people that had needs in their life. And as you come… all of a sudden it comes to a head. And what has been happening with all that money? Is it just been going down the tube? No, it's been building a memorial in heaven before God. And when God had to pick the first Gentile, it wasn't somebody with high office just be—just because they had the high office. But here's a man with authority that received the gospel of Jesus Christ. Him and his whole house were saved that day. And when… let me tell you, when the precious moves, the hand of God always moves. Are we… are we learning? The precious gift can memorialize… can immortalize an offering. Mark 14:3-9… And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head. And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, "Why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor." And they murmured against her. Jesus said… Jesus said, "Let her alone; why trouble ye her? She hath wrought a good work on me. For you have the poor with you always…" This eighth verse… yes, she has… she has done what she could; she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying. Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her." Child of God, the theologians believed that was her dowry; that was her opportunity to have a proper marriage, but she took and she put that into the hands of the Lord. She put it on, and she expended it on the Lord. This precious ointment—it said precious ointment, not just precious in its quality, but precious for what it was able to accomplish for her. And she said, "I will put the picking of a husband in the hands of the Lord," over and above a box of spikenard ointment. And the hand of God moved when the precious moved. And now today, everybody knows about that woman. There's nowhere where the gospel is preached that woman is not known. Are you beginning to get a little glimpse of what I'm trying to say?
Now here's a hard saying. Here's a hard saying: God was a killer of mankind till he gave his most precious Son for mankind. I mean, you want to read about slaughter? You read about an Old Testament God when he got angry. I mean, a thousand would fall here, 2,000 there; the whole city had to be killed, cattle, everything had to be slaughtered—scorched earth. He was an angry God. But something happened. Something wonderful happened in Romans 5:6-11… For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. The killer God… the killer God… and I'm telling you, if you don't know him to be a killer, you've not read the Old Testament. But in the Old Testament, something takes place when Jesus comes. Now let me give you some information about God—Jesus, the Son, and the Word. Many people say that Jesus is eternal. Jesus is not eternal. The Father is eternal; the Spirit is eternal; and the Word is eternal. And the Word became flesh. And when the Word became flesh… eternal Father with no Son… can you imagine an eternity with a heart for a Son and no Son? You have the Word; you have the Spirit; you're not alone—Word and Spirit—but now, finally, a Son is born. And 33 years later… at 33 years later, that precious Son that God had waited the eons of the ages to have, he gave him. He gave the precious. And child of God, let me say this: when God gave the precious, every time a hand is raised, every time a person makes a thought towards coming to Jesus Christ, immediately angels come down out of heaven, and they begin to surround that person, and the Holy Ghost comes upon them, and they're ushered into a relationship—not now as just saved, but sons and daughters, joint heirs with Jesus Christ. And no one since the Cross can say that God has laid a hand on anyone because he… they appeased for all the sins of the world—even the fools that don't get saved, their sins were paid for; they just didn't pick up the check. Are you understanding what I'm saying to you? When the precious moves, even God is changed. Oh, child of God, there's something about when the precious moves that just shakes everything.