Transcription
Welcome, YouTube family. My name is Joanna, and thank you for tuning in today. If you haven't already, please subscribe to our YouTube to stay up to date each week. We believe God has a powerful word for you today, so let's dive into this amazing message.
So last week, we had a message, um, over prayer. Really powerful message, really heavy, heavy message. If you weren't here last week, or maybe this is your first time, go back and listen to that sermon. Really heavy, really powerful. But I think it's a very instrumental message just in this season, just to understand the power of prayer, how it works, why prayers aren't answered, and how to get your prayers answered every single time. So, it's a little deep, it's a little heavy.
So today, I'm going to preach something a little lighter. And today, I'm talking about five ways to level up. Five ways to level up. And what does it mean to level up? It just means to go to the next level. Five ways to go to the next level. Because as believers, the Lord wants you to live an amazing spiritual life. That's foundation. That's His priority. Everything starts there. But He also wants you to live a peaceful life. He wants you to live a balanced life. You're you're to live well.
And one of the things that I feel that causes people to live unwell is going on one of the two extremes. What do you mean by that? Some people are so Heavenly minded, they're no earthly good. And some people are so Earthly minded, they're no Heavenly good. Which means that if you live on earth like there is no Heaven, you will live a foolish, broken, uh, incomplete, unsatisfied, discombobulated life. If you live so Heavenly like there is no Earth, then you would neglect the stewardship of everything God entrusted you with. In other words, God doesn't want you just praying all day. If you got kids, He wants you to actually raise them, have fun with them, develop them. Yes, He wants you praying. Yes, He wants you leading them in God. But God's okay if you had a good time and if you had a good day. Amen. Amen. Amen.
So, five ways to level up. Uh, the first one is, if you're taking notes, grow spiritually. Everyone say, "Grow." Grow spiritually. Spiritually, grow. Grow spiritually. Spiritually. Uh, my verse is James 4, verse 8. It says, "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you." If you're going to level up, the first area you have to level up is, level up in is in the spirit. You have to grow spiritually. My question is, are you growing spiritually? Now, you may ask the question, what does that even look like when you're growing spiritually? What's actually growing when you grow spiritually? I'll tell you what's actually growing: the thing that's actually growing is your faith. Do you have more faith today than you had yesterday? Do you have more faith this year than you had last year? Do you have more faith now than you had five years ago? Are you growing spiritually? To grow spiritually means your trust, your belief, and your faith in God grows. It expands. It stretches out. Are you growing spiritually?
I want you to know, it doesn't matter what you accomplish in this life. You can get all the money, you can have the best job, you can have all, all the worldly riches. But if you're not growing spiritually, you will live empty, depleted, and dehydrated. Are you growing spiritually? And the first step to spiritual growth is drawing near to God. The Bible says, "If you draw near to God, He'll draw near to you." If you press after, He will press after you. If you pursue God, God will pursue you. And so many times in life, we pursue everything but God. But God is the one thing that we was created to pursue. You was created for the presence. You was created for God's presence. Do you know that? That that the presence of God is your source. And as a human, you have multiple layers of you. You have a physical aspect, and yes, you have to feed your body and take care of your body. But also, there's a spiritual layer to you. And if that layer, layer to, if that layer of you is not properly taken care of, you will not be all God has called you to be.
It's almost like you're trying to take care of your skin. And many people, when they try to take care of their skin, they focus on the skin. And all they do is focus on what they put on their face, what products they use to take care of their skin. I would say that it's what you put in your body that determines what your body looks like. What you drink is more important to your skin than the kind of lotion or moisturizer you put on your face. Why? Because we live from the inside out. And it's the same way spiritually. You live from the inside out. It's what you put in your spirit that determines your life, your healthiness, your happiness. You have to grow spiritually. And that's drawn near to God.
So, my question is, do you even spend time with God? Do you spend time with God? Because many times, we're trying to be like Jesus. But how can I be like Jesus when I don't even read Jesus? Do you read your Bible? Do you know most Christians don't read their Bible every day? And yet, we sleep every day. What sleep is to the body, the presence of the Lord is to the spirit. You don't read your Bible every day, but you eat every day. And I'm not trying to be religious, but what food is to the body, God is to the spirit. If you're not regularly spending time with God, you won't grow spiritually.
Many people say, "I struggle hearing the voice of God." Well, of course, if you don't read the word of God. Because before you can hear His voice, you have to first know His word. The Bible is a powerful book. And the Bible is different than any other book because it's the only book when you read it, it reads you. It'll read you and tell you everything about you, everything that's been hurt, wounded, and broken. And it will tell you how to put yourself back together again. You have to read your word. You have to spend time with God. You have to spend time in prayer. You have to hear from God.
Do you know that many Christians live their life and they can't hear God? Oh, that's a scary life. Do you know that there's entrepreneurs that run companies and can't hear from God? Oh, that's scary. Because God should be your competitive advantage. God should be what separates you. He should be what differentiates you. When I'm lost and I have some of the biggest problems, I go to God. And I, and I, and I, and I get my notebook and I get a pen, and I turn on worship, and I spend time with God. And all of a sudden, God starts speaking to me and giving me strategy and direction. And when God makes your plan, it will succeed.
So, I just want to encourage you, spend time with God. Spend time with Him. And, and what does that look like? I'll tell you what it looks like. Many people say, "Pastor KJ, I don't know how to hear from God." And I'm going to say, "Yes, I understand. But have you made a prior, have you made it a priority to hear from God?" And they're like, "How do I prioritize?" He hearing from God. Before you can hear from God, there are certain things that have to be in place. Have you ever set an appointment with God? We don't even set appointments with God. You, we set appointments with everyone else. We set meetings, dinner plans, hangout plans. We never set appointments with God. You should go, go, and say, "God, I'm setting an appointment with You." What does the appointment require? It requires a place and it requires a time. God, I'm going to decide, hey, at this place, it could be Starbucks, it could be your car, it could be the breakroom of your job. It can be in the morning, it could be at night, it could be in the evening. You set up a place and you set a time to spend time with God. You know what? 5:00 p.m. when everyone's out the house, from 5:00 to 6:00, I'm setting an appointment. I'm spending time with God. I'm leaving my phone in the other room. I'm bringing the notebook, and I'm bringing a worship song, and I'm going to spend time with God. And I'm going to pray, and I'm going to write out my prayers. And as you start writing them out, guess what? God starts speaking to you through your spirit, through your conscience. All of a sudden, you start knowing things.
See, the reason why you think you can't hear from God is because you aren't used to hearing in spirit. You aren't used to hearing in spirit. I want to show you that there's different dimensions of hearing. Um, if you walk inside of a room, and you're like, "I feel like someone's been talking in here." You didn't hear nobody say nothing. What you, what happened was, there was a, there was a vibration that was coming off of what they said. And when you walk in, your emotions caught the vibe, and you was able to hear something you couldn't hear. Why? Because you was hearing in the emotional realm. There's a deeper realm called the spiritual realm. And when you spend time within the presence of God, all of a sudden, you walk out of His presence knowing things, sensing things. There's an awakening inside of you. There's a quickening inside of you.
So, when I, I hear from God, I'm not hearing, "This is my son, in whom I'm well pleased." No. All of a sudden, I'm walking in the prayer room, and I'm confused about something. And all of a sudden, what was so blurry and confusing starts to crystallize and gets, and it starts to clarify and gets clear. And all of a sudden, I went from, "I don't know what to do," to, "I think I need to do this." Why? Because God just spoke to my spirit. And now I'm picking up on what He said. And now He's giving me confidence and clarity. And now I'm ready to walk into what He said. And then, over the course of life, there's a consistency, and there's an accuracy, and then there's a lining up with the word of God that goes into this process.
So, in order to know God's voice, it takes time. Hearing God's voice. And over the cumulative time of hearing God's voice, you begin to discern His voice. When you first met your spouse, and the first time you heard their voice when they walked away from you, you wouldn't have been able to distinguish their voice over a thousand voices. But after years of spending time with that person, after years of living with them, after talking to them every day, you can make out their voice out of a thousand voices. Why? Because the Bible says, "My sheep know My voice, and a stranger they will not follow." You should know the voice of God. And it's important you know the voice of God because even when you're listening to preachers and other people, even as I preach, and you hear me preach, behind what I say, you should hear God's voice echoing. I know His voice. So when I'm somewhere and there's a false prophet, I know it's a false prophet because I don't hear God's voice behind the person's voice. He said, "I, you know My voice. If you're My sheep, and a stranger, you won't follow." And we follow so many strange voices because we don't know the voice of the Shepherd. Wow. When you don't know the Shepherd's voice, you'll follow strange voices.
You have to grow spiritually. And you will not grow without being planted in the presence of God and spending deliberate time with God. And younger generation, I just want to tell you something: turning on Maverick City while you're driving to work ain't spending time with God. That's listening to music. Spending time with God is an appointment with God where you set everything aside to hear from God and to speak to God. You write down what you're feeling, and then you write down what you think the Lord is saying. So over time, you can go back and look at it, hindsight, and say, "God did speak. Right here, I wrote this down. I wasn't sure if it was God, but three months later, everything I wrote down happened. I know that was God speaking." Next time I get that feeling, that quickening, that urge, I know it's God.
And when it comes to speaking to God, you don't have to trust your ability to hear. Trust His ability to deliver. I don't trust in my ability to hear from God. I trust in God's ability to speak to me. I trust God. And I know He can speak. I know this. I know this. If I have a good heart and I'm seeking God for His will, who, who would God be if He wouldn't give me, if He wouldn't give me clarity on that? If you're, if I'm seeking God, "God, I don't know what to do. I am making time. I'm setting appointments. I'm spending time with You." There's been times where I prayed, I prayed, I prayed, I couldn't make out God's voice. And I got a phone call, and someone told me exactly what I was praying about. "Hey, you need to do this." "Hey, I was feeling this, I was sensing this." Right at the perfect time. Why? Because God will deliver His word. But before you get a specific word from God, it has to be planted on the general word of God. Those who hear from God most, knows the Bible best. If you don't even get the general word of God, why are you expecting a specific word? Why would God spend so much time speaking to someone that won't even read what He already said? My God. Why? Why? If God's already given you everything in His Bible, and you won't read that, why do you want Him to come set up appointments with you and just speak to you everything you need to do? Everything you need to do is already in the book. It's already there.
And many, "I don't know where to start reading at." "I don't know where to read at in the Bible." "I don't know where to read at." I'll tell you where to read at in the Bible: inside of it, not outside of it, not around it. Read inside of it. The best place to read in the Bible is inside the book. And you can read anything. You can read a proverb a day. You can read Matthew chapter, Matthew chapter 6, one of my, my favorite, uh, uh, chapters in the Bible. You can start anywhere in the Bible. Just start.
And if you hadn't read the Bible, do not, I repeat, do not start off with a King James version. Now, that is actually my favorite version of the Bible. When I got saved, I was gifted this Bible, and this Bible said KJV. And my initials is K.J. Johnson. So I said, "Cool." So when it got me this Bible, I said, "This sweet church mama, she's so sweet. She put my name on the Bible." And I read that thing and I wrestled, "Thou shalt, shalt, shalt, shalt, shalt, shalt, shalt, shalt." About four years later, I'm like, "I got this thing. I could quote, 'Thou shalt, thou cow shalt.'" And then finally, I was talking to, so years later, I'm like, "Yeah, this is my favorite Bible. You know, it has my initials on it. It's my only Bible. It's my favorite Bible." I said, "You know, it's my initials on this. It's, it's, it's KJV, K.J. Johnson version that they gifted me with." They said, "Idiot, that's a King James version." So there's other versions. They said, "Yes, easier ones to read." I said, "I remember I, this one, seriously." So I go back to it. I love it. But get an NLT because you try to read the Book of Proverbs in King James, you going to get, you going to be toast. Or get a Message Bible. Now, I would advise going to a more accurate translation once you understand the Bible. But I don't want you to miss the message because you don't know the old English, right? So, so start reading the Bible. Get something you can understand. You get an NLT. They're very simple. Now, the accuracy of NLT, it's, it's more paraphrased. It's not a perfect translation like a New King James Version Bible. But if you can't understand something, you got to start somewhere. And as your pastor, I'm giving you permission to start with an NLT if you've never read it. Now, if you're more vast in your faith, I would recommend going to something more advanced like an NIV or a New King James Version Bible.
Spend time with God. Prioritize growing spiritually. That has to be the first level. Now, we're going to get to the second thing: get healthy. Everyone say, "Get healthy." Healthy. Let's do it again. Get, get healthy.
1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 19 says, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are, you are not your own." Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. I want to tell you something about your body: you have to take care of it because it's the only place you'll ever live. You can get a new house, you can get a new car, you can get new clothes. You can never get a new body. The body you have is, is the only thing in your life you can never replace. Everything else in your life, you can replace, except for your body. You can't replace. You only get one body. The same body you're born with is the same body you die with. Wow. Which means it should be prioritized over everything. We will take care. You got people, man, they will clean their house, their floor, their carpet, their car. And you can get a whole another car, you get a whole another floor, a whole another the carpet. You, you can replace all that. People would get mad if you step on their shoes, but not on their feet. Wow. You can get more shoes. You can't get more feet. Which means you have to take care of your body because it's the tool that God is giving you to carry out purpose. If your body's weak, you're not going to be able to carry out your assignment at the same capacity and at the same intensity.
Get serious about your body. Get serious about your health. Get serious about what you're eating. Get serious about what you're drinking. And I know sometimes you're like, "Well, how, how is this spiritual?" I'm going to tell you how it's spiritual: if your body is weak, you can't fully do the will of God. You can't do the will of God from a hospital bed. You can't do the will of God if you're always fatigued. You can't do the will of God if you're always tired. Prioritize your health. Take it serious. Take your health serious.
So, so how do we prioritize our health? We have to be disciplined. How many of us want to be disciples, but we're not even disciplined to be a disciple? You have to be disciplined. And what is discipline? Discipline is doing what's hard like it's easy. Discipline is doing what you ought to do even when you don't feel like doing it. You have to be disciplined. And I know you feel like, "I don't have time to go to the gym. I don't have time to cook clean foods. I don't have time." I want to ask you a question: where's your time going? You have 24 hours like everyone else. Where's your time going? Why don't you have time? If you are out of time, you have bigger problems to face. You could have a problem of cluttering, where you're adding things to your life that needs to be subtracted. You're adding things that need to be eliminated. If you don't have time, what are your priorities? Where are you wasting time?
And it's funny, all the people that don't have time ask about a TV show they saw every episode. "I don't have time." "You see that new thing on Netflix?" "Yeah, I saw all four seasons." Ah, let me mind my business. Let me mind my business. Man, no, you got time. You're not using your time wisely. And guess what? Every single person has the same amount of time. You have the same amount of time as the most wealthiest person on this planet. You have time. You just got to use your time wisely. And deliberate. Your time was Heaven's investment to you. Time came from God. Do you know that? That God's out of time. He created time. Time was created by God, and it was a gift to command, and He's giving you so much time for the will of the Lord. How are you using your time? And one of the best investments of time is your body. It's a great investment of time. So get healthy.
And you have to understand that you get healthy incrementally, not exponentially. What does that mean? The reason why people struggle, including myself, with diets and things of that nature is because it takes a lot of time. When you start working out, you won't look how you want to look right away. It may take three months, it may take six months, it may take a year. But invest the time because when you finally get to that promised land, when you finally get to that place, you are now going to have the strength, the energy, and the health to run after the things of God, to be present with your family, to have energy. Most of the fights going on in y'all houses 'cause y'all tired. You want so tired, you would have energy to actually get up and greet someone. Ain't no nobody cooking 'cause everybody tired and don't feel like it. Work out. Get some energy. Work out. Be deliberate and intentional with your body. Take your health back.
Let's go to the next one: get your money in order. Everyone say, "Get your money right." Get your money right. Do you know that most, most stress, anxiety, and frustration in life comes from a lack of finances? Do you know the number one reason why people divorce is financially? Do you know that Jesus talked about money more than any other topic? Do you know that there are over a thousand instances in the Bible that talks about money? Money is important. Not important to have, but very important to steward. Even the Bible says in Matthew 6 that where your treasure is, your heart will be there also. It says that your heart, your passion, your devotion, and your love is actually linked to your money. And what is money? Money is provision, right? It's provision. So what money is in the earthly realm is what our King Jesus is in the spiritual realm. He is provision. He is sustaining source on the, on the earthly realm, that's what money is. This is the same in source. You can't pay bills, you can't pay rent, you can't take care of your kids, and you can't eat without money. It's sustaining source. And it has the power to frustrate people. It has the power to divide people. It has the power to divorce people. And it was the thing that the Bible brought up when it was talking about people wrestling between that and God. It wasn't Satan. The Bible didn't say you can't serve God and Satan. It said you can't serve God and Mammon. What is Mammon? Mammon is this spirit of money. It's not money. Money is not the root of all evil. It's the love of, of money that's the root of all evil. It's not money. It's the love of money. If you love money too much, you are tiptoeing on evil. And money is a beautiful tool, but it is a terrible ruler. You don't never want money to be a ruler. Money is a tool.
And this is why it's so important you be generous and you allow money to flow out of your hands. Not just to the church, but that's just in life. You just bless people. How often do you go to the grocery store and say, "Hmm, I'm going to just buy someone's groceries"? It's generous because what happens is, if you don't start letting it go, you're going to develop a love for money, which leads you to the path of evil. People that love money too much, they always become evil. And you want to know what's crazy? In my life, the people I've seen love money the most are always the brokest. I, verily, just my experience. I haven't met a lot of people with money that loved it. It was usually the poor people I met that loved the money. Don't know why. So loving money is the root of all evil. Which means all the evil you see in the world is rooted in somebody loving money too much. Loving money too much. All the danger, all the trafficking, all the terrible, gruesome things you see on this planet is because somebody loved money too much. And the cure, the remedy of loving money is generosity. Generosity stops you from loving money, and you start loving how money serves others, not how it serves you. Generosity. It's a hard thing. And I'm excited about generosity. I'm having to teach my daughter about generosity now. I'm teaching her. She, she gets multiple toys, and she wants stuff. I'm like, "Hey, give one to your friend." She's like, "No, they're mine." I'm like, "No, give one to your friend." Why? Because I want you to have a generous heart. I want you to be stingy. I don't want you to be stingy. Be generous. Money is just a tool. I give away money all the time. I don't care about it. Don't care about money. Buy food all the time. Like, I could have so much more money if I was more stingy. Or could I? I think I would have way less because God wouldn't trust me then. God does not trust people that's not generous. Let me say it again. I just want to say this again to you. I'm, I'm gonna walk up and I'm gonna tell you, if you're not generous, God doesn't trust you. And He shouldn't. And it's hard for me to trust people that's not generous. It's, it's stingy people. I'm just really hard to trust them. Why? Because when you're not generous, that means you love stuff and money too much, which means you're about to step away from evil. Don't know if I want to be in your path. So generosity is just a trait. When I'm looking for friends, I like generous friends. I like generous people around me. When people are standing, I'm kind of, that's kind of dangerous ground. When I was single and I would date generous, the one, one generous, uh, uh, no, I'm good. 'Cause you got to raise my kids. I don't want stingy people raising my kids.
Luke 16:8 says this: "So the master commended the unjust steward." So this is an unjust steward. It means this is an ungodly steward because he had dealt shrewdly. Then it says, "For the sons of the world," which means the people that aren't Christians, "are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light." The Bible is saying this, and this is crazy to see this in the Bible. Luke 16:8. Go back and write it down because y'all be thinking I'm making up scriptures. I'm gonna read again. It says, "So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly, for the sons of the world are more shrewd in this generation than the sons of light." Well, what is it saying? Jesus is saying that the people of darkness, they're more shrewd and they're better with money than Christians. You want to see some messed up people with money? Go to the Christians. They are the worst with money. Geez, don't look at. Do I need to read what Jesus said? Go back and read Luke 16. This is not me. I'm just reading your Bible to you. Don't get mad at me. This is your Bible. I'm preaching. Open it up. He said that the devilish people are better than y'all with money. That's what Jesus said. He said, "They're true." He even said this, and I'm like, "Hold on, Jesus, I need to ask Him this when I get to heaven." He said, "Go make friends with them." What? Hold on. Jesus said, "Stay away from all darkness." Yes. He said, "But when it comes to your money, you might need to get some friends that ain't in the church." When it comes to business, you might need to find some friends that ain't in church because you might find some of the most stingiest, badly dealt with money, un-stewarding business people you would ever find in the church. Is Jesus talking? And, and, and why? So I had to ask. I'm like, "God, why?" He was like, "Because Christians have the propensity to wash out all discipline under the banner of the Lord Jesus." "I love God." So because I love God, I don't have to handle business. Because I love God, I can be stingy. Because I love God, I can have a bad heart. Because I love God, I can be a bad person. Because I love God, I don't have to be accountable. Am I getting too real for y'all this morning? Because I love God, I don't have to take care of my health. I don't have to be healthy. "I pray." Yeah, pray, then go get on the treadmill after you can pray on the treadmill. Lord Jesus, I just pray. You can do both. In other words, Christianity isn't a cover-up for bad character. Wow. Christianity isn't a cover-up for bad character. And Jesus said again, let me reiterate, Jesus said that the children of darkness are smarter than the children of light. That's what Jesus said. That's Him.
So again, you know, um, we have to get serious about our money. So, so what are things that Christians should do to get serious about their money? The first thing is, be generous with it. Give to God what's God's. Tithe. Give offerings. Give to the kingdom of God. And I know you may feel like it's a waste of money, but I assure you, whenever you give money to God, He will always make sure you have enough money. He will always make sure you have enough. And what would stop you from giving money to God? Philosophies of the world. "See, all the church wants is money." "See, see, see, every church, all they want is money." And did is this, and then there's the pastor, and he has a Mercedes-Benz. And they just bring all these notions to come to you to stop you from giving. Want me to tell you why? Because when you don't give to God, let me tell you who profits. Satan. He has a right to all money that's not tithed. Y'all missed that. When you have money that doesn't go into the kingdom of God, this is how you, I'm preaching your Bible. I'll do a money seminar, and I'll break all this down for you. When you have money that's not given to God, when God's not prioritized, when you don't give to Him first, this is, throw about this. This is why tithing was invented. It was how you brought your money under the kingdom of God, which means the blessing and the protection of the kingdom is on your finances. When you don't give to God, your money is under the kingdom of Satan, and he will keep taking it from you. Your tires will keep messing up. You will keep having bills. Old doctor medical bills will keep popping up. All of a sudden, college funds, you owe, keep adding interest. Why? Because that money is no longer blessed. It's cursed, and it's under the kingdom of darkness. This is why you give to God because you get your finances inside of Heaven's economy. This is why we give. And you wouldn't understand it until you did it. It wouldn't make sense. The Bible says, "Spiritual things seem foolish to a carnal mind." Which means if you look at this from a worldly perspective, it's stupid. You won't get it. But when you lean into the way God operates and His word and how things function, you will see how the kingdom of God flows and functions. You will see. I know where you are. I've been there. I've been there. I'm struggling. Don't have enough. Can't give to God. And then I trusted God. I started giving to God, and I always got more. Every time, I just got more, more, more, more, more. Some of you guys gave to God one time. Some didn't show up in two days, and you're like, "Okay, I'll try God. Didn't work." God said, "I need a season of consistency and discipline, and I'll show you My hand and My power." And it's crazy because the same people that won't give to God, the same people that don't tithe, they're the same people that's praying to God for provision. That's a contradiction. That's a contradiction. If you don't give to God and you're praying for provision, that is a contradiction because you're saying, "Hey, God, I need You to trust me, but I won't trust You." Uh, okay. Let's just, let's just move on. This is, I feel the conviction in the room, and I don't even want to hurt y'all feelings like that. I just, I got to preach truth.
Also, secondly, get a detailed budget. Write out your budget. Manage your money. When you don't tell your money where to go, you'll wonder where it went. When you don't tell your money where to go, you'll wonder where it went. There's a blessing attached to budgeting. And I know you like, "Well, what I need to write out of the budget? I'm only paying for bills and buying what I have to." I need a budget. A budget is a part of this thing God created called stewardship. Which means you're not a steward if you don't budget. You have to budget. The blessing on your finances is tied to budgeting. Do you know God is a steward? Let me tell you what all stewards have. All stewards have metrics. They all have metrics. Uh, what is a metric? A metric is a number that allows you to measure something. If, if, if you're not feeling good, and you have high blood, high blood pressure, immediately they bring a blood pressure tester to measure your numbers. And those numbers tell them how fast they need to drive to the hospital. Yeah, it's a metric. Um, all throughout the Bible, you see metrics. Uh, the Bible is very deliberate. Um, Jesus leaves the 99 for the one. If He didn't count the 99, He wouldn't have known one was missing. He counted 100. So when one left, He can go look for it. He budgeted the sheep. So when one was missing, the Bible talks about numbers all the time. It gives you names, genealogies, genealogies. It gives you lineages. Why? Because God is a steward. When Solomon was building the temple, he was the wealthiest man that ever lived. And also, I would say he was the best steward outside of Jesus that ever lived. Read through there. He has a number for everything. He had this many camels, he had this much gold, this many pounds of spice, he gave this much in burnt offerings. Someone that was such a good steward, had such good metrics, can measure everything. So if God prioritizes metrics and budgets in stewardship, you should too.
I want to tell you this: in life, anything you mismanage, you will lose. Anything you mismanage, you will lose. Mismanage a marriage, you'll lose it. Mismanage your children, you'll lose them. Mismanage your body, you'll lose your health. Mismanage your money, you'll never have any. If you don't have money, it's not because you don't make enough. It's not because you need a better job. It's because you're not a steward. When I learned the principle of stewardship, I was making about $2,000 a month, and I was saving $500. $2,000 a month, I was saving $500. By the end of the year, I would have thousands. On $2,000 a month, and that was when I learned how to store. And I was giving not just tithes, but offerings. I was generously giving at $2,000 a month. And I started saving, and I started getting cumulative money. Let me show you that you're the best saver ever. I'm gonna show you. The average car note is around $350. Many people that don't have any money got a car note. That car is paid every month. And at the end of that loan, you probably pay $20,000. But let's say if someone came and gave you that car, and you didn't have payments on it, after five years, guess what? You won't have $20,000. You would have more shoes, a better wig, better earrings, and a recliner. Y'all laughing 'cause you know it's true. You know it's true. And I'm going to tell you why. It's called Parkinson's Law. And what Parkinson's Law means is whenever there is margin, the universe pulls the fill. Wow. Let me give you an example. If I say, "Hey, those people that always run late." And I ain't gonna lie to you, I'll be one of them sometimes. Those late runners. You'll be like, "Hey, come at 5." Like, "Okay, 5:10." You can at, at 5, you can be like, "Hey, come at 6." "6:10." Come at 7. "7:10." Come at 9. "9:10." No matter what time. "Hey, come next year." "Next year, 10 minutes after." Well, why is because the moment you give them more time, they fill it. You give them $1,000, they fill it. Give them $5,000, they fill it. Give them 10, they fill it. You know, there's rich people, rich actors and rappers that live paycheck to paycheck too. Why? Because it's not money, it's a spirit. And it's a lack of stewardship. It's a spirit, and you have to break it. It's a spirit of Mammon that comes after your resources. You have to manage. You have to be generous. You have to give.
Where you are now, here's the issue. A lot of you guys have probably made decisions. And I know we're at church. And Pastor, what does this got to do with church? Everything. Yeah. Want me tell you why? Because it has everything to do with character. And you're supposed to have the character of Christ. And this is how Jesus lives. So let's break it now. Pastor, I can't do that now because I have such tight margin in my finances. Yeah. I'm gonna tell you why. 'Cause you bought the car that you thought was cute, not the one to get you to work. See, you have to be realistic. You don't have what you don't have. With the level of stewardship I have now, if I went back to $2,000 a month, I would buy a little bucket. Little bitty bucket. Hey, if I need to go out of town, friend, a friend going to take me. I just need a good car that can get me out of town. You go out of town three years? Every three years? No, you don't. You do not need that. You tell yourself you need that 'cause you want to impress your friends. I will have a little bucket. I would save up about three grand. I would get a Honda 'cause those go forever. I would get a little bucket and I would just drive that. I wouldn't have a car note. And the money that I would put on a car, I would actually save. Sell, save. And if I wanted to buy a car, I would buy cash. Secondly, and if I did get a car payment, I would get one that I could easily afford and have margin left. Have margin left. I would live in a place where I can have margin left. I, I would, I would buy things where I can have margin left. Everything I would do with margin. Wouldn't buy new clothes. I'll buy them used. "I don't wear used clothes." Okay, that's why you broke. You have to be a steward. Work. And if you live like that, guess what's going to happen? The blessing of Heaven is going to come and sit on you. And your $2,000 will turn into four, and your $4,000 will turn into eight. But let me tell you what: God would never bless your mess. I don't even feel like, I feel like I'm going to canceling session right now. I'm, I'm even preaching a sermon. It's weird. Okay. And see, y'all like, "When you preaching, you pulled on by other people." Y'all making me preach this. I didn't decide this, by the way. This is what y'all need 'cause this is what's being pulled out of me.
Um, the next one: grow emotionally. Everyone say, "Grow." Grow emotionally. Emotionally. Uh, uh, it says, let's see what verse is this. Third John chapter 1, verse 2 says this: "Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health." Look at here. Here's the Bible. "That you may prosper in all things and be in health." Right here, 'cause health is a part of prosperity. And prosperity isn't some weird message that they preach at church that says, "Hey, you give $77, you get a $77 blessing. I'll tell you, God's gonna bless you. Get you a new car. Jesus, that's demonic." Uh, that's not prosperity. You can't even use the word prosperity because there's been so many prosperity preachers that has tainted this word. But this is actually a word from God. And this is actually God's will for His people. Is that you were to prosper. Well, how do you know that, Pastor KJ? 'Cause I'm gonna read it to you right here. "Beloved," which means my people, "I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health." Why? 'Cause you ain't really prospering if you don't have health. Do you know what most people do? They, they, they spend all their health to get wealth. Then once they get wealth, have to spend all their wealth to get their health back. It's just a dumb cycle. "Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers." Do you know there is a soul prosperity? What is your soul prospering? It means to be healthy in your soul. It means that it is well with your soul. I got a question for you: Is it well with your soul? Is it well with you? It should be well with your soul. Which means you should have a prosper, prosperity in your soul. That means that there should be a happiness, there should be a peace, there should be a joy, there should be a growth, there should be an abundance of soul prosperity. And if you don't prosper in your soul, you're not leveling up. It doesn't matter how much money you got. If your soul isn't prospering, you are living a miserable, terrible life. You are designed. This is God's word. And I know what society says. And I know they said, "If you're a single mom, you just got to be stressed out." I know they said, "You've been through trauma, you can never be." I know all the things they said. But your Bible said that it's praying that you may prosper and be in good health, even as your soul prospers. Prophetically, which means you are to prosper in your soul. Means you're happy. Means you have joy. Means you're excited to get up in the morning. There's a pep to your step. You know, some people, they just wake up like, "Here we go. Another day." No, "Here we go. This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it." There's a gladness. Yeah. "I'm just going, I'm just going day by day." No, no. There was bloodshed for you to be here. What do you mean, "You just going day by day"? No. Take the day. Prosper in your soul. "I'm just going through so much stuff right now." Like, "What? How? I don't know." Yeah, you don't, because you are being attacked by the devil. And you need to put him under your feet and get him out your head. Put him under your feet. God has died for you to have soul prosperity. How dare you let the devil take it? Wow. He is a deceiver. You know, one of my favorite scriptures in the Bible, it talks about that at the end, when we see the devil, we would all gaze at him and say, "It was you. It was you. You did this." Everything you're going through right now, you're gonna see a little imp with crooked whispers, weak, stringy, broken little man. And when you think about everything you went through on this Earth, you're gonna say, "It! I let you do this to me." My God. You, I let you take my peace, take my joy, take my happiness, take my soul prosperity with lies because you thought you had problems.
I want to tell you something about problems. I know most of the thing that robs our joy is is our perception of our problems. Let me tell you something about problems: if you have a problem that man or money can fix, you don't have a problem. You don't have one. If money or man can fix it, I'm gonna tell you what a problem is. The problem is only God can fix this. That's a problem. Anything short of that ain't no problem. Just don't know how I'm gonna pay my car. Worst-case scenario, they pick it up. While you at Starbucks, call me, I'll give you...
A ride home, your credit's going to get shot a little bit. You're going to get laughed at a little bit. I'm like, oh my gosh, I just took her car. Your body's still intact. You can still eat. You can still sleep. And guess what? You can still get another car. But the devil will have you so s they're taking my car, I don't want to live anymore. And you're just like, it's a car. Yeah, there will be a day when you give it to somebody. Just a car. Just a car. Yeah, I just really wanted to get these new couches and we couldn't get them. I'm just going through. You can sit on a chair. You don't have one. You can take this one. You go home, you can sit on this. You can watch TV. Hey, I know we have desires and things we want, but I'm not going to let a couch or a car rob my peace. When I have a family and I have kids, I'm in my right mind, I have my strength. Not going to let a car take my peace. I don't even like driving no more. I'm at that age. Pick me up, pick me up.
When we was lunching this church, we didn't have much funding and the Lord spoke to me. He said, hey, you're going to have to fund this. I'm going to bless you to do it. And I had like an old car and it had no AC and it was in the middle of summer. So you know what I did? I called people in the church and I created a position, Pastor Chauffeur. Everyone like, I'll do it, I'll do it, I'll do it, I'll do it. I don't need no car no more. Everybody pick me. Where my boy Devonte at? Where you at, Vonte? You in the building? Was you my driver? Yeah. Is this true? Was you my driver? Kay, was you my driver? Let me tell you why, because God gave me a vision of something and I couldn't afford a better car and AC into to accomplish his vision at the same time. And that's okay. And I didn't cry about not having a car. Well, my car don't have heat, don't drive it, get a ride or let the window down. They got little portable fans. Do what you got to do. Prosper, be in good health, even as your soul prospers.
I'm going to break this down to you. And I got one more. I'm going to get ready to close. God showed me something two weeks ago. I I went to the Lord and I said, Lord, why do people not grow emotionally? Why can't they get over their trauma, their brokenness, their baggage? I need you to show it to me. And the Lord gave me this little vision. He gave me a vision of someone that was massively overweight. Wait. And he was, and he showed me. He said, how hard would it be for this person to get back into top tip shape? Massively overweight, like 5, 600 pounds. How hard would it be for this person to get back in top tip shape? And as I thought about that, cuz I'm slightly overweight, I'm like, it's hard out here for it's hard to get up these days, you know what I'm saying? So when I thought about it, I thought about the journey. You know, we watch those shows where they had to lose weight and stuff. I thought about the journey they would have to go through to lose wa.
And the Lord showed me. He says, it's the same thing emotionally. It's the same thing emotionally. You're you're you're emotionally out of. You're emotionally unfit, which means you're emotionally overweight. Which means that if you've had someone that was overweight, what if they ate really good for two weeks and then they stopped and started eating their old diet? What would happen? They wouldn't get the change that they was trying to get, right? They would remain the same. Well, why do we think that we can go to church for two weeks, praise Jesus for two weeks, listen to some worship songs for two weeks, go back to our old life, and then we're wondering why we still are facing our trauma? For that person to lose weight, their fitness would have to become their priority. It would have to become one of the top three priorities in their life. They would have to eat clean every day, drink clean every day, work out every single day to have a shot at getting back at peak performance. But emotionally, we want to come to one altar call and wonder why God didn't do it.
[Music] J. It's hard getting emotionally fit, just like it is getting physically fit. It's the same thing. Which means that if you're eating good, okay, pastor, you preaching good one day out the week, and then every other day you listen to poison. How do you expect to grow and change? No. You're going to have to prioritize your mental fitness. Instead of instead of mental health, call it mental fitness, right? So you can have a good visual picture of what it looks like. And then what you need to do is every day of your life, you need to eat. What is eating? That means that eating is you thinking the right thoughts. Yeah. You need to hydrate, which is you listening to the right things. Every single day, cumulatively over a period of time, because you don't change exponentially, you change incrementally. You don't come to an altar and change. You come to an altar to decide to change. That's it. That's it. Now, I'm not saying the Lord can't break some off at the altar, but I'm just saying the Lord said, be transformed by the renewing of your mind, which is mental fitness, emotional fitness. Which means that if you want to grow, you have to work out emotionally. And that's reading your Bible over and over, listening to positive things over and over, getting rid of all the bad things over and over. God says, this is what it's going to take for you to grow. Because when you got to understand is this, the old you despises and hates the new you. So do you know that your attributes are actually alive? Yeah, your attributes are alive. Which simply means this, if you have fear, fear is rooted in alive in you, and the fear is alive in you. Like every organism that lives, guess what? Every organism that lives has coding inside of it that says, you stay alive at all costs. You, you, you go to the safari, everything that that gazelle is running to stay alive, that cheetah is chasing that gazelle to stay alive, that that lion is coming to chase that cheetah to stay alive. Everything fighting to stay alive. So are the things inside of you. Which means fear inside of you is fighting to stay alive. So the moment faith walks in, fear is going to try to push it out. Doubt is dying to stay alive in you. So when faith walks in, doubt is going to want to push it out. Anxiety is dying to stay alive in you. So when peace walks in, it's going to want to push it out. Worry is dying to stay alive in you. So when trust walks in, worry is going to try to push it out. Everything that you have become is fighting who you're trying to become. Yes. See what I'm saying? So it's going to be a war on the inside, and you have to overcome because the toxic in you will fight the purity out of you if you let it. Okay, grow emotionally. Prioritize your emotionally, which means you need accountability. You need consistency, and you need to prioritize it. It has to be, has to come to the front, has to come to the front, the forefront. Accountability. Do you know that most people change when they have accountability? When you see the most change in any real, it is scientifically proven when someone gets a personal trainer, they're more likely to lose weight. When when someone has some form of accountability, when someone's on alcohol, what do you have to do? They have to go to AA. They have to go somewhere where they're being consistently held accountable to change. So my question is, how do you expect to change that attitude? No one holds you accountable. How do you expect to practice peace when you have no one to call you on your anxiety? And guess what? When they call you on your anxiety, you're going, your anxiety's going to attack them. Let's move on. Let's just move on.
And lastly, you have to grow relationally. You have to grow relationally. Let me hit this soon. We, we went over a little bit. Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it, you should love your neighbor as yourself. How are you doing relationally? Um, Jesus said, we don't need all the commandments, all the ordinances, all the the the disciplines and the Levitical laws. We don't need all that. He said, I'm going to, I'm going to combine the law to two things. Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. In order to be happy in life, in order to be complete in life, in order to be sustained in life, it requires two things. It requires the love of God and the love of others. The love of God and the love of others. In other words, happiness is not a what, it's a who. To truly level up in life is to realize that peace, joy, and happiness is not found in stuff nor things. It's found in relationship. The happiest people on planet Earth are the people with the best relationships. First, the best relationship with the Lord, and then the best relationships with each other. Your spouse, your kids, your neighbors, your friends, your community, your co-workers. Great relationships creates peace, happiness, joy, tranquility. A lot of our relationships are shipwrecked because we shipwreck them. A lot of our relationships are attacked because we attack them. You have to be what you want other people to be in relationship. God said, love your neighbor as yourself. Why did God say that? Because you can only love your neighbor as yourself. You can't love your neighbor beyond yourself. Which means how you love you is all the love you can give. Which means that when someone hates themselves, be careful. It's going to be really hard for them to love you. When someone despises themselves, it's going to be really hard for them to rejoice over you. So begin to love God. And when you love God properly, he shows you how to love yourself correctly. And when you love yourself correctly, you can love your neighbor outwardly. But it starts with loving God.
Wow, what a powerful message. We hope it blessed you. Make sure to share with your friends, your family members, and your co-workers so that they can be blessed as well. Also, if you would like to partner with us and invest in what God is doing here at Radiant, the giving link is down below. Thank you so much for tuning in.