Dave Martin - Wisdom and favor

Dave Martin is here with us this morning. He is America's number one Christian life coach. Sunny said, "Well, what's a life coach?" Listen, it's the same thing as a coach in any other endeavor. A coach, it doesn't matter how we're in the middle of baseball season right now. It doesn't matter how long somebody has been in the major leagues, he still has a coach because the coach can see things that he can't see. The coach knows things that he doesn't know. The coach is somebody who can make suggestions and recommendations and supply information that's going to help that person be more successful than they've been in the past.

How many of you are ready to go to a different measure of success in your life as a believer? I believe you are. Ladies and gentlemen, would you please welcome from Orlando, Florida, Dr. Dave Martin.

Good morning. Hey, before you sit down, before you sit down, I want you to look around here real quick. Find someone around you that's good looking. Now, when you find them, I want you to look at them right in the eyes. When you find them, look at them right now. Tell them, "The rest of your life..." All right, that didn't sound too good. Maybe find someone better. Look into that. Maybe, maybe look the other direction if you need to. Just try this. Point to yourself. One to yourself. Say, "The rest of my life..." Although you sounded better when you start talking about yourself. Say, "will be the best of my life." Now, one more time, like you really believe life could get better. Then, how many believe life could get better than it is right now? One more time, like you really believe it. Say, "The rest of my life will be the best of my life." Now, let someone get you. Say that as many times as I can today because what you continually hear, you'll eventually believe. You have heard your whole life, "You're dumb. You're stupid. You'll never make anything of yourself." Eventually, you might start believing that kind of stuff. But if you keep hearing, "The rest of your life will be..."

Let me believe the Bible in here. Let me see if you believe the Bible. Okay, that's just about everybody. With you, when you hate to find out it wasn't true, it'd be horrible, wouldn't it? It hasn't ever wondered. I mean, that God really wrote all that stuff? There's a lot of stuff. And you've ever wondered, "Did God really write all of that stuff?" Be honest. You won't go to hell or anything. Let me see your hand. Okay, yeah. Look at, I've wondered. I grew up in Georgia, you know. A little bit about me, my dad's a preacher, my grandfather's a preacher, my great-grandfather was a preacher. I've been in church my whole life. I've wondered, "Did God really write all that stuff?"

I started thinking one day, because if God didn't write the Bible, someone had to. So I started thinking about people I knew, right? Because you want to narrow it down, you know. If God didn't do it, maybe my Uncle Tony did it. He doesn't do a lot. Then I found there's a scripture there, since if you don't work, you don't eat, right? Nope, Uncle Tony didn't write that. Just start thinking, "But maybe my kids wrote the Bible." Spare the rod, spoil the child. Nope, they wouldn't put that in there. Maybe my wife wrote the Bible. Submit to your husband. Nope. Be honest. How many of any of you two wrote the Bible? How many can think of at least three things you would not have put in there? They'll be like, "Eight Commandments instead of 10." Tithing would have definitely been lower, wouldn't it? 5% or something.

Here's what I know. No human being could have ever wrote a standard this high. So God said it. I'm just crazy enough to believe it. And in John 10:10, he said, "I've come that you might have life." He didn't say, "I've come that you might make a living." He said, "I've come that you might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly." In the, in the Amplified, it says, "You might have and enjoy life in abundance, to the full, till it overflows."

One more time before you sit down, say, "The rest of my life will be the best of my life." Hey, you could be seated. You know, life is a gift. How many like getting gifts? Yeah. We just had Christmas a few months ago. How many I mean, like unwrapping gifts? Let me see you here. Who are the people to just tear the paper off? You don't care, you just tear it up. Yeah. Who are the people who are careful? You take it off slowly because you can reuse the paper, right? You, I'm one of those who just rips the paper off. I can't wait to get in there and see what's what I got. You know, I can't wait to see what's available. And could you imagine getting someone a gift? Maybe my wife for our anniversary or a birthday. And I go to the mall and I find something that's just perfect, just for her. I can't wait to give it to her because I picked it out just for her. I'm like, "Here, open it." And I'm watching because I want to see. You don't talk about when you get just the perfect gift, you want to watch them open it. Wouldn't it be discouraging if she's like, "Oh, thanks," and set it on the table? I'm able to look. I've been to the mall, I've been searching, I've been, I found this perfect gift. It's just for you. Oh, I'll look at it later. You know, that's what a lot of people do with this incredible gift that God gave us called life. Here's this gift God gave you called life. Some say, "I'll try to make it through. Maybe I'll enjoy it later. Right now, it's just too hard." We look at all these things. But then some people just unwrap it and then choose to enjoy life. The Bible says that in Deuteronomy, "I've set before you life and death, blessings and cursing. Choose life." So here's this gift. Unwrap it. I can't think of anything worse than giving someone a gift they didn't even open or use.

A couple of Christmases ago, about my mother-in-law's gift for Christmas, I got her a cemetery plot. And so I was, my mother-in-law, anyway. I didn't get her anything last year, so she is mad at me. You know, "You didn't get me a gift for Christmas." This year, I'm like, "You didn't even use what I got you." I'm just saying, when you get someone a gift, you know you want them to use it. So here's this gift called life. Now, how are we going to enjoy life to the fullest? Because here, here's the thing. What I love about this gift is God picked it out just for you. Think that God didn't go to Sam's or Costco and buy life in bulk, just give us all the same thing. That's why none of us are alike. The other day, someone said, "You know, Dave, you and me, we're just alike." I said, "You know, if you and me are just alike, one of us is unnecessary." And I'm going with, "You know, none of us are alike." I mean, I can't be you. You can't be me. I can't be Pastor Rod Parsley. I love Pastor Rod Parsley. I wish I could preach like Pastor Rod Parsley, but I can't be Pastor Rod. But I always want to jump up on, like, I love watching him, but I'm standing right here. That's pretty cool. I watch it. I always wanted this, but I can't be Pastor Rod. I gotta be me. I can't be T.D. Jakes or Joyce Meyer. I can't be Joel Osteen. Amen, every day is a Friday. You know, I love that. I love Pastor Joel, but I can't be Pastor Dave. The other day, the other day, someone introduced me and said, "What's Dave Martin like?" And someone said, "He's kind of a mixture between Joel Osteen and Larry the Cable Guy." So they like, "What the worms that look like? Get on hold your Bible up and say, 'Get 'er done.'"

But here's the thing. Life is a gift. I want to talk to you about how to unwrap this gift. How to open this gift. If you got your Bible today, open it to Ephesians. What an incredible, incredible honor it is for me to be here at the Tabernacle of World Harvest Church. I've been watching Pastor Rob Parsley and been a part of what God's done here for years and years and years. And just what an amazing honor to be a part. You know what Elder Camping was talking about? A coach. You know, Pastor Rod Parsley is our pastor, but he's also our coach. He's our mentor. He's our trainer. He's kind of all those. Have you ever worked out with a trainer? You may hear, "I've worked out with a trainer." Okay. But a few people. I've got a trainer. Obviously. And you think this is natural? Did you, you know? You know, first of the year, everyone sets their goals, don't they? You know, first of the year, "I'm gonna work out more." You know, I was reading the top three goals of people set for the year. One is to do better with their finances, to budget better, and do that kind of thing. That's a good goal. One is to exercise more. How many was that one of your goals this year? Yeah. Look at all those hands. Yeah. It's like the gym is packed in January. And it, it's like, "January, I'm going to the gym five days a week." "February, I'm going to the gym three days a week." And "March, like, I'm gonna drive by the gym, check in on Facebook, like I was there." You know. Another one of the big goals is to lose weight. That was one of mine. To lose, lose weight. How many want to lose a little weight this year? I was one of yours. Yeah. It's like, "I'm gonna," I started a diet yesterday. Thank God that's over. You know, but, uh, uh, I wonder, lose weight. Then I saw a t-shirt the other day said, "Fat people are harder to kidnap." I'm like, "I gotta protect myself." You know. I catch myself. So we got all of our goals. But here, here's the thing. Pastor Audi's not just our pastor, he's our trainer. You know, what a good trainer does is a good trainer pushes you a little bit further than you want to go on your own. You know, where you're like, "I'm gonna do one more." "No, you could do three more." Like, "No, seriously, that's good. This last one." You know, "Come on, you can do it." And the last one. You know, the one that hurt the worst, the one that you barely got back, that's the one that caused the most good or the most change to take place. You never seem to change you were looking for if you hadn't had someone that was willing to push you just a little bit further than you want to go on your own.

How many bands just cooking? How many since you've been at World Harvest, how many ever felt stretched a little bit? Blue? Those have your faith has been stretched, your mindset, your thinking, your spirit? Why? What does that mean? It means you got a good trainer. He's helping you develop it. So I encourage you, and I know you do, pray for your pastor. Pray for his family. Celebrate. I mean, it was awesome to see you celebrating what was happening in Elkhart, what he's doing up there. And say, "Pastor, we're with you. We're praying for you." Not all, man. He's not here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, celebrate that. Pray for him. I thank God for my trainer. They develop you. They help you develop. I'm bench-pressing now, probably, I don't know. I bench-press about 3:30 or 4 o'clock, right around that time. Everybody. But listen, I encourage you, pray for your pastor. What an honor it is for us to be here. It's good to have my beautiful wife here as well. Christy, stand up. Let everybody, let everybody see you. It's awesome. And she's an amazing preacher. Got an awesome, awesome testimony. I'd let her come preach, but say, "Hi." But it might, you might just want me to sit down. I didn't. It's my first chance to be here, so I don't want to mess it up. Uh, by then they'd invite her back instead of me. But if you got your Bible, look at this scripture in Ephesians. Let's get to this real quick. Ephesians chapter 3. Ephesians chapter 3. It's the scripture you've probably heard before, but I love the scripture. They kind of jumped out at me. There's a word in it that jumped out at me the other day that I think is really, really going to help us.

How many have found in life, everything's not perfect? Even when you become a Christian, do you know that? I thought when I became a Christian, everything would be perfect. Doesn't work that way. You know, the Bible says in John 16:33, "In the world you will have trials, tribulation, distress, and frustration." And we've ever had some, some tribulations? You've ever been on an airplane that hit turbulence? Yeah. What did you do when the plane hit turbulence? Grave business as good. Buckled up. You know, I held on. Let me ask you this. When the plane hit turbulence, did anybody get off right there? No. I got off. Ain't paper. Get on the airplane. And by, anybody ever hit some turbulence in life? Things got a little bumpy. Trials, tribulations, distress, frustrations. Things get a little bumpy. What do you do? The same thing. You pray. Buckle up. Hold on. You don't quit. You don't just, you don't just run off. I mean, things. I was on a plane the other day. Lady, she'd never flown before. And so we were talking for a few minutes. She's got never flown before. I said, "It's okay. I'm on the plane. It's gonna be fine." Cuz we talked for a few minutes. And, and I fall asleep pretty quick on the plane. The elder, I just, I kind of fell asleep in about 20 minutes into the flight. We had some turbulence, things started getting bumpy and shaking. She starts hitting me. Cuz, "Hey, hey, wake up!" "Oh my God!" She's like, "Do something!" "Oh, what, what are y'all beer dudes?" Cuz I don't know. Didn't you say you're a preacher? I'm like, "I'm a preacher. I'm not a pilot. I don't know what I could do about turbulence." She goes, "I don't know." She goes, "Just do something religious." I said, "All right." So I got up and took an offering. You don't listen. "In the world you will have trial, tribulation, distress, frustration." But what's it say after that? Says, "But be of good cheer." What's it say? "Be of good cheer." It looks lighten up, laugh your way to enjoy a little bit. But be of good cheer. He said, "I've already overcome the world. I've deprived it of power to harm you, and I've conquered it for you." I don't know about you, but that sounds like good news. That sounds like what he did on this thing right here, the cross. He said, "I've deprived it of power to harm you. I have conquered it for you." So even in the middle of your trials and tribulations. Plus, half the time we worry about things that never even happened anyway. Have you ever done that? Worried about something that didn't happen? A bad thing is it happened to you because you're worried about it? Your blood pressure still went up. You still got a headache. Your physiology. That's what the Bible said. Don't worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will take care of itself. Plus, all you got is today anyway. So why not enjoy today? Today is really all you got. You really don't even have it tomorrow because you get to tomorrow, you're just gonna rename it today. Since that in Psalms, and since this is the day that the Lord has made, I will... You know, that's a choice right there. That's a choice to rejoice. When I get up this morning, I made a choice to rejoice. I decided today it's gonna be a good day. Well, everything, this must be perfect for you. Well, of course not. Nothing's perfect for anybody. It's a choice. I decided. It took me my entire lifetime to get to today. So why not make the most of it? It took you 17 years, 72 years, 49 years, 29 years, however old you are, it took you that long to get here. Why not make the most out of today? Yesterday is in the tomb. Tomorrow's in the womb. Yesterday's history. Tomorrow's a mystery. All you got is today. So I make a choice to enjoy today. Like I said, things happen. I tripped over the ironing board the other day. That'll mess up your day. First thing in the morning. Just get up, your boat ironing board, that a mess. Appeal. I got a big cut on my side. Look, I got been stabbed. I get in a rough area. Like, where's that? Cleveland. Not Columbus. Cleveland. Last time I was in Cleveland, I wasn't there five minutes. This guy comes out to me, is like, "Hey, you want to buy some drugs?" I was like, "No, thanks." Officer. Um, that's different in Cleveland. But here's what I play. Listen. Little things happen to just get messed up your day all the time. Does mess up your, mess up your day. I rear-ended a car the other day. That'll mess up your day. I live, we live in Orlando, Florida, over by Disney. Disney. Where I rear-ended this car, and I'm, miss, I just kind of catching my bearings. All of a sudden, I see the guy get out of the car in front of me. He's all bad. He's like, come storming back to my car. I'm kind of catching my bearings, and he started banging on my window. Like, "What in the world?" I rolled the window down, and it was a dwarf. Look right there by my window. I was like, "Whoa." You know. And he looks at me, "Because I am not happy." And I was like, "Which one are you?" Listen, in life, we all go through these things and trials and tribulations. But be of good cheer. This, listen, this is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. So learn to celebrate today. Learn to celebrate. The particular. Look at the scripture, Ephesians chapter 3. Look at this. Ephesians chapter 3. I'm gonna, I'm gonna read this. I'm gonna read this from the Amplified Bible. I like the way it says it in the Amplified Bible. I never used to read the Amplified Bible because I thought it was a girl Bible, but I like the way. Not Joyce Meyer always uses it, so I figured it was a heart of Joyce. Joyce Meyer, she's got a little ministry he's trying to get going. It says, "This is not to him who by, in consequence of the action of his power that is at work within us, is able to carry out his purpose." I'm not like that. It'd be good to know the power of God is at work within you. That's what it says. It says, "The action of his power that is at work within us." "Greater is He that's in me than he that's in the world." Something on the inside is working on the outside. Something's happening on the inside. It's God's power working in us that we would be able to carry out his purpose. God's got a purpose for your life, a plan, a purpose. He didn't just put you here to take up space, to breathe air. He has got a divine assignment and purpose for your life. Two most important days in your life: the day you're born, the day you discover why. Why are you here? What's your purpose? I read the other day, 52% of Americans hate their jobs. 52% of people get up every day, go places they don't want to go, do things they don't want to do. Why? Because they're not doing what they love. When you do what you love, what you love rewards you. It's why it's so important to discover what it is. I mean, Michael Jordan loves basketball. Basketball rewards him. Bill Gates loves computers. Computers reward him. What is that you were created to do? What God's power is working in you so it will help you to be able to carry out his purpose and do super abundantly. I love that word right there in the Amplified. Super abundantly. Say that. Say, "Super abundantly." How many want to God, "I want to see God do some super abundant things in your life this year? Some super abundant things in our church this year?" I'd like to see more people get saved or baptized this year. More healings take place in World Harvest this year. More people get filled with the Holy Ghost. Silver a hard position. I mean, he said, "I want to do super abundantly." How many like to be happier this year? Healthier this year? More love in your home this year? More joy? More peace? I'd like to have more money this year than you had last year. Yeah. You won't go to hell for that either. It's fun. So you should talk about money in church. I mean, money is the root of all evil. That's not what it says. The Bible says the right, the love of money. Money itself is the root of good vacations. The other day, someone said, "You know, money is not the key to happiness." I said, "That's true. But if you got enough money, maybe you'd get a key made." Here's the thing. Money's not even supposed to make you happy. It's not even the purpose of money. If you read your Bible, the Bible said, "In His presence is where you find joy. That's where you find happiness." Has nothing to do with money. All money is is a tool. That's all this is. A tool. It's not a good tool or bad tool. It's just a tool. How you use the tool makes it good or makes it bad. It's like a hammer. A hammer is a hammer. How I use the hammer makes it a good hammer or makes it a bad hammer. I could use the hammer and I could build a home to rescue girls from human trafficking. Man, that makes it a great hammer. Same exact hammer to build a brothel that abuses the girls. Same hammer. It's how I choose to use it. Makes it good or makes it evil. It's my, it's my choice. So here's the thing with our resources. I can use it to help build God's house and build the kingdom of God here at World Harvest and do it God's way. What God's doing. Or I could use it for my own selfish gain. It's really my choice how I choose to use the tool. But if I choose to use it for good, you see the purpose of a water pipe is not to get wet. The purpose of a water pipe is to move water, lose water from one place to another place. The purpose of God's blessings in your life or not so you can get blessed, but so that you could be a blessing. Now, in the process of the water pipe moving water, how many other pipe gets wet? That's not the purpose of it. That's just part of the process. And in the process of me being a blessing, God blesses me. I get blessed. But I don't do it just to get blessed. I do it to be a blessing. And in the process of being a blessing, God blesses me. Wouldn't it be amazing? Pastor Rod gets up, goes, "Hey, we've got an opportunity to do this. It is. And with the church, and we're gonna, we need to raise two million dollars." I'm just, I'm just making this up. And wouldn't, how many like to be? "Okay, you know, Pastor Parson, put me down for a hundred thousand." Made like, "It's not the offering right now." I'm just second. The other people look, look nervous. He looks, "This a pledge. What is this?" I'm just asking. How they like to be able to? Well, of course, we would like to be able to do that. We like giving. It's just kind of. Well, how God made us. Giving is just part of who we are. For God loved the world so much that he gave. Me as a giver. So giving is just kind of who we are. So we like giving. But wouldn't it be amazing? I heard about a church. Got a telephone call. And the secretary answered the phone. And the guy said, "I like to speak to the head hog at the trough." So she said, "Excuse me, do you mean our pastor?" The guy said, "Yep, that's what I'm talking about. The head hog at the trough." She's like, "That's rude. That's our pastor. We love Him. We respect Him. We honor Him. We don't talk about Him like that. Can I help you with something?" He said, "Yeah, heard about the new building you just built up there at the church. I just wanted to make a hundred thousand dollar donation." And the secretary said, "Why didn't you say so? Let me check and see if Porky's in." Yeah. We're blessed to be a blessing. And it's in every, in every way. I remember the day I'm at a little talk, Taco Bell, little restaurant. Me and my little boy at the restaurant. And the lady next to me is planning a birthday party with her little boy. He's about 10 years old. And he had a list of 12 friends he want to bring to the birthday party. She said, "You can bring 10 friends to the birthday party." But I got 12 friends. She said, "Look, I can only afford this many pizzas. There's this many slices. That's this many friends." Well, he's 10 years old. He doesn't understand slices and pizza and all that. He just wants all of his friends there. And, and then I hear her. She starts getting frustrated because she wants to supply for him. She just doesn't have the resources. And then, and that's a list of the conversations. She's a single mom. It all came down to money, really. The whole thing. And all of a sudden, I'm sitting there, and it hits me. I said, "I'm a, I'm a man of God. I should be able to help with this situation." So I started thinking of things I could do. So I thought, "Well, first, I could go over to the table and I could introduce myself as a man of God and explain that I could pray over the pizza and multiply, possibly multiply the pizza so that she would have enough for his other two friends." We could also go through a list and maybe pray out two of his friends, maybe that weren't good for you. You know, I'm thinking of all these things. Up wisdom, wisdom. I could give her some wisdom. You know, if you slice the pizza in smaller slices, we get a few. Then all of a sudden, I remembered I had a hundred dollar bill in my pocket. I'm blessed to be a blessing. When God blesses you, he's got a lot more than you in mind. And so I remembered I had this one hundred dollar bill in my pocket. I just walked over to the table where they were sitting. I said, "Excuse me. I said, I don't mean to interrupt you. I wasn't dumb. I wasn't eavesdropping on your conversation. I was just listening to it." Yeah. Anyway, here's $100. Look, let him invite those other two friends and you guys just have a great birthday party. God bless you. And I just turned around and walked out because it wasn't about me. I wasn't like, "Hey, here's $100, and here's my card. Follow me on Instagram and Twitter and check out my YouTube channel." It wasn't about me. By the way, follow me on Instagram and Twitter. And then, but listen, that's not with this. I just left. She's like, looking like, "Who was that guy?" I'm sure she probably got home, told her, "For you, I can't believe this. I'm sitting there in Taco Bell, and this big bald angel showed up. Had $100." So God wants to bless us super abundantly so that we can be a blessing. Bible says to every good work, especially to building the house of God. So it goes on to say that he would do far over and above anything that we dare ask or think, infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams.

Now, there's a word back, just a couple of, a couple words back there, some parentheses in the Amplified Bible, but it says, "far over and above all that we dare ask or think." I like that word right there. Dare. Now, I'm from Mississippi. Now, I grew up in Mississippi. Now, down in Mississippi, we would dare people to do stuff. Y'all dare people to do stuff up here? I don't know about you, but we would double-dog dare some people. You've never been double-dog dared, you know what I'm talking about? He's got some. Look, I'm gonna dare you. Anything that you would dare ask or think. You know what kind of God gives you that kind of dare? A big God. A God that says, "With Him, all things are possible." That's not just something we sing or shout at church. That's something you really choose to believe. That with God, all things are possible. It needs to look. Anything you can think of, anything that you would even ask me for, I can do far over and above even that. Let me ask you this. How many are believe in the 2014 will be your best year yet? How many want to see God do more this year than they did for you last year? All right. For those for you, I'm gonna give you a little dare. For things. Take that word dare, D-A-R-E. I'm just gonna give you four things real quick. Four words. D-A-R-E. Writing down your page. Put them in your iPhone, however you take notes. These are four things. If you only for those that are willing to take the dare to believe that this year could be your best year yet. Now, here's the thing. If this year's gonna be different than last year, you have to do some things different this year. If you keep doing the same thing this year that you did last year, this year you'll be just like last year. So what are you gonna do different this year that you didn't do last year?

The letter D. The letter D is Decide. Decide. That's pretty easy. Decide what? There's a lot of things you can decide. I decided to make today a good day. That's a decision. You can just choose to be positive. You have a choice every morning when you wake up. "Good morning, Lord." "Good Lord, morning." And you decide right then about your thoughts, your mindset. Then. And I know a lot of times, and that's a continual thing, that renewing of your mind. I know a lot of times in the spirit-filled, charismatic, Pentecostal church, we thought it said to be transformed by the removal of your mind, but it actually says by the renewal of your mind. It's a change in the way you think. It's a change in the way that you look at things. Be transformed by the renewal of your mind. And so, yeah, I dare you to think different. But here's what I wanted to do. I'm gonna dare you to get hungry for godly wisdom. I'm gonna dare you to get hungry for wisdom. If you want this year to be different than last, you're gonna learn some things different this year. Get to do some things different this year. If I want tomorrow to be different than today, I've got to learn something today in order to make tomorrow different. If I do the same thing today and tomorrow that I did today, tomorrow's gonna be just like today. I won't have it tomorrow. I just have a longer today. So I try to learn something every day. Proverbs chapter 1 tells me that that if I'm smart, I want to get smarter. Proverbs chapter 1, verse summarize that. "A wise man will increase in learning." A wise man will increase in learning. So a wise woman, a wise person. So we want to get. How many like to be smarter than y'all right now? How many like to be doing better than you're doing right now? Okay. If you're not doing as well as you'd like to be doing, all that means is there's something you don't know. If you're not doing as well as you'd like to be doing, just means. When I heard that, I went from being a know-it-all to being to learn-it-all. Obviously, there were some things I didn't know. So I, Proverbs 2 says, "The Lord grant you a spirit of wisdom." Proverbs 3 tells us, "Wisdom's more valuable than silver. It's more profitable than gold. It's more precious than rubies." And nothing I could wish for is as valuable as wisdom. So it tells me wisdom is pretty valuable. I should have, I should invest in wisdom. If those kind of things are things you would invest in. I've invested in real estate and I've lost a lot of money. I've invested in in the stock market, lost money. I've invested in a lot of things. One thing I've invested in that I've never lost is when I invested in my mind. When I invested in my thinking. It's amazing. You want to change your life, change where you think. It's all. I try to learn something every day. Proverbs 4, "Look, whatever you do, get wisdom." Says, "Wisdom is the principal thing." Says, "Wisdom will protect you." Proverbs 4, verse 6. "Wisdom will promote you." Proverbs 4, verse 8. Proverbs 4, verse 7 says, "Whatever you do, get wisdom." Three ways you can get wisdom. Let me give you three ways you can get. Get wisdom. And like I said, if we learn something today, I, I learned the other, I guess I'm always trying to learn something. I learned the other day, you're more likely to get shot by a fat cop if you run. There's always something to learn. You know, I learned that everybody spells her name the same. Like I like to go back. I'll go back afterwards wherever the resource table. Let's not go back and sign books. I like to sign books and meet people. And when you're signing books and people spell their name a lot of different ways, the same name could be like three different ways. You know, Cheryl can be a couple different ways. Shawn can be three or four ways. Amy can be four, five ways. You know, all these names got all these different ways to spell them. And then so, so I'm always learning new things. So I'm at Starbucks the other day, and there's a new girl in there. And we're just talking for a second. She had a little badge on, you know, trainee. And so I was kidding with her because I was like, "That's funny. You know, your mom named you Trainee." "Hey, hey, Co." She looked at me, she said, "It's Tren-a." Like, how would I have ever known? I'm just saying, there's always something to learn. There's always something to learn. And here's the thing about wisdom. There's wisdom for every area of your life. A lot of times, the only problem you really ever have is a wisdom problem. You don't really have financial problems, you got wisdom problems. You don't really have health problems, you've got wisdom problems. A lot of times, you don't have marriage problems, you just got wisdom problems. And you'll find the more wisdom you have, the less miracles you'll need. Now, I believe in miracles. I thank God for miracles. I got a new book coming out on miracles. I believe that. But I found this. How many ever said this? "If I knew back then what I know now." If you don't have the wisdom back then, you never ended up in the position you were in, praying for a miracle. So the more wisdom you have, the less miracles you'll need. So no matter what it is. How many married people are in here? Married people? Okay. A lot of married people in this earth. How many single people? Any single people? Okay. Got some. He men's married people, single people. Amen. Anyway, I mean, married people. How many, I mean, you and your spouse are totally different? I mean, needed some wisdom to me. My wife and I, night and day different. We needed a lot of wisdom. She's from New York, I'm from Mississippi. Different. She's a northerner, I'm a southerner. Different. My dad's a preacher, my grandfather's a preacher. Her dad's a heathen. Her grandpa different. She grew up wealthy. We grew up poor. As we thought, you're supposed to be poor. Poor people go to heaven. What they told us. They told her, "We did everything we could to stay broke." We were trying to get to heaven. My dad to give us batteries for Christmas, "Toys not included." He used to tell us, "If the ice cream truck was playing music, that meant they were out." Bad. You know, that's just back. So we grew up different. We had to learn how to work this thing out. We needed some, we needed some wisdom. We needed wisdom. So there's wisdom. I mean, for everything. Single people, there's all kind of wisdom in the Bible for you. Whatever, whatever area. Whatever's pastry. There's even good pickup lines in the Bible if you need them. You know what I'm saying? First, the Bible's got everything. You know, like the other day, I was reading The Book of Numbers, and I realized, "I don't have yours." That's a Christian pickup line right there. It's right there in the Bible. Like, "Your name must be Faith because you're the substance of things I've hoped for." It's all right there in the Bible. Yeah. Hey, hey, girl, I think you got one of my ribs. Okay. All right. So listen, whatever you do, get wisdom. Three ways to get wisdom. Three ways to get wisdom. Number one. Number one, you can get it from mistakes. Slowest way to get it, but that is one way you can get it. You can get it from making mistakes. Number two, you can get it from someone else's mistakes. I would, how many we rather learn from Pastor Parsley's mistakes than your own? Yeah. Of course. That'd save us all a lot of time, wouldn't it? That's called mentorship. So God puts people in our life to teach us, to mentor us, to train us, so we don't have to make the same mistakes. Save you a whole lot of time. Third way to get wisdom is you can buy wisdom. I love that. I can buy wisdom. What took him years to figure out, I can go in Barnes & Noble and buy his book and learn in two, three hours. I'd be crazy not to buy a book. That's what I love. Pastor Parsley takes the revelation, the hours and hours, say, puts it in a book. We can all buy the book. And in a moment, in a few hours, we can look what took him hours and hours. We can figure out in a few hours. You see, that's the value of information. The Bible tells us to a, it's more viable than silver, it's more profitable than gold, it's more precious than rubies. I was at a meeting one time with a guy named Peter J. Daniels. I'm gonna finger, ever heard of Peter J. Daniels? Few people. He's a wealthy businessman from Australia. Went to a seminar. He did cost me about three thousand dollars to go to the seminar. At the seminar, he's teaching and training, and I'm, I'm learning. I'm like, "Oh, that's good. That's good. That's good." And, and then all of a sudden, at the end of it, I got some books and CDs. "Make yourself available to those." Told us what he had in the back. So soon as it was over, I grabbed my friends. "Come on, I got to get that stuff." If you're not doing as well as you'd like to be doing, it means there's something you don't know. He's doing better than I'm doing, so obviously he knows something I don't know. So I run back to the table. Said, "Give me everything." They said, "You want everything?" I said, "Everything." He knows something I don't know. My friend with me said, "You're getting everything?" Is it? I don't know. They're adding it up. They add it up. They said, "It'll be $1,600 for everything on the table." I said, "Okay. That's more valuable than silver, it's more profitable than gold, it's more precious than rubies." So the Bible just told me it's worth it. So, okay, I'll take it. Off my friend said, "You're crazy. You think it's worth it?" I said, "I don't know, but I think I'm worth it." So don't buy a book or a CD or a teaching series because I think the papers were through the material. I buy because I think I'm worth it. If I don't believe I'm worth $20, why would anybody else think I'm worth $20? If I don't believe I'm worth the investment, why would someone else believe I'm worth the investment? So I bought everything. I started listening to it. I mean, I got a lot of good stuff off of it. I got some good ideas. I got, I got one idea that I put together, and I sold the idea within about, within about eight months. This idea produced me over three hundred thousand dollars. They praise the Lord. Got a little jealous about that, aren't you? Let me, I says, "How many be happy if you got the three hundred thousand dollar idea?" That's what I thought. How many be happy if you just got like a fifty thousand dollar idea? Right. Let me just hope you have an idea before you die. I got a hope. I think of something. Here's the thing. You'll always invest in what you find valuable. Three ways to see yourself. You can see yourself the way other people see you, which may be good, maybe not. What other people think about you is really none of your business. We worried about what everyone else thinks. How you see yourself. I think it was Eleanor Roosevelt said, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." So quit worrying about what everyone else thinks. How you see yourself. Again, is important. You want to have a good self-esteem, good confidence in yourself. I mean, but we've all had things happen to us or said to us or done to us that could affect our self-esteem. I mean, I mean, I think one time in high school, a girl broke up with me. You got breaking up with you, got low self-esteem. Like, "Great, that helped." Another time in high school, this girl come and she goes, "Hey, come over to my house. Nobody's home." I went over there. There wasn't nobody home. She wasn't even there. No one was there. That's hurtful. That's damaging to your self-esteem. So you go through things that affect you, affect your self-esteem. But look, I'm not gonna look at myself the way other people see me, even how I see me. If I could get a picture of myself the way God sees me. See the picture God has of me. I got a picture up in heaven. God's got all of our pictures up, up on the wall. And the picture he has of you has already been touched up a little bit. He's already removed all the wrinkles of weakness. He's taking out all the blemishes of failure. The picture God has of you is a picture of perfect success. So one would be to see myself the way I see me, would be confidence. To see myself the way God sees me, would be God-fidence. There's a difference in having a confidence and having a God-fidence. When I have a God-fidence, it's not just knowing who I am, it's knowing who's I am. Because my position in life is determined by my position in Christ. So when I know who I am in Christ, I walk different. I think different. I act different. I talk different. So begin to see yourself the way God sees you and live. I was doing some coaching. We do coaching with different people. Doing some coaching. Remember, remember Lou Ferrigno? Lou Ferrigno. And he was telling me just how his life. At nine years old, his dad was very abusive, verbally abusive. And he was deaf. Couldn't, couldn't speak correctly. His dad would just abuse him, talking, "You'll never make anything of yourself." And he said, "Somehow, about 12 or 13, I got a picture myself the way God saw me." And what a lot of people do is they lower the picture God has with them down to how they see themselves. But he said, "I decided to live into the picture they got ahead of me." If we could begin to live into the picture that God has of us, see ourselves the way God sees us, it all starts with a decision. Make a decision to get wisdom. Make a decision. And there's wisdom for every area of your life.

The letter A. I got to give you these last two, three real quick. The letter A is Accept Responsibility. Accept responsibility. What do you need to change? What need to do different there? The dads on the doctors. I was getting a physical. He said, "You need to lose 25 pounds." I thought, "Well, that's my wife's fault. She's a good cook." I could blame her for the problem. I could blame Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. Those are good, aren't they? That red light, the flashes. Y'all have those up here? The red light. It's the flames of hell. That red light is the flames of the devil. Make Krispy Kreme to kill you. That's what. Listen, I could blame. But listen, my decision yesterday to eat the donut got me to play Sam today. 25 pounds overweight. Through my decisions, starting today, begin to shape my future tomorrow. I could blame the government. I could blame the.

economy. I could blame poor parenting. I could blame God. All people blame all kinds of people for their problems. Some choose to accept responsibility and make the changes that they need to make to do the things that they need to do.

The letter R. The letter R. Y'all get anything out of this? I love this one. The letter R. Respond. And these are just these are just four things. If you want 2014 to be better than 2013, these are just four things that you're gonna need. Four things would help you.

Number one, the letter D was what? Decide. You had decided to get wisdom. Decide to invest in yourself, to to learn, to get in the word, to get IQ miles. I got 4,000 books, thousands of CDs, DVDs. I got to get, I got to get wisdom. The Bible tells us, valuable.

The letter A was what? Accept responsibility. Accept responsibility.

The letter R. Respond with generosity. How? Let me ask you. You asked earlier, how many like giving? I miss you. Have you liked giving? If you look at all those hands, how many like to be able to give more this year than you gave last year? Yeah, we all love to be able to give more. I, that's what it really is about. It's about responding to God with generosity. My giving is just a response, thanking him for what I've got. You know, that's how this whole tithing and giving whole thing started back with Abraham. Abraham said, "God, thank you." He never read the Bible. It wasn't written yet. He hadn't, he hadn't bought any books or anything like that. He said, "God, thank you. You've been so good to me." And he responded with generosity.

Now, I grew up in church. Things that my dad's a preacher, and I learned about tithing, offering, topping off. And you better pay your tithe or God will kill you. That's how we learned. We were scared. God was like The Godfather, the Mafia, and toddlers like protection money. Give those money. Well, we go to kids church. They taught us songs. As kids, you don't got to take it out of your heart. If you don't pay your tithe, you know, umm, that's so that's how we learnt. We didn't learn the joy of giving. It was like, "You better." It's like a money test. Could you pass the money test? And you, you really think about it. I mean, this gotta really need your money. We got owns everything. Sound like God's pace in heaven going, "Oh man, hope Dave tides. We just bought all these new robes for the angels. These streets, I mean, people gonna be coming up here before you know it. These streets are gonna have to be fixed, repaved. And price of gold these days." Just, you know, God doesn't need my money. God owns everything.

When I give to God, as Elder gave us an opportunity earlier to respond to God with generosity, to bring God my tithe, that's easy to do. I know that's ten percent. That's not a hard thing for Dukes. I understand everything I've got came from God. The fact that I woke up this morning, I could breathe because of him. So to bring a little portion back is not a hard thing for me to do. It's easy. That's all he even asked for. That's all. Yeah. You know, that's always a respond to me. Honor me by bringing tithes and offerings. I respond. Bring my temperature map to God. He opens up heaven over my life. I mean, one thing, windows of heaven open over your life. I may ever had a window at home that wouldn't stay open? I'm here to put a book in it or a stick or something, you know, to keep it open. And even that's kind of like when I tied. What I do is God opens up the windows of heaven. But when I miss, all of a sudden the window shuts. Then I tie, the opens up the windows of heaven. And then I miss a couple weeks, and the window shuts. Now, here's a problem. If I'm not consistently honoring God with my time, the windows going up and down, up and about. The time God gets ready to part a blessing on me, I don't have room enough to receive. What if my window is shut? Oh.

So here's what tithing does. Basically, what tithing, it puts a stick in the window. How many want to keep the windows of heaven open over your life? Now, I asked earlier, how many believe the Bible? Y'all lifted ran, said you believe the Bible. How many believed God rose to help you? Yeah, we all believe God rose to help us. We all don't tithe. Okay. All right. Never. I got it. Hold on. I'm just, I'm just saying, if we believe it and we believe he wants to help us, he's like, "Look, I'm trying to help you. Trust me." He said, "Look, even said, proved me. See if I'm not telling the truth. I'm gonna open up heaven, par blessing."

Now, when I begin to understand that, will Christina nine years ago, we lived in a little government-assisted apartment. This is our story. Seventeen years ago, we lived in this little government-assisted apartment, government subsidized housing. How much you may determine how much you paid for rent. Just getting our ministry started, Dave Martin International. Your people laugh, says like international. Where y'all been? We've been nowhere. Canada once. You got to have a dream. You know, it's a small minutes drive. Did everything. Answer my own phones. You know, Dave Mart International. Can I speak with Dave? A woman, please. Hmm. Hello. This is Dave. I'm our mystery. I used to lay hands on people, run behind them, catch them all by myself. That's a small ministry. You got to do it all by yourself like that. But in that little apartment, we begin to honor God with our time. We understood that part. And above that, we begin to bring God an offering. Two dollars. That's all we had above our tithe. But we begin to bring God two dollars every week consistently above our time. Tithing opens up the windows of heaven. I believe your offering determines what comes out the window. So your increase comes through your seat. Anything above your tithe, your tithe is the base. Now, above that, we begin to create increase. We had two dollars, two dollars, two dollars. A few months, I said, "Honey, I think we could give five dollars today." She said, "Really?" I said, "Little, we got a little extra." She was, "Well, let's do it." We gave $5, $5, $5, $10, $20. I remember one day they were taking up a special offering at church. And then our faith is up there. And and I said, "I think we're supposed to give $100." Oh, $100. All at one time. Not a pledge. We just gave a whole hundred in the offering. That was huge. But we just kept giving. Guy kept blessing us.

I remember, I remember years ago, and when Pastor Rod first got the the this revelation and the resurrection seed offering. I remember watching him on television. I never met him, just watching on television. And he shared this. And I talking about people giving a week's income. A week's income. My wife and we make $500 a week combined in this little government and since. If we gave a week's income, or what, what in the world? And I remember hearing him say that. A man, my faith will be built. But then I'll be that old. I don't know. Well, I love to give into that anointing and give into that man. I got some things I believe. Oh, man, that's big. That's big. And then I'll never forget the day God spoke to Christine and I to plant $500 a week of our income. And there was, and and our faith was built up. And here we go. And in this became a resurrection seed. $500. Now, here's the thing. We had five hundred and three dollars in our account. When you have five hundred and three dollars and God asks for five hundred, you want to make sure he knows what he's doing. You know, I remember I kind of leave my checkbook up toward heaven so you can see how much I had in there. He said, "He already knew how much I had." That's why I didn't ask for more. I'm writing the cheque. Incus smearing the tears. B-but God loves a cheerful giver. Whatever I can't find anywhere in the Bible where he doesn't love uncheered forgivers. I will tell you this, if you're happy every time you give, you don't give a lot. There's a lot of times I hadn't been happy. When you have 503 and he wants 500 of it. Willing? Yes. Obedient? Fine. Happy? No. I'm writing that check. Because people, you shouldn't cry when you give to God. I said, "I'm not. I'm just watering my seed." Five hundred dollars. We had no idea what I was gonna do, how God was gonna do. We're $32,000 in debt, living in this little apartment. And here we go. A resurrection seed. A week of our income. And we sow the $500. And I don't have time to tell you the whole story. But I can't. A one little thing. My wife walks into Walmart. Just couple weeks after that. Walks into Walmart to get some Walmart stuff, whatever that is. Walmart stuff. She's in there. Lady comes up to her. The video camera says, "Hey, would you be willing to audition for a Walmart commercial?" She said, "Well, I don't know what you got to do." "Just go over here and shop." Her and her friend hers. "Just go here and shop for a cup. If we're gonna videotape, we got people at 20 Walmarts around the country just looking for two friends." So he, when they go over and do it, they filming. They come home, tell me about it. And I kind of laughed at him cuz you don't go to Walmart, be back. It's gonna be in commercials. I've been to Walmart a hundred times. I kind of feel like I'm commercial material. So we're kind of having that work. Three days later, we get a telephone call from Walmart. Out of all the Walmarts in the country, out of all the people, her and her friend are chosen for this Walmart commercial. They said, "Can you be a Walmart?" Friday morning, 8 o'clock. They said, "We'll be there." They go down there Friday morning, 8 o'clock, looking for the lady with the video camera. Half of Walmart's blocked off. There's lights, there's cameras. They, they, they. "We're here for the commercial." They said, "We'll come right this way." They said, "Who else is in?" They said, "Nobody's just YouTube." They so, "Older, we got to do?" They so, "We're just gonna shop and talk about how much you love Walmart. We're gonna videotape you." Anyway, make a long story short. The end of the day, they think that we're coming. Handed them both a check for $800. Now we just sewn 500. Now we've got back 800. And and on top of that, that's the first time she ever went shopping, came home with more money than she left with. So there's a little favor mixed in that as well. You know, so they said, "By the way, this is going to be a national commercial. Which means every time it airs, you're going to get paid for it. We just need you to sign these papers. Please sign papers." They came home and they were, she was tell me about it. I said, "How much they go to pay?" She said, "I don't know." "That we got to call Monday. They'll tell us if it's on national, if it's on a cable, it's just much. If it's on a network, it's this much." And she tells. So we're, we're kind of sitting in church on Sunday, just like this. And all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit says, he says, "How much would you like that commercial to make?" So that, "I don't know how much I'd like it to me. I don't know how much commercial makes." But you know, in the words of the great theologian Donald Trump, "If you're gonna be thinking anyway, you might as well think big." And so I'm thinking, man, maybe like, "Christine coming to a Walmart near you." You know, her own clothing line. I don't know what's going to happen. I'm believing big. And God speaks, "Just to plant the seed." We planted a seed that day. Now we needed a big harvest. We didn't have the big harvest yet. But we had to do something to get the big harvest started. Sow a seed. Begin to produce for us. We planted. We plant that morning. Anyway, the commercial ends up Aaron airs for thirteen weeks. By the end of the first two weeks, we'd already got checks in the mail for over five thousand dollars. The commercial keep saying father. By the end of the, by the end of the thirteen weeks, we got in chicks in the mail. By the end of thirteen weeks, we've gotten over fifteen thousand dollars from Walmart. Now we're almost halfway out of debt. But remember, just a few weeks ago, God spoke to us about a seed. That five hundred dollars. When God speaks to you about a seed, he's got a harvest on his mind. You know, resurrection seed offering is coming up. And God speaking to your heart. And you're listening to his voices. What, what is God? What does God say? Because when God speaks to you about a seed, he's got a harvest on his mind. That commercial ready. It's a, it's amazing. You next time you never know how God's gonna bless you. You know, that's we sort of living like that. You never next time you go to Walmart, you fix your hair, do your makeup, you know, you can I know every time I'm there, I walk by the security cameras. I just never know. Never know how God.

Okay, kind of reminds me. You probably heard about the little old lady that lived next door to the atheist. Atheists would hear pray all the time. So I'm so tired of hearing this lady pray all the time. Praying to God, there is no God. One day, the lady is praying for groceries, yummy food. She's praying for groceries. And the atheist thought, "I'll prove her once and for all. There is no God." So he went to the grocery store. He bought two bags of groceries. He brought the grocery over, put him on her steps, rang the doorbell, hid in the bushes. She came out, found the groceries. She started thanking God for the groceries and praising God for the groceries. He jumped out the bushes, said, "I got you." She said, "What?" He means, "They, God didn't bring you those groceries. I bought those groceries. I bought them. I brought them over here. I put them on your steps. God had nothing to do with this." That little old lady looked down under groceries. She go to the atheist. She said, "Thank you, Lord, for the groceries. And thanks for making the devil pay for it." You just never know.

We learned to respond with generosity. God begin to bless us. I'm read the first time we gave a thousand dollars. I'm her the first time we gave 25. We've been saving that up. Now, here's what we did learn. Ephesians six eight says, "What you make help me for others, God will make happen for you." And we learn what we made happen for God's house, God begin to make happen for our house. We saved up that twenty-five hundred dollars for a car. We were sitting in service, just enjoying the praise and worship. All the sudden, the Holy Spirit says, "You know the money I've saved for your car?" I said, "Yeah." He said, "Put it in the building front of church." I turn the music up. I'll try to Christine leader says, "God telling you anything?" That's how one knows. He tell you anything. She's, "I think we're supposed to give $2,500. Our card money is." Oh, right in the check. Watered my seed. $2,500. It wasn't long after that till we got our first apartment. A nice apartment. Real apartment. Out of a government assisted apartment. Our own apartment. We were in that apartment for a little while. I remember when God spoke to us to plan a $10,000 seat in the church. We begin to build God's house. We begin to be planned that $10,000 hours. He went along after that. We got our first house. Incredible miracle how we got this house. No money down. And they owner financed it and gave it to us for. We moved in with more equity than we owed on the house. I'm about you, but I call that favor, baby. My seed began to produce for me.

I remember, I remember sitting in church, our church's building. You sinner good meet you sir. And and they're gonna build 3.2 million dollar Youth Center. And and they want to do it cash. And we're sitting there. No sudden Christine leans over says, "I think God wants us to give $25,000 to the youth center." I don't feel that. We begin to pray. God said, "I want you to form at twenty-five thousand." One longer that till we got our next house. God begin to bless us. See, as the blessings flow through you, the process blessings get on you. And I don't have time to take the whole story. But we kept. What our goal is to give $100,000. We just kept stretching our faith. There's a few years before we're able to give our first hundred thousand dollars. I never dreamed I'd even have a hundred thousand dollars, let alone be able to so do the house of God. But we would continue to build God's house. And it wasn't long ago, just about six months ago, that we were able to move into our new house. We live in now. And we were able to move in it completely debt-free, cash into our new house. When God speaks to you about a scene, he's got a harvest on his mind.

Let me give you the last one. That I'm gonna pray for you. Number one was what was it again? Cuz I'm out of time. Oh, my goodness. And I come. Decide. Decide to get wisdom. Number two. Accept. Oh, by the way, those you decide to get wisdom. I only brought a few of these little, these little sets with the. I encourage it. They're not for everybody. But those are like to make an investment in yourself. Make an investment in your mind and your own thinking. This is just a little set we put together. I wrote this book a couple years ago called the 12 Traits of the Greats. 12 Traits of the Greats. I took over 500 hours and I studied great achievers. Just things in their life that were common in their life. It's not about people. You can be famous and not be great. There's Ayumi great, not be famous. So it's not about people. It's about the traits. Although there are examples. I'll tell you where Jim Carrey, the actor, use one of these traits. But I traced the trait all the way back to Abraham. He's the first person to use the exact same trait. Donald Trump use one of these traits. That King David used. Everyone up there in the Bible. Everyone. There's no greater source of success in the Word of God. The principles of God's Word. There's a difference between the person of Jesus and the principles of Jesus. The person of Jesus prepares you for heaven. The principles of Jesus prepare you for Earth. So God gives us these principles to help us. And so I put them together in here. 12 different traits. Things like responsibility. Responsibility. We taught about that. Mindset. How many, how many would it make you've ever limited your own yourself from your own mindset, your own thinking? So I want to tell you about how to stretch your thinking, how to develop a greater mindset, an increased mindset. We'll talk about passion. You wonder why you're here. I give you seven questions to ask yourself to discover your purpose. We talked about relationships. No one succeeds alone. Focus. The only reason people fail. Broken focus. Ah, courage. Persistence. All those kind of traits in here. There were common among great achievers. I put them in this book. And then we developed this book into a coaching program. That's my passion. Is to help resource people to become better. And so I put the whole thing together. You get the book. If you get the whole coaching program, you get a workbook that goes with it. How many remember better when you write stuff down? Yeah. So we got a workbook. You go through, you fill that out. I've got 12 DVD coaching sessions. So I can't sit down with each of you individually. We've done coaching with anywhere from MBA athletes to NASCAR drivers to Mary Kay Cosmetics, all kind of different things. We put this together in twelve sessions. So you put it into 12 weeks. You take a trade a week. Put the DVD in. Me and you'll sit down. I'll coach you through that. That trait. You have an audio to put in your car to listen to. I may have ever watched a movie four or five times. How many saw things the fifth time you didn't see the first four times? You put the deepness CD in your car, listen to it all week, over and over and over again. Till you get sick and tired of hearing it. When you get sick and tired of hearing it, you're just then starting to get it. So you got to hear it over and over again. Anyway, all all four ways. You get an audio, that the videos, the workbook, and the book. We put it all together in this, in this 12-week coaching program. And like I said, we got, I think we only brought it like maybe two boxes. I think 40-something of them with us. So if that's you, you're into that and understand the value of investing in your mind, your mindset, wisdom. That's available back there. I encourage you. I'll be back there. Sound books and say hello to you. Normally, if we're the corporate event, it sells for $400. Of wordid. If you go to our website, the whole coaching program is four hundred dollars. At church, we always do it for half price. Because church people always want to deal anyway. You can get the whole 12-week coaching program while we have them left back there for just two hundred dollars. So that's half price. Say thank you. At least be grateful. It's half price. And it, those of you that will make the investment in yourself. I'm gonna make an investment. You can't buy this DVD. But I'll give it to you for free when you buy the the coaching system. I'm gonna throw this in with it. This is just, we filmed this in a little church down in Houston called Lakewood. And they were going through some struggles. And so I went in to help them. And and ever since I've been there and preached there, the church is just taking off. Any people have heard of Joel Osteen now. Thanks to me. And uh, that's a joke. Anyways, a lot of fun. It's called a night of hope and humor. And it's a lot of fun. We filmed it down there. And you get this for free if you get the coaching system back there. Let me, let me give this last one. Let me pray. And then he whacks that they're all in the back. Jean, do check, cash, credit card, first-class upgrades on Delta. We'll take.

Number one was what was it again? Cuz I'm out of time. Oh, my goodness. And I come. Decide. Decide to get wisdom. Number two. Accept. Oh, by the way, those you decide to get wisdom. I only brought a few of these little, these little sets with the. I encourage it. They're not for everybody. But those are like to make an investment in yourself. Make an investment in your mind and your own thinking. This is just a little set we put together. I wrote this book a couple years ago called the 12 Traits of the Greats. 12 Traits of the Greats. I took over 500 hours and I studied great achievers. Just things in their life that were common in their life. It's not about people. You can be famous and not be great. There's Ayumi great, not be famous. So it's not about people. It's about the traits. Although there are examples. I'll tell you where Jim Carrey, the actor, use one of these traits. But I traced the trait all the way back to Abraham. He's the first person to use the exact same trait. Donald Trump use one of these traits. That King David used. Everyone up there in the Bible. Everyone. There's no greater source of success in the Word of God. The principles of God's Word. There's a difference between the person of Jesus and the principles of Jesus. The person of Jesus prepares you for heaven. The principles of Jesus prepare you for Earth. So God gives us these principles to help us. And so I put them together in here. 12 different traits. Things like responsibility. Responsibility. We taught about that. Mindset. How many, how many would it make you've ever limited your own yourself from your own mindset, your own thinking? So I want to tell you about how to stretch your thinking, how to develop a greater mindset, an increased mindset. We'll talk about passion. You wonder why you're here. I give you seven questions to ask yourself to discover your purpose. We talked about relationships. No one succeeds alone. Focus. The only reason people fail. Broken focus. Ah, courage. Persistence. All those kind of traits in here. There were common among great achievers. I put them in this book. And then we developed this book into a coaching program. That's my passion. Is to help resource people to become better. And so I put the whole thing together. You get the book. If you get the whole coaching program, you get a workbook that goes with it. How many remember better when you write stuff down? Yeah. So we got a workbook. You go through, you fill that out. I've got 12 DVD coaching sessions. So I can't sit down with each of you individually. We've done coaching with anywhere from MBA athletes to NASCAR drivers to Mary Kay Cosmetics, all kind of different things. We put this together in twelve sessions. So you put it into 12 weeks. You take a trade a week. Put the DVD in. Me and you'll sit down. I'll coach you through that. That trait. You have an audio to put in your car to listen to. I may have ever watched a movie four or five times. How many saw things the fifth time you didn't see the first four times? You put the deepness CD in your car, listen to it all week, over and over and over again. Till you get sick and tired of hearing it. When you get sick and tired of hearing it, you're just then starting to get it. So you got to hear it over and over again. Anyway, all all four ways. You get an audio, that the videos, the workbook, and the book. We put it all together in this, in this 12-week coaching program. And like I said, we got, I think we only brought it like maybe two boxes. I think 40-something of them with us. So if that's you, you're into that and understand the value of investing in your mind, your mindset, wisdom. That's available back there. I encourage you. I'll be back there. Sound books and say hello to you. Normally, if we're the corporate event, it sells for $400. Of wordid. If you go to our website, the whole coaching program is four hundred dollars. At church, we always do it for half price. Because church people always want to deal anyway. You can get the whole 12-week coaching program while we have them left back there for just two hundred dollars. So that's half price. Say thank you. At least be grateful. It's half price. And it, those of you that will make the investment in yourself. I'm gonna make an investment. You can't buy this DVD. But I'll give it to you for free when you buy the the coaching system. I'm gonna throw this in with it. This is just, we filmed this in a little church down in Houston called Lakewood. And they were going through some struggles. And so I went in to help them. And and ever since I've been there and preached there, the church is just taking off. Any people have heard of Joel Osteen now. Thanks to me. And uh, that's a joke. Anyways, a lot of fun. It's called a night of hope and humor. And it's a lot of fun. We filmed it down there. And you get this for free if you get the coaching system back there. Let me, let me give this last one. Let me pray. And then he whacks that they're all in the back. Jean, do check, cash, credit card, first-class upgrades on Delta. We'll take.

The last letter E is expectation. I heard someone say one time that expectation was the breeding ground for miracles. I remember who that was. Me. The first time I heard Pastor Parsley say that. Am I now begin to understand the power of my expectation? We begin to mix expectation with our generosity. Then when we sow, we could expect a harvest to come in return. That as we gave, it would come back to us. And we begin to give generously. And I told you about some different levels. And I remember, I remember the $25,000. I wanted to give $25,000 to the youth center. We didn't have $25,000 the day God spoke to us to do that. We didn't have $25,000. And I said, "God, we don't have $25,000." We began to talk. We begin to pray. You know, we have, we had $10,000. There, $10,000. God said, "I want you to give the $10,000 as a seed to begin to produce the rest of what you need." And then we did that. At $25,000, we also did that. The first time we gave $1,000. First time we gave a thousand, we didn't happen. We didn't have a thousand dollars. We gave what we have. We had about two hundred dollars. And God says, "You know what? Start with that. As you begin to show that, I'll begin to multiply it." It went along after that. We got a $300 check in the mail. We weren't expected. Now we've got $500 toward our thousand. All those up. We're just believing God. Another check comes in for 115. Now we're 650 toward our goal. And we just begin to respond. Scott blessed us. See, a lot of times you think you got a harvest when all God was giving you was a seed. If it's not enough to meet your need, it's just a seed. If it's not enough to pay off your house or your car or whatever you're inside, it's not enough. It's a seed. Guy can begin to multiply that. And I could tell you time and time again of incredible miracles that happened in our life because we responded. You know, as we're in resurrection seed time, what an incredible miracle atmosphere, a place of expectation that we can begin to sow and begin to believe God.

I could tell you time and time again that Christine and I. Yeah, I'll never forget the time we were in a meeting. We heard of teaching on the thousand times more blessing. I shared this the other day with Pastor ah, you'll see it coming on breakthrough. I shared this testimony with him. And I'm a close with this and pray for you. We were in a meeting and they were teaching the thousand times more blessing. I thought that that's what I need. I need a thousand times more. What? I don't know if that's more of a lot of things. Healing, favor, money, joy. And I thought, "Mean, let's give $1,000." Well, we didn't have a thousand dollars. And all of a sudden, I said, "God, what can we do?" And he spoke to me, said, "I want you to give $111." Like a hundred eleven dollars. That's weird. Give me an even number. 100, 150, 111. Just kind of a weird number. And all of a sudden, I'm like, "God, I'll do it." Because I know God's voice. And I asked Christine. She was wise. "God saying, dude, let's just do it." And so we're writing the check. All the sudden, God says, "Look at the scripture you just heard." All Roberts actually had just been teaching the scripture from Deuteronomy chapter 1, verse 11. "111th, the Lord would bless you and make you a thousand times more than you are right now." And I remember, sow in that seed $111. He said, "Right in the corner, you check." Got spoke me to write Deuteronomy 111. He said, "I want you to sow this for favor." Cuz favor will bring you anything else you do need. And that became a favor seat for us. We sowed $111. Wrote favor on it. Wrote my name. He said, "What about your wife?" I said, "What about her?" They said, "Don't you want her to that favor?" I said, "Well, of course. I want everybody with one flesh. You have some of my favor." He said, "Plan another one. Put your wife's name on it." So he sowed a second hundred and eleven dollars. Deuteronomy 111. Favor. I wrote Christine's name on. He said, "What about your ministry?" I said, "Well, we are the ministry." God, he's a plan a third one. Put you think I didn't have any kids yet at that time? You know, could have been a big list. And and so we, that day, we sold three hundred and thirty-three dollars. Three $111 seats. We said, "God, we're believing you for favor." This was when we still lived in that little government-assisted apartment. And God began. That that seed began to unleash not a season, not even a moment, that it began to release a lifetime of favor in our life. Favor's not a one-time event. Favor's a lifestyle. I could teach you. Maybe I'll get to come back sometimes. I love to teach you just for all day on the favor of God. And I've got a new book out on favor. And you just recognize God's favor. One more. Whatever you recognize, you become thankful. Whatever you think before increases in your life. Favor can change your medical report. Sarah's barren and her wound couldn't produce a child. Guy showed her favor. She had a child. You got cancer today? Guys show your favor. Be gone tomorrow. Favor can restore relationships. Favor is one of the greatest things you'll ever receive from God. I take that seed, begin to produce for us. Miracle after miracle. And more seed to sow.

How many like giving? MCN again. I would like to give more than you give right now. Father, thank you. But I hope something I've said today is encouraged. Something I said today is open up our heart. Build up our faith. But I think you did. The power of God. The Holy Spirit is working in us. With every head bowed, every eye closed. More pray to things. Do things. Every head bowed, every eye closed. First thing, I never want to close a service meeting without giving people the opportunity to make sure that their heart and their life is right with God. More important than anything else. So your hearts right with God. We said that God loved the world so much that he gave. What he give? He gave His only Son. Why? To give his son. He gave him some because he wanted a family. Today, this room is full of sons and daughters, full of his family. Those have received that incredible gift. You may be here today. You say, "You know, I've never received that gift. I've never, I've never become part of God's family." But Dave, I want to do that today. Maybe you realize something's missing in your life. Someone invite you to church. Maybe you've been here a couple of times. Maybe you're here today and you're not at peace with God. There's some areas of your life, some things in your heart that aren't where they should be. If your life is today, you're not sure, but you want to be. You want to know that your life, your heart is riding with God, a peace with God. If you're one of those two people, when I count to three, I'm just going to look one time across the building. Number one, you never asked them into your heart before. You want to do that today. You want to receive that gift that God gave his son. Or number two, you're not at peace with God, but you want to be. Just before I pray this prayer, lift Rand real quick. Think they pray for me. When you pray that prayer. One, two, three. Let me see your hands real quick. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, sir. Thank you. And lady. Thank you. Look at one more time back across the building. Anyone else? When you pray that prayer, pray for me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you, ma'am. Father, thank you for these hands are lifted across the room from one side of the other side. Father, I think that you don't just give us a desire to change, but nor do you give us the discipline to make the changes that we need to make. You don't condemn us, but you do convict us. You show us areas of our hard things in our life that may not be pleasing to you. The Lord, you said it's real simple. If we give it to you, you'd remove it as far as the East is from the West. Those are lifted their hand, just turn the page to a brand new chapter. A new day begins in their life today. Or you said, as long as we believe in our heart, confess with our mouth that Jesus Christ is our Lord. Every one say, "Let me say, Jesus Christ is my Lord." They may give you some further instructions for that. Let me pray one more prayer. God speaking to some of your hearts today as we just shared for a few minutes, they're about generosity, but giving us.