Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast. Have you ever looked back in time and considered
how certain defining moments have shaped your life in future? Today, John Metter, lead
pastor of Cross City Church, looks at the importance of defining moments and how we
can recognize what God is saying through them.
Let me share with you the last defining moments message we've been in that all summer. They've
been very personal. They've been very much application oriented. Here's what can happen
when you have defining moments in life with God. I want to encourage you not to miss next
week because it's going to be about the defining moment that every person in this room should
have. At least one defining moment with God, what it looks like and how it changes everything.
We're going to talk about that next Sunday morning. Then the week after that, August
21st, we're getting into a brand new series called Origins from the book of Genesis, the
very first book in the Bible. Of course, we'll talk about everything from the fact that Genesis
1.1, the truth of it. Everybody in this room probably knows what Genesis 1.1 says without
looking it up. Say it with me. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. See,
you're already there. You're already prepared for the 21st. Literally, every question culture
is asking and answering wrong, the answers are found in the book of Genesis. We're going
to go back and look at Origins and take some time to talk about those key questions that
everyone needs to know the answers to. Today, a moment of amazement. Would you please stand
with me as I read Malachi 3, beginning in verse 7. God is using the prophet Malachi
to talk to his people during a time when they're far from God. This prophet is coming with
a message from God about how they've wandered away. Part of the overriding theme of Malachi
is return to me. You see it repeatedly all the way through this book. Chapter 3, beginning
in verse 7, repeats that and then moves into an area where God wants his people to return
to him. Here's what it says in verse 7. From the days of your fathers, you have turned
aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me and I will return to you, says
the Lord of hosts. By the way, that's the way God works. Always, always. If you return
to God, he will return to you. When you're far from God, God has not left. You left and
he says, return to me. But then the question they have is, but you say, how shall we return?
Verse 8, will a man rob God? Yet you're robbing me. But you say, how have we robbed you? The
answer is in tithes and offerings. And you're a curse with a curse for you're robbing me,
the whole nation of you. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse so that there may be food
in my house and test me now in this. The only time in the Bible where God says, I challenge
you to try me out, test me and see if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and
pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. Then I will rebuke the devourer for you so
that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground, nor will your vine in the field cast
its grapes. That is prematurely, says the Lord of hosts. All the nations will call you blessed
for you shall be a delightful land, says the Lord of hosts. Let me just tell you, this
can be a life changing message for you at a defining moment. Join me in prayer. Father,
thank you that you give us all kinds of opportunities to return to you in every aspect of our life.
And today I pray that we can return to you and have defining moments that change the
way we do things in the future. Father, thank you that you love us enough to knock on our
door, to convict our hearts, to speak to us about things like this. We ask this in Jesus
name, all God's people said, amen. Please be seated if you would. So I've got some goals
from a message today and here's what those goals are. First of all, I want you to understand
what the scripture says about giving. That's going to be a big piece of what happens today.
I want you to understand what it says about giving. Number two, I want you to learn generosity
and joy. You know, sometimes people don't realize those two things work together. That
you can be generous and have joy at the same time. Sometimes we think that when we give
something away, there can't be any joy in that, but that's definitely not true. And
thirdly, I want you to realize what true treasure is. True treasure is not how much we have,
but true treasure is about where we stand with God and our relationship with him. Then
number four, to see God provide in unexpected ways. I want you to be able to see that God
can do that above and beyond what you can ask or think or imagine. God can provide for
you in unexpected ways. And I want you to see that today. I'm going to speak about a
date in past history, almost immediate past history for a moment. February 27th, 2005.
Anybody know where you lived and where you attended church in 2005? Many of you attended
here and this is when this church began to watch God do some amazing things financially.
Literally, that date is a defining moment in our church life. Even though I wasn't here,
I know it was a defining moment in our church life. So here's part of the backstory. After
a breach in leadership, which led to several resignations of pastors in this church, this
church found itself $6.3 million in debt and no repayment plan and no reserves to speak
of asking the question, what will we do? Bill Anderson was called to be the interim pastor
in those days as part of the answer of what's next. And on that date, February 27th, 2005,
Bill stood in front of the congregation in this room and he preached a message. And that
message was anointed by God. I saw it later on by videotape and I'm telling you, I saw
in a moment during a particular moment of that message where it just seemed like the
spirit of God just grabbed Bill Anderson and made him a prophet in this church. And basically
what he said was, he said, this mountain of debt must be moved. This mountain of debt
must be dealt away with. And with that, we began to see what is now called the miracle
at First Ulysses. Debt was beginning to be paid off week by week by people's generosity.
Now it's called about halfway into the process of this debt repayment, just about a year
and a half after Bill Anderson made that statement. And by July of 2007, I came in 2006, but in
July of 2007, just 28 months later, this church had paid off all of its debts and were debt
free from that day on. Do you want to just praise the Lord for that? It was really an
amazing moment. It was an incredible, incredible time. But the funny thing about it is, once
the debt was paid off and once we burned the note on this stage, people kept giving. I
mean, that's the funny thing. What do you do when the week after the debt's been repaid,
you have $300,000 given for debt repayment, but it's already been repaid. And then the
next week, another $250,000, and then next week, another $185,000, and then next week,
another quarter of a million dollars. And before long, we were holding a million dollars
in our hands saying, where is this supposed to go? Well, for the next 10 years that happened
and kept happening. And over the next 10 years, not weeks, but 10 years, we funded just about
everything that has to do with ministry. We completed the Bible translation in Mandarin
Chinese before the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and distributed that to thousands and millions
of people that came from around the world to that place. We began to plant churches.
We've planted several churches with those monies. We also began to support missions
in a huge way. Kids Beach Club, Career Solutions, Six Stones was begun the year after that, and
we just began to pour money into this community and feed people and help people. And I'll
fast forward to 2020 and 2021 after having completed a $20 million building after all
those things I just described. And this church is still debt free as a result of that. Praise
the Lord. That doesn't happen very often. Our auditor last year, who we are audited
every year by the way, and he said, I've never given a higher rating to a church for the
way they do their finances. And he said, I never hear of stories like this, but what's
happening is unique in this church in Cross City is to be commended, but God has obviously
blessed this church in a huge way. These were all defining moments in a string of defining
moments for our church financially. So I'm not just here to tell you about history. I'm
here to tell you about the foundation of how we view giving and money, but allowed God
to bless this church in such a huge way. Let me define it for you in a summary. Scripture
teaches that we give the first 10th of all we receive to God and then listen to him regarding
the rest. Let me read that again. Scripture teaches that we give the first 10th of all
we receive to God and then listen to him regarding the rest. Now, when you get into this text,
you're going to find that that's what God said to Israel when it says that he invites
them to come back and walk with him because they have been ignoring that. They've been
disobeying that and it's affected them in a huge way. And this passage is going to walk
us through what God wants for us and what God wants from us. What God wants for us and
what God wants from us. You know, often when we think about giving and any command of the
Bible to give, we think, oh, God just wants that from us. But I've got to tell you today,
God does not need your money. He does not need mine. God is able to provide without
our money, but he wants something for you that's bigger than what you could ever give
to him. And yet giving and generosity is part of how God brings that which he wants for
you to you. Now, the scripture tells us what God wants for us in this text right here and
I want to walk you through it. First of all, God wants us to experience his presence. That's
where the text began. Look back at what it says in verse seven, return to me and I will
return to you. So the message begins with an invitation. Return to me. You know, all
the way through the Bible, God is giving us those invitations to come to him, to walk
with him, to return to him. You know, I read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and I
see these return and these come to me kind of invitations. The whole Bible is an invitation.
But if you were to open the book of Genesis, you can't get past Genesis three before you
see God coming to find Adam and Eve who have sinned against God and who are now separated
from God. And God comes into the garden and says, where are you? Come to me. He takes
care to cover their sin and they can fellowship with God. Again, he's always wanting to come
to us and us to come to him. One of my favorite prophets is Isaiah. Isaiah chapter one, verse
18 says this, come now, let us reach him together, says the Lord. Though your sins are scarlet,
they will be as white as snow. That's an invitation to salvation. But all the way through the
Bible that come to me is there. Jesus said it in the gospels, Matthew chapter 11, verse
28, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Get all the
way back to the end of the Bible, Revelation chapter 21 and 22, very last chapter of the
Bible. The Bible says this, there's a verse there that says the spirit and the bride say
come and let all who thirst of the water of life come. The invitation to God is always
you come, you return to me because I'll be there when you get there. And when you come
back to me, you'll see things happen that could never happen otherwise. So we start
this message by just reminding you that God wants us to experience his presence. But secondly,
this text tells us that God wants us to see his faithfulness. Test me now in this. There's
nothing else in the scripture like this. Now where else does God make this kind of challenge
or make this kind of promise? Test me now and see if I won't open the windows of heaven
for you. Now what was happening back in Malachi's days, the people forgot God's faithfulness.
That's so easy to do. It's easy to forget all that God has done for us. And so they're
living on their own. That is not working out very well. And what's more, because of their
disobedience things were getting worse in their lives and they're getting a little bit desperate.
So God sends the prophet and says, here's the problem. You've walked away from God.
Now listen, I've got to tell you this. And when you walk away from God, it will never
go right. It may feel right for a little while, but only a little while. And as you get further
and further away from God, you'll see what that distance is like and you'll begin to
hear what the spirit says to you. Come return to me. I'll return to you. You always want
God to be in your life. Trust me. You don't ever want to walk away from God. But when
you come back to God, as Malachi said, you're going to see his faithfulness. Test me now
and there. See if I won't open the windows of heaven. So God wants us to see his direct
provision unexplained by anything else. That's what our church experienced. How can a church
to $6.3 million in debt pay that off at 28 months in addition to securing all their budget
needs and then how can they keep on going for the next 10 years and pour money into
missions and Bible translations and feeding the community and loving people around us
in the name of how can they do that without God opening the windows of heaven and pouring
out a blessing that can't be received. I mean, it doesn't happen apart from God's power,
does it? So that's what God is telling people in Malachi's day. Now we all know that God
provides in a number of ways. Someone might say, well, God provides for me through my
job or he provides for me through my ability to do certain things, my strength to do hard
work, my wisdom to be able to figure systems out, whatever it might be. But let me just
tell you, if God didn't give you the strength that you have, you couldn't do anything.
If God didn't give you the ability to think that you have, you couldn't do anything all
the way through scripture. The Bible calls God the God who gives us the ability to make
a living, to make wealth. And we couldn't have that apart from his power and his strength,
everything we have he gives to us. It's always amazing to me that people that pray so hard
for a job and believe God opened the doors for it and thank God when they get that job,
forget to give to him when the paychecks come. All of a sudden they forgot who gave them
the strength or the wisdom. They forgot how God opened those doors, but that was happening
in Malachi's day. Crops would come out of the ground, not like they wanted, but they
were still having crops. They were still having fruit, but they weren't giving thanks to God.
And now they're hurting and God says, return to me and return to me in your giving. Let
me just tell you, giving is not a mathematical thing. It's a spiritual thing because it doesn't
always add up when we bring our tithes to God and we give the first tenth of our income.
We don't see how it's all going to add up in our budget, but here's what I've learned.
I've learned that if you can't figure it out mathematically, that's not the end of the
game. God will make it happen and make it work through his extra provision after we
have given to him. And I've got story after story under my belt of how that's happening
in my own life. And I am thrilled to be able to tell you some of those stories. I remember
a few years ago talking to a couple, a young couple in the church I pastor at the time
and they had incredible financial challenges and they knew the practice of giving and tithing
to the Lord, but they were not doing it at that time and actually their CPA advised against
it. They had gone to get some advice. They needed to get it out of debt. They needed
to retire certain loans that they had taken out and they said, in all this we still want
to be faithful and give to our church, give to God. And the CPA said, look, I'd stake
my professional reputation on this. You cannot give to your church and still get out of financial
trouble. And they ignored his advice, began giving to God and they came back a year or
two later debt free and the guy said, look, I don't see how that happened. They said,
well, your professional advice isn't worth as much as you think it is. Because God supplied
for us above and beyond what we could even imagine he was going to provide. And that's
how this principle spiritually speaking works mathematically. It doesn't add up to those
that only use a calculator. It adds up to those that are trusting in God and seeing
him provide an amazing way. Now my wife and I were talking about this this last week and
she brought up a memory that I have. I remember a day when we had a certain bill that we had,
it was just under $200 and this was like 35 years ago, something like that, a long time
ago. I don't know how much $200 is adjusted for inflation, but it's probably $500 comparable
bill. So it's a pretty sizable bill, right? And, and I also knew we had a financial commitment
to our church and it was kind of down to the choice. I'm not going to write the check to
the church. I'm not going to write the check to this bill. What are we going to do? We
prayed about it, thought about it, said, all right, the bill has to be paid, but we believe
that the Lord needs to be trusted. They wrote the check to the church. The next day, the
next day we got an envelope in the mail from a company I'd never heard of before. It turns
out that we had done some business with this company in the past and it was an insurance
company and I had a reimbursement check coming back from them. And you want to guess what
the amount is? Exactly what I wrote the check for to the dollar the day before. And I looked
at the heading on the check and the return address on the envelope and I held it up to
Kim and I said, have you ever heard of this company before? She said, I've never heard
of it before and the name of it was Sovereign Life Insurance Company. I still don't know
if there's an insurance company by that name, but I know the check cleared and it went in
my account just fine. Now that was before Google, so I didn't have a chance to Google
it, right? So bottom line is God showed us he's faithful, he's able to do above and beyond
what we can even ask and think. But here's a story I can't help but tell because this
story is just incredible. I still have evidence of this in my home today. I was pastoring
a church in Irving, Texas and we were conspiring together to remove all the debt of that church.
Every church I've ever gone to, when I went as pastor had debt and when I left was debt
free and that was always an important thing for me to be able to lead a church that way.
So this church was in debt and we had committed to helping pay it off and it took a sizable
commitment on our part. And the bottom line is I needed new clothes at the time and I
needed in particular, suits. Do y'all remember when preachers had to wear suits? Do y'all
remember what suits are, right? Anybody have a three piece suit they wear anymore at all?
Raise your hand if you have a three piece suit. I don't think many of you do. Oh, there's
a few of your hands. I see sir that you don't have that on today though, right? And there
was a day when that's the kind of clothing I wore on Sunday morning. I always had a suit
on, always had the tie on, you know, the slacks that are baggy and all that stuff. You know,
I've had them all, but I was needing new clothes and we were giving to our church and just
didn't have enough to get new clothes. And I remember a pastor friend of mine called
me one day and he said, John, if you're ever coming through my church in Tennessee where
he pastored, he said, I've got a few suits for you. And my friend's name was Wayne Barber.
Wayne was about six six, just a little bit taller than me. And over the previous year
or two had gained a lot of weight eating out, I guess, fried chicken dinners after church
on Sunday morning. He outgrew his clothes and had to buy new clothes. So he said, I've
got some suits. They're actually tailor made suits and I can't wear them anymore. I'd like
to give them to you. He said, save some space in your car when you come by. So we went on
vacation, my wife and I, and we drove a suburban in those days. We had six kids all at home.
And so those six kids filled the back two seats as you know, but we had a storage space
behind that. And I made sure that on the clothes rack, there was about that much room for the
suits he was going to get me. And after church, I met with Wayne. He said, pull your car around
here where mine is and I'll give you these suits. And so that's what happened. And I
opened up the back of the suburban. He handed me about three or four suits and I put them
in there and I closed the door. He said, no, no, I'm not through yet. So I opened it back
up and he gave me three or four more suits and I put them in there and closed the door.
He said, John, leave the door open. I've got a lot of clothes to give you. So he started
giving me more and more suits. Now these are tailor made suits that I never would have
paid that much money for at all. He kept giving them to me. He kept giving them to me and
I kept stuffing them in the back of that suburban. And after a while, I didn't worry about whether
they were wrinkled or not. I was just stuffing them in right and left, literally. I even
considered leaving a couple of my kids behind so I could take those suits with me because
it was that big of a deal. Well, we drove all day that day after that. I was just amazed
at how much he gave me. I didn't even know how many suits, how many pants, how many shirts.
I didn't even know. And so when we got to the hotel that night, I thought I'm going
to cath them all. I'm going to get them all out and I'm going to put them on this big
old clothes rack that's in our closet of our motel. And it had a big thick wooden dowel
about that big of a round. I thought this will hold. And so I started getting them out,
started counting them secretly in my mind, going through a calculator, thinking how much
are these worth? And they were worth thousands and thousands of dollars. And they all fit
me perfectly. And that night, Kim and I went to bed and we were thanking the Lord for that.
We went to bed. In the middle of the night, we heard a boom. And Kim woke me up and she
said, look at that closet rod. It had broken in the middle of the night and all those clothes
were on the ground. And the second I saw that, I thought of this passage, test me now in
this and see if I will not pour out a blessing that you cannot receive. And literally that
closet could not hold those clothes. And I thank the Lord for that clearly evident way
of providing for me. You guys praise the Lord a little bit with me because I still have
a few of those in my closet. God's able to do things like that and you just can't watch
things happen like that in your life over and over without realizing, hey, this really
happens. God really does provide in surprising ways, unusual ways that we would never have
trusted Him for. It doesn't add up when we give away our money or our offerings or our
tithes, but it does add up in life. We can't see it mathematically on a calculator, but
we can see it in real life. God wants you to see that He can do that. But God also wants
to give us His protection. That's the next thing this text says. He says, then I will
revoke the devourer for you. It's an agricultural statement. What God is saying is I'll keep
what destroys your plants and your fruits away. It's a statement of the natural breakdown
of things, but also in inference, there is a definite enemy that works to rob and kill
and destroy the things that we have or the things that we are. You know what John 10
10 says, a thief comes only to rob and still kill and destroy, but I came to say, may I
have life and have it more abundantly. Now this is not prosperity teaching at all. This
is all about God taking care of His children in a way that only God can. But the curse
of earth and the curse of sin and the curse of the enemy have open season on us without
God's protection. You know that's true. You know that's true when bad things happen
and you don't seem to have protection for it sometimes. When I was a young pastor, I
pastored in Oklahoma city area and there was a man that drove in from maybe 30 miles outside
of town where he had a large farm. His name was Orla Ratliff and he would tell stories.
He told stories about going out to the field with a diaper in one pocket and a diaper in
another back pocket and take his grandson out there with him and be out there all day,
change his main diapers as he needed to and come back. He would tell these folk stories
about working hard and trusting God for the fruit to come out of the ground and the corn
to come out of the ground, et cetera. And he made this statement one time when we were
talking about this subject about the devourer. He said, you know, I need God to rebuke the
devourer on my farm. I said, what do you mean Orla? He said, well, the Hessian fly, the
green bug and the grasshopper, I can't keep them off my plants. Only God can hold them
back. And I said, Orla, really? You pray that so that your fruit and your crops can make
it. He said, I absolutely do. And he said, I've seen God hold those things back just
so I can have a harvest. He said, it's amazing how that works. He said, pastor, that's what
Malachi is talking about. I said, it sure is, isn't it? An agricultural illustration.
The truth is God really, really does do that. He really does have a supernatural way of
intervening for us. Just read your Bible. Remember when he protected Israel for 40 years
in the desert and they didn't have any food or any water and man it came down from where?
Where did it come down from? Heaven. Water came out of the rock. The Bible says in Deuteronomy
29 and five, I have led you 40 years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out
on you. Your sandal has not worn out on your foot. Anybody in this room have shoes that
are 40 years old? Would you raise your hand? I promise you no woman will raise her hand.
The truth is only God can make shoes last 40 years. Only God can make a robe or clothing
last 40 years. And that's what this says. It basically says that God will rebuke the
devourer. Only God can keep people from going hungry and help them when nothing else is
around. What about in the gospels when Jesus is teaching these multitudes of people and
they're hungry and the only thing they have are two fish and some little loaves of bread
that a little boy has and Jesus takes those and breaks those and feeds the multitude.
And in Mark chapter four verse or six, chapter six, verse 42, the summary statement of what
happens after that miracle of provision is they all ate and were satisfied. I mean we
have a God that keeps things from wearing out. We have a God that keeps things from
running out. God can do things that nobody else can do so trusting him is always best.
But not only that, here's something else God wants for us. He wants us to enjoy his reputation.
In verse 12, all the nations will call you blessed for you shall be a delightful land.
Even today the world marvels at the provision God has for his nation Israel that Malachi
is speaking to. And even today it's amazing God's favor on those who obey him and walk
with him in financial principles. Back in 2005 when Bill Anderson stood up on that day
and preached that prophetic and anointed message about provision, he made this statement.
He said I hope the whole world is watching because God is going to provide in a way to
show what he can do and God did do that and people did see that. And we still call it
the miracle. We don't call things miraculous unless they are. It's still called the miracle
and if you walk out the center of the worship center and go east into that parking lot you'll
see six stones in that miracle garden and they'll always be there because it's a defining
moment in the life of this church where God works in amazing ways, surprising ways, supernatural
ways on behalf of our church. We love that. We love that. And we tell the story all the
time. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord for that. So God wants something for us. A lot
of something for us. But God also wants something from us. We wouldn't want to leave out that
part and verse 10 is where that is. Bring the whole tide into the storehouse. All of
this passage hinges on that one command. God says you do that. That opens the door for
all this generosity from me. That's what opens the windows of heaven for me to pour out a
blessing that you can't receive. Specifically he says I want you to bring the first part
of all the harvest or all the increase or all the pay or the first part of your check
to him. God wants us to acknowledge and worship and honor him with our giving because he's
the source of it all. Sometimes I wish our paychecks would not just get direct deposited
or come in the mail but sometimes I wish our paychecks would just float down from heaven
so we'd have to look up and wait for them and go oh yeah, ultimately that does come
from God. But it really does. So here's what God says he wants from us. He wants us to
acknowledge and worship him with that. And the amazing thing is God provides all that
he has for us and asks us to keep the 90% and be wise with it but he wants us to first
acknowledge his provision with the tithe, with the tent. That's sprinkled all the way
through scripture. Proverbs 3, 9 says honor the Lord from your wealth and the first of
your produce. Or Matthew 6 verse 33 in a text that deals with possessions and worrying about
having more he says Jesus says seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all
these other things will be added to you. Put the first things first. And the New Testament
church has always had the practice of as they gather on the first day of the week bringing
the first of all that they've been given to the Lord. 1 Corinthians 16 too on the first
day of the week as each of you is to put aside and save as he may prosper so that no collections
be made when I come and today we practice that through whatever way we give including
an offering box as you leave or an offering bag as you leave. We practice that. But sometimes
I forget that he asks and all he asks is a dime of every dollar that he's blessed us
with. But I should remember what my father taught me when I was a little boy and that
is the heavenly father wants us to bring the first tenth. Dad used to give me an allowance
every Saturday morning of a dollar. Now for a six and seven year old boy that's a lot
of money. And he'd give me a dollar in dimes. Ten dimes. Always wondered why the dime. And
then I realized when he gave me the dimes he said now you need to take the first dime
and you need to give it to the Lord. That's just what we practice. The Bible says practice
that. It was instrumental that he gave me my allowance on Saturday morning before I
could spend that dollar somewhere else. And I'd bring that dime to church the next day
and put it in that offering plate and I practiced that from the time I was six year old on and
my brother did as well. And that's what his heavenly father taught him from the text that
we just looked at right here. Bring the first of all that's been given to you because God
asked that from us and he has so much more that he's going to give for us. Now I want
you to have your attention on the stage and then in front of the stage for the next moment.
I'd like to illustrate the principle that we've been talking about today and I think
it'll be helpful if you can see it with your own eyes. Because what I have is two tables
here. This is your table right here. And this is God's table. And I'm going to make an
illustration out of all this increase that I have here. So I have a lot of fruit here
on this table. Can you see this fruit? There's a lot of fruit here. I think there's about
60 pieces of fruit on this table. Now basically I want you to see that God provides all that
you have through however he does that. Through work, through someone giving you something
else, whatever it might be. God has provided everything. He wants this for us but he asks
something from us. And basically he asks for a tenth. I think I've got six different kinds
of fruit here. And I've got these green apples. I've got some pears here. I've got this banana
here. I've got a mandarin here. I've got a peach right here. And I've got a cantaloupe
here. You can see the cantaloupe and I'm sure that everything's going to come rolling off
when I pick that cantaloupe up. And I'm just going to use this to illustrate the fact that
God is asking something of all that he's blessed us with. And this is that something. I'm going
to take it to this table here where you are bringing this to the Lord. Six different pieces
of fruit out of the 60 that you have. I just line them up here so they'll take up all the
space they can possibly take there. And then I want you to compare what God is asking you
to do. This is what God has asked us to give to him. This is what God asked from us. Alright?
You can break this story down in any way you want to with any currency you want to but
in that day and time it was the fruit of the ground. And this is the fruit of the ground.
So he wants this from us. But it's not like God wants everything from us. He wants this
for us. Now I want you to contrast the two there. And I want you to wonder why in the
world with God's blessed us with all that he only asked for one chance. Why is that
such a big deal? Why is it so hard for us to do? But look at it in contrast, in comparison.
God wants the first in order to remind us that he gave us it all. And to worship him
with that. And then God wants us to keep this and to be wise about how we live with it.
Wise about how we spend it, how we eat it, who we give it away to. Now we need to listen
to the Lord on all this but we need to never forget God asked this from us. For us and
from us. You know if I'm not careful I begin to stay on this side of the picture and I
look longingly at that over there. I mean I know I've got this right here. This should
be enough right? But that apple over there looks a whole lot better than this one right
now. For some reason that sometimes looks better than this. And if I were to go over
there and to pick up that apple and to make it my own. I mean if I were to bite into this,
whose apple am I biting into? I'm not biting into my apple. I'm biting into the apple
that God asked for me. One time I did that and I almost bit into it and someone said
no on the front row right here. I'm like you're feeling the messes as though you are. But
sometimes we don't think anything about taking the money that really got asked for us and
spending it on whatever instead of saving. No. This is the holy moment between us God.
And every time I write a check, every time I give an offering, it's an act of obedience.
It's a holy moment. It's an opportunity for God to do things that he otherwise wouldn't
do. Now God will protect this more because I am following his financial principles. And
if this is not enough, what does God promise to do? I will open the windows of heaven and
provide for you a blessing which you cannot receive. In the illustration of my suits,
there wouldn't be enough table to hold the fruit that God would pour out. And that's
true of your life as well. And you can watch that unfold over the days of your life and
you can be impressed and it will affect the way you live life. It is a defining moment.
You know during that era when we had that big giving emphasis for the miracle, there
was a little lady that had since graduated to heaven. And she actually wrote this story
out and I had just a conversation with someone that was very close to her. But here was her
testimony and I want you to listen to it. She said, I don't have a problem paying ties
but the last part of the last year, 2003 and 2004, was having a challenging time making
ends meet. The devil kept coming at me and saying, you know God would understand if you
use your ties to do something else with. God doesn't expect or want you to struggle this
much, et cetera, et cetera. Several weeks went on and that pay period I doubled my ties
to the church. This is, she's writing that. The very next weekend there was an announcement
at church that for that month only the church was asking the entire church to consider doubling
their ties. That would have been that tough time that I was talking about. She said, how
about that for a confirmation from God? I had done this for about five months, double
ties, when I received a check in the mail that was more than double for all the ties
I'd paid since I'd paid double. Wow. The money I received was mineral rights on a land
I had owned for years and of course then the value of that land was starting to skyrocket.
The next month I received a check for $2,000. I was so shocked I kept looking at the check.
I know you can't out give our God, but this was crazy. The most I have received is $19,000
a month and that's just so much for a little single female that God takes care of. I heard
this from another person and they told me, this lady told her this. She said to this
other friend, if this keeps up, I'm going to have to get me one of them there financial
advisors for the future. Trust me now in this the Lord says, if I can't pull out a blessing
that you cannot receive. Now this is real life stuff. We're not making stories up here.
I still have seats in my closet. I still remember that sovereign life insurance check. My wife
and I talked about that. The testimony of this woman will live on. That debt is still
gone because of people that just trusted God. What he wants from you is to get you to the
place where you can experience what he wants for you. What better day to begin doing this
than today? Return to me and I will return to you says the Lord. I want you to stand
with me for a moment if you would. I'm going to pray a concluding prayer in a moment. Before
I do that, I want to encourage you to do one of two things. First of all, I want to encourage
you to stop by a decision station. It may be that you need to make a spiritual decision
today and we are here to help you with that. We have people that are standing at those
decision stations by the time I close them prayer. Stop by, talk to them if you would.
Secondly, I would invite you if you are a guest to come to our guest reception room
just outside the center exit door across the hallway. I'll show you those six miracle stones
and I'll tell you a little bit about that story. Next, I want to ask you and challenge
you to test God. Try. That sounds awful arrogant for a pastor to say test God except for the
fact that God has already said that. Test me. See if I won't prove to you that I can
open the windows of heaven and provide for you a blessing you cannot receive. Let me
just tell you today, this is going to be one of the greatest defining moments that you
will live with for the rest of your life and the residual effects of that are going to
affect other people as well in a positive and a powerful way. Trust God with your giving
but trust Him with your life. Father, in Jesus' name today, I am so very thankful that you
do what you say you'll do. That you provide the way only you can provide. That you will
demonstrate that you're faithful. Lord, in this room I know there are people that are
calculating in their mind the challenging financial picture they have and I understand
what that's like. I've been there as well. Lord, in the end, nothing is better than trusting
you. I ask you today to give us the ability and the courage to trust you. Father, there
may be some today that need to trust you as their Lord and Savior which always comes first.
Give them today the ability to do that. Thank you that you love us. In Jesus' name, amen.