Thank you for listening to this message from Life House Church.
Man, going to a hand-held.
Can you hear me now?
All right, good, good.
Well anyways, it was a great week at camp and it's been awesome.
God moved at camp, but one of the things, there's a ton of work if you've ever gone
to work to youth campers and an amazing amount of work that takes an incredible amount of
work that goes on on the back end of things or maybe on the front end.
But we watched as God spoke to children and really to teenagers and just blessed and moved
and they come home different.
I know for a lot of teenagers and even a lot of kids, it's a pivotal moment in their life
when God speaks to them.
It's kind of like going on a mission trip.
Get that week away where you're just focused on God for the week and things change.
So if you have children that haven't been to camp, think about it next year.
Get them involved in going to youth camp and we'll get you information about that.
Even if you want to volunteer, come on.
If you want to go be tired, right?
A little bit hungry, exhausted, but with a smile on your face, go work a youth camp,
spend a week with these kids, with these teenagers and watch what God does.
Amen?
It's been good.
Today is the last day in a message series that I have spread out.
I usually do message series and do all the messages right in a row, but this one's been
spread out over a period of time and it's called In God We Trust.
How many remember it?
Come on.
Yeah, there's been messages in between that say, In God We Trust.
It's really about God and what the Bible has to say about financial principles and something
that really has to do with each one of us.
And since it's been so spread out, I thought I'd do just a little bit of a review.
How many know reviews okay once in a while?
Just kind of go back, get your memory refreshed and give you some of the truths that maybe
you want to go back and listen to these messages if you haven't heard them, but you might want
to go back and hear about these messages and some of these truths that come out of God's
Word.
The first one was number one is that I am a manager and I am not an owner.
One of the great freedoms in life and in God's Word is understanding that I'm a manager of
God's stuff, but I don't really own it.
He does.
And it shifts your thinking, it shifts how you move, it shifts how you do things in life.
If you haven't heard that message, go back and hear it.
Freedom truth number two, financial truth number two is too much debt can rob me of
freedom.
That was the second thing we talked about.
Pastor Eric preached on that.
Number three was God blesses me with money so I can be generous to others, but I should
be generous towards God first.
I know that's a long one, but I should be generous towards God first.
That's really that first fruits principle.
It's really understanding who God is and what his prescription for finances is.
And number four we're going to hit today and there's a lot more.
I could probably just keep preaching for a couple of months, but I'm only going to do
four of them.
But today we're going to discover this.
We experience freedom later because of what we are doing right now.
We experience freedom later because of what we're doing right now.
Now this is true in finances and this is true in life.
I may know if I eat properly now, I'll have some freedom in my waistline.
Come on a little later, right?
If I pass up on the dessert six times a week and only have dessert one time a week, I have
some freedom in my waistline.
I might actually be able to button my pants.
I won't be in fear of that button flying off and killing somebody because my pants are
so tight.
So if I eat properly now, I've got some freedom in my waistline later.
If I study for my ninth grade test now, I might actually have the freedom to go to 10th
grade in the future.
Right?
There's freedom there.
If I go to work today, I'm going to receive a paycheck somewhere up the line.
And if I have freedom, right?
There's some financial freedom that comes with getting that paycheck.
If I invest today, I'm going to reap a harvest tomorrow.
So there's free what I do today really has a lot to do with what's going to take place
tomorrow.
If I'm following godly principles with my money today, I'm going to experience financial
freedom tomorrow.
Tomorrow.
How many want freedom in your finances?
And it's true.
I do.
And it may be a lot of different ways you can talk about freedom.
It might be freedom from too much debt.
Right?
Sometimes we get debt that piles up.
It might be freedom from debt.
It could be freedom from the bondage of greed and materialism, because sometimes that can
grip our hearts and our minds.
It could be freedom.
You know, just there can be a freedom factor in just knowing that God is the owner and
I'm the manager.
I spoke about that in that message.
There's a freedom that comes with that because I begin to realize I'm just managing the whole
thing and it's really all his to begin with.
There's freedom.
If that comes, if I learn to save now right for something in the future, because God,
um, has been generous towards me first, I can have the rest blessed and I have freedom
later.
Freedom because I'm implementing God's financial principles on a daily basis.
Today what I do right?
What I do today is going to really lead towards what's going to happen tomorrow.
It's true.
I experienced freedom later because of what I'm doing right now.
Say it with me.
I experienced freedom later because of what I'm doing right now.
Now you might say, well, why are you talking about money at church?
Right?
A lot of people like, what are you talking about money for?
This is church.
That doesn't sound very spiritual.
You know, you should, you should talk about something else.
Well, I don't know if you know this or not, but 11 of Jesus 40 parables was about money.
That's one fourth.
One fourth of the parables that he taught was about money.
Um, I don't know if you know this as well, but there are over 2000 different references
in scripture that have to do with money.
There's only about 500 verses about prayer in all of the Bible.
There's over 2000 scriptures about money.
Jesus talked about a money a lot.
And the reason for that is, is because of a principle that you'll understand if you
look at first Timothy six 10, first scripture verse to go and bring it up.
It says this for the love of money, the love of money, that's key by the way.
It's not saying for money.
It just says the love, right?
That's different.
The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil for which some have strayed from the
faith and their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
The word of God says it doesn't say money's evil.
It says the love of money is evil and so much so that it can cause you to stray from faith
in God.
And literally it says you can be pierced through, right?
You can be pierced through with many sorrows.
There's a danger that is associated with money.
There's a danger that comes along with it.
Money likes to play God in our life.
I don't know if you know that or not.
Money likes to take the place of God.
It likes to steal our heart away.
We have the potential.
We really do.
Each one of us, we have the potential to love money and to put it first in our life.
We really do.
We have, how am I know anything that you put first in your life, you're making God, right?
You really are.
Back in the Old Testament, they talk about idols.
They put an idol before God.
God said not to put, have any idols before you.
Money can be an idol.
It really can.
It can be this thing that you put first and it goes and it'll rule us instead of us ruling
it.
It'll pierce us through.
It'll cause us to, every motive in our life will shift and it'll change and it'll be wrong
because we're coming because money is God first.
Jesus talked a lot about money.
He talked about it in Matthew 6 19.
Listen what he says there.
He says, lay up, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust does
corrupt and where thieves breakthrough and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures
in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not breakthrough
nor steal.
Now, listen to the last part of this for where your treasure is, there will be your heart
also.
Another way to say that is what has our money has our heart.
I don't know if you realize it or what has our money has our heart.
We invest in what our heart has a hold of.
We put money into whatever our heart is.
We spend on what is priority to us.
It really is.
And what is important to us.
Yeah, all you have to do and this is a self inventory.
If you want to know really what you value in life, if you want to take a hard look at
what you think you value, you can think one thing, but just I want you just to take a
moment in your mind.
This is a self inventory.
What do I spend my money on?
You know, I'm not talking about the bills you pay, right?
I know none of you value the garbage.
I don't either.
I don't like playing, paying that, but that's part of it.
But what you value is what you spend your money on.
Jesus knew the power of money in our lives.
He knew that he could either be a tool in your hands and that's why you have money.
I don't know if you know that or not, to do the things of God in your life, to pour out
and walk out the things of God or it could be a God itself.
It's either a tool or it's a God.
And God wants you to use it as a tool.
He wants you to use it for the right purposes and for the right reasons.
And he's got a reason that the word of God lets us know just a few reasons, honestly,
why he gives us the ability to earn money and to make money.
Number one is this, first is so we can be generous towards God.
I preached about this a few weeks ago.
It's about first fruits.
You want to be generous towards God.
The reason for that is if you give God the first, if you give God the 10th, if you give
him the offering, God blesses all the rest.
It's already blessed.
God's hands on it.
Nobody can mess with it, right?
It's already blessed.
So that's first.
Secondly, he gives you an ability to provide income so you can take care of your family.
The word of God says the person who does not take care of his family is worse than an infidel.
The word of God declares that God gives us the ability to make funds or to raise money
or to earn money so that we can take care of your family.
It's a godly thing that you take care of your family.
I love that you all take care of your family, that you provide for your family, that you
make sure your family is taken care of, that you walk that out in their lives for your
children.
How many of we got children in this church?
Amen.
If you were planning, you're thinking, man, I got a lot coming up, right?
In the future, there's things I got to buy.
I got to start getting ready for education.
Some of you are going to spend so much money on braces, it's going to make you cry.
All right?
Yeah.
You don't even know yet.
So all these things are going to come up, right?
And it's biblical.
You're to take care of your family.
God is blessing you so that you take care of those around you.
We're supposed to do that.
Everybody in our family.
And God gives us money for a third reason, so if we have excess, He bless others.
He wants to give you more than enough, right?
God's a God of abundance so you can bless Him.
Jesus talked about money a bunch because it's so important what we do with it, because it's
so easy to put it in the wrong priority and the wrong place in our lives.
He talked about this because He knew that money can grab your heart and take a wrong
position in your life.
I want you to think about money as a tool in your hands.
God gives it to you to get some things done, to get some things accomplished.
Amen?
You just got to know the order of what that is and how to walk that out.
And that's why I talk about message.
I talk about money because I'm the message boy and Jesus talked about it.
So I'm going to talk about it.
Now, listen, I got a second reason.
Say a second reason.
I talk about money because my grandfather talked about money.
All right?
My grandfather was good with money.
He probably never made more than ten dollars an hour his entire life.
He was an auto mechanic.
He worked as an auto mechanic his entire career.
My grandmother stayed at home.
She did not work at all.
And my grandparents were this amazing example of how to handle money because my grandfather
and grandmother, they really lived out this verse description that's in Proverbs 13 22.
It says a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children.
And my grandparents were like that.
They lived through the depression.
They were careful what they spent their money on.
They watched what they were doing and they would save their money up.
And when they got older in life, I watched as they took care of the three sons.
They would help their three sons when their three sons got married, one which was my dad.
They would they would step in sometimes and help out financially.
And they had the money to do it.
They packed it away.
They got ready for the children.
They got ready for their children and their children's children.
I was one of the children's children.
I was a grandson.
My grandparents financed a good part of me going to school.
They had the money to do it.
I don't know how in the world they did it.
And they did it for all the grandkids.
I wasn't special.
They did it for all the grandchildren.
They poured money.
They saved up.
They had money for their children's children.
They said they paid for a good chunk of my education.
A matter of fact, not many people know this, but my grandfather helped finance my first
house.
He was a mechanic.
And he knew how to handle money.
My pap used to say things about money all the time.
Right.
He'd have these little things.
He'd say, Kip, he'd say a penny saved is what a penny.
Yeah, your parents, grandparents said it too.
Right.
A penny saved was a penny earned.
And he says, if you save up those pennies, those dollars are going to take care of themselves.
And he said, Kip, you need to save up for a rainy day.
He said, you need to make money while the sun shines because he says it's going to rain.
It's going to rain.
How many know it rains sometimes financially?
Anybody you ever get your financial parade rained on?
Come on.
How many this week got your financial parade raided on?
Yeah.
Sometimes you're going to get your financial parade rained on.
Right.
Because sometimes you're going to be driving down the road and your car is just going to
conk out.
You're going to be like, what happened?
And then you get the good news right at the garage.
First of all, you got to pay the hundred twenty five bucks, hundred seventy five bucks to
get it towed to the garage.
You get it to the garage and your mechanic comes out with the great news that your car
is now dead.
OK.
That it is time to put it away.
Right.
Put it down for the last time.
Hey, come on.
That's fine.
It rained all of a sudden.
You got to go to the dealer.
You got to get a new car.
How many know the dishwasher dies?
Right.
Leaks all over the floor.
You get the dishwasher.
The kids need braces.
I talked about this little man.
Come on.
You got to go to the dentist.
Right.
You need a root canal.
There's hospital stays.
How many know you could just talk all day long?
Right.
About financial rain.
It rains in the house.
It comes down and he will always be telling me you need to save up because because a rainy
day is coming.
It's not always going to be sunshine.
You know, and he would do this.
And it's true.
Handling what God put into our hands on the expected days will help set us up for the
unexpected day.
Right.
If you learn to manage what God put in your fingers and in your hands on the expected
day, you're going to be ready for the unexpected day.
You're going to have days that are expected.
You're going to go to work.
Everything's going to be fine.
You're going to drive home.
The car is actually going to make it right into the garage.
It all is going to be well.
And you're going to get a paycheck.
And then you're going to be timed.
You're going to be sitting along the road.
The unexpected injury, the unexpected illness, the unexpected breakdown, the unexpected financial
storm.
God wants you ready.
Set aside seed for the year.
Okay.
Set aside seed for the year.
Say seed to somebody, turn to somebody.
Tell them to talk about seed for a couple of minutes.
Setting aside seed now ensures provision for next year.
There's a little saying I used to hear and it's stuck in my head over the years and hopefully
it sticks in yours.
And it's this.
Say, don't eat your seed.
Talk to yourself right now.
Talk to yourself.
Say, don't eat your seed.
Come on, say it to yourself.
Don't eat your seed.
Do you know what a farmer never does while they're farming?
They don't eat all their seed.
They don't eat all the seed.
If you got a farmer who's a crop farmer and he's planting corn and he's putting corn in
the ground, do you know what he does not do at harvest time?
He does not get to harvest and he says, you know what?
I'm just going to eat all this.
Man, I'm hungry.
I've been waiting for this to come up.
Right?
I'm going to sit down.
I'm going to get all this corn and I'm just going to eat it all.
I'm going to feed my animals.
Right?
What's a farmer do?
A farmer, he harvests and some of it's for food for him and some of it's food for his
family and some of it's food for the animals and the livestock that he has.
But he also puts seed away.
He puts it in.
Do you know why he puts seed away?
Some of that seed gets put away because he's got to put something in the ground next year
to get a harvest.
You got to plant some corn in the ground next year for the harvest.
And what happens to a lot of people, they eat all their seed.
They make money.
God gives them and blesses them to make money and they eat it all up and they don't put
any seed aside.
Constantly spending all.
Listen, you can keep eating all your seed.
You're not going to have seed for next year.
You're not going to have seed for the unexpected.
Come on, I'm talking about savings right now.
You didn't think you'd hear about that in church, did you?
All right.
Come on.
It's a principle.
Scripture tells us don't eat all your seed.
Don't eat it all.
As a matter of fact, the word of God says, you know what?
You just need to be a little bit like an ant.
All right.
He says, I want you to be like an ant.
They're going to put a picture of an ant up there.
I got a really nice picture of an ant.
Come on, isn't that a nice picture?
Come on.
You need to be like an ant.
That's what the word of God says.
Listen to this scripture in Proverbs.
Proverbs is a book of wisdom.
If you look into God's word, it's a book of wisdom.
It says this in Proverbs 6, 6, go to the ant.
Now I love the language.
Before I go any further, I love the language in this scripture because sometimes Proverbs
is just shoot straight, right?
It says, go to the ant.
You sluggard.
All right.
Consider her ways and be wise, which having no captain or overseer or ruler provides her
supplies in the summer and gathers her food in the harvest.
How long will you slumber?
Oh, sluggard.
When will you arise from your sleep?
A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep.
So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler and your need like an armed man.
Got to love the language in here.
Got to love how this passage addresses what I would call the under, under energetic laborer.
Amen.
The unenthusiastic worker, the less motivated possibly among us.
Okay, just the lazy.
Okay.
It uses these words and it says, go to the ant.
You slugger.
Whoever this, I don't know who this brother's writing to, but he's writing to somebody that
he's trying to get motivated.
That's not what I'm saying about you this morning, but there's some lessons in here.
And he says, listen, you just got to watch the ant.
You got to look to nature.
You got to see how the ant does this.
Right.
And he says, go to the ant, you sluggard.
Consider your ways sluggard.
He uses sluggard a lot.
I just kind of like saying that word.
Right.
No captain, no ruler, no overseer.
Yet the ant provides enough for himself, right.
For the colony and for the future.
He's showing them something.
He's saying, listen, your mama and daddy shouldn't have to chase you around in this.
You need to go after this.
Look at the ant.
Look, look, look what I'm, you know, pick up what I'm putting down here.
Look at the ant.
Go to work.
Earn, collect, right.
Give to God first.
Take care of your family and then begin to set some seed aside.
So you've got some seed next year.
I experienced freedom later because of what I'm doing right now.
We experienced provision later if we're saving something up right now.
The ants do this all the time, constantly and consistently.
They're doing this.
Right.
How many of you ever been to a picnic?
Right.
You're eating your food.
You got your hot dog.
And all of a sudden the end of your dog falls off under the ground.
And you got a big debate going on in your mind.
Do I go with the five second rule or do I just let that puppy lay?
Right.
You don't know who's been walking there.
You don't know what the dogs have been doing there.
So you decide to let that thing lay.
Right.
You're just going to let that piece of dog sit right where it fell and you're just going
to pretend it never happened.
And you walk away.
And 10 minutes later, you're walking along or you're standing there and you look down
and all of a sudden that little piece of hot dog's moving across the ground.
It's just inching its way across the ground.
What's happening?
Ants got to it.
Right.
They're collecting.
There's a hundred ants just marched right over to your little piece of hot dog and they're
carrying that thing away.
Do you know that ants can carry 20 times their weight, their body weight?
If you want to understand how amazing that is, this was what it would be like if we all
dismiss church right now and you all went out and got in your cars, right?
Your mid-sized car, your SUV, about a four thousand pound car.
It would be like you just instead of getting in and starting it, you just pick it up and
put it on your back and carry it home.
That's about what it would be like in comparison in a ratio.
But that ant takes that thing and it goes back to the colony.
And I won't go into all the things that I read about what ants do because it involves
regurgitation and a couple of other things that I don't want to get into.
But it provides provision.
It takes care of the colony and it puts a way for the future.
It does both.
They go to work.
They don't play.
They don't make excuse.
They have provision.
Learn from the ant.
Don't eat all your seed.
Teach your children.
Teach your grandchildren this concept, this principle.
God spoke this way from the very beginning.
He said, go to work and do this.
People think, you know, sometimes when we talk about work and we talk about what we're
going to do in life to earn funds, sometimes we think, well, you know, that's just part
of the curse, because if you read in Genesis, you'll find out that when Adam and Eve came
into the garden and God set them in the garden and they sinned and rebelled against God,
part of the curse that was spoken over the earth was that man would go and work by the
spread of his the sweat of his brow.
What that statement means is that when you go to work, it's going to be hard.
Right.
He told man, when you go to work, it's not going to be easy.
It's going to be difficult.
It's going to be by the sweat of your brow.
But he did not say that work was cursed.
In matter of fact, if you look into God's word and I want you to think about Adam and
Eve, that first man, that first woman that God created, God sets them in Eden.
All right.
Eden is a virtual paradise.
It is a place that God prepared for Adam and Eve.
It has I don't know.
I wasn't there.
But the word of God says that there were fruit trees, all kind of trees that bore bore all
kinds of food, food, right.
That was good for them to eat.
They had food and provision everywhere.
The temperature was just right.
We know that because they didn't wear any clothes.
All right.
It was just right.
They weren't frigid.
They weren't sweat.
It was just right.
The temperature was right.
And a lot of people, I don't got time going to, but a lot of people wonder, well, you
know, why didn't they wear clothes?
I think the glory of God was on them.
I think God's presence was all over them because the word of God says that they walked with
God in the cool of the day.
He literally set them in a place that had rivers and it had food and it had provision
and there were no thorns, there were no thistles, there were no difficulty.
He literally sets them in the middle of a virtual paradise and look what God says to
them in Genesis 2 15.
Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to what?
To tend and keep it.
He drops them in the middle of paradise.
I want you to think about paradise for just a second.
I want you to think about a beach that you've been to somewhere and maybe it's down in the
Caribbean and it's incredible.
Right.
You sat out in the sun and somebody fed you grapes all day long, right.
And they fanned you.
And you know, all right.
And then you woke up, right.
From the dream.
But I want you to think about a virtual paradise.
God sets them in a virtual paradise and He doesn't say, you know what Adam and Eve, you
can just go float around on the rivers right now and eat grapes all day long.
Right.
Grapes and dates.
Just go ahead and eat them all day long.
He doesn't say just go lay.
Just go bask in the sun.
Right.
He doesn't do that.
He says, I made this place for you and now I want you to tend it and to keep it.
I want you to go to work.
See God's built us to do something and it doesn't matter if it's a job where you're
getting a paycheck or if you're at home taking care of children or wherever space you're
in.
Maybe you're retired and you saved up and you're retired now.
God has built us to do something.
He's built us to engage.
We are built to work in some capacity to strive in some way.
Right.
And maybe physically you can't anymore.
You can engage your mind.
You engage whatever you got.
Right.
He built us.
He took.
He built us to take care of whatever business is around us.
He set him in the guard and he said, he said them there and he said, take care, tend, work,
strive, be like the ant.
Right.
Keep moving, keep going forward.
Listen, earn right when you can.
Bless, give to God, take care of your family along the way and set some seed aside.
Don't eat all your seed.
So you got provision in the unexpected day.
Do you know God has a financial plan?
You might say, well, pastor, why are you preaching all this?
Because here's what I believe.
I believe that a healthy disciple, a healthy follower of Jesus is a person who puts Jesus
first in every area of their life.
And that includes finances.
God has a plan.
And if you follow it, he will walk you through and you'll watch his blessing in your life.
You'll watch his hand in your life.
I'm getting ready to close.
And I thought I'd just throw this in there.
When do you save?
You know, when's the best time to save?
And I kind of alluded to this, but you save during the harvest.
Right.
When there's increase, it comes in.
That's when you say you give first, you save second.
Say this with me.
Give first, save second.
All the world says that the opposite.
Do you ever notice God always does things the opposite of the world?
The world say save first, give later.
God says give first, save later.
God says give first, I'll bless it.
I'll have my hand upon it.
I'll increase it because everything he put in God's hands, he breaks, blesses and he
multiplies.
Look in God's word, it's true.
So he says give first and save second.
In the world say save first and give second.
Give first, save second.
And do that during a time of harvest.
A time when you're getting increased.
And it doesn't, you know, it could be if you're an employee, that could be a paycheck time.
If you're a business owner, that could be when the profits come in.
If you're invested, that's when the royalties roll in.
Whatever it is, give first, save second.
Give first, save second.
God wants to bless you.
He wants to give you increase in your life.
But I know this about God.
We have to do it His way.
The moment that I step out of God's order, and it's not that God doesn't want to bless
me sometimes, He can't because I step out of His, out of His, out of His truth.
See God never lies.
The word of God is clear in this.
God will never lie.
He will not lie.
So He will not, He cannot, will not and cannot place His hand and His blessing upon something
that is not His truth.
He will stick to His truth.
And as long as I'm walking in that, blessing is already there.
But as soon as I walk out of that, I step out from underneath His blessing.
Happens all the time, right?
It really does.
And it's the same financially.
We want to, listen, what you do today has everything to do with what's going to happen
tomorrow.
It's true.
I'm going to ask you to stand.
Now I didn't want to kind of come with this last message and get to, you know, and I know
this has kind of been an instructional kind of message without giving you a kind of a
plan because I know what some of you are thinking.
You know, some of you are in a place and I understand this.
I got my own testimony about finances personally and I'd love to sit down sometime and talk
with you about that if you'd like to.
I know what some people are thinking.
Some people are thinking, you know, I've tried this.
I've tried to follow God's prescription and you don't understand, Pastor.
I got all this debt, all this stuff that's bottle-backed.
I got school loans.
I got this.
I got that.
And I'm just completely strapped.
And I'd love to do everything that you're saying.
I'd love to walk in that.
But I just literally can't do it right now.
And I understand what you're saying.
I get what you're saying.
But here's the thing.
If you're going to follow God, you've got to follow His plan.
So I want to give you a little bit of a plan.
If you're feeling like, man, I'd love to do this but I just can't do it right now, I'm
overwhelmed.
And some of you have even said, you know what, I've even tried it and I just gave up.
I just gave up on it.
I've been buried in debt.
I've been strapped.
I don't make enough money.
You know, I just, I, I, I, I've just given up.
I'll just be honest with you.
I've just given up.
I can't do it.
Right?
And, and, and you're just hoping this, you just, you just can't wait until this message
ends.
Right?
To go home.
Don't forget about it.
Let me give you some steps, some real advice.
Alright?
Step one is this.
We're going to do this in just a moment.
Pray and invite God into your finances.
Okay?
First thing you have to do is you have to pray and invite God in.
The moment you invite God in, God does come in.
He does step.
That's a step of faith.
You start moving towards Him.
He starts moving towards you.
And God always changes things when, when, when you step out in faith.
So you've got to pray and get God into your finances.
Secondly, get a financial consultant.
Get somebody that, that is a godly, godly, now listen, I want to say that a couple of
times.
A godly, professional, financial consultant.
We can get you connected with someone like that.
And hear what they have to say.
Let them help you put a plan together to start moving towards a biblical plan for your life.
And then do this.
Work at it one bite at a time.
How do you eat an elephant?
That's right.
Okay?
You eat an elephant one bite at a time.
And God, you step forward.
You take, man, none of us get this all right.
At the first step out.
When none of us got, none of us got all our stuff together.
If you think, if you come into this house and you think there's a bunch of people in
here that got all their stuff together, we'll have a talk.
Okay?
We'll sit down and really give you the real stuff.
None of us have it all together.
But you do this one bite at a time.
And Jesus will walk with you one bite at a time.
And I don't preach this because I want you to get more in the offering.
Or I don't get some kind of raise out of this.
I promise you.
My paycheck is set by the denomination.
You can give a million dollars.
I ain't going to change my paycheck one iota.
All right?
Not going to happen.
All right?
Doesn't change a thing.
All right?
Really doesn't.
This is about you coming into a place where God is going to bless you in your finances.
And He wants to do that.
He wants to walk with you.
But we've got to walk in what He says.
We've got to do what He says.
Amen?
So let me give you just those three practical steps.
Now I want you to pray.
Here's all I'm asking you to do.
As we get ready to close.
I want you to just invite God into your finances.
Now some of you already have.
Some of you.
Some of you actually would work well as consultants in this church.
It's good if you go see a professional and it's good if you have somebody walk beside
you that's been where you've been.
And there are a lot of people in this church that have been where you've been.
Including me.
On some thanks.
Okay?
So let me tell you your testimony and watch what God does in your life.
You know what I always do?
I always look at, if I want to get somewhere.
I look at, no matter what it is.
If I want to get to a destination and I've never been to that destination before.
Do you know what I do?
I go find somebody who's been to that destination already.
I go find them and I say, hey, how'd you get there?
How does this work in your life?
I need to know because I'm not there yet.
And I need to know how to get there.
Can you help me out for a minute?
Can you talk to me for just a little while?
Man, get with someone.
They want to help.
They love it that you want to get there.
I do that.
I still do that.
I'm 57.
I'm still consulting with people all the time.
Asking questions because like man, I haven't been there.
I need to know.
I need to know how to get there.
Do this.
Amen?
Amen.
I'm asking you to close your eyes.
I'm going to read a little story.
Just to hopefully support you.
If you won't do this for you, I want you to hear this story.
Maybe you'll do it for this reason.
I love this story.
Lord Patterson tells this story in his book Circle Maker.
He says this.
Hony the wise one was also known as Hony the Circle Maker.
By drawing a circle and stepping inside of it, he would recite special prayers for rain,
sometimes even argue with God during a drought.
And the rains would come.
He was indeed a miracle maker.
As wise as he was, Hony sometimes saw something that puzzled him.
Then he would ask questions so he would unravel the mystery.
One day Hony the Circle Maker was walking on the road and saw a man planting a carob
tree.
Hony asked the man, how long will it take for this tree to bear fruit?
The man replied, 70 years.
Hony then asked the man, and do you think you will live another 70 years and eat the
fruit of this tree?
And the man answered, perhaps not.
However, when I was born into this world, I found many carob trees planted by my father
and grandfather.
Just as they planted trees for me, I am planting trees for my children and grandchildren so
they will be able to eat the fruit of these trees.
If you won't do this for you, do it for your children and grandchildren.
So God could show you what He can do through you, through your children, through your grandchildren.
For those maybe who are around you that you can pour it.
And it doesn't have to be physical grandchildren or physical sons and daughters.
It could be spiritual sons and daughters as well.
Father, we come to you right now.
I thank you for each one that is in the house.
Lord, I know this wasn't any kind of shouting message, super amen-y kind of message.
But Lord, this is your word.
And God, I believe in freedom in the house.
I believe freedom in your people.
Lord, I know, God, that your word sets us free.
It delivers us.
It makes us whole.
And Lord, you can do that one step at a time.
And God, I pray for each person in this house.
Lord, some are here, they could actually be consultants in all this.
God, some are here, they need somebody to walk beside them.
They need the help.
They felt like they have been drowning for a long time financially.
And Lord, God, you want them free.
God, I want them to realize in their heart that what they do today can change everything
for tomorrow in their lives.
I ask now, Lord, that you would minister, that you would touch in Jesus' name.
And Lord, I pray right now that they would make a commitment in their heart and mind,
if this is them, if this is where they are at, that they will consult.
That they will ask the question to somebody.
In Jesus' name.
Amen, amen.
Can I leave you with one last thing?
There is a stigma with this.
A lot of people won't ask for help because they feel like they failed in something.
You did not fail.
There are a lot of reasons why you can get to a place of financial difficulty.
Tons.
There are some of them way outside of your control.
If you go get help with this, it is the equivalent of consulting a doctor.
How many of you would not even think twice about consulting a doctor and saying, listen,
I have something going on.
My knee is acting up and I really need some help with this thing.
You would not even blink.
It is the same thing.
Don't hold back.
Don't do it.
Amen.
God is so good.
Thank God I am done preaching on finances.
Amen.
Turn to somebody and give them a high five.
Tell them it is good to be at LifeHouse.
I will see you next Sunday on Student Sunday.
God bless you.
Thank you for joining online this morning.
Amen.
Thank you for tuning in to this message from LifeHouse Church.
We pray that you were impacted powerfully by this message.
God bless you.
Amen.
If you have been personally affected by our ministry
and you would like to partner with us
as we love God, love people every day,
visit our website at www.lifehousecog.com.