Bill Johnson - Kingdom Abundance (Paying Caesar, Paying God)
Well, good morning! Nice to see you; it’s always good to see you. I haven’t read this one for a little while, so I thought I’d bless you with it today. You can thank me later. As a bagpiper, I play many gigs. Recently, I was asked by a funeral director to play the graveside service for a homeless man. He had no family or friends, so the service was to be at a pauper cemetery in the Kentucky backcountry. As I was not familiar with the backwoods, I got lost. Being a typical man, I didn’t stop and ask for directions. I finally arrived an hour late and saw the funeral guy had evidently gone. The hearse was nowhere in sight; there were only the diggers and the crew left, and they were eating lunch. I felt badly and apologized to the men for being late. I went to the graveside and looked down. The vault lid was already in place. I didn’t know what else to do, so I started to play. The workers put down their lunches and began to gather around. I played my heart and soul out for this man with no family or friends. I played like I had never played before. As I played «Amazing Grace,» the workers began to weep. They wept, I wept, we all wept together. When I finished, I packed up my bagpipes and started for my car. Though my head hung low, my heart was full. As I was opening the door to my car, I heard one of the workers say, «Sweet Mother of Jesus, I ain’t never seen nothing like that before, and I’ve been putting in septic tanks for 20 years.»
That’s funny. Before we get into the word, I want to pray for one group of people dealing with abundance, dealing with the prosperity of soul, dealing with that aspect of life. There are a number of folks in the room who really struggle with the fear of man, and all of us have dealt with that at one time or another. We could easily pray for each other on this one, but what I felt this morning was that the enemy has spotted a gift of compassion—an ability to be moved by the thoughts, feelings, and needs of the people around you—but he has worked to distort that gift to where you actually fear people instead of being able to respond to them and serve them.
For example, Peter had this great boldness, but outside of the lordship of Jesus, he just put his foot in his mouth time after time. You find a person who is very sensitive to the Holy Spirit, very sensitive, quiet in spirit. That person, led by the Lord, speaks at the right time profound things, but not under the lordship of Jesus; they become very introverted, introspective, and self-absorbed. I feel like for many people in this room, you have a God-given gift to excel in compassion, but the enemy has persuaded you to fear people’s opinions rather than serving them according to what you discern and feel. Does that make any sense to anyone?
So if that fits you, put a hand up because we’re going to pray for you right now. You don’t have to stand; just put your hand up. If you’re close to someone who has their hand up, pray for them. This is the day I don’t think the Lord would highlight it if He didn’t plan on really freeing each individual that struggles with this area. So put your hand on somebody; if there are a bunch of you together, lay hands on one another. Let’s not let anybody be skipped; just pray for them. We just say, «Lord, let the lordship of Jesus be seen over their thoughts and emotions, and let them be used by the Lord to display compassion, to be able to bring people into health and deliverance so that no trick of the enemy, no tactic of the enemy would work from this point on, but instead, they would be freed to excel in compassion and to bring deliverance and healing to people.» We declare that liberty over your life; we declare you were born for this freedom, you were born for this liberty, it is God’s design for you and from this point on you will be aware of the trick of the enemy so you can expose his tactics, and instead of moving in fear, you’re free to respond with compassion towards those you would have withdrawn from. We declare the heart of the Lord and the gift that God has given you; we declare it in Jesus' name. Everybody said, «Amen.»
All right, beautiful, you did good. Open your Bibles, if you would, to Luke chapter 16. I have two verses to read before we actually get into Luke 16. I’m taking three weeks to talk to you about the kingdom of abundance. For several years now, I have had such an increasing burning desire—not just desire, but a burden and an awareness of the heart of God regarding something that I think, for the most part, the church has missed for various reasons: the subject of money. When it’s talked about in the church, it receives all kinds of different reactions, often because of past abuses—abuses of people who may, on one hand, have taught that God wants everybody to be rich and your spirituality is measured by your income or by how many possessions you have. I don’t know anything that could be further from the truth than that, except the opposite, which is also taught by much of the church: that lack and poverty are actually a sign of spirituality. Neither is true.
I’d like for us to find the heart of the Lord. He tells us to pray on earth as it is in heaven. Heaven is not a place of lack; heaven is not a place of worry, wringing our hands to figure out where the next meal is going to come from. It’s simply not the Lord. If my children are poorly clothed, my wife is poorly clothed, and they haven’t eaten in a long time while I’m feasting and nicely dressed, then you have reason to question what kind of husband I am, what kind of father. Oftentimes, we actually represent the Lord through our lack, thinking that that’s God’s will, when in fact His desire is for us to abound. That’s what I’m doing this series for. We did that last week. I’m going to talk to you about another aspect of that this morning, but I want to read the theme verse for this series. It’s out of 2 Corinthians 9:8: «God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.» I love that verse so much! I love the thought of having an abundance for every good work.
Many of you were able to respond last week to the need of our missionaries from our own house, sent to a very dangerous place in the world. I cannot mention their location, but their vehicles were blown up, and everybody’s safe. We’re thankful for that. But you responded with radical generosity; they’re able to buy a much better vehicle than they ever thought was possible. It’s because of the abounding unto every good work, and I personally love the stories of the missionary family or the young couple that prays over a meal when they have no food in the house. They ask the Lord to provide, and they sit at the table with the plates in front of them. Soon, there’s a knock on the door, and someone has brought groceries because they were led by the Lord to supply them with food. I love that story, and I’ve been on the receiving end of that kind of story, but I’m tired of being on the receiving end. I want to be the guy knocking on the door. I want to be abounding into all good works. That’s where we thrive—we have been assigned and designed to thrive in the abundance of God’s good work to touch and impact people’s lives.
Here it is again: «God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.» Verse 10 says this: «Now may He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness.» One more thing that we’ll probably deal with next week is the concept of bread and seed. The Lord provides bread to be consumed; He provides seed to be sown or to be planted. The church has typically done well; I have typically done well in both modeling and teaching on generosity but not always teaching what it looks like to be a good steward of bread. If you plant bread, it doesn’t grow. It’s foolish to plant your bread; it’s equally foolish to eat your seed. Discerning when the Lord has given something that is going to increase your future harvest is seed, but bread is for personal consumption to the glory of God. If I buy a gift for my wife, a nice beautiful purse, and she carries it when we go out to dinner, I’m gratified that she would want to carry that purse that I spent our money on to honor her with, and that she thinks it’s beautiful. That’s what I do; I look for beautiful things for her.
If I give a special gift to my children, I’m always honored and gratified when they use it and recognize that it’s bread, not seed, and I’m encouraged when they use something that I sacrificed for that they could enjoy. Our heavenly Father is the same way; He delights in abundance for you. He delights in abundance, and He provides bread for consumption. It is not selfish to consume what God has given you; it’s selfish to eat your seed, and it’s pretty dumb too. So we’ll deal with that probably a bit more next week, but one more verse that I want to read to you today is out of Matthew chapter 22. If you’re writing references down, some Pharisees came to Jesus, and it’s kind of funny; they came to Him with all these words of praise, but they were setting Him up with a tricky question and trying to deceive Him. So they came to Him and said, «Teacher, we know that you are true; you teach the way of God in truth, nor do you care about anyone, for you do not regard the person of men,» in other words, «you’re not manipulated by the fear of man,» which was absolutely true.
«Tell us, therefore, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?» They thought this would be a hard question for Jesus. But Jesus perceived their wickedness and said, «Why do you test me, you hypocrites?» I love how tender Jesus is in these moments. In your face, He says it like He thinks: «Why do you test me, you hypocrites? Show me the tax money.» So they brought Him a denarius, and He said to them, «Whose image and inscription is this?» They said to Him, «Caesar’s.» And He said, «Render, the word there is actually 'pay.' Pay therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.» This first of all legitimizes the concept of tax and paying taxes; you should be thankful when you have to pay more taxes because it means you made more money. You can look at either reality, and if you don’t like the way the money is spent—and believe me, I get that; it’s not always spent well—go to a third-world country, and it will help to heal that part of your heart. Just go somewhere where it’s a mess, and you’ll come back rejoicing at how together this one is. Honestly, taxes are something we should give thanks for whenever we have the privilege to pay.
If you complain, it’s because you have a poverty spirit. You have a self-absorbed—the poverty spirit itself is self-absorbed; it only measures what I pay; it doesn’t measure what I make. What I want is for the abundance for every good work, but the abundance for every good work is released to a people that know how to steward promotion, favor, resource, know when it’s bread, and know when it’s seed and are willing to do both for the glory of God. The issue at hand when we talk about dollars and cents is the lordship of Jesus. That is the issue. So Jesus here says, «Who’s on the coin?» They said, «Caesar.» He says, «Well then, give to Caesar what belongs to him, and then He said, 'But give to God what belongs to Him.'» The word is actually «pay.» Pay God what belongs to God. In the culture Jesus is ministering in, it’s the Jewish culture. There’s only one part of their income that is not theirs, and it’s called the tithe. The paying of the tithe—everything else belonged to them. Now, I know you could say, «Well, everything we own belongs to God,» that’s true, but in this illustration, that would have made it impossible to not give Caesar what belongs to him because it belongs to God.
In this case, the Lord is trying to teach the difference between bread and seed, and He specifically says to pay to God what belongs to God. The misconception that has really cycled through the church in the last 20 years especially is the thought that the tithe is from the law, and it actually isn’t. The tithe isn’t from the law; you hear people say, «Well, we’re free from the law.» That’s true; you’re free from the law—the mosaic law of sacrifices, rituals, cleansing—all those kinds of practices that made you righteous before the Lord. Jesus fulfilled the demand of all of those, but how many know the law of sowing and reaping is still in effect in the grace of God? If you show mercy, what do you receive? You receive mercy. Jesus is actually teaching His disciples that much of what they want from the Father they have to initiate through radical obedience. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Who gave it first in that illustration? A person gave it. I realize we are alive because of the mercy of God, but the illustration Jesus is giving is that a person extended mercy, and because of that, they will receive it. Much of our life is actually linked to this concept of sowing and reaping.
In this passage, He says, «Pay to God what belongs to God.» In the Jewish culture and their thinking, that was 10% of their income. My grandfather was fun to eat with; if we ever went to a restaurant, he liked salt. I do too. I like coffee, I like salt. Chris and I have to sit next to each other in any restaurant because we both use it. My grandfather would get the salt shaker in the restaurant, pour it over his food, and if it was too little, he’d shake it over again, and one day I remember him saying, «Ah, it’s a tither,» and he put it down. I didn’t know what he meant; I said, «What do you mean, Grandpa, 'tither'?» He said, «Ah, it only gives what it has to.» We were raised in an atmosphere where 10% of my income was not giving; it was a payment. Dick Joyce taught us years ago: «Your tithe is your rent payment for living on His planet, breathing His air, and you don’t want to be evicted.»
I’m trying to keep this humorous, not legalistic, but listen carefully—stewarding this part of our life is huge because it has everything to do with the lordship of Jesus. It is giving to Him what actually belongs to Him, and that hasn’t even started generosity yet—it’s just called returning what belongs to Him. Generosity starts after that point. Luke chapter 16, are you there? Good; me too! Luke 16, I want you to go right down to verse 10. Jesus has already been dealing with the subject of money—mammon. In verse 10, He says, «He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore, if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?»
Now stop right there for a moment. Mammon is a Syrian term for the god of riches, so when He’s talking about mammon or the spirit of mammon, He’s talking about a spiritual entity that influences the economies of the world. He’s dealing with it as a personality, not just the dollars in your pocket. I mean, you understand there’s nothing evil or righteous about the dollars you have in your pocket; what I do with it determines whether or not—whether «I give it to a missionary or buy lunch for my wife,» it’s righteously used. «Unrighteous mammon—who will entrust true riches?» Verse 12: «If you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?»
Now we’re going to read one more verse, but let me stop on this one. If I’m not faithful with what is another man’s, what does that mean in my world? It’s the tithe. I’ve been given something; it’s in my stewardship now. I have the privilege to demonstrate who my Lord is, and in Lordship, I return to Him what belongs to Him. Why does He want that to happen? Because He wants me to have my own. He’s actually interested in increasing what the abundance unto every good work in my life is. He’s desiring to increase my capacity to make a difference with resources. Verse 13: «No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.» The word loyal actually means to hold to.
Let me illustrate this; now don’t get weird on me here, but this is going to represent mammon, and this is going to represent God. It’s not God; it’s just an apple product, but it’s the closest I could get. That’s so pitiful, isn’t it? But anyway, here we go. What does He say? He says either you will love the one and hate the other, or you hold to the one and despise the other. Whenever money is talked about in the church, see, once the issue is settled, every conversation about finances is an invitation for breakthrough and increase, but until the issue is settled, it’s a point of aggravation, it’s a point of frustration, it’s a point of «I wish I wasn’t here today» kind of thing.
What the Lord does in these moments is reveal to us, «Alright, you’re serving mammon. You didn’t even know it.» How can we tell? Because of what you’re holding on to. The way serving mammon is evidenced is in holding on to and despising. What about serving God instead of mammon? It’s illustrated by our love for God, listen to this, and our hatred for that which would defile our complete, absolute devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. Hatred—sometimes our love for God is measured by what we hate, not people; don’t get weird on me—here, but it’s measured by hating what He hates. He hates that demonic spirit that entangles; Scripture teaches us that those with anxiety and the shifting in values over spiritual resources and blessings to natural resources to where they become greedy actually kill the seed of the Lord that is planted in their heart to bring an eternal harvest.
The whole story of the seed and the sower—part of what brought great damage to the heart of the believer was the fact that there was so much shifting in their focus about material wealth and possessions. I want everybody in this church to own their own home. I want you to have a dream car to drive. I really do. My greatest ambition is for the breakthrough in the miraculous, the breakthrough in the harvest of souls. But when it can be displayed by bounty in your business and bounty in your home, man, I’m all over it. I want everyone to have their own home paid for, not just making payments every month. I hunger for that; I desire for that. Why? Because it frees us up to have an abundance for every good work.
So here He says, «If you have not been faithful in unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?» I remember as a younger pastor—I always thought, I don’t know why, but I always thought if I handled unrighteous mammon well, He’ll entrust me true riches. For some reason, I thought it was just more unrighteous mammon; it’s not. True riches are why we’re here; it’s why we’re a family; it’s why we do what we do. We are looking for greater breakthroughs, greater demonstrations of the love of God, the power of God, deliverance, healing, salvation—all the stuff that we ache for in our hearts—that’s the true riches.
It would be foolish to think that I can buy those things with generosity. It’s also foolish to think I can explore all the realms of true riches without faithfulness here. Jesus himself links the breakthrough. I think I gave you the illustration last week: natural riches I can buy you all steak dinner; with true riches, we can just buy one and multiply it. This is not mammon any longer; this is now my water. The thought that the tithe comes from the law is a deep misunderstanding because its roots are in the Old Testament, but the one who established the concept of the tithe was Abraham. Abraham is very significant for us because he is called the father of faith—the father of our faith. He is the one that God gave a promise to, and it says he believed God, and God considered him righteous because of that belief.
A number of years ago, John Paul Jackson came to speak here; he’s at home with the Lord now. When he came, he always brought a great word to us and helped me personally with a dream I had that really troubled me. I feel like I owe him a million bucks because of the interpretation he gave me. He helped settle and bring a lot of peace and focus in my heart. One of the things John Paul said when he was here is that Romans chapter 4 is going to be key for this next outpouring of the Spirit, for this next wave of revival.
So I committed myself to reading Romans 4 every day and did it for three years, except for five days because of international flights. I read it day after day, becoming increasingly impacted by this man, Abraham, and his courageous faith, his bold faith. One of the things I noticed in Scripture is that the Bible tells us to study, learn, follow, and embrace the ways of Abraham. Abraham is called the father of faith. We are alive because of faith; we have been born again because of the gift of faith that God gave to us; where did that come from? Well, in testimony, it came from Abraham.
It was Abraham who, after a particular incident, had great resources, and he took a tenth of it and gave it as a tithe to bring honor to the man of God. The point I’m trying to make is that the whole idea of the tithe actually started with Abraham, not with Moses and the law, which I think was like 400 years later. So here you have Abraham doing something before the Mosaic law. The Mosaic law was not the seedbed, if you will, of the concept of the tithe; the Mosaic law had all kinds of rituals and cleansing and washings, and animal sacrifices—all these things that were to be done to somehow obtain righteousness before God. No one could ever do it; Jesus came and fulfilled that demand.
But how many understand when the Bible says «do not murder?» You still don’t murder now that you’re under grace. Now maybe I should repeat this just in case some of you are struggling with that command. Being freed from the law doesn’t mean you can now murder. Yeah, being free from the law doesn’t mean that now adultery is okay. It says to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength—everything about you still love God—to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus says, «But He goes on,» and He says, «You’ve been told that you’re to not commit murder, but I say to you, if you call a person a name, you’re guilty.»
So I’ve realized reading that, you know, I’ve been able to go my entire life without killing anyone. It’s not even been tempting, except for a few times on the highway. That’s a joke—don’t quote me! I’ve been able to go my entire life without killing anyone; I’ve done quite well at it. I’m not even aimed at anyone with a gun or anything. I’ve got that part down; don’t kill. But I have called a few people names—"idiot» is the name that comes to mind the soonest—no one in here, you’re all safe. It was the guy in the car, but I’ll just leave that alone. So Jesus says, «You heard you can’t commit murder; I’m saying you can’t call people names. If you do, you’re guilty.»
So which is easier to do, the law or grace? It’s a trick question. What’s the difference between law and grace? Law requires; grace enables. When Jesus says you shall not commit murder, you are required. When the law says you’re to live this way, you’re to do such and such, there’s a requirement put upon humanity. But when Jesus, in grace, says you’re not even to call someone a name, you’re not even to look at a woman to lust after—when He ups the ante, when He increases the requirement far past the commands of the law, He’s doing so because the Holy Spirit is given to you, enabling you to do exactly what Jesus would do if He were in your shoes.
Back to the subject of money—the concept of the tithe was born in the heart of Abraham. Our father of faith was ratified by the law. Jesus comes along, and in Matthew 23:23, we find Jesus correcting the Pharisees again, which He seemed to have a full-time job doing. They were growing herbs, and they would have dill and various things. They would chop up their herbs into ten pieces, and they would take one-tenth and give that herb as their tithe. Jesus points to what they’re doing. He says this: «You should have done.» In other words, the tithe is right, but you’ve done so at the expense of the weightier provisions of the law.
What is He saying? He’s saying obeying here doesn’t excuse all the wrong stuff you’re doing. In other words, just because you did this right, you tithed on your dill, you don’t get a pass on the judgment you’ve made towards other people. You don’t get a pass there. The weightier provisions of the law are relational in nature; it’s the way we treat this, the way we give honors, the way we value and respect people. Jesus went on and brought correction to them about their unwillingness to even care for or take care of their own parents because they had dedicated their resources to God under the guise of dedication to God, and they wouldn’t even move with compassion to take care of their own family members.
So He’s rebuking them for neglecting the weightier provisions that God had required of their lives. But instead, they were giving a tenth of their dill. What did Jesus do? He said, «This you should have done.» So we’ve got Abraham, we’ve got the law, we’ve got Jesus; we have the early church fathers. The early church fathers—those who were alive during Jesus' time and those who followed in the first 150 years—were strong proponents of the concept of the tithe and moving beyond that into offerings. I remember Judson Cornwall, who was a great inspiration for me. He would have meetings with the businesspeople in his church; it was just kind of a—it wasn’t a requirement, but there was this understanding with this group of businesspeople that they started at a minimum 20% of their income to give to the Lord.
Now, I never say anything of this nature to imprison anyone; all I want to do is say, number one, give Him what belongs to Him, period—for your sake. If you don’t belong to this church, whatever church you belong to, if you—your tithe goes into the storehouse. Malachi 3 says, «Test me in this and see if I won’t open for you the windows of heaven.» How many of you have been praying for open heavens? Sometimes money opens the window! Wow! It’s what He said! It’s actually what He said; He says, «Will a man rob God? Yet you’ve robbed me.» But you say, «In what way have we robbed you?» In tithes and offerings; He says, «You are cursed with a curse; you’ve robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.»
What is that food? Is it in the pantry, or is it the spirit of revelation that rests upon the church? I don’t know of any church in the country where there’s a continuous flow of the spirit of revelation where there’s increased understanding that is not generous financially. Generosity in the natural releases a spiritual blessing that is just unparalleled. It’s a smile. Now and then, it’ll encourage me that there may be food in my house. «Try me now on this,» says the Lord, «if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing until there’s no more need.»
There’s this interesting thing that took place in Israel’s history. Israel was required of the Lord to rest the land every seven years. So they’d grow crops for six years; they wouldn’t plant any of the seventh year, just glean off of what grew naturally out of that seventh year. Israel didn’t do it for 490 years. That’s a somewhat of a delayed obedience there—to put off the «yes» to God for 490 years. What is one-seventh of 490? 70. How long was Israel in exile? 70 years. You never keep what you withhold, and we never keep it. You can fight for it; you can grasp it; you can do whatever you want. «I’m going to control this; I’m going to discipline that.» We never keep what we withhold, so Israel ends up with 70 years in exile.
I don’t believe it’s the punishment of the Lord; I just think there’s this thing that we don’t always get—that when we obey the laws of the kingdom, there’s this thing that just works for us that doesn’t work otherwise. And when we violate the laws of that kingdom, you can’t get the blessing of one government by obeying the laws of another. We all love the idea of the promised land; we love the idea of the promises of God coming to fruition in our life. We love the idea of living with more than enough so that we can abound into every good work, but those realities are never tapped into by following the laws and principles of an inferior kingdom.
And so the Lord is actually inviting us into a journey with Him; the journey is to demonstrate lordship by returning what belongs to Him. I say this not in harshness or rudeness; it’s just, you know, if you don’t trust the house you’re in to do that, then find a place where you trust. Because you need to be able to put that into the storehouse so that there will be food. So that your family and your descendants will be powerfully fed of the Lord in what’s happening in that local church. But the tithe is something that belongs to God. I’ve encouraged people; I’ve challenged people for years. I’ve watched as people—brand new believers will just take that huge step of faith and take that part of their income, and the Lord will, time after time, after time, bring great return and great blessing. What I’ve noticed is that the older saint that does it may not always get as quick a breakthrough.
What I’ve noticed is the older saint that’s been doing it for a long time doesn’t always get a quick breakthrough. Why? Because we are required to live off of the testimonies of the early days to keep ourselves encouraged that He has not changed: «Faithful in little, faithful in much.» Anytime you have a delayed answer, it’s never punishment; it’s always because He’s building something in you that will pay off later. Delayed answers—faith brings answers; delayed answers bring answers with endurance. Character is formed in the delay, and the Lord is building in us the capacity for the long haul. He’s actually raising up world-changers; people who know how to affect the course of history with their lifestyles.
Most believers that I know are praying for just that daily provision so that we can help to meet the electric bill, pay the car payment, do this and that, and those things are fine. I never fault anyone for that kind of approach, but I feel like we’re supposed to actually see what the Lord would be willing to do in our lifetime. Here’s—I don’t know if this will make sense; I tried it last service; it didn’t go over very well, so I’m going to try it again. One of the things that has been a very strong lesson for me personally has been the realization that all of us have a limited number of days. Would you agree with that? The Bible, in fact, the Bible says, «Display your heart of wisdom by numbering your days.» Demonstrate that you have wisdom by realizing you’re not on this planet forever, so live with that kind of wisdom.
Limited number of days—number one. Number two, we all have a limited amount of strength. If you don’t believe that, just try to stay up for seven nights in a row and see how good you work. The quality of your work is in seven days; I mean we just can’t do it. We can’t pull it off, and yet ministry after ministry experiences crazy burnout because of the unwillingness to take time off because «it will cost too much.» If I take time off, it’ll cost the ministry too much. And so there are person after person that experiences burnout; the church celebrates the pastor who works seven days a week, never takes a vacation because he loves us so much. Yeah, you’ve just lit his fuse; he’s offering to the Lord a blood sacrifice that is unacceptable. It’s an unacceptable sacrifice.
God Himself rested on the seventh day. God Himself. And to violate that—I don’t care how sincere you are, you drink poison, you die. Even if you’re sincere, you can’t violate the design of the Lord, and the Lord designed us for rest and for work. We were designed that way. So here’s this concept: a limited number of days, limited strength, but we have access to unlimited resources. Would you agree? It wasn’t as much as I was hoping for, but I’ll work with it; it’s all right. Limited amount of days? Yes! This is not—I don’t have a trick question for you. I know you don’t trust me right now! Limited number of days? Yes! Limited amount of strength? Yes! Access to unlimited resources? Yes!
Every minister I know spends what’s limited to say what’s unlimited, pushing the edge of burnout and exhaustion because we’ve got to save the dollars. I believe in wisdom and saving; I’m just saying heaven looks at it differently. The world around you will applaud the person who burns out, you know, dies at 35 because they just burned up with exhaustion because of their love for the harvest. Well, that’s awesome, but think of how many more I could have won if you would have just taken a day off and lasted another 35 years. I don’t say that in any way to point fingers or to bring condemnation; I’m just saying heaven has a different perspective. When we pray on earth as it is in heaven, we are not praying for an environment of survival. We are not praying for an environment of survival; we are saying, «God, change the way I think, the way I do life, so You could trust me with an abundance for every good work.»
I want to shape the course of history. I want to see specific—I want to see people in this house, in this family, own a house outright. That’s what I want to see! I want to see every person a part of the house—this is my personal cry—to see every person not only own a home but own it outright—not as a giving permission to live in a self-centered way, but I just mean what could happen if just the money spent on interest every year, just interest money, put back into the kingdom. What would happen? Just the interest, let alone the rest! We have the capacity to shape the course of history through radical generosity, through a radical lifestyle of sacrifice of learning how to delight in the provision of the Lord without having to apologize. Yes, that is a nice horse; I know I don’t deserve it, but it’s just the grace of God—without having to jump through those hoops apologizing for blessing, being able to use what He has blessed you with as a testimony of what kind of Father He is.
Why? Because it’s the nature of our God as Father that is in Psalm 67 to woo the nations to Himself. It’s His demonstration as a Father displaying His kindness, His privilege on your life and my life that is to literally woo the nations of the world to Him. It’s tough to see that wooing if we don’t pay our bills; it’s tough to see that wooing if we live just in mere survival. It doesn’t matter to me what your assignment is in life. Whatever! I mentioned it again last week; what does blessing and abundance look like for Joseph in prison? He just becomes in charge of the other prisoners. It’s not the mansion on the hill; it’s the place of favor for being in his lane to have righteous influence on those under his charge.
It’s realizing the role that we have in life, and it may change in a year; it may change in ten years, but where are we now? When I’m in this neighborhood, I don’t like to be in—well, guess what? You get to bring righteous influence into that neighborhood because that’s the lane you’re in right now. What does bounty, what does abundance look like? It means that you get a breakthrough, and you start sharing with your neighbor. You’re able to pray with them for their own personal breakthrough—that your own family is healthy and theirs isn’t, and you get to serve and love on them and give an impartation of what family life and healthy relationships look like. This is the privilege of the abundant lifestyle.
See, the poverty mind is self-absorbed, and it is witnessed, give me a little grace here, it is witnessed by the fact that when we come together, oftentimes, most people come in for what they can get and haven’t yet ministered to one person while coming. Yet the Scripture says, «When you come together, let each one have a psalm, let each one have a hymn, let each one have something to deposit in another person’s life.» The whole issue of poverty is not dollars. One final comment here: in the Old Testament, the blessing of God was seen almost entirely in material wealth and blessing. Just go in your concordance or if you have an iPad or computer program, just put in the word «riches» or any of these kinds of terms and look. It’s Abraham, it’s David, it’s Solomon, Hezekiah. I was just looking at a verse this morning; Hezekiah abounded in extreme wealth.
What’s the point? In the Old Testament, it was external blessing that God gave to change their heart. It was external to change this, but in the New Testament, it is internal prosperity that’s to change the external. The kingdom is within you. Above all else, 3rd John 2: let your health, let your prosperity in all things be in good health even as your soul prospers. This is what tastes the bounty of the Lord! I’ve been forgiven; I have been set free; I am free to be a servant. I have resources that are unlimited! I can serve and love everybody around me! Something’s happening in here where I realize that God has given me extreme abundance, and what happens? That begins to shape health; that begins to shape my finances; it begins to shape everything around me.
Old Testament: outside in. New Testament: inside out! I have to have it here! That means that it just means that we talk differently to the neighbor. It means that as we get help at the store and they tell us where in the store to find the product that we need, the way we treat that person—the cashier, it’s the waitress at the restaurant; it’s all these things. It’s just our interactions with people. I can tell those who have poverty of soul because everything is aimed towards them, but when you experience the blessing of Holy Spirit-inspired royalty, then you know you have limited time, limited strength, unlimited resources—I’m going to use my access to the unlimited, whether it’s dollars or kind words, to make somebody else’s life better.
Go ahead and listen, I felt earlier this morning in just looking forward to today that I was to pray something for you I don’t remember ever praying before in my life. I don’t like talking about my personal finances or giving, that sort of thing. I stay away from it; I did it one time only after kind of a weird week, a newspaper article, and I said, «Well, just in case there are young believers here that could be affected wrongly,» and I went into specifics, but I never let Beth immediately reproduce it. I just did it in-house. I love the thought of giving; I love the lifestyle of giving. Benny and I have never given as low as 20% of our income. We learned early on, and we love to push the boundaries. We love to see what God will do.
If I can just wreck, I’ve planted, I’ve planted bread before, and it was depressing because it just didn’t grow a thing. This just got old and moldy. But I also know what it is to hold on to things loosely, and there’s a grace on my life for generosity. There is! I know it’s true; I know it’s true! I just hold on to things loosely. I mean, I want to be responsible, but I can give anything! I feel like there’s a gift of generosity that the Lord would give, and I don’t know if you want it, but you’re going to get it, so I’m not going to have you raise your hands because some of you have raised just because your neighbor did, and the Lord knows better.
So I’m toying with you now. I want to just pray for you, and I feel like there’s this gift, this grace for generosity that the Lord would release. Father, first, we recognize you’re the extreme one; you’re the generous one. Jesus, You gave all; You withheld nothing, and so we acknowledge that, and we give honor to You, and we praise You. I ask right now that You would impart a grace, a gift to as many who are even slightly open, release a gift of generosity and help us to break into something for this city that would cause the city to rise to its Geneva status of excellence, of increase, of bounty—to be a blessing to the state of California, to this nation. I pray this and honor the name Jesus. Amen.
I want to have the ministry team come on down quickly if you could all hold your places for just a moment here. Anyone else? I know Chris led a bunch of people to Christ earlier today, but if there’s anyone that missed that one, I want to make sure that you understand there’s a freedom banner over here. I encourage you to come down. Tom just explained; it’s so good! We give Pastor Bill a big hand; that was awesome! Thank you! So good! Come on, thank you, Jesus. We just say yes, God, we want more of that! Amen! All right, if you need healing in your body for anything at all, if you need healing from the poverty spirit—how many guys need to just break up with a poverty spirit today? Yeah! Just say we just repent, we break up with a poverty spirit, and we just receive Holy Spirit-inspired royalty! Amen! So bless you guys! If you need a miracle in your body in any way, or your marriage, or your soul in any way, come on forward! Let somebody pray for you here! Every week, miracles happen up here, and it’s just powerful! So bless you guys! Have a great day; we’ll see you tonight!