Chris Hodges - Miracles of Provision
All right, good morning. Who's glad to be here today? Anybody, anybody? How about we give Jesus a hand clap of praise? Simply because we can't praise him enough. Come on, everybody. It's awesome. That's great. Welcome to week number 3 of a series that we're in called "I've Witnessed It". I'll tell you more about that in just a second, but let me look straight into the camera, say hello to all of our campuses. We are 1 church that meets in 26 locations in Alabama and Georgia. God bless you guys today.
What an incredible honor it is to bring not only this service, but all that we are as a church, Small Groups, stream team, all that we are to more than 26 of Alabama's Department of Corrections facilities, and we're so honored that you're with us. I like to tell you, every once in a while, I think about every 3 or 4 weeks, I want to remind you, you're not a project to us. You are our church family, and we're so grateful to be in your life, and you in ours. And then of course, for everybody who's watching online or on demand, thank you for being along for the ride. Grants Mill, help me out, say a big "Hello" to everybody who's watching. Come on, everybody.
And before I jump into the message, you probably already know this, we are in a season called 21 Days of Prayer that we do twice a year where we seek God. We actually come physically to our campuses every morning, Monday through Friday, at 6 a.m., and Saturdays at 9 a.m. This is the final week and if for whatever reason you've not been able to participate, I always tell you guys this on the final week, go ahead and jump in for the last week. It's a powerful time of prayer together. If you can't physically come, we stream those services live at 6 a.m. central time every morning, and then they're on demand for 24 hours if you want to find your own time to have prayer and seek God. I do want to ask you and invite you to be a part of the grand finale on Saturday. It's a prayer service like no other, trust me, you will love it. I'd love for you to be there. We'll have a great time as we close out this incredible, incredible season.
And this series called "I've Witnessed It," it's actually one that we knew we would do at the beginning of the year, where we're focusing on miracles. We believe that God spoke to us that this would be a year of miracles, where we would see more than normal people healed in their bodies and their lives changed and marriages restored and kids coming home and depression gone, anxiety gone, financial miracles. And by the way, we've seen it. We have another level of stories that we're hearing from all of our campuses and from you on our app and on our website, places where you can share your story, and we're giving God all the glory. Can I hear a good "Amen," everybody, right?
And so we wanted to study this. I wanna give you our theme verses that we're using. In Psalm 77, it says, "What god is as great as our God"? There isn't one by the way. "You are the God who performs miracles; your power among people". Jesus himself said that "I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I've been doing," the miracles that I've been doing, "and they will do even greater than these". So it wouldn't stop or get less after I leave the earth. "They will actually get greater because I'm going to the Father, and I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I'm gonna do it".
Now, he may not do it the way we want him to do it, but God is always at work in ways that we cannot see. And we're trusting God for miracles. In fact, we've kind of put together a month, I call it a month of faith. We put together more services than normal, we've this series on miracles, 21 Days of Prayer. We had incredible... who was at Revival Nights? Anybody? We had an amazing time together, yeah. And so all of that wasn't to just give you more church, all right, it was actually to build your faith because we're also believing God, we're praying. In fact, we'll pray at the end of the service. I'm ending all of these services a few minutes early so we can even have time and stay on time but allow for you to receive prayer. And I'm gonna personally pray for you today that just God does a work in your life and I really believe he's gonna do it.
But there's one add that we have started to do, you probably noticed it, that we're trying to do it even more and that is tell stories. We're trying to include these in our services and especially in this series because there's one thing hearing it from the Bible and it's another thing hearing it from me, but it's yet another thing whenever you hear it from someone who actually experienced it themselves. And there's a verse in 1 John that basically where John is making that case of, I know you're hearing it, but listen to me, I'm a living testimony of what God has done. "That which was from the beginning," talking about Jesus, "which we have heard, and which we have seen with our eyes, and which we have looked at and with our hands have touched".
In other words, he's saying, "I know you're hearing me talking about Jesus, but I was there. Like, this actually happened to me". He said, "I proclaim to you what I have", say it out loud, "what I have seen and heard. So that," the fact that you hear that testimony, you can kind of get in the boat with us, "you can have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ". And so we're telling you miracle stories of healing. We have actually seen people physically healed. We've had people told, "You'll never have children". In fact, there's one lady who was told by her doctor, "You will never be able to bear children," and we prayed for her, her womb opened. Hey everybody, she's got four grown sons now, to God be the glory, all right? So we've seen miracle after miracle in the area of physical healing, which we covered in the first week.
Last week we talked about relationship miracles, putting marriages back together, the healing of broken hearts and broken relationships. Next Sunday we're gonna conclude this series with emotional healing for those who are plagued by depression or anxiety or stress. A lot of the miracles that Jesus did were in the area of your soul. People who had troubled spirits, he broke the power of darkness off their lives and they were healed. And by the way, if you know anybody who needs a miracle in their soul, just in their emotions, in their mind, next week would be the week you would wanna invite them to come sit with you in church. But today I wanna talk to you about one of the categories of miracles that Jesus did, and that's in the miracles of provision. In provision.
So some of the times Jesus came along and he did miracles like feeding of the 5000, and other times he came to these fishermen who were... really, their job wasn't working out so well, and Jesus gets in the boat, and now their nets are breaking with fish. There's even one story in the Bible where they had to pay their temple tax, and Jesus said, "Hey, go catch a fish. There'll be a gold coin in its mouth". How many of you would like to be on that fishing trip? Anybody, anybody? All right, okay, okay. That was an IQ test, by the way, just checking. But we have seen miracles of provision, and so what we've done is we have a place on our app and on our website where people can just share stories, and we have... I was talking to one of our team members, we have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of miracle stories. I wish we had time to give all of them to you, and then our campus pastors and campuses are constantly reporting back.
So I'm just gonna read you a couple, two or three here, and of course you heard the story from Zach, but this comes from Beth at our Woodlawn campus. Beth was dealing with some health issues that caused her to travel to Florida for additional medical testing. However, her insurance would not cover it, and her husband, her and her husband were left with an out-of-pocket cost of $18,000 for the testing. So they tried to work with the insurance company, but told they were not gonna cover any of it, and that they would have to find a way to pay the balance. So Beth and her husband, Anthony, prayed and trusted God. A few days later they went online to set up a payment plan and to their surprise they had a zero balance. They called the accounting department at the medical facility where the testing was done to confirm.
Good on them by the way for checking and not just leaving it like, hey I think y'all made a mistake here. And the person who spoke with him says, "I don't know how it happened, but I am here to confirm that you have a zero balance and we will send you a letter in the mail confirming that your balance is zero". Beth and Anthony marked it on their calendar so that they could celebrate every year that goes by, reminding them of the financial miracle that the Lord did for them. Come on, give God praise for that. That's awesome.
So Renee down on our Opelika campus, Renee went through Financial Peace, which by the way is a Small Group. If you want to get out of debt or work on your finances, we actually have Small Groups that are starting September 1 that are geared around just helping you have financial freedom. They went through this Small Group and her husband, Jason, and her decided that they were gonna go all in to get out of debt. They thought that not tithing during that time would actually help them get out of debt quicker. They quickly realized that this was not the way God wanted them to do this. So they trusted God. They began tithing again and the next week, her husband got a raise and another bonus at work, "and we had a medical bill that when we called, they said we no longer owed the medical bill. We ended up getting debt one year earlier," than they planned while tithing the whole time.
The blessing, she said, was in their obedience. Come on, give God praise again, everybody, right? And there was one more story there that I'll just tell you because I love it so much. And it comes out of our Oxford campus where this lady had medical bills that she could not pay, and she actually said she was in such distress that she was crying to God, literally crying to God, because she was feeling the pressure, and for everybody who feels that kind of pressure of something that really wasn't even your fault, I mean these are, you know, you didn't expect to get that kind of sick to have those kind of costs. And she says in her testimony that she prayed the exact amount, she says, "God, I need this. And I don't know how you're gonna do it, but I need this".
And the phone rang, and it was one of her Small Group members who knew nothing about her condition. And she said, listen to me, "My wife and I woke up this morning, prayed together, and God put an amount on our heart. We know you're going through some medical issues. We don't know what your need is". And they said, "But the Lord told us to give you this". And it was the exact amount to the penny of her need. And that's her Small Group. Come on, praise God for that. Don't you love the body of Christ? I love this, all right.
So today as I talk about miracles of provision, I wanna throw out a word that the second I say it is gonna send chills up your spine, everybody, all right? It's gonna make some of y'all so nervous, you're gonna think, "My God, where's the exits"? Okay, I got your attention right now, don't I? Okay, and it's the word "prosperity". So that's one of those words, like, "Are y'all one of those prosperity churches"? Not the way you think of the word, no, not at all. And what they're talking about are those who believe in a theology that we do not agree with, where basically that God can be bought. And these are the people who get on TV and say, "Man, you know, your miracle's just $1000 away, and you need to write this check and it'll happen this second".
And they've manipulated people and they've brought all this untruth and it's turned a lot of people off on the topics of financial provision, but listen to me: God is in the business of doing miracles for our financial provision. He absolutely is. And there's a lot of bad teaching out there, and I'm gonna do everything I can to bring balance to all of that today and talk to you about this word, because God, whether you know it or not, God does want to prosper you. But there's just a lot of, there's a lot of mess out there in this topic, right? In fact, I even heard this story about this one church who, they were in a building campaign, which to God be the glory, we've never done one of those, but they were in a building campaign, and the pastor, desperate to try to find some money, said, "For anybody who gives $1000, they can pick out 3 hymns".
And this little old lady stood up with a check in her hand. She said, "Pastor, I'll do that right now". And she walked up and handed the pastor the check, and she said, "I'll take him, him, and him". Like so. Just felt like you needed a little laugh right there. That's funny, I don't care what y'all say. All right. But, ha ha ha. That's not what he meant. Okay, so what does the word "prosper" mean? The word "prosper" is actually in the Bible. If you don't know much about your Bible, it's not written in English. It was written in two different languages primarily. The Old Testament's written in Hebrew, the New Testament in Greek. And for everybody who's ever said to you, "Oh, it's 2000 years old and every time they translate it, it gets weaker and weaker".
That's not true. We still have original manuscripts. I read the original manuscripts from thousands of years ago. I don't understand it fully. I took Hebrew and Greek when I was in seminary, but I still go back to that to understand words. And the word "prosper's" all throughout the Bible. In the Hebrew, it's the word "tsalach," and you have to say it like...like that at the end. Tsalach, and it literally means that God will push you further than you can go yourself. So I don't know a single person in this room who doesn't want that for their kids, doesn't want that for their health, so I can get to this point without you, but God pushes me forward. And that's all the word mean. It has nothing to do with having more cars or houses. And it's not even really even a money principle.
God wants to take whoever you are and you do as much as you can without him, and he says, "Let me show you what you can do with me". And he prospered. That's the word. And I know, again, it has a very bad negative connotation, but the Bible doesn't shy away from it. In fact, in Genesis chapter 26 is one of the first places the word is mentioned. It said: "Isaac sowed," so he did his job. He put seed in the ground, he was a farmer, "and he reaped the same year," more than the seed was supposed to produce. So he reaped a hundredfold, got everybody's attention, "because the LORD had blessed him". And look at the next word. It uses the word three times in one sentence. It says: "The man began to prosper, and he continued prospering until he became very prosperous".
So the Bible's not afraid to use the word and I don't want you to either. Now maybe in conversation with those that aren't believers, again, they because of the misuse of the word, maybe there's a better word like blessed. But God...listen to me, I want you to hear this because if you don't believe this, then you'll never ask God for something in your life. Because the Bible says that God wants to prosper us. Proverbs says: "When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices". You know why the city rejoices? Because now we can be a blessing to our city. Proverbs 11 says: "A generous person will prosper; and whoever refreshes others will themselves be refreshed". 3 John 2, which is the New Testament.
You say, "Well, those are Old Testament". Well, here's the New Testament. "Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things". I want you to prosper in your health, prosper in your marriage. I want to push you further in your joy. I want you to have more peace than everybody else. "I want you to be in health, just as your soul prospers". So what does all this mean? It means that biblical prosperity, which is the balance, which is the truth, which I'm trying to bring to you, means God does want you to have more than you need.
Now, that's why I tell people never pray for what you need, just what you need, 'cause God wants you to have more than you need, not so you can have more, but so that you can make an eternal difference in the lives of the people around you. If you don't have something, if you don't have more then you have nothing to give. And freely we have received, Jesus says freely give. And again, this is not just financially. God blesses us to be a blessing. And I teach this to you because before you can even pray or see financial provision in your life, I think you have to have right mindsets. In fact, I'm gonna teach you two right mindsets, and then I'm gonna give you four practices that I'm convinced get God's attention. And this first mindset is that God wants to bless you so that you can be a blessing.
And so you'll have scriptural backing, let me show you these verses in Galatians chapter 3. "Christ redeemed us". Say "Amen," right there, everybody. That means he went to the cross. The word "redeem" means put you back to your original intent. It's to buy back or to put back. That's what the word means. So Christ put you back in your right place. He redeemed you from a curse of the law. That's what sin does to our lives, by taking on sin himself. He became a curse for us, for "Cursed is everyone who hung on a tree". He redeemed us not just to pay for your sins. And I want you to see that. "He redeemed us," so he went to the cross, "in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come on the rest of us, Gentiles, through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive a promise of the Spirit".
So in other words, the blessing that was originally on Abraham, which I talked about that last week when I talked about the calling of Abraham, I'm getting ready to show it to you. Abraham got called by God with a promise by God in Genesis chapter 12. Last week we studied Genesis 11. And in Genesis 12, here's the promise, the blessing given to Abraham. That wasn't just for Abraham, it's for us too. And that is: "I will bless you so that you can be a blessing to the world around you". And this is why I want you to get your mind in a posture of God wants me to have more than others. He wants me to have more than I need so that I can have something to give away. And it's at the core of what we believe here at Church of the Highlands.
We believe that we're not here just for ourselves. We believe that we're to know God, come into a relationship with him. We need to find freedom, which is what our Small Groups are all about that would settle our hurts, wounds, issues, because everybody has things in their life that keep them from being the best version of themselves. Then we discover our real purpose for life because every one of you have a place in God's economy so that we can all of us, I'm gonna speak this over your life like as if I'm your dad. You're to go live this world making a difference to the people that you impact and meet every single day. And that is the highest way to live a fulfilled life. We bought into that mindset early on, which is important because it also, it took us to a place where we weren't just thinking about ourselves. We were thinking about others first.
And so to set a precedent for that, we actually, the very first check ever written to Church of the Highlands. And this is before we even thought any of this was gonna work. I mean, honestly, we were just renting a high school auditorium, we had nothing. And I've really never told this part of the story for 23 years because I don't want you guys to feel sorry for me. I've enjoyed every step of the way of this. This has been the delight of my life. I'd do it all over again, a thousand times over. But when Tammy and I moved here, we could only afford to pay ourselves about 40% of what my church in Louisiana paid me as an associate pastor. And we had the best time. We loved doing, but at the beginning, we started the church, we said, "We have need, but we gonna give to others first".
And we made sure, you can go back to the history books of Church of the Highlands, and the very first check ever written from Church of the Highlands wasn't for us. It was actually to global missions. We wanted to make a difference. We were setting a precedent that if we'll live our lives knowing that we're here to be a blessing, that it gets God's attention. Are y'all listening to me, everybody? And I'm trying to make sure you understand that, because if you believe that, now God's motivated even more to bless you because he knows you're someone who's looking around the world to do something to touch the lives of others. Here's the second.
There's another reason why God wants to give you miracles of provision, and that is because God wants to be your provider. He doesn't want you to be your own provider. And I need to teach you this because we're taught, there's part of it that's good, actually. We're taught, I mean, like work hard, make a lot of money, we use words like financially independent, financially secure. I want to get to a place where I don't sweat it. By the way, I pray that on your life. I pray that you're not under that kind of pressure. It's a tough pressure to be on. But even if you do have more than you need, God still wants to be your provider.
And there's a fine line between I'm gonna make so much money, I don't need God, and no, I'm gonna make money so I can be a blessing, but I still need God. And I wanna make sure you have that right mindset, because again, one of the errors in the prosperity movement is almost you're so rich, who needs God anymore, right? Where the Bible says my God meets all my needs, regardless of what your checkbook says. And when you believe that, when you have a relationship with him as Jehovah-Jireh, the provider, then it changes everything about how God works in your life. There's almost nothing that God won't do for the person who has that kind of attitude.
In fact, Jesus said, "I guarantee it. Anyone who gives up anything for the kingdom of God will certainly receive many times more". Why is that? "Because he wants to bless you with more than you need so you can receive life and receive eternal life in the world that is to come". Is everybody with me? Say "Yes". So the problem is we have a tendency to kind of take care of ourselves. And I'm just warning you from that. God wants to be your provider. In fact, I love this proverb, I think it's hilarious actually. It says that "the wealth of the rich is their fortified city".
So in other words, those who just try to make a lot to secure themselves, they do it as if there's a fort around them insulating them from the things that can happen around them. And it says: And they imagine it because you can't do it. It's only in your mind. They imagine it a wall that's too high to scale. And that's why one of the attitudes and beliefs is not only that God will bless you, you need to have the attitude of God is my provider that I will not trust in riches, but I will trust in him who richly provides. Can I get a better "Amen" out there, everybody?
So let me say it this way, and I'm gonna teach you now some of the practices. The reason why I teach you those two principles is because God has favorites. Now if that offends you, don't let it, because you get to choose if you are one or not. And that's why there's a lot of verses in the Bible that says "if, then". So God is putting this proposition in front of us. I wanna do some things in your life, but there's an if, then. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, seek my face, turn from them, wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and heal their land. There's a boatload of if, thens in the Bible and I wanna make sure you understand them so you have the right posture toward God, because I'm trying to posture you for God to bless you and to even prosper you in a great way. And all God's people said a better "Amen".
Psalm chapter 1 is one of the places. "Blessed is the one". So it's almost a saying, and not blessed is some of the others. "Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, who meditates on his law day and night". So they're really in love with Jesus. "That person is like a tree planted by streams of water". So trees that are planted by streams of water have deep roots because there's plenty of water there. So they're strong so that when winds come and waves come, they don't get knocked down.
"They are like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields fruit in its season, whose leaf does not wither and whatever they do," and there's that word, "prospers". But notice there was a condition. In other words, every promise that God gives you, I'm trying to teach you, every promise has a premise. So there's a condition based on it because God's looking for your hearts. So let me take a few minutes and give you four of them. And then we're gonna spend some time in prayer today and asking God to heal us, to change us, to do miracles in our life in Jesus's name. Here are four promises of that premise of the fact that God wants to bless you and be your provider, and that is you need to put God first.
So God... come on, "Amen" back there. God doesn't mind you having things in your life that you love, he does mind if you love them more than him. He just absolutely does. In fact, the first of the Ten Commandments is, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me". So, obviously, he doesn't want you to have another god, but he's talking about loves. I don't mind you having loves. He's basically saying, "I don't mind you having other loves, I just want to make sure you don't have any loves before me. I want you to rearrange your life so that your life, your heart, reflects the fact that I have first place in your life". And God is looking for that. In fact, one place it even says that God is a jealous God. And then when he sees us putting our heart and attention and efforts into other things, he's just jealous because he loves you so much. And every person who actually rearranges their life to reflect that, God, you have first place in my life, it gets his attention.
Let me show you one place in Proverbs chapter 3: "Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops". And there's this "if, then". "Then your barns will be filled to overflowing, your vats brim over with new wine". So what we're trying to do now is look for as many different ways to put God first. And by the way, let me applaud you, because you're doing it right now. Sunday is the first day of the week, and here you are before we do anything else, before we go to our jobs, and before we go to school. Here we are honoring God in the house of the Lord. Come on, put your hands together and thank God that we're in church today, right? Yeah, good job. But it's also the same reason why we start the year with 21 Days of Prayer, because we're saying, "God, you have the first of our life".
And then we pray again in August, and some of you are thinking, "PC, August isn't the first of anything". Yes it is. I've never told you this, why this is the motivation. You're gonna laugh when you hear it. We have 21 Days of Prayer in August because it's right before college football season, which is a god in Alabama. I tell my friends from other states, I say, "An atheist in Alabama is somebody who doesn't believe in Bear Bryant". I mean, he is a god to y'all, right? Okay, okay. But we're saying here, "God, you have first place in our life and we're gonna get our hearts right with you".
Here's the second one, and that is when... it gets God's attention when we maintain integrity, especially financial integrity. And I'm trusting right now that the Holy Spirit's gonna add to this message in ways that I could not possibly add. For any of us who ever cheat on our taxes or steal or lie or, listen to me, you do not want to have that kind of attitude toward God. God is looking, let me say it this way, God is watching you. In fact, Luke chapter 16 says: "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, but if you're dishonest with what you have, God's thinking, 'Why would I give you more? You're gonna be dishonest with it too.' So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, how can I trust you with more"?
And that's why I urge every person, like if your finances are out of order, or you just don't really play fair and right, and you're thinking, "Well, Chris, I can't. We're broke, we're strapped". Listen to me, when you honor God, and you have this area of your life that is full of integrity, I'm gonna tell you, it gets the attention of God. Had this conversation with one of our incoming students. She came up, about five or six students came up to my office after I had this little reception, this chancellor's reception with our students. And four or five of them said, "Can I come, we wanna come see your office". I said, "Sure, come on".
So we went up to my office and it was one of the best questions that I've ever received from a student. She said, "How do I get God's attention? I want God's favor and blessing in my life so much". And I mentioned this verse. I said, "Take care of the little things". And she said, "What do you mean"? And I said, "Like, the floorboard of your car". And then she fell and repented. No, I'm kidding. But that's what I'm talking about. Like, why would God give you more if we don't handle what we have well? And that's why I encourage you, if that's where you are, I'm not trying to condemn you, let's get some help. Let's get into a Small Group, a little Financial Peace Small Group. Let's get some help and let's get it right so we can get God's attention, everybody. Listen to me, God wants to bless you, God wants to be your provider, but it happens when you put him first, when you live a life of financial integrity.
Number three, you know this one, it's when your giving is two things: intentional and generous. And I don't mind random and emotional giving, but the Bible doesn't talk about that much. And unfortunately, most people's giving is random and emotional. You have to make me cry, you have to make the right video. And God says, "No, no, no. Be more intentional with it than that". In fact, let me show you the verses so you can see it in scripture. "Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly, reaps sparingly. Whoever sows generously, reaps generously".
Now watch this verse: "And each of you should give," not because the preacher was good at selling whatever, or because the video made you cry, no, no, no, but "what you've decided in your heart to give". Which means you have to decide. "Not reluctantly," so don't be a Scrooge, "and also not under compulsion," not because somebody talked you into it, because God wants you to do it out of your heart. He's looking for a cheerful giver, which is why we're 23 1/2 years old and we've never had an ask, never had a campaign, never did a building camp. We have only said, "Ask God and do whatever the Lord shows you to do". Because I actually trust that more than all of our ability to actually to do it under compulsion.
Now watch this. "And God supplies seed to the..." So notice he doesn't supply seed to everybody. God has favorites. So he has seed, but he's not giving it to everybody. He's giving it to those who know what to do with it. And you would, by the way, do the same thing. So you wouldn't just throw it around. No, you're gonna put it in the hands. If you have your money with a stockbroker, you're gonna find the one who gives you the most return. You would do it, God does it. "He supplies seed to sowers, bread for food, and he will supply and God," for some, "will increase the store of your seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness".
Watch this, it gets even better. He wants to make you rich, not just with money, in every way. He wants your marriage better than others. He wants your joy better. Why? So you can give it away. "He'll make you rich in every area of your life so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through your generosity people get saved". God is very motivated to bless you. He wants to be your provider, but we're gonna put him first. We're gonna have some integrity in our lives, right? We're gonna know that God's watching us. We're gonna be very, very generous. And just, in fact, I tell you this funny little story. My boys, all my kids are grown now, but when they were in high school, several of them went to Briarwood High School here in Birmingham and they played football.
So we spent probably 8 years at football games on Friday nights. Y'all, I could buy a house with the parking fees, but anyways, but anyway. And concessions, it's a small fortune, right? And so sure enough, it was me, Joseph, my youngest, and Tammy, sitting there and the boys are playing. We just sit down and Joseph said, "Dad, I need $5, I'm gonna go to the concession stand". I said, "No problem". So I pull out my wallet, "$5. Here you go". He takes off and he comes back with his favorite concession item, which is a bag of roasted, salted peanuts. And he sits there and he starts eating them. And I said, "Joe, give me some". And he takes out one peanut thing.
You know that they're in two? And he gave me one of the two. It's a true story. I'm not making this up. And I was like, really, you know? What he didn't realize, come on, parents, those were my peanuts. Like, he forgot that. He also did not know that my wallet had more money in it, had more than $5 that night. In fact, I had enough that night to buy every bag they had. I could have rained peanuts on his head if I wanted to, right? What happened was he forgot who his source was. And I didn't want the whole bag, I just wanted him to have a heart of generosity.
By the way, as we Cajuns say, "I 'splained it to him". And now when I ask him, "Oh dad, yeah, here, take the whole thing". Like, he knows now, right? God's just looking for your heart. He's just looking for your heart. And that's why the last one, I've already said it about ten times. That's why we also need to just stay dependent on God. That's why we're in fasting and prayer right now and just seeking God. You know, we don't want to get to a place where, "God, we don't need you".
We need you. There's nothing wrong with making money. There's everything wrong with replacing God with what you make. And I'll show you a couple more verses and we're gonna pray. In the Bible, this is what's called a Pastoral Epistle, 1 Timothy. In other words, it's written not to the church, it's written to the pastor. So Paul's actually talking to Pastor Timothy here. It says, "Hey, command the people in the seats, people who are rich in this present world, not to be arrogant or to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything we need for our enjoyment".
One of my favorite Proverbs, and this is my last verse, Proverbs says: "Keep falsehood and lies far from you". Now, hopefully I've dispelled some of those lies today with the Word of God. But notice this next line. So now I'm gonna tell you what the truth is. We got rid of the lies, here's the truth. "Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, if I have too much, I'll actually disown you and say, 'I'll let you know when I need you, God. I'm real good, I'm fine right now.'" We never wanna get to that place. "Or I'll become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of our God".
You say, "Chris, why does the Bible talk so much about money"? You ready for it? Because he knew the chief competitor of your soul. It wasn't going to be Satanism, like, "Should I be a Satanist or a Christian? I don't know. You know, Halloween, Christmas". You're not making that decision. He knew the chief competitor of your soul was gonna be your stuff. And that's why we trust him. And for every person who has this belief that God wants to bless you. In fact, I pray for you that you have more than you need so that we can... I want us to be known to be the most generous church every place we go, touching the lives of others. It warmed my heart to hear a Small Group found out how much she needed and just paid it. That's what it's supposed to be all about. And then we live our lives blessed but still dependent upon God.
And so, Father, let the truth of your Word permeate our lives. God, there are times when we just flat out have need. We have need. God, we need a miracle in our jobs or with our finances, but Lord, we're going to get our attitude and our minds right first.
With heads bowed and eyes closed, we're gonna pray in just a second. But if you're here today and you're far from the Lord, you don't know him and your heart's drawn to God right now, by the way, I can't do that. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. If there's something inside of you saying, "I need to go all in. It's time for me to go all in with God," only the Holy Spirit can do that. And if that's you, you say, "Chris, what do I do"? You're just one heartfelt prayer away from Jesus, listen to me, changing your life completely. And if that's you today, would you just pray this prayer right there in your seat? Just say:
Jesus, I need you. I want you. And I'm asking you today to forgive me for living my life without you. Today I ask you to be the Lord of my life, number one. And I turn my back on sin and I repent and I invite you into my life, everything. Because you're the Son of God. You rose from the dead, and I put my faith in you. In your name I pray, amen.