Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:08] Speaker A: Continue the series. If you didn't listen to last week's message, I strongly recommend that you do that. It's really powerful, a great, a great revelation. And I think we should all listen to that if we didn't.
But I'm going to continue today and I want to introduce this from maybe a little bit of a different perspective.
[00:00:32] Speaker A: And it's connected to how.
[00:00:36] Speaker A: Like, our money impacts eternity and I guess, giving from an eternal perspective.
And the title of the message is Generosity Touches Heaven.
Generosity Touches Heaven. Would you bow your heads with me for just a moment?
[00:00:53] Speaker A: Father, we come to you and we know that you see everything.
Nothing is hidden before you. And we desire to become more like you. We desire to be transformed. So Holy Spirit, would you speak to us as we read through the scriptures? And would you cause our hearts to burn? Would you put a fresh fire in our spirit? Would you fill us with oil in Jesus name? Amen.
Amen. So we're going to talk about, we're going to talk about money.
And.
[00:01:30] Speaker A: Money is a very spiritual conversation. Jesus talked about it more than hell.
And.
[00:01:38] Speaker A: You know, it's interesting, Jesus, he said, you can't serve God and mammon, which was like the God of money.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: He didn't say you can't serve God and the devil.
He said, you can't serve God and mammon.
Which means that there's something about money that tries to claim money, the throne of our heart.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: There is a spirit of mammon over money that tries to, that fights for lordship in our life.
[00:02:26] Speaker A: Why? Because money.
[00:02:30] Speaker A: Promises things that only God can give us.
[00:02:35] Speaker A: Money will say things like, you just, you just need a little bit more of me and you'll have peace.
[00:02:45] Speaker A: How many of you here can relate to.
[00:02:49] Speaker A: Financial anxiety where you're worried about how to make ends meet or you're worried about how to pay the bills, or you're worried about the future. And are you going to have job security? Are you going to be able to provide for your family? Some people that are not married yet are worried about when I get married, am I going to be able to support our household? And so we, we worry about finances sometimes. And so what finances, what the spirit of mammon would say is, you just need a little bit more of me and then you'll have peace.
Money will say things like, if you have me, you'll have significance. You'll be respected. You'll, you'll be important. People will listen to you. And in our human nature, we crave for significance. We long for significance. Money will say things like, if you have me, you'll have joy, you'll be happy. You won't worry about anything. The problem with all of that is that all of that is a lie.
[00:03:54] Speaker A: And so Jesus is saying, you can't serve me and mammon, which is the Spirit, the God of money.
[00:04:11] Speaker A: You ever wonder.
[00:04:13] Speaker A: Why God created a system for giving?
[00:04:25] Speaker A: Some would say to fund his ministry?
[00:04:33] Speaker A: Really?
[00:04:36] Speaker A: John had a little glimpse of the new Jerusalem, and he said that the streets were made of pure gold.
[00:04:46] Speaker A: God doesn't think from lack.
[00:04:50] Speaker A: In fact, in Revelations, when John.
[00:04:54] Speaker A: Saw into the new Jerusalem and saw into this new city, he said, there won't even be a need for the sun and the moon, because the lamb will be the light.
He will illuminate everything with who he is.
[00:05:15] Speaker A: No, God didn't set up a system for giving to fund his ministry.
[00:05:24] Speaker A: God set up a system for giving for us to break the spirit of mammon off our life and the dominion it tries to have and the control it tries to have to keep us in that place of fear and anxiety.
Mouth.
[00:05:44] Speaker A: And so I. I want to go through a couple passages this afternoon, and we'll see where the Lord leads us.
Colossians 1:16.
[00:05:58] Speaker A: For by him all things were created, both in heaven, on earth, visible and invisible.
Whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him, and for him.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
[00:06:30] Speaker A: So we have to understand that when we look at this, what this is saying is, is God is the source and resource of all things, that he is first, that he is Lord, that everything that he created, he created for Him.
[00:06:52] Speaker A: And generosity is us realigning with that reality.
[00:07:04] Speaker A: And I want us to look at.
[00:07:07] Speaker A: Acts, chapter 10, verse one through four.
[00:07:13] Speaker A: And as you're opening there.
[00:07:17] Speaker A: I remember when we bought our first Tesla. Is there any Tesla owners in the house?
[00:07:23] Speaker A: Okay, okay. There's no shame. There's no shame. I have a Tesla, okay?
People are like, I don't know, how's this whole thing with Elon Musk going? You know.
[00:07:36] Speaker A: It wasn't a political question.
[00:07:40] Speaker A: And I remember we were shopping for a Tesla, and I was on Facebook Marketplace looking for a Tesla, and this guy was selling a Tesla and he said, this Tesla comes with.
[00:07:56] Speaker A: Lifetime free supercharging.
[00:08:02] Speaker A: I was like, oh, man. All these other Teslas I looked at didn't have lifetime free supercharging.
So because of that fact, this Tesla had a different, like, value to me, right? And so I.
I went and bought this Tesla from This guy. And I went to Supercharge because I'm like, man, free gas for life.
Think about that. Like, you get a car with free. Supercharged for life. That seems like a incredible deal.
And I come there, and it won't charge.
And I'm like, this thing's not working. I'm checking the app. I'm not the best with technology. So I was trying to reset things and figure things out, and I come to find out that.
[00:08:51] Speaker A: That package is voided when there's a transfer of ownership.
[00:09:01] Speaker A: And I was like, man, what a scam.
I got ripped off.
I thought this had more value than it actually did because something came with it that I thought would transfer.
I want you to think about something.
We are here temporarily.
We are not owners. We are stewards.
If God is first and God is the source of all things, then whatever I have came from him.
And what I have doesn't make me an owner. It makes me a steward.
And what happens is the way I live with what I have will soon end, because what I have is temporary.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: But the question is, how much of what I have will transfer over?
[00:09:58] Speaker A: How much of what I have will transfer over to eternity?
How much of what I have will carry eternal weight, eternal impact?
[00:10:16] Speaker A: And I want you to see this in Acts, chapter 10. This really stood out to me as I was reading the Scriptures.
And this is talking about Cornelius. This is the early church when the Holy Spirit came down. Acts 2.
There's a revival happening.
Jews are getting saved. And we're just touching where the church started to reach the Gentiles.
This was a big, controversial thing.
And here is where we pick up the story.
Verse one at. At that time, there was a Roman military officer, Cornelius, who lived in Caesarea.
He was the captain of the Italian regiment.
He was a devout man of extraordinary character who worshiped God with all his family.
He also had the heart for the poor, which I love.
How many of you guys are just grateful for our young adults to take Thanksgiving, go out, set a table, invite people to a table, and say, you belong before you believe.
[00:11:25] Speaker A: Come and share a meal with us. We want to listen to your story.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: I think we have something to learn from this, because sometimes we have to do. What Jesus did is he sat at the table and actually offended the Pharisees and the Sadducees. So I'm just so proud of you guys, so proud of what you've done and the impact that it's going to carry. But look, he had a heart for the poor and gave generously. Say with me. Generously.
He gave generously to help them. He faithfully prayed to God every day. One afternoon, about 3 o', clock, he had an open vision and saw the angel of God appear right in front of him, calling out his name. Cornelius.
Startled, he was overcome with fear by the sight of the angel. He asked, what do you want, Lord? The angel said, all of your prayers and your generosity to the poor have risen before God as an eternal offering.
[00:12:30] Speaker A: Can you imagine? The creator of the universe.
[00:12:35] Speaker A: Is in heaven. There is angels. There's this holiness. God, who exists before all things.
All things are held together by him. God, this God is gripped. His attention is moved by a generous man on earth by the name of Cornelius.
So much so that he sends an angel to encounter Cornelius and tell him, listen, your generosity.
[00:13:07] Speaker A: Heaven knows about it.
[00:13:10] Speaker A: Your generosity before God. It's like a fragrance. It's like an aroma.
[00:13:17] Speaker A: And as a result of his generosity, you know what God does? He sends angels. And as the angels are coming to Peter, who was the apostle.
[00:13:29] Speaker A: Peter is waiting for a meal to be prepped, and he goes into like, a trance and a vision.
And God gives him this vision and says, follow these people.
God sends them to Cornelius as he comes to the house of Gentiles, which was like, oh, that was so controversial. And. And before, like, you would be defiled, you would be unclean to come into a Gentile's home. And. And. And so he walks in just out of obedience. And as he's talking, the Holy Spirit falls on this entire house and it starts a revival in the Gentiles.
[00:14:08] Speaker A: But all of this came from the seed of generosity. Come on.
[00:14:15] Speaker A: One chapter before, in Acts, chapter nine, we hear of this woman by the name of Tabitha.
And Tabitha died. But Tabitha had a habitual generous heart towards the poor. She gave habitually and, you know, a lot of people die. But when Tabitha died.
[00:14:38] Speaker A: The people of the town went to the apostle and said, she's a generous woman. Like, let's resurrect her.
[00:14:48] Speaker A: And so they went and raised Tabitha from the dead.
Why? Because God needs people that trust him, that become vessels that he can flow resources through to expand his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. So Tabitha was raised to life. We need modern day Tabithas, and those are just women with really rich husbands. No, I'm just joking.
[00:15:17] Speaker A: No, there is businesswoman, I know.
[00:15:25] Speaker A: But think about that. Heaven's attention.
[00:15:30] Speaker A: Was on Cornelius because he was generous.
[00:15:37] Speaker A: Philippians 4:18 says, Your gift is a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.
[00:15:57] Speaker A: Some people say, like God doesn't care about money.
[00:16:07] Speaker A: God doesn't count.
[00:16:12] Speaker A: I want to read to you a story from the life of Jesus.
I think if you want to find perfect theology, just study Jesus's life.
[00:16:22] Speaker A: And it's in Luke 21, verse one.
[00:16:27] Speaker A: Now, he looked up and saw the wealthy.
[00:16:32] Speaker A: Putting their gifts into the temple treasury.
And he saw a poor widow putting in two lepta coins.
[00:16:41] Speaker A: And he said, truly, I say to you, this poor widow put in more. Say with me more.
[00:16:50] Speaker A: She put in more. More than them all. Not just more than some, more than all of them.
[00:16:59] Speaker A: For they all contributed to the offering from their surplus.
But she, out of her poverty, put in all that she had to live on.
[00:17:15] Speaker A: Can you. Can you imagine? Jesus comes to the temple. I don't know where he stood in the temple exactly, but the Bible says as he was looking, the. The word there is gazing with intention and discernment.
He was watching how people were giving.
[00:17:36] Speaker A: And. And you know why it's never about the amount?
Because God doesn't come from poverty.
[00:17:48] Speaker A: But you know what? God was watching. He was watching what value that represented.
[00:17:57] Speaker A: And you know, some people in the room, like, well, I'm broke, so this doesn't apply to me.
[00:18:05] Speaker A: When I have, I'll give.
[00:18:10] Speaker A: You won't.
[00:18:14] Speaker A: You might not have neither. You might not have the have or the give.
[00:18:21] Speaker A: But the problem is what we do is we think, well, my two pennies can't contribute.
Like, how are they going to push this building fund forward? It's just two pennies.
But see, it's not about money to God.
It's about obedience, and it's about the value that it represents. And so as Jesus is watching, and you might think, like, Jesus should be worshiping, why is he watching people and money. Money is so fleshly, like, it's not a big deal. No, money is spiritual.
It represented their worship. And as he was watching, he saw this poor widow, and he realized what she gave actually altered her life.
[00:19:06] Speaker A: Like, it impacted the way Monday's gonna be. It impacted if she's gonna go to the coffee shop tomorrow.
[00:19:16] Speaker A: And he said, she gave.
She gave more.
[00:19:36] Speaker A: I want us to go to Hebrews, chapter one, verse seven.
[00:19:42] Speaker A: Hebrews, chapter one, verse 7. Because generosity and giving is not about money.
[00:19:55] Speaker A: It's about worship.
[00:20:00] Speaker A: And here we'll see in Hebrews something that's connected to Genesis, chapter 14, or chapter 13 and 14.
And. And we could see it here.
[00:20:12] Speaker A: Verse 7, or, excuse me, chapter 7, verse 1.
[00:20:16] Speaker A: For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God who met Abraham as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him, to whom also Abraham apportioned a tenth of all the spoils, was first of all by the, by the translation of his name, king of the righteous, and then also King of Salem, which is king of peace, without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor the end of life, but made like the Son of God, he remains a priest perpetually.
Now observe how great this man was to whom Abraham gave the tenth of the choice of spoils.
Now, if we, if we look at the story, what happened was in Genesis 13, Abraham and Lot go in obedience to a land that God's going to show Abraham. Abraham dwelt in tents. And the Bible says in Genesis 13 that Abraham became very rich and Lot became very rich, that their. Their tribes started to have conflicts, their shepherds started to have conflicts. And so Abraham said, you pick whatever land you want, and whatever you decide to go, I'll just go the opposite direction so that we can create space for our herds and for our livestock and, and our people. And so Lot looked and he chose the better land. He chose a fertile land with rivers, with lakes, with. It was all greenery. And so Abraham didn't have to give him the better land, but Abraham was generous towards Lot and he just went the other way. Whatever, you know, a land Lot chose, he went the other way.
And actually when he did that, that's when God blessed him.
But in, in 14, what happened was Sodom and Gomorrah got attacked and captured by the kings that went to war against them.
And so Adam heard about Lot and he went and rescued him. He grabbed like 318 men of war and he went to. To. To rescue him. And God gave Abraham victory. And not only did he take the people back, he took all the spoils, all the wealth. And so if Lot was very rich, then he was very, very rich. But it wasn't just Lot spoils. It was the spoils of the entire city. I don't know how much money that was. It's a lot of money.
And he's coming back with this wealth. And Melchizedek meets him. And you know the interesting thing about Melchizedek? The Bible says he's a king and a priest.
And if, you know, priests could never become kings.
[00:23:16] Speaker A: But he was a king and a priest.
[00:23:22] Speaker A: And when Abraham met him, Melchizedek blessed him.
[00:23:27] Speaker A: And when he blessed him, he said, God has given you this victory.
And you know what Abraham saw by Revelation? He saw Christ in Melchizedek.
He looked at Melchizedek and he saw Jesus. And before the law, before Moses, hundreds of years before Moses, hundreds of years before, a system was given for giving and for tithes and offerings. The natural response Abraham had when he got the revelation of Christ was to give the 10.
[00:24:08] Speaker A: Why? Because money is spiritual and what we do with it represents worship.
[00:24:18] Speaker A: And so he gives it to them. And actually in Hebrews, it says about Christ that he will be a king and a priest in the order of Melchizedek.
[00:24:30] Speaker A: And Melchizedek, no one knew where he came from.
There's no genealogy. It was like he always was.
[00:24:38] Speaker A: Why? Because that was the representation of Christ.
[00:24:45] Speaker A: And so what I want to say to us is, we're not giving to a man.
We're not giving to a church. We are giving to Christ.
We are giving to the king and the priest in the order of Melchizedek.
And what did that represent?
That represented this declaration.
[00:25:12] Speaker A: That God, you're first.
God, I give you my best. God, I give you the whole portion.
[00:25:32] Speaker A: Abraham didn't give to be blessed.
[00:25:41] Speaker A: He gave because he was blessed.
[00:25:48] Speaker A: Some of us because mammon is lording over our life. We're waiting to give, to be blessed.
[00:25:58] Speaker A: We're trying to do math, even though it does work.
[00:26:02] Speaker A: But give because you are blessed.
[00:26:06] Speaker A: Give because you already are blessed with every spiritual blessing. And even if it's two coins, you know what it does?
It's recognizing.
You gave me this victory.
[00:26:20] Speaker A: See, Abraham came with a massive victory. I'm sure he was outnumbered.
And you know what Melchizedek said to him? He said, God gave you this great victory.
And you know what Abraham did? He responded and said, yes, all the victory belongs to God.
[00:26:40] Speaker A: In other words, he didn't take ownership of of what was happening in his life and the favor that was surrounding his life. He acknowledged God as Lord in the midst of it.
[00:26:55] Speaker A: No, it's not about money and it's not about.
[00:27:01] Speaker A: Funding ministry.
[00:27:09] Speaker A: God doesn't need to be funded.
[00:27:21] Speaker A: It wasn't about.
[00:27:27] Speaker A: Anything else but your worship, your trust, your relationship.
[00:27:36] Speaker A: Your acknowledgement of him as Lord of Him, as owner of him, as the source of all that I have.
[00:27:52] Speaker A: Because we can talk about it this, but it starts with the heart and with our worship.
[00:28:15] Speaker A: Would you stand to your feet with me?
[00:28:24] Speaker A: Did you know that you could never in.
[00:28:30] Speaker A: With the Jews and the times of kings.
[00:28:34] Speaker A: In the times of the Old Testament, I know there's not much kings left.
[00:28:40] Speaker A: In, in our, in our world, but in that time, there were kings. And you could never come in to the presence of a king without a gift.
[00:28:55] Speaker A: Even the wise men brought gifts.
[00:29:01] Speaker A: To the baby because that baby was Cain.
[00:29:10] Speaker A: And so.
[00:29:13] Speaker A: We know that the first time worship is mentioned.
[00:29:18] Speaker A: It wasn't connected to a song.
It's connected to sacrifice.
It was connected to obedience. It was connected to giving.
[00:29:31] Speaker A: We know that in Romans 12 it says, now, in light of his mercy, respond like this, Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable. This is your true and per proper worship.
This is about worship.
[00:29:51] Speaker A: And it's not about God needing to be funded. It's about God wanting to bring something to you. And some people, I don't blame them, but I think it's just our ignorance, like, think that none of this matters. But God is not just counting. You know what Jesus said in the parable of the end times, he gave each of them aminas, which represented about $30,000 each. In other words, he gave everyone money. And he said, do business until I come.
And then he said, I will come and settle account.
[00:30:36] Speaker A: I will come and settle accounts. And in that parable, he never came to take what they earned.
When he settled account, he gave them influence, authority. They ruled over cities and he gave them more.
So his intent wasn't to take from them as they stewarded for him, but it was to bring something to them through them worshiping and recognizing him as Lord.
[00:31:08] Speaker A: And so I want us to, in this time of worship, I'm going to invite the ministry team to come forward.
[00:31:14] Speaker A: I want us to ask the Holy Spirit.
[00:31:19] Speaker A: What are you saying to me?
[00:31:23] Speaker A: Because faith comes by hearing and hearing from the word of God. In no way is this a mess message to manipulate someone's feelings to give more. In fact, if you ever feel manipulated to give, please don't give.
[00:31:42] Speaker A: It's not about that. It's about the jealousy of God for our heart and our worship and his zeal to demonstrate his power and glory through his sons and daughters and make us kings and priests unto our God.
[00:32:01] Speaker A: So as a sign of surrender, as we present our bodies as a living sacrifice, for this is our true and proper worship, would you just raise your hands as a sign of surrender as we go into worship? And I just want you to take some time and ask the Holy Spirit, what are you saying to me through this message In Jesus name.
[00:32:24] Speaker A: Thank you for joining Kingdom Movement online. I pray and hope that that sermon impacted you deeply. I would love if you shared this with a few friends and family. And before you go, don't forget to subscribe. See you next week.
