¶ Embracing Abundant Life
Open your Bibles to John chapter 10 and meet me at verse 10. John chapter 10 and verse 10. And the word of the Lord from Jesus himself says, the thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. Over the last several weeks, we've been talking about John chapter 10 and verse 10. One of the verses the Lord gave us back in 2011 when we started True Life was this verse, John 10, 10.
He said, is there more to life than what people are experiencing? And the question that we start asking folks is, is there more to life than what you are experiencing? And if you're honest, most of the time, most people will tell you that there has to be more to life than what I'm experiencing. And we started the church because we wanted people to experience life and life more abundantly. And this verse, Jesus is telling us that we can have life and life more abundantly right here on the earth.
We don't have to wait to get to heaven to experience this abundant life on the earth. And over the last several weeks, we've been talking about this God kind of life, this abundant life that God wants us to experience here on the earth. But there is a thief. There is a thief. There is an enemy. There is an adversary. There is an opponent who is trying to steal the life that God intends for us to live.
And if you are not experiencing the life God intends for you to live, which is the God kind of life, then some way, somehow the thief is stealing from you and the thief will steal from you via trickery and deceit and manipulation. The thief will steal from you. He wants to hurt you. He wants to offend you and he's going to steal from you and you not even realize that he has taken from you.
A robber, conversely, is someone that's going to confront you face to face and bang you over the head and take your stuff. That's a robber. But the devil is not known to be a robber. He's known to be a thief, which means he's going to do it with trickery. He's going to do it secretly. He's going to do it in a way that you don't even know your stuff has been taken. And so this thief, who's a kleptomaniac, all he does is enjoys is stealing. That's what he wants to do.
He wants to steal the life God intends for you to live. He wants to take it from you. He wants to trick you. He wants to deceive you. He wants to manipulate you. He wants to get you with false teaching and cause you to no longer understand what the word says. He wants you to hear contrary teaching to the word. He wants you to listen to religion and he wants to steal all of the benefits and all of the privileges that God has given us. But how many of you know once
a thief has been caught, he's got to restore sevenfold. Come on, somebody say amen. And so he wants to steal the life God intends for you to live. He also wants to kill that life. And the way he wants to kill it is he wants you to sacrifice. He wants you to give up your dreams and give up your aspirations. And he wants you to sacrifice your vision. And he wants you to sacrifice your purpose and say, hey, it's taken forever. So because it's taking forever, maybe it'll never happen.
This is what the thief wants. He wants you to look at your circumstances and look at your situation and say, God is no longer with you because it's not working. It's taking forever, and he must not want you to have it. And the thief will tell you things like, this is not the will of God for you to be healed, or it's not the will of God for you to be prosperous, or it's not the will of God for you to walk with a sound mind, or it's not the will of God for you to have a functioning family.
This is what the thief will do. But contrary to the thief, the word of God says this is his will for us to prosper and to be in health and to succeed and to thrive and to advance. That's the will of God. But the thief wants to kill that. And he'll do it through experiences that you've gone through, bad teaching, so on and so forth. And then the thief wants to take life from you by destroying life. He wants to destroy your relationships. He wants to destroy what you are working on.
He wants to deceive you so that he can destroy the path and the plan that God has for you. He doesn't want you to end up in your destiny. He wants to destroy it to the point where you cannot be reconciled. And so this is the plan of the thief. but today I don't want us to think much about the thief because he is a thief and we've already told him who he is. We've already revealed, we've already exposed who he is.
Don't want you to think too much about the thief. Today I want you to embrace this abundant life that God has for us. One more time, John 10.10 in the New King James Version, if you don't mind. John 10.10 in the New King James Version, it says, the thief does not come except to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. Now I want to see that in the Amplified translation.
In the Amplified translation, it says the thief comes in only in order to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life and have it in abundance to the full till it overflows. Somebody say overflow. This is what the plan of God is for us that we experience life in abundance to the full until it overflows. Now let's take a look at the Passion translation. In the Passion Translation, it says the thief has only one thing in mind. He wants to steal, slaughter, and destroy.
But I have come to give you everything in abundance, more than you expect, life in its fullness until you overflow. Somebody say overflow. Next week, we may talk about overflow. I've been meditating on the word overflow, but today I want you to embrace this abundant life that Jesus came to give you. Now, Jesus has come and through the salvation process, given you everything that pertains to life and godliness. You have it all. Everything is yours.
Whatever you need, whether it be wisdom, whether it be purpose, whether it be understanding, whether it be health whether it be finances whatever it may be Jesus has given it to you through the salvation process when you receive Jesus in your heart accepted him believe that he died for you and was raised on the third day you became saved and everything he has to give he's given it to you but the thief wants to steal it so you already have it.
You always say I already have it whatever you need you already possess whatever you desire you already have but the thief is trying to take it the best example I can give is the thief cannot steal my Lamborghini you know what because I don't have a Lamborghini so the thief is not going to attempt to steal something you don't possess if he's a real thief which the devil is he's going to want to take what you already have so you are not the sick trying to get healed,
You are the healed, resisting sickness. Understand who you are. You're not the broke, busted, and disgusted trying to be prosperous. You are the prosperous, resisting lack. So identify where you are, who you are, what you stand for, and who you stand with. Because once we identify who we are, then we can understand who the thief is and what he's trying to take.
And so to have life means to continually have life, to continually possess life, which is the God kind of life, and to have it more abundantly means you're going to have more than enough. Whatever it is that you need, there will be more than enough. And I want you to see abundance like a pie, maybe an apple pie, you know? Now, in the apple pie, there are several slices of the apple pie. And in that pie, abundance could include health. It could include wisdom. It can include purpose.
It can include money. It can include relationships. It can include a lot of different things when you see this word or hear this word abundance. I don't want you to throw out anything that the pie includes. It includes all of it. And sometimes when we talk about abundance, people only think money.
Now I am going to talk about money but I'm not just talking about money I'm talking about everything that pertains to life and godliness when we hear this word abundance and God through Christ Jesus wants us to have this life to the full till it overflows now I was thinking about this I had a a conversation with someone in my neighborhood just recently, and they basically told me just kind of out of the blue that Jesus was dirt poor.
And he's a man, and that's the term they use. Jesus was dirt poor. And throughout, if you look at or listen to any type of religious teaching, I don't advise that you should, but we all kind of grew up in some form of traditional sort of teaching. You hear that Jesus was poor, that Jesus was homeless, that Jesus had nothing, and that Jesus walked around, you know, just broke, busted, and disgusted.
So I told my neighbor, I said, that's interesting that if Jesus was dirt poor, then he had a treasurer that was walking around with him, a banker, everywhere he went. How many poor people have their banker on their payroll walking around with them everywhere they go? He said, well, he said he must not have had any money. I said, they had so much money. That there was a thief stealing from the treasury. And Jesus knew, but all the needs were still getting met.
So they had more than enough to what they needed. All the needs were still getting met in the ministry. He was still taking care of these 12 disciples. And there was so much more that a thief was taking the money. And so he was like, huh, I never thought about that. And I want to show you something here in 2 Corinthians 8 and verse 9. 2 Corinthians 8, verse 9. Watch this.
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich. Somebody say rich. Say it again like you mean it. Say rich. Rich. Now I want you to understand this verse here. This is a powerful verse. the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ simply means the kindness or the undeserved favor of our Lord Jesus Christ. That though he was rich, that word rich is a Bible word. Don't be afraid of the word rich.
It is a Bible word. That though he was rich, yet for your sakes, he became poor. So rich means I have more than enough. Poor means I lack. He was rich. He had more than enough, but he became poor so that you, talking about you and I, through his poverty might become rich. Somebody say, I'm rich. Say it like you mean it. Say, I'm rich. Now, listen to this.
When did Jesus become poor? poor now a lot of people will tell you he became poor when he came down from heaven and he came into the earth he was demoted and he became poor now i i will not say that that is necessarily incorrect but it is definitely incomplete all right yes did he take a demotion to come to the the earth absolutely when he got into this body he was demoted okay but in order to accomplish what he came to do which was restore us into a
right relationship with the father he had to put on this earth suit so god was in the flesh it was a demotion you know we're going to get promoted one day we're going to get out of this flesh and get promoted glory be to god one day i thought you'd be more excited about that but i am i'm going to receive a promotion one day and i will will no longer be in this body. I'll be out of this body and I'll be a spirit man looking at Jesus. Glory to God.
Hallelujah. That day is coming really, really soon. And so he did take a demotion. And so, yes, there was a status that was demoted to get into this earth suit so that he became poor. So we might be rich, but that's incomplete because when Jesus walked the earth, he wasn't poor. He wasn't poor when he walked this earth. I mean, we're talking about a man that lived in a house. Tradition will tell you that he was homeless. He was not homeless.
I can show you, if I wanted to take the time, I could show you 13 scriptures of Jesus being in a a house, and you can't show me any of substance that he didn't have a house. Matter of fact, I see Steve over there saying, Steve said in Matthew 13, verse 2, matter of fact, I got to do that. Pull it up there if you guys don't mind. Matthew 13 and verse 2. I'll show you one. This is Steve's favorite one, so I'll give Steve a plug here. Matthew 13, verse 2. Take a look here.
And great multitudes were gathered to him so that he got into a boat and sat and the whole multitude stood by the shore. That is not the one I'm looking for. It's Matthew 13, verse 1. Matthew 13, verse 1. Pull up verse 1 there for me, please. On the same day Jesus went out of the house, I thought he was homeless. And he sat by the sea.
This homeless man was in the house and not only did he step out the house he went by the sea so as soon as he stepped out his house he was by the sea is it safe to say he had a beach house can i say that he had a beach house when you step out your house and you by the sea that's a beach house that's a beach house but conversely we're taught that he was homeless i can show you other Other verses along those lines where Jesus had a house.
And so in 2 Corinthians 8, verse 9, it says that he became poor. He did not become poor on the earth. Jesus had the clothes that he wore on the cross. They were casting lots trying to buy the clothes. Why would you want to buy a poor person's clothes? clothes. And then when they bought it, they didn't even cut it because it was sewn in one seam. So they wanted to keep it as it is. We're talking about a guy that was not poor.
So when did he become poor? Well, we're getting ready to celebrate it on Good Friday. He became poor when he got on the cross, when he took all of our sin and our shame and our guilt and our condemnation and put it on himself, he became poor on the cross. And when he took all of our poverty on the cross, at that moment when he died and was risen, he made us rich. Come on, somebody say rich. Rich. He made us have abundance. He gave us the abundant life to the full till
it overflows. life and life more abundantly.
¶ The Importance of Extra
He gave it to us through the salvation process. His death, burial, and resurrection was the only time Jesus was poor on the earth. And that exchange took place on the cross, in the resurrection, where he took our lack and said, I'm going to give you the blessing. I'm going to cause you to prosper. He took your sickness and said, I'm giving you health. He took your insanity and said, I'm going to give you peace and a sound mind.
And our stance from here on out is to resist everything the devil is trying to take from us. We are not trying to get it. We already got it. We are resisting. And how many of you know sometimes playing defense means I'm going to hold out. I'm going to stand. Having done all to stand, what are you going to do? Stand. I'm going to stand. I'm going to resist. I'm going to stand. I'm going to hold out. The devil, you're not taking my sickness.
You're not going to take my money. You're not going to take my dreams. You're not going to take my passion. You're not going to take my family. My children belong to the Lord. You're not taking anything that God has already given me. Come on, somebody say amen. Preaching better and y'all getting excited. Some of y'all just like that. I'm still trying to figure out if he was poor or not. He wasn't poor.
It's interesting to me. I was talking to Stacy last night and I just, I don't want to get off from a tangent, but this whole idea that Jesus was homeless really bothers me. I'm trying to figure out why. Because you can live in a nice house, but Jesus was homeless. Does that make sense? It's okay for you to live better than Jesus. That don't make any sense. It just bothers me when people say, well, you know, he didn't have nowhere to lay his head. That just simply meant he was traveling.
He's not, I'm here, I'm there. I got a mission. I got three years here and I got to get on the move. I can't just sit up here and pad my 401k. Nothing wrong with contributing your 401k, by the way. He was on the move. He had a mission. And so Jesus, in this verse says that there was a transfer that took place to where you became rich and he took your poverty away. And rich includes having more than enough. If you had a dollar more than you need, you've got more than enough.
Don't let the enemy trick you. You see someone else and you think they're so wealthy. Man, if I pay all my bills and there's a dollar more, glory to God, I got more than enough. Hallelujah. And watch this. Being rich and feeling rich is two different things. You are rich. How many of you are saved in here? All right. You're rich. Online. You're rich. But you may not feel rich, and how you feel is fickle. It means absolutely nothing how you feel.
My feelings change all the time. Sometimes I feel like hanging out with my wife. Sometimes I feel like, babe, go to another room. You're talking too much. Praise the Lord. No. Feelings are fickle. Feelings are fickle. I never feel like going to the gym. Don't mean I shouldn't go. Got quiet in here when you're talking about that. Feelings are fickle. So being rich and feeling rich is two different things.
But Christ Jesus made you rich. Somebody say, I'm rich. I want you to embrace this abundance. What are you rich in? Well, whatever it is that the enemy is trying to take from you, that's what you're rich in. Well, I don't have a lot of money. You're rich. And the enemy is trying to take it. Well, you might need wisdom. I'm rich in wisdom. You might need some vitality. I'm rich in vitality. You might need some energy. I'm rich in energy. Somebody say, I'm rich.
And you might need some money. Somebody say, I'm rich financially. Financially it's not wrong with being rich the problem is do you own the riches or do the riches on you. And we're going to talk about how the riches on you or what to do with this abundance, with this richness, with the overflow. Let's go to 1 Timothy chapter 6 and let's look at verse 17. 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 17. Watch this. Teach those who are rich. Somebody say, that's me.
Teach those who are rich in this world. What am I to teach them? Not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment. Stop right there for a second. Teach those who are rich in this world. Now, in Paul's day, when he wrote this. Paul understood that there was no middle class. All right. And so you're either rich or you're poor.
You could take that down, guys, if you like. You're either rich or you're poor. In a lot of third world countries, there is no middle class. You're either rich or you're poor. I was in Thailand. Beautiful country, by the way. Scenery. You had rich and you had poor. And the poor is is you ain't seeing the type of poor that they have in Thailand. I mean we're talking about poor all right, and then you had rich there was there there was no middle class a Lot of these countries outside the u.s.
Don't have a middle class you're the rich or you're poor and so the definition of rich is someone that has consistent shelter Consistent food and consistent clothing. So, everybody in here, everybody online, especially people online, because you somehow are paying for Wi-Fi and some form of scenery, building in here, whatever the case may be, you have consistent shelter, consistent food, and consistent clothing. You are categorized as rich.
Say, I'm rich. I'm rich. I know you may not feel like it, but you're rich. What did I say? Most people in the world make something like $1.75 a day. A day. Somebody say, I'm rich. So I am talking to you. I'm talking to you. When it says command the rich, I'm not talking to Bill Gates or somebody else you think is wealthy. I'm talking to you. Command the rich, the scripture says. You, the rich, not to be proud.
What does that mean that simply means command the rich you not not to think like you're better than somebody else matter of fact the truth is no human being is better than another human being, No human being is better than another. I don't care how much money you have. I don't care what color you are. I don't care what gender you are. I don't care how old you are or how young you are. No human being is better than another human being. And so we are to command the rich not to have pride.
You are not better than anybody else. I don't care what you have. You are not better than another person. And what's ironic about being rich, have you ever talked to someone that had considerably more money than you? I mean, anybody had an opportunity to talk to somebody? Raise your hand if you have.
Did they come across, be honest, like they were just so happy and so full of joy and so very satisfied with life and nothing could go wrong in their life and did they come across like they had no problems absolutely not I talked to I know some millionaire I haven't met any billionaires yet I know a handful of millionaires that I talked to and I'm gonna be a millionaire one day myself to somebody say man you say me too nothing wrong with having a little
bit more I'm gonna tell you what to do with the extra though we're gonna talk about that today what do I do with the extra and they They talk to me, they got the same problems, same circumstances, same thing. Just because you got more money don't mean you got a better life. I'm preaching better than y'all saying amen here today. But it doesn't mean that things are just hunk of dory because you got more money. Matter of fact, millionaires are committing suicide. And so...
Talking to them, the only difference is they just got a little more money than I do. That's the only difference. They got the same issues, talking about the same things, calling me for advice, and they got more money because they're not better. They just have more money. And so Paul says, command the rich not to be prideful. Don't think you're better than anybody else. Put verse 17 back on the screen if you don't mind, guys, please. 1 Timothy 6, 17. Watch this. Not to trust in their money.
Keep it on the screen if you don't mind. Not to trust in their money. So you know what that means? Don't be afraid to let your bank account go to zero. We got quiet in there when I said that. Some of us get nervous. We sit there and we're paying the bills on our bill pay and we're biting our fingers at the same time. Oh, Lord, oh, Lord. No, your trust is in God. Say, I trust God. God. Say, I do not trust money. No, money comes and goes. Money is fluid. Money is a tool.
Money is a tool. Money is a tool. Money, it makes a terrible God. Money is a tool, but many of us, either intentionally or unintentionally, trust in money, or we feel good about ourselves if the The bank account is padded. Oh, look how much money I have in the bank account. Oh, I feel good. And as soon as something happens, that thing dips. I don't feel good anymore. I don't feel good. Our trust is tied up in the money, but your trust should be in God and God alone.
I am not against saving money. I am not against investing money, but I am against you trusting money. money. Your trust, your dependence, your reliance is in God. And you got to get to the point, man, if that bank account looks like it's about to hit zero, that means nothing. I trust God. Say, I trust God. Say, I don't trust money because money is unreliable. God is faithful and reliable. Money is unreliable. Well, where should your trust be in? It says your trust
should be in God. And what does God do? He richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment. Notice Paul didn't say he richly gives us all we need so that we can survive, so we can barely make it by, so that we can barely get going. No, actually, God's going to give us all we need for our enjoyment.
¶ Enjoying Life’s Abundance
What is it that you enjoy? We enjoy going on vacation. God's going to give you what you need for your enjoyment. Now, if it's illegal, that's a whole different thing, all right? He ain't going to give you nothing to support your illegal habit or your addictive habit. But what is it that you enjoy? Think about that. See, it's really hard.
You can take that off the screen, guys. It's really hard to consider what we really enjoy sometimes because our mindset is so factored in on what we can do instead of what we could do. There are guardrails that we've placed and limitations we've placed on ourselves of, well, we can only do this because this is what the bank account says we can do. But when God is saying, trust me, take the limits off and think about what you could do.
I was talking to Stacey the other day and I saw this celebrity on TV. They were at the Super Bowl and they glanced across them on the screen and this was the epiphany for me. I said, babe, I said, imagine this is the conversation I bet he had with his wife. You want to go to the Super Bowl? Yeah, I want to go to the Super Bowl. We're going to the Super Bowl. And they went to the Super Bowl. I said, you and I would have been, okay, you want to go to the Super Bowl?
How much that cost? Let's get the calculator. Oh, Lord, no, we can't go. I mean, my goodness. And we limit. We limit. We limit our thinking. What if we started thinking that God really wants to provide from our enjoyment? Are you listening to me? What if we took the guardrails off and the limitations off, and we asked God for something big? And we say, this is what we can do, but Lord, this is what you say we could do. What if we believe God for something big? We did this.
Many of you know we went on a Disney cruise, took our entire family on a Disney cruise, and that was not cheap. It wasn't cheap at all. I don't even want to tell you how much it was. But we said, you know what? what? My kids, we had never taken the kids in the airplane and all that together. I mean, I fly a lot alone or Stacy and I, but never the whole family. We said, Lord, we want to go on the Disney cruise. You say you richly give us all we enjoy for our enjoyment.
We believe you for extra money to come in. And bless God, extra money started coming in. Here's the question you have to ask, and we're going to talk about this today. What do I do with the extra? What do I do with the extra? Now, put it on the screen, verse 18, guys, if you don't mind. It says, tell them, talking to the rich, to use their money to do good.
They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, need always being ready to share with others, verse 19, by doing this, they will be storing up treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may experience true life. Is there more to life than what you are experiencing? The name of our church is true life.
Life and so he tells us here how do we experience true life he says number one if you don't mind guys first timothy 6 18 he says the first thing we need to do is to use our money to do good. Find areas to do good with in your money giving to your local church is an area to do good given to those in need when the Lord leads you is an area to do good. Spending time going on vacation with your family, that's a good thing. Get some rest. We rest on vacation.
I know some people don't, the Hollies, but that's another story. We rest on our vacation. They come back tired. We come come back rested. We find ways to do good. That's a good thing. This is what you should do. Find ways. Help someone else go on vacation. Do good. Watch this. Be rich in good works. That means look for ways to give, to look for opportunities to give. Look for ways to be a giver. Be rich in good works. Be known to be rich in good works and generous to those in need.
Look for ways to be generous. Find ways to give money away. Find ways to freely give, and the last thing he says, and to share with others. Be willing to divide and distribute to others. So what am I supposed to do with this abundance, richness, this overflow, this excess that God has given me? I am supposed to look for ways to give it away. way. Look for opportunities to give it away. Look for ways to be a blessing. Look for ways to divide and distribute my money.
And anytime you start to receive more than enough, that is always a test Test from God. Sometimes we see it as a blessing, and sure, it is a blessing. Man, extra came in, what a blessing. I want you to start seeing it as a test. What am I supposed to do with the extra? One particular time, we were, I was spontaneously asked to speak somewhere. And when I say spontaneously, I got a call at 4 o'clock to speak somewhere at 7 o'clock. It was spontaneous. Can you come speak? I got to have you.
Can you come now? I'm like, it was 4 o'clock, and I need to speak at 7.
Here's one of the things, and I need to say this. here's one of the things that being a full-time pastor affords you if I was working a full-time job and I I would have not even been off at by four o'clock I would have to get off at you know five then I got this call I would have had to turn it down I'm too tired from work I would have to turn it down but because of God's grace and your generous giving and support of the ministry I I could be full-time so that I can take calls like that.
And people gave their life to the Lord in this meeting. People were set free. It was a quick, I mean, like I said, I knew about it, three hours and people. And all of that goes to your credit. It really does. When I'm going out speaking places, I don't always, and maybe I do need to tell you more about it, but I always tell you all of that goes to your credit because of your financial giving and support of the ministry. Come on, somebody say amen.
It all does. There's a reason why there are full-time ministers. A lot of people fight against this, but the reason is so that they can be flexible to do what God's calling them to do. And so I got a call at four o'clock. Can you come to our church, minister at seven o'clock? Something happened. They needed someone to fill in. They called me. I said, I'll be there. I show up, I get there. What an amazing service. Well, at the end of the time, someone handed me $1,000.
I was like, whoa, glory to God. Praise God. Stacey and I got to shouting hallelujah, praise the Lord. And then I asked the question, Lord, what do you want me to do with this extra? Because I had a whole lot of plans. You know, we could go on vacation. We could do this. We can do that. And the Lord said, and Stace and I had talked about it. We're going to save it. We're going to do this. We're going to take care of this. And it's extra.
But I taught myself to ask the question, Lord, what do you want me to do with the extra? And the Lord said, this ain't for you. I said, what? He said, none of this is for you. He said, I want you to give 500 here and pay their car payment. And I want you to give 500 here and pay their car payment. So we paid two car payments that month with the extra.
And you know what? What a blessing it was. And I told them when we paid the car payment for two different people, I want you to know how it feels to not have a car payment. Amen. What do you do with the extra? This is the question I want you to have. Abundance, I want you to embrace this abundance. I want you to receive abundance. I want you to think abundance. I want you to have abundance. But what are you going to do with the extra?
¶ Giving Away the Extra
Paul tells us we're to give it away. We're to look for ways to be a blessing. This one particular time, we had someone in our church, and they had a family. And their car broke down and they didn't have any money and they just couldn't get back and forth and they were struggling. Stacey and I were driving. I remember we were headed away from the mall pre-COVID. I hadn't been to the mall after COVID, I don't think, have I? I don't know, but it was pre-COVID. We had went to the mall.
We had come in from the mall and I turned to her. I said, we're supposed to buy. That family a car she goes i was thinking the same thing what do you do with the extras. I said, let's do some research. We had a little extra money. We did some research, found out this van would be great for their family. God's grace, paid cash for the van, bought it, took our kids with us. And I said, I'm coming by your house. They had no idea. We took this van.
We drove it, two separate cars, obviously. We went to their house. And they said, Pastor, where did you come over for? I had never went over to their house before. Where did you come over for? I said, come on outside. Come outside. I said, look at this beautiful van. They're like, oh, that's really nice. What a nice van. I said, it's nice. I said, I just wanted to show y'all your new van. Praise God. Blessed him with the van. Man, they were thrilled. He ended up laying in the middle of the road.
I remember just laying in front of the van in the middle of the road, just thanking God for the blessing of having a vehicle. What do you do with the extra? See, religion is teaching us you shouldn't think extra. And they dog people like me that preach abundance and overflow. They dog people. But when you need, when someone needs something and you don't have extra, how can the poor help the poor? Can't happen.
Somebody's got to have some extra. I was talking to a particular friend of mine, and he was dogging this particular church. It's a guy I knew back in high school, and he was dogging this church, and this church had, you know, it's got thousands of members. And I was like, well, why do you keep dogging this church, man? He's, oh, they just, all they want is your money, this, that, and the third. And then I was like, well. And I've been a few times, and that's all. I said, well, why do you go?
Well, my fiancee goes to that church. I said, well, why does she go? Well, when she needed help, this church helped her. Now, what if they didn't have any money? You're going to dog them. They helped your fiancee when she needed help. She was a single mom. She needed help. You're going to dog them. What if they didn't have any money? They wouldn't be able to help. But they did help. What do you do with the extra?
Extra you help people you find ways to be generous you bless people many of you have blessed our family i don't want to call you out but you know who you are you've blessed us and you've helped us and my children and and and you just help people you you be a blessing you look and find ways to give stuff away i was um talking to my son zavin over here on the drums and he has some shoes. He's growing so fast. I mean, we bought him some shoes and they're already too small.
That's how fast he's growing. We're like, oh, Lord. I mean, I'll grow my budget now, but no, God will provide. And so just the other day, he said, I can't wear these shoes. I said, what about the guy across the street? He said, he probably can wear them. I said, why don't you go give him these brand new shoes? Zavin handed his shoes. I saw his face. He acted like he didn't want to do it, but he did it, he did it. I said, this is extra.
This is extra, and the reason why God wants you to have abundance is so that you can be a blessing, so that you can have something to give if it's their birthday, if it's someone in need, if you just, the Lord say, do it, you got some extra to do it. So if you're going to be a person that wants to give extra away, way, you're going to probably also have to be a person that stops spending so very much. You're going to have to limit your spending so that you can increase your giving.
My wife gets on me because there are, and I'm learning, I'm growing. I can give thousands of dollars away. I can do it, man. I can just give it because I've seen God give it right back, you know. I can give it. But when it's time to spend it there, I have a hard time spending thousands of dollars. Well, we need to buy this new dishwasher. Well, it can keep going for a little bit. You know what? Lay your hands on it. She's like, Devon, we just gave $1,000
here. Why would you not want to buy a dishwasher? Well, in the name of Jesus, dishwasher, keep going. Every, is this okay? Every dollar has an assignment. Sometimes the extra that God gives you has an assignment on it to buy your wife something nice. You like that, amen. Somebody receive that, somebody receive that. Every dollar has an assignment. Your job is to find out what am I supposed to do with this extra. There's an assignment on it. And the assignment may be to buy a new dishwasher.
It may be to bless this person. It may be to put it in savings. Find out, Lord, what do you want me to do with this extra? I guarantee you, if you have that heart, you tell him, I can't hear from God, ask him that question.
¶ Hearing God’s Guidance
He'll tell you exactly what he wants you to do with the extra. And when you do it, you're going to sense this joy, this peace. peace. Matter of fact, in Acts chapter 20, verse 35, Jesus even says it is more blessed to give than it is to receive. And I like what Solomon says in Proverbs chapter 11, verse 24 and 25. Now, Solomon is the richest man to ever live. If you do some study on Solomon, he had multiple billions of dollars, multiple billions.
Matter of fact, take that off the screen for a second. I have to make this comment. Sometimes we hear this word billions and trillions on the news, and we're kind of like, let me break this down to you. A million seconds is 12 days. Okay? A million seconds is 12 days. One billion seconds is 32 years. Okay? So when you say somebody's a millionaire or a billionaire, we're not even talking about the same thing. 12 days is a million seconds. One billion seconds is 32 years.
We're talking about a thousand million is a billion and, So not even in the same category. When you're talking about, oh, millionaires, billionaires. No, no, no. Entirely two different categories, okay? Solomon was known as a multiple billionaire back in Bible day. So that's not including inflation. Richest man to ever live. All right, y'all listening to me? Look what he says in Proverbs chapter 11. He says, give freely and become more wealthy. Wow. Wow. Be stingy and lose everything.
The generous will prosper. Those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed. So this is the advice of someone who has extra. Give freely. Be generous. And you can't outgive God. I have never seen the righteous forsaken or receive begging bread. I've never seen someone said, I gave and I gave and I gave and I just gave and I don't have no more, any more to give. No, God is going to support your habit of giving. Look for ways to be a blessing. Look for ways to be a support.
Look for ways to give your money away. way. Look for ways to support different functions and to be involved in different things and to help different things, including your immediate family. They don't always have to be outside. Look for ways to be a blessing to your family because living the lifestyle, this is what I wanted to say, living the lifestyle of a giver requires that you make the necessary lifestyle adjustments adjustments that will allow you to have something to give.
All right. And so money alone cannot cause you to experience true life. Money alone cannot cause you to experience true life, but the process of giving money away can. So what Paul tells us here, one more time, if you guys don't mind, 1 Timothy 6, let's go to verse 19, 1 Timothy 6 and verse 19. You guys are doing an amazing job on the words back there. Thank you.
¶ Storing Up Treasures
Watch this. By doing this, they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may experience true life. What are they doing? They're taking the extra. And they're giving it away. They're being generous with it. They're supporting what God has told them to do. And then there are times, and Jeannie talked about this in the offering message, that God would cause you to stretch. You say, I don't have extra.
Then he's going to cause you to sacrifice in certain areas so that you can sow a seed. Because he's trying to get you out of the situation that you're in.
The best way to get someone out of the situation that they're in is to get them to sow from what they have and that becomes a significant seed because it means a lot to you and when you sow from your need you become a candidate for God to meet your need now this is important because a lot of us saying well I'm gonna wait till I have extra and I'm gonna do all what pastor said it didn't happen that way for me I had to start sowing from a need and when I begin to sow from from a need,
God began to meet that need, and then he began to give extra. And then we have to ask this question, what do we do with the extra?
¶ Action with the Extra
Say that after me. What do we do? What do we do? With the extra. Let's make it personal. What do I do? What do I do? With the extra. With the extra. Say this and stand to your feet if you don't mind. I want you to say this, And then we'll wrap up. Close your eyes and say, Lord, what do you want me to do with my money? This is how you experience true life.