Royal Generosity | God Multiplies What You Release | Abundant Life Church | Pastor Sean Thomas
Royal Generosity | God Multiplies What You Release | Abundant Life Church | Pastor Sean Thomas
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Speaker 1
Hey, everyone. Pastor Sean here, and I wanna thank you for subscribing to our podcast. I'm excited to get into today's message. And remember this, God is a good God. He loves you, and he wants to bless you.
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Today, I wanna talk to you about something very specific, and it's this word right here. If you're writing notes, I want you to just mark this down.
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Write down generosity.
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Generosity. I wanna talk to you today about generosity.
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Generosity.
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Now, for a long time I've been mixed on this on this word, on this subject because in a lot of ways, this word has been misrepresented in the church in a way that I don't feel has been honorable to God.
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And I'll explain in just a moment. But I do wanna say this, the word generosity, it is a Godly word.
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It is a Godly thing. And the Bible has much to say about it, and we'll get to that in a moment. But generosity is the heart of God.
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The issue is this, is that generosity is not the only way that we minister to the Lord and to others.
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But what modern church has done is we've used generosity as a way to emotionally manipulate people to feel like, look at the good effort that I'm doing. Look at, I'm helping God out today. I'm giving Him some money, which I wanna say this, generosity is not just about money, though money is a factor.
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Generosity is equally the same, the waitress that you smile and demonstrate grace to when she's having a tough day on the job.
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Generosity is the door that was held open for you to walk into this room today. So, generosity is not just seen through dollars, though dollars is an avenue of generosity.
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But the issue is this, we've used that word as a punch word, as an emotional word in a service to make people feel like, well look at how I'm being generous to God. Man, God just loves the way that I'm helping Him out today. God doesn't need our help. God doesn't need your help.
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God is the one that created the heavens and the earth. God's not asking for money. In fact, money's not even on God's mind. How do you know that pastor? The Bible says in heaven that the streets are paved with gold. Gold's under His feet. It's not above Him, it's beneath Him. God's not thinking about money.
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Y'all are getting quiet.
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But when we talk about the generous church, when we talk about us modeling the heart of God, generosity has a very specific place. And I really wanna teach this and unpack this today.
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So stay at second Corinthians eight, but hang with me for a moment. And I'll move this I'll move this boat pretty quickly.
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The Bible says in Genesis chapter one verse 28, when God created humanity, man and woman, the first thing that He said after He formed us in His image and likeness is He says, and I bless them.
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I bless them. Genesis one twenty says, I bless them. Now, when it says I bless them, what that is saying is this, is that God has decreed and declared a thing so over your life.
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To bless is something that was spoken first.
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So when God says, I bless you, it's something that He has decreed and declared over your life.
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So even though that you run into challenges, even though that you run into trials, even though that you run into hardships, it's not God's intention for you to get snagged by that hardship. Hardship. It's not God's will for you to be held up by the obstacle.
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God does not want you to be defined by the obstacles, but the opportunities.
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Now listen to me. The word blessing is what God has decreed and declared over your life. So, if God has decreed and declared, another word for it would be benediction.
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Benediction is like the king's order. It's the judge's verdict. It's the final verdict. It's said. It's final. He's not turning back on that.
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Now hear me. What God has said, He's not changing.
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Just because you went through a week, where maybe you've you've kind of walked away or drifted outside of how you were supposed to live for the Lord. Maybe you found yourself, you know, in in sin or you did something that that that wasn't right. God does not change His mind because of that situation.
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That's the beauty of Jesus. We get to renew our hearts and repent so that now we can continue, continue to walk in what God has said.
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So, when God says I bless, it's Him saying I've given you a permission to prosper.
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You hanging with me?
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Talk back to me a little bit.
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He's saying I gave you a permission to prosper.
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So, says I bless you. Now, Malachi chapter three verses 10 through 12 gives us some more interesting thought on the matter Because the Bible says, when I bring my tithe and offering to the Lord, he says see if I would not open you up, open up the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing.
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Now blessing and to bless are two different things, but they come from the same root.
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So, to bless, Genesis one twenty eight, means this, is that I've given you a permission to prosper.
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It comes from a Hebrew root word called barak.
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But blessing is the extension of to bless, and that Hebrew word is barakah. Sounds like a Mortal Kombat character.
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And so, barakah is blessing.
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Blessed is what is said.
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Blessing is what is done.
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Blessed is something that's said. Blessing is something that is done.
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Blessed is I hear the word. Blessing, I'm a doer of the word. The Bible says in Genesis twelve two that God came to Abraham and He says, and I will bless you spoken, and you will be a blessing action.
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So, it makes no sense for God to bless me and me not actually carry out the blessing.
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If you'd like a title for today, you're blessed to be a blessing. You're blessed to be a blessing. It's not just what God has spoken over your life, it's what God wants you to carry out of your life so that you can make an impact and be an influence in the world that we live.
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Does that make sense? The word blessing, Barakah, it means an open hand.
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To have an open hand. So let me ask you this.
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How do I help people? How do I serve people? How do I meet people's need? Do I do it with a closed hand or do I do it with an open hand? The door is closed. How are you gonna get in? Someone's standing out the door, one of our ushers. Their responsibility is to make sure that the door is open. How are they gonna do it? With their hands behind their back? With their hands in their pocket? No. Their open hand is gonna open the door.
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So the blessing is when I open my hand and I recognize that God has given me seeds, God's given me life to sow and make an impact.
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To be able to bring about a cultural shift, transformation, and change into the environment that I go into.
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But the problem that we have is this, is that the world says when times get tough, you better keep it to yourself.
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When times get tough, build up your war chest. When times get tough, you can't trust nobody. You gotta protect this house. When times get tough, and that is a world culture, but a kingdom culture is one of an open hand. A kingdom culture is one that is willing to sow even when you're in the midst of famine. And this is why Isaac was blessed is because he did not live according to an earthly culture when there was a famine. Isaac said even in the middle of the famine, I'm gonna sow my seed. In the middle of my famine, I'm gonna dig my wealth. In the middle of the famine, I recognize I'm not under the anointing of a world system. I've got the anointing of God.
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And so, you've got the bless or to bless and the blessing.
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What is said, what is done. Be ashamed if we left from here today and all that we got excited about is what was said and we didn't get excited about what should be done.
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Are you still at second Corinthians? I'm so glad that you're there.
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I wanna read right at the top. The Bible says this.
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This is Paul writing to the church at Corinth.
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And he says,
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moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia, that in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and the deep poverty abound in the riches of their liberality.
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Verse three says, for I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability,
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they were freely willing.
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Bible says in verse four, imploring us with much urgency that we should receive the gift and fellowship of the ministering to the saints.
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And not only as we had hoped, but look at this, they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God. They first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God. And then I just wanna look at verse seven real quick. The Bible says, but as you abound in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all diligence, in your love for us, see that you abound in this grace also.
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And I'm gonna read you one more scripture. Look at verse 12.
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Verse 12. Same passage, same audience, same writer, same speaker. He says this, for if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has and not according to what he does not have.
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And so, what's happening here is Paul, the Apostle Paul is urging the church at Corinth to take action just like the Macedonian church.
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The Macedonian churches were not ones that necessarily had a lot of tangible means in their hand.
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But when there was a famine in the land, they recognized something needed to be done. If you're taking notes, want you to write this down. There are three different areas that generosity impacts.
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Three areas that generosity impacts.
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Generosity impacts in times of crisis.
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Generosity is also to care.
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And generosity defines culture.
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Crisis, care, culture.
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We'll say that again. Crisis, care, culture. Crisis brings about relief to a situation.
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Care is the way that we support a situation.
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And culture is how we live in that situation.
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So, crisis is that something came up and and and there was a problem at hand, and we needed to bring about relief. This would be unfortunately when we have natural disasters or you know whenever there's storms or or different things that happen, and it impacts people. And, and we see and we see it unfortunately all the time where where neighborhoods get torn apart, and cities get messed up, whether it be a flood or a hurricane or something like that. So, what do we do in a crisis?
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We want to bring about relief, we also call aid.
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So, generosity is to bring about relief to that crisis.
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Care is my support in something that I care about. And so, many of you have different organizations or, or different areas that you see of need that you want to support. A lot of times in local businesses, and I love this, I I champion and applaud all of our local business owners. Man, if you have a local business, keep doing what God has called you to do. Use the gifts that God's given you. Flourish in that. Walk in that under an open heaven. Let God bless you beyond measure. But I love local businesses, because I I believe that our local businesses, they need our support. Why? Because they're doing a good work. And we want to be able to come into that that support system. We want to care for them because we want to see them succeed.
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And so, what's happening at the church at Corinth is Paul is saying, I want you to take note. The Macedonian church has really set a great example.
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They didn't have much, but the Bible says out of their joy, they got excited to make something happen.
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I want you to understand this. You gotta get excited to be able to make something happen. Oh, but you don't understand. I don't have it. If I'd have it, I'd give it. No. If you had it, you wouldn't give it. Because the church said this, that they had nothing, but yet they trusted the Lord for everything because they had a joy.
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Let me tell you this. There is something about when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice.
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The righteous are only in authority when we begin to flourish and we're abundant and abounding in the grace and the work that God's assigned for our life. It's when we're walking in the blessing under an open heaven because the Bible said in Malachi chapter three that if you walk in obedience through tithe, through offering, through sowing, the Bible says that all nations will call you blessed. The Bible says this is that you will be called a delightful land.
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Now listen to me. For you to be called a delightful land, it's not a matter of how much you got.
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Because there's people that have got a lot.
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Let's go let's go into the money realm. You can have all the money in the world, but you might not have a heart to honor and love other people. You're not delightful. You just got a lot.
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So, it's not a matter of how much is in my pocket. It's a matter of am I willing to trust God to use me as a channel to flow through.
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And from there, all people will call me blessed, and they will say that I am delightful and that you are delightful.
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So, what's happening is the people got stirred up with joy, it says.
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And it and it tells them in a great trial of affliction.
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Look at this, verse two. Go back to verse two on the screen.
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He says that in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy.
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In other words, they did not see the famine.
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They did not see their lack as an obstacle. They saw it as an opportunity.
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They saw it as an opportunity. The great trial of affliction, there's a word that we can punch in there. You ready for this?
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Trial of affliction, it means crisis.
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Anybody ever heard that word?
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Crisis?
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Do you know what the word crisis means?
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The word crisis by definition means turning point.
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It means for better or for worse.
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So, when crisis shows up in the middle of your life, you've got a decision to make.
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Am I going to trust and know that God will give me what is needed to make it better or worse. Better or worse. And if you as a believer know that you've got seeds of greatness inside of you, then it should always be for better. When crisis comes, it's not a time to run from the storm, but it's your opportunity to look at the storm as Jesus did and rebuke it and tell it, hey, not today. You're not defining my outcome.
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I'm declaring the outcome, not the problem.
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And so, in a time of crisis, they had to make a decision.
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And their decision was, we're gonna walk in this generosity, this open handedness.
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Now how did the Macedonian church who had nothing, now all of a sudden, be able to give of their own ability, but Paul says, and beyond their ability.
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How do I go from what I have in my hand and go beyond what I have?
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How do I how does this happen?
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Well, the blueprint is very simple because the Bible tells us they gave themselves to the Lord, then they gave themselves to the need.
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They gave themselves to the Lord. So, what happens is when I am coming to church and I'm honoring the Lord and bringing Him my tithe, and I'm worshiping and I'm honoring Him with my offering, now God begins to minister and begins to to bless my life, and God causes my life to become fruitful, and out of that fruit I've got so much fruit that now I'm able to be a blessing to others.
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They gave themselves to the Lord, and as a result, they gave themselves to the work of that ministry.
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When you give yourself to God, mark this down, God will give Himself to you. Give yourself to God, and God will give Himself to you. Give yourself to the Word, and the Word will give itself to you because the Word will prosper where into it goes.
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So they gave themselves to the Lord.
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God now begins to cause them to be fruitful, be able to serve and be generous, have an open hand.
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So that now everything that they set their heart and their mind to, because the Bible says, verse 12, that they had a willing mind. Let me tell you something.
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You gotta have a willing mind.
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You gotta have a willing mind. Last week, there was a precious couple that brought, I think it was their daughter up, and the young and lady said, what do you do when when when people are in crisis?
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How do you respond to that? So so beautiful. Made made made my made my Sunday and my week.
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And, she asked that question, and I said, if you see the need, God will give you the seed. The problem is is that we're so internal with our needs that we're about us, so we don't have generosity flowing out. We're just thinking about what's flowing in.
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If you see the need, how do I know that I'm supposed to take this job? How do I know I'm supposed to help this situation? How do I know that I'm supposed to assist in this matter? Well, if you see the need, God will give you the seed. Well, God will send somebody else. No, you saw it. God's given you that as your assignment. And it's out of the obedience to the assignment because listen, generosity is not a gesture.
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Generosity is a lifestyle of sowing and reaping. It's not a one and done I did my part. It's the fact that an open hand models the river of God flowing out of your life. Now listen on this. The river, the water that flows, what defines a river is not volume but velocity.
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What allows a river to have its shape, what allows the river banks to be defined as wide as it gets, as deep as it gets, is not how much the water, it's how frequent that water is flowing.
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It's not how much I got. It's not how much that I have. It's am I living my life to continually let the water flow out of my life? Am I being a blessing? Is my hand being open? Is my hand being open? Where where's where's miss Annette?
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There you are. Third row. I I thought of this in the middle of service. I'm gonna put you on blast for a second. How long have you been in our church?
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Forty eight years. Forty eight years. It's been a blessing to my life. It's been amazing. It's amazing. This this dropped me in my spirit. When when when you were coming up and you were presenting your offering, how regularly do you come and just, you know, you're in every service, every week. Time I'm here. Now I'm gonna I'm gonna say something pretty bold here. Okay. You got a lot of friends next to you. I know. You do. I do. Your friends have changed over the years. Yes, Seasons have changed. Things have changed. Things have But no mat been a blessing. But no matter what no matter what, every week, you're sowing. You know what you don't know is holidays, Father's Day, Mother's Day, Christmas. She always gives us a card. She always is very generous, bakes us a little a little cake. She's she's always sowing seed.
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She's been in this church over forty years. And no matter what, she's always got this wonderful golden girls pack that just keeps on following her. Everything reproduces after its own kind.
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I love y'all so you you guys give me so much joy when I see you. And you come up with a joyful heart. You come up with expectation, and God has continued to give you life because you have been an open hand of generosity, a river that has flown through you. And as a result, the Lord continues to give you length of days, because you are blessed to be a blessing.
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Each and every single one of you are.
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I I'm sitting here and I'm I'm saying, this is what see, you gotta understand. This is what it's about. The blessing is not about the moment of today. The blessing is the legacy that extends into tomorrow. For a good man lays up an inheritance for his children and his children's children. It's a river of generosity that flows and flows and flows and flows, but the moment that I withhold my hand, the Bible says in Proverbs 11, now I enter into poverty.
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It says a man that scatters increases much. A man that withholds now lives in poverty, but a generous soul will live enriched.
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I don't know about you. I want my family to be enriched. I want the city of Margate to be enriched.
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I want South Florida to be enriched. Enriched with what? The goodness of God, that God is a good God, that God loves us, and God wants to bless us.
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God wants an open hand to release His love, His presence, and the way that we serve, and the way that we honor, and the way that we give, and the way that we model the kingdom of God on the earth.
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I've said this before, whatever God's gonna do, He's gonna do through you. But He can't do it if I live my life closed up.
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Tell you what, 2020, that was a real trial time. I've never seen so many hands get closed up in 2020.
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But as the church, our responsibility through that season and that time should be open handedness.
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And I'll tell you, the churches that pull through, and it crushes me. A lot of churches were lost during COVID and that season. A lot of things were happening.
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A lot of churches shut down.
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But the ones that continue to move forward were the ones that continue to stretch out, were the ones that continue to figure out where can I be generous, where can I sow, where can I serve, where can I help, where can I be a blessing in the community? And you know what church? You were part of that, and look at where we are today. Look at what God's doing in this house today. Look at what God's doing through your life today.
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Generosity is the open hand. So generosity flows down.
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And this is why I'm not generous to God because God is generous to me. The Bible says in Hebrews seven seven that the lesser is blessed by the greater. So, the blessing to bless, it means that now it is flowing down.
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Just like a river, it flows down.
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Couple months ago, when we were on our on our vacation, a little time of leave, my family, we went and took the kids river rafting.
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And when we got on the river, you know, we did a family tour.
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We didn't do like a crazy river rafting, but it was a little slower than I expected.
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And the water levels were like 15 feet lower than usual.
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And we asked our guide and we said, what's going on? And he said, well, there hasn't been much water velocity flow going through.
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And as a result, the river looks super gaunt and thin.
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But I'll tell you this, my bible says that we are anointed to be fresh and flourishing. That we are anointed to be like trees planted by rivers of living water.
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That we are to be ones that are to expand our borders. That we are ones that are not just to be watered, but to watered.
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And so when we when we were on that that river tour, just it was funny because it looked so slim and so gaunt and so kinda sickly in a lot in a lot of ways.
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But there is something about when the water begins to flow. Oh, man, if I had another title, I'd like to just say let it flow. Let it flow.
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Let it flow. Come on. Tell your neighbor next to you. You gotta let it flow. Let it flow. You gotta let it flow. So Paul says to the it says to the church at Corinth, the Macedonians, they had a willing mind, a willing heart. Their soul and their mind was right. They took great joy. You should take great joy in being able to release generosity.
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And out of that, they gave themselves to God first.
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And so, from that, it wasn't only in their ability, but there was a supernatural ability that came upon them to go above and beyond. I'm telling you, stop looking at what you don't have, and start recognizing what you do have. Do you got a smile to give? A handshake to release? A hug to release?
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Maybe there is a specific need that is that that needs to be met. Whatever it is, whatever God's gonna do, He's gonna do through you. You've got the seed, the carrier of life to reach the world. Amen?
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You believe that? I I wanna I wanna look at something else here, because it's interesting. As I was writing this down, you know, the Bible gives us some really interesting insight when we're talking about generosity and culture. I want you to go to first Kings chapter 10.
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Because I don't want you to just see generosity through the lens of just neediness.
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I believe because we are in a worldly system, a broken world,
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the reality is is that things happen and we're in a place of our life where where unless if we understand these kingdom principles, we'll live beneath the goodness of God.
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And so needs pop up. Situations pop up. But generosity is not to keep you at a needy level.
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Let me tell you, there there there's a there there's a time and a place where people will become so needy that you're no longer empowering, but you're enabling.
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And so, generosity might be helping someone out with a financial need today, but tomorrow it's helping them out with their resume to get a job.
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You hear me? Because there is a line between empowerment and enablement. But, I don't believe that generosity is just to stay at the realm of neediness and crisis.
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I don't want to live my life constantly in crisis.
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First Kings chapter 10 verse nine.
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The back story is this.
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Solomon, who is now at this point, become the wealthiest man in the world.
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His influence
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has stretched across the globe.
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He has built and done amazing things.
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He's walking in this measure of wisdom and rulership.
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And the Bible tells us that the Queen of Sheba wanted to come and check it out and see what he's got going on. Now, this queen was a very, very influential queen herself.
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This queen did not lack for anything, but she came to Solomon and she said, I want to see if the story is true. And so, Solomon showed her everything.
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And Solomon answered every question that she had to the point where the Bible says that the Queen of Sheba had no more spirit in her. She was just so overwhelmed with the wisdom and the influence and the greatness of Solomon. But look at this, I want you to see this in verse nine.
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The Queen of Sheba tells Solomon, blessed be the Lord God who delighted in you, setting you on the throne of Israel, because the Lord has loved Israel forever.
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Therefore, He made you king to do justice and righteousness.
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Verse 10 says, then she gave the king 120 talents of gold.
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I did the math on that.
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Anybody wanna know what that is?
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It's $500,000,000,000 in today's money.
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120 talents of gold, spices in great quantity, precious stones.
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There never came such abundance of spices as the queen of Sheba gave king of Solomon. Now look at this, verse 13.
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The Bible says, now King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked besides what Solomon had given her according to the royal generosity.
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Hold on a second. This queen just gave $500,000,000,000 in gold.
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And the Bible says that he gave unto her everything that she wanted and then royal generosity.
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I already made this statement. The lesser is always blessed by the greater.
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I wonder what that royal generosity was that was given to the queen.
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The queen was not in need.
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The queen did not ask for it. The queen did not say support me.
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It was the heart of a king to serve and give out of a generous place of his life.
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It is a culture that our generosity is not just about crisis and needs. It's who we are everywhere that we go. It's the beautiful exchange of sowing and reaping.
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I love it whenever I have the opportunity to go to lunch or dinner with other people because I'll tell you what, by the time the bill comes, there is an argument over who's gonna claim that check.
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Why? Because we want to sow into one another's life. It is a royal generosity.
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It's an open handed type of living that I'm not waiting for you to cry on my shoulder for me to help you out. It's just because this is culture. It's who we are. It's what we do. It's the kindness of God in the way that we demonstrate and live our life. It is the seeds that are always being sown.
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I'm not just waiting for the next season to begin my planting. I'm looking everywhere that I go. I'm examining where can I put good seed into good ground? How can I just love people today with the love of the Lord? How can I just honor people today?
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Not because they asked for it, not because they need it, but man, I'm blessed to be a blessing, and I just want to honor somebody today.
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That's kingdom, guys.
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I heard I heard this analogy, I think it was great. I pulled this from online. I saw this thing that was stated. And there's this story of Alexander the Great.
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And in in the story, it says that a beggar came up to Alexander the Great and asked him for some money.
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And the story says that Alexander the Great gives this beggar a gold coin.
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And his assistant that was with him says, sir, a copper coin would have been just fine for this beggar.
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It would have suited the beggar just fine.
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Alexander the great responded with, a copper coin might have suited the beggars need, but a gold coin suits the the the king's giving. And the mindset of it is this, is that I'm not here just to sow the minimum. I'm here to make a difference. I want to make an impact because I can afford it, because I can do it. Yeah, but I don't have it. Well, the Macedonian church gave themselves to God. They saw a need, and they said I wanna make a difference.
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It is this mindset of this royal generosity that we are kings and priests, a royal priesthood, and the way that we do life is through constant sowing and reaping.
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Are you getting this? Is this is this making sense? Now, want you to see this, and we're we're getting we're gonna land this plane here in just a second. I wanna just turn over one page to second Corinthians chapter nine.
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Because here's what happens.
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It's easy to make all the excuses. It's easy to say, but I don't know. But but I want you to see this. The Bible says this in in chapter nine verse six.
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Paul says, and and this is in the same discussion. He says, but I say, he who he who sows sparingly will reap sparingly.
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He who sows bountifully will reap bountifully.
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So let each one gives as he purposes in his heart.
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So when I give, when I'm generous, it's gotta be out of your heart.
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If your heart's not in it, doesn't matter what's in your hand.
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Giving must Mark this down. Whenever I give, whenever I sow, wherever I'm generous, it's gotta be with purpose.
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My dad made this statement and I'll use this, that what you do in your giving, in your sowing, it should honor God,
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should bless others, and it should bring a harvest into your life.
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So, if my heart's not in it, it's not gonna be honoring the God.
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It might help others, but then there's no harvest for my life.
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When I sow, when I give, when I'm generous, it's because I want to make a difference, but I wanna keep the flow. I wanna keep the river. I wanna keep the water flowing. I wanna keep it going. I wanna keep it going. The moment that my purpose is not involved with it, I begin to shortchange the ability to flow. Because when your heart's not in it, eventually you stop doing it. But when my heart is in it, and it's honoring God and a blessing to others, now it puts me in a position to receive a harvest.
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The harvest, again, it's not about what I got. The harvest is now that I'm able to take what I have and continue to minister to others, continue to bless others, continue to sow in others' lives.
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Now, watch this. The Bible says that God would would be able to make all grace abound towards you, that you having all sufficiency in all things may have abundance for every good work.
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So when I opened up with second Corinthians eight, it said that there was a joy in them.
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Joy is interchangeable with the word grace in the Bible. It comes from a Greek word called charis.
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Joy is not happiness.
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Happiness is an emotion that comes from a happening.
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Joy is when the grace of God that's at work within me, I can feel it.
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It's a joy that grace is at work within me. So, the Macedonians that had a joy in them, there was a grace that was in them to do a good work.
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As a result, there was now a grace on them to finish the work.
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Grace in them and grace on them. You're not only blessed, but you're a blessing.
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There was something in them that got stirred up and something on them that allowed it to flow out.
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And as a result, because it was purposeful to their life, they didn't do it under pressure.
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They didn't do it reluctantly or grudgingly or out of necessity.
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They did it because it was a joy to minister the kingdom of heaven into the earth so that now people could encounter the goodness of God. And so the Bible tells us that grace would abound towards you.
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The grace of God is on you to be able to excel in this gift, to excel in this way, to excel in this action.
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God's hand is on you. He's just looking for a willing mind and a happy heart, a joy filled heart.
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And so, then he goes on and look at this verse 10 says this, now may he supply seed to the sower in bread for food. Supply and multiply the seed that has been sown and to increase the fruits of your righteousness.
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He says that He will supply seed.
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Man, I I just I don't know how this is gonna happen. I think it's amazing. Whenever there's something that you really wanna do, you figure out the means to get it done. I can't afford anything, but all of a sudden right before school starts back, I can afford Jordans for my kids.
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Oh, did I just step on some toes?
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It's amazing that whenever there is something I want to do, I figure out the means to get it done.
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But the Bible tells us that if we store up treasures on earth, those things are just gonna fall away. My treasures need to be stored up in heaven. That the things that I sow, it needs to have a spiritual impact behind it, because that's what's gonna bring about transformation in our community.
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And so, He says, I'll supply seed to the sower, bread to the eater.
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And He says, and I will supply and multiply the seed you have sown. I'll multiply the seed that you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness.
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Now, I'm gonna close it out with this.
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There is a beautiful picture in the Gospel of second Corinthians chapter eight and nine.
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Beautiful picture. Now, not gonna read this passage, but Mark six verse 35 through 44, there is the story that we all know as the feeding of the 5,000.
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Okay?
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And what happens is this. The Bible says in Mark's gospel that the day was now far spent because Jesus had been teaching and preaching.
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The people were hungry.
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The disciples come to Jesus, and they say, we need to dismiss the disciples, or or we need to dismiss the people, that's what the disciples say to Jesus, because they need to go and eat.
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And they say, we don't have even He said, even with 200 denarii, that that that's not enough to feed this crowd.
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We need to send them to go.
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Now, it's important to understand the language.
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They tell Jesus, even with 200 denarii, that's not enough to feed this crowd. I love studying. 200 denarii is a year's wage.
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200 denarii is 35,000 US dollars.
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What they're saying is this, because I love when people talk about Jesus didn't have anything and Jesus was in poverty.
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They were saying, we've got 200 denari.
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We've got almost 40,000 in cash, but that's not gonna get this job done. What do we do? We should dismiss them.
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What they needed in that moment was to figure out how to extend their hand and minister generosity to people that were hungry.
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So Jesus says, as you know, bring me the loaves, bring me the fish, because he found out that there was loaves and fish from a young boy. Oh, man, does that just preach all in and of itself? All he had was loaves and fish. And when we talk about I don't have it, all this young man had was a day's lunch to be able to offer up so what you have is more than enough.
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Don't minimize what you have because God won't be able to maximize what He can do.
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The smallest of seeds as a mustard seed is enough to make an impact.
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He offers up the loaves and the fish and Jesus takes it. Now, watch this. What's the first thing that Jesus does when He receives it? The Bible says, and He blessed it. Hey, Abraham, and I bless you.
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But nobody's fed yet.
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And Abraham, you are going to be a blessing.
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I bless you. It's what I said.
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But blessing is now what you do.
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Hey, disciples. I blessed this food. I said it.
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Now, if the people are gonna eat, you need to go be a blessing. Go do something.
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And He breaks the loaves and disperses the fish. And watch this. As they begin to go out and minister out of a generous heart what they had, didn't look like much at first, but as they begin to sow, the seed multiplied.
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And as it multiplied, it allowed every person, including the women and the children, to be fed. And that miracle began to perpetuate, and it got a little steam behind it, and it was like a slow rolling engine.
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But all of a sudden, as it begin to pick up, as it begin to move, everybody that was in attendance that day, they were fed, and the Bible says till they were full and didn't want anymore.
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What would God be able to do with a willing heart and a willing mind when I recognize the seed that God has given me? And out of a generous heart, I open my hand, and like a river, it begins to flow. I'll tell you what will happen is that God will continue to create a massive influence in the city of Margate, at Coral Springs, at Pompano, North Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale, Parkland, Boca
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people
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of God were willing at such a time as this to take what they had and extend their hands.
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And so the disciples, they ministered.
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Can I tell you my theory? The Bible doesn't tell us this, but I Can you entertain me?
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As long as there was a hungry belly in the congregation in attendance where Jesus was, the miracle kept going.
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What if the last person,
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back of the line,
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I wonder if that miracle is gonna get to me.
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I'm hungry. I know everybody's eating. I don't know if it's gonna get to me. I know I'm not helping the camera team out right now.
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I'll look at that guy right over there.
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I don't know if the miracle's gonna get to me.
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I'm seeing everybody's having a good time.
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Everybody's getting fed, but what about me?
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I don't believe that that was the posture. I believe when they saw it, y'all ever seen like one of those wave pools?
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You know everyone's going everyone's going to get that tidal wave on top of them. It's coming. It's coming. It's coming. Could and here's my theory, that if the last person that got it, what if they got up and they said, I know that this region was fed right now, but I wonder if there's another city that I can take this and bring it over to. I wonder how long that miracle could have kept going, and going, and going, and going, and going, and going, and going. I don't believe that the pin was supposed to stop right there in that moment. I think what Jesus was trying to model is that when we are co laborers by the way, miracle that Jesus and all the disciples had their hands in.
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They all came together because it modeled a kingdom moment in which when I sow, it's supposed to go on and on and on and on. As people continue to have hunger, that that need could be met, that they could continue to sow. And the Bible says though, at the end of it, that they still had leftovers.
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There was a more than enough supply because we serve a God who is more than enough. You
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are blessed
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to be a blessing. Father, I thank you for your word.
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Oh, God, thank you for the opportunity, the joy, just to minister and teach your truth. Father, let us have a true heart, a generous heart, a heart that flows, a heart that it that extends like an open hand.
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Father, move in us that as we see needs, can recognize that we've got the seeds to sow.
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That God, when we have opportunity that we can give of ourselves liberally.
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But more than that, that father, we can live out a kingdom culture of sowing and reaping in the earth because it's the heart of a king.
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Let us rule with the heart of a servant and serve with the heart of a king.
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Father, I ask you Lord as we are stepping into this next season, I'm reminded of the word you gave us a few weeks back, extreme fruitfulness.
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But the key to the extreme fruitfulness is the seeds that we sow.
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And Father, I thank you, Lord, through opening up generous hearts, you would be glorified, people would be blessed, and we would walk with supernatural harvest in every area
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of our life. Thanks again for listening to today's podcast. We trust that it has touched your heart and blessed your life. Listen to support the ministry. You can go to our website, abundantlife.tv.
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And remember, we are better together.