Transcript
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Stop being afraid.
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Why?
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Because it's your father's good pleasure, it does him good, it pushes his buttons to give, to give, to give to you, to give what the whole kingdom?
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Oh, that's just talking about spiritual things, yes, and things, all these things.
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Welcome to the City Light Church podcast.
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Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's word and discover the hope and truth that he has for us.
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If you want to connect with City Light Church, feel free to visit us at citylightnyccom.
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That's citylightnyccom.
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Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working in our hearts and minds.
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As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God, that you are surrounded by His grace and that he has a real hope and a future for you.
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Let's begin in Matthew 2.1.
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So I feel like the road a ruderman this morning.
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Do you guys know road a ruder?
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You're what?
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You're a plumber.
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You don't want to say that to me?
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I'm gonna, you know?
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No, I literally just prayed several days ago.
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Now, with this new house, I'm like Lord, you got to send me like honest contractors.
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I prayed that three years ago, third row, I'm a plumber.
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I'm not asking you to donate your services, I'm just asking not to rip me off, which immediately puts you in the top 1% of all plumbers.
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I had to call it because these Wacko Williamsburg plumbers were coming.
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I had to call.
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I did call road a ruder because they're the franchise.
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You know.
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You at least have some kind of guarantee.
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But they come in and they plum and I feel like the road a ruderman and your toilet is clogged and I have to unscrew the whole toilet, put on a rubber glove up to my shoulders and get on in there before I snake it.
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I know I'm skipping a step, but before I snake I want to see what's going on and pull out.
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And it's your two year old's rubber ducky that she flushed down the toilet and you're wondering why there's obstructions and blockages and your plumbing doesn't work.
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We're going in here and we're removing the stuff that is preventing you from being in the receiving zone Once again, because God's ways are from glory to glory.
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They're to increase, they're to grow, and if these things aren't aligned in our hearts and we're not aligned with the kingdom, we will live in frustration.
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And then, if I don't bring the truth to you, god will hold me accountable for allowing you to live under my care in frustration.
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So some giving truths.
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Here we talk about giving a sowing and reaping, because that's how the Bible presents it.
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These are terms that the apostle Paul himself used, these agricultural terms.
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You know, when you sow a seed, you can sow one apple seed but reap many trees with thousands and tens of thousands of apples.
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That's all nice and I make a living by my giving.
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But what's even more precious than the fact that our way to financial increases with our giving is that our giving is worship.
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It is worship, it is a matter of the heart, and God receives it as worship.
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The offering is holy.
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Giving is sacred.
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It should be beautiful.
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It's holy.
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Is it any wonder why Satan attacks it so much?
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Is it any wonder why he sends charlatans disguised as ministers who twist the scriptures, pervert the gospel and have an agenda of only finances and really give a bad name to something that should be holy and sacred and beautiful.
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So let's look at this scripture Matthew 2, 11,.
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When the wise men come to meet Jesus, and when they had come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and fell down and worshiped him.
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And when they had opened their treasures now let's just pause right there.
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So many times we act like after that period, they took a break, had lunch for an hour and then came and opened up their treasures.
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Do you get what I'm saying?
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We read it as though they came, worshiped him whatever that looked like went and did something else and came back and then opened up their treasures.
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This goes together.
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This was in the same minute, in fact, one version says and opening up their treasures, they worshiped him.
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How do you worship a king?
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You bring gifts worthy of a king.
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Those wise men were wise men because they knew how to worship God incarnate and they worshiped him with their treasures.
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And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to him Gold.
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What is gold?
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A precious metal?
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A gift that you would give a deity.
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Frankincense or incense Excuse me, a gift.
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Gold is a gift you would give a king.
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Frankincense or incense is a gift you'd give a deity.
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And myrrh, a precious spice, is something you would put in a drink to someone who's dying, a dead man, an end of life, someone who's gonna pass.
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So they were recognizing him as king, as God and as someone who was born to die.
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But the point here is that they worshiped with their giving and, first and foremost, we have to understand that our giving, of any kind, is unto the Lord and he receives it as worship.
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That means whenever I give my tithe, I'm worshiping him with my tithe.
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If I give an offering, I'm worshiping him with my offering.
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Listen, when I buy gifts for people, when I take friends out to eat, I am doing it to a human, but I'm ultimately doing it unto the Lord and done with the right heart, in faith.
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He receives that as worship.
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Can you believe that, church?
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He receives it as worship and I want my life to be a sweet, smelling aroma of fragrance unto God.
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Oh man, I feel like I have to say this because it was so pleasant in the first service and I'm feeling that Sphinxster, tightening demon moving amongst my precious sheep and I bind him and, no pun intended, I lose him.
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This, this is for you, it's not for us.
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I know I was at a church when I first began in Christianity.
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If ever the topic of money came up, we knew the church was doing poorly financially.
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They never talk about it.
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And then we knew they were redlining, uh-oh, not meeting budget.
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And now they're talking about money.
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We're doing fine and, by the way, you know who's really doing fine God.
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God doesn't need a gift, but he needs you to give.
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It's not for him, it's for you, it's your way to increase.
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He's not looking to take something from you, he's looking to get something to you.
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Hallelujah, let's go to Philippians.
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Let's first read it out of the NLT Philippians 418.
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The problem here is that there is a money God and by God I mean lower case G a demonic entity.
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Its name is Mammon.
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Jesus called it Mammon.
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Ancient pagans had a name for it Mammon, the money God, and that God is active today.
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These evil spirits didn't go anywhere in several thousand years.
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You know that they're still around until that day they're thrown into the lake of fire.
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They're here and that spirit of Mammon is real.
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Some people are afflicted by it to one degree or another.
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If you've ever sat across from someone who's really afflicted by the spirit of Mammon the greed, the avarice, the stinginess it's palpable.
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And for many people Mammon is their God.
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Mammon is the God they serve.
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And so when you start bringing a message like this, they start getting irritated, they start getting angry, they start getting upset.
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Nobody here is shaking you up.
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The ushers aren't going to come turn you upside down and see what comes out.
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Nobody knows if you give or not.
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Nobody knows.
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I don't know.
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I treat everybody like they're the number one giver in the church.
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So just chill and let the Word of God come and do something or stop complaining.
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It's amazing how you know.
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In the first service it's just different.
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In the first service, I guess different crowd hungry ones or whatever, not saying.
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If you're in the second, you're not hungry.
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But August to come that early?
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You know you're just as special, but it was completely different.
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But here I got about seven minutes in and all of a sudden it's like somebody just pulled the emergency brake.
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Hallelujah, hallelujah.
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Here's the Apostle Paul.
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He's writing the Philippians.
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At the moment I have all I need and more.
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I am generously supplied with the gifts you sent me with the pathoditis.
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He's talking about the offering and we're talking about giving as worship.
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They are a sweet, smelling sacrifice that is acceptable and pleasing to God.
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What is he describing Worship so many times when it describes Old Testament worship?
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It describes the aroma, the fragrance, the smell of the sacrifice.
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It's well pleasing in the nostrils of God.
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Paul is saying I'm well supplied, thank you for your offering.
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But it's not even about what your offering will do in the natural.
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What it's really about is the fragrance, the worship, the aroma that comes up to God.
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You're giving to him.
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He receives it as worship.
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This is why we're still talking about the woman with the alabaster box today, because she worshiped Jesus and she didn't worship him cheaply.
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Words are cheap.
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It's a Jesus.
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She didn't come.
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Jesus, I love you.
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And sang Jaira over him oh, you're more than enough.
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More than enough.
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She cost her something.
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The Bible says that that precious perfume was worth a year's wages.
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And she broke that box of alabaster, took out the flask and poured it on him.
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And Jesus said what you've done unto me is a good thing.
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And wherever this gospel is told, you will be mentioned.
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And here I am fulfilling that prophetic word of Jesus 2000 years later, talking about the woman, why was she singled out and eternally memorialized in the scriptures?
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Because she worshiped him with a gift.
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And guess what?
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What do you think?
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That room smelled like that costly spikenard oil.
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That fragrance filled the whole room and changed the whole atmosphere in the place.
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When people make a decision to let go, it'll change the entire atmosphere of a church, then the entire atmosphere of a neighborhood, then the entire atmosphere of a city.
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That's why we have to get past this.
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And, by the way, we have a generous church and for the most part, we get to do and support the missions we support and do what we do and have the staff that we have because we have a generous church.
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But what would happen if all of us came on the same page?
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It's just amazing to me how somebody can understand that they're an eternal being and that they will live forever, either in heaven or in hell, and they can come to that place where they believe that Jesus dwelt among us, never sinned, went to the cross, died in our place and was raised again and have saving faith in Jesus.
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All from the Word of God, but then in another part of the Word of God they'll read that you cannot give God and that he requires you to give to Him but that He'll bring it back to you, and that they don't believe and they don't even see and have the maturity to see the complete disconnect.
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How do you have faith that he's going to save your soul on the day of judgment, that you will dwell in Him forever, but you don't have faith that he's going to provide for you financially and that whatever you give to Him is going to multiply back to you.
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Am I making sense here this morning?
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Let's read it in the Amplified but I have received everything in full and more.
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I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent me.
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They are the fragrant aroma of an offering, an acceptable sacrifice which God welcomes and in which he delights.
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That's our giving, and I want to smell good to God.
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You know people smell in the spirit they do.
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And because the area of giving and our relationship to money and I'll show you some scriptures in just a little bit is so important, it reveals what's happening on the inside.
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Even the world knows this.
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Do you know what a credit check is?
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It's really a character check, it's an integrity.
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Check how you handle money is going to come through in every area of your life.
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If someone doesn't smell good, I just on a person.
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I can't be down with them.
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I can love them, I can minister to them, but I have to cut off access.
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I can't let them in my life.
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You're dating someone.
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You want to see what kind of a husband and what kind of a wife they'll be.
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Check their giving.
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Ask them what are your views on giving, what are your views on generosity?
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Your neighbor who you know is struggling Did you buy him groceries?
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Did you help them out?
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Do you tie it to your church?
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Do you support any missions?
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If they're stingy, if they're tight-fisted, if they don't honor God, how do you think they're going to treat you?
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Oh no, you'll be different.
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Right the lies we tell ourselves.
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When we're in love, everyone gives off an aroma.
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I want to smell real good all the time.
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I want to be a generous person that's constantly giving off of a fragrance that's a delight in the nostrils of God.
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Let's look at Proverbs Proverbs 3, 9, and 10.
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So so far we've seen and I'm only using my three favorite verses.
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There's dozens of other verses that show that giving is worship.
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But we've seen that the wise men worship Jesus with their treasures.
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We've seen that the apostle Paul he talked about the offering and said it's a fragrant aroma received as worship.
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Here in Proverbs it says honor the Lord with your possessions.
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Notice what it doesn't say Honor the church, honor the temple, honor the organization, honor the charity, honor the 501c3, honor the preacher.
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Why?
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Because it's going to the Lord.
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It is worship unto him.
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Honor the Lord with your possessions.
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When Melchizedek came to Abraham, abraham gave him a tithe of all.
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Melchizedek was pointing to Jesus.
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He was a type of Jesus.
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The book of Hebrews tells us that and it says over there meaning over in the Old Testament, they receive them, the priests receive tithes, but over here, under the New Covenant, he himself receives them.
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Jesus receives them.
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I'm giving to him.
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I'm not giving to man, I'm not giving to a church.
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I have a giving relationship with the Lord.
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He's given me everything and I prove my trustworthiness when I give him whatever he wants.
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This is so important.
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It's a matter of trustworthiness.
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He's a God of increase.
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I just experienced a major breakthrough in my life.
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I hear and see other people.
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They experience a sudden shift.
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That's only after a season of testing and proving your trustworthiness.
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So many people have the powerball mentality.
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They just think somehow, some way, all of a sudden, bam, and they're gonna land and be like Uncle Scrooge, diving into the money pit and doing the backstroke and a bunch of gold coins.
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It's not gonna happen that way, and no, I mean, you all know this.
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Whenever that does happen, like via a lottery, you check back with them two years later and they're back in the trailer park again Because they blow themselves up.
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They don't know how to handle money.
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But we prove our trustworthiness little by little, as we do as good stewards and as to all we are stewards, as we do as good stewards with our finances, whatever he tells us to do, hallelujah, honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruits of all your increase.
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This is such a touchy subject.
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Speaking of first fruits, do you know the original murder in the Bible?
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The first murder was over an offering.
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Cain killed Abel.
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Abel brought the first fruits.
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Cain did it kind of when he felt like it.
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The Bible says in the course of time I'll get to it, I can't right now.
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I got reasons and God received Abel's offering.
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It was the first fruits.
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Cain was in the course of time.
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And then Cain was so jealous he killed his brother Abel.
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So I guess I shouldn't be surprised at some of the tension I'm detecting in the spirit as I preach this, since the subject of an offering was the impetus for the first murder in the Bible.
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Maybe that's what I'm detecting, pastor James, some people just looking at me with murder in their hearts.
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You tempted to log off already three times.
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You stay out, you, you especially.
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You know you, you need to stay on.
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I know it's like fingernails on a chalkboard for you right now, but trust me, it's good for you.
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It's good for you, it'll do you good in the end, hallelujah.
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So let's read the next verse, because you'll see that in the Bible, whenever he talks about giving, it also talks about receiving.
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In fact, you'll never find Jesus talking about giving without also talking about receiving Never.
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It's impossible.
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It's impossible to give to God without getting a harvest back Impossible.
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That woman built a penthouse apartment for Elijah.
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Well, you know, she built a room for him on her roof.
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She made a little cot for him.
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She sowed seed into the man of God.