in our church we believe in generosity of our people and we don't try to do 27
offerings in one service to really squeeze those two three cents out of
people we believe that as a Christian you can be poor but as a Christian you
can't be stingy you might not be rich but you can't be greedy.. the mark of a true
genuine born-again believer is not when he's loaded with money it's when he's
loaded with gratefulness and generosity and a widow in the Bible had nothing but
she was generous and so generosity has nothing to do with how much you have is
how much you love it's how much you love God with what you have and in here
Solomon says something that really catches my attention he says honor the
Lord with your possessions a lot of times the idea of money in the church
you know the moment even I started to talk about money some of you like your
heart your your blood level just kind of went through the roof you started to
some of the stuff started to come back you started to feel uncomfortable you
like yeah it's one of those churches and you're blocking me off right now
and maybe you had a reason maybe you went to a church where offering and
giving was manipulated it was used to if you give a thousand dollars we're gonna
pray for your healing if you sow a thousand you're gonna have this and this
and this and maybe it was presented as a gimmick I want to tell you something
Solomon says in here honor the Lord the motive for giving is to honor God the
motive for giving is not to get out of a financial problem the motive for giving
is not to get rich the motive for giving is not to impress God the reward for
giving in verse 10 and I'm gonna mention that in a second it's different but your
motive is to honor God therefore if you are not giving as a Christian you're not
honoring God and if you're not honoring God you're a practical atheist you
believe that God exists you live as though He doesn't
that's the Bible I did not make anything up Solomon says "honor the Lord" right
there with all your possessions. He's not saying just to this we don't earn our
salvation it's just us honoring God and see most of us because we've been we've
seen giving as some kind of a gimmick we completely shut
off from it but the scriptural motive for giving it's the way we honor God
we don't just believe that God exists we live as though He does and means we
place a trust in Him that means when the worship song is going on we're not like
that's not my favorite song I didn't think that was about you I thought that was
about Him did you ask if that's His favorite song because we were not
worshiping your feelings or your mood we were all but I'm not feeling good I
thought that that's about Him being good and so it's not about I won Christians
we don't live for ourselves we live for God we live to honor God but see in
here it says to honor God not only with your lips it says with your
possessions see it's easier to honor God with your lips and with your hands but
in here the scripture says challenges us to honor the Lord with your possessions
I have sometimes people say well Vlad you don't understand I come to church
and I come 5 minutes before the church and I greet people and that is my
tithing please understand that is incredible that you serve that's like a
person who says I turned off Instagram for 5 minutes and that was my fasting I
understand in America today if you don't go on Facebook for a day that's
considered fasting but that is not biblical fasting biblical fasting is not
eating not not looking at Facebook same thing in here the biblical way of
honoring the Lord with your possessions is not that you honor God with your time
though that is good and important but Solomon is challenging us honor the Lord
with your possessions meaning your full-time job when you get paid the
first 10% and that's just the basic you can start with 20 but 10 is a good place
to start a lot of people talk about 10 in the Bible so 10 is a good place it's
a safe place to start and you can go always higher from there and then you
just put that first and you say God I honor you I don't do that to earn your
love I don't do that to go to heaven I do that because first of all I love you
and the Bible says if you do that that God will bring a blessing on your
finances and if you don't do that the Bible says you're robbing God now I used
to read and felt very uncomfortable and very uncomfortable telling to people
you're robbing God until I got the revelation you know how are you robbing
God when you don't honor God with the first you're not giving God an
opportunity to bless you pretty much you're saying to God I'm taking away
your opportunity to be involved in whatever I do and God says you just
robbed me from an opportunity so I want to challenge you I'm not here to encourage you I'm
here to challenge you to put God first and then here says this with the
firstfruits of all your increase now this is the part that got me I guess I
started with a little real estate investment at the age of 20 and so what
I got paid at my job I brought tithe faithfully to God but the things that I
was getting not a lot just few hundred bucks on the side from my real estate I
never tied out of that until I start having plumbing problems and then I felt
the Holy Spirit says with the firstfruits of all your increase I said
Lord you don't understand the rental property that's a different thing
it's kind of like my thing and God said oh then why are you keep praying
for it it's yours fix it I said well You don't understand God I want you to be
involved in it. He said oh so it's not your thing no more, He says don't just ask me
to fix it with the firstfruits of all your increases to honor me with it yes
it was only $20 but I said Lord with that I just honor you you're the lord of
my old beating up a rental property you're the Lord of it I'm not saying I
never had problems but I was no longer in charge my God was, Bible says to bring
your tithe to the store house of God that there will be bread in the house
sometimes I have a few people say things like Vlad the reason why I don't give to
my church is that my church is dead the reason why your church is
is because you don't give the Bible says there will be bread in the house you
know where there's no bread you don't bring the dough you know what your
pastor is slaving away from 9:00 to 5:00 fixing cars and doing other stuff either
ain't have time to pray and fast why cuz you don't bring the dough there is no
bread and you say my church is dead you didn't bring the dough the Bible says so
there will be bread in the house people say sometimes in my church I just I just
don't like my church you know what would happen if you would bring your treasure
you'll have your heart in your church I made a decision not only that I will tithe
to my church but I will also always pray for my pastor it's been a week now
I made a decision I will not pray for food until I first pray for my pastor my
pastor Vasily right here sitting we were today eating with John Ramirez and he
heard I pray for the pastor why because if you keep praying for your pastor and
if you can blessing your local church you know what God's going to do if God
don't revive the church he revives you and makes you a revival to your church so
it's not time to start giving to your favorite YouTube preacher bless your
church be a blessing to your local church stop criticizing your pastor pray
for your pastor stop attacking your pastor intercede for your pastor and for
you at hungry generation Amen now and then he said this the motive is to honor
God the reward is the following so your barns will be filled with plenty the
barn is the bank account the vets is your mind so God says your you be in
charge of your motives I'll be in charge of the reward a lot of times what we do
is we want to take care of the reward and we want God to do the motive problem
God says I want you to fix your motives I will take care of the reward what is
the reward God says your barns will be filled
meaning there will be enough for you for your family and somebody else to receive
a blessing from that yeah they might not receive a card they
might not receive a new house but somebody will receive a meal
somebody will receive a piece of clothing somebody will receive help and
what I love about this is that your vats will overflow with new wine when I was
younger and I was giving to the Lord and to the ministry I was always expecting
somebody will hand me a check see when you broke you're always
expecting checks from people because you broke here and then I started to
understand that poor people don't expect God to bless them by just giving them
hands out they're expecting God to bless them by filling their vets with with
ideas new wine aka ideas that means that God gives you an idea to write a
book God gives you an idea to write a music God gives you an idea to start a
business God gives you an idea God gives you not only he fills your barns he
fills your vets with new wine so don't don't see some of us we came out of a
ghetto but the ghetto hasn't came out of us
and we I know we me and my family we were on welfare I know what it's like
when we when we shopped you know at all those place and everything's nothing
wrong with that but thing is that when you grow out of that you cannot just
expect that when I give to God somebody will just come and toss me money it's
that God will give me ideas but see some ones don't like ideas because ideas make
you work ideas make you think ideas make you research ideas make you roll up your
sleeve and learn and your skill and your trade and we're like no I just want
somebody to pay my bills and God says I don't want to just fill your barns I
want to feel your vats cause some of us have barns filled but our vets are empty
this right here totally empty amen so just want to encourage you don't be
surprised if you surrounding God that God doesn't just hand your money my god
hands you ideas and if you lazy guess what you're gonna do with those ideas
you're gonna toss them to someone else you're not gonna take it and so I just
want to pray right now for us we're gonna receive an offering right now
we're gonna if you're part of our local church or if you don't go to a local
church this is your local church right now you can start tithing right now and
you don't have to pay back all the tithes that you didn't pay for the past few
years just for the past month and we can start right now there is
three ways to give one is you can fill an envelope that's in front of you
second way to give is you can go to Hungrygen.com if you're watching us
on livestream that's still a part like man I'm not really a part of that yes
you are and so that's you're part of us right
now and then there's a third way to give you can give by texting but my best way
to give there I've been practicing for the actually last few months there's an
app and you can see this app it's called Church Center everybody said Church
Center it looks just like that you can actually download it right now
then you'll type in your number I'll send you a little code you'll log in and
then you'll be able to actually see the record if you're giving you set it up
one time I give through this app all the time it's my best way it's fastest it's
safe you can see all of your information it's just between you and the Lord and
our treasurer and and and you can give through that I take this very seriously
some of you say oh it's it's a money thing I'm gonna tell you one thing this
its God's church not mine he's gonna take care of it my God wants to also take
care of you and I it's a privilege to give it's not a pressure it's not an
obligation we're not manipulated but we are
motivated amen whatever you came to give with today let's take it into our hands
I'm gonna pray for it I'm gonna pray for two things that God will give you a
heart to honor him and secondly I'm gonna pray that God will begin to fill
your barns any of that's in Jesus name take your offering into your hand if
you're giving through the phone ticket your phone let's begin to pray could you
pray with me right now I want to open up your mouth begin to pray for your bank
and begin to pray for your vets for your mindset begin to pray, right now God I
want to honor you God I'm not doing this because the preachers telling me Lord
I'm not doing this because I have to I get to Lord I'm not doing this under
compulsion or pressure I'm doing this because Lord I truly love you I honor
you and I ask you would you bless my barns right now god I ask you would you
bless my mindset right now God would you stretch my understanding God would you
help me to do my work differently and more effectively God would you give me
ideas that I did not have before Lord Lord I pray right now for the debt
that I have I pray right now for the loans that I have I pray for the medical
bills that I have I pray right now for a college debt that I have Lord God I
believe for Supernatural turnaround of finances Lord God I believe that you
will begin to bring supernatural debt cancellation Lord I believe
that you will begin to connect me with the right people you're gonna connect me
with the right projects you're gonna connect me with the right ideas Lord and
so that my vats will overflow my mind will be filled with fresh ideas God I
will be successful I will be fruitful I will be effective God but Lord I love
you it's a privilege to serve you Jesus I acknowledge my life is not my own
I don't just sing about it Lord I live it God you are the owner of everything
on earth and you own me and I belong to you I'm just the steward of everything
you've entrusted me in Jesus name I pray and everybody said amen amen