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00:00 The third chapter, 2 Timothy, the third chapter, verses 1 through 4.
00:22 But mark this, there will be terrible times in the last days.
00:29 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient
00:38 to their parents, ungrateful, unholy.
00:42 They'll be without love.
00:43 They'll be unforgiving.
00:45 They'll be ungrateful.
00:47 They'll be ungrateful, unholy.
00:52 They'll be without love.
00:53 They'll be unforgiving.
00:55 They'll be slanderous.
00:57 They will be absent of self-control.
01:00 You know it's the last days when people are brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash.
01:07 Here's the sign of the last days, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.
01:16 I want to preach, teach tonight.
01:18 I want to impart tonight.
01:20 I want to beckon you to take notes.
01:23 I want to teach really as a precursor to where we're going.
01:28 When extra becomes excessive.
01:33 When extra becomes excessive.
01:38 I want to deal with a theme that I'm not sure I have really grappled with since being here.
01:46 And the theme I want to deal with is the issue of greed.
01:51 It is one of those sins that almost seemingly doesn't impact other people as much as it impacts the perpetrator.
02:06 I want to ask you a critical question.
02:08 This is really going to jar your own imagination.
02:12 Murder you can understand.
02:14 Adultery you can understand.
02:16 Lying you can understand.
02:18 I've got to ask you a question that I have no scripture to back up.
02:22 But I want your own imagination to circle around it.
02:26 I wonder what God was looking at.
02:30 Stay with me.
02:31 What was God looking at when he decided gluttony was a sin?
02:41 What was the person doing that God made up in his mind?
02:47 The way they eating.
02:52 Their bowl, their head over their bowl of ice cream.
02:57 You eating again?
03:01 He would decide that gluttony is a sin.
03:09 Greed says a lot of things about what we don't recognize we are.
03:20 Just one more donut.
03:23 One more piece of pie.
03:26 One more pair of shoes.
03:29 One more car.
03:32 One more subscription.
03:36 What is our litmus test that I realized in four years of being here that I have preached on overflow and extra and increase.
03:49 And in four years I have never preached a sermon on contentment.
03:56 Where is this fleeting variable of contentment where I learn to be satisfied with what I have and extra is not necessary.
04:10 When greed is the issue that we all know but very few of us address.
04:19 Can you imagine that the rich young ruler was prepared to miss the kingdom over greed.
04:27 You can have the entire kingdom just sell everything you got.
04:32 And he said I'd rather have my stuff than have the kingdom.
04:38 I am amazed how greed is right in front of us.
04:43 Zara is an amazing department store that has no commercials.
04:49 No advertisements.
04:51 Last year they amassed 47 billion dollars in revenue.
04:56 47 billion dollars in revenue with no commercials.
05:00 And it just came out this week, y'all are not going to believe it, that the workers, the manufacturers who make the clothes from Zara are only being paid two dollars a day.
05:11 And so right now in South America they are protesting for a wage increase of nine dollars, I need y'all to hear this, a day.
05:22 They are fighting for nine dollars a day and the board of Zara said we will not go further than 2.9.
05:33 Can you imagine that right here in Atlanta that Delta has had the greatest surplus success in the last quarter than it had in the last three years because of COVID.
05:52 In the last quarter they have had unmatched success and just on Monday, yesterday, they announced at Delta they are going to start laying people off.
06:05 They are going to start laying people off.
06:07 Anybody who has been in the airport in the last 60 days knows there is a line everywhere.
06:12 There is no crisis, but while they are doing well, they are terminating people's livelihoods 60 days before Christmas.
06:21 It is a picture of greed.
06:27 I want you to consider something, I read something that I wanted you all to hear and to seep it in.
06:35 This is not one of those messages where I need you to turn to your neighbor, I need you to turn in to yourself.
06:40 A poll was given asking people what would you do if you are offered 10 million dollars.
06:50 If you are offered 10 million dollars, what would you do?
06:53 25% of those who are offered 10 million dollars, 25% said that they will abandon all friends.
07:01 Just blink at me twice.
07:06 Listen to me, 25% said they will cut off all of their friends for 10 million dollars.
07:13 23% said for 10 million dollars they are prepared to be a prostitute for a week.
07:25 For 10 million dollars, 16% said they would give up their citizenship.
07:32 For 10 million dollars, I need you to hear this with rapt attention, for 10 million dollars, 10% said they would be willing to withhold evidence so a murderer could go free.
07:46 For 10 million dollars, 7% said they were prepared to murder a stranger.
07:54 For 10 million dollars, here it is, Clutcher Pearls, 4% said that they would for 10 million dollars volunteer for a sex change operation.
08:07 For 10 million dollars.
08:11 It is, here it is, it is the thorn in the flesh of a culture that is consumer driven.
08:21 And the critical thing that I need us millennials, Gen Xers to be able to decipher, discern and separate, hear this, is the difference between greed and ambition.
08:38 The difference between greed and ambition.
08:42 Greed is considered a vice and ambition is considered an edge.
08:48 In this culture that we live in, greed is no longer looked at as sin.
08:54 It's no longer looked at as sin and so saints who don't tithe will go live from their closet.
09:02 Look at all of what I got while stealing from God.
09:08 Many people, here it is, have a co-mingled greed with ambition because they have reduced greed to money.
09:19 And don't realize that ambition is the collection of excessive affirmation.
09:26 I want all of this, not so that I can help people, but so that I can look better.
09:33 Can you imagine that God looks at greed, hear this, as a grievious sin.
09:44 Says, I look at your greed and I am grieved.
09:51 It's like somebody has died.
09:54 In the tradition of the black community, when somebody has died, who got the body?
10:00 So, he is grieving over our greed because he sees that there is a part of us that is dead.
10:11 We got two different examples that I really didn't look at until I was preparing to come to you tonight.
10:18 Two different examples is that people don't pull together.
10:23 And those two people I want to pull together, to wed together, to illuminate the example is Solomon, here it is, has never been paired with Job.
10:35 Solomon is the wealthiest man who has ever lived.
10:41 And at the end of his life, here, the declaration of Solomon, he says, with a trillion wives, with a trillion mansions, with a trillion servants, with a trillion dollars,
10:52 he says, all of it is vapor.
10:56 I'm prepared to give up all of it because I've had excess and I'm still unfulfilled.
11:02 Then you have Job. Job loses everything imaginable.
11:09 And at the end of the day, after he shaves his head and sits on an ash heap, he says, I'd rather have God than have any of this.
11:18 Watch this. And when he's lost everything, I need you to notice what shifts Job's predicament.
11:25 What shifts Job's predicament is when he starts praying for others, not when he's feeling bad about himself.
11:34 Now, where you got to give Job extra credit, he's praying for others who have not experienced his loss.
11:44 Because in this moment, I would assume that they would be coming to pray for me.
11:49 They are encouraging me to walk away from the faith when they've not experienced what I've had to deal with.
11:55 You've got to ask yourself, who am I prepared to release while I'm grieving over me?
12:07 Because I'm grieving over me and you're throwing dirt over my plot.
12:12 You know, laid a reef right where it is that I am when I need somebody to believe in the resurrection.
12:21 I don't want you to celebrate my death when life is still a possibility.
12:27 So tonight, what I want to give you, and I hope you'll you'll walk with me in it.
12:32 What I want to give you on tonight is three lessons on generosity.
12:42 Because it is my belief that God's remedy for greed is generosity.
12:51 God's remedy for greed is generosity. Greed is closed fist.
12:57 Generosity is an open hand. Greed is what do I want.
13:04 Generosity is what can I give. Greed hoards.
13:10 Generosity releases. Greed is self-centered.
13:16 Generosity is community-minded.
13:20 There are three lessons. The first one here, this is generosity.
13:26 Here this generosity is an attitude.
13:30 Generosity is an attitude.
13:34 My sixth grade teacher will put it this way.
13:36 Here's with Catherine Elizabeth Orange. That's my sixth grade English teacher.
13:40 She would say, your attitude dictates your altitude.
13:46 Your attitude dictates your altitude.
13:50 What you do on this level will dictate how far you go to the next level.
13:56 Your attitude dictates your altitude.
14:00 Thank you, Miss Orange. You thought I wasn't listening. That's why you called my mama.
14:04 All right. Generosity is in attitude.
14:08 I want you to write down 2 Corinthians 9 and 7.
14:12 2 Corinthians 9 and 7.
14:15 Every man according as he has purpose in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or out of necessity.
14:21 For God loves, here it is, a cheerful giver.
14:25 Because it is not just in my demonstration, it's about my feeling about the demonstration.
14:31 What's your attitude about giving?
14:35 I want you to do a survey of the people who you call, who you text, who you inbox, who you relate to.
14:41 And I dare you to define me. I have never found, I have never ever found a person who is a generous giver with a negative disposition.
14:56 A giver is upbeat when they should be downtrodden.
15:00 A giver is positive when they are facing a negative situation.
15:04 A giver is optimistic even when they are surrounded by pessimists.
15:08 A giver has faith, here it is, when other people are prepared to faint.
15:14 Your attitude comes out in your giving.
15:17 I can tell, here it is, what kind of giver you are by the attitude you have.
15:24 You can tell off the rip whether it's going to be a good meal or a bad meal by the spirit of that waitress.
15:32 You can tell when they're not glad to be there.
15:35 Have y'all decided yet?
15:41 Y'all need a few more minutes.
15:44 I'll just come back when y'all look like you're ready. Just signal for me.
15:48 They don't have the attitude of somebody who wants to give.
15:53 You didn't make them apply to that job.
15:56 You met them there.
15:59 What is your attitude about giving?
16:03 Here it is, I'm not just talking about church, I'm talking about what is your attitude about how you give to the people in your family?
16:12 What is the attitude that you have?
16:14 A story is told about Don Ho, went to, I'm calling him Fred, saying, that ain't who it is.
16:21 Red Fox is his name, I'm sorry.
16:24 Went to Red Fox and says, look, I'm getting ready to close on the house, I'm $5,000 short, can you loan me $5,000?
16:32 And Don Ho said to Fred Sanford, that ain't his name, Red Fox, I said, can you give me $5,000?
16:38 He called to his housekeeper and said, go upstairs to my desk and bring me my checkbook.
16:43 Wrote the check for $5,000, handed it over to Don Ho and said, this is not a loan.
16:50 Said, this is not a loan. I am only giving this to you.
16:54 I need you to hear this. I'm only giving this to you.
16:57 If you promise when you get on your feet that you do it for somebody else.
17:05 It's the attitude of giving.
17:08 That I'm not giving it to lord it over your face, over your head.
17:12 I'm not giving it to remind you and the flex what I did for you.
17:16 I'm giving because that's a part of who it is that I am.
17:20 And I get joy in giving.
17:23 I want you all to know, I want you all to know who has the best attitude at New Birth.
17:30 I done figured it out. I done figured it out.
17:33 I'm telling you, I found out who has the best attitude at New Birth.
17:38 Y'all ain't going to believe who it is.
17:40 The people with the best attitude at New Birth, y'all ain't going to believe it, are the volunteers.
17:47 For them to get up early in the morning and it is not connected to a paycheck, to a title or position.
17:55 And they are serving strangers who they never met before.
17:59 Y'all ain't saying nothing and their smile is effective and it is contagious.
18:05 Why? Because they found the joy of having the right attitude.
18:09 Now here's the catch, y'all ain't going to believe.
18:12 A lot of people who volunteer are in need.
18:17 But you can't tell that they are in need because of their attitude.
18:22 And therefore, you never see the righteous forsaken or their seed begging for bread.
18:30 Can you imagine how much God has to trust you when you are giving people, here's the catch,
18:37 when you are giving people what you need.
18:42 Some putting boxes in the cars of strangers.
18:46 Having faith that at the end of the line, God still got a box reserved for me.
18:52 God says because of your attitude, I can trust you with increase.
18:59 What is your attitude for giving?
19:03 Speaks to whether or not you have greed or whether you are too consumed with what's in it for you.
19:10 I read this quote that I want you to have. I read this quote.
19:14 I'm telling you, it's the best thing that I have read in the month of November.
19:17 And I'm six days in. It's the best quote I've read all day.
19:20 Here's what this philosopher said. He says, "I like doing business with God."
19:26 I like doing business with God. Watch this.
19:28 "Because he requires my whole heart, but only 10% of my income."
19:36 Did y'all hear what I just said?
19:38 He says, "I love doing business with God because he wants all of my heart, but only wants 10% of my money."
19:46 And the reality is it would be fair of him to ask for the reverse.
19:51 I want to give you the second one. I want to be a good steward of the time that you have loaned to me today.
19:56 The first one is generosity is a what?
19:59 Come on class, where are you?
20:02 Yeah, generosity is an attitude.
20:04 Number two, generosity is an action.
20:08 Generosity is an action.
20:14 Have you ever heard somebody say, "If God would just bless me with that kind of money."
20:23 Do you know what I would do with it?
20:27 And God is looking at you while you say it and is saying, "But I blessed you with your kind of money."
20:37 And I'm seeing what you're doing with it.
20:41 I'm going to New York tomorrow to speak at the UN and I had to do an interview earlier today.
20:47 And I said in no uncertain terms, "When people ask what they've been doing had they been alive in the hour of Dr. King,
20:58 they've been alive in the hour of C.T. Vivian, they were alive in the hour of Ralph David Abernathy,
21:04 what would they have been doing in the heart of the Civil Rights Movement?"
21:08 And my response immediately is, "Whatever you are doing now is what you would have been doing back then."
21:17 And God is looking at us at the same level at our economic stratum.
21:22 How can he trust you at a millionaire when he can't trust you at a thousandaire?
21:29 Here it is. Faithful over not many things.
21:34 Can you be faithful over a few things?
21:39 And everybody in here got basically just a few things.
21:44 What is the demonstration of your action?
21:47 Can I say this to you without you being offended and without you labeling me a heretic?
21:54 Would it have meant the same if God so loved the world?
22:00 And that's all.
22:05 What would be the impact in the import of that text?
22:08 If John 3, 16 just said, "For God so loved the world."
22:13 I need a "that."
22:18 Not just a "for."
22:21 Where after the declaration is the action.
22:27 And a lot of us have settled for the "for."
22:31 And we've never seen the "that."
22:34 If you are authentically, organically generous, here it is, then there has to be an action that supersedes your words.
22:45 Isn't it amazing that the people who are the loudest shouters are the smallest givers?
22:53 They do a whole lot of "for," but not much "that."
22:58 And you've got to figure out, "Am I a 'for' Christian or am I 'that' Christian?"
23:04 That I am prepared to do a demonstration or an action that matches my giving.
23:11 Number one, generosity is a what?
23:14 Come on, talk back to me class.
23:16 Generosity is a what?
23:18 Number two, generosity is a what?
23:21 And number three, just the one you're going to get excited about probably, is generosity, here this, is a harvest.
23:30 Generosity is a harvest.
23:36 I want you to jot down 2 Corinthians 9 and 6.
23:42 But this I say, "He who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly, and he that soweth bountifully shall also reap bountifully."
23:55 To him that sows little, they reap little.
23:59 Can you imagine that your harvest is the size of your action?
24:07 And your action is the size of your attitude.
24:13 It's not about who gave a million, who gave a hundred thousand.
24:17 What was your attitude in giving it?
24:21 What's the harvest that you see in coming behind it?
24:25 Something amazing is getting ready to happen in a way that you would never ever imagine.
24:33 My sister lives in LA, goes to a church out there, and her pastor retired a couple of weeks ago.
24:43 Pastor retired two weeks ago, and new pastor started Sunday.
24:49 And Tim said, "I got no idea who the new pastor is. I never met him."
24:54 With the old pastor, he always gave me opportunities, always opened doors, always let me flow on my gift,
25:01 always let me be myself, and I don't know where I'm going to stand with this new pastor, because I don't know him.
25:10 And Sunday was his first Sunday.
25:13 Says to Tim, "You ain't got to worry. I'm going to look out for you because 15 years ago, your brother changed my life."
25:23 Said, "15 years ago, I was the driver where your brother was preaching. He didn't know me.
25:33 I was a seminary student, and they assigned me to drive for him."
25:39 Says, "I'm driving him to the hotel, and I told him about this young lady who I fell in love with,
25:45 who I thought was absolutely amazing, that I wanted to spend my whole life with, and I'm broke.
25:52 And your brother pulled out the check the church gave him that night, turned it over, endorsed it over to me,
26:01 and from that, I bought the engagement ring."
26:05 Says, "That woman is now your first lady."
26:09 Y'all ain't saying nothing.
26:11 Said, "The seed your brother sowed is going to bring a harvest into you when you didn't even know me."
26:19 Y'all ain't saying nothing.
26:21 Sometimes you are sowing seeds that the harvest ain't even going to be your harvest.
26:28 It's going to be your child's harvest. It's going to be your sibling's harvest.
26:33 It's going to be your best friend's harvest.
26:35 Some of you think you are in a drought, and you don't even know you are preparing somebody else's harvest
26:42 by the seeds that you are sowing.
26:46 Are you prepared to curate and to cultivate somebody else's harvest, even if you don't eat from the crop?
26:57 Generosity is of such that I will bless him.
27:04 Hear this, not so he can bless me.
27:08 I'm blessing him because I enjoy being a blessing.
27:13 Your harvest is getting ready to come in ways that you never imagined.
27:20 When this harvest comes, you will not necessarily have to check your bank account.
27:26 We like doing that.
27:28 Your harvest will be when you go to your annual doctor's physical.
27:34 That they will find nothing.
27:37 Your harvest will be, I'm waiting on somebody, that your child is going to be able to get through that grade
27:44 even though they haven't turned in all the assignments.
27:47 Your harvest will be, you got no idea that there should be a crack in your ceiling,
27:53 but the Holy Spirit put a seal in it because he knows you can't afford to replace it.
27:59 Your harvest will be, after all of your trauma, you still have a reasonable portion of health and strength.
28:08 Your harvest will be that God will let you live long enough to see the people that did you dirty
28:15 have to need you to get back on their feet.
28:19 Your harvest will be seeing your family in the fear and in the admonition of the Holy Spirit,
28:26 speaking in tongues with signs and wonders and evidence that will follow.
28:33 When your harvest comes, you ain't got to go to Bank of America or Truist or Chase or Wells Fargo,
28:40 but I will look to the hills from which cometh my help.
28:45 My help is coming from the Lord.
28:51 Are you prepared for a harvest you did not expect, in a way you did not expect,
29:02 in a realm that you were not expecting?
29:06 This is the one and only time I'm going to have you looking at your neighbor.
29:09 Would you look at the person beside you and tell them, "All the people around me are going to be blessed from my harvest."
29:17 Come on, every person in my life is going to be blessed because of my harvest.
29:30 In your generosity, the test is to sow compassion, sow mercy, sow grace.
29:46 Here it is. You ain't going to believe it. You probably never heard it on this Wise.
29:50 Sometimes your seed is a listening ear.
29:58 Because there's going to come a day you're going to need somebody to talk to.
30:03 Generosity, hear this, is the key to your family's next dimension.
30:14 You have to learn some secrets that even at my age, at my place in life,
30:22 and even in my station of my vocation, that I still have to work through.
30:27 I want to give you, as I close, my time is quickly dwindling, is fighting against the spirit of greed.
30:36 You have to know how to manage your extra so it does not become excessive.
30:45 I want you to write it down. It's going to mess you up. Your parents never told it to you.
30:49 Mine never told it to me. Here it is. Learn the secret of admiring.
30:58 Fighting the spirit of greed means I can admire it without wanting to buy it.
31:09 You have to, watch this, it's still under number one, learn the secret of admiring only,
31:14 refusing goods that have the capacity to be gods.
31:21 You need it that bad? You can't stop thinking about it?
31:28 All you want is a red one? Cause you already got the blue one?
31:36 Learn the secret of admiring. Number two, this is a principle that I've practiced at least for the last 20 years,
31:44 is learn the secret of giving stuff away. Learn the secret of giving stuff away.
31:54 You don't know, I'm telling you, I'm being as transparent as possible,
31:59 we have reduced soul ties to sexual partners and have refused to see soul ties in the acquisition of things.
32:12 You don't know how bad you are connected to it until you've got to get rid of it.
32:20 And you can't fit it. Come on, you ain't worn it in two winter cycles.
32:29 Y'all ain't saying nothing. And it's still right there, and yet you're looking at it in the closet.
32:34 I need to get this thing away, but I just can't.
32:39 Come on, y'all done blacked out. You got clothes, I'm telling y'all, five of y'all getting ready to fall out right now.
32:45 You got clothes you don't have events for.
32:52 You ain't got nowhere to wear that to.
32:56 Come on, you ain't been to a ball since the prom. Stop it.
33:10 Learn this. Learn the secret of giving stuff away. Number three.
33:14 Watch this. Learn the secret of unauthorized giving.
33:25 If we live in a mobile and a technological society, why do you only give on Sunday?
33:32 You eat every day. He makes away every day.
33:38 But you got to wait until you get in the building.
33:43 You got to ask yourself, why is my giving only triggered by singing?
33:51 Why is my giving watch this only released based off of preaching?
33:57 I got to show you this in maturity, how we got to mature as a church.
34:01 The two lowest giving Sundays this year, the two lowest giving Sundays this year with the only two Sundays this year.
34:09 I didn't preach. So I had to go into repentance.
34:16 Here it is how to go into repentance, because I wanted to make sure as pastor, the giving was not connected to me.
34:26 Yeah, because if the giving and the stewardship is connected to me and not connected to him, then I have curated sanctified idolatry.
34:38 The only way I can get the blessing, I got to get it through the pastor. If the pastor ain't here, then my money ain't here.
34:46 Yeah, because I serve an omnipresent God. It don't matter who's standing behind this desk.
34:52 Here it is, because if that is the case, then my giving is performative.
35:01 Dick Gregory came to my church in Baltimore when I first started out. Dick Gregory came to my church in Baltimore and he said to my church, it messed me up.
35:11 He says, I've been doing Hollywood entertainment for 50 years and church is the only place in the world that you pay for the entertainment at the end.
35:28 You go to a concert, you go to a movie, y'all ain't saying nothing. You paying before you ever walk in.
35:34 And you don't get to get your money back if the concert ain't good.
35:39 Church, we have operated in a performative nature that says I'm going to give based off of the performance.
35:47 And if I don't like the performance, they didn't sing my song.
35:52 They too loud. They did too much yelling for me. I can't take all these flashing lights.
36:00 It doesn't go to Hollywood. Your seed should have been prepared before you ever walked in.
36:06 So we were singing a cappella. You still should have been given because you're giving is not predicated on the worship.
36:14 It is predicated off of what was your experience with God before you ever got there.
36:20 Number three. Number four, realize I want you to change the font.
36:25 Those of you who are typing, change the font. This is going to heal you from greed so fast.
36:31 I'm telling you, it's going to heal you from greed so fast. It's going to heal you from greed so fast.
36:36 I want you to think about what's going to happen to your stuff after you die.
36:44 Your kids don't even want it. They're going to put it in a moldy basement downstairs.
36:52 Y'all ain't saying nothing to me. And then they're going to fight over it to prove Mama loved me more.
36:57 And none of them wearing that mink stole. Y'all ain't saying nothing. None of them want that purse.
37:03 And half of it is going to the pawn shop. You can't take any of it with you.
37:09 If you were to have to leave in this moment, what would you have to take with you?
37:15 Ladies and gentlemen, I got to say this to you. Ten thousand people have died in Palestine.
37:27 Listen to me very carefully. Ten thousand people, that's not on the news, have died in the Sudan.
37:36 I want to just leave this right here. I don't even know the millions who are displaced.
37:44 Thinking about food, thinking about water, thinking about the loss of family.
37:50 But I would dare to reckon with you tonight that not one of those ten thousand families
37:56 who had to flee at missiles crashing in, bombs being detonated, not one of them right now, tonight,
38:04 is thinking, "I wish I would have brought that bag with me. I wish I could have gone back and grabbed that dress.
38:13 Lord, they done ruined my shoes." They ain't thinking about none of that.
38:18 Jesus says, "I came that you might have life." I want you to get the catch.
38:24 And here's the excess. And life more abundantly. Not a closet that is abundant.
38:33 Not a shoe collection that is abundant. Your life is supposed to have abundance.
38:39 When you have the abundant life, you're mindful that I have more blessings than I can shake a stick at.
38:48 I'm telling you, when I'm talking about He's done exceedingly, abundantly, beyond what I can think, what I can dream, what I can imagine.
38:59 I ain't talking about my stuff. I'm talking about the fact I'm still here.
39:06 After all that I've been through. Because you got, some of you have underestimated some people who are broke but got an abundant life.
39:16 They not living in a mansion, but they got an abundant life. They don't drive a German car, but they got an abundant life.
39:24 How do you say that, Pastor? Because this joy that I have, the world didn't give it to me.
39:32 And the world can't take it away.
39:36 I'm going to pray for you tonight. I want you to lift up that hand. I want to pray.
39:42 I want to say it another way. I want to pray for us tonight.
39:50 I'm in this number. I need God to do the same thing for me that I'm asking Him to do for y'all.
39:58 I'm telling you, it's a terrible thing when you're donating stuff to goodwill and don't miss it.
40:07 You don't even know that it's gone. You got so much excess.
40:12 So much excess, you forgot you loaned her the purse.
40:18 They bring it back to you, "Oh yeah, I forgot you got that."
40:23 I want you to lift up that hand. I'm praying that God collectively
40:29 deliver us from the spirit of greed and infuse us with the spirit of generosity.
40:37 God loves a cheerful giver. And the kind of giving that he's expecting of us doesn't always fit in an envelope.
40:45 You can't process through give-lify. It's not on text to give.
40:49 It's my attitude that I'm always looking for somebody to bless.
40:56 I'm always looking for somebody to extend a helping hand to.
41:00 And I'm not looking for the credit for it because it's what I naturally do.
41:05 That hand is lifted. I'm praying.
41:08 Michael Nelson is his name. I worked with him years ago at the NAACP.
41:11 We walked down the street at a NAACP convention.
41:15 A man was homeless, was begging us for money. I kept walking.
41:19 And he stopped and gave him a $20 bill.
41:22 I said, "Man, you know how many homeless people we're going to pass trying to get here?"
41:27 He says, "I know, but I just don't know if I may ever be one of them homeless people."
41:36 I want to make sure that I treat people how I want to be treated.
41:44 It triggered in me a spirit of generosity.
41:47 Isn't it amazing how we become irritated by people who are in need?
41:53 It upsets us.
41:56 Their brokenness is an offense to your bourgeois status.
42:02 You're going to ask me for something?
42:06 And you've never taken it as a compliment that they saw something in you
42:11 that made them feel like you were a giver.
42:14 Have you ever considered, y'all ain't going to believe it,
42:17 have you ever considered whoever asked you for something, I didn't say they deserved it,
42:22 I'm not even telling you that you've got to do it.
42:24 Can you imagine whoever asked you for something saw you as the embodiment of God?
42:33 Y'all missed what I just said.
42:36 If y'all heard it, y'all be shouting louder than that.
42:38 I'm telling you that whoever is asking you, sees something about God in you.
42:45 Because you only ask God for what you need.
42:49 They believe that you are God in the flesh as his representation in the earth.
42:56 I want that hand lifted. I want to pray for you so badly.
43:00 God, I'm praying that you will unleash in new birth a spirit of generosity.
43:09 That we will be so impacted by your goodness that we can't wait on a time to give.
43:18 Because nowhere on the program is there a time to clap.
43:24 We just do it whenever it is that we feel it.
43:27 God, before we get to church on Sunday, show us somebody we can bless.
43:33 Show us somebody who we can impact.
43:36 Show us somebody whose life we can improve.
43:39 God, for no reason at all, put us in a position to buy somebody lunch.
43:45 For no reason at all, God help us to leave a tip for somebody who had a bad attitude.
43:52 For no reason at all, God make us the kinsmen redeemer for the family.
43:57 So that if anybody in the family is in crisis, I am a trusted resource.
44:03 That they know they can come to me without being badgered and butchered.
44:08 Thank you dear Lord for how you lavishly love on us.
44:12 And have modeled and demonstrated for us what generosity is supposed to look like.
44:17 That generosity is the prescription for greed.
44:22 God give us our shot. In Jesus name, Amen.
44:27 Come on clap your hands if you are thankful.
44:31 (Applause)
44:34 (Music)
44:36 [BLANK_AUDIO]