[SPEAKER_01]: Greetings.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is Dr. Darrell Hall, and welcome to the Wake Community Church podcast.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for joining us today.
[SPEAKER_01]: I hope that today is a message encourages your heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're still in our finance series.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're calling it trust issues.
[SPEAKER_01]: And today we are talking about a hot topic.
[SPEAKER_01]: in the church and in the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're talking about tithing and giving and generosity.
[SPEAKER_01]: My hope is today that you can have an open heart and you can enjoy God's word, learn, something, but also be challenged and your perspective of what it means to give to a church.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can follow along the notes in the transcript of this podcast or on the Bible app.
[SPEAKER_01]: Grab your Bibles.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's study guys work together.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we're going to be in second Corinthians chapter eight verse seven through nine is what we're going to start and I want to continue our trust issue series What the Bible did say about money particularly when it comes to tithing and giving.
[SPEAKER_01]: Second Corinthians eight verse seven through nine the word of the Lord says in the New American Standard Bible But since you excel in everything
[SPEAKER_01]: in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness, and in the love we have kindled in you, see that you also excel in this watcher's grace of giving.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hear his tone, I am not commanding you.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I want to test a sincerity of your love by comparing you with the earnestness of others.
[SPEAKER_01]: For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich, saying passage in the message Bible.
[SPEAKER_01]: It says, you do so well in so many things.
[SPEAKER_01]: You what church, trust God, you articulate, you're insightful, you're passionate, you love us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, do your best in this giving too.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not trying to order you against your will.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to hear me, I'm gonna talk about giving, but I'm not trying to order you against your will.
[SPEAKER_01]: but by bringing in the Macedonians and those he has them as a stimulus to your love, I'm hoping to bring the best out of you.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're familiar with the generosity of our Master Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Rich is he was, he gave it all away for us, and one stroke, he became poor, and we became rich.
[SPEAKER_01]: And one of the darkest seasons of my life,
[SPEAKER_01]: God used giving to ground me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all, I felt lost, I was overwhelmed, stressed out, and I talked often about this season, because I'm just so grateful, not just that I survived it, but all the fruit that's come from it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was 2019, I was stressed out, finishing my doctorate degree, mentally exhausted.
[SPEAKER_01]: I went straight from my second master's degree into my doctorate.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I was in school for seven straight years.
[SPEAKER_01]: reading, writing, you know what I mean, working full of time and all those things.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it got to the point of 2019 where I started to go see my counselor, multiple times in a month, just to cope with the anxiety and stress I was feeling.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that was all before the pandemic hit.
[SPEAKER_01]: When the pandemic hit, it was just like another wave on top of the things I was already kind of fighting against.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, and I was struggling.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a dark season.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wanted to quit ministry.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wanted to quit preacher.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wanted to move out of the state of Georgia and go somewhere else where people didn't know me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just was just on the edge.
[SPEAKER_01]: And God grounded me through giving.
[SPEAKER_01]: What I discovered is in my lack.
[SPEAKER_01]: God's grace always gave me a little extra to give to somebody else.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when I became willing to give, that crowned witness helped me refine my purpose in God.
[SPEAKER_01]: God reminded me in that season that he didn't create me to do or to take.
[SPEAKER_01]: He created me to be and to give.
[SPEAKER_01]: I had always said because I grew up in the boys and girls club that went in one day, I'ma go back and start the boys and girls club.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I thought that that one day was gonna be when I was rich.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm not rich.
[SPEAKER_01]: And during the pandemic, the law was like, no, you can go back and start the club now.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I joined the board at the club, which is a volunteer board for fundraising.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I learned, I ain't gotta be rich to serve.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just gotta get them $500 in my personal money.
[SPEAKER_01]: Plus I gotta help them raise a couple thousand dollars a year.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then on top of that, we started this thing at an ADBC called Reach 100, where me and some other millennial leaders were serving with partners in the community.
[SPEAKER_01]: Two of those millennial leaders then still lead here with us now.
[SPEAKER_01]: One is Allison Parker, who is my assistant and so many other things.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the other one is Keith Kendrick and I saw Keith, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Wait a minute, Keith.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's Keith.
[SPEAKER_01]: We all started to work together in that environment.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not knowing bro, the fruit that would come from it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And all these years later, he's our wayfinder's leader here, and I'm the pass of the way community church, none of which existed at the time of this low point.
[SPEAKER_01]: and we would go and serve in the community with community partners doing anything we could to not just invest money, but time and love into their missions.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I will come here on the weekends and even though we weren't worshiping on Sundays during that time, we were open on Saturdays giving out food every weekend.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I will come join in and people like Jackie Floyd and Greg Bauer was in so many other
[SPEAKER_01]: Here every week serving in community in the past and out food and I realized God used giving to ground me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was in a scary place.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wasn't trusting God.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was mad at God.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wanted to quit my call and it wasn't preaching that brought me back.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was giving that brought me back to God.
[SPEAKER_01]: I gave my way back into trusting God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of us need to trust our way.
[SPEAKER_01]: into giving to God.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you've ever told yourself that I'm a give more when I have more, you miss what given is all about.
[SPEAKER_01]: Giving is not a matter of circumstance.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a choice you make for the type of person you want to be.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a perspective you adopt when you decide I'm a give because I've already received.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not circumstantial, because we know people who've got a whole bunch and give a whole little, I get you to say it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then we know people who seem to have little by way of the world's riches, and always have a little extra for somebody else.
[SPEAKER_01]: So for some of us, we'll give our way in the trust and God like our defaults of us we gotta trust our way in the giving back to God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Cause here's the reality, what we do with our money is really about trust.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've been talking about it for a month now and our goal has been to increase trust to number one increase our trust and God.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you come away from this series and I've been talking about money for two months and the only difference in your life is you trust God and more, then we've accomplished what we set out to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to trust God more and I'm saying this as a person who myself needs to grow in my trust and God, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: A golden in series is increased, I'll trust and God, but it also increased, I'll trust in our sales.
[SPEAKER_01]: The reason we've been selling these tools back into the congregation, the notes that are on your lap, the books that we're giving away, the resources on our resource page.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's because we can receive money in our life, but if I don't believe I'm capable of managing it right, I'm a always sabotage, whatever I get no matter how big the chain.
[SPEAKER_01]: If nobody taught me how to manage money, nobody taught me what money is really about, nobody taught me how to use it, it's not about getting it, I don't believe I know what to do when I got it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And because I don't trust myself with money, I am going to sabotage it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And money, as soon as it comes in my life, is going to lead my life.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then last of all, we want to increase your trust in this church, which is the whole spirit behind our transparency on last week.
[SPEAKER_01]: and thank God that we were able to share in that sacred space.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we've been having this conversation for a month.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've been talking about stuff like the Bible did say about money and what the Bible did not say about money.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the day we want to continue that of what the Bible did say about money when it comes to giving.
[SPEAKER_01]: And y'all, I'm grateful that this series is blessing people because I've never preached about money.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been preached for 20 years.
[SPEAKER_01]: Money is always a subject I was iffy on for whatever reason.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just never want people to feel like I was, you know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, after they money.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm from Atlanta where people jue.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm used to people jue again, you know what I'm saying?
[SPEAKER_01]: And what I learned in the hood back in the day is whenever somebody talking too fast, believe nothing they're saying.
[SPEAKER_01]: Especially if it's about some money.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm slowing down through this series.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I don't want to be up here like, yeah, real quick, get your vibe real quick.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't talk to you about that bread real quick.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, turn it, yeah, you know what it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you see that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, look up here, look over here, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll get that off for it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right now, bro.
[SPEAKER_01]: You juggin' real.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm telling you, if you're from the hood, I just taught you a common sense lesson.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't let nobody get up on you talking real fast.
[SPEAKER_01]: The first thing you need to do is back up.
[SPEAKER_01]: The second thing you need to do is make them slow down.
[SPEAKER_01]: because they juggled you, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So I wanted to take my time through this, glad to see that people are being blessed by it.
[SPEAKER_01]: We sent out a text from this week, and the question was, what's one thing you've given up?
[SPEAKER_01]: And here are some of the responses.
[SPEAKER_01]: Over six people say they gave up shopping, over five responses, they gave up eating out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's one, somebody straight up said, Amazon purchases.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amazon purchases, we gave up the Amazon purchases.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we give God praise for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just based on it's got enough of your money.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, somebody else said they gave up golf.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was me who said that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Me and Dicking up, not filled by me and Dicking a clinic, but it's in all week doing this fast.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we are already planning for Friday.
[SPEAKER_01]: If the Lewis says the same, sir, I will see you on the tee.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody else said I gave up coffee.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've made it at home every morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you drink coffee out every day, you probably is spending for real life $50 to $60 on coffee per week.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I end up in your business.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just saying,
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, somebody else said I only ate out on Monday because I was traveling for work, making a conscious decision, not to eat out, open my eyes, to how much we do.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're always in the car, on the go.
[SPEAKER_01]: But like my mama used to say, we got what you're all food.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, man, somebody else said I gave up, getting more Christmas decorations.
[SPEAKER_01]: and my heart hurts.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going to lie.
[SPEAKER_01]: My eyes got misty.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is that burning?
[SPEAKER_01]: Money was at you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Marquita, burning.
[SPEAKER_01]: My eyes got misty.
[SPEAKER_01]: Notice they didn't say I gave up getting Christmas decorations.
[SPEAKER_01]: They said I gave up getting more.
[SPEAKER_01]: This person probably got full Christmas trees already.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then they didn't even think it's good, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody else said they gave up unnecessary shopping.
[SPEAKER_01]: Also added eight hours of volunteering to my own team.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now that's how you fast.
[SPEAKER_01]: When I realize that I'm giving up something, I don't really need, I can feel that space by meeting somebody else's knee and it revolutionizes the way I see myself in the flow of resources in the earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, so our goal today is to increase our trust in God, particularly when it comes to giving.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I wanna say this from the outset, the whole purpose of this sermon is to help us be more yielded, more willing and more open.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because if I'm not yielded, willing, and open, it's probably because I'm struggling to trust.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to think about what I'm saying.
[SPEAKER_01]: In any relational dynamic, if you don't trust somebody, you're not gonna be yielded to them.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're not gonna be willing, and you're not gonna be open towards them.
[SPEAKER_01]: So when it comes to our relationship, the God, the true test of our trust is am I yielded to God, am I willing?
[SPEAKER_01]: to do what God asks me to do, and in my open, not just the God, but to others because of God's grace through me.
[SPEAKER_01]: So here's the first song, number one.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to read this with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, I'm gonna read it to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tied thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Number one, Titan is really about yieldedness, not membership.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's read that ago on count of three.
[SPEAKER_01]: One, two, three.
[SPEAKER_01]: Titan is really about yieldedness, not membership.
[SPEAKER_01]: What you mean, Rand?
[SPEAKER_01]: I just told you all, I'm a golfer, but I'm not a member yet of a golf club.
[SPEAKER_01]: I paid in place, so that means I go to public courses.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I've seen some of these golf clubs, and people who are members, they got privileges.
[SPEAKER_01]: They can pick whenever they want to play, which is called a tea time.
[SPEAKER_01]: They got lockers with their names on it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because membership has his privileges.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's true in any scenario where you remember.
[SPEAKER_01]: We got ladies here this morning who are members of a life group.
[SPEAKER_01]: We got brothers here today who are members of a fraternity.
[SPEAKER_01]: Membership has his privileges.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the same is true here to church.
[SPEAKER_01]: Membership has his privileges.
[SPEAKER_01]: However, church leaders do a disservice
[SPEAKER_01]: when we make people focus on membership over discipleship.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the subtle saying in that is, if I can make you focus on membership, tiling becomes your way to pay, to play.
[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all pick up an order and put it down?
[SPEAKER_01]: If I make membership the goal, tiling is how you gain status in membership.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because if I'm on part of a golf club, I got our pay to play, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Anything we members of, we give to be a part of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, if membership is the goal of church and not discipleship, you can have the subtle temptation of thing, the more I give, the more of a member privileges I get to benefit from.
[SPEAKER_01]: And here's a reality here.
[SPEAKER_01]: The way community church we move, the finish line.
[SPEAKER_01]: The finish line at the way is not.
[SPEAKER_01]: Membership.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think you should be a part of a healthy church.
[SPEAKER_01]: If that's this church, pray is the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you know that it's a church you should be a part of if discipleship is the goal.
[SPEAKER_01]: Meaning, our bias is not to make you a member.
[SPEAKER_01]: My bias is to help you grow to become a learner of Christ who can show other people how to live like Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: If membership is the bar, tithing becomes manipulation both ways.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, now, I don't think Thailand is wrong.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think it's simple.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just think a lot of us are turned out turned off from it because of how it has been portrayed to us as a necessary part of membership.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, how many people by a show of hands?
[SPEAKER_01]: Also in the chat, drop a, put a raise hand in the chat.
[SPEAKER_01]: Have you ever been turned off in a church by the conversation with Thai thing?
[SPEAKER_01]: Thailand, boom, all right, you not the only one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why is that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is it because tithing is bad?
[SPEAKER_01]: No, it's because the people talking about tithing have lowered the standard so that membership and tithing becomes all we hear to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I'm tempted to either tithe my way into more favor with the leaders or don't tithe and say it's because they're still in any way.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we do a disservice when we make tithing and membership to go.
[SPEAKER_01]: The question is, why do we do that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody asked me why.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's a real reason I think, why?
[SPEAKER_01]: I think because if you can make people members who tithe, that's a solid business structure.
[SPEAKER_01]: Can I be honest with you?
[SPEAKER_01]: People who make membership and tithing your whole goal, all they're trying to do is raise the bottom line.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I know I got 500 members and I don't average my members make this amount of money and I can lean on them that tiny thing is they responsibility and tiny thing is to go what I'm really trying to do is just raise the bottom line.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a solid business model.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's not meant to be manipulated as the end all be all for being a part of a church.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's meant to be a byproduct of the main thing, which has become a more like who God made me to be and being equipped to help other people do the same.
[SPEAKER_01]: Which I mean, Ralph, tithing those been made religious that in start with religion.
[SPEAKER_01]: Giving is not a religious concept.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just been you religiously to put people in bondage.
[SPEAKER_01]: So let's be free.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's look at the first time my offering is given in scripture.
[SPEAKER_01]: The first time my offering is ever given in scripture.
[SPEAKER_01]: It had none to do with religion.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, we in Genesis chapter number four, and in Genesis four, verse two through five, it says now Abel kept flocks and came work the soil.
[SPEAKER_01]: In the course of time, came brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord and Abel also brought an offering.
[SPEAKER_01]: Fat portions from some of the wet church, first bone of his flock.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you see that?
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Canaan's and his offering, he did not look with favor.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Canaan was angry, and his face was downcast.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the story of Canaan Abel.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you've ever heard the story about Canaan killing Abel, this brother killing his little brother, and you have a wonder, why would he quit?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why would he commit?
[SPEAKER_01]: Frature side, I think it is, why would he kill his own brother?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's because he was jealous that God accepted his offering and didn't accept his, which shows us that giving is not about religion.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's about the openness or closeness of our heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was easy for him to kill his brother because he was already close hard in any way.
[SPEAKER_01]: His offering reflected it.
[SPEAKER_01]: He brought the Lord
[SPEAKER_01]: through there's a difference.
[SPEAKER_01]: He prioritized God, and it was in the Bible, no priest, no temple, no church, no praise thing, no music, that which is out in nature worshiping God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because giving is not about religion.
[SPEAKER_01]: Neither is Ty thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: The first time I'm worth Ty thing is mentioned in the Bible as a few chapters later, in Genesis 14 verse number 20.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, praise be to God most high, who deliver Joe enemies into your hand.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then Abram gave him watcherch a 10th of everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: That were a 10th, just means tithe.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tithe means a 10th.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's happening here is, Abram has just had all his fortunes restored through some kings who came and stole his wealth and the people with him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then he was able to go back and recover it and have victory.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then this priest named Melchizedek came and he blessed Abram.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, God bless you.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are favored by God most high.
[SPEAKER_01]: Abram was so grateful to be blessed that he decided to just give 10% of everything he got back.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's no Bible, it's no choir, it's no church, it's no temple.
[SPEAKER_01]: He gave 10% out of gratitude for victory, God, just gave him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nobody made him do it, nobody took up an offering.
[SPEAKER_01]: He just wanted to give this title.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that word, type again, means 10th.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what we learned in scripture is we honor God with our title because it is the first 10th of our income.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's not just 10% it's the first 10.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the first thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tight this nut, do your budget, spend 40%, spend 75% You know what I'm saying?
[SPEAKER_01]: I have 30% left and say, God, here you go.
[SPEAKER_01]: You welcome.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tight this, here's gonna my first thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, here's the first thing I'm gonna give it to you and then I'm gonna manage what's left for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Giving God our first and our best is really what Tyden is about.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not about church membership.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not about religion or fear mungering.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's an ethic to give God our best.
[SPEAKER_01]: And to say, Lord, you are worth the very best I have to give.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in my money, this is how I expressed it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I know Tyden get a bad round.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm not trying to coerce you or force you to do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just trying to explain it to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: But when Jesus talked about tithing, his issue wasn't even tithing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus' issue was religiosity.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus was mad about religion.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not about tithing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at what he said in Matthew chapter 23, verse number 23.
[SPEAKER_01]: This Jesus talked about.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, world to you teaches all the long, Pharisees, you watch all hypocrites.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why some of us don't talk, because the church full of hypocrites, because the pastor, just a,
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of us feel that way and I won't blame you because you might be right about some pastas.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus said, y'all, him agrees.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, you give a tent of your spices.
[SPEAKER_01]: men dealing cumin, but you have neglected more important matters of the law.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like what you're all justice, mercy, and faithfulness.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, you should have practiced the latter without neglecting the form.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, you're all problem is you think, just because you titheers, you can treat people in any kind of way.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tithe and even really the most important thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Keep your tithe and treat people right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Keep your 10% and be just.
[SPEAKER_01]: Be merciful, have a heart towards people that I have.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because if you think you can have a dirty heart and you can come give me a tighten by me off, you miss the fact that I ain't need your money anyway.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am God, and if I was hungry, I wouldn't tell you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus issue one tighten, his issue was religion.
[SPEAKER_01]: And religion makes you think, cause I pay my Todd, I can do anything I want.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I came bargain with God.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not typing enough to pay for my sins.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord willing me to have justice in my heart and mercy in my heart and faithfulness and how I want to treat people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now just give a tithe because I'm a teacher all the law, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So you don't have to tithe, but if you do, there is a blessing and scripture only for tithers.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, and that blessing is this.
[SPEAKER_01]: God will rebuke the devourer.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a blessing, only for time.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here what I'm saying.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I need you to hear me.
[SPEAKER_01]: My salary is based on what you give.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you don't have to tie it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do not tie it.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you ain't been tied in this whole time, have you noticed the Lord ain't let me miss a meal?
[SPEAKER_01]: I got all the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
[SPEAKER_01]: My heart could desire.
[SPEAKER_01]: All the PBNJ is I won't, the Lord been provided.
[SPEAKER_01]: This won't have to manipulate you just because I'm your pastor.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord is my provider, not this church.
[SPEAKER_01]: I believe that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So no time, if you don't feel comfortable, tie that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But there's a blessing for those who do, God will review the devourer for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what that means?
[SPEAKER_01]: They don't mean you're back whenever being against the wall.
[SPEAKER_01]: They don't mean you won't ever have some tight days.
[SPEAKER_01]: What that means is God won't let you completely not have what you need.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he will rebuke the devourer.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to some family, drought, recession, snap benefits being taken away.
[SPEAKER_01]: He'll show you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I ain't gonna let everything you need be taken away.
[SPEAKER_01]: Could you trust me?
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, and I'm gonna live in testimony.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a living testimony, ain't talking about Tyler because I'm a preacher, y'all I've been Tyler since I was 15.
[SPEAKER_01]: I only been a pastor for three years.
[SPEAKER_01]: I started Tyler in 15 because my grandma taught me Tyler.
[SPEAKER_01]: So when I was a current grad, $50, I'm giving the lawyer $5.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm a living testimony that when the developer comes to your house,
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're a Tyler, the Lord will block the devourer for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all, I cannot even explain to you some of the stuff God has done for me for every fire life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's all I'm gonna say to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: My mama told me, if you're 10, there you gotta go to school.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't have a choice, but don't have the money to send you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I got four earned degrees, and I took out student loans once a semester out of 13 years.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't even know how.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know how for real.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I've been tired since I was 15.
[SPEAKER_01]: Stop the Lord, I can't even explain to you how the Lord has done things for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: But here I am as a living testimony that I put God first in my finances and it always seemed to work out for you, boy.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is the blessing he gives to tithers.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at what Malikon chapter 3 verse 8 through 12 says, it says, it's will a mere mortal rob God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you are all me.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you ask how we robbing you and tithes and offerings.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're under a curse.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're a whole nation because you rob me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Bring the whole tith into the storehouse that'll be food in my house.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at what God says.
[SPEAKER_01]: Test me in this.
[SPEAKER_01]: God says, I double-door dare you to double-door dare me.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're on trust me?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's far, test me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because it's hard to trust what you cannot test.
[SPEAKER_01]: And truth has no fear of investigation.
[SPEAKER_01]: God says, I ain't gonna need to say trust me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna say, test me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Test me in this.
[SPEAKER_01]: And see, if you don't put me first, if I'm open up heaven, give you blessings you can't receive if I don't review the deviler for your sake.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll do it for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, the context this is in is people who have crops growing in the field, and God is essentially saying, I'm going to be your pesticides.
[SPEAKER_01]: When your crop is out there in the field, and you can keep bugs from eating it, I'm going to keep the bugs from eating it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to tell them to go to the field next to your field.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you're going to come outside and look at the field next to your field, and you're going to see the virus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then you're going to look at your field, and you're going to see fruit.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you're going to know the only way I made it through is because God must have stopped in and protected me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have no other reason, all right?
[SPEAKER_01]: But tiredness about your goodness is not about membership.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I'm not you, did the God, I'm not gonna be in the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Number two, giving is really about willingness, not math.
[SPEAKER_01]: Giving is not about math.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's about willingness.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why second Corinthians eight, twelve says for if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable.
[SPEAKER_01]: according to what you have, not according to what you don't have.
[SPEAKER_01]: God not mad at what you don't have.
[SPEAKER_01]: God is looking at what you do, but if you willing, that's when the gift counts.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Second correctly, it's not six to seven.
[SPEAKER_01]: It says, remember this.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you so sparyly, you're gonna re-spary me.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you so generously, you're gonna re-generously.
[SPEAKER_01]: Each of you should give what you have what church decided in your heart to give.
[SPEAKER_01]: not reluctantly under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver.
[SPEAKER_01]: What does that saying?
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's what it's saying.
[SPEAKER_01]: Will and this mean is I'm ready to do what I'm happy to do and I don't want to do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Bible said, it ain't about how much you got to give.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's about if you want to give.
[SPEAKER_01]: Cause if you don't want to give, keep it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't give reluctantly.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what reluctantly is?
[SPEAKER_01]: You agree.
[SPEAKER_01]: You agree even as you give.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, rev you all away, begging.
[SPEAKER_01]: Stayed begging.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hill.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of us didn't gain money in the church like they're having.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, take this tank in $20.
[SPEAKER_01]: Always be.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord says, if you're gonna give it like that, if it creeps you to give, just keep it.
[SPEAKER_01]: and God not trying to be rude and neither am I because I know the pain of being forced to give something I didn't want to give.
[SPEAKER_01]: You ever had something forced out of your hand that you did not want to give away?
[SPEAKER_01]: You can feel like you're you know, you're free them being violated.
[SPEAKER_01]: And God will not violate your free will.
[SPEAKER_01]: The first gift God gave is free will.
[SPEAKER_01]: And our major key is this, willingness is a function of God's irrevocable gift to humankind.
[SPEAKER_01]: Say it with me, church, free will.
[SPEAKER_01]: God gave you free will, and God is not gonna violate your free will.
[SPEAKER_01]: Neither will God lead people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: A Godly leader won't violate your free will because God won't violate your free will.
[SPEAKER_01]: God will not make you do something you don't want to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: God may lead you, challenge you, convict you, but God not going force you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all picking on him, putting down?
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you've ever been to a church and you felt coerced, you felt fear-mongering, you felt, you felt, you know what I'm saying?
[SPEAKER_01]: Forcefulness control, that was not the spirit of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: When I raise money in this church, I'm not gonna control you, I'm not gonna force you, I'm not gonna coerce you and I'm not gonna use fear.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not gonna violate your free will, I'm not commanding you to do nothing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just want you to grow in this grace like the other graces that I want you to grow in.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as you grow in this grace, you'll give out of the grace you receive.
[SPEAKER_01]: You won't even need me to call you fear to do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think sometimes in the American church, we don't really know what a Nointing is.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we think the men or somebody is the more annoying today are.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I'm saying?
[SPEAKER_01]: You want them good, mean preachers, come take a ball off, go to sin right now, give it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You like, woohoo, woohoo, woohoo, woohoo, that's a Nointing.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not Noah, Noah, it's a... That's forceful.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I'm saying?
[SPEAKER_00]: Right now, God commands!
[SPEAKER_00]: The next 40 people who give $40 right now!
[SPEAKER_00]: Whoa!
[SPEAKER_01]: Thinking they so annoyed me.
[SPEAKER_01]: But they not annoyed me.
[SPEAKER_01]: They just got a microphone and put an echo in the speakers.
[SPEAKER_01]: and they got a dope musician to play behind him.
[SPEAKER_01]: To make you really sound first for, and you're running out there giving your money thinking, I got to be the first 40 people to give $40.
[SPEAKER_01]: As if God run out of blessing for the 41st person.
[SPEAKER_00]: God ain't running out of blessing because you was 41st.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I missed the cut.
[SPEAKER_00]: Since I'm footing first, I'll make you double.
[SPEAKER_00]: Run.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't know what anointing is.
[SPEAKER_01]: We think because it's spooky, it's anointing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because it's mean, it's anointing, because it's a part of it's anointing.
[SPEAKER_01]: When God said, I ain't gonna violate your free will I ain't gonna make you do know you don't want to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I tell you this, there's a blessing for those who give willingly and if you don't willingly give you can't claim this blessing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the blessing is divine abundance.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going to force you to give.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you all want to give it, keep it.
[SPEAKER_01]: This I want to say, if you will, you got a blessing for your willingness to find abundance.
[SPEAKER_01]: Second Corinthians, 98 says, and God is able to bless you abundantly.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that in all things, at all times, having all that you need.
[SPEAKER_01]: You will about, that's for the generous.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's for the giving.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not just for everybody.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can't just read that and claim that.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're not willing to give, that don't apply to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you're willing to give, and you're setting your heart, what you're going to give, the Lord says, I'm gonna give you all, all and all.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna give you all things at all times, so you're gonna have all that you need.
[SPEAKER_01]: And God is not a man that he should lie.
[SPEAKER_01]: Typing is really about you, didn't it?
[SPEAKER_01]: Not membership.
[SPEAKER_01]: Giving is really about willingness, not math, number three, and I'll be done.
[SPEAKER_01]: Generosity is really about openness, not money.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't care how much money you give.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you are closed person, you are not generous.
[SPEAKER_01]: Clothes people give away stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is not generosity.
[SPEAKER_01]: It could be philanthropy.
[SPEAKER_01]: It could be manipulation, but it's not generosity.
[SPEAKER_01]: Generosity is about openness.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a soul that's open for grace to flow through it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Taint or river that flows.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's an openness of self-hoolid where God all guys grace just flow through me, two people.
[SPEAKER_01]: and giving can be a part of that, but money is not a true indicator if a person is generous in that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at 2nd Corinthians 8, verse 1 through 2, says, bugs and susses we want you to know the grace that God has given, the Macedonian churches, in the midst of a very severe trial, they're overflowing joy and extreme poverty, well dug into rich way.
[SPEAKER_01]: How can the impoverished be generous?
[SPEAKER_01]: How can you be in severe trial and be generous?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because that word generous in the Greek means a virtue of one who is free from pretense and hypocrisy.
[SPEAKER_01]: This person is not self-seeking.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's an openness of heart, manifesting itself by generosity.
[SPEAKER_01]: What you mean, Ram, generosity is not about how much I got on me, it's about how much I got in me.
[SPEAKER_01]: If it's in me, it'll matter what's on me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I choose to give, because I know I receive grace.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a giver by choice, not by circumstance.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I can be a severe trial and still be a giver.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I need to tell my money, I'm talking about anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: I cannot have the support I need and still give you support.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can need some advice in my life and still give you advice.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can have people not showing up for me and still show up for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can have bills that are unpaid and still have an extra $10 in my pocket for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: How is that possible?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because generosity is my openness of selfhood based on choice of what I receive is not a circumstance.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is what's in me, it's not what's on me.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I hear something y'all like real, what if I open up to something or somebody and they take away from me in a painful way?
[SPEAKER_01]: because here's the truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of us aren't open, not cause we bad people, but because we wounded.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, wherever I used to be open to like I hurt.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I closed up to protect myself.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of us, you were at other churches.
[SPEAKER_01]: You were open there.
[SPEAKER_01]: You left that set.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, never again.
[SPEAKER_01]: Never again.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you closed up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of us, you went in previous relationship.
[SPEAKER_01]: You was a good friend before.
[SPEAKER_01]: And today, for instance, I spread all your rumors, and yo, yo business like rumors and gossip.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you said, another friend you never heard of me that way.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of us, you went out on the date, you brought out your dating cards about money.
[SPEAKER_01]: You found out, you was dating one person, but the one person you was dating was dating four persons.
[SPEAKER_01]: You said, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's some of us are closed, not because we're not generous, but because we don't know what to do with the womb.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's hard to be open without being vulnerable.
[SPEAKER_01]: So then what do I do if I want to be an open person, but opening up, risk more womb?
[SPEAKER_01]: The only answer I can come up with right now from this passage is I gotta give myself the God first before I give myself a way to other people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because see, if I give myself the God first, that's now the source for my openness.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not open to give to get.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm open because I'm supported by divine source.
[SPEAKER_01]: What you mean, Ralph?
[SPEAKER_01]: That means I can have a broken heart and still forgive.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can be going through a severe trial and still be generous.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because it's fueled by my mind.
[SPEAKER_01]: relationship with God.
[SPEAKER_01]: First, look what this pastor says in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, verse 5, and they exceeded our expectations.
[SPEAKER_01]: They gave themselves what y'all first of all to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then what y'all by the will of God also to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they gave money, but their money was only given because they gave themselves to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when I give myself to the Lord, the will of God tells me where else to give, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: It may not be that I was wounded because I was too open.
[SPEAKER_01]: It may be I was too open in the wrong places with the wrong people.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if I give myself to the Lord first, the Lord energizes me to be a resource and then shows me where my resources will be valued.
[SPEAKER_01]: Leave me Holy Spirit to a safe place because in a safe place I can be open with safe people I can be open.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's the thing about being closed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you don't give, but you also can't receive.
[SPEAKER_01]: The thing about being closed is you keep from the world the best parts of you.
[SPEAKER_01]: You'll give to the world is restricted when you close.
[SPEAKER_01]: When you open, God can use you and your personality skills, strengths,
[SPEAKER_01]: to bring your gifts to the world in a way that he can only bring through you.
[SPEAKER_01]: But that openness got to be connected to God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, you don't have to give.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you don't feel open, protect yourself until you heal enough to open up.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not trying to force you open.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anybody who forces you to be open, that is an ungodly manipulation.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you close to protect yourself because you made either hurt in the charge or hurt in some of the dynamic, stay closed, guard yourself until you can grow to a point where you open up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's all I'm gonna say.
[SPEAKER_01]: For those of us who are generous, there is a blessing in generosity that's only for the generous.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the blessing in generosity is the privilege of being able to give.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, that's such a blessing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know why it's a blessing to be able to give because people see you give and think you got something you don't?
[SPEAKER_01]: But you're just happy that even though I don't have what you think I have, I can still give out of what I do have because God by His grace has protected my margins.
[SPEAKER_01]: The blessing of generosity is our head of the give.
[SPEAKER_01]: What a miracle.
[SPEAKER_01]: What a miracle to give support and you ain't been supported.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow, I get that from.
[SPEAKER_01]: What a miracle I have money to give to somebody else when you ain't used to have money to give yourself.
[SPEAKER_01]: What a miracle to have enough energy to show up for somebody else when people didn't have energy to show up for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: The blessing in giving is that I had it to give and I don't know where I got it from, except the favor I got on my line.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just glad I had a little margin.
[SPEAKER_01]: And God can use my little margin to create a whole meal for somebody else.
[SPEAKER_01]: See, the generous understand, even if my gift was small, if it's real, it'll work.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even if my gift's small, I can give you but a little word, but that little word can go a long way.
[SPEAKER_01]: I ain't give you but a few dollars, but a few dollars can go a long way.
[SPEAKER_01]: I ain't give you but a little support, but that little support can go a long way.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because God gave me the grace to protect my margins.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let the church say margins.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, all I'm doing, look at Leviticus.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know that's a weird, versed passage to end with.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Leviticus 23 and 22, it says, when you reap the harvest of your land, moreover, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, nor gather the glaining of your harvest, you are to leave them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody say margin for the needy and the stranger.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am the Lord, Jogat.
[SPEAKER_01]: What Gaudet saying is, all the harvest I sent to your field is not meant to be eaten by you.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's hard to have margin if you're greedy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And just because I sent it to your field, don't mean it was for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I sent it to your field, because I was going to send somebody else to your field, who don't have a field.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the extra I sent was for them.
[SPEAKER_01]: So when you harvest in your land, don't take it all, leave some of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because you're gonna have strangers and needy people walk through your land and they're gonna be praying, God, I just need a meal.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm gonna guide them to your land and they're gonna walk on your land and see the harvest that was there for them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they're gonna realize that I'm reaping where I did not sow.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the grace of God to me through the margin of somebody else.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every dollar that come into your life is not meant to be spent on you.
[SPEAKER_01]: All your energy is not meant to be spent on you.
[SPEAKER_01]: All your time is not meant to be spent on you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Leave some of it because you need that margin for the other people God gonna use you to be a blessing too that you can't predict right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the spirit of the generous.
[SPEAKER_01]: So here's my question to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to be honest with yourself,
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of us already know the answer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you a generous for, are you open?
[SPEAKER_01]: All right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why, or why not?
[SPEAKER_01]: Be honest with yourself.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you think you generous, why?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm generous because like I gave some money.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, but where you open when you did it.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you generous person?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why not?
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not generous.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why not?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I don't have money to get.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: But generosity is more about openness than money.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you know you closed, get to the why.
[SPEAKER_01]: The answer to the why is your healing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Something closed you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Something, something restricted the flow of grace through you.
[SPEAKER_01]: What was it?
[SPEAKER_01]: If you can't be open and you can get to why, the Lord can help you heal.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, here's the action item.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's an action item.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is just for people who have never given to the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: You ain't never gave, here's the action item.
[SPEAKER_01]: Today, give a dollar.
[SPEAKER_01]: Give a dollar.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you've never given to a church, or you said I ain't never given to another church.
[SPEAKER_01]: Today, your action item is give a dollar.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, why would I ask for a dollar?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, number one, I need you to understand.
[SPEAKER_01]: $1 is not going to change if I'm going to eat people in Jays and about 45 minutes.
[SPEAKER_01]: You understand?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not trying to get nothing from you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm trying to guide you into testing God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And for some of us that $1 is a huge test because it's not about the amount.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's part and ways with it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to know, when you give to this church, I do not look at the giving record.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have probably seen one sheet of who gave, maybe twice, and it was by mistake.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do not go and look at the giving record.
[SPEAKER_01]: That means I don't know who put a big bag in this church and I don't know who ain't gave nothing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why do I do that?
[SPEAKER_01]: No more than guard my heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a human being.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to be manipulated by money, but if I start seeing who give the big bag, then I'm a star, send by them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Shake and they hand.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I want you to think I'm shaking your hand because you gave a big offer.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know how much you gave.
[SPEAKER_01]: I suck your hand because I will shake hands and your hand will be by my hand when I will shake hands.
[SPEAKER_01]: I also don't want you to think, I already shaking your hand because you ain't give no money.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what you didn't give no money.
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't shake your hand because my breakfast thing and I have a mint.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I already do talk to get a mint.
[SPEAKER_01]: You happen to be around while my breakfast.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not personal.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll try not to offend you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't be in your head about if I'm checking who, who giving away.
[SPEAKER_01]: Cause I'm not.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know who gave how much this year and who ain't gave a dollar this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: All I know is the overall number that comes in and I know about where it goes out from a day to day standpoint.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what I do know because I gotta be a favorite story that's the past of this church.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm not clocking yo, yo, giving because I'm not using it to determine who a good member or who a bad member.
[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all picking up what I'm putting down?
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, if you should ever need benevolence, we have benevolence available.
[SPEAKER_01]: but we have protocols around benevolence.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you come and ask for benevolence, ooh, ah, I mean how I times cool, which you need, oh, and I need my 1500.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can't just throw out a number and we cut a check.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not how benevolence works.
[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody is gonna check your given record.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not gonna be me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody is going to check it and they're not going to check for a mount.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not like we're going to look and say, oh, because they gave this a mount, we can give them this.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's consistent, see, and give it, not a mount.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we are going to check and see if you will remember.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you will remember this church, it comes with privileges, especially when your life gets tough.
[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody sick, somebody at the hospital, somebody passed.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can really see how much this church loves you.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I ain't bragging.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just saying, we too though, CC got all day.