Latest / Chapter and First- Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church / Legacy Series with Dr. Bill Bennet - "God's 5 Great Laws for Total Prosperity"

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Legacy Series with Dr. Bill Bennet - "God's 5 Great Laws for Total Prosperity" · Chapter and First- Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church

1:35
SPEAKER_00: And we are blessed to have as a part of our heritage as a family.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: So today's message we pray.
1:50
SPEAKER_02: God sets forth a principle, or in the Word of God, it is but an expression of his character and of his love.
2:04
SPEAKER_02: And so God has expressed his moral truth in the Ten Commandments.
2:08
SPEAKER_02: He says, keep them, help yourself to happiness.
2:13
SPEAKER_02: God has expressed his orderness in natural law written into this universe.
2:24
SPEAKER_02: And God has expressed his truth about giving in great laws and great spiritual principles.
2:36
SPEAKER_02: He says, do them and you will be prosperous totally.
2:41
SPEAKER_02: Not just materially, but totally.
2:48
SPEAKER_02: God's five great laws for our total prosperity.
2:54
SPEAKER_02: Now let me say to you today that these laws of God are not broken by man.
3:01
SPEAKER_02: When one violates one of these laws, he really doesn't break it.
3:06
SPEAKER_02: He doesn't repeal it at all.
3:10
SPEAKER_02: He illustrates it.
3:13
SPEAKER_02: If one jumps off the 30th floor of a building, he does not break the natural law of gravity at all.
3:23
SPEAKER_02: He illustrates.
3:31
SPEAKER_02: Today I want to speak on five great laws for our total prosperity.
3:38
SPEAKER_02: There are more than five, but I wanted to speak of the five that God's impressed my heart to share with you today.
3:44
SPEAKER_02: Law number one.
4:22
SPEAKER_02: And David is celebrating this great fact.
4:26
SPEAKER_02: But David says, Lord, I cannot really thank the people.
4:32
SPEAKER_02: Because after all, all the people and all that we've given unto you came from you in the first place.
4:42
SPEAKER_02: We have given you but our own.
4:46
SPEAKER_02: And that's one of the greatest laws of prosperity in all this world.
4:52
SPEAKER_02: God is our source.
4:56
SPEAKER_02: The source of the first Baptist Church is not the economy, it's God.
5:03
SPEAKER_02: Your source is not your employer, but the eternal God.
5:11
SPEAKER_02: Let me illustrate.
5:13
SPEAKER_02: When I board an airplane, I believe in prayer.
5:18
SPEAKER_02: I think if you flew as much as I did, you'd believe in prayer too.
5:22
SPEAKER_02: Every time I get on an airplane, I say, Lord, keep this airplane safe.
5:31
SPEAKER_02: And of course, it is the airplane that takes me through the air, and it is the crew who operates the equipment.
5:40
SPEAKER_02: But behind the visible airplane is the invisible God who is my source of safety.
5:54
SPEAKER_02: You have one employer, I have another employer.
5:58
SPEAKER_02: There are many secondary ways that God uses to bring the material needs or to meet the material needs in our lives.
6:10
SPEAKER_02: But all of them come from God.
6:14
SPEAKER_02: Don't ever forget this.
6:21
SPEAKER_02: And that's what David was saying.
6:23
SPEAKER_02: When we give, we only give what He has given to us.
6:29
SPEAKER_02: 1 Chronicles 29, 14.
6:31
SPEAKER_02: We do not give of our own, we give of that which he's given to us.
6:35
SPEAKER_02: Simply give it back to him.
6:40
SPEAKER_02: That's the first law of total prosperity.
6:44
SPEAKER_02: But there is a second law.
6:47
SPEAKER_02: Law number two is this your spiritual growth can never exceed your growth in giving or your faithfulness in money matters.
7:01
SPEAKER_02: Why I say this?
7:03
SPEAKER_02: Because that's precisely what Jesus Christ said.
7:06
SPEAKER_02: In Luke 16, 11, Jesus says, if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust?
7:19
SPEAKER_02: The true riches.
7:24
SPEAKER_02: The unrighteous mammon is money or material things.
7:28
SPEAKER_02: True riches are spiritual riches.
7:37
SPEAKER_02: That's what true riches are.
7:39
SPEAKER_02: True spirituality.
7:41
SPEAKER_02: The true riches are true spirituality.
7:44
SPEAKER_02: For instance, faith, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, power in prayer, in soul winning, in living for God, in overcoming the world over and over again.
7:57
SPEAKER_02: Now Jesus says, if you have not been faithful in money matters, then you cannot expect for me to bestow upon you true riches, which is true spirituality.
8:16
SPEAKER_02: Do you get it?
8:19
SPEAKER_02: Have you ever seen it?
8:22
SPEAKER_02: So many of you have experienced this thing in your own lives.
8:28
SPEAKER_02: I've seen you experience it.
8:29
SPEAKER_02: I've seen scores of you experienced it.
8:32
SPEAKER_02: You remember the tremendous spiritual blessings that have come into many of your lives in recent years when we began to release unto God by faith more of our material things than we ever had in all of our lives?
8:50
SPEAKER_02: And it's been during this period that your life has just blossomed and you've entered into a dimension of faith, of joy, of victory, of vision, of family blessings, business blessings, all kinds of blessings like you never knew before.
9:09
SPEAKER_02: Now this is true with the individual.
9:13
SPEAKER_02: It's true in the family.
9:15
SPEAKER_02: It's also true in the church of the living God.
9:18
SPEAKER_02: You remember what happened in our church?
9:22
SPEAKER_02: When we began to trust God in a way like we had never trusted Him in all of our lives?
9:28
SPEAKER_02: You remember what happened?
9:30
SPEAKER_02: God poured out His blessings upon the church.
9:34
SPEAKER_03: In a way that He never had.
9:37
SPEAKER_02: Do you realize that it was right in the beginning of our second together we drove that God reached out in this congregation and saved more people than I've ever seen in my life?
9:46
SPEAKER_02: And the invitations extended from 1.30 and sometimes to 2 o'clock because the Holy Spirit was moving in such power.
9:53
SPEAKER_02: That was right in the middle of the faith commitment of God's people.
10:03
SPEAKER_02: No, when we fail to understand and to obey the principles of giving, we are robbing ourselves of God's best, of the true riches, which is true spirituality.
10:25
SPEAKER_02: We see this before our eyes in an amazing way.
10:32
SPEAKER_02: Now I do not want to believe these things, and I never ask questions.
10:35
SPEAKER_02: I really don't because it hurts me too much.
10:38
SPEAKER_02: I remember in our first Together We Grow campaign, somebody came to me and they said, You know, a certain brother said, Well, really, you know, First Baptist doesn't need any buildings.
10:50
SPEAKER_02: And I'm just not going to give a penny to these things.
10:56
SPEAKER_02: I didn't say a thing, I just prayed.
11:01
SPEAKER_02: Maybe several people did this.
11:02
SPEAKER_02: You see, this person was simply saying that to keep from obeying God in giving.
11:11
SPEAKER_02: This person used to be right here, right pretty close in.
11:16
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes I saw him in the choir.
11:20
SPEAKER_02: But I watched him drift and drift and drift and drift.
11:26
SPEAKER_02: I don't see it.
11:31
SPEAKER_02: You cannot be disobedient in material things and receive the blessings of God.
11:39
SPEAKER_02: I'm telling you.
11:42
SPEAKER_02: If you have not been faithful in money matters, who will trust to you?
11:51
SPEAKER_02: The true riches, which is true spirituality.
11:56
SPEAKER_02: If you cannot be trusted with that, why would God trust to you that which is greater?
12:03
SPEAKER_02: He won't.
12:04
SPEAKER_02: He won't.
12:05
SPEAKER_02: And so we're dealing with one of the greatest laws of spiritual growth and spirituality in this matter of getting right on the matter of giving.
12:17
SPEAKER_02: There's a third law.
12:19
SPEAKER_02: Law number three is this.
12:23
SPEAKER_02: Giving is an investment with God.
12:30
SPEAKER_02: Why do I say that?
12:31
SPEAKER_02: I say that because again, Jesus says this.
12:34
SPEAKER_02: And when we preach on giving, we've got to quote Jesus over and over again because he's the one that told us about it more than anybody else.
12:42
SPEAKER_02: What does Jesus say?
12:44
SPEAKER_02: In Scripture we've just read in our Bible readings, Matthew 6, 19, 20, and 21.
12:49
SPEAKER_02: He says, lay not up for yourselves.
12:52
SPEAKER_02: Notice for yourselves, it's very emphatic.
12:54
SPEAKER_02: He doesn't say lay up for God.
12:57
SPEAKER_02: He says, Lay up not for yourselves treasures on earth, but lay up for yourself treasures in heaven.
13:11
SPEAKER_02: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
13:18
SPEAKER_02: Now we say get a man's heart right, and you'll get his treasure.
13:21
SPEAKER_02: That's not what Jesus said.
13:25
SPEAKER_02: Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
13:33
SPEAKER_02: That's what Jesus said.
13:36
SPEAKER_02: I was talking to a pastor friend of mine who took a church that was about to close its doors, couldn't pay its bill.
13:43
SPEAKER_02: The Sunday school was down to about 300.
13:45
SPEAKER_02: They're now running 2200.
13:46
SPEAKER_02: They've had to go to another plant and build a new plant.
13:50
SPEAKER_02: They had about 500 baptisms last year.
13:53
SPEAKER_02: I just preached with him about a week.
13:56
SPEAKER_02: He is with six of his men.
14:00
SPEAKER_02: And these men began to talk.
14:04
SPEAKER_02: And they began to tell where they had invested their money.
14:06
SPEAKER_02: And number one told where he had invested his money.
14:08
SPEAKER_02: Number two, number three, number four, number five, number six, and finally came to the pastor.
14:14
SPEAKER_02: Brother Pastor, where have you invested your money?
14:19
SPEAKER_02: And the pastor said, Men, since I was 19 years of age, I've been investing 10, 15, and 20% and more with the Lord.
14:36
SPEAKER_02: And he said, There's not a bank in the world, there's not a corporation in the world that pays the dividends that I'm getting.
14:45
SPEAKER_02: And not only that, brothers, your interest goes up and down, but mine's always going up.
14:56
SPEAKER_02: Listen, if you belong to Jesus Christ, and you're investing with Jesus Christ, you're involved in the greatest investment in the world.
15:09
SPEAKER_02: Nothing compares with it.
15:12
SPEAKER_02: And you can't lose.
15:16
SPEAKER_02: But had you stopped to think?
15:18
SPEAKER_02: This is the only investment that's going to last.
15:21
SPEAKER_02: The only one.
15:25
SPEAKER_02: You're going to lose everything else.
15:27
SPEAKER_02: Now smile, you're on candid camera.
15:30
SPEAKER_02: And if you don't like it, just come to me after the service and apologize.
15:35
SPEAKER_02: This is exactly what Jesus said.
15:41
SPEAKER_02: If you were to die today, or Christ were to come, you would lose everything that you've invested in this world.
15:49
SPEAKER_02: You'd lose your car, your house, your automobile, your clothes.
15:54
SPEAKER_02: These things that are so important to you.
15:58
SPEAKER_02: Antiques, boats.
16:02
SPEAKER_02: You'd lose it all.
16:04
SPEAKER_02: And all you would have is what you've invested for Jesus.
16:08
SPEAKER_02: That's what I'll say to my brothers over in North Carolina.
16:12
SPEAKER_02: Who think I'm foolish in giving everything to the law.
16:16
SPEAKER_02: And they'll be hearing this tape and they'll really excite them when they hear it.
16:19
SPEAKER_02: He goes back over there in North Carolina.
16:23
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
16:28
SPEAKER_02: This is what the Word of God teaches.
16:32
SPEAKER_02: Giving is an investment with God.
16:37
SPEAKER_02: That's the reason some of you love to give so much.
16:42
SPEAKER_02: How in the world can some of you give so little and some of you give nothing?
16:48
SPEAKER_02: Surely it'll never continue.
16:50
SPEAKER_02: When this thing hit me in the motel room in Memphis, I said, surely there's no one in the First Baptist Church who won't hear this.
16:59
SPEAKER_02: Well, man! I could hardly wait to give my offering this morning.
17:05
SPEAKER_02: I was so excited when I saw a new and afraid that giving is an investment with God.
17:11
SPEAKER_02: This is the word of God.
17:14
SPEAKER_02: Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven.
17:24
SPEAKER_02: An outstanding pastor on the West Coast is John MacArthur.
17:31
SPEAKER_02: In the church that John MacArthur pastors, they had a budget of$900,000.
17:39
SPEAKER_02: Tom, you probably know of John, maybe going to church out there.
17:44
SPEAKER_02: But anyhow, he's writing a lot of books, and when our men went out there to convention, all of them wanted to hear John MacArthur.
17:53
SPEAKER_02: In one year's time, he raised the budget of his church from 900,000 to three and one half million.
18:04
SPEAKER_02: You know how he did it?
18:07
SPEAKER_02: God told him that giving is an investment with God.
18:14
SPEAKER_02: And he shared this with his people, and they got so excited, and they were so wise that they began to invest.
18:24
SPEAKER_02: That'll happen right here in our church.
18:27
SPEAKER_02: You can't believe what the Bible says and not invest with God.
18:31
SPEAKER_02: A man would have to be a fool.
18:37
SPEAKER_02: Giving is an investment with God which you can never lose, and it's all you can save, is what you invest with God.
18:50
SPEAKER_02: That's law number three.
18:52
SPEAKER_02: Law number one is that God is our source.
18:56
SPEAKER_02: Law number two is that your spiritual growth can never exceed.
19:03
SPEAKER_02: Your faithfulness in money matters.
19:07
SPEAKER_02: And law number three is that giving with God is an investment.
19:15
SPEAKER_02: But there's a fourth law.
19:16
SPEAKER_02: Law number four is this.
19:20
SPEAKER_02: Right giving sets in motion a divine cycle.
19:26
SPEAKER_02: Who said this?
19:27
SPEAKER_02: Jesus.
19:29
SPEAKER_02: Luke 8.38.
19:30
SPEAKER_02: Listen.
19:31
SPEAKER_02: Jesus.
19:33
SPEAKER_02: Give, Jesus says, and it shall be given unto you.
19:40
SPEAKER_02: That's what Jesus said.
19:43
SPEAKER_02: Give, and it shall be given unto you.
19:49
SPEAKER_02: Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, shall men pour into your bosom, for with the same measure you dish it out, it's going to be dished back to you.
20:05
SPEAKER_02: Now here's the divine cycle.
20:08
SPEAKER_02: It's beautiful.
20:10
SPEAKER_02: Giving begins when God gives to you.
20:14
SPEAKER_02: Remember, everything you have today, God gave it to you.
20:18
SPEAKER_02: Not your employer.
20:21
SPEAKER_02: I find some pastors are scared to death.
20:26
SPEAKER_02: See, they don't believe God's their source.
20:27
SPEAKER_02: They think their church is their source.
20:29
SPEAKER_02: And you're scared to death.
20:31
SPEAKER_02: If you're looking at man in this troubled economy, churches are scared to death.
20:37
SPEAKER_02: They're running scared all over there.
20:40
SPEAKER_02: Because if the economy is our source, we'll be scared to death part of the time.
20:45
SPEAKER_02: Giving begins when God gives to me and to you, and he is our source.
20:53
SPEAKER_02: Secondly, I receive from the hand of God.
20:59
SPEAKER_02: Thirdly, I give back to the work of the Lord.
21:05
SPEAKER_02: The basic thing being the support of the local church through my tithes and offerings, the base where God's placed me.
21:14
SPEAKER_02: That's the teaching of the Bible.
21:15
SPEAKER_02: I don't just scatter it.
21:18
SPEAKER_02: God's placed me in a body under the authority of a pastor.
21:21
SPEAKER_02: I'm a part of this word.
21:23
SPEAKER_02: And if I give offerings, it should not rob that basic tithe and offering which I'm giving to support the body of Christ where God's placed my life.
21:32
SPEAKER_02: So I give to the work of the Lord.
21:36
SPEAKER_02: Fourthly, God gives back to me, and then I give back to the work of the Lord.
21:42
SPEAKER_02: And the cycle's completed.
21:46
SPEAKER_02: That's the cycle.
21:50
SPEAKER_02: Now in 1975, we were all just learning, and we taught sowing and reaping, but some did not understand the divine cycle.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: And I didn't spell it out over and over again.
22:04
SPEAKER_02: And what they did, they gave and got and they kept.
22:09
SPEAKER_02: And they stopped the cycle.
22:13
SPEAKER_02: Now a cycle is a circle, and once you stop it, it's broken and it doesn't work.
22:20
SPEAKER_02: Like in your home, if the plumbing is clogged up, the flow will cease until you unclog it.
22:28
SPEAKER_02: You see, I was not intended to be a treasure house or a storehouse.
22:33
SPEAKER_02: You were not either.
22:34
SPEAKER_02: Not even the church is supposed to be a storehouse.
22:37
SPEAKER_02: I'm never impressed when I go to churches and they say, oh, Bill, we've got$200,000 in the bank.
22:42
SPEAKER_02: I say, so what?
22:46
SPEAKER_02: Why don't you spend it?
22:50
SPEAKER_02: People who don't know anything about churches, then what if when a church has$200 or$300,000 in the bank?
22:54
SPEAKER_02: Nothing to do with it.
22:55
SPEAKER_02: Crowing about having$200,000 in the bank.
22:58
SPEAKER_02: God never intended that at all.
23:02
SPEAKER_02: We're not supposed to be a storehouse or a stopping place at all, but simply a channel through which the money is flowing into the work of God and flowing back into us and flowing into the work of God and coming back to us and flowing into the work of God.
23:18
SPEAKER_02: And it's an endless process.
23:22
SPEAKER_02: That's exactly the way God works, and that's one of the great laws of prosperity.
23:31
SPEAKER_02: All agree that the man with the greatest spiritual power and move the most people in the world in the 19th century was an unlearned man by the name of D.
23:41
SPEAKER_02: L.
23:41
SPEAKER_02: Moody.
23:44
SPEAKER_02: It's amazing when we get behind the scene in the lives of the great men.
23:49
SPEAKER_02: R.
23:50
SPEAKER_02: Tore wrote his biography.
23:53
SPEAKER_02: And R.
23:54
SPEAKER_02: Tore says one of the reasons that God entrusted D.
23:59
SPEAKER_02: L.
23:59
SPEAKER_02: Moody with such spiritual power was because he was free from the love of money.
24:10
SPEAKER_02: And R.
24:10
SPEAKER_02: Tari says that millions of dollars flew to his hand.
24:16
SPEAKER_02: Notice it went through his hands.
24:19
SPEAKER_02: It did not stop.
24:22
SPEAKER_02: It went into a world that was lost, and God just blessed the El Moody and blessed him and poured into his life, filled him with the Holy Spirit, and sent him to preach in sophisticated England.
24:38
SPEAKER_02: And his name lives forever today, and a part of that was his attitude toward riches.
24:46
SPEAKER_02: In a materialistic world, and a world of an inflated economy, we have to handle money.
24:57
SPEAKER_02: And our money has needed to increase for us to buy groceries, to operate our automobile.
25:04
SPEAKER_02: But let me share with you a principle that I shared with the men on the staff just recently.
25:11
SPEAKER_02: If your salary goes up, your love for money should come down.
25:19
SPEAKER_02: If that's not happening in your life, you're in trouble.
25:23
SPEAKER_02: If your salary has to go up to pay your bills, your love for material things should go down and you should pray much.
25:33
SPEAKER_02: Because when you begin to love material things, you cease to love Jesus, and you cease to love souls, and you cease really to have spiritual power in your life.
25:46
SPEAKER_02: Don't give to get.
25:49
SPEAKER_02: Don't make this mistake.
25:51
SPEAKER_02: But give to get to give to get to give.
25:58
SPEAKER_02: And the divine disciple says that the Lord will keep pouring in you, and you can keep giving, and you become a marvelous channel of God's blessing.
26:08
SPEAKER_02: And don't you tell me that that's not Bible, and don't you get up here and say it won't work.
26:14
SPEAKER_02: There's not a person here who's done it that wasn't testified for work.
26:18
SPEAKER_02: It's worked in my life and it will work in your life, my friends.
26:22
SPEAKER_02: It works in the life of a church, it works in the life of an individual.
26:26
SPEAKER_02: Where it doesn't work is where this is used for selfishness rather than the completion of the divine cycle.
26:33
SPEAKER_02: Now, what does this mean for you and me?
26:36
SPEAKER_02: What does it mean for the church of the living God today?
26:38
SPEAKER_02: Well, it means we're not to hoard our money.
26:43
SPEAKER_02: If we're Christian.
26:47
SPEAKER_02: And it means we're not to go out here and beg.
26:50
SPEAKER_02: You don't have to beg as a Christian.
26:54
SPEAKER_02: And it doesn't mean that you nor the church is going to walk down to the bank and borrow its money to pay its bills.
27:03
SPEAKER_02: It means you're going to give to get, to give, to get.
27:10
SPEAKER_02: And God will get all the glory because the man who does this knows that God's the source.
27:19
SPEAKER_02: He's trusting God.
27:22
SPEAKER_02: And the man.
27:23
SPEAKER_02: And he's seeing a miracle not only in his spiritual life, but he is seeing a miracle in his physical life, and he knows that God means what he says because he can count it in dollars and cents.
27:40
SPEAKER_02: You see, anybody can come along and say, Oh, God, heal me.
27:43
SPEAKER_02: That's kind of hard to prove sometimes.
27:46
SPEAKER_02: Or God save me, that's inner two.
27:48
SPEAKER_02: Or God filled me with the Holy Spirit.
27:53
SPEAKER_02: But there's a greater evidence that God's alive today.
27:58
SPEAKER_02: And that is when a person in need gives.
28:04
SPEAKER_02: And God gives to him, and he gives back to God.
28:08
SPEAKER_02: And he sees the miracle of God before his very eyes.
28:12
SPEAKER_02: This is happening all over this world.
28:14
SPEAKER_02: It's happening right here in our congregation.
28:18
SPEAKER_02: It will happen more and more.
28:20
SPEAKER_02: This is the law of total prosperity.
28:24
SPEAKER_02: There is a final law that I want to share this morning.
28:27
SPEAKER_02: Law number five is this.
28:32
SPEAKER_02: Christian giving, true Christian giving is motivated by love for Jesus Christ.
28:39
SPEAKER_02: Why do we give?
28:42
SPEAKER_02: Why do we give?
28:44
SPEAKER_02: Do we give because there's need?
28:46
SPEAKER_02: Not basically.
28:48
SPEAKER_02: There is great need.
28:50
SPEAKER_02: Overwhelming.
28:53
SPEAKER_02: But that's not the real motive for giving.
28:56
SPEAKER_02: Do we give that we might get a plaque to hang in our study saying that we are one of the big givers?
29:05
SPEAKER_02: Do we give to please man or to be seen of man?
29:11
SPEAKER_02: Not at all.
29:13
SPEAKER_02: Proverbs 3-9 tells us why we should give.
29:16
SPEAKER_02: Honor the Lord.
29:18
SPEAKER_02: Honor the Lord with all thine substance.
29:24
SPEAKER_02: See, now God knows you need an automobile.
29:26
SPEAKER_02: That's a gift to him, too, if you're living right.
29:29
SPEAKER_02: When you buy that automobile and sanctify it unto God, that's a part of his economy.
29:34
SPEAKER_02: He knows you need a house.
29:37
SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah.
29:39
SPEAKER_02: Honor the Lord with all thy substance.
29:46
SPEAKER_02: And with the first fruits of all thine increase.
29:52
SPEAKER_02: That's the reason we give.
29:56
SPEAKER_02: Though we know it's going to come back, we give to honor Jesus Christ.
30:00
SPEAKER_02: We put him under no obligations, no timetable, no slot machine philosophy.
30:05
SPEAKER_02: I put in so much you've got to bring it out so much time.
30:08
SPEAKER_02: Oh no.
30:09
SPEAKER_02: God's God.
30:11
SPEAKER_02: We honor God because we love Jesus.
30:19
SPEAKER_02: Do you know how John 3.16 reads?
30:22
SPEAKER_02: For God so loved the world that he kept his son in heaven to show it.
30:29
SPEAKER_02: Is that what it says?
30:33
SPEAKER_02: Oh no.
30:35
SPEAKER_02: God so loved that he gave his only begotten son.
30:41
SPEAKER_02: How do you prove your love?
30:44
SPEAKER_02: By keeping what you have?
30:47
SPEAKER_02: By being stingy?
30:49
SPEAKER_02: By giving a tithe when you ought to give three or four tithes to the work of God?
30:54
SPEAKER_02: Not when you love Jesus.
30:59
SPEAKER_02: The bottom line is a consuming love for Jesus.
31:06
SPEAKER_02: Did you love Jesus tonight?
31:08
SPEAKER_02: Today.
31:13
SPEAKER_02: That's the bottom line in giving.
31:14
SPEAKER_02: And that's the bottom line in prosperity.
31:17
SPEAKER_02: Is to love Jesus.
31:18
SPEAKER_02: I mean love him until you sing about him, talk about him, witness about him, that you're Jesus, God.
31:25
SPEAKER_02: That Jesus is the sweetest thing in this world.
31:27
SPEAKER_02: You know his honor is at stake in the church of Jesus Christ, in your life, the way you give, talk.
31:33
SPEAKER_02: Everything's Jesus.
31:35
SPEAKER_02: Jesus.
31:37
SPEAKER_02: Jesus.
31:39
SPEAKER_02: That's the motive.
31:41
SPEAKER_02: That's the motive.
31:44
SPEAKER_02: One of the most remarkable churches in the world today is one of the most ordinary churches.
31:52
SPEAKER_02: The first Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Florida.
31:57
SPEAKER_02: Anybody in the world who's ever read their bulletin, even.
32:02
SPEAKER_02: And who's ever been to their services is overwhelmed and says, What in the world's going on here?
32:11
SPEAKER_02: And so a pastor friend of mine in Alabama, not being too far, he says, I'm going to go up there and see if I can find out.
32:18
SPEAKER_02: So he went to hear the preacher preach, and after he heard him preach, he said, Well, this is certainly not the secret of this church.
32:24
SPEAKER_02: And the pastor's not a great preacher nor a biblical expositor if he knows the word of Greek or Hebrew.
32:29
SPEAKER_02: I don't know it.
32:31
SPEAKER_02: He doesn't even use an outline.
32:36
SPEAKER_02: I preached with him a week over here at Southern College.
32:38
SPEAKER_02: I couldn't believe it, what I heard.
32:44
SPEAKER_02: The pastor from Alabama said, Well, I'll go to visitation on Monday night.
32:48
SPEAKER_02: And so he went to visitation on Monday night and he saw 500 men go out visiting.
32:52
SPEAKER_02: Well, that was, he said, that's a pretty good number for visitation.
32:56
SPEAKER_02: But he said, that's still not the secret of a church like this.
33:01
SPEAKER_02: And then he came to the women's visitation on Tuesday.
33:03
SPEAKER_02: They had a lunch, and 300 women went out.
33:05
SPEAKER_02: That's pretty impressive.
33:06
SPEAKER_02: But the pastor said, that's not the secret.
33:08
SPEAKER_02: There's more to it than this.
33:09
SPEAKER_02: It's not the pastors preaching.
33:12
SPEAKER_02: It's not even 500 men going out or 300 women.
33:15
SPEAKER_02: He says, I'm going to stay until Wednesday night.
33:17
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to find out what the secret of this church is.
33:21
SPEAKER_02: So on Wednesday night he went into the midweek service.
33:25
SPEAKER_02: And sat down beside a deacon.
33:28
SPEAKER_02: And he said, Brother Deacon, what is the secret of this church?
33:34
SPEAKER_02: And the deacon smiled and he said, You know, I'm glad you asked me.
33:39
SPEAKER_02: He said, It's very simple.
33:41
SPEAKER_02: Our pastor loves Jesus.
33:45
SPEAKER_02: He said, Homer Lindsay Jr.
33:47
SPEAKER_02: loves Jesus.
33:49
SPEAKER_02: And you know he's taught all of us to love Jesus.
33:53
SPEAKER_02: And he says, everything we do, we do because we love Jesus.
33:59
SPEAKER_02: He said, we sing in the choir because we love Jesus.
34:03
SPEAKER_02: He said, we teach Sunday school because we love Jesus.
34:08
SPEAKER_02: He said we go out in visitation, on visitation in droves because we love Jesus.
34:14
SPEAKER_02: He said we pray.
34:17
SPEAKER_02: In the church and out of the church because we love Jesus.
34:22
SPEAKER_02: And he said, we give and we give and we give.
34:25
SPEAKER_02: And they just built a 5,000-seat auditorium and now they're planning a 10,000 seat.
34:29
SPEAKER_02: They filled it up the first Sunday.
34:33
SPEAKER_02: And he says, we give everything because we love Jesus.
34:40
SPEAKER_02: How much do you love Jesus today?
34:45
SPEAKER_02: We can get caught up in all kinds of things.
34:50
SPEAKER_02: The Holy Spirit reveals Jesus.
34:52
SPEAKER_02: I'm for the Holy Spirit.
34:53
SPEAKER_02: But if we're not careful, we'll get sidetracked and not love Jesus.
35:00
SPEAKER_02: Do you love Jesus today?
35:03
SPEAKER_02: Do you?
35:07
SPEAKER_02: Do you?
35:10
SPEAKER_02: If so, you're willing to serve Jesus and do what Jesus wants.
35:19
SPEAKER_02: Five great laws for our total prosperity.
35:27
SPEAKER_02: Notice what my subject is today?
35:28
SPEAKER_02: I didn't, I'm not pre I've not preached on five great laws for our poverty.
35:38
SPEAKER_02: I have not preached on five great laws for your punishment, for your sorrow, to hurt you.
35:49
SPEAKER_02: I've preached on five great laws that will make your life ablaze for Jesus.
36:01
SPEAKER_02: I preached on five great laws.
36:04
SPEAKER_02: If you live by them, will change your individual life more than anything you've ever done in your life.
36:13
SPEAKER_02: Will change your home.
36:16
SPEAKER_02: Will change your attitude towards your church, your pastor, the choir, youth work, evangelism, so with it.
36:27
SPEAKER_02: And will cause you to give your money all you can.
36:35
SPEAKER_02: Not handing it to me in an envelope that the pastor can see it.
36:42
SPEAKER_02: But giving it through your church unto Jesus.
36:48
SPEAKER_02: I want to ask you today, are you in on God's great plan of prosperity?
36:57
SPEAKER_02: Are you?
37:00
SPEAKER_02: Are you living by the truth that God is your source?
37:05
SPEAKER_02: Or are you depending on your employer?
37:10
SPEAKER_02: Do you believe that your spirituality parallels your growth in giving?
37:19
SPEAKER_02: That giving is an investment with God and the greatest investment and the only sure investment?
37:27
SPEAKER_02: That by giving you can set in motion a divine cycle that will keep money going out and coming in all the time.
37:40
SPEAKER_02: And are you motivated by love for Jesus?
37:46
SPEAKER_02: If you aren't, may I plead with you.
37:52
SPEAKER_02: I've asked for 200 cups.
37:56
SPEAKER_02: That would be 400 people plus some children.
37:59
SPEAKER_02: That would be solid converts to God's great program for prosperity in your lives.
38:09
SPEAKER_02: Let me urge you, sweet friend, because I love you as a pastor.
38:17
SPEAKER_02: I can't see you go down the road of financial bondage.
38:22
SPEAKER_02: When you can move in the liberty of the truth of God and be prosperous.
38:31
SPEAKER_02: And the church will prosper.
38:35
SPEAKER_02: So many are experiencing it.
38:39
SPEAKER_02: But so many are.