Financially Healthy Series, Week 2: The Spirit of Dominion

Amen. We're continuing tonight with the financially healthy series, and my assignment this evening, given by Pastor, was to speak on the subject of self-control and the emotion behind it as it relates to finances. And so we are going to move in that direction this evening. We'll give them just a moment to make sure everybody has a handout. Amen. I see no hands, so I presume we are all set. Amen. Last week was phenomenal and very practical, and this week I'm going to kind of swing to the opposite end of the financial spectrum and consider more of the attitude or the spiritual side of money. So beginning in Genesis chapter one, a scripture that I'm sure many of us are familiar with, there is a promise given to Adam in Genesis 1, 26, 27, and 28. It's repeated two times by the Lord, and he gives Adam the promise of dominion. He specifically makes mention of three things, and these are, in my

experience, things we often overlook because of the symbolic nature that the Lord communicates them with. But he tells Adam that you're going to have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, and over all the cattle and every creeping thing, or all that walks upon the earth. And though to Adam he is speaking of a literal animal kingdom, and Adam was given the responsibility of naming all of the animal creation, the spiritual application goes beyond that. When he's speaking of the fish of the sea, he's talking about that which is in the earth. When he talks about the fowls of the air, it's that which is above the earth, and when he speaks of the cattle or all the animals that walk on the earth, it's that which is on the earth. And so he's telling Adam, I've given you dominion in three dimensions. I've given you dimension over what's on the inside, what's above, and what's on.

The application here is it starts with internal dominion. It starts in the heart. Then when he said, I'm giving you dominion over the fowls of the air, he's speaking of spiritual dominion over principalities and powers and every high thing. But when he's talking about the cattle and everything that would walk upon the earth, he's specifically speaking of what we would call material or financial dominion. And I fully understand that in the Christian world, in the 21st century, there are many who have taken these principles and concepts and become very out of balance. And I would even say abuse them. But that doesn't negate the fact the Bible says what the Bible says. God has given us. It is his intention through the power of his spirit that we have dominion over the inward part of man, which is our own heart. It's his desire that we would have dominion over all spiritual opposition. And it's also his desire that we would walk in

dominion as it pertains to finances or the material world. And so this is not just something that you can speak and it happens. But the Lord promises dominion for those who walk in covenant relationship with him. And so this is something the spirit of the Lord works out in our life as we walk in faithful relationship with Jesus Christ. Now, certainly we could come up with a vast number of definitions of what financial dominion would mean. For the sake of this lesson tonight, I offer this and you can look to the handout. To have or to live in financial dominion means this. It means I give faithfully, sacrificially, and joyfully. Not just one of the three or two of the three, but all three. I have to be a faithful giver. I have to be a sacrificial giver. And I have to give joyfully. I don't give begrudgingly. I don't give with regret, but I open my hand and I do it with

joy. The second thing to have financial dominion is this. It means I know that my needs are supplied by God. And I added these last two words because Brother Terry Broadstreet said this last week and I thought, you know, that's very good. My needs are supplied by God through work. Even in the Old Testament, the Lord made provision for those who had no means of sustenance. They were without job or family support. And the Lord told his people that you leave the corners of the field. So when you are harvesting, you leave the corner of the field. So those who are the poor or the beggar, we might say, God said, I'm leaving a means of provision for them. But even then, they're responsible to come to the corners of the field and reap their own harvest. And so God was trying to convey a timeless principle to us. I will provide. I will make space for my provision to come to your

life. But you're going to have to work for it. And so God will supply our needs. Sometimes He will supply our wants. But our wants are not promised. But our needs are promised by God. But it comes through our own hard work. And so that demands a responsibility and an involvement on our part. Number three, to live in financial dominion means that we are being debt free or striving, certainly a good steward would strive towards a life that is free of debt. My journey, we have a very small amount that we all want one vehicle right now. And I don't mind telling you that Lord willing here in the next few months, it'll be gone. Other than that, we have no debt. And my journey out of debt began several years ago when I was sitting at a conference and Brother Mark Morgan was preaching and he turned around and made this statement. He said, there's people in this room right now. You

could not do what the Lord is asking you to do because you're so burdened by debt. And I'd be very forward with you tonight. I was very convicted of the Holy Ghost in that moment because I knew that even though the Lord had not asked me to do anything specific beyond what I was doing at that time, that should he ask me, I had some debt that would make that quite challenging. And so in that moment, in response to the word of the Lord, I purposed that God, if you will get me out of debt, I'll never go back. And I wish I could tell you it came with a check in the mail. And there were a few of those along the journey, but it was 10 years of multiple jobs, a lot of sacrifice and hard work because the provision of God, financial dominion comes by God through hard work. The fourth component of financial dominion is this. It's God's blessing

and abundance on my life. I will be the first to tell you that our God is a good God. And he delights in blessing his children. I learned the truth that it's more blessed to give than to receive when I became a father. When I get home, we flew home yesterday afternoon. And my kids know when dad's away on the weekend that he's generally coming home with some kind of treat. It might be small, but they're going to get a little something. And I'm just going to tell you, as a father who had received a law in my life, when I became a father and had the opportunity to give and I saw the delight and the joy in my children, when they received of me, I learned the truth that it's more blessed to give than to receive. And we serve a God who delights in blessing his people. And I would even go beyond that and tell you that God delights

in putting abundance upon his people. The promise of Malachi 3 was, bring your tithe into the storehouse and see, prove me, he said. If I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that you do not have room to contain. And by my definition, that's abundance. And if it was just Dan McLeod saying that, you would have reason to question, but this is the word of the Lord. God said, I want to give abundance to my people. Psalm 1611 talks about how in the presence of the Lord, there is fullness of joy. And then this next statement to me is so profound. He said at my right hand, which is the place of his power, where the power of God is working at my right hand, our pleasures forevermore. So there's a fullness that comes from the presence of the Lord. But then there is something beyond the fullness. A pleasure is that which goes beyond the necessary. And

he said, there is a dimension that comes out of my power at my right hand, where there are pleasures that which is beyond the need, beyond the necessary. Now I wish I could tell you that you could just go from spiritual infancy to that, but that's typically not how God works. There's a process of maturity by which he teaches us principles of stewardship that we're focusing on this month. And one of those is this principle of self-control. And so we have this promise of dominion, and now we have to ask the question. If I know the Lord wants me to live in financial dominion, if I know it's God's will that I be a faithful sacrificial, joyful giver, I know God wants to supply my every need. I know God wants me to be out of debt. I know the Lord wants to bless me. He wants to put abundance on my life. How do I get there? Self-control. In the

King James Version, you'll often find this word written as the word temperance. Most modern translations will break it down and simply use the word self-control. Self -control is listed in the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians chapter 5. We would understand it as the ability to control oneself, in particular one's emotions and desires or the expression of them in one's behavior. Simply, it is the Spirit working in us the ability to say no. Now, as you grow and as you mature, not only spiritually, but just as a human being, there is an element of self-control that is born of your human will, the discipline of your earthly being. This is not that. This is clearly a work of the Spirit. Paul writes in Galatians 5, and if you have been raised in church, you could probably think back to some Sunday school years. Now, I'm not that old, but I'm old enough to remember what we called in Canada, the old

flannel graph. Anybody here ever have those in Sunday school, the old pictures on the flannel board? Now, I remember as a child hearing lessons on the fruit of the Spirit, and they would have an apple, a banana, grapes, an orange, and so they would use nine different fruits to depict the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5. And well, for the sake of simplicity, I understand what they're endeavoring to accomplish that really gives us an incorrect visual, because Galatians 5 does not say the fruits of the Spirit. It is not plural. It's singular, the fruit. There is a single fruit of the Spirit that works out these nine areas of our character, nine areas of our life. Now, the problem with the plural approach is this, is because, well, I don't want to make any accusation, but if you're anything like me, you would do this. You know, patience doesn't come very easy to me, and so I'm going to focus on

this fruit called self-control, because in my human will, I'm a pretty disciplined person. So I'm just going to focus on the fruit of self-control. With the plural approach, we tend to neglect that which is more difficult to the development of our being and focus on that which is more natural to us by genetics or environmental upbringing. We don't get that liberty. This is not multiple fruits. It's a singular fruit working in these nine areas of our life, one of which is the area of self-control. And so this is not born of our human will or our human discipline. This is the by-product of the Spirit working in us. Now, Jesus was clear in the Gospel of John when he's teaching about the vine. He said, you can do nothing of yourself. Your ability to produce fruit. Now, I've heard it preached. You've probably heard it preached that the Gospel of John fruit. We're talking about souls and harvest, and,

well, that might be a pretty extension. It's not the context of Scripture. The fruit is what he's talking about right here, and the principle is this, is you don't have the ability to produce this kind of love or patience or kindness or self-control in and of yourself. This is the by-product of you, the vine, being connected to the branch or the root which is Jesus Christ. And so you might have a measure of discipline, but you don't have enough. You might have a measure of joy or a measure of kindness, but you don't have enough. This kind of self-control is not born of the human will. It's born of the Spirit as you are connected to the vine. As you get connected to Jesus, He who is the perfect embodiment of self -control by the indwelling of His Spirit starts working something out in you that gives you this ability to say no. If you don't, if you get anything

tonight, hear me. Self-control is the Spirit of God giving you the ability to say no. And the Bible is full of stories of both victory and defeat which came by one's ability to exercise self-control, which is to say no. All the way back to Adam and Eve, I know we often refer to Adam and Eve in the experience of the serpent beguiling her and deceiving her. But what we often overlook is this other little part of the Scripture that said Eve had been looking at the fruit. She saw that it was pleasant and it would be good to food. She's visually enticed by what she sees and her inability to restrain her passion in her lust in that moment. Her lack of self-control becomes the doorway to both deception. She believes the voice of the serpent over the Word of God and it becomes the doorway to disobedience where they openly defy the command of God. It was a lack

of self-control. What about the story of Esau? He comes back from the field, he catches no game and he's hungry. His belly is grumbling for food and there's his brother with a fresh bowl of stew on the fire. And there's something in him that rises in that moment that so desires what his brother has that he casts off all self-control. And in that reckless abandon, he exchanges his birthright, his promise, his legacy. He gives it away in exchange for this temporary satisfaction. No self-control. He trades his birthright for a bowl of soup. And what about Samson? Samson was mighty strong. He killed a lion, but he couldn't kill his own passion. He could be bound in chains and break them, but he could not break the chains of his own human lust. As strong and as gifted as he was, his inability to exercise self-control cost him greatly. Or what about David? We see both clearly in the life

of David. We see David on the one hand who finds himself in the darkness and in the shadows of a cave with the opportunity to take the life of a man who has tried to take his. And though most certainly there's a part of his flesh that would seek revenge, that would want to take the life of Saul, thank God David exercised self-control. But it's not too much later in the story. When he's not in the place where he should be, he has stayed back from the battle when he's standing on a rooftop. In his uncontrolled lust, his lack of self-control cost him to sin greatly. Peter, Peter had good intention. His desire was to save the life of his Lord, the one he was willing to fight for. And so it's there in a moment when the soldiers come to take Jesus, Peter draws his sword. And what does Jesus do? He rebukes Peter and heals the soldier. Now this

shows us that it's possible to have a good intention, but still lack the self-control that's necessary to be in alignment with Jesus Christ. And so Peter lacked self-control in this moment. And lastly, perhaps the greatest picture of all is Jesus himself. We see this many times through Jesus' life and ministry. We see it when he's tempted of the devil and the wilderness. He exercises self-control in his ability to say no and resist the temptations. We see it in the course of his earthly ministry. I think it's John 6, if my memory's correctly. The Bible said when Jesus perceived that they desired to make him king, it was the right intention, it was just the wrong way. He was a king, he was going to assume the throne, but that's not how it was going to happen. He exercises self-control by doing what? He withdraws himself from the crowd and he walks away from the people. It was the right

idea, it was just the wrong way. And so he exercised self-control. Probably most notably, we find him in the Garden of Gethsemane on the eve of that great crucifixion. And you know the prayer, Lord, not my will, but yours be done. Everything in me wants to escape the agony of this cross in the horror of the crucifixion. That's what I want because there's nothing in me that glories and pain and discomfort and the process by which victory comes. But I'm going to exercise the control of self. I'm going to say no to the desire for comfort, no to the desire for my wants and my ways and my will. And so self-control caused him to take the more difficult road but the only road that worked. Ultimately, this is a heart thing. We could talk about all of the practical elements of finances, but if we don't get it right here, you could sit through all kinds of classes and sessions

and planning, but if you don't get it right here, you can track expenses and use apps, but if we don't get it right here. And so I would submit to you that how we act with the money in our hands shows the attitude towards money in our heart. You've probably heard it said, as I have, you can tell a lot about what a person values by their calendar and their checkbook. And so while these following scriptures don't speak specifically to the arena of finance, they most certainly speak to the heart of it. Proverbs 25 and 28. He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls. He that hath no rule, no control, no dominion over self, over the inward man is like a city that is broken down and without walls, which is to say it's a city with no means of defense, no method of protection, a city that is vulnerable

to whatever enemy, whatever encroaching enemy would seek to overthrow them. The principle is this, self-control will keep you from unnecessary battles. Self-control is not pretty, it's not always fun, it's certainly not always pleasant, but that ability to say no will keep you from a lot of unnecessary struggles in your life. Proverbs 16 and 32. He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty. And I know this goes against everything in our western mindset and everything against the celebrity mentality that has evaded the American culture, even the North American church. But he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleeth his spirit than he that takeeth the city. Now here's the fact, self-control won't get you recognized by man. You can live silently in the shadows with the discipline of self-control and nobody but God might take notice. Now I know to our culture, to our modern church culture, we would acknowledge

the mighty, we would acknowledge the conqueror, we would celebrate the success of the one who can take the city. But the Scripture says, the Lord says he that is slow to anger, he who can exercise dominion, control over themselves is better than the mighty. So to God in this kingdom, self-control is better than great power. Kind of tips the scales a little bit, because I know what we celebrate. We celebrate good preaching. We celebrate working in miracles. We celebrate great giftings and certainly all of those fulfill a necessary part of the kingdom and a part of the body. So I wouldn't advocate that we diminish those, but what I would advocate tonight is that we just raise the level of honor surrounding the discipline of self-control. Because in this kingdom, self-control is better than great power. Self-control, if I could even go this far, is better than great preaching. I've heard great preaching that I later realized came from

a vessel that had no self-control. But there's been a lot of, I feel the Holy Ghost right here, there have been a lot of silent warriors in the kingdom who did more in their silence by the exercise of self-control than certain figures and personalities did by their charisma in a pulpit. In this kingdom, self-control is better than great power. Amen. I wish I was as good looking as Pastor could sing right now, because I feel like that would help. The desires of your flesh must be, must be restrained through the power of the Holy Spirit. So I thought this was about money. We're going to get there, but before we can talk about money, we got to look at the heart a little bit. There is not one of us that is exempt from this reality. We are all humans made with this carnal nature that just wants. Pastor made this statement a month or two ago now, but something

to the effect of how our human wants, our human lusts will always take us outside the boundary of Scripture. And the only way to bring those into subjection is through being restrained by the power of the Holy Spirit, by being connected to the true vine, by the Spirit of God working in me through the working of the Holy Ghost, and through the Word of God that brings my carnal passions into restraint, that there is a control of myself through the power of the Holy Spirit. So let's look at 2 Timothy 1 and 7. If I had to come up with a list of 10 favorite Scriptures, this would probably be one of them. For God hath not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. First, I would highlight for your attention the first place we ever find fear in the Scripture. You won't find the Word, but you will find the Spirit. It's

in Genesis chapter 3. It's when the Lord comes walking in the cool of the day looking for the people he'd walked with so many times before. But on this day, they're not there. We know it is the custom of God to have a meeting place with his people, because the Bible tells us of Abraham that he stood before the Lord at the time and the place he had before. And so God comes on this day to walk with Adam to talk in the cool of the day, and Adam is not there. Adam is hiding in the bushes, and I know you don't find the Word fear here, but fear is here. And I know we often talk about the spirit of fear like it's this spooky manifestation, but I would tell you it's much more subtle and it's much more deceptive than it is scary. The spirit of fear ultimately lies to you about who your father is, because if you can't see

your father correctly, you can't see yourself correctly. Now the fact is Adam had sinned. There was a consequence for that sin, but the lie told him that the shame you feel means he's not going to walk with you anymore. The lie said that the shame and the regret you feel over your disobedience means he's not going to talk to you anymore. And so when you feel his presence draw near, you retreat into hiding in the bushes. It's the spirit of fear. It's lied to him about God, and now it's lying to him about himself. And so Paul writes to Timothy and makes it clear God hasn't given us a spirit of fear. We don't operate from a perspective or the influence of fear, and it's not just a natural fear, it's a spirit of fear. It must be dealt with by the spirit. You're not going to conquer it with a motivational speech. You will not conquer it with a little clip on

YouTube. Its source is spiritual, and the source of the victory must be the spirit. God has not given us a spirit of fear. Here's what he did give us though, power, a spirit of power, a spirit of love, and a spirit of a sound mind. This is what he means. Power is your ability. Love is your motive. Sound mind, it literally means self-discipline, which speaks to our ability to make a good decision. So you see how fear manipulates your decision when God comes seeking relationship, and fear sends you running the opposite direction. Paul says that's not God working in your life. That's the spirit of fear, because what God actually gave you was the ability and the motive to make a good decision. That's what the spirit of God does. The spirit of God works in you, giving you the power to do what is right, giving you the purified motive to do what is right. I'm not doing it to be

pleased, or to please others, or for the affirmation of others. I'm not doing it to be recognized by peers, or to be honored by men. I'm doing this in humility before God, because it is asked of me in the Scripture. My motive has to be right, and if the spirit is working self-control in you, it's giving you both the ability and the right motive. And when we start talking about money and the influence of money, if anything gets manipulated quickly, it's your motive. Amen? I wish this was pastor and not me. Because it's your ability and your motive that positions you with the self-discipline or control to make a good decision. Fear manipulates your decision, but the spirit is producing these things in you, giving you the ability to make a good decision. Among the works of the flesh in Galatians 5, this is a strong word right here, and I'm glad God said it, not me. Because among the works

of the flesh in Galatians 5, we find idolatry and envy were listed with things like witchcraft, false doctrine, and murder. I know, I know. In our mind, that's a big jump, because we would never put our uncontrolled envy or the lust of our flesh, the unceasing want in our human nature. We would never put that on par with the guy serving time at the county jail for murder. But Paul said, these are the works of the flesh. I know, I know to that ancient culture in comparison to us, idolatry was so different. We're not kneeling before a big totem pole or a statue. We didn't come with some animal sacrifice tonight, but if we do a little self-inventory, we might find that the investment of our time and the spending of our finances on things of this world is in fact creeping into the area of idolatry. So how do we deal with this? How does somebody combat these works of the

flesh? Well, Paul answered it before he even told us what they were. This I say then, walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary, the one to the other. So you cannot do the things that you would. You can want to do it, but you keep stumbling because you're trying to do it from the place of your human will and not by walking in the spirit. You know the first place you find the word walk in the Bible? Genesis chapter 3. The first time God ever moved in the context of human relationship, he walked. And Genesis 1, the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, but in Genesis 3, they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the cool of the day. It's just personified terminology to talk to us about having a relationship in

the spirit. You could read it like this. Paul says, this I say then, have a relationship in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. See, it's possible to come on Sunday, even come on Wednesday, but if there's no true fellowship in the spirit the other five days of the week, the lust of the flesh overpower your desire or your want to do the good you think you should do. This is what Paul is saying, you want to do it, but you cannot do it. The only way you have victory over the lust, the want, the desire, the passion of the flesh is to walk or to have a relationship in the spirit. It's the only way. And so specifically tonight to make the transition to finances, I would tell you this, the eye is the gateway to the soul. I already mentioned this, but we could look at Eve in Genesis chapter 3, verse 6. The scripture says,

when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes, three words in one sentence to emphasize the visual component of this temptation. Now certainly it could have been that she was persuaded by what she heard and certainly in measure there is truth there for the serpent was beguiling her, persuading her through words. But I would submit to you if she didn't spend so much time standing there looking at it, she would have not been in proximity to feel the temptation of those words. But it's this visual attraction, this visual component that's manipulating the less of the flesh and the want in her human nature and feeding this part of her humanity that craves that because it looks good. Look at Jesus, very different context, but a very similar principle. Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them.

Why not just sit down and have a conversation and with words describe the beauty of the kingdom and the glory of this temptation? I'll tell you why. Because he knew you are much more easily manipulated by what you see than what you hear. And so when the serpent wanted to deceive Eve, he waited until she had a good lengthy look at that thing that pleased her. And when Satan desired to manipulate and tempt Jesus in the midst of this fast and this season of consecration, he says, come with me, let me show you the glory of my kingdom. Why did he show him? Because he knew the power of the eye. And so this might sound strong, but I would offer this for your consideration tonight. What the serpent was to Eve, advertising has become to us. Now I'm probably going to make myself uncool here, but I didn't know that this Sunday was the Super Bowl Sunday. I'm very out of touch.

I don't even know who's playing. But as I was studying this afternoon, I thought I'm going to look up some statistics on advertising. And as such, I discovered that this Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday. Did you know that this Sunday, for a 30 minute segment, they will pay over $7 million dollars? 50 years ago, you would have got that same segment for somewhere between $70,000 and $85,000. $7 million dollars for a 30 second advertisement. Hard to wrap my head around. One study done in the 27 nations of the European Union by a major university followed the lives of over 900,000 people for 30 years. The doctor spearheading the study approached it believing that he could find a correlation between money spent on a country's advertising and a correlation to the happiness of its citizens. And after following 900,000 people in 27 countries over 30 years, he concluded that every time the spending of advertisement increased in a country, it

was followed by a decrease in happiness in the two and three years that followed it. Because there's something about advertisement, I would even extend this beyond paid advertisement and cause us to consider something like social media that's visual. Consider the advent of technology where we've moved beyond old phones and we've moved beyond radios and everything is visually driven now. Do you know why? Because they understand the power of visual manipulation. Because when I see what somebody else has, all of a sudden I'm not very content with what I have. And my $25 watch doesn't look very nice next to their $500 watch. And my five-year-old car is not very nice compared to their new car. And my house that hasn't been renovated isn't very great compared to their house that they've fixed five times. And there's nothing wrong with having any of that, but there's a reason the Scripture cautions us against comparing ourselves against ourselves. Because an overwhelming amount of

time spent looking at things we shouldn't look at, manipulates our human will and robs us of the ability to live with spirit-led self-control. And so you start talking about something and now these targeted ads because your phone's always listening or coming up on social media and it's fueling this human part of you, this carnal nature that just wants and wants and wants and wants. And it makes you feel less of yourself in comparison to others. It's a spirit of fear telling you God's not really going to take care of you. God's not going to bless you. God's not going to supply your needs. And so you step outside of the boundary of spirit-led self-control and you operate in earthly ambition trying to get by your talents and your ability what God would give you by his spirit in his time and for his purpose. Psalms 1, 19, and 37. Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity. That word vanity

just means emptiness or empty things. Quicken thou me in thy way. Turn mine eyes away from empty things. We conquer the lusts of our flesh by pursuing a contentment in our spirit. You will never come to a place of contentment by more or new or better. You only come to a place of contentment by what happens in your spirit. So I Paul said in Thessalonians 5, 23, I pray that the God of peace sanctify you wholly. Spirit, soul, body. He's talking about the order of how God works. Spirit, the inward man. Soul, the mind, the will, the emotions. That part of you that relentlessly wants and wants and wants. And then the body or the outward man. Contentment only comes by what happens on the inside. And it's for this reason we find in Luke 12 and 15 he said unto them, take heed and beware of covetousness. For a man's life consists of not in the abundance of the things which he

possesseth. It goes against everything in our American mind because to us success is a career. It's a house. It's this. It's measured by what we see, what we pride ourselves in. But not in this kingdom. In this kingdom he said, take heed, guard yourself and beware. Diligently watch against this temptation to covet because your life, the success of your life, the value of your life, the goodness of your life, the beauty of who you are has nothing to do with the abundance of what you have. 1 Timothy 6, 6 through 10. Now these verses are directly in response to this statement. Paul said there are some who say that gain is godliness. There are some who say, well I'm blessed. I got a great job, a new house, a new car. There are some who equate gain to godliness. And Paul says, Timothy, this is actually what it's like. Godliness with contentment is great gain. Gain is not equal to godliness, but godliness

that brings contentment to your life, that is the great gain. For we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out. Having food and raiment let us be there with content, but they that will be rich fall into temptation and snare. Let me say this tonight. Being rich has nothing to do with the amount of money you have or the value of your earthly assets. Being rich comes down to if your decisions are manipulated by what you have. There's some people in this city that probably don't have two five dollar bills to buy bread tonight that live in houses with leaking roofs and no car and can't pay their power bill, but they're rich. They're manipulated by the control of money. And on the other hand there's probably some people in some very lavish houses with enough money to bless everybody in this room tonight. They're not rich because the value of their home or the balance of

their bank account. Scripturally they're rich because they're controlled by what they have. Their ability to make a decision, a good godly decision is hindered by their earthly possessions. And Paul says those kind of people are going to fall into a temptation and a snare and to many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money, I'm sure you've heard it said as I have, that money is the root of all evil. That's not what the Bible says. The love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, pierced themselves through with many sorrows. Hebrews 13 and 5, let your conversation which is to say your life, your lifestyle, your way of living be without covetousness. And be content with such things as you have. For he, God, saith, I will never leave thee nor for safety. And here we find the source of true contentment. Be

content with what you have because contentment doesn't come from getting more. Contentment doesn't come from what or where it comes from who. So just be content with what you have because God said I will be with you. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. That's the source of your contentment. And so well everything in our modern world says look at this and look at this. Look at this ad and look at this ad and look at this and look at this and look at this profile and look at this and look at this. All of this is channeling the spirit of mammon that wars against our ability to be led by the spirit and walk in self-control. And it feeds this carnal part of us that just wants and wants and wants. And in the midst of that wanting we compare ourselves to others and deplete our sense of self-worth and self-value and diminish our God-given

identity and diminish our God-given giftings. Diminish our God-given callings when in reality real contentment has nothing to do with your bank account, nothing to do with your car, nothing to do with your house. It comes from Jesus. And if you want to know where to look do what the writer of Hebrew said. Let's look to that cloud of witnesses and let's look to Jesus the author and the finisher of our faith. That's where you ought to look. I've heard it said in fact I think if my memory is correct it was Brother Shaw who perhaps said it at general conference a few years ago. But when Nona Freeman died she didn't even have money to pay for her own funeral. And I know there's some financial advisor in 2023 that would say that's just bad stewardship. I'm going to tell you something about Nona Freeman. Her and her husband accomplished some things for the kingdom. There was a level of contentment

that they discovered. I've been there. I was in Kenya a year and a half ago and a gentleman asked me tell me one thing you love and one thing you don't love about our country. I said brother that's kind of an awkward place to put me in. No, no I want to know. I said well what I love is the simplicity of life and the joy in all the people walking by a dry field. No playground, no equipment, no soccer ball but an empty gallon milk jug and more joy on the face of those children than most kids in this city. And I said that's for that thing I don't like. That's really uncomfortable for me to answer but I've been here seven days and I haven't had a hot shower. Now I fully understand, I understand what that even sounds like but you asked so I'm answering. He said oh brother there are pastors at this meeting who have never had a

shower in their life. They just go fill their buckets at the watering hole with the animals and go back to their hut and sponge themselves down. I just tell you the North American church has a long way to go to discover that kind of contentment. And I fully understand that I also talk to you about dominion and blessing in abundance but those are things that come from the heaven not from the earth. It's something that God pours out based upon our ability to live within the confines of spirit led self-control. True contentment is presence, P-R-E-S-E-N-C-E. Not presence P-R -E-S-E-N-T-S. It's Jesus not stuff. And so I close tonight we each have a decision. Jesus gave us this choice even the commandment to decide. Matthew 6 24. Jesus said you cannot serve God in Mammon. The reality is is Mammon money, self-confidence, living by the influence and the manipulation

of unrestrained want, a confidence in what you can accomplish and your money and your stuff. Mammon, it wants control. The prevailing spirit and attitude surrounding unredeemed money seeks autonomy from God. It says you don't have to give, you don't have to sacrifice, you don't have to do that. It says I'm yours. But the only way you can break the power of that spirit is to exercise self-control. It's to do this. No. No. The spirit of God giving me the ability to say no to the spirit of Mammon and to surrender to God. Money I would submit tonight is one of the most spiritual things we will interact with on this earth. The spirit of Mammon I find portrayed very clearly in the book of Genesis. We're going to close here and as I was in prayer and study this afternoon the Lord began to deal with me about this. And if you'll receive it as a word from the Lord I feel

like the Holy Ghost is going to talk to us right now. Because what happened here on Sunday, there's a whole lot more of it. But I'm going to tell you how it happens. In Genesis 14, Abram comes back from reaping the spoil of a great war. And the king of Sodom, that's Sodom and Gomorrah, comes out to him and says, Hey, you just give me back the people and keep all the money for yourself. Just give me back the people you took. But you can keep all the treasure for yourself. And Abram looks at that king and says, No, I've already given a tithe of all my increase. He says, I've lifted up my hand of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth. What he's saying is I've entered into covenant with God. He says, I wouldn't I wouldn't take even a thread or a shoe latch from you. Because I don't want it to be said that the king of

Sodom made me rich. I want you to see this because the king of Sodom says, You just give me the people and you can keep the money. He says, No, I've already opened my hand and given it. Because the only way you can break the spirit of mammon is to say no to self, to surrender to God, to open your hand and to give, to give faithfully, to give sacrificially and to give joyfully. You think, Well, that's that's great. That's the end of the story. No, it's not the end of the story because only four chapters later you find Abraham interceding for the city of Sodom. I submit for your consideration tonight this truth. He could not have interceded for their deliverance had he surrendered to their influence four chapters earlier. Our ability to be intercessors for those that Sodom says, give me back is entirely dependent on our ability to resist the influence of that spirit on our own life. When that

spirit says, Keep it for yourself. You work for that. That's your money. Buy another thing. Take another trip. Get a new car. Get a better house. Just do this, this, this. You've got to have the spirit led ability to say no. And when you resist the influence of that spirit in your own life, it qualifies you to be an intercessor for those that Sodom says, Give me back. I've driven the streets of the city. I can tell you, we've kind of got two extremes in clay in Vigo County. We've got a lot of down and out and we've got a few real doing real, real good. But on both ends of the spectrum, it's the spirit of mammon. It's the spirit of fear, manipulating minds, destroying the ability to decide and it's hindering revival. And the only way they give free is if the people of God resist that spirit, which qualifies them to intercede for their deliverance. And I know, I know,

I know we, we get old Sodom and Gomorrah for their sexual perversion, but you go read what Ezekiel said. He rebuked that city, not just for their immorality, not just for their perversion, but he rebuked that city for how they handled their money and their care for the poor. So you see this thing called money and this principle of self control goes so much beyond your paycheck and so far beyond your next bill. It actually has bearing on the deliverance of the people and the salvation of the people that call this city home. Let's and so we have to do it. What Jesus said, we have to choose our master because either you love the one hate the other. You can't serve both. I don't tell these stories everywhere, but the Lord reminded me this afternoon, the word he gave me on the Sunday, we broke ground last March. The Lord spoke to me that Sunday morning, you go look at it in

Genesis, the ground, the vegetation grew from the moisture, the dew on the earth, but the Lord said he didn't send rain from the heavens because there was no man to till the ground. The principle is this, there's a dimension of provision you can live in by which is natural in the earth. You go work your job, clock your 40 hours, get your paycheck. That's still the blessing of God, but you're living in a dimension of provision that's bound to the earth. But if you start breaking the soil, if you start working a little bit, God said there's a dimension of provision I can send from the heavens, but it doesn't start raining. It doesn't come down from the heavens until you break the soil. So you see what happens? You go to work, you be a good steward, you practice self-control, and God says, hey, I know you might only make 30, 40, 50, 60, $100,000 a year. That's all you

do with your college education. That's all you could do with your stewardship. But what you didn't know is every day you were going to work, and every time you were saying, no, I was building up a little moisture in the clouds to pour something out upon you that's more than you could do by yourself. I'm telling you, I feel it in the Holy Ghost right now. There's a dimension, a financial dominion for your life and for this church that's going to touch a lot more than this church. It can change the face of this city and this county, because when you resisted in your life, you can intercede for those under its influence in the city. I told you what Mark Morgan said and what I got convicted about, and I wish I could tell you what happened overnight. That's not how it worked. I had to juggle three jobs for 10 years, working night shift at a hotel, getting off work at

7.30 in the morning, coming home to wake my family up, going to a storage facility, loading up a truck with church gear, going to a hotel, setting up the church, having church tearing down, going back to the storage facility to unload it all, going home and sleeping for a few hours and getting up and going to work for 11 o'clock again. It was anything but easy. But you know what, God was teaching me, Dan, you need to learn self-control, you need to learn discipline, stewardship, you need to learn how to be a sacrificial giver, and that's what I did. You know what I tried to do? I sat down with a financial advisor. I said, here's my budget. Tell me what I got to do. She said, sir, there's really only two things I can tell you. The first is you need to make more money. Thank you. That's, I hired you to come to my table tonight to tell

me I need to make more money. I had that much on my own. Thank you. She said, second, the only room you really have here is this line right here. And she pointed to a line called giving. So, ma'am, I'm sorry, but that's, that's the one line you can't touch. And just so we're on the same page, that's just what I budget to give monthly. That doesn't take into consideration when a missionary comes through or a building project or being at a conference and the Spirit says, give or the Lord just impresses upon me. I was watching a guy on YouTube a couple of weeks ago and his 13-year-old son got up to testify and the Lord spoke to me, sent him $100. Not a much, but probably that 13-year-old kid. That's just what I budget. That's not what God says, give. She says, well, there's nothing I can do for you. I don't know what to tell

you. And my wife looked at her and said, well, I want you to know my husband has a word from God because I did. The Lord told me in 2010 that he would remove the mountain of debt, but I had to be like a seed and fall into the ground to die. And provision would come from the North, South, East, and the West. Oh, and there were a lot of days I thought it was going to show up in the mailbox. It was going to disappear in a moment. That's not how it worked, because God said, there's some things I've got to teach you. You've got to learn to live with the Spirit-led self-control. But when you do, when you start breaking that soil down the cloud, you're going to discover I have something you don't have. And in the time that seemed most unlikely when COVID shut the world down, my family of five was living in a two-bedroom

townhouse. My family was sleeping in bunk beds. My older sons were on the top bunk, and Finn was between my wife and I. And I had a lot of questions for God because I couldn't make sense of the struggle in my life and the prophecy I had. But in a short 60 days, when I couldn't travel and I wasn't preaching and there was nowhere to go and there was nothing to do because the world was shut down, God, God, God put $110,000 through my hands. I'm telling you, it literally came from the North, South, East, and the West. And I know, I know, there's always somebody who thinks, man, I'd love to have that. Hey, it was 10 years of misery to get there. 10 years of trial, 10 years of faithful sacrifice, 10 years of fighting to get by. And I know, you think, whoa, man, what a vacation that would give me. What a trip. No, you know what I

did? I paid my ties and I paid off all my debt and I gave the largest offerings I had ever given in my life. And for the first time in our married life, I had money in a savings account because that's good stewardship. So I'm not up here preaching to you tonight something that I got out of a book. I'm telling you what I've discovered from the well of revelation and what I've lived and I'm prophesying to some people tonight and I'm prophesying to this church. There is a dimension, a provision that comes when you discover how to say no through the power of the Holy Ghost. Would you lift your hands to the Lord? Come on, would you just open up your spirit and receive it right now? We're done, but we need to let the Holy Ghost just seal this into our hearts right now. Lord, it's not about me. It's about your kingdom. And what you've done for me, you

can do for everyone in this house. You can bring them out of debt. You can change their story. You can raise them up to be a sacrificial, joyful, faithful giver in the house of God and in the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Let the blessing of the Lord flow through the families of this house and flow through this church family to this city and to this county. It's a beacon of light. It's a place of hope, of transformation. It's coming from the heavens. It's abundance. It's blessing. It's the pleasures of God poured out in my personal life because I learned how to say no through the power of the Holy Ghost. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. So next time you feel that spirit working through the medium of advertising, you say, now I'm going to turn you off. I'm going to close this now because I don't need to feed that part of my flesh. I need God to turn my

eyes from empty things because there is people bound by the power of Sodom that if I resist its influence, it qualifies me to be the intercessor of deliverance for them. I'm just, I feel in the Holy Ghost, we got a giving Sunday coming up. I just feel tell somebody you need to take inventory and allow the spirit to speak no to some areas and to some decisions because it's not just about a building. It's not about a mortgage note. It's about the people that are under the influence of Sodom whose only hope of freedom is what they'll find in this building and through your life. Come on, one more time. Lift your hands. In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, teach us God. The grace of God has appeared to all men, teaching us to deny ungodliness in all worldly less. Teach us God. Give us ears to hear, hearts to obey. In the name of Jesus, in the name

of Jesus, in the name of Jesus. Let's give the