The Principle of Multiplication

if you could would you would you gather with me would you agree with me that our God is the great physician that he's a Healer if we would would we agree in that and can we lift up our hands Jesus we love you God we thank you Lord so much for your goodness so much for your mercy so much for your grace God we know that you're An Almighty God you're a holy everl lasting father God and I pray right now that in every one of these situations God we have agreed we have agreed coming together in your name agreeing that you are an almighty God and believing that you're a Healer God I pray Lord that you would touch each and every need God you would touch Naomi and John and Colt and the Sanders family God that you would touch the James Mitchell and his family God that you would touch Mickey Lawrence God that you would touch sister Sherry and sister Stacy God I pray Lord that you would would let your mercy and your grace and your love just wrap your arms around them but God you know the very root and the Very cause of every issue and every need God I pray Lord that you would in your most gentle and most wonderful healing manner to go and to heal God I pray Lord upon us tonight God that you would let the most powerful Spirit of the Holy Ghost to settle upon us God as we are studying we are learning and we are striving to know you and to know your nature God that you would help us Lord to fall in love with you deeper and deeper God and help us Lord to allow our minds and our hearts and our soul to be drawn together in one with you god at one with you God I pray Lord to let the Holy Ghost to be upon us tonight God anoint me to teach God anoint us to hear God anoint us to understand and our hearts to accept our souls to change God we'll be careful to give you all the praise all the glory and all the honor can you put your hands together for just a moment God I thank you and God I praise you God I worship you Lord I Thank you Lord for the opportunity oh you are great and you are Mighty you are awesome Lord Jesus you are awesome God I thank you Lord Jesus thank you church so much for standing if you're if you you have children that need to be in the nursery uh sister Tamia we're not talking about brother Lawrence over here he's he's supposed to stay in here but

everybody else uh you can be seated I'm going to get into the lesson tonight and we're going to talk about generosity we're going to talk about gifts and my topic tonight is is primarily the principle of multiplication so has everybody got a calculator that that's that's what we learned multiplication in school uh two what is 2 * two what you got Jaden all right what's four time 4 oo what 16 * 16 oh 64 all right we got a little Math Genius on our hands right here does anybody know what 64 time 64 is all right I don't either so that was I'm glad you knew that last one too there that that M that point of multiplication is called exponential growth all right it um exponent are we'll talk a little bit about those but multiplication it takes something and it's not just addition it's not 1 plus one it's not one time one that's just addition it's 2 * 2 it's four * 4 it's 8 * 8 16 * 16 it's so on and so forth and we'll talk about how God can do that in a variety of factors but tonight I'm going to use money okay so I went to school uh for finance uh that's that's now I'm not an investment I'm not and I'm not giving investing advice tonight I am not even going to I'm not even going to talk about that stuff and and in no way shape form and fashion but from a from a visual standpoint it is easy to see the principle of multiplication with money okay so Who Wants To Be A Millionaire unless you're billionaire put your hand down right if you want everybody here Wants To Be A Millionaire we're not we're not GNA play that game uh but Ramsey Solutions okay Mr Dave Ramsey brother Dave if if you know him religiously I don't know like he's brother Dave uh if you if you've listened to talk radio or you grew up with your dad playing talk radio and now it's he's got podcast now so that's it's modern and it's okay but he they his company they done a study on on millionaires all right so I'm so Jess do we have do we have these slides I don't have these memorized all right so the top five careers for millionaires engineers accountants or CPAs teachers we got a lot of teachers in here guys woohoo yeah management and attorneys it's not that's the top five for millionaires okay now this is this this study has been peer-reviewed it was it was a in-depth study across America America okay uh next next slide is uh it is almost 2third of millionaires graduated from college so 62% uh from Public University or state schools um that doesn't mean they all went to Harvard all right next next one we got here uh the majority of millionaires they did not receive any inheritance 79% did not receive any inheritance so guess what put in the work uh the the next one here eight out of 10 invested in their company's 401K that means they didn't invent something they just put in the work day after day now if you listen to brother Dave he like he like yells this part okay like loudly and repeatedly and honestly if you listen to the calls you understand why he yells so it's like okay I get it uh next the next one there three out of four millionaires said regular consistent investing so that would be you know mutual funds uh maybe real estate maybe uh uh just their 401K uh that led to their success all right so then I believe this might be our last one here uh I don't really know I I don't know why that's a very I don't know if it's a just a coincidence or a big indicator or not here but millionaires use a written grocery list when going shopping interesting thought I mean what's what's what's your biggest monthly expense a lot of time it's either rent or groceries most of the time now if you're like me it's you get there I I'm not supposed to go shopping I I have a list a very specific list that I go and pick up and that's that's it right I mean everyone Lauren she has she's very detailed about this I I was glad to see this I was like yes I'm going to be a millionaire that to me that is just one of those pieces of diligence

now proverbs chapter uh chapter well lost my notes Here guys chapter 13 and verse 22 a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children but the sinner's wealth is laid up for the righteous so we talked about millionaires that's we kind of all want to be there or at least in that general direction um but a good man leaves inheritance for his children's children so it's God Godly I might add that wealth is not ungodly it makes some things harder but it's not wrong makes some things easier don't you agree it's easier not to steal when you're not starving to death okay it's I don't know if it's easy yeah I imagine it's easier to not cheat somebody some would say otherwise but I would just imagine that I'm using my imagination on this so all of that that right there okay those are just studies done now the

the next slides these these were these were where I really started to enjoy preparing for this lesson okay it's start it's talking about investing and I'm I'm going somewhere that it's biblical but I needed I needed to lay this Foundation of multiplication all right on the on the charts there Jess uh it it's the one that says impact of when you start investing all right so once again all rights Reserve disclaimer I'm not an investing company not I am not we're not pitching a multi-level marketing scheme after this if you come to me for stock advice terrible don't do that um anything like that okay this is simple principles learned in finance okay um Jack invest $200 per month at age 25 if he he contributes over till 65 he contributes a total of $96,000 but at 65 he has around 500 to $550,000 in his account that is exponential increase you see that that line right there in if if you graph like anything like that that's an exponential component there we'll dig into that uh the exponent there is time all right so you see here uh Jill invests $200 a month starting at 35 she contributes $72,000 35 to 65 she only has about 250,000 now this is at the end of several years of investing percentage on that probably I think they figured it at 7% uh if you're you're that into numbers and then at 45 Joey invests $200 a month starting at 45 in contrib a total of $48,000 at the end of it he only has roughly over $100,000 the next slide we're going somewhere with this I know this is everyone's favorite class super spiritual here right y'all hang with me for a minute uh the impact of when you start investing even if you stop Jack invested for 10 years and still wound up with more money than Jill who started started later it matters the time when you start so if I may those of you that are over 25 you do what you do all right I want I want to talk to the kids to the teenagers to the to those that are younger you need to invest you need to save your money and you need to you need to find a a really safe investing account that you can put money into it will make a difference in your life okay it will the earlier if you're 15 and you got $50 you know what I bet your parents can help you find somewhere a financial advisor to help you find an account to just stick this into it'll make a difference all right so your NE next slide this is when does your money when when your Investments earn more money than you contribute that's at 10 or 11 years after 10 years you're making more than actually what you're putting in that's insane your money is now making money that is now making money that is now making money now if you'll buy this product just kidding guys it's a joke it was I was testing you and at on the next one at 20 to 25 years you have now made more than you've save it starts doubling exponential growth the principle of multiplication here all right we're using money in this but I want you to understand that this is applicable in more than just money this principle in in the 70s um some mathematicians they got into Finance because they they were like no one cares about our math but we could make money when they started making money because they understood math they started building charts like this and we started seeing the principles that the Bible laid out for us and they started putting it into perspective now I want to I want to touch on something here the the the the next slide is a it's the average price of a house in Atlanta um from 2002 to 2023 and if you chart it you you you this is an appreciating asset versus Okay and like this is the actual kind of dipped a little bit in ' 08 obviously and then now it's catching back up to that 4.5% annual appreciation uh the last slide all right everybody say yes the last slide is a car how many's bought a car in the last little bit soon as you drove you you just over that little bump out the lot in that car you lost a ton of money that is a depreciation depreciating asset all right that means you're losing money and they're making money at the end of the day all right every time I want to buy a vehicle I'm like man I got to I think of that chart and I have a motorcycle I'm like I'm all right I'm good we're good now my wife she wouldn't walk everywhere so we had to get a car so you know that appreciation versus depreciation it makes a difference because what you invest in matters this iPhone here camera broke on it the other day and I was like who cares I can't I don't even take pictures but then I tried to scan a QR code and I was like oh man I ain't going to be able to go back to church now W even be able to go into anything that those principles of investing there okay this this is a consumer good right clothes they're a consumer good they do not retain any value overtime it's just it's just a bad investment I mean granted it's better than us walking around naked so it's a good investment there's a balance the the idea though here is making sure that what we are doing now this is this is money this is as money as it gets okay for like four years this was drilled in my head in college invest invest invest okay

and then I realize this applies to other things you know what do you know what he's doing right now you know what [name redacted] is doing right now I mean if y'all haven't seen his grandpa he looks just like his grandpa okay he is learning how to talk he's in he's spending time investing in learning how to talk as simple as it is if he invest in learning another language at that young age guess what my wife done that and she can learn like a language like super quick I learned redneck it's apparent preach it's parent it doesn't I did not invest in that side it shows the other day I don't even know I don't know what instrument her what instrument did you start playing when you started playing an instrument that just in general what instrument did you play first the piano guess what the other day he did wed uh Sunday he I looked over and he's playing the drums yeah he's playing the drums do you know how much easier it is to pick up an in one inch instrument or a second instrument after you've played the first instrument now how long did it take you to learn how to play uh the piano 5 to 10 years how long did it take you to learn how to do whatever you just did on the drums the other day didn't even think about it did you you invested you started if I may Jess will you put that first one back up you started way down here on this slope and then exponentially over time your ability to learn in that discipline has now exponentially grown mothers mothers in here first child how hard was that second child little easier eighth child she didn't even know she had how many kids she has now y'all little easier the skill involved in investing that becomes then multiplication you want to see multiplication wait till the they start having grandbabies woo hey it's a while it's a while it's over time yeah amen that is applicable in in all kinds of things the exponent of what we do of our giving of our time of our talent or treasure or time talent and treasure is time a discipline of giving is not born case in point you had $5 million everyone a I'd give i' I'd give for sure I'd give for sure hang on what you giving now okay if all of a sudden you were I don't know if you were all of a sudden blessed with uh the most unique ability known to mankind I I don't know like you can travel through time some of us would travel like for a minute you know how I know that we can fly anywhere in the world and we just still like live in that still 30 minute block that we just kind of right I mean after a little bit it settles down our Natures will show so the disciplines the disciplines of giving the disciplines of investing the disciplines of learning the disciplines of growing are not easy to 10 years to learn how to play the piano like a maestro over here okay but then a few minutes to play the drums you may even accidentally pick that up there's several things that you do I know that are the same thing who's uh I need I need somebody like super skilled in something who's like who's who's super skilled in something like Justin he was he was skilled in dancing we don't need a demonstration we're good well the last time you tried it and like pulled that hammy over or whatever it was I remember that so that that skill or that sport who played a sport playing a sport you played a sport who played you played a sport rugby oh basketball what did what did Coach tell you about practice every day every day I I I uh was listening to does anybody know Kobe Bryant y'all know him Kobe all right I can't know of him and at 14 he was not good at basketball he didn't he went a whole year without scoring and then he did just that he his mindset changed on his practice and he said he said in that year I just I gave myself to it I started practicing uh we all have some sort of skill Bella a s come on come on I told you it's an artistic creative skill look y'all see that skirt she made that if you told me to make a skirt you might as well just shoot me just ain't happening some of us uh have hunting skills some of us like to think we do some of us are sword fighters or fighting or a airbat atics aerobics acrobatics I was missing the C there the other ones academic spelling or maybe pronunciations uh foreign languages memorization logic some of us forget that one exist mathemat I'm just I'm just picking people skills listening to people Charming people parenting teaching peacemaking uh or morally dubious skills cheating forgery lying spying gambling all of those things take time and what we give ourselves to and what we invest ourselves in well what we is what we'll grow did you did you have that Monopoly money no all right well there went that object lesson I'm just picking at you I'm just picking if if five of us went together and we invested $5,000 and bought a car unless it was a classic we've just all lost money if five of us go together and we buy a piece of real estate it can do this but as a whole we gain money and and and we we come back and we work together that's that's part of human nature that's what separates us a lot of times from other beings is that ability to work together

now with all of those things Jesus had a parable about that right the parable of the talents Matthew 24 and 14 it would be like a man going on a journey who has called his servant entrusted them to them his property these are servants these are slaves these are Bond servants these are not people that he would should trust per se but he did the one he gave five talents to another and to another two to one and to another one to each according to his abil ability then he went away you know a talent if if this Source was to be was to be uh relied upon a talent was roughly a million dollars that's a lot of money so he had received the five talents went at once and traded with them and he made five talents more he invested them fair enough he Dave Ramy did up put a mutual fund yeah invested them and also he had two talents made two talents more he had received one Talent went dug in the ground and hid his master's money now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled to count and he received the five talents came forward bringing five talents more saying Master you delivered to me five talents here I have made five talents more his master said well good well done good and faithful servant you have been Faithful over a little and I will set you over much one who $5 million is a little Doos to you proud for you his master said to him uh well done and then also he had in 22 also he who had had two talents came forward saying Master you delivered me two talents here I have made two talents more his master said well done good and faithful servant you have been Faithful over a little I will set you over much enter into the joy of your master in verse 24 he said he also had received he also who had received the one Talent came forth saying master I knew you had to be a hard you to be a hard man reaping where you had not swn and Gathering where you had not scattered where you had scattered no seed so I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground here you have what is yours but his master said you Wicked and slothful servant you knew that I reaped where I had not sown and gathered where I had scattered no seed then all you have invested my money with the bankers and at my coming I should have received what is M own with interest so he took the talent from him and gave it to the one who had 10 the principle the principle God has given us each something time Talent treasure it's on us it doesn't matter if somebody has four five 2 one shame on us I'm just I'm just an old chunk of coal this poor old Pitiful Pearl I ain't no good for nothing I can only whatever your only is do it amen whatever your only is

Jesus took this a step further and he put it he put it into perspective for us and John 6 and 5 lifting up his eyes then and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him he this is this is Jesus had been preaching all day all day it' been hot there was nothing to eat all day they're coming to him and Jesus said to Philip where are we to bind bread so that these people may eat and he was testing Phillip for he himself knew what he would do Philip answered said 200 dinar worth of bread would not be enough for them for each of them to get a little that's about eight eight months worth of wages in that day so one of his disciples Andrew Simon Peter's brother said to him there's a boy here who has five barley Loaves and two fishes but what are they for so many you know I got to think how in the world did they find that kid but then I remembered they'd been out in the hot sun all day and he had fish that's probably like a 10-ft circle path around him nobody's getting near that guy had this old stinky fish out in the sun all day but he was a smart one and what right did they have to take that from him and feed the ones that forgot stuff what right I don't I mean he could have been stingy with it he could said no I brought it you bunch of dummies I mean honestly there's there's the people that went out there all day I mean granted they were following after Jesus after Miracles and the teaching but he thought to bring food and they did not I've seen some people like that and it's easy it's just justifiable almost I've done this this is my hard-earned money this is my hard-earned time this is my hard-earned talent and if I may close our hands around the blessings of God mine that's what that's the first thing a baby learns right mine mine closes the hand and almost and it chokes out the miracle because then the next thing that happened was they took that to Jesus and he blessed it and then distributed he blessed it what does that tell you tells me that anything that I have time Talent treasure I must take to Jesus it's mine I worked for it I earned learned it it's mine my talent I dug that out I spent those 5 to 10 years learning that I put in my 10,000 hours to learn that skill it's mine it's my treasure that I've laid up in store I've wor I've sacrificed my life it's mine that little boy just carried it to him and then Jesus blessed it then he handed it to his disciples who were just as hungry as anyone else and they could have once again clamped their hands around it and choked out the blessings of God oh what you that's a miracle he took five and gave it to 12 that's a miracle and it could have very easily stopped with them could have very easily stopped right there but what did they do they took it to the 5,000 men not everyone else this is the way I see this here guys Luke puts it puts it like that he says and and and Jesus gave it to his disciples who then distributed after having them sit down in 50s okay they numbered the men and if I follow the order of what God does they gave it to the men and and then the men distributed it to their families so at least probably 15,000 PE or 20,000 people in total from Five Loaves and two fishes they followed the order of God that God had given them the structure and they kept an open flow of the blessings as soon as they would as soon as they stopped spreading it it stopped if the disciples hadn't handed it I think to us guys that with our time our talent our treasure we have to be very careful I have seen some of the most talented people in the world who grab a hold of whatever their talent was and say no one else wants this I couldn't teach anybody I know not everyone's teachers I'm not I'm not being super detrimental here but I've watched them put a strangle hold on the talent that God had given them and it stopped with them and I have watched some people that weren't that talented but they just kept teaching somebody and they kept sewing a seed and guess what before long you've got world class whatever that skill and trade is because they just kept investing they kept teaching principles they kept giving of their time their talent and their treasure

this this past weekend I had a I had a friend come into town that him and I we went to college together went to church together and uh I'm I'm doing a podcast series and I haven't released any of them yet but we'll we'll release them in July and August it's college career and calling and as as I'd asked him you know i' found he was coming to town I was like hey will you record this with me he was like yeah and so we sat down Lauren and I were were interviewing him and he started talking about some things that reminded me of just he we were reminiscing about going to college and we went to church together so we did a lot of work together and he he got to talking about it of the the time I was like so so what did what was that like how did you manage your time right that's that's College how did you manage your time was it tough I mean he did he did like 18 hours of semester like the dude got through like super quick like he was he wasn't having to work so he just he just went hardcore but then he was at every church function he he played and sang uh he led different different things in different events at the church throughout this time and still went to college and still had a relationship with God and still invested in the things of God and he said he's like you know it didn't even enter my mind because my priorities were I'm just going to do this and honestly setting back him and I had a very similar story in that in that manner I believe that God honored that priority ity I believe that God he saw that hey he's given his time you know him and I we went for for slightly different Majors but it wasn't easy stuff it wasn't things you could just halfway do it was things that took time to study time to invest but guess what God honored that God God if you're having time management issues can I say I've lived this and it's not just me but give it to God first we're all busy everybody's got the same amount of time if you're if you're struggling with give it to God first not the not the last bit the first bit if you're if you're down to your last dollar give to God first if if you're down to your last bit of energy give it to God first the first fruits is what God ask for he doesn't ask for the last fruits I don't know if you'all been to the dollar store lately that's the last fruits of grocery stores all right but if you go to the bottom of the bin it's been smashed got a little mold on it like the guy they're paying minimum wage to restock the shelves just didn't just didn't restock the one with the mold on it just kind of left you there the apples all bruised up maybe shriveled Up's been there for months that's the last fruit that is not what God wants it's not what you want it truly it truly truly truly takes us now it takes our time our talent and our our treasure and I I I had those last two slides there that appreciating asset and that depreciating asset because we have a choice we can invest in things that are good for us we can invest in talents that are good for us and they will further us we can invest in talents that are not good for us we can invest in the Doom Scroll of Instagram and Facebook and Twitter guys honestly all those just make you mad it's just GNA happen all right we can invest in that but the the the return on that is nothing so maybe a laugh every now and then the what we do with our time what we do with our talent and what we do with our treasure

I I do want to mention this because I haven't once talked about taking up an offering I haven't once talked about what we give in the offering plate because it's so much deeper than that it's the principle of make of multiplication it is the principle of giving God the first fruits so as I'm coming to an end tonight if you would would you stand with me

John 12 and 24 says truly truly I say to you unless a grain of wheat falls into the Earth and dies it remains alone but if it dies it Bears much fruit the issue with the time talent and the treasure we grab on to it and say it's mine it's mine I've got to have it it's mine but until we get to the point of we can let the Mind die if we can say it's not mine anymore it's God's then the exponential increase will occur it's not just it's not just money but it it's it's easily it's easy to see in money it's not just abilities it's our time too so as they're coming to sing I wonder if we can pray real quick God I ask you Lord to help us I ask you God to let your mercy and your grace to settle upon us tonight God I pray Lord that the principle of multiplication God would get a hold of us deep in our souls God that in the first fruits that we give unto you God of our time of our talent and our treasure god of the first fruits that we have God that God they are not ours they are yours God I pray Lord that you would help the Mind our will our desire to fall into the ground God and to die God that you can bring forth fruit that you can give exponential increase God in our lives God we'll be careful to give you all the praise all the glory and all the honor can we just give him some praise Lord we love you Jesus we praise your holy name God Lord you are worthy Jesus hallelu hallelujah thank you Jesus thank you Jesus