Balanced, Part 1: "Opening The Books" | Dr. Mike Woods, Sr. | 12 April 2026

name. Come on, Jehovah is Jehovah, your name, your name.

Jehovah is your name, Jehovah is your name.

Come on, say mighty warrior, mighty warrior, great in battle. Jehovah is your name.

Come on again.

Mighty Warrior, you're great in battle. Come on, Jehovah, your name.

Come on, Jehovah is your name.

Is your name—

come on!

Jehovah is your name. Your name— Jehovah is your name. Your name— your name. Jehovah is your name.

Come on, sing.

Mighty Warrior, Mighty Warrior, great in battle. Jehovah, Jehovah, your name, your name. Come on, Mighty Warrior, Mighty You are great in battle. Great in battle. Jehovah, Jehovah is your name.

Come on, worship that great name. Worship that great name. He's Jehovah Jireh, the Lord our provider. He's Jehovah Tsidkenu, the Lord our sanctifier. He's Jehovah Makkaddish, the Lord our righteousness. You are Jehovah Shalom, you're the Lord our peace. You are Jehovah Gabbar, the Lord our Mighty Warrior. You are Jehovah Rapha, the Lord our Healer. You're Jehovah Rohi, the Lord our Shepherd. You're Jehovah Nissi, the Lord our Banner. And because of you, Lord Jesus, we uphold the bloodstained banner and we worship your great name.

We give glory and honor to your great name. Come on, the worshipers are worshiping. Fill this room with your voice. Jesus is your name. Jesus. Is your name! Jesus Is Your Name! Jesus Is Your Name!

Hey—

tigmar kototo bo shatataba tabaaahh... Jesus Is Your Name!

Jesus Is Your Name!

E sha kata tabaatata tabaiiiyeh ohhh Jesus Is Your Name!

Jesus is your name. Thank you, Jesus. We welcome you here, God.

Sit on us, Lord, like you sat on them on the day of Pentecost.

Sit, sit until we're healed.

Sit until deliverance comes. Sit until breakthrough comes. Sit until doors open. Sit on us, God, until miracles happen and ways are made.

You're the mighty warrior, great in battle. Jehovah is your name.

One last time.

Mighty Warrior, Mighty, Mighty Warrior, great in battle. Jehovah, Jehovah is Jesus, your name, your name. Hallelujah!

We love you, Jesus, and we adore you. We macrograph you, we supplement you, God. We extol your great and mighty name. You are King. You are our God. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Kuraba mandi asotorabe. Oh, hallelujah. Glory to God. Father, bless us as we open your word this morning. Thank you for the light, the illumination, and the intelligence of the Holy Ghost. Do something unusual in this room. Do something man cannot do. Charge this atmosphere with your Shekinah glory. Let your manifest presence fill this room.

Anoint our ears to hear.

What the Spirit would say to the church: walk in this space like a bully. Throw your weight around. Let us know you're the boss, that you're still in control. Kick some dust in the devil's face and let him know you still rule and reign in the affairs of men. And we'll give you praise, God.

May there be peace in our life. May there be peace, God. In our country, in our nation.

May there be peace in the world, and we declare it now in Jesus' name. God, even those that will watch us live this morning, may the anointing that's in this room translate into their room, and may they be changed forever. And we give you praise and glory for it now. In the mighty name of Jesus. Amen and amen. Would you clap your hands and give God praise?

Come on, y'all can do a little better than that. Clap your hands, open your mouth, and give him glory. Come on, come on, come on. We laudate him, we laudate him, and we say he is good.

Hallelujah!

And beside him there is no other.

Glory to God, we bless his name. Hallelujah! Thank you, Lord. We give you praise. Hallelujah! We love you, Jesus. We love you, Jesus. Wonderful Savior. Oh, Shabai ketoshi. Presence of the Lord is in this place. We give him the glory. Thank you, Lord. I'm gonna jump right into this. I'm gonna try this morning. Amen. Glory to God. But I believe there's a word from the Lord. Glory to God. I, I missed you on Thursday night, but I want to thank Pastor Jeffrey for standing in my stead, and he taught a wonderful word that, that I got to hear online. Glory to God. Y'all give God praise for Pastor Jeffrey Jasper. Uh, Vegas was awesome. Uh, anytime we go into region, uh, there is another slide, Mario. I, I want to, um, play this video before I preach. Um, I thought I was going to teach something else today, and, um, matter of fact, we was going to be in the Mystery of Dominion, uh, number 24 today, but, um, we were going to talk about becoming an agent of dominion, because we got to learn this stuff. You just don't become people of dominion without teaching. You got to learn it, you got to apply it. So I thought that's what that was going to happen today, was going to keep going in that, but the Lord said no. Last night about 11, I was sitting downstairs with my wife and Lord started talking to me. I said, okay, because for where we're going There has to be balance. Somebody say balance. All right, so play this video. I'll cut the lights down and then I'm gonna come back and I'm gonna teach this. All right, that's what we're talking about this morning— balanced. And the idea here Because of where we're going, I'm telling you, I told you that a couple of things in terms of the vision of what God has given us, and even where we are now with the new building under contract. Y'all give God praise for that. We're going to pay that $1 million off in a year. Okay, y'all need to say that. Y'all need to give God better praise than that. We serve a God. We're not going to be locked into 30 years of paying off a million dollars. We got to build Rada City, only 33 acres around the corner. So this building is a temporary stop that we got to acquire as an asset, pay off quickly. It cannot happen if we don't balance ourselves. And God began to talk to me, and he reminded me that I told you through him that it wasn't going to be me that pays the million dollars off, all right? Although I could do it in 12 months, but I ain't gonna do it by myself.

Are y'all hearing this? We are going to do it, all right? And that means, glory to God, that he has to begin to balance us all financially. Here's the idea today. Go to the next slide.

Put that up there so they can see it, Mario. Um, let's read this in Proverbs 11:1.

The Bible says a false balance is an abomination to the Lord.

My God, today my daddy told me when I get in the fight, throw the hardest punch first, but a just weight is his delight.

The reality is we can sometimes, as the church, go way out here on a pendulum spiritually and be deep and wonderful and floating and lay on the floor 6, 8 hours a day and never come back to this reality. We are in the world but not of the world. Notice the verbiage. We're in the world, we just are on a different system than the world is. You cannot be in the world if you floating all day.

Well, are y'all hearing this?

You can't be in the world if all you do is talk in tongues all day. Some people are going to look at you crazy if all you're doing is speaking in tongues to them, and if all you're doing is quoting scripture to them. We cannot be found guilty of a false balance. What was super deep? Holy hands, empty pockets, false balance.

Okay, okay, all right.

I told you I was gonna hit hard this morning because this, this message is about balancing yourself financially. And the idea here is, can you walk with Jesus and follow Jesus effectively and be out of balance financially? Is it possible to really be a disciple of Jesus Christ? There's your answer. You cannot follow him and remain out of balance financially. And I'm telling you, I was up most of the night because I thought I was going to teach something else.

I already had it ready.

I, you know, God gave me the next phase of that message while I was in Vegas.

I was so ready to teach it, and God gave me 6 messages on being balanced last night. So the next 6 times I stand before you, this is what we're going to be talking about.

Because I want you to be effective in the world for real. Are y'all hearing this? I don't want you to become a master of good church like most have become. So here's a few things about balance. Stay right there, Mario. I want you to write these down. 3 laws about balance. Number 1: Whenever you're balancing anything, there needs to be a reference point. Let me give you an example.

I want to balance this bottle in my hand. To keep it balanced, I gotta establish a reference point.

It's not— if I look at my hand, it starts moving. A reference point has to be somewhere at the top, in the middle, and it's going to stay balanced.

Say reference point.

The next thing— go there, go there, Mario— is constant correction. So when you see it getting out of balance, you gotta straighten it up. And make the corrections.

Are y'all with me? My intention was to bring a bat to do this. I forgot the bat. Okay, now we got a bottle of oil. How does that work?

Okay, all right, give him next. Mario is a clear objective. What are you trying to accomplish? I'm trying to keep this bottle in the air. So I'm gonna keep my reference point in place, I'm gonna keep correcting so it doesn't fall, and I got a clear objective of what I want to achieve. I'm gonna say this probably in 100 different ways over the next 6 times you see me, but that's really all I'm gonna say. Let's, let's look at these one by one.

Reference point. So if I ask you to balance on one foot with one arm stretched out, right? I can't even do that long.

What, what if I instinctively— watch this—

I'm looking straight out in front because I'm trying to establish a reference point.

So I'm looking at the camera and it makes this easier. If I start looking here, stuff starts changing. What's it— what's it— what am I saying? You got to stay focused. The number one enemy to balance is distractions. Okay, let me give you an example, especially financially. I'm gonna put some word in this, just stay with me. You know your rent is $1,000 a month.

Okay, are y'all hearing this? Yeah, somebody say not in Georgia, Atlanta.

But let's use $1,000 just for lack of a better— you got $1,000 in the bank, it's March 27th, April 1st is coming. You're in Neiman's and you see those red bottoms. Are y'all hearing this? That cost $1,000 and you get distracted. And then watch what you, you, you say. This is some— this is not— maybe not in here, but this is some crazy stuff people will do. Well, God's gonna provide my rent by faith. He wants me to have these red bottoms. You got distracted. And watch this, that's a fatal distraction. Because now you got 4 days and some red bottoms to come up with your rent, and you call it on Jesus. That distraction now— watch this— creates a delay for you taking care of what's important. You gonna look good while the sheriff is taking your sofa out the door. So you gotta have a reference point. What is this money for?

Are y'all here?

Can I, can I teach like this? I know two things that church folk don't want to talk about: sex and money. But y'all want some of both of them, and most people want a lot of both of them. So we need to talk about it. Are y'all hearing this? So you gotta have a reference point so you don't get distracted. That cause delays, and then when you get delayed, now you end up with detours. You start taking shortcuts. Now you pawning your stuff, you're putting your stuff on eBay to sell, Facebook Marketplace. Yo, you— the same sofa you trying to prevent them from taking out, you got it set up for sale. But this all started because you got distracted by red bottoms.

I'm using that as an example, but this can go a lot of different ways.

So you gotta always have a reference point.

Are y'all hearing this?

You got to make constant corrections. This is the church fears correction. Most people run when they get corrected. When you get rebuked, the Bible said, first of all, the word of God is profitable for correction. Are y'all hearing this? So you shouldn't run when correction comes. It's a sign that God loves you and wants you to profit. Ask a businessman to define profit, he's going to tell you what's left after the expenses have been paid and covered. God wants us to get profit out of our walk with him. That doesn't happen without constant correction. You're gonna reject correction if you don't think you're wrong. Which, in 36 years of full-time ministry, 8 church plants, 100+ leaders I cover, the reality is I've learned with people nobody likes to be corrected. Most people think they're right, but all of us, including I, can stand constant correction. That's why you need to be accountable enough that when it's time for you to be corrected, you can be corrected and adjust, because the adjustment is going to help you move forward. So in your finances, you got to learn how to make constant corrections. So we can't even talk about money until we really get to understand the balance, because you think— most people have been trained that when you get money, you already got in your mind what it's for. A lot of times people are stuck financially because they don't have a system a balance, and I'm gonna teach it because God gave it to me.

My God. Clear objective, that's vision.

Wow. Whenever you're trying to balance something like that bottle I had, you've already answered the question of what you're trying to accomplish. You want it to stay up. You've already answered that question. When you got a vision, the Bible said without a vision the people perish.

Cast off restraint, they lose control.

Lisa Bevere calls it being out of control and loving it. When you have no clear objectives in life, you get out of control and you really fall in love with it, and you think that dysfunction is function. And it's not. Vision is God's optimal reality for your future. So if that be the case, for real, where there's no optimal reality for my future, where I've not seen what God sees for my life— oh, say that with me. I got to see myself The way God sees me. I'm just trying to find y'all, but I'm gonna get this out.

Glory to God. I'm still in this battle with the Lord because I wanted to teach that other message.

So I'm— but I'm being so obedient right now. Can I just be totally transparent? I want to flip my Bible to Genesis right now. Said, I need clear objectives. Said, I need vision. Said, I need to see myself and my life the way God sees me. So that means I can't define myself by others' objectives for me. Okay, because there are people who will look at you and create objectives for you. They'll decide based on your history with them and what they think they know about you what your future should look like. But can I tell you something? The Bible says, since Jeremiah 1:5, before I formed you, I knew you. The word knew is yada in Hebrew, which means that he had an intimate relationship. Not sexual intimacy, is intimacy. He knew everything about you. Oh my God, there's nothing that he missed. Before you got here, you and him hung out. The word Yada means that there is a pre-Adamic state where you and God connected and God was dealing with you about where you are right now. Let me tell you how you can really trace how true that is. When you have moments where you could— you're looking around saying, man, I've been here before. The world calls it déjà vu. That's a yada moment. That's God. Yes, that's you catching up with an eternal connection that you and God had before you got here. Can't tell you everything about your future. Your life was already decided before you got in your mama's belly. So that means nothing about you surprises God.

He knows everything and he still died for you. Are y'all hearing this? All right, let's go. Next slide, Mario. Let's go, let's go.

So let's get into this financial piece, because when it comes down to finances and money There are certain laws that bring money into your life. The law of harvest, or the law of sowing and reaping, is what produces harvest. Now y'all remember we've been talking about these farmers, and when we had our abundance meeting, we talked about these farmers buying seed. So they could sow so that they can create harvest. They were going to debt trillions of dollars over the many farmers in the world of debt to buy seed so they can reap a harvest and produce a project, a profit. Most people think money comes through this law of Pinocchio. Pinocchio lies and his nose gets bigger. Now that's an indication to stop lying if you don't want your nose to keep getting bigger. When it comes to money, none of, none of this is immediate. See, we got a natural inclination to change stuff when we see an immediate result. If we got pain in our body, somebody goes and get Tylenol. Or if you got a real problem, you're going to the ER because it's an indicator to take care of what's going on immediately. Unfortunately, money doesn't work like that. You could be out of balance financially. It becomes a habit, a dysfunctional way of life, and you never change it because that just becomes you, because you never learned anything different. So I'm gonna take my time through these next 6 sessions and really teach you how to balance and not expect things financially that are not due. Because some people are expecting— it's impossible you expect God to do things for you financially, you're not doing your part. Here's how it works: you sow now and you reap later. As soon as Pinocchio lied, his nose—

that don't happen with money.

Here's reality: you always reap later and greater. Watch this. The farmer who sows and the one who doesn't, guess what?

Their labor shows for itself in results.

So if a farmer sits back and say, I ain't sowing no corn, and then another one says, I'm gonna sow some corn, the fact that that one that waits on the harvest after he's sown, that's his result. He can rejoice in that. The other farmer, and I need him being mad because he did not do what he was supposed to do. I'm gonna get where I need to be, I promise y'all.

But finances follow the law of harvest. Nothing leaves heaven until something leaves earth.

And I'm not— listen, I'm not just talking about money. You have to sow yourself. Watch this. You cannot reap a harvest in a field where you have not sown. So if you don't put time into building your business building your marriage, building your relationships. You won't reap a harvest from that. It's not going to just happen, especially with money. I believe that God— watch this— because he knew us before, there's money that's already been prepared for us. He's waiting for us to align and do our part.

Boy, it's Listen, finances, when they are being reaped, there's not a fairness doctrine that's connected to how people are blessed financially. If you look at someone who's got a nice house paid all their bills off, they don't have no debt, got money in the bank, got investments, and they connect that to God.

There is something they have done to produce that. You can't be jealous because you didn't do what you were supposed to do. God has no respect of person, but he does respect principles. So if we abide by the same principles, he'll bless us all equally.

Are y'all with me?

But when we break the laws or the principles, we can't expect to get what somebody else is getting because they abide by them.

Lord, it's gonna be a rough one here, I tell you. Because you can look at people— watch this— even in the world that's not even with God, and you can say, man, the rich keep getting richer.

It seems like the poor gets poor. Well, the rich get richer because they keep doing things to create riches. Poor people keep doing stuff to keep being poor. It's a mindset, for real. Money is not currency, your mind is. As a man thinks—

we're gonna go here in a minute—

so is he. If you think like a pauper when you're supposed to be thinking like a kingdom citizen— wait a minute, we're royal people in a royal kingdom, and we should be thinking like royalty. Wait a minute, the Bible said you're a holy nation.

Hallelujah.

A peculiar people. We're royalty. Our God— and when you got saved, the King moved in with his whole kingdom. Do you realize that the kingdom is within you? Jesus said that. I was teaching this in Vegas. He takes pleasure to give you the kingdom. It's his good pleasure for you to be a kingdom citizen. Here's what we don't do: we have good church and never enter the kingdom. The king is saying, okay, I'm waiting for you to come in and fellowship with me so I can fellowship with you. We're too dependent upon the resources that we've been trained to depend on, which is the natural kingdoms of the world, when God says, if you come into my kingdom, I got healthcare, I got wealth, I got everything you need to survive You just gotta enter in.

Yes.

Here's the problem.

Most people are waiting to enter the kingdom after they die.

Most of the church has an escapism mentality. Come on now. We want to escape earth. So we're looking out the window with our bags packed saying, Jesus, please come, let me get outta here as quick as possible. When the Lord is saying, no, I'm bringing the kingdom down to you, and I need you to get familiar with my kingdom now. Do you realize you can have heaven on earth?

So it's deceiving to think that finances are instant. That's what this point was about.

It's not. You got to do what you got to do. That's where it starts. Okay, next one.

This is going to be a good one here. Imbalance financially is an indication that things are out of balance spiritually. Oh, I pray long and I'm deep and I get the clouds come in the room and I see dust and angels And I just get lifted up out of the room.

And but then you come down and your Mercedes is a mercy-cades.

Lord, give me mercy to pay this note.

You're struggling on every end but can tap into the deep things of God.

That's imbalance. It's imbalance because our God again is a king.

Are y'all with me?

Listen, here's what I know. The more you have, the easier it is to get out of balance because most people who don't have a lot They try to substitute their spirituality for what they don't have, and they justify it and say, the poor you have with you always.

But he wasn't talking about you. That was the people that didn't have covenant with the King. He wasn't speaking to you. You shouldn't be a part of that number. That— read the parable. He was not talking about you and I. He was talking about those that didn't know him. Poor mentally, poor spiritually, poor financially.

He said you have them always, but it shouldn't be us.

We should be examples of what it means to walk with God holistically. So next time you struggling financially, check where you are spiritually for real.

Amen. Here we go. And make a correction.

Imbalance financially creates stress. You think God wants you stressed out?

You can't fulfill purpose and operate in your assignment and be a person of raw da, a person of dominion, if stress is your portion.

The title of this part of this teaching is called Opening the Books. You got to open up the book of your life and really be honest about where you are. 'Cause we have a knack to look a certain way, but then, you know, they got to turn— fake it till you make it. And God ain't never told you to be fake in no regard. Watch this: always be where you are. I don't need trying to be no more or no less than you are. Be who you are.

Are y'all with me?

Say imbalance creates stress. Why? Because it creates, first of all, improper value system. Even in your house. I was looking at this last night. So your children will grow up with a distorted value system.

For those who have children, don't—

that are wanting to have children, Your children will grow with a distorted value system, and they will be entitled because you don't value money, because they'll think you owe them something.

Lord have mercy. Balance breaks the spirit of entitlement.

You have to teach children the value Are y'all hearing me? Of what you're working for. I told my children, listen, I work too hard to just give y'all anything. I told them all, if y'all don't get it lined with what I'm doing in business and ministry, you're gonna get straight up wrote out of this will. Are y'all hearing this? 'Cause you ain't entitled to nothing just because you got my last name. Watch this. The church has raised up a generation of entitled saints that feels like the heaven is just supposed to open and God is just supposed to give them everything. Just 'cause we dance, we gonna praise break until money come. It ain't gonna happen. Watch this. Even married couples, most of the arguments in the marriage house— people marry because there's not enough. Most marriages end in divorce not because of adultery.

'Cause of money problems, lifestyles out of balance, spending more than you make because there's no value. Oh boy.

Most time you have two people marry, one of the spouses— so in my marriage I'm just using mine. I'mma always be a person that spends more than my wife.

See, I don't need you saying amen now.

You know why? Because women— watch this— a woman's number one emotional need is security. So Well, I know I can afford to spend and do certain things. She's always thinking about the future. No matter what I got in the bank, she's still thinking about the future because at the end of the day, her number one emotional need is security. Creating a balance means I have to always be open with her about what's going on. Making her feel secure in how I spend. Watch this, even when God tells me to do something that's way off the scales and I'm moving in faith, I have to be able to communicate with her.

This is what God is saying and this is how we're gonna do this, because otherwise it'll cause stress in the house. Are y'all hearing this?

Baby, I love it when you support my preaching, but right now— no, I'm kidding. Watch this, let me, let me move on from that.

I don't even know why I put myself under the bus like that.

Consumer debt, credit cards, personal loans you don't need— these things get you out of balance. So let's say you got a $5,000 credit limit on your card. You make $4,500 a month, but because again you want them red bottoms, you want that Gucci purse, you want that Louis belt, and you go out and put all that stuff on the credit card, you realize you're out of balance because you're actually spending more than you can afford.

So we got to stop creating debt to look good.

I'm— yeah, I could talk like this because I used to be like this years ago, but now I buy stuff I can afford. I pay cash for most stuff.

I don't put stuff on credit cards. Are y'all hearing this? Okay, unbalanced finances creates habits that have repercussions in the next phase of life.

So you start having these things now, you got what you want, but in the next phase of life, you wish you hadn't spent that.

Yeah, bought something, look back and said, man, I can't believe I just paid that for that.

Here's what I want to do. I want you to think about this. Your money, when it leaves your hands It should be working for you.

Are y'all hearing this?

Your money should— every time you release money, it ought to be giving you a benefit that's long-term. That's why we can't stay in a space and teach kingdom and dominion when we keep renting. I knew when I signed the lease, when the lease was over, we was out. Because we've wasted—

are y'all hearing this?

We don't own no part of this space except our stuff we brought in here. There, every month I'd be like, God, I could be giving this to something that's gonna come back.

Are y'all hearing me?

So you think like this before you release your money: what is this doing for me? Cuz money is what you get for somebody watching when you give somebody something they can't get without you. What can you give somebody they can never get if you don't show up? Are y'all hearing this? So if you're not receiving money, maybe you're not giving the thing to exchange Okay, all right, put it next to no devil on you.

We moving. Matthew 6:21: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be.

So Jesus has something to say about money.

Where your monetary value is, that's where your heart—

so what you value is reflection of where your heart—

what you put your money in is a reflection on your heart.

So you could tell what you love if we looked at your ledger. If we went to your online banking, we could tell what you really love. If you, if you love pornography, we're gonna see pornography.

Scriptures. Are y'all hearing this?

If you love shopping, we gonna see nothing but stores in your—

we gonna see Amazon all day, just scrolling.

Cuz where your treasure is, that's where your heart is. Sometimes people are in competition in their heart. Their treasure is to be accepted by other people, so their money is used to make sure the other people accept them. So I gotta drive like this, I gotta look like this so that people accept, because that's where their esteem is. But if I'm in God, I shouldn't need that. Are y'all hearing this?

Okay, I'm gonna say this and we're gonna move on. God can't have total access to your heart until he has total access to your treasure.

So I want you to ask yourself a question this morning. This is tough, I know. Have you given him total access to your treasure? Does everything you have belong to him? I mean, for real. I know you said it, but for real, if God told you to sell everything and follow him, would you? I'm just saying. I'm not going to ask you to do that. The Lord may. If he asks you to give up everything, would you?

What if I told you he already has?

He says, I want your whole heart. I can't have it if you don't give me your treasure. A lot of saints got buried treasure. We come to church, we worship, we give God glory, we praise him, we study, we read the word, we preach, we teach, we sing, but we got buried treasure over here.

You have everything but this, and God says, I want all of it. I hear that, Father.

He says, if you give it up, you can have it all. Some things are slowed down because of what you're unwilling to release. Some— again, there's that delay. Again, you're distracted, it's held up because you won't give up that treasure that you're holding on to. I need Father— he said you got to stop holding on to what he's trying to take. He says, any branch in me that bears not fruit, I take it away. See, this is what creates the false balance. We read in the beginning, a false balance is an abomination to God. The buried treasure is what's creating the false balance, the things you're unwilling to give up, and you want to substitute it, medicate it, numb it, Anesthetize it with being spiritual. When God says, I want all of you, I want every habit, I want every desire, I want your plan so I can institute my plan in your life—

that's real balance.

Real balance is giving God everything. It's not trying to hold on to what you want. Is your all on the altar? Have you put your all on the altar of sacrifice and said, God, I present my body, a living body, bios, life in Greek, my entire biological existence, I present it as a living Sacrifice, living zio in Greek, a sacrifice that can be used by you. I give it to you.

Have we done that? He said, I can't have your whole heart if you don't give me all the treasure. Holding on to things you know God said let go. And trying to justify it. My God. Luke 16:13, here we go, I'm almost done.

No one can serve two masters. The operative term here is master. A master is one that has control. Whatever the master says, do you do. The word serve, the Greek word is doulos, which means to be a bond slave. A bond slave is a slave that was purchased for service. You and I was purchased by God, his blood, to be a slave to him.

Still want to be saved?

Still want to walk with him?

Because we're slaves to him.

That's how it ought to be. We're— we ought to be puppets and he the master, and he's pulling the strings. Whatever he says do, we do. He said you can't serve, you can't be a bondslaver to Matthew. You can only have one owner. Why? Because either you will hate the one and love the other.

Look at the extremes—

love and hate. You can't even like one a little bit. You got to decide Who's your master?

God.

You'll be devoted to one and despise the other. You can't even have total devotion to both. You can say, okay, I'm gonna divide my time between God and this. You cannot be a bond slave to God and money.

He's talking about imbalance. Here. Money is driving a lot of what people do.

As a matter of fact, they say money makes the world go around. I disagree. God never wanted money to be in control of us. Matter of fact, it's not that he don't want you to have money. He don't want money to have you. That's really what this text is saying. You have to be in control of money. Money has to become your servant. Say that with me. Say, money is my servant. Just think what happens in your life when that becomes true. The things you can accomplish, how you can summon money. That's why when God tells you to do something Money is never an issue because money should be serving you. Again, why are we stressed out over something that should be serving us?

It's because most people are being controlled by it instead of controlling it. My God, interesting thing. Whenever there's a setback financially, most people call on God. Most people don't pray, or they pray the hardest when there's a money problem. Listen, if you made money your servant and made God important, money would never be an urgent thing because it should be your servant. So I said, where's the world?

This is society we live in.

Well, you should be in charge. You have to get in place and know what your money is doing. Man. Go to Psalm 16, and I'm done. I ain't got that one up there, I'm just going to it because the Lord take me. I'm closing with this because God knows this been a long journey with this message. Jesus, thank you, Jesus.

Say balance.

Balance.

Say my money, my must be balanced.

Glory to God. Psalm 16, verse 1.

The King James says it's a matam of David. Say matam.

The, the word matam is a technical term that's in a lot of Psalms, but what it means is that it is an utterance that is engraved. Received and should not be forgotten.

So say this with me. Say, in the name of Jesus, this word should not be forgotten. Now watch this. He says, preserve me, my God. Let's start right there. Preserve me. The word preserve is shamar in Hebrew, and it means to keep, guard, or protect.