Ron + Hope: Unfiltered - Christians and Money

Welcome to Running Hope Unfiltered. Real raw, irrelevant.

You just had to do that, didn't you?

Do it again. I don't know how to do it.

Do it again.

Welcome Running Hope Unfiltered. Real roll.

Why are you doing it so fast? So stupid. Do it right.

Welcome to Run and Hope Unfiltered. It's where it's real raw and it's relevant.

It's where it's real, raw and relevant. Good job.

Tell them what we're talking about today.

Money, money, money, money.

Hoag's pushing me here.

Yes.

No, actually, didn't you get questions?

We did. We had people ask us, please talk about what God says about money. How what does it mean to be Christian? What do you do with your finances? And is it okay to have money? Lord, I hope so. I mean, because I got bills. You got bills. All got children got bills. Right. So what does God say about it?

A lot.

There's so much said.

This ain't a tithe and offering thing that says, oh, God, they're going to talk about that. No, I'm not going to mention that. I'm just talking about economy in general. What are the things that God says about it? What does God say about you? And I'm going to tell you what I think has happened. Pardon me? I think the message.

Tell us what you think.

After I got out of the Pentecostal movement, not got out of it, but God brought me into some other camps. One of them was the faith camp. And the faith camp. I think one of the mistakes they made is too many of them. That was all they talked about. And there are times, sweetheart, that you overemphasize something to make a point. But if you got somebody who's pastoring you, and the book has all these different kingdom keys and all these different topics that it addresses. And the only thing you ever preach about is from those scriptures. There was a generation that put a sour taste in their mouth. And so what do we do when one generation reacts to something they don't like? They swing the pendulum all the way the other way.

Don't talk about it at all.

We don't correct it. We take offense to it. And when you take a correction is making it right. Taking offense is I'm going to go in a different direction because I don't like the direction you took it in. And so I think the first thing that I need to tell people, hope and here again, I don't want this just to be a teaching session. So interject here. Anytime you Want to and about our personal life is there's some people that fundamentally can just not grasp the precept, the concept that God is good. Let's don't talk about economy, let's don't talk about resources. Let's don't talk about his heart. For us, just there's some people that whether you were taught that, whether life taught you that, whether you in a church that taught you that they. There's a segment of people that have a hard time with the general concept that God is a good guy. And Jesus said, if you being evil, we're talking about people know how to give good gifts to your children. He said, how much more? How much more? I am a father. I've never wanted anything but to see my children flourish and prosper.

Yeah, succeed.

That's all I want. And if I see that happening in their life, as a father, I'm content and feel like, well, maybe I did a little bit right.

Yeah, it breaks my heart if our children, our married kids struggle or we know that they can't afford to go out to eat or go out on a date night or. I mean, that's just heart wrenching as parents to, to see your kids struggle or, you know, they need tires on their car, but this month they just don't have the money. And us being evil people, we're not God that we want our kids to prosper and flourish. How much more does God want us to prosper and flourish?

For the Lord, your God is a good God. I could go on and on about the goodness of God. Now let's go because I want to build a house here. God's affection toward his people. Now, giving you what you want is not always giving you what you need. Okay? And so God is the God that supplied all of our needs, not all of our wants. There are scriptures in the Bible where God said, ask what you will. There were people where he went up to and said, what can I do for you? He asked Solomon, what can I do? And Solomon said, I want to be wise. He said, since you did not ask for riches, I'll give you all these riches with it. So the second thing is God's original intent. Adam, be fruitful, multiply. Excuse me. And he blessed them and said, be fruitful, multiply. Fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion. The first words spoken. He blessed them.

Yeah.

Hope. The word blessing means empowered to prosper. So if you don't want prosperity, I don't want to hear you say the word blessing. Because, oh, the Lord just blessed Me so much in church today. Okay. If the Lord blessed you today, that's not a tingly feeling. That's not an emotional response you had to Ethel singing that song. If God blessed you, he empowered you to leave that service and your life multiply and increase. Oh, I feel it. Pull the preach out of me. Pull it out of me. God has empowered you to multiply and increase on some supernatural way. So you got to understand. God's original intent for Adam was that Adam not be strung about in lack and being in need. In fact, there is no mention of need until sin.

That's good. What a concept.

No need. There was no mention of any need. There was no mention of labor until after sin. Because God put Adam in a world that was supposed to respond to his words, not to his hands, to his words. But Adam lost that ability to speak, and God back up what he says. So now he's having to make the earth work with his hands because it no longer responds to his word. Then you see the entrance after sin of lack and need and famine, sickness, evil, all these other things come because sin was the gateway through which everything unlike God.

Yeah.

If God said he supplied all your needs, then need is unlike God. Okay. Where in the world did we get the doctrines of it's virtuous to be poor? I was raised around that.

Yeah.

Those churches never had any money to do anything. We weren't a blessing to anybody.

How can you help anybody else? How can you help somebody on the mission field? How can you build an orphanage for. For children if you don't have any money?

I am proudly and profoundly a faith and prosperity preacher. Why? Because we get to be a blessing to people all over the world.

But I think that's key. I think people have a problem with Christians, preachers, prosperity gospel, where it's all about us, where we just want money and things, and we want to have 900 pair of shoes, but it never goes out. Yeah. It's all about me, me, me, me, me, me. Anybody else? I think they have a problem with that. And I agree.

Money is letting us do what we're doing right now.

Absolutely.

This costs money.

Yes.

Those cameras cost money. These lights cost money. This background costs money. The people that know how to run this equipment.

Oh, they really cost money.

Cost money. Do you see what I'm talking about? It costs money. Money does amazing and wonderful things. So I profoundly accept the assignment of a prosperity preacher because I believe God gives people the power to prosper.

Yes, does.

And so this is passionate within me because I My dad ministered, what, 42 years, his whole life, and when he died, he was at the top of the food chain in his organization. And hope if me and you have not have bought him a house. My daddy didn't have a house to die in.

No. It's a shame.

And I looked at that. I said, something is profoundly wrong when a man and woman of God give their whole life to seeing other people's life bettered, but they don't even have a roof on their head.

Right.

I said, something is profoundly wrong with that. So I went outside of that movement, and God began to bring me into other voices and exposed me to other people who operated in great amounts of blessing. And I looked at that and I said, I want to be the guy where. When somebody is starting a church in Ghana, I say, how much you need? I want to be that guy. When somebody says, we feel like we're supposed to start a work in one of America's cities, what can I do for you? What can I do? I want to be the guy they call when they're in trouble. And I say, you know what? We got your salary for the next three months. You don't need to worry about money right now. We're going to take care of you. We're going to get you restored. I. I want to be that guy. But everything that I'm talking about takes money. I want to be the guy. When I got a church planter in my network and he needs $100,000 to remodel his stage and get sound and light equipment, I want to be the one to say, I can get you this. I'll take care of this. Get other people to help you. I want to be the guy. I want to be the guy who was able to take some kids that would have never had a shot. Me and you put them through college. How many cars have we given away? Go back to school, get your ged, and we'll get you a car. I mean, the things that we were able to do with the resources. I can't help that. Maybe everybody don't view themselves as being a river where it flows in and flows out. But the fact is, money was always supposed to have a current to it. That's why it's called currency. It's supposed to flow in and out of your life freely. If I may say something, you know, I was raised in the rural south my whole life, and I saw people that were mostly poor and they did everything they could to save. We've moved to the Bay Area and Took an assignment from God the last four years. And what did me and you notice, baby? How much money moves?

Yeah, money moves.

People don't hold on to money. That money is moving everywhere, all the time. And now the zip code that we live and we minister in has now become the wealthiest zip code in all of the world, just past London and Dubai. And so as I look at it as someone new to the area, I'm not an economist, but one thing I have noticed is how easily money flows. And as long as money is moving, things are increasing. What is a recession? Money stops.

Yeah.

Lending stops. Mortgage stops. Purchasing stops. Investing stops moving, Stop margin. It ain't that aliens suck money out of the earth, it's that all of it stops. The currency loses its current.

Yeah.

And so what we have seen in the two segments of society, God let us in, is we've got to get rid of a hold mentality and understand that it's coming to me. But after it comes to me, I've got to turn right back around. It's got to go through me.

Comes to me to go through me.

I got a tickle in my throat and I thought the water would get rid of it, but it happened.

What does the Bible say? The Bible has over like 2400 scriptures.

The only thing that God talks more about than love is money.

Yeah.

So you got God.

Why is this important to him?

Why does God spend so much time talking about money?

He ended up the Old Testament, talking about tithe and offering, talking about tithe and offering, then went silent for 450 years before he started speaking again in the New Testament. And the very last thing, last words are important.

What you do with your money.

What you do with your money.

I know people, their heads blowing up right now because there are people that will cut you off when you even bring up the subject in the pulpit. But where the pulpit is silent, the people struggle. Where the pulpit is silent, the people struggle.

Does God care if you drive a nice car?

Absolutely not.

Does God care if you wear a nice pair of tennis shoes?

Let me tell you what God cares about. God cares about you bringing the 10th because he cares about your heart. The Bible says where your treasure is, there your heart will be. God is after your heart. He wants you to be a man, a woman, after his heart. He wants your heart. And God knows the heart and the treasure are indelibly tied to one another forever. So that means your money, your money is representative of your loves, your passions, your gift, your calling, your preparation, your training, your time, your Effort, your energy, your money represents all that is you. And that's why God says, bring me 10 of that. Bring me 10 of all that is you. Because he knows if you get that. I've always tell people, when people get saved, the last area of surrender is their money.

It is.

I mean, people will change their language, people will change their friends, people will change what they watch, people will change what they listen to.

But don't tell me what to do with my money.

The last thing they do is surrender that money. And God does not have your heart. I don't care what you say to he has your wallet. You can sing all the worship songs you want to sing. You can praise till your arms can't be lifted in the air no more. Don't care what you do. But God does not have the human heart till he has the treasure. Because they are tied. They're always tied together.

You know, we've been talking about money and what the Bible says, and there's so many things to talk about when it comes to money. And you know, a lot of people have issues when it comes to money like gambling problems or hidden problems in their marriage. And if you have any of those problems, whether it be money or some problems in your marriage or anxiety, you know, we all struggle with different things. So today I want to talk to you about talk space and I love them so much because whether you're struggling with low self esteem, body image, anxiety, there is just no one size fits all solution. And as busy as we all are, we need some help on our terms. So there's been many times in my life when I needed somebody to talk to and I didn't have anybody to go to because I, I didn't know who I could trust. You know, topics and issues, they're sensitive and sometimes private. And we need to feel secure when we go to get advice from people. All of us face problems, everybody has issues and none of them look the same. And that's why talking to a real mental health professional is so important. Talkspace has thousands of licensed therapists across the nation and you connect with them. Somebody that is trained exactly for what you need. So we've got to learn how to take care of our mental health. You know, we don't talk about that, but it's so important. And instead of a therapist trying to squeeze you into their busy schedule, talk space fits into your busy schedule. Your privacy is so important and it's priority with Talkspace. So get this one size fits one support that you need with Talkspace. Sign up today@talkspace.com and get $100 off your first month with the promo code Roninhope. That's $100 off@talkspace.com promo code Roninhope.

So, number one, just accepting the concept of a good God. Number two, he blessed Adam, empowered him to prosper, multiply, be fruitful, increase, fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion, and then he comes to Israel. And when he's. He's having to teach Israel who they are. Hope Israel has been in slavery for four decades. I mean, not four decades, four centuries. So you're talking about an identity. An identity less people in sand. So, you know, God's feeding them and he's given them water out of a rock. They are totally and completely dependent on God. Well, you move out of Exodus, numbers, Deuteronomy. He said, now let me tell you who you are. If you observe everything that I've commanded you, these blessings shall come upon you and blessed shall ye be in the city or field, no matter where you are located. And he says, you will be the head and not the tail. You will be above and not beneath. He said, you will be the lender and not the borrower. Do you know what type of financial revolution and transition it would take for the church to become the bank in America and the world?

We just got to get past the thought of that. God even wants you to be at.

That level, the lender and not the borrower. There's nobody preaching about that.

No.

But there's supposed to be some type of wealth transfer in the earth that takes place where the world. Can you imagine that your city is wanting to do a development, build a mall or build a subdivision, and they're coming to the church to negotiate the loan and how much interest they'll pay.

You see, people get all messed up with that, though, Ron, because they're like, oh, that's carnal, that's worldly. We're not.

Can I tell you what Jesus said? Jesus said, unless I can trust you with unrighteous mammon, how can I trust you with true riches? So, Oh, I didn't even thought about that. So here comes God. God saying the test for me to give you true riches, the anointing, the glory of God, my presence, the authority in there for me to give you the real stuff. I'm going to put the test of money in front of you. And if you fail the test of money, you can't ever enter the good.

Stuff that's so good.

Ever get it? He said, because I first have to trust you. With unrighteous mammon, that means money. And then I will give to you true riches. The third principle I'd like to put out. Hope. And you didn't touch my passion. She went to make me be quiet.

I just keep asking you.

The prodding question is God will test you on the level you're on for faithfulness. And you cannot move to the next level until you're faithful with what you have.

Faithful and little.

Faithful and little. And we've heard that since we were in Sunday school. We've heard it since we were taught. We can quote it, but we don't really. We've quoted it so much it don't have any meaning. But the fact is, what do you have in your hand? I tell people you were with me now. I didn't know as much and I wasn't as developed. But I preached just as hard when I had 10 members as I did with 10,000. I went in there.

We were on time.

I went in there with.

The church was clean.

That church was clean. We vacuumed it. You washed those nursery toys. You took those nursery toys in the bathtub.

I probably.

And put them in there and cured a lot of children. I think we might have toxin them, I don't know. But we got those things clean and we.

Why, that's what's wrong with the Hays boys today.

It was terrible. Terrible building. Terrible. I had hope. There was a hole. I had a little office right when people walk in the door, which was the main entrance. And there was a hole there with nothing in it. And I took some plastic things and people would come in and pull them down the louver blinds and say, hey, Pastor, now I'm in there trying to study. I mean, it was so primitive what we had. But there weren't any dust anywhere. Everything was painted. I mean, we took care of everything. And then God gave us one a little bit nicer. And then God gave us one a little bit nicer. And then God and what has happened, the journey to all the wonderful things God's done in our life today has been nothing more than, I think, me and you trying our best to prove faithfulness on whatever we have been given at that time. That's right.

Absolutely.

You want to add to that?

And God watches us. He watches that, you know. And he also watches you in the furnace of affliction. He watches you when times are tough. He watches how you manage your money. He watches if you do pay your tithe or if you are a blessing to somebody else when you can't even Be a blessing to your own self.

He watches. I remember my dad in the 70s, and this was in the old kind of holiness church where there just wasn't a lot of money. And I remember, I can't imagine how much money this would be now. But there was a man in the church who. His business was doing very well. And he was telling dad how he was at that time making over $100,000 a year. This is in the 70s. My dad talked to him about tithing, and he said. He said, that's too much money.

He said, I can't afford tithe.

He said, that's too much money. I'm making too much money to tithe. And my dad said, well, maybe I need to pray that God won't let you make so much money so you can come back into agreement with what he's asking you to do. The flip side is there are people that think, what I make, that's too big a check. And the fact is, you better not plan on getting any checks much bigger if you can't learn to be faithful where you are. Why would God give you a million dollars if you won't tithe off a thousand?

Why, he knows you won't.

If I was God, I wouldn't. Until you let me bring it all the way down. Why would I buy my kids a leather football if they won't be faithful with a rubber football?

Right.

Why would I buy you a grand piano if you won't practice on that little Casio that I got you?

Casio.

Why should I buy you a $350 pair of Jordans if you won't take care of the other things that I bought you? And you come in the bobos. It's just. It's so common sense. Yes, Jesus is profound, but the fact is, why do we elevate and why do we bless when people have not proved faithful on the level they have?

And we. And you know what? We cannot apologize. You should not apologize for being blessed when you have been faithful, when you have done the right things, when you have been disciplined, when you've managed your money, when you've been give until it hurts, when there's been a need and you sowed into it, and you help people go on the mission field and you feed the hungry and you clothe the naked, but then you walk in abundance and people try to make you feel guilty because of it. The devil is a lie.

Well, here's the thing. They see your harvest, but they didn't see your seed.

Absolutely. They don't See what you've done.

They don't see your seed because.

And most people aren't willing, contrary to what to do it either.

Contrary to what a lot of this generation does. They got to take all their good deeds and put it on video and show it to everybody. The fact is, you don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing. And another thing is, you don't want to exploit the people that are in need.

Right?

The fact is, most of what we do, we do in silent. And God said, what you do secretly, he'll reward openly. He'll reward openly. So the life that we get to live as an open reward to the things me and you do that nobody.

Sees, that's so good.

Say it again. I'm saying if you heard it.

Yes, say it.

The life that God allows us to live publicly is nothing more than God seeing what we did privately. Because our giving goes far beyond our tithe and offering. Far beyond. I mean, all the way down to tips. When I'm asking God, what is this person going through? Tell me, Lord, what I should do. And I mean, we've had waitresses and waiters chase us down in the parking lot and tell us we have no idea because we had a $30 meal. But I left them a $200 tip. And they come running out there. And one of them. You know, I remember one girl came and she needed this certain amount of money to pay for her tuition in college. She didn't have any family supporting her at all. And the money we left her was the exact amount that she needed to go ahead and register.

See, God cannot just ignore that. No, God doesn't ignore that. He said, you will reap what you sow.

Whatever a man soweth, that shall he reap that. So what is that? If the thing you're constantly sowing is money, then that God will not be mocked. It would be a mockery. It would make a mockery out of God if you could sow it and.

Not reap so good.

So all these people that want to live in the poverty. Let me tell you something. You have a right to go and inspect your garden where you've sowed seed. And you have the right to expect increase. Because God will not be mocked. Whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap. Let me talk about investment. Rich people are not the people that are getting up every day and just doing a job. I don't think there's anybody's paycheck. Not my paycheck, not your paycheck. I tell everybody, if you have a paycheck that will let you accomplish all your dreams, you either have very small dreams or you have a very big paycheck. One of the two. There is no paycheck that will allow Ron Carpenter do everything that's in his heart in his lifetime. I've never made a paycheck that size. So what do I have to do? I can't live by my paycheck. I live by my seed. So good seed is nothing more than spiritual investment in the kingdom, just like naturally investing. Now, the people who are rich in the world are not savers. They're not spenders, they're investors. Jesus gave one talent. Excuse me, gave five talents. He gave two, and he gave one. The one that he gave five had doubled it. Well done, thy good and faithful servant, now take charge. Yeah, if you're faithful, serving with what I gave you, I'll give you your own. So you must be faithful in that which pertains to another man before God will release unto you your own. So why would God give you a car if you trashed that rental car? See, we don't want to think about stuff like that. If you want God to give you your own house, you need to vacuum that house you're renting. You need to clean it, make sure the steps are swept off, cut that grass. Because you have to be faithful in that which pertains to another. Then God will release to you the thing you can be in charge of. So to one, he gave five. To one, he gave two. To one, he gave one. Look at this. This is a parable of the kingdom. The one who had five invested it and doubled his money. Yeah, he didn't go get three more jobs. He invested it and doubled his money. The one who gave two invested it and doubled his money. The one who gave one didn't do anything. And look what Jesus said. Jesus is the master of the vineyard. He came back and said, you should have at least put it in the bank. At the very least, at least saved it. Yeah, at the very least. He said, you did nothing with what I gave you. And I know a lot of times we've not developed an investor mentality in the church where, you know, we pray for things like jobs and we pay for careers and pray for my business. All that's well and good, but until we learn how to invest in the economy and reap benefits off of it as the same we do in the kingdom. And I would just tell people, outside of the Bible, one of the books I Would read, because you don't change anything until you change your mind. You've got to change your mind. First was Robert Kiyosaki's rich dad, Poor dad. Rich dad, Poor dad is revolutionary. A lot of the principles he teaches lines up with kingdom principles that are taught in the Bible. But it don't deal with money. It deals with your mindset toward money. What his rich dad taught him, what his poor dad taught him. That's what he keeps referring to. And I know that shook me. For instance, people having nice things. Let me tell you how rich people buy nice things. Rich people don't go buy nice cars and make payments. Rich people invest in an asset and let the asset pay for the car. So I know a guy that he wanted this Mercedes convertible. It's like $120,000 car.

Now, let me stop you there. Some church people would say, why do you even need $150,000 car? You can hear them right now.

You don't need 150,000. This has nothing to do with need.

That's right.

This has to do with abundant life.

Okay.

Has nothing to do with your needs. I need shelter. I need water. I need companionship. I need food. We're not talking about needs. We're talking about the life that you live.

And I think even in talking about that, I think we just need to establish right here and now, it's really none of your business what somebody else does with their money.

Exactly.

They got to answer to God if it's right or wrong.

God said 10% is he did not put any qualifiers on the 90.

No, he didn't.

He didn't put. In other words, your money follows your passions. I can look through what used to be a checkbook. Now I can look through your account balance, and I can tell you exactly what you love. If you love fishing, all I got to do is look at your money trail. And if you never told me you was a fisherman, I can tell you right quick what you love. If you love hunting, if you love golf, that's an expensive love. If you love shoes, if you love shoes, I can look through your account. I can tell you if you love pizza. I just follow the money. Because money naturally goes to what people love. And I'm going to tell you something. People find a way to get what they really want.

That's right.

They find a way to get it. So if you followed my trail of money, you would find what I love. I hope that you would, first and foremost, find out that I love God.

Yeah. Our biggest trail of money comes out. I love church.

I love to serve God. I love God. I love acts of kindness. Oh, man. I love random acts of kindness that I do not put on Instagram.

Right?

But me and that person, and God knows about it. I love it. I live for it. I don't think a day goes by where I don't try to find a space where I can be a blessing to somebody and I don't turn around and give them a sermon about Jesus after I do it. I just want them to be touched. I want them to sow a seed. I want to be a blessing into their life. I want them to walk away and say, there's something different about that guy. I'm going to check up on him.

So back to the guy getting a car, $125,000 Mercedes.

He told me, he said, I got to buy three more rental houses. I said, explain, this was a long time ago. I'd never been around real businessmen. He said, I got to buy three more rental houses. I said, tell me, how does that work? He said, yeah, I would never make a payment on that Mercedes. He said, but I make payments on assets, and I let the money from the assets buy me the things I want. He said, I never pay for it out of my paycheck. He said, the assets pay for it. People who are rich in the world do not get up and work for money. They work their money. I'm going to say that again. They don't get up and work for money.

They let their money work for them.

They let their money work for them because money does not have first, second, and third shift where they're off. It don't have weekends off. It works all the time.

Yeah, it works while you're sleeping.

It works all the time. And some of mine. And your greatest increase has never come from paychecks. It's come from investments, right?

Absolutely.

It's come from buying a house out of foreclosure and fixing it up and selling it Easter and just waiting. Just waiting on that. We've invested in the cryptocurrency market. And I remember we were blown away at what was happening in our life with that, because we were just investors. But at the same time, we got to be givers and we got to be investors. You should always have a portion of your income that you take to invest. There was something I wanted to pay off for my kids. You were in the meeting I had with my kids lately, and there was something I was going to do because God had blessed us. And I Felt like God was telling me to do something for my children. And I went and talked to them, and the blessing that I was going to do for them was going to create more cash flow. And I said, here's where. How I will bless you on one condition. This money that I'm freeing up will not be spent on stuff, right?

You told them, you said, take it. You have to invest it.

Have to invest it.

So the money that you would normally pay on this particular bill that we're going to cover for you, the only way we'll do it is if you take that money every month.

And I made it clear.

Invest.

I made it clear if that's, if that's not done, then I will not continue in this thing I want to do. Why? Because I want to teach them the principle of increase. Jesus taught investment as an increase mechanism. What is okay above your 10% when you give in the offering? What is that investment? Because what did you say? Investing in your future 30, 60 hundredfold return. Well, what is every investor looking for? ROI. Return on investment. So.

And you know, the Bible says that about our kids. It says a wise man does what? Leaves an inheritance for his children's children.

Okay, let me tell you, how can.

You do that if you don't have any money?

See, you keep saying stuff and experiences start popping up. So probably the richest man in the upstate of South Carolina, he just recently died. And I think he was in his 80s, late 80s. He was about 78 years old. When I had this conversation with him. I had tried to get an audience with this man. He wouldn't give me the time of day. And this is when our church was big. But I had no influence with him. I don't know if he's a good man or not. I don't know much about the man, but I know he was phenomenally wealthy. I got an all call one day. We had an intercom system on our campus because I didn't just stay in my office all day, I was always somewhere. So if they were trying, you were.

So add you to.

If they tried to find me and they couldn't find me, they would just do an all call over intercom system. So I heard my secretary doing an all call. And she said, she called the man's name. She said, it's in the parking lot wanting to see you. And I remember he's here because this man had never had nothing to do with him. Now, I'd been here by that time. I'd been at church 20 years, and he's Sitting out there in the longest black Mercedes I've ever seen in my life. It looked like almost like a limousine. And he's just sitting out in our front parking lot. He gets out. He's got this big head of white hair. And he gets out and he just starts talking to me. Wants to know what my plans are I won't do for the future. And I return. I said, well, tell me what you out doing today? He said, oh, today. He said, I'm out buying my grandchildren apartment complexes.

A wise man leaves an inheritance for his children.

His children are taken care of. So now I've moved. What is apartment complexes? That is passive streams of income. It is. You didn't work for an hour, but you have a stream of income in your life. Let me tell you this. I believe it is the design of God to have multiple streams of income flowing into your life. Passive streams of income flowing in your life that do not take hours away from your week that are producing you money. Oh, man, I could go on and on and on about this.

Let me ask you a question. Let me read a scripture.

Eden was the place of perfection, wasn't it?

Yes.

And it had five streams running into Eden. It wasn't one stream feeding Eden. Eden was the place of perfection and it was fed by five rivers. God wants us to be fed by multiple strings of income. Because I go back to your dreams will always be bigger than your paycheck. I had one person say one time, say, can't you just pay me what I'm worth? I said, I'll never be able to pay you what you're worth. Heaven sent, God's son. That's what you're worth. How am I going to ever pay you that? I can't ever pay you what you want a price on, that I can't put a price on your worth. I can put a price on what this job requires, but I cannot put a price on your worth. Only God knows what you're worth, and only he can pay that price. So you've got to understand, God is good, but to really, really increase. The fact is, it doesn't come by just working and laboring for money. It comes from knowing what to do with it after you've made it.

So one last idea, thought. Ecclesiastes 5, 10. Whoever loves money never has enough. Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. So the goal, as a Christian, you know, we do it different than the world, right? We're supposed to do it different than the world should. Money and making money and Having money and all that be our goal? Is that what we're supposed to love?

Money is a tool. Money is a tool. Money is a medium of exchange and it can be used for some terrible, terrible. It can be used for human sex trafficking. Money can be used to exchange for awful activities. But money can also be used to take gospels into tribes and villages and translate Bibles into native languages where people.

Are loving money just for the sake of having money.

Exactly. Right is wrong.

It is wrong. And that is not what God's called us to. But to have money to be a blessing, you have to have it to do the things of God.

It goes back to the blessing Adam had, the blessing that caused him to multiply. He lost it when he sinned. Do you know what the same word for blessing is? Is in Malachi 3, bring me the whole tithe and see if I will not pour out the blessing. In other words, God said, the thing that Adam lost, I'll use the tithe to reinstate it in your life. That same word for blessing right there in the Hebrew. It's both words. So I think we need to understand our God is a good God and understand kingdom keys of giving and currency keep the current flow, understand the kingdom keys of investment. We need to understand all of these things because money is something. You can't love it, but you need to love what you can do with it. Yes, fall in love with. I love kingdom agendas. I love seeing people blessed. A while back, we spent, I don't know how many tens of thousands of dollars it was to bring in rides for a fair on our east coast campus and tell the community y' all come.

Yeah, we just wanted to do some. It don't cost you anything.

Yeah, it don't cost you anything. Y' all come and I like for the church to help people pay off its bills. They're not used to that. I like to see church give to non church entities because it messes with people's mind. I like to give to the Red Cross, and I like to give because they're like a church, because the church is always known for asking, right? But the church could be so wealthy that it can turn around and be the giver instead of the one always with his hand out wanting something good. So that's what I strive to see the church be, is to be that people, that organism, that thing in the earth that can bless the whole earth. He told Abraham, I'll bless you and I will cause you to be a blessing. And the Bible says that blessing of Abraham, we are his seed and it falls on us.

So good.

So that's the thing God told Abraham. Travels all the way to Ron and Hope and travels all the way to you. I hope you've enjoyed this.

God wants you blessed. He does. There's a scripture in the Bible that says it is my will that you prosper and you be in health. But then it's comma, even as your soul prospers, your mind, your will, your emotions, your intellect, your soulish man, your heart.

So much teaching right there.

Oh, he wants good things, things for you. But our lack of knowledge, our lack.

Of understanding scripture, emotional reactions, emotional highs.

And lows and not being stable or being a person with low fruit.

He says when that part of your life grows right here, he said then your economy will automatically it'll be to.

The same degree your health and your economy. God loves you today. He wants you blessed. We love you. We want you blessed. So, so glad that you tuned in. If you've enjoyed this, share this with everybody in your contact list and we cannot wait to see you next time. God bless you.

Blessings. We'll see you soon.