The Encounter w/ Pastor Ron Carpenter

This is the history, verse four, of the heavens and the earth. Of course, Genesis one is the creation. Now we're in chapter two. This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth.

And.

There was no man to till the ground. Stay with me. We have watched Ruth through these phases of her life and how she managed every one of them with excellence. When she was a beggar, she walked out there and picked up leftovers the rest of the family left and strapped her with an elderly mother in law. And she never complained. One time she took the responsibilities of somebody that wasn't her responsibility and never complained. One time she picked up people's leftovers and never complained. One time.

Then somebody saw her and had favor.

On her and started leaving her some.

Of the good stuff.

Then she never got proud. Then she never bragged. She never thought that it had something to do with her and thought that she was better than everybody else.

Then after she was faithful with being left some leftovers, she was brought to the table and after she was brought.

To the table realized that she was called and different and never fit in.

And she said, I'm not like these.

Other women, I'm different.

And was able to maintain her set of values even when she was set.

At a table where she could have easily needed a friend so bad. She became what they wanted her to be.

She knew she was different in the.

Midst of a people that could have pulled on her to blend.

Then she was able to go with the harvesters and pick up the stuff like a harvester, like a worker with everyone else. Never complain, never complained about her conditions, never complained about her status, never complained about the season she was in. She handled the great gains with humility and she handled the losses with gratitude. Now she's at the final phase of her life where the person she's been taking care of now she's got to take instructions from and do everything she's told to do.

Does it without even questioning or debate. We are watching her manage every season of her life well. And while she manages well, God just keeps advancing her. Just keeps advancing her. Here's what it says. God put all the seed in the ground. God put every herb in the ground. God put everything in the ground that would ever produce food or bear fruit. But God would not let it rain because There was no man there to tend it.

God held up progress. Not demons are attacking my house. God stopped the progress.

God stopped the growth.

God stopped the fruit. God stopped the increase and held it up. Why?

Because there was no man there to tend it.

The word Hebrew there for tend is Eragon, which means manager. The first thing God wanted to find after creation in the earth was not a preacher, not a pastor, not a teacher, not an apostle, not a prophet, an intercessor. The first thing God looked in the earth for was somebody who would manage his resources. And God will not let it rain on fields you cannot tend. So before you're asking God to rain on it, God is stopping the progress and saying, can you manage what I've given you? Can I tell you something? God does not have to put any more in you. The seeds of wealth are already in you. The seeds of healthy relationships are already in you. The seeds to own companies and be supervisors and managers are already in you. The seeds of a great marriage are already in you. God doesn't have to get in. He's already got everything under the surface that you need to prosper.

But God cannot rain on seeds you.

Can'T take care of. And Dr. Miles Monroe looked across the table at me and he said this one concept in Genesis, a manager Ron, can you tend God's field because the seed is in you. But God cannot rain on it till you call yourself higher, call yourself higher, confront your own weaknesses, demand of yourself to be better, demand excellence of yourself. See somebody that's always got to have somebody calling them hard, watching over them and pointing out their weaknesses. You're not ready.

The Bible talks about everybody in the.

Bible, Old Testament, that was circumcised.

That's the cutting, the way of the flesh.

But the Bible says that Abraham circumcised himself.

People that are really mature know how to cut their own flesh back.

I don't have to tell you. I don't have to have you telling me what's wrong with me by the spirit. I recognize it. I recognize the weaknesses that are getting in God's way. I recognize my foul mouth. I recognize my fault life is not pure. I recognize my attitude people don't want to be around. I recognize that I don't look at the positive. And I'm not a winner on this. I have to recognize those things and confront them and call them higher.

The fact is, God is ready to reign.

Are you ready to manage? So Lord, bless your word in Jesus name.

And everybody said, amen. Touch your neighbor on both Sides and say, I feel like this is for you today.

The Bible said that God came to.

The place where everything was set. The earth was ready to explode with increase. All the seed was there, ready to erupt, but it needed rain. And that God halted the progress.

Until.

He could find someone that could properly manage his increase. The Bible lets us know, and this is probably for next week.

That before.

We can be given our own, and.

Ruth is about to come into her.

Own, the field is about to be hers that she's been working in. David got hired part time by Saul to play a harp and make the anxiety and the demons go away when he played his music. But there came a time God wanted the palace to be his. Ruth is begging in a field. But there came a time God wanted the field to be hers. The Bible says the wealth of the wicked is laid up for the righteous. I've been hearing that preach for 100 years, but the wicked still has it. So something's wrong. Something's wrong.

Management.

God had put it all in the ground, but he would not let it rain until it had proper management. The management is the proper and effective use. Effective and efficient use of resources to the intent that it be used by the one who delegated them to you. Management and stewardship by nature means you are in charge of something that is not yours. And God will always, before he gives you your own, test your faithfulness with that which pertains to another. You have no idea how seriously I take this principle because when I grabbed this thing from Dr. Miles Monroe, my life exploded. I mean, it exploded. Up until that time I was frustrated and I danced and shouted and sweated and screamed and hollered and I still broke. My church was still contained. My influence was still small. It was confined. This one conversation took the parameters off of it. This is again not a sermon. He said God wants to raise your management to another level.

He said.

He started asking me a series of questions.

I want to turn around and ask.

Them to you in a different way, because to you they would be in a different context. You want to own your own house? Raise your hand here if you'd like to own. I didn't say have a mortgage on, but you'd like to own your own house. Okay, if you already do, you can raise your hand too. Okay, how have you treated that rented apartment?

Because before God gives you your own, he will test you with that which.

Pertains to another man.

You can put a 90 year old grandmama in a rental car and she'll.

Start doing Donuts in a Walmart parking lot.

We get a rental car, we lose our minds because it does not belong to us. They just did a national study. And right now, for an 8 hour work day, the normal employer is getting 2 hours and 52 minutes of work. And the rest of the time the.

Employee is on social media.

So I'm paying for eight hours. You're giving me two hours and 52 minutes. Now, just because I can't catch you don't mean God's not testing you. I might not know you're doing it and getting away with it, but God is testing you to give you that which pertains to yourself. But he sees you ripping me off. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. You don't own anything anyway. Everything you've been given, you have been given to steward and to manage it.

And manage it well.

The voice that I have, I've been given to manage it. The energy I have, the time that I have, the resources that I have, they have been delegated to me for the efficient, effective use of to God's intended end. So I cannot look at my talents, my skill set and my time as though they are to be used for my advantages in life. They are to be used to the intent to which the owner of them has delegated them to me. I know that God didn't give everybody this skill set. So the skill set I have, I have to go to the owner and say, exactly what are you wanting out of this skill set? So I can afford effectively oversee my life and manage it in such a.

Way that you're getting everything out of.

It that you wanted when you delegated it to Ron Carpenter for this time that he is here on the earth. I know you can't clap, but just swallow it like vinegar. Therefore, a new value system has to come into play where I learn when to say yes and and I learn when to say no. When I learn when I need to be in a crowd, and I learn where I probably need to be alone. When I learn that it's a time for me and when I learn that it's a time for sacrifice, where I have to come into the. Where I have to come into a very fine balance of how I'm doing everything in my life. Now that I am 49 and I'm not an old man, but I am older than I have ever been.

I.

Can already feel myself beginning to shift my thinking. In looking at the time, the energetic time that I have left in the earth and what is the highest and.

Best use of that time that I.

Have left in the earth. So therefore, I don't go everywhere that calls me and asks me to come preach. I tell more people no than I tell yes. Why? Because it's not the highest and best use of my time. Because at the end of my value system is not a check and a dollar bill. So for me to go through four airports and get on 16 airplanes and sleep in two hotels and get three nights, three hours sleep per night and come back and give my wife and my family and grandchildren and you my leftovers just so I can come home with a check that does not check my value system. And that is not proper stewardship of my life. You're not hearing me. Come on, sir. That's not proper stewardship. Had somebody asked me the other day, sir, why don't you get Bishop Jake's anymore? Because I recognize proper stewardship of his life. I don't even ask him to come because out of my relationship, I could probably manipulate it enough to get him here. But a man who is now in Hollywood and he's got a voice to the church and the world, which I am still working toward, why would I take him out of the stewardship of where he is in that season of.

Life and bring him all the way.

Down to my microphone and say, would.

You come preach in my church? I don't even ask, even though he probably would come. I don't even ask because I understand.

Something I didn't understand when I was 20 and probably when I was 30. And it's the stewardship and it's the management. I have a member of my family on Hope side that we get a good kick out of. And she's not here, but she is watching. And let me draw you into some examples. This person will go to seven counties.

Four states and spend six weeks to.

Save $100 on a car. You think I'm joking? If he thinks somebody in Atlanta will give it to him $56 cheaper, he'll spend $150 on gas to get the car $50 cheaper. Some of y' all shaking your head. Either it's you or, you know somebody like that. Well, this last time, I used some influence I had to help this person get an automobile.

I said, what you want? Told me what he wanted.

I made one phone call and I.

Said, this is what I'll give you.

Took him two days to meet me there. Tore this person's nerves all to pieces. Tore this person. I mean, tore this person's nerves all two pieces. I think we could have got that for at least two or three hundred dollars. Less, I believe, if you'd have gone up here to Charlotte with me, maybe if we'd have drove down to Columbia or somewhere, I think we could have got this thing for less or maybe. And what he don't understand is I have my life calculated down with the goals that I have in place. What my life has to produce per hour, my life has to produce $12,744.23 an hour.

An hour.

That's what every day when I get up, my life has to produce that. So if I go five hours traveling all over the upstate with him to save 100, while I've saved 100, I've lost 50,000. See, it's hard to go here. I can tell half of you clapping, half of you ain't, because the fact that $12,000 an hour is what you know, and I hope my life one day is going to have to be a million dollars an hour. But I got to take my management level up to that place. Therefore, what we don't get to is the understanding that time, there's a place where time shifts and becomes a wiser stewardship than money. And we don't understand that while he'll go seven days and ten states to save a hundred dollars, I have lost $50,000 trying to save 100. And I can't do that because there are better things that I can give my time to that are more productive than, than me trying to make sure that when me and the car dealer.

Square off, that I win.

Y' all don't understand what I'm saying. Can I keep going further here? Somebody called the other day and they said, I want to talk to you and your media team is a good friend of mine about your approach to tv because we've just been given TV opportunities. I said, you may not want to talk to me. They said, why? I said, because I've used a very controlled approach. And they said, what do you mean? I said, I could be on TV all day, every day if I want to be a fundraiser all the time. I said, I have a very controlled approach to TV. Why? Because I do not want to spend 20 minutes of a 28 minute TV program begging folk to send me money because I got $50 million in TV bills and so I'm giving out all and I'm cutting my hair and giving people pieces of my hair and I'm pulling buttons off my shirt and saying, touch one of them and the Lord will heal you. And I'm selling handkerchiefs and I'm giving them sand from Galilee and water from Canaan and everything.

Trying my best to raise money and make the gospel look cheaper than Walmart and Target. I refuse to live my life like that because I had a set of value. God has delegated a kingdom to me, and I got to make sure that the kingdom is represented in a highway, not in a cheap way. Some of you ain't smoking out or clap yet, but hang on, I'm coming at you.