Sunday Morning Worship Service August 2, 2026 | 11:00am

Good morning, church. Good morning, church. Good morning. This is the day that the Lord has made just for us. Let us rejoice together in it. Look at your neighbor and say, "I will rejoice. I will rejoice." Hallelujah! Everything that God has given us, it's our responsibility to pour it back. He didn't give us your gifts and your talents for nothing. It's for us to share, for us to give, for us to grow, for us to pour back out onto the kingdom, for us to pour back out into the church, for us to pour. Back out into the community. Amen. Whether it's your smile, whether it's just a wave, whether it's a word of encouragement, we're called to do this. We're called to say Jesus is the one who saved me. It's because of Him that I can do anything. Amen. We praise your name. I just wanna. I just wanna pour my praise on you. I just wanna pour. I just wanna pour my praise on you, 'cause you've been better to me than I could ever, ever, ever repay. All that I want, I wanna do. I just wanna pour my praise on you. I just wanna pour, I just wanna pour, I just wanna pour, pour, pour, pour. I just wanna, I just wanna pour, I just wanna pour. Come on, sing it with me. I just wanna pour, I just wanna pour. I just wanna pour my praise on you. I just wanna pour. I just wanna pour. I just wanna pour. I just wanna pour my praise 'cause you've been better to me. Better than ever, ever, ever. All that I want, I wanna do. I just wanna pour. I just wanna pour my praise 'cause you've been better to me. More to me than I could ever, ever, ever repay God. All that I wanted, I wanted to do, I didn't want to pour my life out. Come on and let's just praise the God that we serve. God, you're a worthy God. Come on, from the fruit of your lips. Jesus, I praise your name. Lord of lords, King of kings, God of all gods, my creator, my sustainer.

What is he to you?

If that's you, come on and call it out. Jesus, you're my deliverer. God, you kept me when I didn't want to be kept. God, I love you. God, you're so amazing to me, and everything you've given me, I want to pour back. Hey, I just want to pour. I just want to pour. I just want to pour. I just want to place my gift back onto you, God. I just want to pour. I just wanna pour my praise on you. I just wanna pour. I just wanna pour. God, you're everything to me. I just wanna pour. I just wanna pour. I just wanna pour my praise on you. 'Cause you've been better. You've been better to me. I could ever repay. Your love just keeps on giving. All that I want, all that I want, I wanna do, I just wanna pour my praise on you. 'Cause you've been better to me than I could ever repay. Than I could ever, ever, ever repay. All that I want, all that I want, I wanna do, I just wanna pour my praise on you. Come on, sing it. I just wanna pour. Come on, I pour it out onto the kingdom. I just wanna pour my praise. I just wanna pour. I just wanna pour. I just wanna pour. I just wanna pour. I just wanna pour my praise on you. Everybody, lift your hands to Jesus. God, you're amazing. We love your name, Jesus. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Strongholds are broken at your name. Praise him in the morning. You can praise him in the noonday. Oh, praise him in the morning. Oh, praise him in the noonday. Come on and praise him in the morning. Praise him in the morning. Praise him in the noonday. Praise him in the noonday. Come on and praise him. Praise him in the morning. Praise him in the morning. Praise him in the noonday. Praise him in the noonday. Praise him when the sun goes down. You say, praise him when the sun Praise him when the sun goes down. Praise him when the sun goes down. Praise him when the sun goes down. Every day of my life is blessed because you're in it, God. Every minute, every second, all the day. Praise him when the sun goes down. Praise Him when the sun goes down. You're worthy, Lord. I can't do anything without Your grace and Your mercy, Lord. Praise Him when the sun goes down. Come on. Praise Him when the sun goes down. That means each and every day. Praise Him when the sun goes down. Every day is a blessing. Praise Him when the sun goes down. Oh, now praise Him when the sun goes down. Come on and praise Him when the sun goes down. From the rising of the sun to the setting of the same. Praise the Lord. Praise Him when the sun goes down. Come on, don't let this day go by without telling God thank you. Thank you, God. Thank you for each and everything that you've done. The things that I know about and the things that I don't. The things that I deserved and the things that I didn't. God, we praise you for your mercy. We praise you for your grace. We praise you for your favor, Jesus. We praise your name. We love you, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Yes. I just wanna pour. Come on and pour your praise out to Jesus. I just wanna pour my praise out. Praise your name, we praise your name. I just wanna pour. I just wanna pour. I just wanna pour my praise out. Better than I could ever, ever, ever repay. All that I want to do, I want to do, I just want to pour my praise on you. I just want to pour my praise. Come on, it's a blessing to our King. I just want to pour my praise on you. Jesus, Jesus, I just wanna pour my praise on you. I just wanna pour my praise on you. Come on, just a couple more times. I just wanna pour my praise on you. We just wanna pour our praise on you, God, because you're a good God. I just wanna pour my praise on you. I just wanna pour my praise on you. Oh, come on, if you want to pour what he gave you back out onto him because he's so worthy and he's so deserving. He doesn't have to do it and he still does it freely because we believe, we accept in him, and we confess with our mouths. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! How many of you believe and know it was nobody but Jesus? It was Nobody but Him. I know it was the blood, the blood that gives me strength from day to day. Come on, somebody put those blessed hands together like this. It's all right if you could stand up and clap your hands, stomp your feet, and join in this worship moment with us. Hallelujah! Bless your name, Jesus. Here we go. Say, I know it was the blood. I know it was the blood that saved my soul. That saved my soul. I know it was the blood. I know it was the blood that made me whole. That made me whole. Come on, say, I know it was the blood. I know it was the blood that covered me. That covered me. I know it was the blood. I know it was the blood that set me free. Come on, shout it out! Tell me what it was. Come on, say it! The blood. Come on, say it! The blood. Real loud! The blood. Over my family, the blood. Over my home, the blood. Come on, shout it out! The mighty is the mighty. Everybody put those blessed hands together if you love Jesus. Come on, shout out this name, Jesus! Come on, real big, shout out His name, Jesus! Hallelujah! Come on, one more time. Say, I know it was the blood. I know it was the blood that saved my soul. That saved my soul. I know it was the blood. I know it was the blood that made me whole. That made me whole. Listen, say, I know it was the blood. I know it was the blood that covered me. That covered I know it was the blood that set me free. Come on, one more time. Say it. Come on. I know it was the blood that saved my soul. I know it was the blood that made me whole. Come on, say it. I know it was the blood. I know it was the blood. That covered me. That covered me. I know it was the blood. I know it was the blood. That set me free. Come on, real loud, say it! Tell me who it was! The blood of Jesus. Come on, hallelujah! The blood. The blood of Jesus. Say it!

The blood.

The blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus saved my soul. The blood of Jesus made me whole. The blood of Jesus set me free. The blood of Jesus, oh, the blood of Jesus. It's because of your love. It's because of your love that I am free. Hallelujah! I am walking in love and victory. I am walking in love because we have victory in Jesus. Hallelujah! Yes, by your stripes I am healed. By your stripes I am healed. And your power is real. And your power is real. To live the blood, the blood of Jesus. Come on, shout it out! The blood, the blood of Jesus. Over my family, the blood, the blood of Jesus. Yes, the blood, the blood of Jesus, that cleansing blood, the blood of Jesus, that saving blood, the blood of Jesus, oh, the blood, the blood of Jesus. Yes, the blood, the blood of Jesus. Come on, say it's because of your love, it's because of your love that I am I am free. I am walking in love and victory. I am walking in love and victory. Yes, Lord, by your stripes I am healed. By your stripes I am healed. And your power is real. And your power is real. Come on, shout it out! Through the blood, the blood of Jesus. Come on, decorate it! The blood, the blood of Jesus. Oh, the blood, the blood of Jesus. The blood, oh yes, the blood. It saved my soul. It set me free. Hey, oh, the blood, the blood, the blood, the blood of Jesus. I've got a new walk. I've got a new talk. It's because of the blood, the blood. Come on, the blood. Come on, let's make this declaration. The blood, the blood of Jesus over your family. The blood, the blood of Jesus over your children. The blood, the blood of Jesus. Come on, somebody. The blood, the blood of Jesus. Oh, the blood, the blood of Jesus. Yes, the blood. The blood of Jesus. Nobody but you. It's all about you. Hey, the blood. Everybody clap those hands. We love you, Jesus. We worship and adore your name because you're good. You're You're mighty, yes you are. Hallelujah, everybody clap those hands. Oh, say it's because of your love. It's because of your love. I am walking in love and victory. I am walking in love and victory. Yes, God, take by your stripes I am healed. By your stripes I am healed. And your power is real. And your power is real. Yes, it is to me. To me. The blood. The blood of Jesus. Hallelujah, the blood. The blood of Jesus. Thank you, Jesus, for your blood. The blood. It heals, it delivers. Yes, it does. Come on, everybody. The blood, oh, the blood. Somebody, the blood. It saves, it heals, it cleanses. Hey, the blood, oh, the blood. Oh, the blood of Jesus. Everybody, the blood. One last time, declare it. The blood of Jesus. Oh, the blood of Jesus. Nobody but you. Come on, scream it out. Say the blood of Jesus.

Come on, somebody.

Somebody shout Jesus! Somebody shout Jesus! Hallelujah, Jesus!

Come on, say it again. The blood, the blood, the blood, the blood, the blood of Jesus. Hallelujah. Amen. We serve a risen Savior. Y'all didn't give God a hand clap of praise right there. We serve a risen Savior. Amen. I ain't gonna bust my man out, but do you know we covered in the blood? Y'all know what that looks like? Stand up, man. Stand up, stand up, stand up. I'm gonna show you what covered in the blood leaves. Put the hat on, put the hat on, put it on in church, man. Put it on.

That's covered in the blood.

All right, all right, I got an assignment here. I got an assignment.

I got an assignment.

Listen, we are here, um, in remembrance of this sacred table and in the scriptures. Does everybody have a cup and Lord's Sacrament and so forth? A small cup. If you need one, raise your hand. If you need If you need one, raise your hand. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. The blood of Jesus.

The blood.

The blood.

Lift your hand.

Amen.

Something about the blood.

Something.

I'm waiting till everybody get one. Hallelujah.

Amen.

I'm ready.

Hallelujah. Yes.

Does everybody have one?

No.

All right, not yet. All right, all right. As they go up there, my son Toussaint, he donated some stem cells, and in order to donate stem cells, they had to do a transfusion, draw his blood out, take the stem cells out to bring new life to somebody else with cancer, then put his blood back in. There's something about the blood. Amen. There's something about the blood. The blood. The blood. Everybody served?

We good?

Listen, let's pray. God, we just come and we thank you for this sacred moment that we get and have an opportunity to share We share in the Lord's Supper, this table. And we just give you all the praise, the glory, and the honor in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So if you would get your cups ready and get the bread ready. And on the night he was sitting with his disciples and he took the bread and he thanked, he thanked, then he broke it. Gave it to his disciples. He says, "Take, eat. This is my body broken for you." Let's eat together. Likewise, he took the cup. He said, "This is my blood, which represents the new covenant with you." After giving thanks, drink ye all of it. Feast upon it and be glad. Let us drink together. In doing so, you renew the covenant to continue to believe that his blood washes away all of your sins. Somebody give God a hallelujah praise right there. Come on, let's give God a hallelujah praise right there.

Amen.

I know it was the blood for me. Help me say, one day when Jesus died, and I know, I know it was the blood for me. Say he hung his head and died. Oh Lord, he hung his head. He, he hung his head and died. One day when I was lost, Jesus died upon the heavenly stage, and I know it'll— Old school congregational style without the music. Clap your hands and say, he's coming back again. And he's coming back again. You got hands, clap them. He's coming back again.

Yes, he is.

He's coming back again for me. One day when I was lost, Jesus died upon the cross, and I know that feels good. One more time, say, "I know it wasn't, but I know." I know it was the blood. Come on and testify, I know it was the blood. Yes, I'm glad to know, I know it was the blood.

Yes, he did for me. One day when I was lost, he died upon the cross.

Hallelujah! And I know it was the blood. For me. Put those hands together if you believe he died for you.

I know it was the blood. I know. It was the blood. I know it was the blood for me. One day when I was lost.

I.

I.

It's personal. He died upon the cross. But I know it was the blood that came streaming down for me. How many of you know that it was the blood that came streaming down for you? If that's your testimony, if you're grateful for the blood that came Streaming down, not just blood, but streaming down for you with your messed up self. But he gave you a chance to get it right. If you're grateful for the blood, go ahead and stand to your feet. Stand to your feet. This might be your last time. Tell the Lord thank you. Thank you, Jesus. For the blood, thank you for the blood, thank you for the blood. Hallelujah, Jesus! For the blood, thank you, Jesus, for sacrificing your life for me. It's personal. Look. Look at your neighbor and tell your neighbor, I'm thankful that he died for me. I'm grateful that he rose again on the 3rd day for me.

I'm grateful that he died for me.

But living he loved me, yes sir, and dying he saved me, buried he carried my— he took my sins far away, and then rising he justified, freed me forever. And this is our faith: one day he's coming back glorious. Put those hands together like you believe he is, like you believe he will. Hey, living he loved me, dying he saved me, buried he carried my sins far away, rising he justified, freed me forever.

One day he's coming back, glory comes near.

Living, living he loved One day, one day he's coming back glorious. Clap your hands. All right, real quick, old school, old school. Help me say power, Lord.

Power, Lord.

Power, Lord.

Power, Lord.

Power, Lord.

Power, Lord. Power, Lord. Say power, Lord.

Power, Lord.

Power, Lord. Power, Lord. Power, Lord. Power, Lord.

Power, Lord. We need your power. We need your power every day in every way. Wherever we go, we need your power, Lord. When we lay down, lay down at night, your power, Lord, is what, is what covers, is what protects, is what Deliver us, say power, Lord. Clap your hands and say it. Lift your voice and say it. Sing it like you want it. We need, we need, we need, we need your power. Power to walk right. Power to talk right. Power to pray right. Power to stay right. Power Power to give right. Power to live right. Power to see right. Power to be right.

Well, we need your power.

We pray for your power.

We pray for your power.

Send down your power. Send down your power.

Send down your power.

Send down your power. Well, living here. Love me, dying he saved me, buried he carried me, sins all away, dying he just freed me forever, freed me forever.

One day he's coming back, glorious day.

Hallelujah! Put a hand and praise on it like you believe what you just sang, like you know about the blessed hope, the hope beyond the skies, hope beyond the grave. One day he's coming back. This I believe. So I'm gonna walk like I believe. So I'm gonna talk like I believe. I'm gonna live like I believe. I'm gonna pray like I believe. I'm gonna pray like I receive. One day he's coming back. Yes, he is. And so I believe it. One of these mornings won't be long. You'll look for me. I'll be gone. Gone after glory. Anybody want to go?

Anybody want to go?

Anybody want to go? Just give the Lord a wave offering. That's me, that's me, it's me, it's me, it's me!

How many of us are excited that we are Freed forever. That's until eternity. Forever is a long time. Freed forever.

Hallelujah!

If you're excited about the Lord Jesus today, put your hands together for Jesus. This is the day that the Lord has made. We do rejoice and we are glad. Oh, magnify the Lord Praise the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Is God good? I said that because it just makes sense to take time for the Lord today. I'm sorry, but I said that because As many of you have received the emails of our CCB, and you see we have funerals planned coming up. Not just a funeral, but many funerals. There are many on the sick list, but we're here today because God has kept us.

Yes!

We didn't make that list, and it's because of the one that we came for on today. Hallelujah! So we're grateful and we're thankful. Are there any visitors in the house on today? Those of you who are visiting with us, go ahead and stand to your feet. Amen. Make some noise.

Yes.

Those of you who are worshiping with us online, go ahead and type in where you're worshiping with us from. We pray that something is said or done on today that will be life-changing for you. We call Friendship Vallejo the Holy Ghost headquarters, where we have witnessed healing, deliverance. Actually, yes, dead risen back to life. We witnessed it here in this sanctuary. So today, we expect a miracle for you, you, you, you, and especially you on today. We're grateful. We don't take it for granted that you chose Friendship Vallejo to come and worship. Amen. There is a code online. We ask that you text that number, all right, and text hello, okay? And then at the end of service, we ask that you come to the connection table and we have a love token for you. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. Let's make some noise for our visitors. Now everyone stand to your feet because we are all here on purpose. For one purpose, amen. On the screen, hallelujah. Everybody, we are a community of Christ-led liberators who love Jesus, heal people, serve Vallejo, and build community. Everybody say love. Heal, serve, and build. Because we are that church where everybody's welcome, nobody is perfect, and anything is possible. And one more thing, Steve. I told you we are that church, right? Yes, we are.

Hallelujah.

So We are that church, Friendship Vallejo, where our pastor is none other than the Reverend Dr. Justin R. Lester. And guess what, y'all? Our pastor is on the front page of the New York Times today. New York Times. He was Wall Street Journal last This week is New York Times. This coming week is Bloomberg. We don't know what's coming, but one thing we do know, we are a favored church and we are a blessed church because our pastor is Reverend Dr. Justin R. Lester. And with that being said, everybody welcome somebody and tell them you're excited to worship with them on today.

Everybody say, I'm excited to worship with you today. Nobody's perfect. Anything's possible. This is a place where everybody's welcome. Nobody's perfect. Anything's possible. This is a place where everybody's welcome. Nobody's perfect. Anything's possible.

Amen.

Amen. As you take your seats, as you take your seats, look at somebody around you. Tell them, "I'm glad you're alive." Everybody tell someone if you're happy in the Lord, know the Lord loves you. Put those blessed hands together all over this building. This is the day the Lord has made, and we make the choice to rejoice and be glad in it. You may be seated. I'm so glad you're here with us this morning. My name is Justin. I'm privileged to serve. I'm so excited to serve with you and serve alongside some of God's favorite people to build the kingdom and the body of Christ. To all of our guests, I'm so glad you're here. Of all the places you could be, you're in the right place at the right time. Please be sure you text the word hello to us, and so we can connect with you and get some information to you, information from you, to build the body of Christ. Friendship, give it up for all of our first-time guests here this morning.

Amen.

Um, it's August. I forgot to do this at 9 o'clock. It's August, which means somebody's getting older this month. And so do we have any birthdays in the month of August? If you are, God bless you. Would you stand so we can celebrate you? Any birthdays?

Amen.

God bless you. Let's sing. Ready? 1, 2, 1, 2, 3.

Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday to you.

Give it up for all of our August babies.

Amen.

You may be seated. Do we have any marriages celebrating their anniversary this month? If that's you, would you stand?

Okay.

How many years?

13 years.

13 years.

God bless you. Any other marriages celebrating anniversary? Give it up, give it up for all the marriages.

13 years.

God bless you.

Amen.

We love love here, and so glad for you and praying for all of you. Happy to August. I can't believe it's the month. It's month eight of this year of our Lord 2026. This year went by fast, and so as we round the corner to the last part of the year, for us August is always fun. I love celebrating Membership Appreciation Month, and you're going to hear about our picnic. At the end of the month. If you want to sign up to cook, please sign up as you exit. We're gonna have a cook-off, if you will. So people who really know how to cook, not those of you who boil your chicken, I don't know what you're doing, but like those of you who know how to cook for real. And so you got to sign up for your dish and all of that, and we'll have a space reserved for you to do though. And then all our side dishes too. We have competition like kickball and all this other stuff we're doing on the last Sunday. It's gonna be really fun, and that's where we're gonna honor our members So a church is not a church without people, and so we're gonna have Membership Appreciation Month. Amen, somebody!

Amen.

And so we'll celebrate all of you at the end of this month and have some fun. There's a lot going on this week. Somebody say Wednesday.

Wednesday.

It starts our Theo Tech Conference. Amen, somebody! Theo Tech is this week. I'm super excited. So it starts Wednesday. I have an intensive I'm doing from 12 to 4, but then starting at 6, is our adult playground. It's gonna be super dope. And then on Thursday and Friday are the big meets of our conference from 9 to 3. As you can see, we have some amazing sponsors that are part of our conference this year. There are 2 more that just got added, which is really cool. And so if you are here, you're a business owner, you're a leader, it's not just for church people. We're talking cybersecurity, we're talking Prompt Mastery. We have people like— one of the people here, I'm not gonna tell you what it is because you gotta come to figure it out. One of the people here, if you've ever used Claude, she not only works at Claude, but all the events Claude puts on, she runs the events that Claude puts on, and she's a person of color. Amen, somebody. And so she's the only woman up there besides Christina. So she's gonna be running this. We have somebody who works at Meta. We have 2 people who built apps that are gonna be talking about prompt mastery. The goal of this conference, some— I had a conversation with somebody last week. I said, my goal is to help my people make money. Amen, somebody. And so you can go to a conference and spend $99 to get in and have 5 different offerings, or you can come to Theo Tech, pay $99, and you ain't got to get no offering, but we're going to make sure you know how to steward your resources. Amen, somebody. And so on Friday, on Friday it's completely free. We have, I think now only have 8 slots left, but on Friday we have a special session for kids where the kids are going to learn about drones, how to to build drones. Amen, somebody. And then we'll have a special session for parents and kids where I'm going to lead to talk you through how to teach your kids how to build apps, how to teach your kids how to be entrepreneurs. It's gonna be super fun. So get your job to pay for it. Amen. And come on out from 9 to 2. We do have it streaming as well. All of this is on our website. If you go there and you use the code word friendship, your ticket is radically discounted to come to Theo Tech on this weekend. So we're really excited about it. It's gonna be a lot of fun. Bloomberg Tech, I'm not making it up, the international conglomerate of Bloomberg is going to be here with Emily Chang and all the cameras. And so I'm excited to show Black people doing Black people stuff with a whole lot of Black joy. Amen, somebody. And so let's have some fun. If you want to, please come on out. Thank you to all of you who volunteered. And even for those of you who wanna support, our own Steve Smedley is going to be teaching on Friday. Amen. Teaching on all the stuff we do inside of here. A lot of the stuff we've done is really driven with artificial intelligence, and Steve's gonna be teaching other churches. We got churches from around the country coming, and business leaders and owners, real estate agents. Real estate really got big this year, and so we're really excited. So if that's you, use the code word friendship. We want to see you Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and let's have some fun at Theo Tech. We will have church also next Sunday in Napa Amen, somebody. We'll have church in Napa, and then all of y'all who come to church in Napa, if you don't know, my wife and I own a coffee shop in downtown Napa, and there's a special discount for everybody from Friendship to go be Black in Napa. Now here's the thing I'm gonna tell y'all. Somebody asked me this question. They said, Pastor Justin, how's it— so here we go. One service, 10 o'clock. One service, 10 o'clock, Western theme. One service, 10 o'clock. I want to take up space, and this is personal. Can I get personal for a second? Somebody asked me, they said, how's business been? I said, business is fine, people just don't like Black people in downtown Napa. So here's what I want y'all to do. I want to make people mad next week, all right? So when church is over, there's like 6 businesses we'll have cards for. We want you to go patronize. There's like 6 different, uh, Black-owned and women-led businesses in downtown Napa. You get great food, great drinks. For those of you act like you don't drink wine, I I see you. Y'all be at Wine Girl. I see you at Vino Noir. I'll be seeing y'all. Be like, oh my God, Pastor, don't see me. My business is across the street. Oh my God, y'all got that cab, all that, whatever. Anyway, so I want you to patronize some of those businesses downtown who are doing amazing work as well. Latinx businesses, Black-owned businesses. And I want you to really patronize those after worship next week. So come Western-themed. We have one service, 10 o'clock. We'll be in and out, but let's have some fun. Let's engage this week and let's continue to change the culture. Amen, somebody?

Amen.

There's more announcements you'll get, but those are the main ones I want to emphasize. I'm really excited about this. The kids will have first dibs on the Theo Tech kids. If there are any kids here who want school supplies, you can go across the way. We have school supplies for every kid today. Amen. We have school supplies for every kid today. And one of the things that makes us different is not only only do we want the school supplies for back to school now, but we want the school supplies when they run out of school supplies in October. Amen.

Amen.

And so the goal for us is to store up a storehouse that anytime you need school supplies, you just call the church. Amen, somebody. And so that's why we did the drive and donations, so we have enough to give your kids. The goal now is October. It's November. It's when that eraser runs down. It's when they go, they spill chocolate milk on the notebook, I mean, it's just all of that. And our goal is to make sure that our church members never run dry. And so today, please be sure to go across, we got backpacks and the kids can pick whatever they need, but you and I both know the kids don't know what they actually need. They just wanna do it so the person they like can look at 'em and be like, oh my God, you so cool. So please make sure they get the right stuff across the way after worship on today. All right, all of that being said, it's giving time in the house of our God, amen, it's giving time.

Amen.

In the house of our God. Thank you to all of you who've been generous to this church, to this movement, to this organization. I'm so grateful for you. We're gonna talk a little bit about it in Malachi today and have some fun with this text. Your generosity is what allows us to be the church that God's called us to be, to do anything short of sin to reach people who are far from God. And it's because of you that people like the Wall Street Journal, like the New York Times, decide to put us on the front page. I want to pause here. A Black church is on the front page of the New York Times. How cool is that?

Amen.

And so, uh, the story was going to run today. I really got it confirmed. So honestly, it was supposed to run today in paper. It is running first thing in the morning. That is confirmed. So please sell out your stores. Amen. Because you're gonna see me on the front page doing this. Sell out your stores. And, uh, but it's really cool that our church, because of the work we've done in our community because the work we're doing to change a culture is being recognized across the world. So I've been reached out from France to Armenia to pastors. There's one pastor, I'll tell you this, as you get your gifts ready, there's one pastor who reached out to me and sent me this long, like, voice message, and he was just so moved by Black joy. He just saw people dancing and he's like, I've not seen people that happy to go to church. And I want to just say to you all, that's the the culture we want to build. There's a whole lot of things to be frustrated about, a whole lot of things to be sad about, but the reason we have DJs, the reason we have events and parties, the reason we have themes is there's a whole lot of things when you leave out of here to be frustrated about. When you come here, let me tell you something, ain't nothing like the joy of the Lord that can be your strength. And so that's what we want to do. That's what we're engendering in our church, and I'm grateful you guys are part of the movement. You can give online, you can give in In the app, you can give in our on our website. You can text in however you wish to give. We receive it to steward it well to build the body of Christ. We would tithe this covenant. We say here: Our tithe this covenant binds us in contract with the word of God, believing that when we do what God says, God's going to do what He says. Would you stand with us all over the building? Let's say our tithe this covenant together, and let's get ready to give liberally unto the Lord. Repeat after me. Someone say: I'm a giver. I'm a cheerful giver. My tithe is a catalyst. It will transform communities. I hold wild mercy in my hands. It will show love generously. It will heal people immediately. It will transform Vallejo prophetically. I anticipate with awe how God will blow my mind With abundant harvest, I am ready right now to give, to trust, and to receive in Jesus' name. Let's pray over your gifts. God, thank you for the gift and the giver. Thank you for their willingness to give, to trust you at your word. I pray nobody ever lacks for doing what you said. As your word tells us, may the floodgates hit the containers we have, and may we give you something. to pour glory into. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Everybody said amen. You may be seated. Our announcements are going to play. Choir is going to sing. Don't they sound good today? Don't they sound good today?

Amen.

And choir is going to sing, and then we'll dive into the word of God. Glad you're here today. God bless you.

Amen. Lift your hands.

Lord, Lord, I'll follow you. Lord, I'll serve you. That's me. This song, as we prepare for the word of God, says, for the rest of my life, I will serve him.

Rest of my life, I will serve him.

I would not stray from his love. I can't turn back for the rest of my life. I will serve him. Evermore. Sing it again for the rest. I made up in my mind I will not stray. No one loves me like you love me, Lord, and that's why I can't turn back. Say, Father, with confidence say, I will serve him forevermore. Let's sing that affirmation again.

For the rest of my life, I will serve him.

Next part describes a few circumstances like, like through the storm, through the storm and the rain, through sickness, through sickness and pain. Lord, we're married forever. I'm delighted to be your bride. For the rest I will serve him forevermore. Let's sing that again. Say, true, that's not true.

Ever, ever, ever.

It's that simple. We almost done.

We almost done.

For the rest of my life, I made up in my mind that I will serve him. Let's take another one higher, choir. Y'all singing, y'all singing. Take me through the storm.

Through the rain. Through the day. Sing it safe for the rest of my life.

I've decided to follow Jesus.

I will serve him forevermore.

Oh, hello through this storm. Through the storm, through the rain, through the heartache and the sickness.

Through it, for the rest of my life.

For the rest of my life.

For the rest of my life.

What shall I render to the Lord?

Yeah.

Oh, I can never repay you, Lord, for what you did for me. How you loosed my shackles and you set me free. How you made a way out of no way. It's the day I'll never repay you, Lord, for what you've done for me. How you loosed my shackles and you set me free. How you made a way out of no way. Turned my dark nights into day, Lord. You've been my joy in the time of sorrow. Oh, for my tomorrow. Gave me peace in a time of storm. Strength when I'm weak. And now I'm here. Lord, you've been my peace in the time of storm, strength when I'm weak. Lord, you've been my peace in the time of storm, strength when I'm weak. Say, for the rest of—

For the rest of my life.

I'm filled with your presence, I surrender all.

I surrender all.

Every day, Lord, I will do what you want me to do, go where you want me to go, say what you want me to say. For the rest, for the rest, for the rest, for the rest, for the rest, for the rest, for the rest. Oh, for the rest. For the rest of my life. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. For the rest of my life. I've made up in my mind that I, I will serve him. I will, I will, I will, I will, I will.

Oh.

I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. Y'all know the last line? No turning back. No turning back. If you've been to children's church and you heard this song, sing, I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. Sing it with me. No turning back, no turning back. Now say this: The world behind me, the cross before me, the cross before me. Come on, congregation! The world behind me, the cross before me. The world behind me, the cross before. Here's the most important part: no turning back, no turning back, no turning back. Sing that again. Say no turning back, no turning back, no turning back. That's the easy part. Come on, I need to hear y'all singing no turning back.

No turning back.

I made a vow to the Lord for the rest of my life. Last time, no turning. No turning back. If you're committed to the Lord, put those hands together as we receive a word from God.

Still I will follow, though none go with me.

Yes.

Still I will follow, though none go with me.

Yeah.

Still I will follow.

No turning back. No turn, no turning back. You ready for the Word of God today? You ready for the Word of God? Stand with me, grab your Bibles. Malachi chapter 3. We're continuing our series in Malachi talking about what it means to stand on business, and God stands on business and challenges us to do the same. The entirety of the book has been God challenging the people of Israel based upon disputes he had with them. Malachi Malachi is a court case. God has a case against Israel. And today is the first time we get the most practical way to actually fix what's been broken in Malachi. And so I pray it gets to you the way that God rested me in study. Beginning at verse number 7, we'll read down to verse number 12. Hear the word of God. It says these words: Ever since the time of your ancestors, you've turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. So return to me and I'll return to you, says the Lord Almighty. But you ask, how do we return? Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, how are we robbing you? In tithes and offerings. You're under a curse, your whole nation, because you're robbing me. So bring the whole tithe to the storehouse. There will be food in my house. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not open the windows of heaven, the floodgates of heaven, and pour out a blessing there won't be room enough to store it. And I'll prevent the passing from devouring your crops. The vines of your fields will not drop their fruit before it's ripe, says the Lord Almighty. Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land, says the Lord Almighty. Let's pray together. God, open our eyes that we might see you, our ears that we might hear you, and break our hearts as we learn to love you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Everybody said amen.

Amen.

You may be seated, even in the presence of the Lord. Each one of these weeks, we've been wrestling with a question as it relates to the text, the question the text raises, the people of Israel raise to God. And so, this week, here's the question: God, you want my money? God, you want my money?

All right.

You know, it's back-to-school season. You know what that means. You get a list. The list has everything on it. For some reason, these schools just can't take basic number 2 pencils anymore and just basic things. It's specific pencils, specific notebooks, The folder has to be exactly this color. Y'all know what I'm talking about. Hand sanitizer, Kleenex, paper towels. I wonder, what are we paying for? 'Cause I feel like we're funding the whole school. But then I look at teachers, and you gotta fund the whole classroom. I mean, it's just so many different things. It seems like we got a very specific list of the stuff we gotta do every single year. And so you go to Walmart, and you trying to math out how much this gonna cost, 'cause in that same cart at Walmart are your groceries, are the clothes these kids want. Come on, talk to me, somebody. And then you know when you leave out of here, you got to get something to eat. The gas is already too expensive. Rent is going up, and it seems like the credit card that you about to swipe—you praying that nothing else hit it before this hits it, right? Because you got registration fees and school clothes, and you got to get certain shoes with a certain color because so and so got the same color. But you can't look like so and so because that's gonna be weird. You got to be like just so many different things. Your child got so many things, and if you don't get exactly what your kid want, now you don't love them. I mean, there's just so much stuff that goes into it. Now you're calculating all these different things all week, and then you walk into church on Sunday and we get up here talking about tithing. And somewhere in your mind you saying, God, you want my money too? Because it feels like everywhere I go somebody want my money, they're trying to sell me something. And I think it's a very honest question, and God has a very specific answer for it in this text.

All right.

We're 7 weeks into this series. God has answered the love question, the worship question, the leadership question, the commitment question, the justice question. And God said, to be the God of justice, he points not to the people— points not to himself, sorry, but to the people. And every week God's been saying the same thing over and over. He uses the Hebrew word shuv, or to return. Constantly God is saying, I need you to turn around. Come back. Turn around. The entirety of this book is about covenant, what it means to be with God and to turn to God when you've turned away from God. And so this is the first time where the people of Israel did not get defensive with God. They wanted to know how to actually do it. And so here they asked God, how do we do what you tell us to do? And God says, cool, here's the answer. Let me give you how God answers the question. A couple weeks ago, I ran a test on social media. I was doing these master classes and I ran this test And I'm a blerd. I'm a black nerd, and I wanted to—I wanted to do this piece where I wanted to show people how to grow their Instagram. I've grown multiple Instagram and TikTok accounts, and so I wanted to grow their Instagram. And so I was like, I wanted to show people how to do this stuff. And so I said, the way I'm going to do it is I want to show you how the algorithm actually works. I want to show you how to build around it. I want to show you how to understand it so your posts can be perfect and you can grow your stuff. And when you grow it, how to monetize it. I wanted to show people how to do that. So when I did my I did it the way that I wanted to communicate, how to understand the Instagram algorithm to grow your channel. 2 people signed up. Then I did another one where Courtney said, no, just tell them do this. If you wanna go from 0 to 150,000 followers in 1 week, how to do it. You know, 150 people signed up because people just wanted to know, how do I get to 150,000 followers? They didn't care how to manage it when you get there. This is the text. We come to church and we want God to give you the bag of fish when God says in Malachi chapter 3, let me teach you how to sustain what you catch. The issue with a lot of our prayer lives is you want God to give you something that you're not ready to receive. So you want God to give you the floodgates of heaven, but you got no containers for it to go to. You talk about praises go up, blessings come down, but you have no place in your heart because you're so full of yourself that God can't get in it.

Awesome.

So that you want God to bless your resources, but you won't steward them well because you want the bag of fish. But the scriptures teach us how to scale and steward your resources. This text has nothing to do with praises go up, blessings come down. This text has nothing to do with God giving you the floodgates. This is all about God teaching you how to scale and sustain what he's given you in your hands. So he comes along and says— they say, God, how do we return back to And God says, let me teach you how to maintain and scale what I gave you, because you have not done that well. So how do we do it? There's 4 movements of the text. I'll give them to you. The first movement of the text is verse number 7. The question is, how do we return? The first question in verse 8 and 9, the second movement of the text, is how we aren't returning. The third movement of the text is verse number 10. God says, test me. And the fourth movement of the text is verses 11 and 12. the 3 promises and the nation. Let's walk through the text. Verses 11, how do we return to God? Verse number 7, ever since the time of your ancestors, you've turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Before God tells them what to do, how to return, he tells them the issue at hand. He says, your ancestors have broken the covenant and you've gotten comfortable being a covenant breaker.

Yes.

He says, the covenant was broken not with you, but with your ancestors. The specific obligations I gave Israel at Sinai, they have not kept it. So God is saying the issue is that not only did they break covenant, but you've gotten complicit with covenant breaking and not checking yourself, but blaming it on the former generation.

Amen.

In essence, things that your great-grandmother did, you act like it, you do it, and instead of stopping it, you just blame it on somebody who's deceased. God says you've gotten comfortable with drifting from my covenant. The ancestors broke this. They were in a household that was comfortable with covenant breaking, so therefore when we tell them to return to God, they're like, why do we need to return when we lived well breaking covenant? So God says, you've shoved away, you've turned away from my decrees, so take the same energy you've done to turn away from me. Look at verse 8, and now I want you to turn back to me. God says, return to me and I return to you. God makes this bilateral covenant language. God says, if you turn back to me, I will turn myself back to you. This is covenant architecture. Both parties have an obligation. Both parties have a responsibility. So then Israel says, verse number 7, how do we return? Now for the first time, all these other times they've done this, they've been defensive. They've been offended by God. This is the first time they said, God, we want to get it right. How do we do this? Look at verse number 8. God says, well, fine, if you want to do it, here's a second movement, how we aren't returning. Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. The word mere mortal there is very interesting, preachers. It's the word adam, where we get Adam from. So God is asking a rhetorical question that we know the answer to. God says, would Adam rob me?

Yes.

I just want to be clear. Do you think if Adam could, just like he already did, would he rob me? So would mortals go against me? Absolutely, because I gave you everything you needed and you chose to listen to Satan. Would you rob me? Yes. Would you turn your back on me? Yes. And so you're saying you're not Adam, but you would do it? How do you— so what is the word rob there? The word rob there is very interesting. It's deliberately withholding something from God. Would a human deliberately hold something away from God? And the wording there is like employer. Imagine you go to work all week, it comes time for payday, your, your boss calls you and says, hey, listen, you did a really good job last week, but we're not gonna pay you. Would, would, would we do that to God? Absolutely. God says— so how were they saying that to God? God, how are we robbing you? Because we're not him. How are we robbing you? And God says, you're doing it in 2 ways. You're doing it in tithes and you're doing it in offerings. So let's break these words down, because I get this all the time. Before you send me the email, because I get this every single time I preach on this. It's like, but you don't understand, Pastor Justin, they didn't have George Washington back in the text. They did not. So let me, let me kill 2 things. Number one, they were talking about grain and cattle and oil. So let me be clear, if you want to bring to church some beef ribs, some prime ribs, some, some, some pork rib, I don't really care, some, some oil, some olives, and some bread, please do it because we got a food pantry that can Use your grain, cattle, and oil. If you're saying, "I don't want to get no money, but I got a cow," bring it, please, because we'll cut that thing up, drain the blood. Come on, talk back to me. Cut that. I got some cow neck. I got some filet. I got some prime rib. I'm getting hungry. I got some New York strip steak. I got some. I got all of it. If that's what you say, I'm going to give. Bring your cow in Jesus' name. Amen, somebody. If you're saying, "Well, we a New Testament church," yes. Let me tell you what they did in Acts chapter two. The Bible says. They didn't give 10%, they gave everything. They sold their houses, they sold their land, they gave everything. So why do we do 10% in our churches? Because it's the bare minimum, and we still don't do that. We give people the bare minimum, and we tell God it's not enough because we're mimicking what the children of Israel did. What they're talking about in the Old Testament literature here are 2 scriptures: Leviticus 27 and Numbers 18. The people— I want to explain how it worked. The people were supposed to bring the first fruits, the tenth of their agricultural produce, their cattle, their grain, and their olives to the temple. Here's where it went to. Remember, the temple was not like our churches today. The temple was the centrifuge of the city. You're talking shopping, you're talking the bank, you're talking— I mean, everything was in the center of the city at the temple. So when they came to it, they were supposed to bring the first tenth and give that tenth to the Levites. Why? Because all the other 11 tribes had land inheritance. The Levites didn't. Their purpose of the Levites were to serve in the temple, to make sure that if you wanted to encounter God, they didn't have to till the land because they were spending time with God. So the first 10th of agriculture will go to the Levites because they don't have property, and then the 10th of what the Levites had would go to the priests to make sure the priests were able to eat because the priests were unable to farm. That's the whole principle of this context. So the minimum contribution to the city so that the priests and the Levites could maintain the centrifuge of the city was the firstfruits of their cattle, their grain, and their olives. God says, you guys don't want to make sure that the Levites and the priests have what they need for the city. So the reason I turned my back on you is because you don't want my place to look good. Not only that, but then God says you rob me because you won't do the bare minimum, and you rob me because then above and beyond that you can't give offerings. Let me tell you this, the entry door, the club ticket to tithing, the club ticket to covenant, the covenant work with God, the, the entry fee when you get there— ladies get in free, but everybody else, let me tell you this, is 10%. Above and beyond the 10% is the offering. You don't start with offering, you start with tithing. Right. The offering is the first fruit, the special voluntary. It's what's above and beyond the tithe. So if we don't do the minimum, you're not doing the voluntary stuff. You got to start with the entry fee first. Like, you never go to a club and be like, I'm gonna buy a drink. You go to the club and you pay the entry fee. Y'all acting like you ain't never been to a club after 10 o'clock. You go to the club first, you pay the entry fee. And then you buy your drink. And there's a drink minimum too. Oh my God, don't, don't y'all get weird. So you— so God is saying the entry fee is tithing, the drink minimum is an offering. Right. He says you ain't doing the entry fee or the drink minimum and you expecting me to give you everything? Go home. Come on, talk back to me, somebody. Go. Better go. I don't care how dressed up you are, you better take your too-tight clothes and go back home. So God says, because you don't bring the tithe, you don't bring the offering, what am I doing Look at the text. He says, I put you under a curse.

Whoa.

He says, you deliberately withheld something from me, so I'm going to intentionally withhold myself from you. Because when the covenant is broken, the flow of grace stops. So the storehouse is empty, the Levites are hungry, the temple service breaks down, everything downstream stops. because the covenant is broken in the temple. So how do we break this? Look at verse number 10. How do we break this? God says, so test me. How do we test God? He says, do this: bring the whole tithe to the storehouse. Simply put, so there might be meat, food, in my house. Test me in this, I'll open the floodgates of heaven. Let's break this down. God says, bring me 10%. Come on. That's it. I want you— the issue is they were bringing something, but it was defiled, broken, and lame, and God says, stop bringing me substitutes. Bring me the good stuff. Right. Bring me the whole thing. Bring me the complete amount. Bring me the bare minimum and I'll bless you. God says, the issue is you think I'm that cheap. You don't want to fulfill your side of covenant. So God says, I'm withholding myself. So if you want to change it, bring me what I asked you. And what will I do? He says, there'll be meat. Bring it to the storehouse. Now the storehouse, to give you context, was literally a room. It was a room to the right of the Holy of Holies. That's all it was. It was the place where the priests stored grain, where they stored wine, and where they stored oil. That's all they did. The issue with this, Nehemiah chapter 10 gives us exactly what to do. The Levites will go throughout the city collecting the tithe. After they would collect the tithe, they bring it to the storehouse and make sure that everybody in the temple tabernacle, that anybody who came to it had what they needed. Nehemiah 13, the context of Malachi, Nehemiah 13 says the people stopped doing it. So what happened? The storehouse rooms were emptied and converted to other uses. Because when we stop tithing, the church has to start beginning to find money the way the world finds money. That's why I'm so vehemently against churches getting grants, because we don't need grants from the world when God gave us how to raise money. I ain't scared of none of y'all, because when the church stopped being the church, then we got to start renting the church out to secular events.

Mm-hmm.

When the church stopped being the church, then we got to start doing worldly stuff expecting sacred returns. So when the church stops being the church, when we stop giving unto God's church, now we have to manipulate manipulate our budget to fit the world. We forget we're not worldly citizens, we're kingdom citizens on assignment. Amen. But because they didn't give, now they converted a sacred space into a worldly space. And then the Levites, whose responsibility— hear me— daily to lead prayers, daily to be at the Tabernacle— the Levites whose responsibility were to daily be in the Tabernacle had to go farm just to You got pastors with 3 jobs. I would love our musicians to be here 7 days a week praying and fasting over what to sing to you, but they're working other jobs. I would love to have more preachers on our staff to be praying and fasting and present with our people, but we got to work multiple jobs. This is what the Levites had to do. They had to do things— watch this— they had to do things outside of their bloodline just so they could survive because one thing wasn't happening. What? The people weren't tithing. Malachi tells people at this time, he says, listen, the issue, the reason the church is not the church, the reason the storehouse is being misused, the reason that we have to do things outside of what God called us to do is because there's no wheat and grain, and yet we have a hungry multitude of people who need wheat and grain. So God says, I want you to bring the storehouse and not— there might be food in my house. So how do we fix this? God says, so take Test me. This is the only time in Scripture God says to do something that all the other times he says doesn't do. And he uses a metallurgy word here. He says, I want you to put me under your fire and see that I'll survive everything you say about me.

Wow.

The issue is not whether or not God will keep his covenant. God is saying, you don't keep yours. So he says, try me and see that you can't burn me. And what will I do if you test me? God says, I will open the floodgates of heaven. It's interesting, it's a very unique word in the Hebrew. He says, I will open the sluice gates of heaven. The only other time, preachers, we have seen this word in scripture was in Genesis chapter 7 and Genesis chapter 8. Remember the story? God tells Noah, Noah, it's going to rain. Get everybody into a boat, build this boat. and I'm going to destroy this world by doing what? I'm going to open the floodgates of heaven and let it rain. God says, when you trust me with your resources, I will take the same power that destroyed the earth with rain and concentrate it on your faithfulness.

Okay.

That the same authority that cleaned out the earth Is the same authority that I'll open heaven's floodgates and make sure that every bin in your life will go where to pour out a blessing that you can't even receive it. Y'all don't know when to shout. God says, "When you test me, I will make sure that your storehouses are filled the same way you are traumatized by the world being wiped out is the." same way that I'll show you favor in every area of your life. He says, I will open the floodgates of heaven. Now the reason that's also important is not just the Noah story, but it's also where they started going against God. Go back to chapter 2. They begin to find wives of foreign gods, namely Baal. Baal was the god of rain. God says, you don't need to find an idol god, you don't need to find an idol job, you don't need to find a bad relationship in order to pay your bills, when you trust me that I will open the floodgates of heaven into the containers you have. The issue for so many of us is you have no storehouse for God to pour into because you're hoarding what God has given you. God says, if you trust me with what you have, I will make sure you never lack when you test me.

Right.

And what will happen? I'm just reading the text. God says, I give you 3 promises. Number 1, look at verses 11 and 12. Here's the 3 promises. I'll rebuke your devourer. Number 2, your vines will never drop fruit before they're ready. And number 3, everybody who's talked about you is going to call you blessed. I'm just reading the Bible. What will God do? Let's break the text down. God says, number 1, I will prevent the pests from devouring your crops. The locusts were coming in. This is the book of Joel chapter 2, that the years the locusts ate away, God restores. God says the promise I gave in the book of Joel will come true when you trust me, that I won't even let the locusts know where your fields are. Ah, he says, I won't let distractions make you make decisions with money. I won't let comparison make decisions with money. I won't let your insecurities make decisions with money. You won't be scared when you get paid how much money you don't— I wish I had somebody in the building. God says, I rebuke your distractions, your depression, your insecurities. I'll give you wise minds with your money, because God will not just protect your money, he'll protect your decision-making, he'll protect the way you look at money, because God will protect you from the locusts that eat what you have. And God says, I'll make sure your fruit doesn't drop before it's ready. Now, to a farmer, this makes them run, because there's so much fruit that drops before it's ready. God says, you won't You won't ever have to see rotten, moldy fruit because I will make sure that whatever you plant will have seed for the next season. Y'all ain't getting me. That everything you plant will produce for you. For farmers, this would make them run around their fields because for them that means they never will lose a crop to any animal and they'll never lose a crop to a bad season. That God is saying, I'm going to give you an abundance of rain to make sure that your fields are always moist, and I'll take away any pestilence that'll eat your crop, and everything you produce will be perfect in its season. And every nation around you will call you blessed. Yes. Why? Because when they look at you and they see your land is flourishing and they know you were just in exile, They will try to figure out how are you flourishing when I know where you came from, darling. Weren't you just in exile? Weren't you just bankrupt? Weren't you? Didn't you just get laid off your job? Didn't you just lose your mama? Didn't you just lose your mind? And he says, and every nation who talked about you in exile, every nation. Every nation who said that you would never get out of exile, every nation that said you'll never get remarried, every nation that said you'll never have a child will look at your production and say, look how good God has been to them. But God says the people that know your story will change how they talk about you. When you bring all the tithe to the storehouse so that there's meat in my house, You keep my promises with you. I'll keep my promises back to you. You break a curse. Here's the thing: you break anytime a baby is born is because a seed has broken a cycle. God, a baby is born because a seed has broken a cycle, and because that seed has broken a cycle, now something new is born. And maybe for some of you, when it comes to your money and your finances, it's time for you to break the way you think about money. Right. So no, I ain't got no extra offering. If you feel convicted, that's because you ain't doing it. I ain't got no extra offering. I ain't got no seed offering. What I wanna do for the rest of my 5 minutes with you together, and don't tell me it's more than 5 minutes, Minister Natalie, but for the rest of my 5 minutes with you together is take money off the throne in your house. 'Cause for many of you, you are not worshiping God, you are worshiping money, and that's why you get scared on the first. Right. No, no, no, that's why you freak out on the first, or freak out on the fifth, or freak out on the fifteenth. There's people in this room, I think there's 3 sets of people in this room. There's those of you in the room who've been giving faithfully, consistently, even in seasons when you didn't feel like giving, you gave. And I wanna tell you, like Paul told the church of Philippi, thank you. Like, you have been faithful to God even when you feel like God has been frustrated with you. You have seen what it means to be in covenant with God in season and out of season. You got a testimony that tithing works. There's some of you in the room right now, you're saying, Pastor Justin, I want to. I literally— tithing may put me over the edge. I, I— my job, my hospital bills, and I feel like the whole tithe would make me lose my mind. This sermon is for you too. I'm not— I'm not trying to hurt you, because maybe what God is doing in you is looking at the ways you're not generous generous beyond your resources. It's a heart posture. And as your season shifts, you've gotten consistent with being generous in every area to God of your life, that when resources match your heart, you want to give it. And then there's some of you in the room who have the income and are intentionally withholding from God. You have the margin, but your heart is dysfunctional, and money makes decisions for you. You don't think through things, you don't pray through things, Money is the starting pitcher of your life, and God gets called off the bench because you're that important. And here's where Malachi comes along, and most people get this text and you hear it from, give your tithe, you're not doing enough. God is giving Israel a system to maintain what he's called them to do. The tithe is the entry point to tell God, God, what I produce is not bigger than your love for me. Say that again. The tithe is the entry point to tell God what I produce in the world is not bigger than your love for me. This is how covenant and distribution stays active. This is how devourers never can eat your resources. This is how timing and seasons don't matter to the children of God, because the reason some of us are looking for a new season— because you're not maximizing the old one. And the way that way that God says you get past a seasonal life and just live in the pleasures of the Lord Jesus is when you are consistently with God. You don't need a new season when you're living in abundance. But then the reason we have seasons is because we see things keep fluctuating. God is saying, if you give me what I asked for first, I'll govern everything else. The question is, who's sitting on the throne of your financial life? Many of you in the room have a specific kind of problem. You make the money decisions from fear and not from faith. It's like knowing you're supposed to give something and finding every reason not to. It looks like your bank account determining your peace instead of God being the God of peace. Because when money sits on the throne of your life, you can't make decisions in faith when you are living in fear.

Yeah.

So I wanna be clear about one principle. God is not broke.

Amen.

Okay. God is not asking you to give because he ran out of options. God is asking for the throne because he wants to destroy every idol in your life. And the moment your money idol is dethroned, the moment money becomes a servant and not your master, the moment that the money idol is dethroned and the moment that money becomes a servant in your life, and not the master of your life, it changes everything. Because when you stop serving money and you begin to make decisions with money and not money making decisions for you, the devourer gets rebuked, the fruit stays on its vine, and every nation will call you blessed. So how do we get there? Let me help you out. Let me give you 3 principles. I want to be very practical today about these principles. Number one, number one, I want you to acknowledge Acknowledge what's actually on the throne of your life. Acknowledge what's actually on the throne. Pull up your bank account from last month. Pull up your bank statement and read it like a confession, because it is one. Where you spend your money tells me what you value. You don't have to tell me where you worship. You don't tell me how you spend your money tells me what you think is important. Because show me your bank account, I'll show you who your God is. First one, who gets paid first? At 12:01 on August 1st, without a prayer, who gets prayed first?

God.

Because that's your starting lineup of who you say is the most important. Number 2, what you— what do you spend money on that you've never once prayed about? Like, you go to the mall, I'm just gonna look around today, I'm not gonna do it. I'm not gonna do it. 5 minutes later, I did it. You never prayed about it, you never asked God about it, that thing that sits on the throne without you thinking about it. What do you spend money on that you don't pray about first? Number 3, in the last 6 months, what financial decision have you made out of fear? What was the panic purchase, the anxiety purchase, the, the fear-based purchase? Let me give you this principle. Fear-based spending is the clearest signal that money is your god. The thing that gets paid first without praying about it is the thing that owns you. Name it and give that over to God. Number 2, decide what you want your money to do. Money does not lead you. You decide where your money goes. Amen. Amen. Amen. See, the issue with many of us— you're getting weird and I feel it, but here's the thing. Because you got a survival relationship with money. For many of you in the room right now, money for you is, I gotta get enough, I need to pay the bills, and I hope something's left. And a survival relationship with money produces a survival life. You can't tell me that God wants you to thrive and you're just surviving with your money, because if that's where the cash flow piece that you wrestle with— I don't have enough cash flow— God says you've got to stop letting other people decide what to do with your money. That means you build storage. And here's what storage capacity looks like. I want to be very practical right now. So here's what storage capacity looks like in 2026. Number 1, employee matching. Go to your HR team and ask the question, what does employee matching look like on my 401k? Because if your employer matches up to 4% and you're not contributing, they're keeping your money every pay period.

Yes.

Because your devourer is not always the locust. Your devourer is you not jumping into employee matches that you have available to you at your job. Storage looks like Roth IRAs. I know y'all getting weird, like, why you talking about this? No, I'm trying to help you. I ain't raising no offer. I'm trying to help your money. Roth IRAs is the account you open when you want your money to grow tax-free.

Yes.

Oh my God. You put in after-tax dollars, you pull out tax-free in retirement. The government doesn't touch your growth. The vine stays on till it's ripe. Oh my God. See, this is the stuff we don't want to tell our community. You plant it Now, 40 years, you got generational wealth because you put $25 in. Okay, HSA accounts. Come on, somebody. High deductible healthcare plans, access to HSAs, triple tax advantage. The contribution goes in pre-tax. I'm trying to get you from the world system to a different system. It grows tax-free, comes out tax-free for medical expenses. A high yield savings account. Your money sitting in a regular bank account and earning zero interest, or a high yield savings account. saving account where you earn 4 to 5% interest. Same money, different container that God can send the floodgates on. Come on, talk to me. You open this and stop thinking you need a rainy day fund and have a place where your money is growing so that when you get to it, you've got more money in it. A beneficiary designation. This is the one we don't think about much, Black people. Every account you have needs to have somebody on it so that when you die, that money goes to them. You got to stop thinking about you and start thinking about the children you'll never meet.

Right, right, right.

One of the hardest things— my mother passed away— is she didn't put my sister and my name on her accounts. So what happens? Probate. Come on, talk to me, somebody. You talk about, I want my kids' kids to be blessed. You didn't put their name on the beneficiary in your bank account. You can't transfer generational wealth without thinking about the generations you don't see. Most of us leave it blank. Um, here's the other thing: life insurance. I'm tired of GoFundMe funerals. Come on, talk to me, somebody. Life insurance. Y'all can get weird with me. Am I raising an offering? I'm, I'm— let me say this. I said this at 9 o'clock. I'm gonna say it again. I am cooking this text. I don't care what none of y'all say. I am cooking all up in this. I got it flip-fried, stir-fried with a medium-well steak on this text. Let me tell you something. You need to make sure your family has had a conversation about your will.

Yes.

Okay. If you and your children have no will, the state of California will decide what to do with you, not— and your money. A conversation with an attorney costs a couple hundred dollars to make sure your family can grieve well. If you got a side income, make sure you got an LLC. I'm trying to help you. I'm giving you $5,000 of conference advice right here. If you have a side hustle, make that thing an LLC. Photography, consulting, nails, hair, event planning— get your certificates so you're covered. Come here, somebody. Get your certificates and don't make your only form of communication Instagram. Come on, somebody. Get yourself a website. Get yourself a bank account. Come on, talk to me, somebody. Get your LLC tight and protect your personal assets separate from your business assets. Because business expenses become deductions. Talk, Justin Lester. I'm doing the best I can. Improve your credit score. Pay your bills on time.

Yes.

Oh my God. Your credit score is the interest rate you pay on everything. Your car loan, your mortgage. Come on, talk to me. Your business loan. So a 580 credit score credit score and a 780 credit score are buying the same house, gonna pay 2 different prices. And what does a devourer want? A low credit score, because a low credit score charges you every single month. Now, you got to do all this at once. I'm just trying to give you suggestions. One form, one account, one conversation, one phone call to an attorney, one high-yield savings account. That's where you're telling God, when you open the floodgates, this is where to poor. I love my people, but people, we got— we got to stop thinking about checking the cash places. Come on, talk to me. We got to stop living month to month. We got to stop thinking the best you can do is an hourly job. Come on, talk to me, somebody. We got us— come on, talk to me, Black people. We got to stop thinking month to month. We got to stop thinking checking the cash. We got to stop thinking basic savings to to next week and begin to think about— because let me give you this last principle: retirement is not an age, retirement is a number. What is your number? How are you going to live year over year in retirement? Now invest in your future. There's so many people I know that are retired that are living pretty in retirement that they did— they worked hard. Now my grandmama gave me this principle, and I'll move on to my next point: easy now, hard later.

Yeah.

Hard now, easy later. Make wise, hard financial decisions now so you can be on the beach with your ugly feet out at 70. Come on, talk to me, somebody. I wish all the retired people that are living pretty would make some noise. Amen. That you can be on a cruise, you could be on a beach, you can move with your grandkids later, you can pay for your kids' wedding later. Come on, talk to me, somebody. When you make hard financial decisions now. So how we get to all that— here's my third principle. When it comes to tithing, you gotta— here's the principle for me. Here's the principle on tithing for me when it comes to the church. You got to start with a number and start with a date. A principle with no date is a good feeling. So I want you to think about when you look at your next paycheck, calculate 10% of your next paycheck, write the number down, and how are you going to get to that number? Really clear, I'm not telling you to give me an offering today. Ain't no seed offering. I want you to make a plan and then work the plan. Right. Make a plan and then work the plan. Calculate what that 10% is and then make a plan to get there and start someplace. Show God, I do trust you. And then here's the way that you do that. You not only set the date and make the number, but you tell somebody to hold you accountable. It's amazing, we will have all these inappropriate conversations with people but won't have money conversations with people?

Yeah.

No, come here. You talk about your boyfriend, your girlfriend, and all the things y'all do that you ain't supposed to be doing. No, come here, come here. You will talk about sex, you will talk about drugs, alcohol, weed, and sin, but we won't talk to our friends about how to make wise financial decisions. No, talk to me. Isn't that weird? Why is it that we are more comfortable in our communities having inappropriate, sin-filled conversations And not conversations that are going to lead to generational wealth. Now, when's the last time you and your friends had a conversation? But yes, this is the vacation we're going to go on, and I'm going to be a better tither. And when you pray for my marriage, pray for my financial wisdom. Because here's what I've learned: the same God that healed you from cancer is the same God that'll give you wisdom in your finances. Oh no, you can clap for that. The same God that brought you out flip, died, and fried all. And made your weave get all crooked because God got you out of a bad relationship is the same God that can tell you what investment banker to talk to to make wise decisions for the next 30 years of your life. The same God that sets you free is the same God that can give you freedom with your money too. But it's amazing, we'll have all the relationship conferences, the sex conferences, the, the, the, the addiction conferences, and not having wise conversations about money with your friends. So God says, test me, let me hold you accountable. Start with a number and start with a date and put that all together. God says, listen, I promise you something will change in your life. So what do we do with all of this? The challenge, I think, for this text every week has been the question they raised, I think, was the wrong question. The question is not, God, do you want my money? The question is, God, how do I scale and sustain what you you've given me? How do I maintain the gift you gave me? You gave me the gift of X. I want to return it to you, but I feel like if I do, I'm gonna lose what I have. And God says, try me. God, I feel like if I give you my gift, somebody's gonna copy it. God says, try me. God, I feel that if I give you my money, I'm gonna not have enough money to go to McDonald's. God says, try me. No, that's a real conversation. God, if I give you this, I can't buy the Jordans for my kid this year. God says, try me. God, if I give you this, I can't do this. God says, try me, and here's what I'll do. I will show you the container you made of your heart is where I'll send the floodgates of heaven to pour out a blessing you cannot receive. I'll protect what I invest in, and I'll make sure that nothing can steal your joy. As a matter of fact, when people see you, they'll delight in my work through you. That's the text. So, I can give you a bag of fish, or I can teach you how to sustain and scale what God gave you. May today be a day that you say, God, I'm good on the bag of fish. Teach me how to fish. Teach me how to scale it. Teach me how to sustain it. Teach me how to invest. Teach me— God, give me wisdom in my finances. So that I never have to cry about money again. Every head is bowed, every eye is closed. Ask the Holy Spirit one question: Holy Spirit, what are you saying to me? Holy Spirit, what are you saying to me? I pray for people in this room right now who the math isn't mathing. May provision show up in places you haven't looked. Somebody say yes. I'm talking to people in the building who feel like you are one expected expense. unexpected expense from a crisis. I rebuke the devourer in your life right now. Somebody say yes. Yes. I'm talking to the entrepreneur, the business owner who your vision and your money aren't matching. May God give you wisdom on when to move and when to slow down. Somebody say yes. I'm talking to the person who has money and you're afraid of it. You're afraid of losing it. You're afraid of trusting it to the wrong person. May God Break the spirit of fear over your money today. Somebody say yes. I prayed over marriages who have financial pressure. Conversations have gotten hard. Tension shows up every time bill time comes. May God give you peace with your money. Somebody say yes. And I talk to every other person in the room. May God give you wisdom beyond what any spreadsheet shows you. Father, in Jesus' name, we yield.

Mm-hmm.

For your wisdom with our resources. They're not ours to begin with, they're yours. So today, God, we rejoice that you've given us something to steward. So may we return to you and give us the number and a date. May we return to you and hold us accountable in community and with you that our money is not a place where we worship. Our money is a tool that we'll utilize to show you that we love you in our our worship. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Stephen's gonna sing a song, we're gonna sing together, and I want to rejoice over resources. May God give you wisdom to know the blessings of God are yours, the favor of God is yours. So we're gonna sing, he's gonna teach you this song. I want us all to sing it and we'll get ready to go. So go right ahead.

All that I need, oh, by grace and through faith, the blessings of the Lord belong to me. Help me say, by grace, through faith, I'm able to receive. I receive all that I need. By grace and through faith, blessings of the Lord belong to me. And the blessing, the blessings of the Lord, blessings of the Lord belong to me. When I put my faith and my trust in him, he shall supply every Every one of my needs. The blessings of the blessings of the Lord belong to me. Back to the top. Say, by grace, by grace, I'm able to receive.

I'm able to receive all I need. Say, by grace. Through faith, through faith, the blessings of the Lord belong to me. Listen, listen.

I shall give with a merry heart, anointed partaker. I shall do my part cheerfully. I give unto For there's a storehouse prepared for me. Say, all mine, all mine, all mine. The blessings of the Lord. That's the part you take with you. Say, all mine, all mine.

They are mine.

Yeah. Back to the top one more time.

By grace, by grace, by grace, through faith, I'm able to receive all that I need.

Through faith, the blessings of the Lord belong to me.

May your resources continue to match your faith, and may God give you the wisdom to steward every season of your life well. If you are looking for a church home, if baptism is your next step, we would love to have— participate in that with you. If you're looking for a place to call home, we were looking for a pastor, a safe environment for you to grow in knowledge of Jesus Christ, we would love for you to be a part of our church. If baptism is your next step, we would love to We would love to participate in that with you as well. As you exit out of church, stop by our connection table. We have people there that would love to get your information, get some information to you, get some information from you to be connected to our church. We're baptizing on the 4th Sunday. We would love to be a part of your story as well. As we get ready to go, uh, don't forget this week is Theo Tech. On next Sunday, we are having church in Napa, one service, 10 o'clock at the Napa Valley Performing Arts Center. You'll get text messages and emails to remind you online as well. But come to Napa with us, Western theme. So come in your favorite denim, white t-shirts, whatever it is. Come out wearing your favorite Western theme and have some fun in Napa with us this week. Ain't nobody mad but the devil. Are you happy in the Lord today? You happy in the Lord? Amen. Look at somebody around you and say, somebody, this will be your best week. May the love of the Lord consume you, the grace of God overwhelm you, the peace of God drown you, and may God be God to you this week. Somebody say hallelujah. Somebody say thank you, Jesus. Everybody say amen. God bless you. Go with you in peace. God bless you today.

Blessing of God. And I want to thank you, God, to the Lord. Oh my, oh my, yeah, yeah, yeah. Blessings of the Lord, they are—

Sing it again. I'm blessed when I go, blessed when I come. Blessing of God. Give it over to the Lord.

All my, all my blessings are the Lord's.

One more time. This I believe.

All my, this I receive. Yeah, blessings of the Lord, they are mine. I believe his word. All my, all All mine, all mine, the blessings of the Lord, they are mine.

Say it, all mine, all mine, all mine, all mine, the blessings of the Lord, they are mine. All mine, all mine, all mine. The blessings of the Lord, they are mine.

The blessings, the blessings of the Lord, they are mine. The blessings of the Lord, blessed whoa!

The blessings of the Lord, they are mine.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah.