Prosperity Thinking | Pastor John Greiner

In this message on "Prosperity Thinking," John opens in 3 John, where the apostle John prays above all things that Gaius would prosper and be in health even as his soul prospers, and builds the case that God's priority for believers is success in both finances and health. He shares openly about a season of business failure and having to move in with family, using his own story to show how renewing the mind to what God's word says, rather than to the report of circumstances, becomes the real turning point. The message runs through six contrasts between prosperity thinking and poverty thinking, touching on generosity toward those in ministry, diligence, tithing, and trusting God as the true source of provision rather than government or circumstance, and closes with an invitation to receive that truth and walk in it.

Transcript

Prayer Warriors Take Spiritual Ground

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Lift our Bibles, wave them around, make Jesus glad, the devil, mad. Say this together. Say, Heavenly Father, I'm one of your prayer warriors. You let me live in the last days. You said, occupy till I come. Lord, that's what we're doing. We're ruling and reigning in this life over these demon powers. We're binding the spirit of Antichrist, the spirit of this age. We will not allow it to get ahead of schedule. They'll have their day when we're gone. But we're not gone yet. While we're here, we're ruling and reigning. In the name of Jesus. Amen, amen. Praise God. All right.

3 John Sets The Priority

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Let's look at third John. The third apostle of John. Third epistle. Third apostle. Third epistle of John. And uh that's on page 338, if you're still looking. The elder unto the well-beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Or I love truly. Beloved, I wish or I pray above all things. Everybody say, above all things. Now he's praying something top priority. I pray above all things. This is John, and who's John? Well, John's apostle. And why is he writing? He's inspired of the Holy Ghost. This is what the Holy Ghost wanted him to put down on paper in this third epistle. So he's telling him, I pray above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers. For I rejoice greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as you walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

Defining Prosperity Thinking For Health

SPEAKER_00 2:10

And so tonight I wanted to share a message entitled Prosperity Thinking. Prosperity thinking. God's priority is our prosperity in health and in finances. Now they're linked a lot of times because I mean when you when you're unable to pay your bills, many times you wind up in bad health. If you lost your health insurance or if you don't have any money, or you can't, you know, I know that you know the word of God gives us healing, but but thank God for what doctors can do. Sometimes doctors can help us while our faith is working. Faith is a seed. Faith grows as a seed. So uh, you know, sometimes people go to heaven not because they didn't have faith, but because they ran out of time. Seed time and harvest, it's not gonna perish as long as the earth remaineth. I mean, Genesis 8, God told Noah, as long as the earth remaineth, there's gonna be summer and winter, cold and heat, light and day, and seed time and harvest. And so when you when you believe God, it takes time. There's not instant. And if you're fighting a battle and you're broke and you can't go to the doctor, you're liable to go to the so they're they're relinked. I mean, you know, they're linked in many ways. And so the God's priority then, we could say it this way uh God's priority is for our health and and and finances. Another way to say it, do you want to prosper and be in health? Uh then master the art of prosperity thinking. See, it's as your soul prospers. Your soul is your mind, will, or intellect. So your thinking has everything to do with your health and prosperity. I mean, thinking, thinking is going to cost you. Thinking apart from God's word about these subjects.

Holding The Blood Against Lack

SPEAKER_00 4:12

And so, you know, this morning we we dealt a lot about the blood, the pleading the blood, what the blood is paid for. And we were we were talking about that. It has to do with everything, it has to do with your covenant. It's not just about healing, it's about finances. You can hold the blood of Jesus against you know shortages when you're going through trouble. You can you what does it mean to hold the blood? You say, devil, God provides for me. And his Jesus blood was shed so that I could be rich and have an abundant supply. I speak abundant supply. And sometimes you just got to hold the blood against the circumstances. I'm somebody that had to live that. So, John, inspired by the Holy Ghost, above all things, that's prior, everybody say priority. I pray that number one, you prosper. That means to succeed in business affairs. In case you, oh yes, we can prosper spiritually. Well, it's not really talking about your spirit, it's talking about your money. Above all things, I want you, I want you to prosper in business affairs. That means you, you know, buy low and sell high, you know. You know, not the other way around. And uh so number one, prosper, succeed in business affairs. Number two, be in health. Safe, sound, and whole. One one version says, a long life's journey that you may prosper and be in health. A long life's journey. I, you know, we're it's not just right now or this particular situation, but really your whole life's journey, from the time you're, you know, you get born again till the time you go to heaven, your journey ought to be filled with prosperity and health. You know, you take a journey, and sometimes, you know, you're gonna drive from here to, you know, people don't do that too much anymore, take long vacations across the country in a car like they used to when I was a kid. I mean, we took off and went from Houston all the way to Denver and stopped there and picked up my aunt and uncle and their car, and two cars went all the way to Montana. Man, that was a long, that was a long drive, you know, back then. You know, people did that. I don't know. I don't think too many people do that. They fly or they whatever, you know, they don't drive that much, but a long life's journey. I mean, anything can happen. You can have a flat tire. You can have you can have radiator over, you know, it overheat. You, you know, you have mechanical problems. You, I mean, you there's all kinds of things that happen along the road, along the life's journey. The journey is long, and and uh, you know, things are gonna happen along the journey. And you know, and and you've got to know that God wants you to prosper. And he wants you to be in health no matter where you're at along that journey. Maybe you're toward the end of the journey like me. You know, I'll be celebrating number 80 my next birthday. So, you know, how many more years have I got? I don't know. I hope a lot, but I would have to say I'm on the back end of that, toward the end part of my journey. If uh I'm I'm I'm believing to bring Jesus back. You know, we used to say Jesus tarry. No, Jesus ain't tarrying, Jesus is waiting on us. We're not waiting on him. So anyway, all right, so so a long life journey that we prosper, succeed in business affairs, be in health, safe, sound, and whole.

Renew Your Mind To Truth

SPEAKER_00 7:38

Number three, as you hold your mind successfully on the truth. He talked about the truth. And that's the truth. The truth is God wants you prosperous. The truth is God wants you well. See, that's news to a whole bunch of Christians. And I don't know how you were raised. Most of the time, we're raised with a certain uh outlook. You know, your parents gave you ideas, your where you went to school gave you ideas. I mean, you know, you get a certain way of thinking for a long period of time, you think a certain way, and just because you get saved doesn't mean your mind changes. Your mind has got to be forced to change its way of thinking into God's way of thinking. Again, that's my job. My job is to watch after your way of thinking. And so I'm gonna preach the word and inform your soul, your mind, your way of thinking so that you can cooperate with what God's word says you can have. And so, you know, from my standpoint, I mean, I was raised in a, you know, I guess back then middle class, but we had a two-bedroom house and we had six people live there, you know. I mean, you know, my grandmother had one bedroom and my parents had another bedroom, and and now there's four kids. Where do they go? Well, my two sisters had a screened-in porch that my dad would put plywood up in the winter time, you know. And they slept out with a screen, you know, just open, you know, in the summertime. It's so hot. And they had bunk beds. That was their room, this little narrow thing, six foot wide, just barely enough to two teenage girls. My brother slept on the hide of bed sofa in the living room. That was his bedroom. He had a cardboard box for his for his closet. And I lived, I slept on a cot at the foot of my parents' bed. I mean, I slept in the same bedroom with my parents. I mean, we didn't have some big old swanky end of it. We didn't, we don't spread all out and everything. And we didn't, I didn't feel like we were poor, but you know, we by today's standards we were. But by those standards, we were. And so uh I went to Catholic school, and and so my spiritual, my spiritual examples were the priests and the nuns. And I knew right away that they had taken a vow of poverty. I mean, they were proud of that vow. We took the vow of poverty. And the nuns wear the black stuff, you know, and they have the white deal, you know, and they're nothing but their little Irish faces shining here like this. And uh they all got this Irish. I mean, I don't know what it is about referral, but they imported a lot of Irish, you know, priests and nuns. They were all Irish, you know. Had that, and uh, you know, that was an example of spirituality, is that they're poor. It must be, it must be holy to be poor. No, it's not holy to be poor, it's holy to be rich, it's holy to have an abundant supply, it's holy to have have prosperity. That's the truth. See, they weren't walking in the truth. They didn't have now, you know, it's funny because they did live in a nice home. They lived in the convent, and it was a bigger house than anybody in town. I mean, that two-story house. And Monsignor, I mean, he really had a big house all by himself, and he had a two-story house. So he drove a Cadillac. And so I don't know where the vow of poverty was. I guess somebody bought it for him. I don't know, but anyway. He was not just a parish priest, he was Monsignor. That's between priest and bishop, halfway between. Very learned man. So that was my that was my uh my example. Many of you have examples, you know, but the longer that example is, the more you've got to work on renewing your mind to what the truth is. The truth is God wants you prosperous. He doesn't want you taking some vow of poverty. It's not holy to be poor. It's not, you know, I knew a preacher one time who was bragging. He was a rascal. I mean, I never could really get on the same page with him. He went to Lakewood, big old guy. He was head and shoulders above me. He'd put his arm around me and act like he was my father or something. And uh, and then later on he went and started a church way up in midway, Indiana or somewhere. And he would brag. He said, you know, I went on a mission trip and I just left my wife uh a 10-pound uh bag of potatoes and said, you know, you just have to deal with it while I'm gone. Didn't give her any money. And just left her there with a bunch of potatoes to feed her and her kids while he's gone on some adventure. And I thought, you know, you rascal, you ought to be, somebody ought to kick you. I mean, what kind of a man are you to go off and leave your wife for three weeks? She's in charge of the church, she's got to go preach, got to keep the church flock together. They had about a handful of people, but 20, 15, or 20 people at the church. And you're gonna go on a mission. Why don't you stay home and feed the sheep? What are you going overseas? What are you going to Brazil for? They don't need you. You don't have a thing to give them. What you need to do is get your life right. Quit treating your wife like she's some kind of slave. And then you get back and you're broke, and you're even worse than you were before because you spent all that money on airfare and all this kind of stuff, and now you don't have anything, see? He died young. And I wasn't surprised. I mean, he's about 16 when he died. I mean, I imagine his wife was not really too sad. She's probably glad to get rid of that old rascal. I mean, what kind of a provider is that? See, I how did you sit under the same preaching I did and come away with that kind of attitude? I don't get it. But I my guess is that he never renewed his mind. He never renewed his mind to this stuff. I mean, you can hear it and hear it, but you don't renew your mind. If you don't start changing the way you think about money and health, then you won't have much of either one. So verses three and four, it's connected to uh chapter two. He said, in chapter two, it says, Prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers. And then he says in verse three, I'm so glad that you're that you're uh that the for the truth that's in you, that you walk in truth. See, that truth is what he just said in chapter in the verse two. They had gotten a hold of that. They got a hold of the fact that God wanted them to prosper and be in health. They got a hold of that. And he said, I'm so glad you you got hooked up with me. I'm so glad I made a difference in your way of thinking. I'm so glad that you're walking in the truth. See, it's one thing to know it, it's another thing to walk in it. Are y'all getting this now? Talking about prosperity thinking. And so, uh, everybody say the truth. See, I mean, you know, that we've got to get the truth in us. Uh, the Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth, and God's word is the word of truth. Amen. And so uh let's let's let that shape our thinking rather than our upbringing or our influences or whatever. You know, Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. He's the truth. Holy Ghost, the spirit of truth. So renewing or refreshing or disdisciplining your mind to think the truth is the first step in business success and health. We know we want business success, we want health, but we've got to have prosperity thinking to really have either

Faith After Sin And Setbacks

SPEAKER_00 15:15

one of those. You're gonna have to change the way you think. If you think if, and like I was dealing with this this morning, I mean, we talked about guilt and shame, and we talked about how some people just go through life and they don't have a proper revelation of the blood and the fact that it's erased our sin, it's erased it, it's gone, it's been blotted out, there's no memory of it. The blood of Jesus removed from God's consciousness any detail of your sin. He doesn't know you sin. Now he's God, he knows everything, but the blood is so powerful it removes that from his consciousness. Well, the same thing can happen to you. It must happen to you. The blood of Jesus, and faith in that blood has got to remove your consciousness of your failures, your sin, your things that you've done wrong. You've got to let the blood uh blot that out because if you don't, it will hold you back. It will keep you from being able to turn on the switch of faith and God's power to be brought to bear on your on your health and on your finances. Uh, another thing can happen is when you've had a business failure or you've lost money or you've been fired or you've been delayed off, or you know, that kind of lingers on you, and it can cause you to feel uh about yourself in a place that's not accurate according to the word of God. I'm a guy that had to live this. I'm the guy that had to change my way of thinking. Because I've been without. I've been, you know, I had to move in with my sister and my wife and two kids. We, I mean, I wasn't just 20 years old. I mean, I'd been in business and I'd been successful, and all of a sudden, boom, I'm broke and I don't have any place to live. I can't pay for anything. So I know what it's like. And the only way out of that was to do what I'm talking about tonight. I had to change. I had to confront that thought that came in that tried to make me feel like less of a man, that made me feel like, well, you're a business failure, what a goofball. Why did you do that? That's the stupidest thing in the world. You know, in business, you're gonna win some and lose some. I mean, no, I don't know anybody's 100%. I mean, these rich people, they they don't make money on every deal. They lose big, big money. I'll be reading today uh $650 billion that uh uh Elon Musk has lost since he had SpaceX law, and he had a brand new stock, IPO, was launched a couple weeks ago, a couple, well, a month ago now. And it was it was real high at first, and then it just dropped like a rock. So did Tesla. Tesla dropped, and it's it's impacted his net worth $650 billion. But see, he's still got a couple of three trillion anyway. Not gonna bother him much. He's not losing any sleep. So he lose, you know, we we we don't let the devil come against you. I don't know who this is for. Don't let the devil depreciate you and make you feel like less than a success just because you might have lost some money on something or you weren't successful on this situation, or maybe you got laid off, or whatever. I mean, I you're talking to the guy that's been through all of that. And I had to master this right here that I'm preaching tonight. I had to master redeeming and renewing my mind to prosperity thinking and disciplining my thought life. I had to not let that thought stick. I could not do it. If I'd done that, we'd have sunk. No telling where we'd be. Are y'all with me now?

Strongholds Start As Repeating Thoughts

SPEAKER_00 18:58

So the battle then is in the mind. I mean, it really is. It's not the business decision, it's not the it's not the doctor you chose, or it's not, I mean, really, the all of the battle is right here first, right here. Everybody, let's let's just all point to this right here. Point to this brain tissue. Hopefully, there's brain in there and not rocks. God gave you a brain. He gave you a brain. I mean, it's not wrong to have a brain. You've got a brain. You can use your brain. You don't have to act like you don't have a brain, but it needs to be reprogrammed. So if truth is the basis for prosperity and health, isn't that what you get out of these verses? That truth, God's truth, is the basis. It's the foundation for prosperity and health. Okay? Is everybody on board with that state? Am I going against the word of God? No. So truth is the basis for prosperity and truth. Then lies are the basis for poverty and sickness. When you believe a lie, when you believe something that's not the truth, then you've, by definition, you've believed a lie then. And who is the author of the lie? The devil is the author of lie. He's a liar. If you listen to him very long, you'll be broke and sick. So you can't afford to listen to him. You can't afford to listen to this internal dialogue that's going around. If you've got an internal dialogue of negativity, uh, you know, and magnifying your health issues, magnifying your financial issues, you might be going through a financial battle, and and but you have got to discipline your mind not to let your well let that get you down and make you make you identify with failure. You you identify with victory. You have the greater one living on the inside of you. He's your way out of whatever it is that you're into. So truth is a basis for prosperity and health. Lies are the basis for poverty and sickness. All right. Next, next then, then if that's true, and it is. Revelation knowledge. See, revelation knowledge is not just head knowledge. Revelation knowledge is down here in your knower. When you meditate on the word long enough for it to drop down in your spirit and you have revelation. Revelation knowledge is rhema, a rhema word. God breathed word. I mean, when he called Abraham, Abraham, you're not, you're not, you're no longer Abraham. You're Abraham, the father of many nations. Well, was he? The father of many nations. He's an old man. He can't, you know, he's got a wife that's barren. I mean, that he's a hundred, she's ninety, and he's ninety-nine, she's ninety. And I mean, God called the thing that be not as though it were, but it was a ram of word. I mean, he picked it up and he and see, God has had to do that. He'll do that with you at when you're on the bottom of the heap when it thing. All the everything has come unglued, maybe financially, maybe uh health-wise. You've got, I'm telling you, God's got a word for you that you can hang your hat on and pull yourself out of that situation if you'll believe it. So, revelation knowledge is a basis for the Holy Ghost to bring miracles. And strongholds. That's what I'm talking about, this internal dialogue. It's a stronghold. Strongholds are the basis for which demons can bring failure. You don't want strongholds. Strongholds, you know, the Bible says there in Corinthians, he said, you know, uh, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, pulling down strongholds, casting down imaginations. That's not talking about demons in the sky, that's talking about thoughts. A thought that keeps coming back over and over. It's an internal dialogue. That is a stronghold, and usually there's a demon behind it. There is a demon that's fueling that thought process. And when you're thinking like that, you know it's good to have a church like this because those demons can get, I mean, you don't necessarily have to have the devil cast out of you, just one of these messages can just drive that thing right out. When you decide that's not right, that you're not willing for that to keep continue. But sometimes you need to come down to the altar and just have somebody to agree with you, and I'll be glad to do that. I've done it many times. But uh so truth is introduced to our spirit by the Holy Spirit. And lies are introduced to our mind by two things demons and our five senses. I mean, you can't believe what you see, touch, taste, smell, and feel. That's not reality. Reality is what God's Word said. You can if you're gonna look at your health and decide that that's what you are and that's what you have, well, no, that's just the outward part. All healing belong begins in the spirit realm. You've got to get it in your spirit first. And that means your brain has got to get trained not to think sickness, not to think uh death. Because if you think sickness and death, it's gonna come out of your mouth and you're gonna talk sickness and death, and next thing you know, I mean, you're in trouble. You're on your way out of this life. Are y'all with me now? And the same with the prosperity. So we uh have to occupy our mind with what the word says. You know, can't just can't trust in the natural uh way things look. You know, the just shall live by faith, not by what it seems like. Faith people see things differently. Faith people they hear another, they hear something else, they see something else, and that they they speak something. If faith people speak differently. And if you're not doing that, then you're not a faith person, then you're you're in trouble. Are y'all with me now? All right. So the Bible says in Mark chapter 4, take heed what you hear, how you hear, what you see, how you see, take heed. I mean, you know, when just you do have to take heed. Some people you just you can't hang around when you're going through a battle. They're gonna they're gonna depreciate you, they're gonna speak death to you. Occupy your mind with what the word says.

Prosperity Shows Up In Generosity

SPEAKER_00 25:30

Now, here, let's look at verse five. Because God, uh John has given tips to prosperity thinking and what it does. And he says in verse five now, remember he said, Above all things, I've been praying for you that you prosper and be in hell. I'm so glad that you're hanging on to the truth. That's the truth. That's what God wants. That's prosperity. That's top of the list. God's top of his list is for you to prosper and be in health. He wants you to be successful in business affairs. He wants you to have good health. That's top of God's list for you. I pray in that for you. That's the truth. And he said, and I'm so glad you've got the truth. And then says, verse, beloved, what thou doest faithfully whatever thou do to the brethren and to strangers, which have borne witness of thy charity. That's a poor uh, it's agape, it's love. The word charity is agape, it's not charity, it's agape. It's not, we we look at the word charity, that's helping the poor. No, agape, it's love. They've borne witness of your love before the church, whom if you bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, or in my margin says, if you bring forward on their journey in a worthy, worthy of God, you'll do well. Because that for his name's sake they went forth taking nothing of the Gentiles. So what in the world is he talking about? He's talking about how that if you uh if you have the truth in you, that you believe that God wants you prosperous and God wants you healthy, then that that truth is gonna uh convert into the fact that you're gonna have love and action. You're gonna take care of the ministry. You're gonna take care not only of visiting preachers, he's talking about visiting preachers that have come through. He said, make sure, I'm so glad they they they've borne witness that you've taken care good care of them and you've you've sent them forth. You've sent them forth. See, you've provided for them to go to the next place after a godly sort. You didn't give them $10 and say, well, you know, hitchhike your way to the next town. Well, I would have given you, I had a guy one time, I was supporting a minister for years, Brother Varghese, and we supported him for years in uh India, and he was in uh Bombay and uh had a Bible school. I I preached for him a couple of times, preaching in his Bible school, supported these men. It's a wonderful man, met him at Lakewood. In fact, Lakewood had supported him, and then when we started the church, we weren't three months old. Brother Osteen called me and said, John, uh, I you know you're doing good. Yeah, I sure am. He said, Can you take on a missions project? I'd like you to support me. I mean, I mean, not only did Brother Osteen not give us any money, see, people lie. They say, Oh, Brother Osteen gave you a big no, he never gave us a dime. We gave them money. I mean, three months old, and we were writing $1,000 a month check to Lakewood to send to Brother Vargis. We did that as long as Brother Osteen was alive, and when Brother Osteen passed, we started just we didn't bother with Lakewood, we just we just went ahead and and gave him money directly. But anyway, there was another preacher that that uh that I knew, and he was going there to uh uh to Bombay on the way to a meeting and uh that Brother Osteen was going to be at in Hyderabad. So he's you know, Brother Osteen, he he wanted to stop by and visit with my our missionary that we're supporting. And uh, and you know, he's he's one of these guys that's kind of, I mean, I just couldn't hang with him. There's something about him that just didn't, you know, wasn't right. And uh at first, brother Osteen had called and said, I want you to travel with him to Hyderabad, and the Holy Ghost wouldn't let me. I had to call Brother Osteen back and said, Look, I don't have peace about going with him. I'm not going. I've got a church to run, I've got a past, I've got a pastor of the church, and I can't go to Hyderabad, and I'm certainly not gonna go with him. I'm sorry, Brother Osteen. I need to need to tell you, I've got a caution about him. Be careful with this guy. Something doesn't line up. You know, I'd I'd interviewed him on TBN. I mean, I'd gotten around him enough to know that there was something off. So anyway, I I did I turned that down, and so this guy goes through Bombay on his way to Hyderabad, stops to see our missionary, and oh, you know, it it just was a train wreck. I want you to take me here, I want you to take me there. And uh our brother Barge took him and tried to accommodate him, and you know, I mean, they're not, they they just have to believe God for every dollar. They don't have money to entertain you, fella. You ought to be paying their way. Goofball. I mean, who do you think you are? Are you king or something? Go to go to my missionary that we're supporting, and you're expecting him to just roll out the red carpet and take you all over Bombay? And so they took him to some place where he wanted to go, and while they were in there, somebody came out and and and punched, punctured all the tires and broke all the glass out of the vehicle. That was their only vehicle, that was their truck. They had a big truck, and it was toward the end of its life. And he called me, my our missionary, he called me crying, and and he said, I can't go to hyderbad. Brother Osteen, uh, he's mad at me. I said, Well, I'll straighten that out. He just doesn't know what the true story is. He's listening to this other guy that. See, that's that spirit got loosed. And men, I mean, I didn't spare him. I called Brother Osteen. I said, Let me give you the true story on this thing. You know, remember I told you to be careful about that guy? He got over there and he just took advantage of Brother Varge. He left him with no money. He didn't give him an offering or anything, and Brother Varguese's truck is destroyed. All of his tires are flat and his glass is broken. I said, That's just not right, Brother Osteen. If I were you, I'd mark that. Be sure you don't get very close to him. You need to put him up the outer, maybe to the moon. Anyway. Pastor, you're talking bad. Well, you don't know who it is. I'm not naming names. I'm just telling you, though, that this truth, this truth, he didn't have that truth. He's he's on the other side expecting to grab a hold of stuff that that doesn't that he doesn't have coming. Are y'all with me now? So uh the right way is that you're gonna be a blessing. He should have landed in Bombay and he should have written a check to my missionary and said, I want to bless your socks off, and if it wouldn't be too much trouble, could you take me here and there? And I'm gonna get I'm gonna bless. No, he didn't give him five dollars. He left town with poor, you know. Brother Varghese had nothing. You know what? We sent him an extra offering. We we went behind. See, we honored that missionary, we honored his ministry. We wouldn't allow him to be robbed. Are y'all are y'all getting this now? See, that's that's the truth that you've got to live. You they've borne witness of your love before the church. And if you keep doing that, if you bring them forward on their journey after a godly sort, you'll do well. Just keep doing good. That's the best thing to do. Make sure you bless their socks off. Don't let them have to hitchhike to the next place. And I'm telling you, when people come through here like the like the Hankins and the Pays, anybody we bring in here, I mean we bless them. We always give them more than you give. When we take the offering, we we add it up and we add to it a lot, and sometimes double it. We've doubled and half it. Now, I'm not saying that to make you feel bad. I'm just saying that's our heart. We are going to honor you. What does that do? That's because we know God will prosper us. We know that that's the key to being healthy and prosper. That's why this church is 31 years old. That's why. Because that's how we we've always done. I remember in the first building, we were so blue and nobody knew us, nobody knew, you know, we'd go to meetings. And and I I I remember uh Gladys went to one of uh Billy Brim's meetings. I think it was probably two years after the church had started, and she met uh the Brzees and uh Janet and uh huh. Mark and Janet Brzee. They they were right Rama people. And Gladys, you know, both Sister Crazy Faith, you know, she went up, met them. She said, Would y'all come to the church if we invite you to come and preach for us? We got a new church down and now absolutely! And so they came several times. I mean, they were a blessing. And we went to their meetings, and and you know, and later on they started their own church. They were on the field for a while, and then they'd started, they're still got a church there in uh Tulsa. But uh when they came, I mean to tell you what, I mean, we blessed them. And they, I mean, they were happy. They didn't mind coming back. And we're just brand new. I mean, we don't have a big old budget, we don't have a whole lot of, you know, but we gave. See, that is the are y'all, you know, that's the truth. See, the truth. So Agape cares for the physical needs of the ministry, receiving them, honoring them in a way that's worthy of God. And then that way he says, uh, verse 8, we therefore ought to receive such that we might be fellow helpers to the truth. So that's what this church has always been. It's been fellow helpers to this truth. We bring people in that believe the way we do, and we're fellow helpers. We think about the Hankins. I mean, I'm so happy to be involved with them. They've got 70 nations, and they're going all the time, not only in America, but across all these other places. They've had inroads in the Middle East, they've got back channels to Iran. I mean, they have got, and so does the pays. The pays are just amazing. I can't wait to talk to them. They've got all kinds of things that they can't even say publicly. I'm gonna tell you, God is moving all over the world and in the Middle East. He's moving in the Middle East. Oh, I tell you. And this church, we're fellow helpers to the truth.

Diligence And Plenteousness Proverbs

SPEAKER_00 36:09

You know, Proverbs 21:5 says the thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness. The word plenteousness means gain or profit. See, most of us were so religious with the, well, no, I'm not, I don't labor to be rich. Oh, I don't need. Well, no, the Bible says that the thoughts of the of the diligent are tend to plenteousness. We ought to be, we ought to be thinking prosperity. We ought to be thinking blessing. You can't be a blessing unless you're blessed. How can you bless anybody if you're not blessed? Here again, I'm a guy that lived it. I didn't have anything to bless anybody with. No money, no income, out of a job, living with my sister. Man, that's miserable. And uh, you know, it didn't take long for me to get another something going and a little job going, and had some money and finally had a tithe that I could tithe on, had a little money that we could give an offering. And we just kept on going, kept on going. Here we are today. Praise God. Uh Proverbs 10:4, the hand of the diligent maketh rich. Rich means have an abundant supply. If you're diligent, see, diligent means you show up. Diligent means that you don't quit. Diligent means that you have the truth always in the forefront of your thinking. You don't listen to lies. You don't listen to naysayers. You're not you're impervious to people who criticize you for your prosperity. You know. Don't bother me. Think whatever you want. I'll laugh all the way to the bank. Proverbs 22, 29. This is a this is precious. See a man diligent in his business, he shall stand before kings. He shall not stand before mean men. The word mean there means obscure, insignificant men. In other words, the flunky. You're not going to stand before the flunky. When you're diligent in business, God will connect you up to the top of the of the heap. When you're diligent, what is diligent? It just means faithful. It just means you're the same all the time. You're not one way one day and something else the next day. You've you you've renewed your mind to the truth. Everybody say prosperity thinking. So I just got about six things here which we can help you with.

Six Contrasts That Shape Your Mind

SPEAKER_00 38:27

On prosperity thinking versus poverty thinking. Everybody say prosperity, poverty. So prosperity thinking is this. Best days are just ahead. That's prosperity thinking. Our best days are ahead. Poverty thinking, well, the best days are behind me. Oh, I wish I could go back. I said that this morning. Oh, I wish I could live back when I was younger. Oh, I wish I had this. I wish I had, oh, I wish I could go back. No, I don't. I'm glad. I tell you, our best days are ahead. I'm telling you, I can't wait to see what's happening tomorrow. Something good's gonna happen tomorrow. All right. Wealth transfer from the wicked to the righteous. See, that's what James chapter 5 talks about. Lots of, there's lots of scriptures in the Bible that talk about, you know, the wealth of the wicked is laid up for the just. And we is the just. Amen. But uh, you know, the poverty thinking says wealth transfer from the wealthy to the government. Yeah, they just, the wealthy people, they just, you know, they buy their politicians. You know, there's just there's a lot of like the uh envy uh in the church about rich people. I mean, I see these communists now. They're in California, they're wanting this one of these, uh one of these Lulu birds is wanting to have a wealth tax. They want to they want to tax billionaires, and it's not a tax. They want to actually take their wealth away from them a certain percentage of it. It's not a tax. A tax is on income. This is not income. This is stuff that is owned by someone, and whether it's an apartment or whether it's a cash, money in the bank, and they want to attach it and take it out of their account and put it in the government's account. What is that? Theft. That's communism. That is not America. I mean, we ought to drive these people out. We ought to run them out of out of the country. You know, just cancel their what if they're even legal citizens. I don't, some of them I don't think are. So you've got prosperity thinking, power uh poverty thinking. Prosperity thinking, God supplies all my need. I like what Brother Mark says. God always takes grand care of me. He takes grand care of me. And uh poverty thinking, finally, a government that cares. You know, back in the Obama days, they they were they were always trying to pitch that depend on the government. The government's your source. No, God's my source, government's not my source. Himself bare my sicknesses and took my infirmities. That's prosperity thinking. That's health thinking. Well, I don't know what I'm gonna do. I lost my health insurance. Man, I just don't know. I lived without any health insurance for 12 years. God took care of me. I had to learn how to just maneuver without it. I remember one time Jay needed braces. He had these teeth, you know, they were sticking out. He's old, you know, you know how kids get to the age where their teeth are bigger than their face, you know, and his were very prominent. And uh and she said, Oh, he's he needs braces. I said, Oh, I can't I can just believe for the rent. I cannot, you're on your own, Sister Crazy Faith. And I mean, she had she had braces for that. Well, I don't know how she did it, but the next thing I know, he came home with his braces, and I mean she had it taken care of, and I don't know where the money came from, but she did it. And uh, see, glory to God. Number five, I place my finances in God's hand, it's enough for my miracle. See, anyone you when you don't have enough, I've learned when you don't have enough, sow a seed. Put it in God's hand. You need multiplication. I mean, you can just put a little bit in God's hand. You don't have to put the whole thing. I mean, that's kind of foolish to put the whole thing and you broke. I mean, put something in God's hand and watch him multiply it. That's what we had to do when I was broke. I had to put stuff in God's hand. Sometimes, I mean, I tell the story, but we had a, somebody gave us a car that we didn't need. We sold the car and put the whole thing in the offering. I mean, we got cr we got radical. I was so mad at the devil, I said, I tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna sell this car for $1,800 and I'm gonna put the whole thing. I'm not gonna keep anything back. I'm gonna put the whole thing in the offering for missions at Lakewood. And I tell you, it works. Are y'all with me now? I place my finances in God's hand, it's enough for my miracle. Well, I just gotta quit tithing. I just can't afford it. I mean, I just can't afford to tithe. I mean, I'm I'm really down. No, see, that's poverty thinking. The devil will try to get you out of tithing and giving as soon as he can. Uh, number six, if I make a mistake and lose everything. I know a young man that said that to me not long ago. He said, if I make a mistake and I lose everything, I'll just pick myself up and start again trusting in God. I know how to make it all back. And that's the wonders about living in America. We it in all the rest of the world, they they have socialism, they have big government, they have all kinds of restrictions. You can't Even have a lemonade stand. I mean, you can't you can't do anything on your own. They they rule everything. In France, you can't lay hands on the sick because it's against the law, you're practicing medicine without a license. Well, foo-ey on you. You know, they're nuts. And so uh if I make a mistake and lose everything, I'll just pick myself up and start again trusting in God. You know, entrepreneurship. If you know what the word entrepreneur means, it's a French word, it means risk taker. This country was built by risk takers. I built, I made a living being a risk taker. That's what a home builder is, a risk taker. I borrowed money from the bank, I took the money from the bank, and I built a house and believed God to bring me a buyer. And it worked most of the time. It didn't work some of the time because our government changed a lot of things that I was be I didn't know about. I didn't know that they had gotten rid of that whole model. I was on the model of a small uh uh business, a small business that's mostly family business that used to build houses. That's where all the houses came from. And then suddenly in the 80s, they got the idea that we needed Wall Street involved, and so they switched all the financing and made it more profitable for publicly traded companies to access the capital that they needed to build houses. That's why you have all these manufactured. I mean, they're not manufactured, but they're cookie-cuttered. I mean, you look in the subdivision right over here, these are five and six hundred thousand dollar houses, and uh they have about five floor plans. Well, we didn't do that. When I was building houses, we had we had all kinds of floor plans. We didn't go down the street just built the same floor plan, the same front, different color brick. We we spent a lot of time thinking about what style and what colors and what color brick and what color the paint and what we were gonna do. I mean, it was a truly a custom home, but a spec home. Well, that model went to nowhere. It went it went down the tubes and I didn't know it, so I got stuck. But an entrepreneur is a risk taking. We've started this church, it was a risk starting this church. What if we miss God? You know, I had the attitude, well, if I miss God, at least I'm doing everything I can to obey him. I, you know, he's gonna bear with me because he knows my heart is to obey him. I might not be doing the right thing at the right time, and if I don't, I'm all right. I'm gonna keep going, I'm gonna do what I can do to, for as far as I was concerned, I'm gonna obey God. And sure it turned out to be God. Thank God for that.

God As Source Not Government

SPEAKER_00 46:56

And uh poverty thinking, thank God for the government safety net. That's what they have in Europe. They have this safety net. Well, what good is the safety net? Well, I'll tell you what good it is. Everybody's got health care, but they don't they can't get it when they need it. They die before they have to stand in line to get health care. I have dear friends, pastor friends of ours. They've been in this church, prayed over them. They lived in Calgary, preaching their church several times, stayed with them in their home. Lovely couple. And uh they went back to Calgary and she was ill. She got cancer, and they have socialized medicine, and can't, and uh, and she could not get treatment. And she died before she never got looked at by a doctor. Six months. Six months, and she just died. Well, whoop de-doo. So what if you've got so what good is it? What good is you can't even go to the doctor because you've got to stand in line and wait for them to decide whether they're gonna treat you or not. And of course, they weren't as they weren't word of faith. And I mean, I tried my best to, you know, to speak into their life and to help them with that, but they just didn't know how the word of faith operated. They didn't know how to thank God, everybody say thank God for the word of faith. Thank God we can say have what we say. And what we say is that we're prosperous and we walk in health. We have prosperity thinking, and that leads us to kingdom abundance.

Closing Prayer And Receiving

SPEAKER_00 48:21

Come on, lift your hands and receive tonight. Praise God. Well, I rambled a little bit, but I hope, I pray and trust that you got something out of it. Come on, let's lift our hands right now. Glory to God. Thank you, Jesus. Praise God, praise God.