Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Love Quest International
Church Podcast, where we seek to love all nations, equip the
church, mobilize the equipped, and serve all.
We're super glad you're joining us from whenever and wherever
you're at in the world. Welcome to the family to get
your Bibles ready, get some water, get some coffee, maybe
some tea, and get ready to receive.
It's go time. Let's get into it.
Amen, Amen. Amen.
I I do want to thank you again, pastors, for another opportunity
to share the to share the Word of God.
It's never lost on me the honor and the privilege it is for
God's men and women, anointed and called of God to give you an
opportunity to share with the people of God.
So again, I'm very, very grateful and I'm very, very
thankful for the opportunity. Today's going to be a little
different. Uh oh, I lost my men already
meant down, meant down. Woo, woo.
That's just under that up. Anyway, you can stop, it's going
to be a little different today. And I just warn you ahead of
time because it gives you an opportunity to hear different,
listen differently. Amen, Amen.
So I want today, I want to I'm going to talk about some things
that I can honestly say I've never shared before and I've
never heard preach before. I don't recall the goal of
whenever you have an opportunity to share the word of God is not
just to get something new, it's to share what you believe God
wants people to see, want people to hear.
That's the goal. And if it's the same thing like
you just saw there in the in the in the word, he said be bless
the Lord, be thankful, pray perseveringly and then thank God
again. Sometimes God is in the repeat
business because he's trying to get it across to you and show
you how sincere he is about what he's sharing.
So so it's not always about getting something new.
It's about God. What is you'd have me to share
and it but in the midst of that, in the course of that, I have
discovered some things I have never seen or had not never
heard preached before. It doesn't mean there hadn't
been. I just, I'd never heard it.
So I want to make sure you were clear about that, Right.
So you start Googling and, and all that kind of stuff and
you're like, oh, I found somebody.
OK, good. I'm glad you did.
Now you got to, now you got to, now you got to.
And it is a word and it's and it's one of those words where I
don't, I wasn't even trying to go there.
But once you're there, you can't Unsee what you see.
Does that make sense? You can't unhear what you, what
you, what you've heard. And so with that, as we want to
begin and encourage us today that as we look deep into the
mirror of our souls today, I want to remind us of a key point
which the Holy Spirit declared on Christmas Eve.
It was during that day on Christmas Eve, the day before we
celebrate the birth of our Savior, when our pastor preached
that peace is about a change of government, say change of
government, say again, change of government.
Not a change of feeling, but a change of government.
Although changing from a bad government to a great government
will change how you feel. Amen.
He said that peace was not about an emotional calming, say
emotional calming of circumstance, but a change of
government. When your government change,
then therefore your circumstances change.
A government that sets things in order.
He says the if a government of peace has come to set things in
order, and so when the government comes and sets things
in order, then you can agree with me.
I believe that that a sense of calm comes when things are set
in order. So though it's not about calm,
the peace, the government of peace that comes and set things
in order, you will experience calm.
A mind in order will experience a sense of calm.
A life set in order will bring a sense of calm.
A relationship that's set in order will bring a sense of
calm. But still, peace is about a
change of government, not that emotional sense of calm.
But why is it important? Because you got to know what
peace is in order to walk in it. You got to know what peace is in
order to make sure you're not giving it up unnecessarily.
Now with that at the forefront of our mind, I want, I would
like just to examine this discussion of peace once again.
And I by turning to and reading our text.
Now, don't put a slide up yet, but but I want you to turn to
your text. I got I got my text up here.
What happens when the power goes out?
Does your Bible go off? I do think that God's calling us
to a place in these days where it's important to know the book,
not just know how to search. See when you know the book, you
know more than just what you're looking for.
See to find a chapter, I got to see what's in front of it and
what's behind it. I get a context for more of the
word. There's learning upon learning.
It happens. And so I know I believe God's
calling me too and I'll see, you'll see me in and out again.
This is my conviction, but I believe God is stirring
something and saying make sure you know how to go to the book.
And so in Genesis chapter 14, verse 20, I'm going to read this
out of the the NIV version and it says this and blessed be God
most high who delivered your enemies into your hand.
Then Abram gave him a 10th of everything.
I want you to put that up now. If you're following that, just
read that one more time on the emphasis from the top and praise
be to God, Most high, say most high, who delivered your enemies
into your hand. Then Abram gave him a 10th of
everything. So Abram gave him a 10th of
everything. I wanted to highlight that
particular part. Abram gave him a 10th of
everything. See, now, right now at this
point, some of you might be saying, EJEJ, are you bringing
up tithing because of the New Year's Eve special offering or
because of the remnant offering? The first thing I would say to
you, if that's come to your mind, I would say that that may
be part of it, but it's not the point of what I'm saying.
Second thing I would say to you is that the tithe is giving 10%
of your increase, New Year's Eve giving and the remnant of
special sacrificial offerings that are in addition to or above
the tithe. Now while I do encourage you to
give generously and though an offering even exceeding 100,000
would be an an encouragement to your pastors, it would not bring
them peace because the peace Jesus gave them is not tied to
your giving or to my to my giving.
Yet I am talking about peace, a governmental peace.
So don't lose sight of the purpose and the point.
So the title of the message I want to share with you today is
this peace the first time? Everyone say peace the first
time. Now all of our gap members here,
they know when I do presentations these in gap, I'll
put a slide of a location. They're like, what's that
location? What's that mean?
What that be? So that's a little different
than past. I'm still working on my slide
push ups to catch up with them here in different dimension.
Now I see. So I got AI got I got to get in,
get in the woodshed on my slide game.
But yet and still there's purpose in the illustration
there, and I'll talk about that in a little bit.
Everyone say gate, Everyone say again, peace the first time.
Before going further, let me give you a little context
because context is the frame that brings understanding to the
picture. You always want to know what the
context is or what you're talking about.
In Matthew 624, Jesus states that you cannot serve 2 masters.
You cannot serve God and mammoth or things for you either love
the one and hate the other or hate the one and love the other.
You cannot serve God in mammoth. You cannot serve 2 masters.
So Jesus is letting us know there are two masters and when
he gives that description he's telling you there are only 2
masters. He's saying these two masters
are in somewhat a competition for you and you have to decide.
One of them is Mammon, the other one is God.
You only have a choice between two governments, the government
of God or the government of things, the Kingdom of God or
Mammon, and you have to pick. But understand it's the
government you pick will determine your peace.
If you pick the Kingdom of God, you'll have a Kingdom of God
peace. If you pick mammon as your
government, you'll have a mammon govern peace.
Your pick will determine your peace.
But it's important to understand that Jesus was declaring this
not just in Matthew 624. He was prophesied as the Prince
of Peace. That's government of peace.
At his birth, Angel said peace on earth because the government
of God was at hand, The Kingdom of God was at hand.
And before he died, he said, I give you my peace.
As he was preparing to establish his church, which is the agency
of his government. It's ecclesia, the agency of his
government on earth. The government you choose will
be the government that you live by, and there will be the
government that governs your peace.
So Jesus has been telling us you got to decide what government
you're going to pick because the government you pick will
determine your peace. Jesus always connected those
things, but he not only chose us that we have to choose, but he
also gives us an understanding in that declaring that of what
Abram was doing in Genesis 14. So I want to give a little more
for look for at the context. There were 5 kings or five
governments that are united to take over four other kingdoms.
So five against 4, right? One of the four was Sodom.
Everyone say Sodom. Now Sodom was near the land that
Lot chose from himself in Genesis chapter 13.
So we're talking about 14 and but yet just in one chapter
prior, Abraham was saying, listen, man, God has prospered
us so much that our, our, our kingdoms are beginning to beef
with each other, our, our maidservants, our men, servants
beginning to beef with each other.
And Abraham said, I want to pursue peace, say peace.
So Abraham's pursuit of peace begins in chapter 13 and he says
lot, you pick, you look around and whatever land is good, you
pick and you go there and I'll go the opposite way.
That's Genesis 13. So in Genesis 14 we find that
Lot did pick but he picked near Sodom and now he finds himself
carried off into battle a captive when those five
governments came down to attack Sodom and their allies.
Now the word comes back to Abraham or Abram at this time
and he says man your cuz man he got he all caught up and his
family caught up man what you going to do?
Abraham says no worry I'm going to take the people from my house
and lead the fight to go get them.
He's some of the people of his house and also some allies and
he said listen we going to go and do this thing.
So they went and Abraham as one beat back 5.
Maybe you've never been in an unfair fight where you felt you
was our number 5 to 1. Maybe you've never been in a
place where you thought you was losing your mind and you were
trying to figure out how to stay sane, to get to the next minute,
not just to the next hour. To know that Abraham came and he
beat back five with just his one tells you something about who he
is and what God's doing in his life.
Now. When that happens, he begins to
come back, say, come back from the victory.
And on his way back from the victory, Abraham is in the
Valley of the Kings. That's that picture the Valley
of the Kings. He's in that space.
He's on his way back from the battle, passing just outside of
Jerusalem in this place called the Valley of the Kings.
Now in that Valley of the Kings, the king of Sodom goes out to
meet Abraham. But before he does, before he
can connect with Abraham, we see the first mention of peace in
the Bible. This is the first mention of
peace in the Bible. Now it's important to understand
something about the law of first mention.
OK, everyone say law of first mention.
Put your finger up to the forehead like this.
Say law of first mention. See how much more smarter you
look when you I can law first mention.
I know what that means, right? The law first mention is a basic
principle to states. When something is first
mentioned in the Bible, it becomes the foundation for
understanding it all throughout the rest of the Bible, the law
first mentioned. So whenever you're studying
something from Scripture, go back to when it was first
mentioned and you'll learn some things about its foundation that
applicable to every other mention.
Everyone say law first mentioned.
Now Abraham encounters Melchizedek, he's the king of
Salem, the king of righteousness and priest of God Most High.
So there's 2 kings in that valley, Sodom, king of Sodom and
Melchizedek. Now Salem means peace.
That's the first mention of peace in the Bible.
Peace right there, Melchizedek, King of Peace, King of
Righteousness, and priest of Most High God, Salem means
peace. So he is a gut.
So he's the governor of peace from the Kingdom of peace.
This is the first mention of peace in the Bible and it's
connected with government. The king of peace, the
government of peace is here. So you see this connection
between government and peace that's there.
Now, Sodom also represents something, but it represents
more than just sexual sin or violence.
People may know of some of those references.
Ezekiel 616 says this. Ezekiel 16 compares the sin of
Jerusalem and her sister's sister, Sodom.
So you put that King James version of that verse up there.
If you got that, I want to go through a few versions of this
so you can kind of see what it is.
I'm going to go ahead. I got them written down here.
So I'll begin to go ahead and work with them and they'll get
them up there when they can. So in Ezekiel 16 it says this,
look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom.
So the Spirit of the Lord is speaking to Jerusalem, but
talking about her sister Sodom. She and her, she and her
daughter had pride. Sodom had pride, fullness of
food, and abundance of idleness. Neither did she strengthen the
hand of the poor needy. And they were haughty, puffed up
and committed abomination before me.
Therefore I took them away as I saw fit.
So we see if Sodom had another problem.
And the NIV says this. Now this was the sin of your
sister Sodom. She and her daughters were
arrogant, say arrogant, overfed, say overfed and unconcerned.
They was unbothered and they did not help the poor and needy.
They were Hardy and detestable things before me.
Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.
Now I think it's important to understand order here because
what that translation says is that they were arrogant or
prideful, overfed and unconcerned.
That being full of themselves kept them from reaching out to
help those that were in need. More focused on their own
bellies than what God was doing. More focused on their own
comforts than what God was doing and what God needed to be done.
But notice how that being content in your own comforts
leads you to a place of not only hardiness, but being idle and
doing detestable things. Living life out of your own
comforts will eventually lead you to a place of pridefulness
and lead you to a place of doing some detestable things.
There's a sequence here. In the AMPC version, it says
this. Behold, this was the iniquity of
your sister Sodom. Pride over abundance of food.
Prosperous ease. Prosperous ease and idleness
were hers and her daughters. Neither did they strengthen the
hand of the poor and needy. What that is also suggests is
this, that God doesn't mind you prospering, but what are you
doing with your prosperity? What are you doing with it?
What we see here, God is saying part of Sodom's sin is that they
got enough and they keeping it for themselves.
They got enough in keeping it for their own agendas, for their
own goals, for their own lives, for their own imaginations.
It sounds like Sodom is a lot like Mammon to me.
So now that you got these two in the valley, you got the Kingdom
of God and you got the king of Mammon.
Now Abraham got to make a choice.
Who's he going to commit to? Abraham chose which government
he was going to line with everyone, say but God.
See, you have to understand, Mammon came to talk to Abraham
before he had an opportunity to choose peace.
Mammon was on his way to master Abraham.
Abraham in that valley. But before Mammon could get
there, peace intervened. Before he could get there,
Melchizedek showed up and said, let me tell you about the
government that they're not going to tell you about.
Let me tell you about the peace that that stuff is not going to
get to you. So God sent his peace.
Before all of those things, Abraham encounters peace 1st and
he knows he has a choice to make, and he understands that
his choice not only reflects on him, but reflects on his God.
And that's where we find him in Genesis 14.
Genesis 14 starting at verse 18 says this.
The Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine.
Everyone say covenant. He was the priest of God Most
High, said Most God Most High, and he blessed him and said,
Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and
earth, and blessed be God Most High, who was delivered, who has
delivered your enemies into your hand, And he gave him a tenth of
all. Hebrews 7 says that the greater
does the blessing and the lesser receives the blessing.
So Melchizedek is greater by definition of Hebrews.
Melchizedek is greater. Peace is greater.
Though Abrams decided to respond to Melchizedek's blessing,
respond to Melchizedek's covenant demonstration of peace
with a tithe. He understood that peace is
better and more important than my tithe.
Peace is greater. Peace can get me something that
my stuff can't get me. Now, some translations will say
this, that Abraham intended to tithe all that he had won in the
battle. I don't know that that was
really the case because as I look at the context of it,
Abraham said this when Sodom showed up.
I don't want none of what you got, Sodom.
I don't need that to survive. I don't need you thinking you
control and dictate my life. And I don't want anybody to say
that to God. Who blessed me was confused with
what you did for me. He saw him and he had to make
that decision in that moment and he had to make that decision
knowing it was going to impact him and impact his people,
impact everyone else. Now again, it says that he maybe
he was going to give a ties with all the stuff that he brought
out. I'm going to tell you, I don't
think that's the case. You know why?
Because when he told Sodom I don't need your stuff, why would
he keep the other people's stuff?
If you got more than silent memory there was 4 right?
So he brought back 4 kingdoms stuff, not just Sodoms.
If he says that Sodom not going to keep your stuff, I don't want
to twist it that thinking you prospered me and made me rich
instead of God. Why would he keep the stuff from
the other three? And if you wouldn't keep the
stuff from the other three, he wouldn't give a tithe from this
stuff for the other 3. So when he's talking about
giving a tithe, I think there's a case to be made.
He's talking about his stuff, not what he brought back.
So when he says he's going to give you a tithe of all, what
he's saying is I'm going to give you a tithe of all that I have,
not what I've captured, which is far exceeds what he brought back
from those other kingdoms. Abraham's peace, Abraham's
response to peace, his way of anchoring in peace.
Now remember the law first mentioned the 1st and primary
way of anchoring into that governor of peace Abraham felt
was by what? Tithing.
Now you ain't trying to see that, but when you see it, you
can't Unsee it. The first time peace is
mentioned and conveyed. Abraham's response to peace is I
want to give a 10th of everything I have because I'm
grateful for the God that brought me out to me.
That was, I suggest biblically that some place, somewhere, your
peace is going to be connected to your pocketbook.
Your peace is going to be connected to whether you're
serving God or you're serving Mammon.
You can't run from it. And too often that's what we
want to do. We want to deal with that last,
not first. When in the Bible, the 1st
place, it was dealt with when peace showed up, not the last
place. Because his heart was anchored
in peace, he could say no to Mammon.
He could say no, I don't want the things that come with
Sodom's gift. And because Melchizedek, the
king of righteousness, had made a covenant blessing of peace, a
Bible peace, he established that peace means completeness and
wholeness. The word peace doesn't mean
sense of calm. It means wholeness.
It means safety, it means protection.
So when the king of Salem shows up, the king who is able to
bring wholeness to your life shows up.
The king was able to bring safety and protection to your
life shows up. Peace is about bringing
wholeness to your life, not an emotional change or transfer.
Peace is bigger than your pocketbook.
It's about your whole life that God has given and the whole life
that God is dealing with and demonstrating with you in.
I want to go to 2nd Corinthians 96 through 15 in the AMPC
because I think when you understand this peace, then you
understand what this is saying. If peace means wholeness, if
peace means complete in every error in every way, if peace
means nothing missing, nothing broken, nothing that's there,
then I think that Second Corinthians 96 says it also in a
different sort of way. And I just want to share that.
And when you understand this connection to peace, then you
understand this verse. It's not a get me rich verse,
it's a get me peace verse. It says this.
Remember this, He who so sparingly and grudgingly will
also reap sparingly and grudgingly, and he who sows
generously that blessings may come to someone will also reap
generously and with blessing. God is more interested in the
character of your heart and the intent of your attitude than He
is what you have in your hand. Remember, Abram came back after
victory, though he knew God was on his side.
Whenever you go to battle, you know lives can be lost.
He was grateful not only that his life was spared, grateful
that it's all of the people he took with him was spared.
Grateful that Lot's life was spared, grateful that he had a
victory to bring these other folks back.
He was grateful to God in so many ways beyond just what
happened in his own life. That's what you see.
That's that attitude of gratitude that bubbled up when
peace showed up. It's amazing how peace prompts
gratitude, doesn't it? Let each one give as he's
made-up in his own mind and purpose in his heart, not
reluctantly or sorrowfully or under compulsion.
You choose. Now, if it's important to
recognize this, Melchizedek didn't say, Abraham, pay me,
boy. Melchizedek saw Abram and said,
man, I just want to bless you. I want to bless you.
I want to release a blessing on you.
He didn't ask for anything back. Now, how do you know why?
Why do you think he was sent? Because his relationship with
God went way before that battle. And the guy who started the
relationship saw him in that moment and said, you know, I
want to send peace your way in a greater measure so it's not
under compulsion. He was not forced to give
anything. He wasn't asked to give
anything. He wasn't pulled, but he had an
opportunity to respond to peace with gratitude.
And for him that meant a 10th of things that he had.
For God loves. He takes pleasure in prizes
above other things and is unwilling to abandon or to do
without a cheerful giver whose heart is in his giving.
Next. And this is the part right here
that's really critical. This is the peace part right
here. And God is able to make all
grace, every favor and earthly blessing come to you in
abundance. He says, you may give money
cheerfully, but I'm going to make all grace abound towards
you in abundance. You may give this in this way,
but I'm going to make all grace abound towards you in abundance.
He says I'm going to make all grace.
What does that mean? Let me tell you what all grace
is. There's a young man here.
I told his testimony. Hopefully you don't mind me
telling it again. He was on his way to prayer
meeting. He and his lovely wife just
married in the car. Something happened to him and he
lost conscience at the wheel on 200 St. and the car went from
one side of 200 St. crossed the lanes of 200 direction, went
into the other lanes on 200 St. in the opposite direction,
cleared those lanes, went to the side of the road where there was
post and pillars and bridge overpasses.
Cleared those wind up in a ditch.
You know what you call that you call that all grace.
That's what all grace gets you. God wants us to understand all
grace is what he's after in our lives.
See this peace allows us to walk in all grace and God is able to
make all grace an abundance to that you made keep going always
and under all circumstances and whatever the need.
That sounds like peace. Nothing missing, nothing broken,
always enough, complete hole in every area in every way.
What he's saying is this. It's your joy that gives me
delight even more than the gift of your hand.
It's the gratitude and the Thanksgiving you come to me
with. To think that all I did was come
and bless you with peace. And your response was Daddy, I'm
so grateful for what you've done.
I'm so grateful for what you've taken me.
I'm so grateful for how you've delivered me Dad.
I can't do what for you what I want to, but I'll give you a
10th of everything that I have. No, it's not even a token
compared to what you've done to me.
I want to make it clear. Keep going because another part
of supporting furnishing abundance for every good work
and charitable Nate donation. That's how Abraham was able to
have the resources to go rescue his brother lot, his cousin lot
keep going and it's written he the benevolent person scatters
abroad. He gives to his poor his his
deeds of justice and goodness and kindness and the benevolence
will go on and do it forever. And God provides seed to the
sower and bread for eating will also provide and multiply your
resources for sowing. And here's the key and increase
the fruits of your righteousness.
See God's not stupid. How many y'all know sometimes
you tell a youngster, hey, if you take out the garbage, I'll
give you allowance money, you'll incentivize and do what's right
by showing them there's increase connected to it.
God is after the increase of your righteousness more than
anything else. He said I'll give you all of
those things, but also will increase the fruits of your
righteousness as well. Keep going.
Thus you will be enriched in all things and in every way so you
can be generous your your generosity as it is administered
by us. We'll bring forth Thanksgiving
to God. Go back to Pastor Terence talked
about there's a Thanksgiving loop that happens.
Peace begins a Thanksgiving loop.
It begins a Thanksgiving loop and you begin to get thankful
and grateful because you understand I'm whole.
God is taking care of me. God, I'm grateful.
I share my words with you. I share my tears with you.
I share my resources with you. I share my life with you because
I'm grateful. And The thing is, you think
you're tithing. It's just about the money.
It's just about the work that's done.
Yes, it's about that. But this is what God is saying.
Your commitment to respond to that peace through that grace of
giving will cause other folks to begin to give thanks unto God.
And when people begin to give thanks unto God, they begin to
recognize the goodness of God. And the Bible says it's the
goodness of God that least meant to repent, not how much you talk
ugly about them. It's them getting the revelation
of God's goodness. And when someone says you don't
even know me, but you sold for me, you built for me you, You
did that for me. I wasn't even here and you did
it for me. How could I not begin to thank
God that he would have people thinking about me that knew
nothing of me? Your giving starts a gratitude,
Luke, and I want to say this very clearly, Abram didn't buy
peace. To buy peace is to say you paid
for something that you didn't have.
It also suggests you can only get as much as the money you put
down. So remember the law first
mentioned, the king of peace gave the blessing for nothing.
He didn't buy it. He already had it when he
decided to give. He gave from peace, not to get
it and without. And the king of peace gave him
that without asking for anything in return.
Abram gave from peace not to get it.
He gave from gratitude, not greed.
He came from victory. He had already won the battle.
He's on his way home. He didn't have to give for
victory. He gave from victory in
response. And Jesus did the same.
Pastor talked about this as the anchor for the Scripture and the
and and and the and the and the the series.
Jesus says this, I give you my peace.
Jesus gave us his peace. Jesus gave you his peace before
you ever gave him anything. You can't.
But his peace is not for sale. So don't think I'm saying that
God is saying purchase peace through your money that you
give. He's already giving you the
peace. Jesus says it this way.
He gives you way more. I already mentioned it in the
verse. You gave $2.00.
He gave you all grace. You gave God, I thank you, and
he gave you all grace. It says if you so cheerfully, He
didn't say just so money. You saw the praise when your
pockets were empty, and you did it cheerfully because you were
grateful for your life. And God made all grace abound
towards you. You never get what you quote UN
quote pay for in giving to the Lord.
He always gives you his all. That's why when your heart is in
your giving, your penny becomes an all your $10 becomes an all.
We can give different things. But when his heart is in his
giving the same way her heart is in his giving and his heart is
an all is in his giving. What we have to just talked
about at the top of the thing that deep Thanksgiving from down
here with deep within you. When all of our hearts are in
all of our giving, then God's able to make all grace abounding
you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you,
you, you, you, you, you.
And it reminds me of that verse when Jesus talks about the
parable of the master went out to the marketplace and he cut a
deal with the first set of guys and he said, OK, 100 bucks, 1000
bucks for the day. And he went out every three
hours after that same master all the way up until right before
the end of the day. And the people that he hired at
the end of the day got the same as the people he hired at the
beginning of the day. You know why he said in the
parable, don't be mad at me because I'm generous.
That's another way for saying grace.
Don't be mad at me because I'm a God of all grace.
Don't be mad at me that I'm going to pour out all grace to
you no matter what, whether you give different than what He
gives. All I'm looking for is your
heart to be in it. I'm looking for your
cheerfulness to be in it. I'm looking for your joy to be
in it. God is saying to us that peace
is a change of government. It is and the law first
mentioned from the scripture. So that's why I got the title
peace the first time. Think about what peace means the
first time you see it. Think about what peace involves.
The first time it's mentioned that God is saying to us that
peace does involve a change of government.
It does, but not one you can buy and pay for.
But also understand there's a response and gratitude that you
can be moved to give again, I want to point this out.
How is it, do you think he was able to say so strongly to the
king of Sodom afterwards? And the King of Sodom says you
keep it all. And he said, I don't want none
of it. You know why?
Because his heart was already anchored in the Kingdom of peace
through the gift that he gave that prepared him to be able to
reject the things that will steal his peace.
Scripture says this way. Wherever a man's treasure is,
that's where his heart will follow.
God gave Abram peace without him asking for it.
God sent the government of peace to Abram's behalf out.
I'm not calling for it. Abram was smart enough to anchor
his heart in that government through his giving.
He was smart enough to say, I'm going to put my heart there and
I'm going to choose that that Kingdom and that government.
Now I want to give you a little bit of epilogue.
I want to say epilogue how y'all like stuff that comes after the
credits. What comes the shortly after
that is Abram cries out to God and says, God, I'm a wealthy
man, you bless me so much, but I don't have an air.
I don't have anybody to give it to.
I got God. I'm missing something that money
cannot buy. And that same God of all peace
who met him in that valley, he says, don't worry man, I got
hold this for that too. And that's where you cut a
covenant to give Abram something that his heart ached for that he
could not find from any place in the earth, could not get from
anywhere in the earth. That is what it means to be a
God of all grace and responding to you.
God knew and Abraham knew. So I just want to take a moment
here to just kind of seal up what we've been sharing here.
A message like this is there's competition for it because the
Master of Mammon is trying to master you even as you're
hearing it, trying to master your hearing, your attitude,
your perceptions, your whatever it is.
But understand, your God understands that the peace that
Mammon brings you will never be the peace you're seeking.
And he's trying to make sure your heart is anchored in his
government so you can receive the peace that he has to give.
Not that he not that he wouldn't give it to you anyway, but when
your heart is anchored in his government and his peace, you're
less likely to give it up when temptation comes.
Let's pray, Father, we thank you, bless, you're the God of
all peace. Thank you're the God of all
grace. We thank you, Lord, we thank
you, Lord God, we thank you. Let's begin to thank the Lord.
That's that's where it begins with Thanksgiving.
Thank, thank God, whatever you have to thank God for.
If you have life, if you got a marriage, if you got family, if
you got kids, if you got your limbs, if you just made it here
today. I know there's a couple here
that's thanking God they made it here today because they know
what that means and they don't take that for granted.
God, we thank you, we thank you. God, we thank you, we thank you,
We thank you for all that you've done and all that you're doing.
And we're so grateful, Lord God, that you have given us peace
that surpasses all understanding.
And more than a feeling, more than a calm, God, you've given
us a government to sustain us, a government of peace.
And we give ourselves to that government of peace.
O Lord, we give ourselves to that government of peace.
And Father, we thank you, God, that you demonstrate to us that
one of the ways that I've, that our grandfather Abraham
committed himself in that was through that giving of that tie.
And so, Father, we allow your grace to flood our hearts and
your gratitude to so well up within us so that we too shall
respond and can respond like our grandfather Abraham.
And we say God will give you a tenth of all.
You didn't say of all of my stuff a tenth of all I'll give
you praise, I'll give you joy, I'll give you life.
I'll give you time God, I give you a tenth of all that I have
and we thank you father that are not responding accordingly.
God more than whatever that money would bring the grace that
brings the peace of God. We so long for is going to visit
us. We thank you for that Lord in
Jesus name, Amen, Amen, Amen Amen.
Give God a hand clap. You know, God, God will give us
missing keys and ingredients for things.
And I want to make sure it's clear that's not the only way of
accessing God's peace, but it's often one that people will
overlook intentionally. And I want to tell you this, if
you want to be a tireder, you can be a tireder today.
All you got to do is make a decision you want and watch the
God of our grace back you up on it.
But you don't have to wait till the resource comes on the 30th.
You can start titling on the first because it's about grace
and gratitude more than the check you cut.
I want to tell you, you have an opportunity to give and practice
this and activate this very thing with myths of our year end
giving New Year's Eve. I mentioned it earlier, there'll
be an opportunity for some sacrificial giving on New Year's
Eve as well as our remnant campaign is, is we're going
through the ribbon on that. You have an opportunity to give
generously in that as well. I encourage you to take this
word, listen to it, go through it, pray about it.
Let God touch and minister to your heart on it.
And then as he does, just respond according to the way the
God of our grace leads you to respond and according to it.
And believe me, you'll find yourself being more generous
than you ever thought. But I will tell you this, you
will have to make the decision to be generous just the same way
Abram had to make the decision not only to tithe, but to say no
to that which was seeking to steal from him.
He had to make the decision. So I encourage you today take
advantage of these last of year and opportunities to give some
of the biggest, most generous gifts you have out of the
biggest and generous gratitude that you have for the Lord and
watch him make all grace abound towards you in every area and in
every way. Amen.
There are some ways to give here.
At the end of our time together, you'll be able to step out and
and do your giving there. Thank you.
Appreciate you for for really listening to this message.
And God is trying to I can't some things in my spirit, I
can't. I'm not, I'm not privileged to
share, but God is trying to help his people now before the help.
It's too late. Amen.
Thank you, Lord. Thank you pastor, for allowing
me to share a message like this. I appreciate you.
Hey man, you guys could do better than that.
Thank you EJ really quickly for your keep your phones out or
your notebooks out. If you haven't had it out, bring
it out as the as the pastor of this church, I get AI get the
unique opportunity to come up and I have a responsibility to
also clarify. I have a responsibility to to
after, after people share an opportunity to also fill in some
areas where I could discern where people may either miss it,
maybe wasn't paying attention, or here's the more important
one. They're not really Bible
readers. So the message like this, if you
actually aren't a Bible reader, there's so much you miss because
you're hearing stuff not only for the first time, but you also
have no foundation to connect what he's saying to the nature
of God, right? And so I'm going to give you a
couple things, which I think is is very important.
Again, thank you, Elder John, for being courageous enough.
People wouldn't look at a message like that as courageous,
but that's very courageous to speak on that.
I got a few announcements, but I just want to read a couple
things to you. You could, you could, you could
take a break if you heard it or not.
The tie is connected to governing.
That's very important because you can shout about peace and
actually miss this key component to activating peace.
Because he says that your treasure is where your heart is.
Where is peace governed in my heart?
So it's it. It needs to be understood that
if your heart and treasure is in the world, he mentioned this,
then your peace is governed by the world.
This is very important. I've been there, done that.
I've I've been a Christian and not tithe.
I've been a Christian and had excuses why not tithe in.
I've been a Christian who didn't tithe because of what somebody
else owed me. Your tithe has nothing to do
with what others give you. It has everything to do with
what God does. You get what I'm saying?
I've had people watch this tithe where they prefer, but not in
the storehouse. So you like, I'm going to give
my tithe to the YMCA. That's not where he says put the
tithe. The storehouse is your church
home. It's very important.
So you don't, you don't get, you can give wherever you want to
give, but you don't get to say the tithe.
I'm tithing when I give to the charity down the street.
Watch this. You don't even tithe 20%.
You tithe 10. It's a tenth, not a twent.
It's very important because some people will braggadociously say
I tied 30% tithe 30 don't even go together and you robbing
yourself because I tied 10% and I went 20% above and beyond.
So you don't get the tithe where you want to.
Biblically you tithe at the storehouse he has called you to
and he's feeding you from watch this you you tithe to your
favorite evangelist on YouTube but not your church.
You're not biblically tithing. OK can you just turn that heater
off for like 5 minutes? Thank you so much.
Tithing is the hinges of heaven's economy.
You have to understand that. And faith is heaven's currency.
Tithing is the hinges of heaven's economy.
So when we tithe, it connects us to something that's already
rewarded. It's already fruitful.
You know, right now people are putting money into certain
stocks. They're partnering with
companies. When you tithe, you partner with
heaven's economy and heaven's economy.
The currency of it is faith. Money is the currency of the
world. The world buys and sells.
That's the economy. Heaven's economy.
We sow and reap two different economies.
So even peace is transaction by faith.
Very important. This parallel that Elder John
gave us that if you don't read your words, you don't even know
it's a parallel and you may get lost.
He mentioned 2 governments, say 2 governments, right?
There's a scripture in Matthew 6.
It says you can't serve 2 masters, which which is the
masters God and what Mammon? Then he brought you to to to
Abraham. But the king was Melchizedek.
And then there was the king of Sodom, correct?
What Lot came to a point and Abraham, they both were
prospering. Lot said I'm gonna go where the
grass is greener world economy, Sodom, Gomorrah had a different
king. Abraham said cool, I'm gonna go
over here. Who did Abraham encounter?
King Melchizedek. He mentioned peace here, right?
So you have two different economies.
You got Abraham and Lot, you got Melchizedek, Embarra, you have
God and Mammon, you have Salem and you have Sodom.
If you're not reading your word, they all disjointed and you
don't actually see how Jesus is pointing to the tithe in the New
Testament from the beginning. Then you go to Matthew 6 or you
go to Matthew, I think it's 20. He tells the scribe, you
scribes, you tithe, you tithe with your men and you tithe, but
you don't. Do you know?
No faithfulness, no love. So tithe is a part of the New
Testament, but we're tithing under grace, so you don't have
to. But all these things that you're
trying to tie your fruitfulness to in the world, remember,
you're tying them to a worldly economy.
Watch this. The world does not take account
of the future of the world when you sow into the Kingdom of God.
It takes account of not just your life, but every generation
in your bloodline. So you don't understand when you
don't tithe, you don't cover your children, right?
I know I'm living off of I could not be in Canada if my Mama and
my grandma didn't tithe when I was little.
So you don't realize that when you're tired, not tithing,
you're robbing future generations.
Matthew 623 can you put it up? This is pastoral because I think
God has been trying. I cannot wait till New Year's
Eve message to give you the word for 2026 boy.
And I look back and I'm like God because I'm not the person.
I I didn't plan New Year's Eve message seven months ago, so I
didn't have this series. I'd never planned the year of
sermons. It's just kind of led as we go
and I look back and I'm like, whoa, you've been setting us up.
God is about to do something so significant in this next year.
So you don't tithe where you prefer.
Why it it makes sense to go and give into famine that don't make
sense. But if God said do it, guess
what? It don't need to make sense.
Here it is. But if you're at no verse, do do
do. But if your eyes unsound your
whole body, go to verse 22. Yeah, we'll start there.
The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is sound, your
entire body will be full of light first.
Yeah. But if your eye is unsound, your
whole body will be full of darkness.
If then the very light in your in you, your conscience is
darkened, how dense is that darkness?
No one can serve 2 masters. Whoa.
How we go from there to there? He's he's talking if you go back
to the light, he's talking about peace, he's talking about this.
This inner man. He goes on and no one can serve
2 masters. For either he will hate the one
and love the other or he will watch this.
The fact that you cringe during offering compels speaks to which
one you serve. Light on the inside, the master
on the inside is opposing the master you're hearing about.
For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will
stand by and be devoted to the one and despise and be against
the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon
deceitful riches, money, possessions, or whatever is
trusted in. Watch this boom.
Keep going. Therefore I tell you, stop being
perpetually uneasy and anxious. Worried.
He goes from giving to peace. The fact that you don't trust
God contributes to why you struggle with keeping peace.
Your anxiety is connected to your lack of trusting God.
It's a government. When you're not just trusting
this this higher power, you're trusting the Prince of Peace.
If you don't trust God, you don't trust the Prince of Peace.
If you don't trust the Prince of Peace, then just lay out the red
carpet for worry and anxiety and you probably just thought you
inherited worry. Guess what?
You probably did because your Mama didn't trust God.
If you are going to be the interruption in mental health or
mental illness or anxiety or worry or depression in your
bloodline, it's no way. If you don't trust God and his
economy, it's no way. And so look, go do what you want
to do, sow where you want to sow.
I promise you, the world that we sow into every day, it will fail
you, Marty, you can write it. This is not even prophecy.
This is just written word. The world is doing this.
And watch this at least once a day we sow into an Antichrist
company. Don't let me mess with your
coffee. I don't like that coffee anyway,
man. I'm not saying be deep.
I'm not saying don't go to Starbucks.
I mean, I'm not I'm not, I'm not saying don't go to I'm just
saying if you just right and they're bowl with the with the
logo. We just think it's a cute Little
Mermaid on there. We we don't, we don't, we don't
care what it is, but once a day we sow into something that is
not advancing the Kingdom of God.
So guess what, when we're church that don't sow no, we can't
start our own coffee companies. We can't start our own
businesses so that when the world begins to funnel watch
this wealth transfer does not happen because God's going going
to kill all the wealthy people who don't believe in him and
give us money. No, we have to create funnels
for him to give in to wealth transfers because the church is
now prospering. They're building studios and
gyms and spas and, and all these things that belong to the Lord.
And if God has blessed you with a company and you don't tie it
from that, guess what? Then the, the, the, the source
that you serve, you're limited. You're prospering is limited to
your clientele, not the Kingdom of God.
And so I appreciate you, Elder John, for being courageous and
bold. Write this down, Proverbs 420
through 23. Tithing is also a protection
system. You're tapping into the the the
security of heaven. Amen.
They say guard your heart for out of it flows the itches like
so security. I I don't even think I told my
kids this, but being my wife was driving week ago, two weeks ago,
we took the long route home. For some reason, I think I just
want to spend more time with her and keep keep laughing and
talking to her and look at her. But we drive in and there's a
there's a yellow light. It's not orange yet.
It's yellow, right? It's in between green and yellow
and we're coming. I'm going straight, but there's
a turn that's available. Yellow big old truck.
I, I, I don't really accelerate. I just don't decelerate, but the
trucks accelerates. He hits the gas and he turns and
I'm, I'm one hand driving and we are coming on head on.
It's like a week and a half ago we coming on head on and I just
remember like mind you, head on him hitting the gas, not him
slowing down and we both hit our brakes and I slide across the
intersection. But man, I'm telling you it, it,
it was it was so beautiful how I hit the intersection.
The peace of God hit me like I kid you not, one hand, other
hand is on the door and I hit my brakes one hand and we slide
into the intersection. My wife didn't, She didn't grab
the steering wheel. The man hit his brakes.
I kid you not. He comes here and I just, I
scanned. It felt like slow.
I scanned and I saw a little pocket over here and I just
turned the wheel and we ended up and it's just a little pocket
right here, Smooth little pocket.
I saw the lady right here as I was turning.
She was like, what? The.
And then I looked at her, she looked at me.
The guy kept driving. He went over here, he's getting
ready to stop to see if we was OK.
I was like, we cool bro, I'm out.
And we just drove home. I kid you not.
It was just that smooth. We just, we just kept going and
we looked at each other was like, wow, like the peace of
God. Like we could have just that
could have been a phone call to our kids, could have been a
phone call to my mom and Christmas would be different.
Could have been a phone call to Love Quest.
Christmas would be different. And we go home and we're out of
it. And then I walk in the house and
I start feeling my legs shaking. I was like, but your body still
knows you went through something.
But understand the peace of God overrides the natural right.
It in the car wasn't time to be shaky and nervous.
No, we actually laughed on the way home.
We didn't have to get no reports or nothing.
But when we're talking about the protection of God, the grace of
God, all grace, all grace, supernatural peace that
surpasses my wife should have grabbed the steering wheel.
She should have. She should have panicked and
many people do. I should have.
I should have grabbed the steering wheel with both hands.
But I kid you not, it just happened in slow MO.
I didn't, I wasn't like, Oh my God, watch this.
I just see my life flash before my eyes and we looked at each
other like crazy. Huh.
I can give you testimony after testimony.
Top of the year, we're going to have the ties challenge.
We're going to do things to give our church an opportunity to be
a generous people. We're going to have sacrificial
Sundays, every first Sunday watch this.
It wasn't PT one of the elders came to me and it wasn't EJ and
it wasn't E raw and they said we should do sacrificial.
We should once a month. We should make it forget all
this special giving where we're training people.
We only give big or special when there's like something to do
versus like every month God finds it special to wake you up
and protect you. So why are we so event based in
our giving or project? Why is generosity connected to
projects? So every first Sunday we're
going to give our church opportunity gives above and
beyond. We going to take communion.
We going, we going, we going to do it.
And so the end of the year, you have an opportunity to give.
I don't know what our family is going to give.
I know our family is going to give our biggest seed that we've
given this year. I don't know how.
Don't you know PT? Because I'm not stopped.
I haven't stopped listening. Most of us have figured out what
we going to give based on our budget.
God might say, OK, now you figured out your budget.
That's good. Now I needed you to figure out
what your budget was so we can go above that. 2026 for the
Richmond family going to be the most prosperous year for real
our family have ever seen. But it's not going to because
it's just just God just going to choose.
No, we tapping into something. OK New Year's Eve, be here to
receive the word and align yourself with 2026.
Write this down. January 6th through the 26th
will be our 21 day fast. That's why I'm telling you now
so you can be prepared. 21 day fast.
January 6th through the 26th, Worship and prayer every
evening. January 19th through the 26th.
OK for one week we will close the fast out meeting every
evening so put it on your calendar.
This will be the most organized year in Love Quest history.
I'm thank God we've established a church where the people don't
control it, the Holy Spirit does.
So now we are going to bring some order to some things so God
can expand the foundations. OK, got that.
And then Love Quest international worship.
There was some technical difficulties this week if you
pre save, but here's a beautiful chance to pre save home with
him. This is Love Quest's rendition
of some old hymns. And we did our thing.
We put some sauce on it. Amen.
So it should be out any day now, but you get a chance to go pre
save it now in the back. We got some end of the year
merch for you. If you go, go check that out.
It is 30% off. Lord Jesus, help us.
You know what? You know what you you see, see
every single seed that goes sit, man, I thought I was trying to
get some. I'm trying to get some. 100% of
the finances that go to that table is going to go to the
remnant. No, no, no, no, no, I don't.
I don't even need an applause. I didn't do nothing.
God did something, but I'm just saying I'm being I'm just like,
I was just sitting there because I was like, OK, we can only do
some entity your money 30% off. And Lord said, yeah, I'm glad
you figured out 30% off. Now you going so that to me, I'm
not mad. I'm just listening.
So every seed, every hat, every sticker, every hoodie, every
book, 100% it goes to end the year.
Lord, you stand to your feet. People, please.
Hallelujah. Yes.
Next experience we will hear a word from heaven, from Elder
Brett. I cannot await.
Lord, we thank you for a generous people.
Lord, Lord, you're going to build your church.
You're going to get us in that building.
You're going to bring in every resource we need above and
beyond. You're going to be the source of
overflow. Lord, there's no better deal in
the world. Then you give us 100% and then
give us an opportunity to give 10%.
And then after you give us a hundred and we give you 10, you
going to blow that up? Press down, shaken together.
You going to cause men to give into our bosom?
There's no deal in the world like that.
The world will not give us 100. Just ask for 10 so you can
multiply it. So we say, God, you have the
greatest economy, it never fails.
You have the greatest peace, it never fails.
You have the greatest joy, the greatest faith, the greatest
hope. Lord, your fruit never fails.
Matter of fact, Psalm tells us that we can be fruitful in every
season, no matter what. So we thank you when we tithe
and when we give. Lord, we are tapping in, we are
partnering, we are tethering. Father, we are in covenant with
an unfailing economy, unfailing Kingdom.
Lord, replenish. Elder John, replenish his
family, replenish his wife for praying for him in the middle of
the night as he receives a word. Lord, bless the Swain legacy in
the name of Jesus. Lord God, we thank you for your
servants, that as they have prepared the word, we prepare
our hearts. Lord, as they sow as farmers, we
receive as soil. Lord God, I declare there will
not be a word that was sown in 2025 that will be lost.
Lord God, we rebuke the divide power in the name of Jesus, and
we thank you that we are a fruitful people, a prospering
people. We are a people that are
obedient. Lord God, we are a people with
the spirit of the fear of God in the name of Jesus.
And we thank you, Father, that we are blessed for generation to
generation to generation to generation.
Lord, we rebuke the second guessing.
Forgive us where we didn't trust, but we just declare now
we are tithers. We don't just tithe, we are
tithers. And Lord, we make a commitment
now. Whatever you bring in a 10th is
yours for down to the tax return.
Whatever you bring in, may we stop just reasoning in our mind.
May we stop just trying to put this over here?
Oh God, don't mean that over there.
He don't want. No, no, no.
Everything you bring into our household.
Lord God, we will sow the 10th back.
We will not deny the prospering that you want to bring in our
lives. We will be a church and a people
that's a resource to the city, a resource we will not be a people
that's non essential. So bless every business in here,
bless the kings, bless the kings and we thank you for now in
Jesus name. Well guys, that's the last
Sunday in 2025. I hope to see you next
experience or I hope to see you on New Year's Eve at 7:00 PM.
Watch this on New Year's Eve. Come right away.
In the past we ate at the top. We not doing that no more.
OK, so come we going to get into worship at 7:00 PM.
We got a word and then we'll get into some fellowship.
But you don't want to miss New Year's Eve experience.
We are out of time, but we are not out of peace.
We are not out of generosity. And until next time, you know
what it is. Get your love fixed, man.
Have a wonderful evening. Thank you so much for tuning
into this week's sermon. We pray you were challenged,
equipped, and encouraged. Make sure to follow us on all
platforms. That's Lovequest Intl Church we
out here for. Real.
We're really doing it. That's Facebook, Instagram,
YouTube and TikTok. You can find us anywhere you
need to find us. But until next time, you know
the drill, you know the motto. Get your love fixed man and
we'll see y'all real soon.