This is “How To Be More Blessed Than Ever Before”. Did you know Jesus spoke more about money, possessions, and generosity than heaven or hell? It’s true. In fact, in the entire Bible money and possessions are the second most talked about topic. So why do we feel uncomfortable talking about it in church? In this message with Jentezen Franklin you’ll learn how our handling of money and possessions is linked to our spiritual health. God wants to bless us—sometimes with money, sometimes with what money cannot buy—more than ever before. So what is the secret to living a more blessed life than ever before?
♪ ♪
Happy New Year,
and welcome
to Kingdom Connection.
I’m so thankful that you’re
joining us today.
And I know all of us could use
more of God’s blessings
in our lives than ever before.
And I believe the principles
that I’m going to share today
are crucial to guiding your
life into a victorious 2021.
You’re about to learn how God
wants you to be
More Blessed than Ever Before.
♪ ♪
Matthew 6.
I wanna begin reading
with Verse 19, “Do not lay up
for yourselves treasures
on Earth where the moth
and rust destroy,
where thieves break in
and steal.
Lay up for yourselves treasures
in heaven where neither
moth nor rust destroys
nor thieves break
in and steal.”
Here’s the big one in Verse 21,
“For where your treasure is
there your heart will be also.”
Isn’t that powerful?
While we’re in there,
go to Verse 33, “But seek
first the Kingdom of God
and His righteousness
and things shall be added
to you.”
Things shall be added to you.
How to be blessed
more than ever before.
How to be more blessed
than ever before.
I wanna talk to you
about this sermon that Jesus
preached on Mount of Olives,
the Sermon on the Mount
is it’s famously called.
It started in Chapter 5
and Chapter 6 is also
the same sermon Jesus preached
really, and it goes into
the next one partially.
Jesus preached three chapters
in one sermon,
so don’t complain
about my messages.
Amen.
But I want you to see how
important it is in what you
do to be more blessed than ever,
even in the circumstances
that we’re in.
What I’m gonna share with you
today is the secret
to a more blessed life.
Giving doesn’t come
naturally to people.
People have to be taught what
the Word of God says.
“Forbes Magazine” recently
had an article by a theologian
that they put in their
secular magazine,
“Money Magazine”,
and they said astonishingly
this scholar said that
the second most often referred
to topic in the Bible
is money and possessions.
Second only to forgiveness,
repentance, love is money
and possessions.
2,350 verses are in the Bible
on money.
Jesus said more about money
than He did about heaven
or hell combined.
Why?
Why?
Jesus used 11 out of 39 parables
to teach about money
and stewardship.
Why?
15% of Jesus’s recorded words
were about money.
It almost makes me mad
to hear that.
Money?
With all the things, money?
There must be more to it
than just money.
There must be something
about money and of what
we do with it that is critical
to our relationship with God.
The Bible said in the text
that I read that where a man’s
treasure there his heart
is going to be also.
What does that mean?
Your heart, according
to Jeremiah, your heart
is deceitfully wicked.
Your heart cannot be trusted.
Your heart will deceive you,
and it’s not talking about
your physical heart.
It’s the core of who you are.
Then there is this verse
in Proverbs 4 that says,
“Guard your heart.
Protect you heart
with all diligence.
For out of it flows all
the issues of life.”
The issues of life
are the important factors,
one translation said,
of decisions of life.
It comes out of where’s
your heart?
How’s your heart doing?
The Bible says with your heart
we believe unto God.
Well, what’s that talking about?
It’s not talking
about our emotions.
It’s talking about our will.
It’s talking about the core
of who we are.
The Bible talks about so many
things concerning our heart
over and over and over,
and it’s talking about
the core of who we are
and having a heart
that is going after God.
Here’s what I want you
to understand.
The reason that he said where
a man’s treasure is or his money
is there his heart
will be also
is because your giving
decides the focus of your heart.
That wherever your resources go,
your heart even though
it’s wicked,
even though it can be corrupted,
out of it you make all
the major issues and decisions
of life and one of the ways,
the only way that you can
really do anything about
trying to decide the focus
of your heart is when you give.
The Bible said your treasure
moves and automatically
your heart moves
in the direction
of where your treasure is.
It’s really an amazing thing.
The psalmist said search
my heart that in the area
of giving when you put
your treasure,
where you put your treasure,
your heart
automatically follows.
You take your treasure,
and you put it in
the Kingdom of God,
and God said your heart goes
where you put your resources.
When you understand that
and you understand
that the focus of your heart,
that if my money goes over here,
my focus goes over here
is what that’s saying.
If my money goes over there,
if my money goes to something
over here,
then that’s where my heart goes,
and he says if you want to have
a heart that is focused
on what is right,
then give into the
Kingdom of God,
and your heart will begin
to focus on what can give you
the decisions you need for
the issues of life
out of your heart.
It’s really something.
Secondly, number two,
your giving not only decides
your focus, but your giving
decides who your master is.
The Bible said in the Scripture,
Matthew 6 in Verse 24,
“No man can serve two masters.
For either he will hate the one
and love the other or else
he will be loyal to the one
and despise the other.
You cannot serve,”
listen to this now.
“You cannot serve God
and materialism.”
Mammon is the spirit
of materialism that connects
you to other things
and disconnects you from God
if you allow it
to be God in your life.
And he said when you give
two things, your heart follows
your treasure so your
focus goes there.
Number two, when you give you
decide who will be your master.
You cannot serve Mammon,
money and God.
Why didn’t he say you
cannot serve Satan and God?
Because he knows that’s an easy
choice for you.
But here’s the point.
Money and possessions
have the greatest potential
to replace the Lordship
of Jesus Christ in our life
more than anything else,
and that’s why Jesus said you
have to choose between money
and possessions controlling
your life or Jesus
controlling your life,
and the way that he says you
do that is you give
to the Kingdom of God,
and you break the grip of greed
off of your heart.
It’s really something.
It’s so easy to get off track
with possessions.
I wanna teach you now
some quick things.
Luke 19, the famous story
of Zacchaeus, the man who
was small in stature.
He gets in a tree.
He couldn’t see over the crowd.
He wanted to see Jesus.
The Bible said that he was
a tax collector and that
he took more money than
he was supposed to,
and he robbed people
all the time
and kept it for himself,
and the Scripture said
that Jesus gauged his spiritual
condition by his willingness
to part with his money
because when he saw Jesus
and heard Jesus his heart
was so moved that he said,
“I will return
what I have stolen,”
this is in Luke 19,
“and I will give back threefold
to everybody I stole it from,”
and Jesus said,
“This day salvation
has come to his house.”
His willingness to walk away
from what God required of him
showed the spiritual condition
of his heart.
Now watch this, in Matthew 19,
Jesus engages
the rich young ruler.
He’s rich.
He’s young.
He’s got it all going on.
He’s young.
He’s rich.
He’s a ruler.
That means he’s popular.
He’s powerful.
He’s got it all, and Jesus
encounters him or he bumps into
Jesus and Jesus messes him up,
and he says, “What must I do
to inherit life,”
and He knew that he
was to attached to Mammon.
Jesus is not against you having
things and being blessed,
but when they become your god
and they become so big
that it’s yours,
and you don’t become a giver
to the Kingdom,
something is off.
It reveals your spiritual
condition, and Jesus engages
this man and says,
“Sell what you have and give it
to the poor and follow me.”
He would’ve become one
of the disciples.
“Follow me,” and the rich,
young ruler walked away
sorrowfully, and Jesus teaches
us by his unwillingness
to part with his money
his spiritual condition
was not right.
There is an undeniable
connection between money,
resources and our
spiritual condition.
I’m telling you how to be more
blessed is to be a giver.
In Mark 12, Jesus taught
this in the Bible.
There was a widow woman.
This actually happened,
and Jesus stood and watched
as the people brought
their offering,
and the Bible said there was
a widow who came and gave
her last bit of money,
her last might.
This is in Mark 12:43-44,
and Jesus said,
“Did you see what she did?”
Jesus said, “They all gave out
of their abundance.”
In other words, they had a lot
left over, but she gave her last
all that she had to me.”
And do you know what Jesus did?
He didn’t say, “Now quick,
disciples, run her some money
out into the parking lot
and make sure she leaves
all loaded down with blessing.”
He let her leave like she came.
Why?
Why?
Why would Jesus do that
to an old widow woman who was
down to her last dime?
Because He knew what giving
does when people obey and give.
He knew because she just passed
the test, and I saw it
with my own eyes ’cause God
sees what we do,
and He knew she just made me her
source and not anything else,
and the birds are fed
and the robins,
they get full of food,
and I’m gonna take care
of that woman for the rest
of her life because she
understands the power
of sacrificial giving.
In Luke 12, we encounter
a super successful
business person.
He has real estate holdings
that are remarkable.
This is right in the Bible.
He’s building bigger
and bigger barns,
bigger and bigger
manufacturing plants,
more and more real estate.
Empire is getting bigger
and bigger and bigger,
but he is not connected
to the Kingdom of God
and while he’s bragging
and saying I’m gonna build
something else
and something else,
and I’m gonna just look at all
my stuff, then there’s
Matthew 12 in Verse 20,
“But God said,”
everybody say God said.
“God said to him, ‘You fool.
This night your soul will
be required of you,
and this what messed me up.
Then who shall all these things
be that you have provided.”
You’re gonna die.
You don’t own nothing.
That house that you have
and you say it’s yours,
you paid it off maybe,
and that makes you really say
it’s yours, and you don’t owe
anything on it.
It’s still not yours.
You’re just the steward
and when you die,
somebody’s gonna get all
these things, everything,
the furniture, everything,
everything in the house.
All your stuff.
It’s gone when you die.
You don’t take any
of it with you.
When Jesus said that it’s harder
for a rich man to get into
heaven than it is for a camel
to go through the eye
of a needle,
y’all know what the eye
of a needle is?
That’s what you thread
the needle.
Well, he wasn’t saying that
if you’re rich and blessed
you can’t get into heaven.
Here’s what He was saying.
You can’t drive your Porsche
into a rotating door
in a hotel.
You have to get out of all
that stuff and if you’re gonna
get through that door,
you have to just kind of walk
in like you are.
And what He’s saying is you
may have all this stuff.
None of it’s gonna follow you
through the gate of heaven.
You’re gonna have to go —
and then He ends.
He ends His statement
in Verse 21 of Luke 12.
He said, He said, “So is he that
lays up treasure for himself
and is not rich toward God.
Woo!
I tell you, when you give,
the Bible said you become
rich toward God,
and that’s how you become more
blessed ’cause God owns it all,
and you can become
rich towards God.
Your giving affects eternity.
It affects you.
It affects others for eternity.
Matthew 6:26, “For what will
it profit a man if he should
gain the whole world
and lose his own soul
or what shall a man give
in exchange for his soul?”
Your treasure, your time,
your talent.
It belongs to God.
Talk is cheap.
Talk is cheap.
Giving costs something.
Giving costs something.
Tithing is the top
priority of every
Christian if they want
their finances blessed.
I wanna hear you all the way
in Spartanburg.
I wanna hear you all the way.
Does anybody believe that?
I know you believe that.
I know you believe that.
I mean, it’s the number one
priority if you want your
finances blessed is to become
a tither.
You’re never too young
to start tithing.
What is a tithe, this 10%?
10% of your income
and your increase.
That’s what the Bible teaches.
Well, what do you mean?
Do I tithe on my gross income
or my net income?
That’s a good question.
It’s a fair question.
Proverbs 3:9, “Honor the Lord
with your substance and with
the first fruits
of all Thine increase.”
All thine increase.
It’s increase.
It’s increase.
If it’s increase, tithe on it.
If it’s increase tithe on it.
You tithe what is your income
and then any increase.
If somebody dies and leaves you
an inheritance,
you tithe on that.
Well, I wanna say for you
I tithe on that.
If somebody gives me a big gift,
I tithe on that.
If I win the lottery.
No, if you win the lottery,
you better tithe on that.
If you get a multi-million
dollar contract,
you better tithe on that.
You tithe on the income
and the increase, and God opens
the windows of heaven
and pours you out a blessing.
I love this part.
He rebukes the devourer
for your sake.
The devourer is always coming,
but there is a force
that happens when you tithe
and you give.
I hear people say I can’t
afford to give.
Try giving before you say that.
Millions of people
are not wrong.
I’m getting happy now.
I’m telling you, I was
broker than the Ten Commandments
when God got ahold of me,
but I started tithing
and giving, and He keeps
on blessing me and blessing me,
and I know there’s hundreds
and thousands of you.
It’s your testimony,
and it’s been the hardest year
of your life, but look,
you’re still here.
You’re still okay.
God is gonna take care of you,
and God is gonna bless you.
Giving is one of the greatest
adventures a Christian can have.
God said in Malachi 3,
“Prove me in this.”
Everywhere else He says
I’m watching you,
and I’m checking you out,
and I’m gonna prove your heart,
and I’m gonna see.
I’m gonna let you go
through this trial.
I’m gonna see.
But He says this,
“On this you prove me.”
One translation said,
“I dare you.”
Start tithing.
In other words, God’s saying
let’s have a giving contest.
I dare you.
You give to me,
and I’ll give back to you,
and let’s see who
is the biggest giver.
Anybody believe the Bible?
The Bible is not wrong.
So, let me give you
this real quick.
Give systematically.
Don’t give every once
in a while, here, there, skip,
miss, hit, boom, bam.
Sometimes people
do something flashy.
You know.
Wow!
They gave.
The gave — wow!
But if you measure that up to
the person who is tithing
systematically every week
or every month or every how
they got it two weeks,
ever how they got it set up,
they don’t even come close,
but they do something
to be flashy,
but give systematically.
Give sacrificiously.
It’s fun to give
at the end of the year
and get your statement from
the church so that you can
take it off your taxes
and say, “Wow!
We gave that much!
Praise the Lord.
My God, I remember when we,
we couldn’t even, we couldn’t
have given even
a portion of that.
Look at how much we gave
to the glory of God!”
God is my source.
God has always been my source.
And I’ve been young,
and now I’m old,
but I still got it.
I do in Jesus’s name.
Talk to yourself
like that sometimes.
Look in the mirror and say,
you old, gray fox.
The hand of the Lord is on you.
The best is yet to come.
God’s not through blessing you.
The path of the righteous growth
brighter and brighter.
I’m gonna bless you greater
in the next season
than you’ve ever seen,
greater than you can imagine,
greater than you can dream for.
Does anybody believe that you
can be more blessed?
Not less, more blessed.
♪ ♪
>> I wanna thank you
for watching
Kingdom Connection today.
We are very honored that you
took the time out of your day
to join us and to feed your
spirit on the word of God.
And if you don’t know the Lord
today, why not at the beginning
of a brand new year,
after all we’ve come through,
something in your heart
is saying I want to start
my life off with a relationship
with Jesus in this new year.
Pray this prayer.
Say, “Jesus, I receive you.
I love you.
I thank you for the blood
and the cross,
and all you did when you
rose from the dead.
You had me in mind.
I receive you as my Savoir.”
And I wanna pray for you now.
And Lord, I just pray for
your healing to flow.
People are sick and they need
your touch, and they need
your help.
People are worried,
and stressed,
and seemingly defeated,
but I know this is gonna
be a year that you’re
gonna bless them more
than ever before.
I ask you Lord, to meet
the needs of your people.
Strengthen somebody.
Somebody’s lonely and broken,
and hurting.
Let ’em know there’s a future.
Let ’em know they’re gonna
get through the present
challenge to a place
of great victory and great hope.
In Jesus’ name I pray,
I speak that blessing
over you today.
Praise God.
Now, listen to me carefully,
next week, on January 10th, 2021
we’re starting our annual
21 day fast
right here at the ministry
and we’re focusing on our God
who makes all things new.
I wanna ask you today to pray
about what God would have you do
to help us reach more people
in the new year
than ever before.
With your help,
we’re able to preach the Gospel
to over 200 nations,
we’re able to translate
these programs into different
nations, major languages
that can reach masses
and masses of people.
We’re able to produce
inspirational resources
like our bible and books,
and all kinds of material
that we can give out,
and much of it, some of it,
the devotionals and things
like that we can post online
and give free to people
and they can get it
and download it all over
the globe.
It’s really powerful,
and you are our partner.
And beyond supporting these
kinds of projects,
all the missions work
we do around the world.
In particularly, our focus
on the nation of Israel,
and right here at home,
and all over.
We don’t hold back,
but we do everything we can
to bless people.
And you are a vital part.
Why don’t you sow an unusual
seed to start the year off
and help us start the year off
knowing that we have the ability
to bless so many people
and tell the world
about Jesus.
Thank you.
Thank you so much,
and Happy New Year.
God bless you.
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>> Cherise and I
wanna invite you to join us
on our Holy Land Tour.
It’s an amazing trip,
unlike anything
you’ve ever experienced,
and we’ll be on the trip,
we get on the busses,
our family will be on there,
and I promise you,
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>> We hope you’ve enjoyed
this teaching
by Jentezen Franklin,
and thank you
for your continued support
of this ministry.
Your prayers
and financial support
make these programs possible.
For more information
about this message,
and other ministry resources,
visit us online at
JentezenFranklin.tv
♪ ♪