Generosity, Gratitude, and the Power of Words

"I didn't expect to be called. I thought I was going to share this. But, you know, a couple months ago, there was somebody that came to me with a need. And they needed some money to borrow. So I said, I didn't want to go to the church funds to take money to lend to anyone. So I said, let me take my money from my own pocket. So I loaned the person 500 bucks to take care of some stuff." [00:33:40] (26 seconds) Edit Clip


"So as I was preparing my sermon for First Fruits, during the week, I said, Lord, in order to generosity of my heart, I took my money and I loaned it. It was supposed to be a loan. I was supposed to be returned. And it just disappeared. I said, so you have to return that to me. I just left it like that. So we came and the offering was lifted on Sunday. And when it was being tabulated and so on, there was an envelope in there for Pastor Dave. Just for Pastor Dave. Nobody signed how much it did. They didn't sign your name or anything on that. And so it was handed to me. And I opened it. How much money? How much money do you think there was in that envelope? And once again, it was 500 bucks. So God answers prayer." [00:34:13] (49 seconds) Edit Clip


"But I'm a little bit greedy. So I'm saying to myself, maybe if I had said, God, you should double that. I'm just kidding. No, I'm just kidding. But the truth is, you know, when we ask God for what we want, he blesses us. And it's as simple as that. And we talked about generosity last week. And generosity is the key. It's not about hoping. Hoping that you're going to get back what you put in. The Bible says, cast your bread upon the waters. After many days, it will return unto you. So, amen." [00:35:01] (31 seconds) Edit Clip


"today hallelujah lord we owe so much to him this morning how many of you recognize that you owe it all to him everything that we have everything that we can do all our skills all our talents everything that we know and we know to be true we owe it all to him today but more than that we owe eternity to him because he died for us he has given us redemption and forgiveness of sins amen and that's such a great gift it's such a wonderful gift that god has given to us it speaks about the future and about our future life with god today so we give him praise come on let's just honor him this morning father we give you thanks and praise today god in your house we honor you god father we recognize how much we owe to you you father there was a debt that we owed that we could not pay but on the cross jesus died for us he gave himself for us so that we too can be free so that we can have redemption forgiveness of sins so this morning as we come to your table oh god as we come to the lord's table i pray oh god that you will minister to us minister to us father as we are reminded of this great covenant that you've made with us oh god and for us through the blood of jesus and the blood of jesus oh god i pray today oh god that we will appropriate it unto ourselves oh god so that we will know and recognize oh god so that we will say like everyone else i owe it all to you oh god so father i pray that you'll bless the cup and bless the bread as we get ready to partake this morning oh god in jesus name we pray if you have your communion with you if you don't have it maybe you can um just" [00:43:21] (104 seconds) Edit Clip


"many of us here today We were not born with the proverbial gold spoons in our mouth We are common folk, right? We are common folk We came up to the ranks We had to struggle for everything we had We had to fight for it Nobody gave us anything I don't know how many of you here today You were handed it on a silver platter No, we were not We had to struggle for it We had to go through the difficulties of life In order to get where we are But it is important when we get to where we are That we don't forget where we have come from Amen That we don't forget where we come from You know, our church, again I mentioned the fact that we are an immigrant community We are an immigrant church And many of us who are here today, we were not born here We came seeking a better life We came seeking to do better We wanted to do better And in the process of time, while we were trying to do better We had to go through some hardships If you are going through some hardships now Because in the early days Thank God for it You see, because the hardship That will put you into a better place How many of you know adversity? Makes you better down the road Amen The people who have everything handed to them Very often they squander it But sometimes when we go through some difficulties We learn to appreciate what God has done for us So let us not forget the hardship that we have had To get us to where we are Let us remember that The Israelites, they were prone to forget They would always forget what God had done for them You see, when the going gets tough Right? When the going got rough Which it ultimately will Before you get into that better place The children of Israel would complain And they would remember The few times when they had it good in Egypt They would remember the garlic and the leeks But they forgot the whips and the chains In other words, they remembered the few times When things were going well But they didn't remember the bondage that they were in And some of us who are Christians Sometimes we forget the time when we were alcoholics Or drug addicts Or we were outside And things were not going well But we remember the time when we were having a great time You know, but because we are going through a hardship in the church It's important for us to look back And remember what God has brought us from Amen Sometimes God wants to take you on the mountain top But you must go through the valley How many of you have gone through a valley before? Every now and again you have to go through a valley Because if God wants to put you on high He's going to take you to the low places And when He takes you to the low places Understand this one thing God says, No matter where you go, I will be with you Yet though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death The psalmist says, He is with me His rod and His staff, they will comfort me So God will take us through the rough places Before He gets us into those high places We must remember the blessings of God as well As we go through, there are going to be moments When God blesses us, amen When we see miracles happening in our lives When something happens in our lives We must remember those blessings as well When God blesses us, amen When Joshua called the tribes together God had brought them to this place of quiet And a place of rest All their enemies had been conquered by this time So now we are quiet And we are having a good time in this land It's a land flowing with milk and honey Indeed it is, amen How many of you understand that here today? And God wants us to bring us into that place But Joshua reminded them how they got there" [01:11:34] (0 seconds) Edit Clip


"If you read through Joshua's speech, right, in Joshua 24, we see a lot of I's. I's, I's, I's, I's. I did this. I that did that. I did all of these things. But it's not Joshua saying that. It's God saying that. It's God saying that. Now, if I were to write something like that, and I were to start telling you about all that I have done in this church or in this community and everything else, you might say, well, that's a pastor that's full of ego and full of himself, right? But, you know, when God says it, you better believe that he did it. Amen? There was no one greater than him. So God deserves to say, I did this. I did this. When God looks at you and he says, I brought you here. I healed your sick body. I helped you to get that job. I blessed you with the property that you have. God deserves to say that. How many of you understand that here today? We need to give him all the glory and all the praises that he is. Amen? In the Old Testament, God says, I am that I am. There's no one else like me. In the New Testament, we hear Jesus say, before Abraham was, I am. The ego, I am me. Before everything else is that I existed. And I existed so I can be a blessing to you as well here today. God wants us to remember. Somebody say, remember here today. Remember the times when were difficult. Remember when you were sick and God brought you to. How many of you went through COVID? Maybe you got a little taste of COVID. But you know what? You're still alive today. Amen? You give God thanks and you say, God, I'm just thankful and grateful that you brought me through. Maybe you've gone through hospitalization. Like I have. Maybe you've gone through some kind of sickness, but you're here today. And rather than complain about it, we say, God, I just want to thank you for what I have. Maybe there were times when you were broke and you didn't have money to buy food. But God fed you. You didn't die. You didn't starve to death. You're here today. Why? Because God has blessed you." [01:17:59] (109 seconds) Edit Clip


"The tongue sets on fire nature. It has a power over nations. Amen. We can see it and we can see it happening as well. It says the tongue is set on the fires of hell. That's what the Bible tells us about this little thing that you have in your mouth out here. That's powerful words he's talking about. So we have to be careful and understand that words really matter. Amen. The tongue can be used for good and can also be used for bad. It can be used to bless and it can be used to curse. The word of the same tongue you praise God and you bless God, but the same tongue you use to curse your neighbor and to offend people. We have to be mindful of that. Proverbs chapter 18 says, death and life is in the power of the tongue. So you can speak death to something and you can speak life to something else." [01:27:36] (50 seconds) Edit Clip


"I overheard a story, I don't know if it's a social experiment that somebody did some time ago where they put some plants into a place and one plant, the guy just kept cursing and speaking and the other one speaking kind, gentle words to the plant and the one that flourished is the one that words, the words of blessing was spoken to. And that happened. You don't have to do a social experiment to know that that could happen. Amen. If you start speaking negative words to your children, you keep, you know, beating them down. Every time they do something and laughing at them, you realize that they will not prosper in life. But if you start speaking words of blessing into their eyes, every time you whisper it into their ears, you know, I remember my mother saying the Lord's prayer and the 23rd Psalm over me while I was asleep. I remember that." [01:31:07] (54 seconds) Edit Clip


"Because of words of blessings that were spoken into my life. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote this poem that I think is appropriate for today. It's called Arrow. And he says, I shot an arrow into the air. It fell to earth. I knew not where. For so swiftly it flew, the sight could not follow it in its flight. And then he says, I breathed a song into the air. It fell to earth. I knew not where. For who has sight so keen and strong that it can follow the flight of a song? And then he says, long, long afterward, in an oak, I found the arrow still unbroke. And the song from beginning to end, I found it again. In the heart of a friend. See, that's the power of words. Amen." [01:33:47] (44 seconds) Edit Clip