Matthews 25:14-15 (NKJV)
14 For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. 15 And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey.
Mismanagement of God’s resources is wickedness and evil. Every time money hits your hand, a test begins. I’m learning that a lot of people have not been taught economics and I’ve been seeing it demonstrated throughout different pockets of this ministry that has me hugely concerned about your financial future. Because I don’t care how much money you’ll ever get or sow, it won’t have the same type of sustainability connected to it or longevity if you don’t understand how to manage it. How you handle money will determine how you’ll have it, and most Christians are too broke to refute that.
You call me your pastor, so let me be your pastor. And there are some things as it relates to my ability to see ahead, by the Spirt of God, because He’ll give you a word of wisdom and foresight to know what’s ahead of us. Well, there are some financial crises that’s ahead of you. But He’ll always give warning before destruction. God will never start anything that He has not already finished. So, subsequently, you’re sitting by a finished product. You’re finished as it relates to faith in God’s word. We’re not moved by what we see. The Bible says, while we look not at the things which are seen, but the things that are unseen. So, the finished product of you, you have not even seen yet. I thought your neighbor was going to shout about that, because the person that He saw, 97% of you have not met yet.
So, there is this progression that’s going on in me, and I was telling the people this morning, that if you haven’t met me since about two weeks ago, you may not even know me. And what you’re led to do is interact with the person that you’ve known, but that person is always evolving, and that person should always be getting better. But, what they cannot do is beat your thoughts. Meaning that your thoughts of him/her, if they remain the same, although that person has changed, they’ll never to you.
I was thinking this morning that some of you all should come and bring me your therapist money. You know, it’s a widely accepted thing now in our society and when you say that you have a therapist, you rank high among the social elite. ‘Oh, you don’t have a therapist?’ I got one better than anybody could have. They call Him Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace! And, you’re talking to your doctor more than you’re talking to Jesus. I’m not putting down any occupation, because it was the doctor’s physically, who helped me to get out of that jam. But, I was above their medical experience. And, if you don’t have a greater relationship with the Healer than you have with the help, you won’t be kept.
Someone asked me to borrow some money and they would pay it back in one week. But weeks passed and they had not. Even if you don’t have the money, financial integrity would require that you at least say something. You have more resources than you realize, but it’s not managed properly and that equates to wickedness in God’s eyes. In Matthew 25:14 it says that they are His goods. Everything I have belongs to God. So, everything I have, they are His goods. He said, He gave to each of them according to his own ability.
There was a strategy concerning who got what. Jesus gave money or talents to the ones who possessed ability to manage it properly. Maybe you’re not getting more because you’ll mismanage more. And you can’t keep wanting that which you are unwilling to become. So, in order to increase what you get, you must increase who you are. Look at your neighbor and say, “You’re in a season, where you do not have extra money”.
My role as a pastor is to nuture and navigate you. All throughout these buildings you’ll see a picture of Dr. Price laying his hands on me (1:41:11 on video). I’ve equated his hands on being laid on me not just for the anointing as the scripture has already commanded, but that hand, if he were to pat me on my head, that would be the nurturing component.
Pastor Dewayne: But the amazing thing is that he said he gave it to them according to their several abilities. So, a flag is going off in my mind because if I want more then I need to sharpen the gifts and the talents and the skills that I have. And there are a lot of people, you’ve leveled out at the information that you have right now and everything else is moving, and you want more, but you need to sharpen, you need to continue to learn. That’s why people who learn always earn. And, you have to stay ahead of the game because everything else is moving, except you. But you want more, but you’ve got to put yourself in the position to receive more.
It’s amazing because I’m thinking about when the man of God told the woman of God to get some vessels. She got a lot of vessels, but when the vessels ran out, the oil stopped, because God isn’t into wasting anything. He knows if you don’t have anything to hold it, we’re going to just waste it.
I can recall my father walking me in the store with his hand on my head. And when we were going left, he would turn my head and my body would follow. Somebody has to have hands on you. Its for direction/navigation and nurturing. I don’t know why you don’t want me to nuture you or navigate you as it relates to this. Don’t let your friends, family, squad, gang-gang, talk to you out of my connection with you. Let them do what they want to do, but don’t let them talk you out of what God told you do to about this plug, this connection.
So, he gives to one five talents. I wonder how many he’s given to you. But, a test has taken place. And what the person who didn’t pay me back a few weeks agon didn’t know is that they may abort an opportunity for the next man. Because you can become so weary in your mind in dealing with your brothers and sisters in trying to help them level up, when they don’t keep their word concerning what they were going to do, when the next man comes along, you’re like man you know what…
And that’s what I’ve been noticing about Christian people. You don’t pay. You don’t keep your word. And, if you’ll do it with me, guess what you’ll do with someone you don’t know. So, we’re sowing seed, but we can’t advance because we are our worst devourers. It’s like Hosea said in the word, it’s like putting money in bags with holes. So, a part of my assignment for 2024, along with Prioritizing, Practicing and Perfecting the plan, is to get you more financially literate, concerning managing what you already have. Your management of God’s resources has a lot to do with how much you get. If you got more in your current character and condition, you’ll waste more.
Matthew 25:24-25 (TPT)
24 Then the one who had been entrusted with one thousand gold coins came to his master and said, ‘Look, sir. I know that you are a hard man to please and you’re a shrewd and ruthless businessman who grows rich on the backs of others. 25 I was afraid of you, so I went and hid your money and buried it in the ground. But here it is—take it, it’s yours.’
Pastor Dewayne: You have to know the one that’s connected to you, just like you have to know the one that’s connected to you has to know you. That’s why when he gave one of them five, he didn’t give all of them the same thing. And he didn’t expect the same thing from each one of them. He doesn’t expect you to do what somebody else did, but he expects you to make a demand on what’s on the inside of you. God can not operate in the scene arena. God has to place something in the unseen arena and then we have to make a demand on it in the scene arena so we can become what he has already finished. Just the mere fact that God told you that he’s finished something, that should be a sign to you that that’s what you can become, and nobody can stop you from becoming that. If he says you are the righteousness of God, that’s on the inside. You’ve got to become that, so everybody can see that.
I look at this ministry and I see the word that’s coming from this ministry, and then I look at the people’s lives that come to the ministry. Some are up here; some are here and some are way down here. How do you get way down here? You’re down here because you’re laughing at this man, but Jesus would say the same thing to you. You’re wicked and you’re lazy. You’re lazy because you don’t want to make a demand.
You always want somebody to give you something, but you don’t want to make a demand on what’s on the inside of you. And I’m telling you the Spirit of the Living God is going to manifest himself in a mighty way in these coming days and there’s going to be a big gulf between the doers and the non-doers, and you’re going to be revealed. You’re going to be exposed because you’re not doing anything with what you have.
(In the scripture) He was lazy and wicked, but he was trying to deflect by saying that ‘you’re a shrewd and harsh man’. Why are you trying to deflect when the subject matter is about you? Why didn’t you bring a return?
Matthew 25:25-26 (TPT)
25 I was afraid of you, so I went and hid your money and buried it in the ground. But here it is—take it, it’s yours.’
26 “But his master said to him, ‘You’re an untrustworthy and lazy servant! If you knew I was a shrewd and ruthless businessman who always makes a profit, why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank?
Then you get offended by what Jesus said. Jesus is telling you the truth and you want to hold on to your feelings. And then you see why people are where they are in life, and then they don’t want to listen to you like I have a personal thing with you. What are we truly interested in? Growing or just remaining the same?
You buried what I gave you. You should be bringing me back a harvest of joy because of the seed that has been sown. The Apostle Paul in the ninth chapter of Corinthians said, ‘You are the seal of my apostleship’. And, as your man of God goes, so shall you go.
So, Jesus sees mismanagement of your finances as evil. Go home, go back over your finances and find out where your money is going. We’re going to fix this. You’re going to have a financial plan. You’re not going to be in the same place at the end of 2024 that you are in right now. This is the lowest you will ever that’s contingent upon you listening to me.