Miracles | Week 9 | Daniel Goulding | Echoes Church

Amen and amen. Hey, Matthew chapter 17. I wanna just jump right into the verse so you'll find me starting in verse 24.

Can we find our miracle here today? It says that on their arrival in Capernaum, which is Jesus' kind of hometowns where he did all of his ministry, the collectors of the temple tax came to Peter and they asked him, doesn't your teacher pay the temple tax? K. Just a little bit of context, some clarity. I know you know what the temple tax is, but just so I can explain to the person sitting next to you. Alright? The the temple tax was something that every person that would come into the the church or the temple would have to pay. This wasn't a tax imposed by Rome. This wasn't a tithe that people would give to the church. This was a tax that they paid to walk in to fund the operating of the temple. I thought it was such a brilliant idea. I'm gonna ask the ushers right now to pass the buckets. We're gonna collect the echoes temple tax. K? Again,

this was something that had always happened when temple was created.

Some of your translations, if you're reading out of like the NIV, will say the 2 drachma coin temple tax. It gives us the specific amount. This was an amount of tax that was the equivalent of two days wages. K? It's a significant amount of money. And what is being asked of Peter is does Jesus

pay the temple tax? K? Does Jesus pay the temple tax? That kinda gives us the context. Verse 25, Peter responds emphatically and says, yes, he does.

Now Peter is that dude, like if you need a road dog, Peter is the guy you want with you. Okay? Because I don't think Peter actually knew whether or not Jesus paid the temple tax, but he's like, of course, pays the temple tax. Any other questions? And then I'll figure out what Jesus later if he actually pays the temple tax. Right? Like, we don't know if he knew he paid the temple tax, but he says that he does And then Peter went into the house where Jesus is. But before

before he had a chance to speak, Jesus asked him, what do you think, Peter? Now again, this could be interpreted as something that Jesus often was asking Peter like, bro, what are you thinking? Right? You just told the people that I pay the tax. You don't even know if I do. I I don't think there's a correction here. I think Jesus is really imploring

Peter to think about that same question that we're going to wrestle through this morning. Did Jesus need to pay the temple tax?

That that's the question that was set before Peter. Now Jesus is gonna give some context as to why he asked the question. He says, do kings tax their own people or the people that they've conquered? And Peter responds, they tax the people that they've conquered. Well, then Jesus said, the citizens are are free. Here's what he's setting up. He says that when a a king comes in and conquers a group of people, he doesn't tax his own people to pay for the furthering of the kingdom. He taxes the new people that he's conquered. Part of being a citizen, of being child or a daughter when your dad owns a business is you are exempt from having to go and pay to use that that business. Right? He's saying if your dad owns an ice cream stand, you don't really pay for ice cream when you're a son or a daughter. Why? It's one of the few benefits that you have. All of this to say, Jesus is setting up who owns the temple, who runs the temple,

God. It's God's temple. He built it. He funded it. It's his. Jesus is obviously the son of God, so he has rights to not have to pay the temple tax. That's what he's that's what he's setting up, and here's where we're going to see the miracle this week happen. Verse 27,

however, Jesus says, we don't we don't want to offend them, so go down and take or go down to the lake and throw in a line. Open the mouth of the first fish that you catch and you will find a large silver coin. Take it and pay the tax for for both of us. K? This is an absolutely bizarre story.

This is one of those stories that, truthfully, I haven't even really studied it until this week, but it's a story that I think we we need to learn. Like, imagine being Peter in that moment, and Jesus is like, hey, man. Go down to the lake. Take your fishing pole. Throw it in. You're gonna catch a fish, and the fish is gonna have a coin in your mouth. Like, imagine Peter's like, are you for real, bro? Like, fine. So he's like walking down to the lake, you know, somebody stops him. Like, hey, Where are you going? He's like, dude,

don't ask. You know? Jesus claims there's a fish out here that has a coin in its mouth. Like, he must have just felt like ridiculous. Right? If I'm Peter, I'm in the house of Jesus, I'm like, bro, turn the pieces of bread into a coin like save us all the hassle.

Yet there's some things in here. There are some lessons in here that I I think we need to learn this morning. Because when it comes to our our culture, I think we've been sold one of two ideals when it comes to this idea of provision. Right? Financially,

having things be provided for us. That we we've been told that our only two options are are really to hustle and figure it out, to just grind and make it happen. So much of our online culture is built around how to grind more and to work harder and to build things and create passive income, and and hard work is awesome. It is part of our calling as followers of Jesus. Yes and amen. But I don't think that hustle culture is the end all be all. Because sometimes we we actually go to the other end of the spectrum instead of like grinding. We just we give up Because things have gone poorly for us, it's been hard to figure out promotions, it feels like it's impossible to ever buy a house in today's economy,

we just kind of throw our hands in the air, and we just we just give up. And then we start to go like, well, the whole system, all of capitalism is is bad. Right? It's like it's all just a bunch of evil people and we sit in usually one of two positions of just grinding or or giving up. But what I wanna talk to you about today is a third option that I see here that is available to those of us who have put our faith in Jesus, that we don't necessarily have to just grind or give up, but there's a third option to watch to watch Jesus supernaturally

begin to provide for our lives. Because this is, yes, it's a bizarre story, but it shows a principle that I hope you see this morning. I think what if you hear nothing else that I say this morning, I want you to understand that Jesus isn't just our savior, he's also our provider.

What what Jesus wants for all of us is to understand that yes, yes, he's come to save our soul, but one of the most freeing things about understanding that you now have a heavenly father that is watching out for you is that you no longer have to carry the burden of being your provider and your provision that you go, no. That's God's responsibility. It's his burden. God loves my kids more than I love my kids, and he's going to provide for me. Now, albeit sometimes it's going to be in some really bizarre ways.

For Peter this day, it's to catch a fish that has a coin in its mouth. And you read these stories, go, man, that's a crazy story. But here's the truth of what I I I know. I could sit up here for the next thirty minutes and just tell you bizarre story after bizarre story of how God has supernaturally provided for me and my family. And I bet you you have some stories that you could share yourself.

And the truth is is if we would remember all the ways and all the times and all the things that God has provided for, we would probably have some crazy stories that we could tell the world about Jesus' provision over us as well. One of them for me is when I was newly out of, the sales world transitioning into ministry, which again was a really tough thing because we got married really young, had my daughter really young. We were just trying to figure it out. We were living in San Diego.

I finally got a sales job where I was making enough money, and we were we were doing good. We had a little bit of margin, but we felt this nudge to go into full time ministry. And I'll never forget when I got offered a job to be a youth pastor. I was like, wait. Is that like the weekly pay or that's that's the annual pay? Like, how does how do you live off of that? You know? And and it was this crazy faith stretching thing to literally cut my salary into, like, a a fifth of what I was making in sales, but we knew that god had asked us to go into ministry. So we say, yes. We we we, like, kinda, you know, bet the farm. We go into full time vocational ministry. Well, a couple months in, a whole series of things happened, and we had just bought a house, and we got ourselves to a point where in December, we we literally had no way to pay the mortgage. We were sitting there like, man, who can we call? What are we gonna do? Like, let alone Christmas presents. Like, we literally and I've never been in the position in my life where I I can't pay I can't pay a bill and I knew I couldn't make our mortgage payment. I remember sitting there going like, God, this was like what you told us to do.

Like, we're sitting here not not because of like a bunch of poor financial decisions that we made, but this was like an act of obedience to follow, like, your leading, and now, like, I'm gonna be homeless. Like, this is your fault. And

I'll never forget, like, a couple days later, I go out to the mail, and I was talking to my wife about it this week. Like, we both remember the moment. We opened the mail. We got a check-in the mail that was from our escrow account that I guess we had overpaid, and I kid you not, within like $2, it was the exact amount that we needed to cover our mortgage payment.

And I know for some of you sitting here, you're like, bro, you just overpaid your escrow account. Like, that happens often. Like, it's not that big of a deal. But I'm telling you without a doubt, it was a whisper from heaven reminding me that, Daniel, I am your provider. And if you follow me, if you trust me with your life, you will never go without. And I'm telling you, somebody who's been in a full time ministry for almost five year or fifteen years,

as somebody whose wife has never worked just because of the season of life we had kids in, it just never made sense. We've been a single income family who working in ministry in San Diego, in Phoenix, and somehow I've never missed a mortgage payment. My kids have never gone without a meal,

and it's because I have a father in heaven who loves me.

And I don't I don't say that to just applaud me. I'm sitting here as a living testament to somebody whose life is only possible because of the provision of heaven. I I want you to be able to experience god as your provider. There are some beautiful promises that are given to us about provision

when it comes to god's god's word. Look at what Paul says in Philippians chapter four verse 19. He says, in this same god, he takes care of me. He will supply all of your needs from his glorious riches which has been given to us in Christ Jesus.

I feel like there's people who walked in here today whose hearts are heavy, whose minds are burdened because of the financial things that are coming up, the jobs that have been lost, the the homes that we feel like we're on the verge of losing, and I wanna remind you that you serve a god that wants to supply all of your needs, not because of your riches, not because of the riches of whatever political party is making certain decisions in this season, that God wants to bless you because

he has incredible riches in in his bank account, not in something to do with a political system or a political party. That we serve a God that wants to meet all of our, don't miss it, needs.

And sometimes this is where we get this mixed up because we as Americans confuse needs and wants all the time. And the truth is that God's never promised to meet our every want,

but he has promised to meet our every our every needs. See, Psalm chapter 34 verse 10 says that even strong young lions sometimes go hungry, but those who trust in the lord will lack no good thing.

Jesus himself promised us in the sermon on the mount, Matthew chapter six. These are literally from the mouth of Jesus. He says, so don't worry about these things. Stop saying what will we eat or what will we drink or what will we wear. These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers,

but your heavenly father already knows all that you need. Again, he confirms that god will always meet your every need, and it's only people who do not have a heavenly father that need to stress out about these things. But when you've submitted your life to Jesus, you now have

under the covering of God, not just as your savior, but also as your provider.

There's some things I think we need to learn. I would tell you without a doubt, the last eighteen months of my life, I feel like God has been teaching me a singular lesson, and the singular lesson has been that when God asks you to go somewhere, if you are willing to say yes and step out in it, God will supernaturally provide. The way that somebody said this to me about a year ago, I I want you to hear today that where God guides,

God provides. Truthfully, the reason that I didn't start a church earlier is I just didn't have enough faith to believe that that God could do all of this.

I looked at the numbers. I saw the math. I ran the budget, and I go, that just doesn't make any sense to me. You realize just the equipment that we have in this building run every Sunday, it costs us about a half $1,000,000 to buy all of that. And I was like, there's no way we're gonna raise that kind of money. And then I watched God do what he does, and I was blown away.

And then if you've been a part of our journey from the beginning, about three weeks into being a church, we had an opportunity

to to buy or to lease a building that we would move into that we've called our HQ, where our staff has a place to meet. We're gonna launch all of our student ministries from there. We'll get classes up and going there. It'll be a ministry hub for us, but we're like, wait. We there we're three weeks in, and we need another half $1,000,000

to launch this thing, and we watch God do again what only he could do. And God has been teaching me the thing that I hope you learned this morning, that when God guides you somewhere, your requirement is the obedience to say yes. But the responsibility to pay the bill, that's God's.

That's where he steps up and does his part. Now again, you gotta understand, I'm not saying to like name it and claim it. Just go and name it, and you start speaking in the name of Jesus. They start showing up in your house. Like, I I wish that was true. But when you are in God's will, I promise you,

it's God's bill. And if he's asking you to do it, if he's asking you to start that business, to get into that relationship, to to get married, he will show up and do his part. It is a promise from heaven that you can take to the bank. There are good things in store for us who are in Christ Jesus, the scriptures say. It is why you and I can learn

that we don't have to be stingy when it comes to living a life of generosity.

We have to learn to be people who are open handed. We have to be people who trust that God is going to give us more than we could ever possibly imagine. Look at what Paul says in second Corinthians chapter nine. He says, you must each decide in your heart how much to give and don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure. Part of the reason we don't pass a plate in front of your face on in church is because we don't want people to give out of compulsion or reluctancy,

but we wanna teach you what it means to be a person that gives generously, who makes a decision in my heart. Here's how much I'm going to give. My greatest piece of advice is figure out a percentage, whatever it is. If it's 1%

or 20%, figure out a percentage of your income you're going to trust God with and just start there and say, God, I'm trusting you here. I'm making a decision to say yes to living a life of generosity. Here's why. For God loves a person who gives cheerfully and God will generously provide

all that you need and you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. See, this is the mindset that we have to get out of. I can't give to others. I can't give back to the church because I will have not enough. I will have less

And it is literally the complete opposite of how the kingdom of God operates. It's when you begin to open up your hands. It's when you begin to open up your life in a life of generosity that you begin to allow the supernatural provision of heaven to flow in you and and through you. God is saying, make a decision.

Begin to live generously and watch what I will do. The miracle that I'm asking, that I'm praying for, that I'm believing for for every single person in this room is the miracle of provision.

There's three things from our weird little story of Peter and a fish with a coin in his mouth that I wanna show you. Three practical things that we need to do if we're sitting here today and we go, I want to experience the miracle of provision. The first one if you're taking notes is you need to start by checking your motives. Okay?

First thing that all of us, if we're sitting here going, God, I I I'm asking for more. I'm asking for promotion. I'm asking for the relationship. I'm asking for an increase of whatever, whether it's it's resources, whether it's influence. If I'm asking for more, we've gotta ask the question, why? What's motivating it?

Is it just to get a bigger house in the next car, in the next boat? It's just to have a more comfortable life. I don't know if that's a motive that God will bless. You've gotta start by asking the question why,

and a lot of it if we're honest, it's just because we live in a culture where more seems better, and I don't know if God will always honor that request, and God will always honor that motive. Look at the motive of the story that we just read of why Jesus and Peter are looking for more. Matthew chapter 17 verse 27, we read it, but we read it quickly. He says, however, we don't want to offend them. So go down to the lake and throw in a lime. Why is Jesus? Why is Peter asking for more and trying to find a coin in a fish's mouth? Why are they asking for God to open up the floodgates of heaven? Because Jesus is telling Peter,

though I have every right, I have the ability to walk in and say, do you know who I am? This is my dad's house, like I don't have to pay anything to you knuckleheads. He says, though that's my right, I understand that there's people that are watching me and they will be confused, they'll be offended,

and what might happen is I will exercise my right and it will build not a bridge, but it'll build a barrier to having a conversation with the person that I'm trying to reach. And you know what Jesus models for us time and time and time and time again in the scriptures?

Is that Jesus was always willing to lay down his rights to build a bridge to a group of people that he was trying to have a relationship with. He was willing to go, yes, it's my right. Sure. I can do that because I have the right to, but I'm willing to. What matters more to me than being right

is not creating a a a friction point with these people. I think my problem with being a pastor in 2025 today is we've gotten so tied up in making our points and being right with points that we're doing it at the sacrifice of losing people.

You and I need to make a decision that we're not going to be people who offend other people. Again, don't don't hear what I'm not saying. The gospel message is one that is inherently offensive. Okay? My job is to stand up here every week and to tell you, the problem with your life is you.

You wanna know why your life is in shambles? It's because you have this thing in you called sin that you can't fix and you can't rectify on your own.

You and I are the problem. We all do it differently, but we all have the same thing that separates us from a holy God. See, the message of the gospel is one that is inherently offensive.

It's that you and I are separate from God. We have zero ability to get back to him on our own, but here's the good news that Jesus made a way for us to be made right with God and that Jesus stepped out of heaven two thousand years ago. He lived the perfect life. He died the death that we deserve and because of what he did on the cross, he has imputed to us his righteousness

and we can stand before the same God that we were just enemies with and not because we fixed our life or because we got better, but because we believed of what Jesus did on the cross that it was sufficient to satisfy the wrath of God for us. Because of that, we can be made right with God. The message

the message is offensive. But here's what I need Christians to hear in 2025. K? You can preach an offensive gospel without being an offensive person. As I watch encounters online, I see a bunch of people who are claiming to represent Jesus and you're just being offensive for the sake of being offensive.

I read the gospels and I find a Jesus who was constantly willing to lay down his rights to build a bridge to connect with people who vote differently than me, believe differently than me, look differently than me, grew up differently than me. All the people who are out there that can be so frustrating at times,

Jesus was willing to do whatever to reach them.

I look at you and go, you wanna know a motive? You wanna know a heart posture that I believe that god will honor where the floodgates of heaven will begin to open up on him? When you're asking for God to give you the promotion at work so that you can have more more influence, so you can expand God's kingdom in your office place. When you're asking for God to open up the floodgates of finances on your business so you can fund the next mission trip that's happening in India so you can go around and you can start to build centers where women who are contemplating having abortions can come in and hear the heartbeat of their child and begin to move the needle of saving people for the name of Jesus.

That's a motivation that I think God can get behind. But if we're just here going, I just want another car and a bigger house. I wanna get a lake house. I need a mountain house. I look at that and I go, I don't think God cares that much about that stuff.

I think God cares immensely about where people are gonna spend their lives in eternity, and he was constantly willing to lay down his rights to build bridges to connect with people. I just wonder what would happen if we in the church today began to go, you know what?

Maybe we can assure we can share an offensive message without being offensive people, and we can actually make it our goal to not be offending to the people that are around us. And instead, remember, here's the instruction that we've been given. Matthew chapter five verse 16. In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven. Why should you let your light shine before others so that they

they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven? But the problem is the problem is is we've demonized they. We've made they the problem. I'm telling you friends, they are not the problem. They are the purpose. They are the mission, the people that can be so frustrating like you once were too.

And I just don't know if there's anybody that's here that's thankful,

that's thankful that you didn't have to be who you are today the moment you walked in the doors of church. And I'm thankful that a 19 years old was able to walk in as a knucklehead who didn't vote like I vote now, didn't believe like I believe now, that none of those were requirements to walk in and to meet the god of the universe that could change me in the middle of my mess. And let the holy spirit do some stuff on people's lives,

but our job, our responsibility is to go, look, they they're not our problem. They are our pursuit. It's why one of our five core values as a church is that people are our pursuit. As long as I'm in charge of this thing, I promise you, they they will never be the problem. They will always be the mission. Amen?

You and I need to do a really good job. If you're taking notes, write this down. You need to do a good job of guarding your heart from being offended by the very people that God has called you to reach, especially if they're in your family. Should have put as a caveat.

Especially if you see them every single work. K? The first the every day at work. The first thing you've gotta do if you're asking God to open up the floodgates of provision on your life is you gotta start by asking what's the motivation.

The motivation for Jesus was to build a bridge with people, to create an opportunity to change people's eternal resting places. Here's the second thing I see in the story that we need to do is we need to be people who embrace our our gifts. K. Again, same exact verse, verse 17 or chapter 17 verse 27. It says, however, we don't want to offend them, so go down to the lake and throw in throw in a line. Here's what's interesting to me. Again, this is my fishing pole part. K?

What's incredible to me is that Jesus tells Peter, I want you to grab a fishing pole, go down to the lake and throw in a line. Okay. So I'm gonna throw this out. We'll try to catch somebody. I'm just kidding. There's not a real hook on here. That'd be that'd be wild. Right?

He tells Peter, grab your fishing pole and go down and throw it out and reel in a fish. Now, I'm just thankful that God when I was asked to start Echo's church, he didn't say, here's how you're gonna do it. Get your fishing pole, go down to the lake and try to catch a fish because if that was how this whole thing started, there still will not be a church here today. Alright?

I don't know how to tie the knot. I don't like touching the fish. So like if you want to invite me on a fishing trip, there needs to be a guide. Okay? If there's a guide and it's not a 100 degrees outside, I'm in. But if I've got to touch the fish or tie the knots, it's not happening. It's just not my gifting. It's not my skill set. Right? But here's what's really interesting to me, that God would supernaturally provide through Peter by asking him to do something

that he's done his whole life. You know what Peter's job was before he met Jesus? He was a fisherman. So when he asked him, hey, get your fishing pole and go down. Peter's like, I know how to do that. Here's what it tells me is that maybe maybe you're weird on purpose.

Maybe god has wired you exactly how you're supposed to be wired and

maybe god has given you a gift that you've you've been trying to get rid of and instead of trying to get rid of it, you need to learn to embrace it and lean into it. See, here's what's really interesting to me. Most of the time when you read the scriptures and you look at a story of a person who is far from Christ and they meet Jesus and they have a powerful encounter with him and they're completely changed. They're often given a new name. There are definitely a few times where they go through kind of the process that I went through in my process of getting saved where I was in sales and then God called me to be a pastor. Okay. That happens sometimes where they get a new job.

Often, what happens overwhelmingly the overwhelmingly amount of times we see in the Bible is that when they meet Jesus, they were fishermen before they met Jesus. They have a powerful encounter with Jesus and what does he do with them after the encounter?

He sends them right back to the same job in the same community. He says, your most effective ministry will happen there. Go back to what you've already done. All of that tells me that maybe maybe your job, it isn't a punishment from god and it's actually what he's trying to use to provide for you

and that the skill set you have, whatever your your your proverbial fishing pole is, it could be an Excel spreadsheet, it could be, you know, an Adobe suite of products, it could be a a law degree. It could be a classroom.

Whatever your gifting is, whatever your job is, I promise you, what you don't necessarily need is a new job. What we need is for god to give us a vision of how to see our job differently and that our our work is our worship.

And some of the most powerful, some of the most intimate worship we will ever do is with a fishing pole in our hands. It's not when we're sitting here on Sunday mornings, but it's Monday through Friday going through what feels like just an ordinary Tuesday.

But we realize that when we understand who we are in Christ that nothing is ordinary, that all of it is worship. Again, one of our core values is, man, that worship is our lifestyle. It's not something we do for forty five minutes on a Sunday morning. It's all of life is worship,

and that means that God has given you gifts that you can begin to supernaturally use to provide for your life, to provide for your family, to invest in the kingdom of God, that your your job is important. And some of us some of us need to stop asking God to change our circumstances.

Instead, we need to begin to ask God to give us a different vision in the middle of our circumstances. It doesn't mean you have to stay in your job forever. Sometimes jobs jobs will change, but for whatever reason in this season, god has given you a a certain profession. Lean into it.

Learn how to grow in it. Part of what is clear all throughout scripture I'll put my fishing pole away. What is clear to me all throughout scripture is that god will give more to those who've been faithful with what they have today.

If you wanna know what your next season looks like, I would ask you, what are you doing in your current season? I wanna show you a story. This is Jesus talking about how the kingdom of god economics works and he says this in Matthew chapter 25 verse 15.

Again, this is a parable where Jesus is talking about the kingdom of god works but he says that he, being the guy that was giving out all the money, says he gave five bags of silver to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last, dividing it in proportion.

You would think it would say into their faith, to how much time they spend in prayer, to how often they're in church. It's not what it says. He says that he gives it in proportion to their abilities. So the question is is what are you doing to grow in your abilities?

So often we think that asking for God to show up and provide supernatural provision in our life is just us sitting on our hands, jumping up and down and asking for checks to show up in the mail.

And I feel like God told me to remind some of you the check is in the mail. It's called a paycheck and it comes every two weeks. So what are you doing to grow in your abilities? I love the quote from Saint Augustine. He says that God, yes, he provides the wind, but man must raise the sail.

You and I have a participation to play

in God's supernatural provision that he's trying to open in our lives. K. This next part is not gonna be spiritual at all. It's 10 things that I wish I could tell every single person that has ever worked for me. 10 things I wish that I knew when I was a kid just trying to get a job. If you're in your twenties, this is the part of the message you really need to pay attention to. These are the 10 rules that as Christians I think we need to live by in our job environment. K? Here's the first one. It's not spiritual, but show up on time

and don't show up late with a Starbucks drink in your hand. K? Like, you wanna talk about in a culture, like, that I'm in charge of? If you show up late and you have a Starbucks drink, we're gonna have a conversation afterwards. K? Secondly, be self motivated.

When you understand who you are in Christ and that all of this is worship, you don't need a job to motivate you, even if it's a job you don't like right now. You begin to understand that this is worship, and because of that, I'm motivated. The third thing is you need to you need to check your attitude. K. Sometimes the hardest thing is working with somebody that you don't know what you're gonna get each day. Some days they show up and they're great to be around. Other days, they're just like melancholy. You're like, wait. What happened? Like, who was the person I was working with? We need to put on the same attitude of Christ and say, no. I'm showing up to work. I'm gonna work hard. These next two go hand in hand. Go the extra mile. Say yes to side projects. K? Be willing to work hard. And I know you're like, well, we gotta have boundaries. K. It's a sermon for another day. Some of you have so many boundaries. That's why you're poor. K. So say say say yes. Work work hard. Come on, somebody.

Number six, be a peacemaker. When you hear somebody at work talking negatively about somebody else, do not be the person that puts fuel on the fire. Instead, be the person with a bucket of water that walks up and go, no, man. I I don't know, but I believe the best in them.

If they weren't here, then I I just assumed something happened. K? There's always gonna be a gap between what you expect and what you experience. Our responsibility as followers of Christ is to fill that gap with trust. Be be a peacemaker.

Here's another one. Again, it's not spiritual, but stay off your phone. If you're sitting here like, man, why do I keep getting passed up for promotion after promotion? Maybe you should be on TikTok a little bit less. K? Ask for feedback.

Invite people to speak into what it is that you're doing. Ask the question, what is it like to work with me? What is it like to be on the receiving end of being at a job site with me? Invite people to speak into stuff. Celebrate other people publicly.

Honor your coworkers. K? Last one. Pray for your coworkers. Pray for your company. I promise you, I know it's not that spiritual. You do those 10 things, and God will bless your life. Watch the miracle of provision show up in your circumstances because you make a commitment to understand that as Christians,

we should do our best in every area of our lives because we understand that everything we do, it is not working to man, the scripture say, but it's working it's working unto God. First two things you gotta do is you gotta check your motives. You've got to embrace your gifts, and here's the last one. You've gotta handle the blessing with care.

This is one of the most important ones for us to understand. You've gotta handle the current blessing you've been given with care. Hey. The end of the story, this whole parable ends with Jesus saying, open the mouth of the fish, the first fish you catch, and you will find a large silver coin.

Take it and pay the tax for for both of us. Now, again, just imagine for a moment that you're Peter and you walk down to the sea, you throw a fishing line out, and to your shock and surprise, you reel in a fish, and there's a there's a coin that is worth four days wages in the mouth of that fish.

I promise you, I'm not catching one fish. Like, I'm trying to catch 12. Right? I'm like, I'm about to pay for my whole life and get a new car, right, because of the miraculous fish that are in the sea. But it wasn't what God had asked Peter to do.

And this is the question we have to wrestle with. Sitting where you sit today, what has God asked you to do with what you've currently been entrusted with? What does obedience look like with the resources that you have now? Whether you think it's a lot or a little, what does obedience look like?

Because I promise you, the greatest determiner of your next season is the faithfulness of what you're doing in in this season. So many of us who are asking for more, believing and wishing that God would increase our our influence,

increase our calling, increase our anointing, increase our bank account, increase our business. Sometimes we have to wrestle with the hard question of what are you doing with what God has currently given you.

Because the scripture say that it's only after you've been faithful in the little things will God make you faithful with much. Peter understood. It might not make sense to me. It might not logically connect in my brain, but I know that Jesus says, catch a fish, take the coin, pay the temple tax. And

Peter did small things like that. He was consistent with the things that Jesus asked him to do that seemed insignificant. And you know how that ended up with with Peter? Peter was the guy that Jesus looked at and said, I can trust this guy. And eventually, he said, upon this rock, I will build my church.

This guy can be trusted. He's proven himself with little. I can give him a lot of influence and wealth and all of the things. And there's always a period of testing for you and I where God is trying to see what is inside of your soul.

What is the character of who you are? And we better not believe that God is not wise enough to hold back resources from people who haven't proven themselves trustworthy yet. If you want your next season to be different,

you've gotta begin to look at what are you doing in this this current season. I wrote it down this way if you're taking notes that I believe that prosperity is a byproduct of an effective management of whatever god provides. Real prosperity, not the stuff they sell on TV. Real prosperity

is when you and I begin to understand we have to effectively manage whatever God has currently given us. Our family, our relationships, our resources, our jobs, our influence, all of it. How are you managing what you currently have?

If you want next season to be different, you've got to impact this season. Last couple of verses I have for you, Paul tells a young pastor in first Timothy chapter six. He says, teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable.

Their trust should be in God who richly gives us all that we need for our enjoyment. Why was Peter able to say, I just need one fish? Why did he not go back for more? Because he understood that his hope was not in the fish that had coins in their mouth.

His hope was in the one that told him, go catch the fish and there'll be a coin in its mouth. He understood that my next season, Jesus might provide for me completely differently, but that is where my hope is. It's not in whatever God is currently using to provide for my family.

If you are here, and I just feel like I have to say this because of where we live. If you are here and you have a lot of resources, I'm telling you, it is a burden that we need to learn to steward. At some point for all of us, you are going to stand before God.

He's going to ask you the question, what did you do with what I gave you? And you know what's crazy? All of us I'm getting ready to do a buddy's funeral on Friday and thinking about how to present the gospel at his at his service, at his memorial. A bunch of people there mourning him.

Every one of us, what we wanna hear on that day when we stand before God is well done my good and faithful servant. K. That's the goal for all of our lives. But we often forget, do you know where that line is found in the Bible? It's on the back end of Jesus talking about the parable of the talents.

He's talking about the people that were given a certain portion of talents, and what they did with those talents was the determiner of whether or not they heard, get get away from me for I never knew you or well done my good and faithful servant. And so often we forget, Guys, our finances, our resources

are deeply connected to our experience in heaven. It it's it's connected to our experience of Jesus' favor on this side of Earth, and we've gotta ask the question, what are we doing with what we've been what we've been given?

But I know there's a lot of you that are sitting here today going, man, my problem is not that I just have so much. I don't know what to do with it. I know that there are people who are who walked in here today whose hearts are heavy because there's jobs that they don't have. There's jobs that they've lost. There's houses that are potentially on the verge of being lost. And I just wanna end our service and speak to you for just a second that I believe that Jehovah Jireh, this old testament phrase we get in Hebrew.

When Abraham was taking his son Isaac up to the mountain to be sacrificed, a crazy testing period that God took Abraham through. When Isaac looked at him and says, dad, where's where's the offering? Abraham looked at him and he says, our our God will provide.

I don't know how. I don't know where. I don't know when, but I know that god will provide. And he says, Jehovah Jireh. I wanna remind some of you today that Jehovah Jireh will show up for you and that god will not let you just fall.

He will do what he promises to do. I don't know if you guys have ever, you know, seen pictures of my family on Instagram or my house, but I basically live in a zoo, and I don't even really like animals that much. And so it's kind of this weird thing. I have multiple dogs and cats, and I got a bunch of chickens, and I'm constantly I just wanna get rid of animals, and my family keeps trying to get me to get more animals. Right? My my kids for the last, like, three months, they were like, we need ducks. And I'm like, I need ducks like I need a hole in my head. You know? But they just were relentless. They kept asking, and I'm like, I'm not giving you ducks. And then eventually, you know, my daughter wore on me, so I'm gonna show you the picture of me getting my kids ducks because I never win. And so we showed up to school, and we had these little ducks. And my daughter told me last night, make sure you tell people I wasn't dressing like a duck. It was a coincidence that I was dressed like that.

But I sit here and I think about, man, my heart, as much as I don't like animals, I see the joy that it brings my kids. I see how much life it gives to them, how much they love it, and it's a glimpse

of our father's heart for us. I'm reminded last verse that I have for you. I'll get you out of here. This is what Jesus says. Matthew's chapter seven verse 11. He says, so if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give good gifts to those who ask him? I wanna remind some of you today that you have a good father in heaven who promises to give good gifts to his children. If we sinful people have a desire to do our best to give our kids the things that they want, how much more more will our father meet our needs? But he says you've gotta ask him. You've gotta come to him. Make your make your needs

known. So I wanna take a moment. I must everybody in this room, close your eyes and bow your heads. I wanna pray with those of you who are here, whose hearts are heavy, who feel the weight and the burden of needing a miracle to show up.

If that's you, and I believe that people walked in here today just carrying a heavy a heavy burden. If you are here and you are desperate for Jehovah Jireh to show up, for the God of supernatural financial provision to unleash

the floodgates of heaven on your life, if that's you and you are here, I just wanna give you a moment right now with everybody eyes closed and heads bowed to just have a moment between you and God where you let your needs be known. If that's you, just right where you are, just throw your hand up in the air so I can pray with you. Don't be ashamed. There's hands going up all over this room. You know who you are.

You know the circumstances. You know the jobs. What whatever it is. Father, I thank you for every hand that's going up, every heart responding to you, every home saying, Jesus, we're desperate for you to do what only you can do.

If you can put your hands down. If everybody would, just pray with me a prayer like this in the quietness of your heart. Just say Jesus right now with arms arms open wide, we surrender to you. Father, we know that we can't hustle our way out of this, and we also can't give up. And so, father, we're asking for you to do what only you can do. We make our our needs known to you. We ask, father, that you would provide the miracle of provision,

that, god, you would open the floodgates onto our lives. God, I thank you for this week. There's gonna be calls that show up out of the blue for jobs. God, we thank you for finances that are gonna be multiplied supernaturally.

That, God, we know that you are still in the business of providing for your children. So, father, we bring our request to you, and we boldly approach the throne room of grace as the book of Hebrews says. That, god, we are not just beggars that are coming for in squabbling for crumbs off the table.

That, father, we are sons and daughters of the most high god, and we ask, father, that you would increase our favor. God, you would increase our blessing. Give us more in the name of Jesus, all god's people said. Amen and amen.