 Don't chase money pursue this instead. The Bible gives us a promise of prosperity. Somebody say promise In the scripture Psalm 25 verse 27 it says let them shout for joy and be glad anybody glad in this room For who favors my righteous cause God favors my righteous cause let them say continually let the Lord be Magnified who has pleasure in the prosperity of his servant come on somebody If God has pleasure in the prosperity of his servant how much more he has pleasure in the prosperity of his children Third John chapter 1 verse 2 it says this Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in good health as your soul Prosper, do you believe that God promises and God wants you to prosper? Now I realize half of you didn't raise your hand half you didn't say anything One of the reasons people are afraid of the word prosperity and it triggers them Because there has been an abuse of Extreme prosperity teaching that so many people are afraid of that topic But I want to tell you something at hungry Jen. We preach the Bible We don't preach our fears and we don't preach our experiences. We preach the Bible and the Bible talks about God Finds pleasure in the prosperity of his servants We should not allow our fear of that to drive our doctrine Nor should we allow somebody's bad experience with it to drive our doctrine. Have you ever had somebody? Do something really bad maybe in marriage? Maybe your wife or your husband is like driving you crazy And the way you responded or the way you reacted was as crazy as what they did and Sometimes that's what happens with the prosperity teaching there has been an extreme abuse of it that focuses unlike if you have money That means that you are holy and righteous if you saw $1,000 all of your medical bills will be paid for You know if you I've been to churches where they had seven offerings in one service to three bodyguards guarding pastors Bentley or Bentley's in the driveway now. I'm not against driving a nice car. I'm not against having security We have security but for the children I Can take care of myself? I'm all for that, but the moment there is a over emphasis on finances There's an over emphasis on riches and wealth It's an extreme abuse and if we begin to react to that extreme abuse by creating another Extreme it's as bad sometimes if not worse as the extreme we are trying to respond or react to Our goal is not to have a Actionary doctrine our goal is to have a doctrine that is based on the promises and the character of God Come on those in the first century and the second century give God a clap offering if you know God is good And he wants to bless you But I want you to notice God not only gives us the promise of prosperity God also gives us the power to prosperity somebody shout power The Bible says in Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 18 and you shall remember the Lord your God for it is he who gives you what I Did not hear you what? Well he's key who gives you power to get wealth that he may establish his covenant which his word to your father's as it is this day God's promise of prosperity indicates God reveals his character God reveals his goodness God reveals his heart He's a good God and says I want to bless you and I want to take care of you. I am your father I am a generous and abundant God and how many of you happy that you have a good God Come on in the second century. How many are you happy that you have a good God? Come on. So when I say second century you guys pretend that you're there as well Just kind of let's let's collaborate with them. Amen, but I want you to notice something about God Not only our God gives us a promise God gives us the power the power meaning we're God supernaturally intervenes in our financial difficulties and over rules the laws of nature Power is water coming out of the rock instead of a faucet water comes out of the rock power is God feeding a Millions of people for 40 years out of bread from heaven. That's supernatural Power is ravens feeding a prophet of God. We usually go and feed the birds in this case Birds fed the prophet. That's supernatural Power is when Jesus feeds multitude with five tacos and two fish Power is when Jesus pays taxes out of the money that is found in the mouth of a fish This is a tax season Lord. We claim that But in order to pay taxes you're gonna have to have you're gonna have to make money right Because most of us look forward to taxes so we can get money Different sermon for a different day Power is when Jesus He fills the nets of Peter twice with fish power Now the Lord gives us power. He doesn't only have Promise he gives us power. What does this mean? That means there are situations? You can find yourself in that only God supernatural intervention can get you out We still believe in the God who supernaturally provides God who supernaturally answers our need and who gives us a miracle in our finances One poor lady was praying that God will provide her with food And an atheist overheard the prayer By her window decided to go buy her food brought food put it in the front of her house and she came Open it God. Thank you for providing for my food Lord I knew you would do it and the atheists jumped out of the bush and said ha ha ha Your God is not real. I bought the food and she says God. I thank you that you made the devil pay for it Now God has power somebody shall power To make things happen Supernaturally, but there's a third way that God provides and that is not through his power or through his promise, but through his Principles come on somebody show principles Principles it's when God establishes certain spiritual laws in the universe by which if we obey them we experience His prosperity Psalm 1 3 it says he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit In its season whose leaf also shall not wither and whatever he does shall prosper pretty much It says that there are particular things you can do that almost like triggers Activates God's spiritual laws which cause prosperity in your life now I want to come to the message right now and tell you three things we should pursue three principles There will be many principles in those three things, but three main principles We should pursue that will bring prosperity but It's not chasing money The story that I would like to use today is the story of the prodigal son in Look chapter 15 it tells us a story of a man 15 and verse 11 it says a certain man had a two sons and the younger of them said to his father Father give me the portion of the goods that fall on me So he divided to them his livelihood and not many days after the younger son gathered all he had journeyed to a far country And there wasted his possessions with prodigal living this reads like hunter-biden story son took daddy's money Prostitutes maxed out credit cards National scandal big poverty bad story. That's really what this was Spoil brat little kid comes to his dad Look at the audacity. He has he says to his father. I wish you would be dead Really to say that divide us the light the inheritance You can't get an inheritance from your dad until he dies, but his dad is long living long The son doesn't have patience because the son doesn't have a job The son doesn't have brains and the son doesn't have any character So what he's doing? He's waiting on his daddy rich daddy to give him all the money But daddy is living too long because daddy took healthy decisions daddy probably honored his daddy So God has blessed him with a long life and he says that since you're not dying fast enough Could you please hurry up and die or just give me the money? Now if this would have been my son, I would have used my shotgun And helped him to meet his maker in my backyard. I Know children are here probably should have not said that so kids be careful what you say to your parents This is the statement some parents will use I brought you into this world and Lord I can help you to leave this world if you have this attitude toward your mom and dad that Disrespectful hateful it is one of the seeds of your poverty in the future Because the Bible says honor your father and your mother and it will be well with you And you will live a long life Prodigal son. He has no respect for his father. He has no honor for his dad He's in rebellious and he's in in Disrespectful attitude now his dad goes along with it and I think the Bible allows us for the story to be seen so we can see We're disrespect and we're dishonored to authority to your employer to your boss to your mom to your dad to Pass to the leaders where that will lead it will eventually lead to the place of Poverty but that's not what I want to talk about today The first thing that I want to highlight is this don't seek money seek to do well Look chapter 15 verse 19 Prodigal son repents and comes back and I want you to notice what he asked his father I am no longer worthy to be called your son make me as one of your hired servants Interestingly is when he was a spoiled brat his request was Give me what is mine? Entitlement Entitlement always leads you to poverty, but when he comes back he says that make me a servant He says I want to earn honest living See finances prosperity is not as a result of entitlement is supposed to be a result of earned finances Not just inherited finances the word prosperity in Latin means to do well The Greek word for prosperity means to lead along a good path to guide well It is used in a sense to prosper to succeed to have things turn out well for you to succeed in Genesis 39 verse 3 it says this and his master saw that the Lord was with him Joseph and God made all things that he did prosper in his hand So I want you to see two guys a contrast one is the prodigal son, and then the other one is Joseph Prodigal son Demands to have money give me what is mine entitled spoiled bread disrespectful rebellious needs spanking We see Joseph on the other hand. He the Bible says Prosperous because God prospers him and he says this he Prosperous everything that he touches his hand to I want to redefine prosperity in our mind because most of us the reason Why we're afraid of the word prosperity because we actually don't mean what don't know what it means Joseph was not rich when he was a slave Joseph did not have education at the time when he was a slave Joseph did not drive a Bentley when he was a slave Joseph was a slave sold and rejected yet He was prosperous as a slave not because of the amount of money that he made But because of how well his work was then the guy he was working for Recognize the excellence paying attention to details doing better than what was expected of him showing up earlier leaving late studying outside of ours how to improve his crap his work was amazing He looked at him and he said this boy is prosperous Prosperity is not bling and bling. It's being well Doing well Money is not evil money is an exchange for services or products given Love of money is evil money in itself is not evil how economics work how they started was this is I have A goat but you have a field so I go and I bring you my my cheese you give me your potatoes Then I provide you maybe potatoes and you give me some milk and so that Exchange is what we call money What prodigal son had is he got a lot of money? But never learned to add value provide service make a product This guy was Worthless now want to be respectful when I said word worthless meaning he never added worth to anybody by his existence Worthless not in the sense that he had no value in the eyes of God in the sense that he had no value in the eyes of others But he had a lot of money So when he learned his lesson he came back and instead of saying daddy give me more money. He said that give me a job Daddy I want to learn to add value I want to learn to provide a service and make a product that will help somebody don't chase money Chase making a product providing a service or adding a value That makes you Christ like because Christians are Chris Christ like Christ was to hear on earth to serve Not to be served We have a young generation today who is after money When you are after money you will not learn how to serve improve your gift Do a final touches on your craft? Improve your service you will just be driven to make an income and to make a profit you will cut corners It wouldn't matter who you will hurt It doesn't matter if you will sacrifice your family along the line and instead of improving yourself and your Contribution what begins to happen is you just simply trying to extract money without adding value to somebody else Is everybody with me? Mr. Beast is the top youtuber in the world over 150 million subscribers They asked him in an interview. How do I grow my youtube channel now? I'm a youtuber on the side and so that's sometimes I'm curious about what these people will say when they ask them How do I get more views on my youtube videos? They said this wrong. He said this wrong question He said the question you should be asking is how do I improve my videos so they are worthy to watch? He says most of you youtubers you use money to you. He said you use videos to make more money He says I use money to make better videos And that's something when I listen to that it caught my attention that God doesn't want us to think like how can I make more views? How can I get more money? How can I get more profit? How can I get nicer things? God wants you to be asking a question How can I improve my contribution that the reward for it is? financial blessings So instead of focusing on my reward I should be focusing on my gift my product and the service that I offer For a person who expects a raise. Hey, I want to get a raise, but have you raised your quality? Have you raised your service has your product got better? Has your talent and your value improved because if your value and your talent has not improved Asking for a raise is not right. You're breaking a spiritual law of economics God wants you for example think of Elon Musk the richest man in the world today We were just in Austin and saw gigantic factory that he is building, you know And he doesn't chase money what he chases is products He makes products that people pay for because they're so great in his eyes He charges a lot and unlike the rest of the car dealerships where you go and they sell you a car With the Tesla you have to wait for months to get it and you pay way more than for a normal car Overpriced, but because he builds a product and he spends his life Not making money. He spends his life providing a product and providing a service Now these are the people in the world But I want to let you know that our God operates exactly the same way Because our God what he does is that he teaches us we see this in Joseph Joseph's product and service is so great that he prospers because of then God says he prospered because the Lord was with him He goes to jail. He ends up running jail He goes to the Palace of the Pharaoh and then he ends up running the whole nation The point is not bling and bling the point is not your status The point is not your recognition the point is what kind of a service and product do you provide? Chase that More than you chase money Jackie Chan said he's not gonna let his son have any of his money when he dies and He said and I quote if he is capable He will make his own money if he is not Then he will be wasting mine in other words money is a reward system for contributing and Jackie Chan's view is that if my son isn't contributing he should be getting a new reward. I Know we live in the generation today where we give participation trophies to everybody for just showing up God's economics doesn't work like that if You want to be the one to get an award you got to run the race if you want to get the belt You got a fight if you want to get the compensation you got to contribute But if we live with the view that I'm gonna consume I'm gonna beg God I'm gonna name claim God's promise for prosperity, but I'm not gonna submit to God's principle of prosperity Which is contribution gifts and value is my friend We will end up poor while we will confess the name will confess the promises, but we will not embrace the principles Amen Now some of us are saying but hey I'm just gonna believe for God's supernatural breakthrough and that's great But please understand God's supernatural breakthroughs in finances are not common Why because God sets up rules and laws that unfortunately heathens obey better than some of us obey and Many of us what we do is that we claim the promise, but we don't submit to the principle And there is people who reject God's promise like people who reject prosperity teaching But they still embrace the principle and they work hard They contribute they add value and they prosper and there are non Christians who will not accept God's power But they will add value to their community and to their society and they will prosper We will look at them as they just love money absolutely not some of them. They just contribute They add value They serve in a way that makes people's lives better and in return They get what we call money, but in reality, it's a reward system for providing products and services and value Money isn't bad Money isn't evil money is a system set up by God by which you Act by providing something to someone else and in exchange you get what you are provided to and As a Christian we don't chase the money. We improve our service We improve our craft our product our work. We add value That's one of Christians values Is everybody with me in the second century? Are you with me? You're getting something number two don't chase money but seek God Don't seek money, but seek God We see in Luke chapter 15 verse 13 that after many not after many days this younger son gathered all that he had and Journey to a far country and they're wasted his possessions with product a living The first thing that prodigal son did when he got a lot of money who and please understand Have you see the prodigal son didn't provide service? He didn't make a product. He didn't build a car He didn't mow anybody's lawn. He was simply daddy's spoiled brats son Just took the money and went and wasted it and we've mentioned that if you really want to prosper Don't hope for entitled money Earn money provide something When he went from entitlement, I want you to notice the second thing that happened to him is he left his father You're the way left his father and he left his brother When you chase money You will always lose God When you chase money, you will lose people Because only God helps us To not only love him, but to love other people that danger the reason why love of money is evil The reason why chasing money is wrong because money feeds you with lies When you chase money, it feeds you with these lies and this is what the money will tell you is That your worth comes from your wealth Your money will tell you that the goal is to make more money and it doesn't matter who you cut Who you forsake who you cheat who you lie because money is the primary goal. It's like chasing after the wind It's never enough Money cannot buy you manners money cannot buy you morals money cannot buy you respect money cannot give you Character money cannot give you common sense money cannot give you trust money cannot give you patience Money cannot give you inheritance money cannot give you love it will buy you a bed, but not sleep It will buy you books, but not brains. It will buy you food, but not an appetite It will buy you finally, but not beauty. It will buy you a house, but not a home It will buy you medicine, but not health. It will buy you luxuries, but not class It will buy you amusements, but not happiness. It will buy you religion, but not salvation it will get you a passport to everywhere except heaven. Money is deceitful if you chase it. It is a tool, it is a means of exchange but the moment money becomes something that you chase, two things will happen. You quickly abandon God and secondly you abandon people. Money will not make you happy but money will magnify your true happiness. Happiness comes from relationships. Happiness comes because you have a husband and you have children. Happiness comes because you have people who are with you when you're poor or when you're rich. Happiness comes from abundance of relationships but one of the first things that money will do is money will cause you to forsake your family because you work yourself to death. Money will cause you to use your family instead of be with them. Why? Because it's all about money. When money is what you chase you use people. When God is what you chase you use money because the moment you chase God, God gives you two commandments to live by. Love the Lord your God and secondly love other people but if you follow money, money will tell you love this, love fame, love pleasure, love sleep, love sex, love food, love alcohol. Money will give you different commandments to live by and it will deceive you and the only people who stay with you are the people you pay to be with you. Or those who stay with you because you got money but the moment you lose those money, they disappear. They're not your family. They're not your friends. They don't care about you because money gives you fake friends. Money gives you an illusion of success but you're miserable on the inside. Money will never fix your eternal soul. It will never fix the fact that you have a spirit inside of you and money will not give you salvation. It will not give you sleep so when you chase it, it will bankrupt you spiritually. It will bankrupt you relationally but I have someone else that you can chase today. His name is Jehovah Javra. His name is the great I am. His name is the beginning and the end. His name is our shepherd. When you chase God you will have happiness because your soul is satisfied. When you chase God you will have healthy relationships because you will realize God's number one priority is not gold, it's people. You realize he sent his son to die for people. You realize as you love God, he loves people. God puts high price on human beings whether they're poor, black, white, young, old, short or tall. People matter to God so you begin to invest in your family. Money is important but family is the most important and when you're poor you got your family. When you're rich you got your family. When you're known you got your family and there's a happiness that exists because you have relationships and guess what begins to happen when God gives you more money. Money magnifies what you have on the inside. If you're lonely money makes you more lonely. If you are happy money makes you more happy because if you are already happy, if you're already satisfied, if you're already joyful because you have a good relationship with God and you have a good relationship with your family. Money didn't make you happy, it just made you happier. Money didn't fix the problem but it did bring a little bit more fulfillment because it provided you with more opportunities. Come on somebody. So I want to challenge you today to not seek money. Seek God instead and money will be a blessing to your life and you will use it as a tool to bless other people. Amen. Let's give the Lord a clap offering. Number three, instead of chasing money pursue integrity. What Prodigal Son did after he left his dad is he went into immoral behavior that caused him poor decisions. These poor decisions caused him poverty. Now poverty comes I would say from four things, four sources the poverty comes from. Number one is an attack of the devil. Number two it's part of the affliction of life. Number three it's an act of love and number four it's aftermath of sin. Let me explain just briefly what I mean. Number one it's an attack. Sometimes Satan can directly attack and assault your finances. The Bible says he's the devourer in Malachi. He comes to steal, kill and destroy in John chapter 10. We see from the beginning that Satan is the one that causes people to steal, lie and he wants steal your finances. Some people have a direct assault by demons under finances and that's why they're poor and they have to fight spiritual powers to overcome the poverty. The second reason or second reason why poverty comes is because of affliction. We live in a broken world where natural disasters happen, where we have corrupt political leaders who make dumb decisions that affect all of us. Sometimes we will be under a boss who chooses not to pay and just build a company and then shut down the company, disappear to some other island. It's called affliction because we live in a broken world. The third one is an act of love. It's when you choose to be poor for the sake of the gospel. Jesus did that. He became poor, the Bible says, that many will be enriched. It's when the person who has the money they give all of that money away and they become poor so that other people can be enriched and the fourth way or reason that people become poor is when they make poor decisions and that's what I'm talking about today, Prodigal Son. When he left his father, that was already a bad decision. When he didn't honor his dad, bad decision and then the scripture says he went and what did he do with that money? He didn't invest that money. He didn't start a company. He did not invest it into a stock market. It wasn't that the investment went bad. He actually went and starts clubbing, start doing drugs. He starts doing immoral things and then he loses all of that money and you know how when it rains he pours? Right when he loses the money, economy goes sour. Economy goes severe famine so economy is bad. I find that interesting. He is living in a bad economy at the same time his father is living in a good economy. Sometimes if you find yourself away from your father, you will find yourself living under the economy of this world instead of living under the economy of God because God is not affected by the stock market. God is above the stock market. God is above the dollar. God is above the White House. God is above China. God is above America. God is the king of the universe and so the prodigal son leaves the father. He begins to make poor decisions, sinful decisions which lead him to poverty and then he ends up in the affliction. Poverty is happening everywhere and then he gets a job and in this job they don't even pay enough for food. The Bible says he was lining up to eat food with pigs and they said hey we only have enough for pigs not enough for you. He didn't even have enough money to eat. Poor bad job, bad economy, bad decisions, bad relationship with his father, bad attitude and bad habits he developed where he didn't contribute but he simply consumed. I want to highlight few things that the Bible teach us that if we do them it could potentially lead us to poverty. One of them is overeating and drinking. I don't mean water drinking, alcohol drinking. Proverbs chapter 23 verse 21 says for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty and drowsiness will clothe the men with rags. If you love money, excuse me, if you love food money won't be chasing you. Some people say what is wrong with eating loving food? Food is not your friend. Food is your fuel. If you make food into your friend the Bible actually warns us it could be a cause of your poverty. Don't make food your friend. You should have real friends not refrigerators. That's good preaching right there. Come on somebody in the second sanctuary. Ouch I didn't see that coming. Make sure your wife is your friend not a taco. I'm like I'm a foodie that's fine nothing wrong with being a foodie. Make sure your love the Bible says thou shall love the Lord your God it doesn't say thou shall love your tacos. Eat food eat good food eat healthy but loving food and developing an affair with food is dangerous for your finances. The second thing I want you to notice is sleeping too much man all the things we like. Proverbs chapter 20 verse 13 do not love sleep lest you come to poverty. Some of you came like man I love food I love sleep and pastor you're telling us I'm not telling you Solomon is telling you if you love sleep now we all need sleep but please understand loving sleep and oversleeping and being a sluggard and lazy is different than getting a good night's sleep. What we love as Christians is the Lord our God and we love our neighbor. What we should not fall in love with is sleep. If you look at and you see that you're poor maybe struggling one of the poor decisions that you probably have maybe you have is you love things you should not love food and sleep. Another one is Proverbs 28 19 if you follow fantasies he who tells his land will have plenty of bread but he who follows another word for this word is fantasies will have poverty enough and these are the people who live in the dreamland. They always have fantasies they always have dreams and nothing wrong with dreams but if you follow fantasies if you follow these daydream ideas that you extract somewhere online instead of living in real world it will lead you to poverty. The next thing that leads to poverty is Proverbs chapter 6 verse 26 for by a means of a harlot a man is reduced to a crust of bread and adulterous will prey upon his precious life. This is sexual immorality if you live in sexual purity like Joseph for example it does lead to prosperity the moment you begin to live in the moment you begin to live in the way that doesn't honor God in the area of sexual purity then what it does is it leads to poverty. There's statistics and studies that have been done I mean think logically with you with me if you marry to one person you stay faithful to that person just automatically there's a compounding effect of blessing that happens on your finances you don't have to spend money on divorce lawyers you don't have to try to separate your houses you live there he lives there or the opposite no child support payments you don't have to probably see a therapist because you're struggling and hurting because if you have healthy marriage your heart is satisfied you have health relationship with God there's a sense of peace about that so your work and your performance doesn't suffer because you have crisis in your home and your work is better guess what happens they pay you more you seem to get promoted so there is this natural tendency of having peace in your heart having love in your life that leads to prosperity in your workplace the moment you break this cycle and you say man I'm just going to go chase love see the Bible doesn't want you to chase love he wants you to chase God and love people some people are in love with love not with people they love the idea of being in love instead of love God and that's dangerous because the Bible says that it could lead to sexual immorality we see here which leads to poverty Proverbs 21 17 seeking pleasure leads to poverty he who loves pleasure will be a poor man he who loves wine and oil will not be rich in order to see money come into your life you have to stop chasing it in order to see pleasure be a part of your life you have to stop wanting it the Bible says in the presence of God there is pleasure but the moment we seek the pleasures of sin or we seek the pleasures of life instead of seeking being productive instead of seeing being useful effective and our whole goal is to be happy it is very dangerous God gives us a new way and he says you want happiness to chase you chase me chase healthy relationships be in the community chase meaning add value live your life in a productive discipline way and these things shall be added to you Proverbs 13 for the soul of a lazy man desires and has nothing but the soul of a diligent man will be made rich means if we are lazy we will not be prosperous Proverbs 13 18 says poverty and shame will come to him who disdains correction but he who regards a rebuke will be honored that means how do you handle a correction do people have to walk on eggshells before they give a feedback on your work do you feel like you need to see six therapists just because you got a correction or can you take a feedback and a correction without crying at ears and feeling like oh my goodness they destroyed my identity they didn't destroy your identity they critiqued your excel in putting data so we have to allow people to give us correction we have to allow people to give us even a rebuke and a feedback why because that's the key to getting better which means our product will be better our contribution will be better and our response reward will be better but a person who says i know what i'm doing don't tell me what to do you know don't correct me you know i feel like you hate me i feel like you're not accepting me no i don't hate you it's your work that i have a problem with i don't have a problem with you it's just that you're not performing there is the those numbers don't look good it's the stuff that you cut that plywood it's wrong and you cut six of them like that so i have a problem with your cutting that's with your heart so when you begin to disconnect your character or your identity from your work and let people critique your work without feeling like they destroyed your mom you will get better at your work and as you get better at your work your reward gets better but a poor person is so easily offended a poor person is so sensitive it's you you got a little like pray for three hours before you address him on a basic little correction because you never know he might want to quit after that that's that's the poor mentality be eager to learn hungry for improvement ask for feedback when you do a work you ask your employer and you ask you say listen and you don't have to sugarcoat it you tell me it as it is i can take it why because i'm not here for myself a steam i'm here for service i want to grow i'm not here to fix a father issue i'm not here to fix lonely i'm here to make your company better i'm here to make your business better so i want to know am i doing a great job where should i improve where should i invest go ahead cut my work you're not cutting me you're just improving my work um problems 28 22 a man with an evil eye hastens after riches and does not consider the poverty will come upon him chasing get rich rich quick schemes will get you rich get will get you poor quick let me say that again for those of you in the second century chasing get rich quick schemes will get you poor quick there is no such a thing as getting rich quick plus most of the time i don't believe god wants that for many of us the reason why is because you have to develop principal structures and systems and when you pursue education you get your job you run your business guess what happens throughout those 15 years you develop patterns habits you develop mindsets you develop characteristics within you the way you think that when the money comes you can handle it and if it leaves you can bring it again because those characteristics that got those opportunities and monies are still within you when somebody works very hard and makes money and then they give you all that money you don't know how to work like that you don't think like that guess what begins to happen is we lose that money that's why they say approximately 70 of people who win lotteries lose that after a few years and that's why a lot of businessmen who go bankrupt become businessmen again fourth six time because they develop patterns of thinking habits the way they think about money is different and that's why you always want to work on yourself as a Christian you want to work on your mindset and don't buy into get rich quick schemes proverbs chapter 28 13 it says he who covers his sins will not prosper but he who confesses and forsakes them will have mercy and this brings me to the end of this story you know prodigal son did bad things pretty pretty shady things but what i love about prodigal son is that when he realized i made poor decisions i live now in a bad economy and i wasted my daddy's money honestly i'm kind of worthless i haven't done anything i've never made anything never made a product i don't even know how to serve what prodigal son did was amazing is that he repented the bible says he who covers his sin will not prosper that means you can make all the wrong decisions you can always turn around it's like if you were trying to go to Idaho and you end up in seattle because you took the wrong turn and you intentionally kept driving there how many of you know even in seattle you can turn around and start going back to Idaho come on somebody it doesn't matter how bad you got in your finances it doesn't matter how many decisions dumb decisions maybe immoral decisions you've committed how bad the economy is you are never in the place where there is no hope for you bible says is that he repented and i want you to notice what he did first he didn't say let me go get a job a better one he says no let me go and get a better relationship with my dad if you are in the low place right now and you're financially struggling maybe you're blaming the economy covid and all of that maybe you're blaming yourself but i want to ask you a question where's your relationship with your father your heavenly father let's start with that first let's come back to him let's stop chasing money let's stop chasing career success and let's say lord i want to chase you i want to be hungry for you i want to get my relationship with god right i want to start reading the scriptures i want to start being filled with the holy spirit i want god to fix the hole in my soul and that's exactly what he did and then i want you to notice what else that he did is that he came to his father first of all he resigned from his job and there are some of us here today if you are doing something that doesn't pay you at all if you're serving under a boss that doesn't pay people at all quit your job today let's say don't be working for somebody doesn't pay just quit the job and he quit the job that wasn't paying and then i want you to notice is he left from being under the economy that had famine and came under the economy that had bread when you come to god he switches the economy you live under where no longer your boss is the provider he is the resource but god is your provider and it doesn't matter what's going through in our coming economy right now when you live under the shadow of the most high god you live under a different economy come on somebody you live under different economy somebody in the second sanctuary give the lord a round of applause right now i want you to see the mindset the prodigal son had and this is what i want to leave you with is he came back to his father and he did not ask him for more money how typical is that of kids who grew up in rich parents houses when they waste all the money you know go party and all of this stuff and then they usually come back they said dad could you borrow me some money i love this and that's true repentance of prodigal son he did not ask for money he asked for a job and he said dad could you he didn't even ask for a high paying job he says dad i can go with the people who are mowing the lawn i can go with the people picking up the garbage i can go with the ones that you know pastor sheep or or oxen he says any of your low paying jobs entry level work he says that can i apply for that job he didn't say that i'm your son where's the emergency fund can i be your charity project no he says could you give me a job switch your mindset don't think about god just give me a miracle ask the lord for opportunities not miracles can god give you a miracle may that miracle come as a surprise in your life but may that not be what you're seeking let's seek opportunities say lord give me an opportunity help me to be a better contributor and a servant now of course those of you who are elderly or maybe on disability that's i'm not referring to you i'm referring to young people young adults who can work you know one of the things that i pursue in my heart is just a genuine prayer my prayer is not that god makes me famous my prayer is not god make me successful and my prayer is not even god give us a big church my prayer is god bless my calling to touch more people god improve help me to improve my ability to serve your people by preaching the product your word lord my prayer is god my desire is not increase my finances but god increase my contribution to the body of christ and lord help me to do it in such a way that is righteous that if that my accusers have to come up with lies to accuse me and that my accusers will have to come up with stuff that will be hilarious to anybody who knows me because it's a simple and not true that if somebody rips my life into pieces and sees the only thing that they will see is radical commitment to god radical commitment to the church love for my wife love for my friends and integrity before god yes it might not get me anywhere high but i don't want to go high i want to be impactful i want god to bless the work on my hands i want god to bless the words of my mouth i want god to bless what i do that's the goal seek first the kingdom of god and his righteousness meaning i don't want to just seek god i also want to seek integrity because i know people who sought god but were shady who sought god but they cut corners sought god but they didn't pay their taxes who sought god but they didn't pay their employees sought god but when the product they offered was flawed the service they provided was not excellent it was nasty food that i ate from the restaurant i got poisoned the things that they did broke so i don't want to just seek god i want to also seek integrity come on somebody i'd add value provide service i just want to challenge you today in jesus name don't chase money chase providing service chase god and chase righteousness and that will set you up for god's principle of prosperity to be honored in your life in the conclusion god promises prosperity it's not a trigger word god gives us power sometimes supernaturally overrides the rules and the laws to give us prosperity but god also provides us with principles that if we adhere to them we will live our life in honor and we will live a life in prosperity now does this mean everyone is going to get rich no this is nothing i hope you got this this is very little to do with financial riches as much it has to do with contribution we offer for which we receive a reward thanks for watching to this sermon if this was a blessing to you would you let me know in the comments below what stood out to you from this message what are you taking home with you from this message also if you enjoy these messages would you help us and hit thumbs up to this video and subscribe to our channel so you can get new videos every single week delivered to you on your youtube app if you go to hungrygen.com forward slash sermons you'll actually be able to download the transcript the notes and the quotes of this sermon and the rest of all of our sermons free of charge until next time