Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to the leaders notebook with Dr. Mark Rutland. Dr. Rutland is a world renowned leadership expert. He is a New York Times best selling author and he has served as the president of two universities. The Leaders Notebook is brought to you by Global Servants. For more information about Global Servants, please Visit our website, globalservants.org Here is your host, Dr. Mark Rutland.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: I want to speak on moving into the highest levels of generosity.
This is a difficult message to preach, frankly, and I'm going to tell you why for two reasons. One is, as I said, it often can seem to people that it is being preached with an ulterior motive. But I've tried to take that away.
And this is not a sermon to jack up the final offering because there isn't one.
I'm leaving town.
So that has nothing to do with it. The second reason that it makes it is sometimes difficult to preach. This is because there's been so much goofiness said and done about it all in the years past. We've all seen some weird thing done about offerings and all that kind of thing. And I'm not talking about that. I hear people all the time say, oh, I don't want. I don't want Christianity. That's a bless me club. I hear that. I understand what you're saying. I understand what somebody means when they say that. I just want to ask you this.
On the other hand, turn that topside down. Do you want a Christianity? That's a curse me club.
That doesn't seem good.
I'm downright opposed to that.
So what's the balance? How do we find a balance on this?
And it is this. God wants to bless us. The Bible says that God says, in blessing, I will bless thee.
He is a God of giving, of blessing, of generosity, of grace, of abundance, exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ever dared to think of or ask or imagine. All right, that's the foundation on which it rests, is the character and nature of God.
But then the other part is what is our part in this story?
How do we enter into the issue of blessing and generosity?
There's a passage of scripture I'd like for you to turn to, if you will, in the New Testament, in the Gospel, as Luke records it.
I want to begin reading with the 20th verse.
This is a passage of scripture.
It'll seem odd because this is a passage of scripture we use to celebrate Palm Sunday every year. And it seems odd to preach on a passage about Palm Sunday right before Thanksgiving.
But this is not really about the Palm Sunday.
So I want you to read this with me, and then we'll dive right in.
When he. Now, that's Jesus. Of course.
When he had said this, Jesus went before them, ascending up to Jerusalem. And when he came near to Bethphage and to Bethany, at the mountain called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples saying, go over into the village opposite you, where as you enter, you will find a colt. It means a young donkey. Okay. Where you will find a colt tied on which no one has ever yet sat.
That's a very important passage. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, why are you untying it? You shall say to him, because the Lord has need of it.
Now think about that.
Those who were sent away found it just as Jesus had said to them. And as they were untying the colt, its owner said to them, why are you untying the colt? And they said, the Lord has need of it. And they brought it to Jesus. Let's pray together. If you put your hands on your Bible, let's pray together.
Padre Glorioso, te damas gracias por tu presents Otros in este manana porque tennesses y tamos mucho Te glorificamos gracias. Padre Putu amor precioso y porto Gracia y especialamente por ele. Spirit.
Lord, I praise you and I thank you for this morning. I thank you for your presence with us, for your grace and your mercy and your abundance. And I pray that you will pry us open this morning and deal with us by your might in the inner person of every listener.
Use this message, O Lord, and glorify your own name in Jesus. Wonderful. Name the strong Son of God.
Amen.
It's a fascinating passage of scripture here for one major reason.
Nobody knows the name of one of the central figures in the story.
The Palm Sunday story would have. God would have provided from some other source if this guy had refused to obey.
But he did obey. And therefore he is central to the story that we call Palm Sunday. It is the man who gave the donkey which Jesus rode on in the Palm Sunday parade. We don't know anything about the guy.
And yet it is. We celebrate this story every year for 2,000 years. People have celebrated this story and have celebrated this man's singular act of generosity. I looked at the passage, and it is absolutely remarkable.
We don't know who this guy is.
But I will tell you this.
This is just a thought. Now, I'm not running for Congress on this, so don't anybody jump? But it is. Jesus worked a miracle of deliverance in this village.
And this miracle was the deliverance of a young man who was demon possessed. And the demon had rendered him both deaf and mute, so he could not hear and he could not speak. And Jesus cast that demon out.
Now, let's just imagine, for the sake of interest, that it is the same person who gave the donkey.
It's not inconceivable.
So what if it went like this?
Imagine this young man totally in the grip and bondage of this demonic nightmare.
No relationship, no life, no ability to earn a living.
He has no hope of marriage, children, blessing of any kind. He is cursed in bondage, in darkness. Somebody drags him in, throws him at the feet of Jesus, and he hears through the veil of demonic nightmare in which he lives. He. He hears these words, Out.
Leave him out.
And the light breaks and sound comes. He can speak. He is free. It's gone. All of that bondage is gone completely. Can you imagine his gratitude, his joy, the unspeakable delight of that?
So he looks up at Jesus, said, who are you? I'm Jesus of Nazareth. All right, I'm coming with you. I'm gonna travel with you. I'll be your bodyguard. I'll be your driver. I'll do anything you want. I'm gonna serve you the rest of my life. And I' you out of my sight. I'm going to serve you the rest of my life. And Jesus says, no, I don't want you to do that. I want you to stay here, and I'm going to use your life as a testimony of my power to bless. I am going to bless your life. I'm going to bless everything that you touch. I am going to lift you up, prosper you abundantly, beyond all you could dare to think of or imagine. I want you to stay here and let me bless you.
And then Jesus kneels down beside him in the dirt and he whispers in his ear and he says, but someday you'll hear these words. The Lord has need of it.
And at that point, I want you to give me what I ask for.
He says, anything, Lord. Anything. There's nothing you could ask me for Now Jesus leaves. And God puts his hand on this young man. He gets a job on a construction crew. He begins to save his money. He's finally able to buy the truck. And then he's finally able to buy another and another. He's beginning to hire his own crews. He forms an llc, Acme Greater Jerusalem Construction Company.
Soon he's got teams that are working all over Jerusalem and Bethlehem, as far away as Emmaus. He's got cranes, he's got skyscrapers going up. God is blessing him beyond anything he's ever imagined.
He gets married, he has children. Everything is being blessed. He lives in a gorgeous house.
One day he says to his accountant, you know, I've just always had this.
I don't know what it is. My bucket list. I'm going to tell you what it is. I'd like to buy a brand new, beautiful Ford F250, fully equipped, fire engine, red. And I want a whip antenna with a tennis ball on the top.
I want an NRA sticker on the back bumper and I want a gun rack up in the back window. And I want quadraphonic sound in that cab that will class a, blow you away.
I want to be able to lower my windows at a stoplight and people five blocks away, I want it to rattle their windows. I want twin pipes on the back. When I press that accelerator, I want it to roar.
And he says what I want to do, I don't know why it is. I want to pay cash. I don't mean a check. I want to walk in there with cash and pay for it. And he says to his accountant, do you think I could afford that?
His accountant says, sir, you're a very modest man.
You have no idea how wealthy you are, do you?
He said, well, I don't know. Maybe I don't.
He said, sir, you can not only pay cash for the truck, you can buy the dealership.
He says, you are one of the most blessed, prospered men in the. In the Jerusalem Metroplex. It's yours.
He takes a suitcase full of money and goes down to the Ford dealership. He describes to the guy exactly what he wants. A fully equipped, totally loaded F250, fire engine red with a whip antenna. And the guy says, amazing thing is I have one brand new sticker still on the window. I've got it. The guy says, bring it around. He says, yes, sir. How do you want to finance that? He says, finance? He opens that briefcase, pops it open, full of shekels. He says, I do not want to finance it. I'm going to pay cash. The salesman says, come, thou beloved of the Lord, step into my office.
He drives that truck home, pulls up in his driveway, puts it in neutral, roars that engine, those pipes just roaring until his neighbors come out and see his new truck. And they come over and he takes them up on the porch and his wife is serving Iced tea. And they're standing up on the porch just outside of town.
Jesus says to his disciples, today we're going to have a parade. And I want to ride in the back of a fire engine, red F250. I'm going to stand up in the back holding onto the roll bar and wave to the crowd.
And they said, lord, we don't know where we're going to get a truck like that. He says, well, if you'll just go into the next village, you'll find one sitting in a driveway there. And he says, I want you to hotwire it.
And he looks at Simon Peter and he says, I know you, you know how hotwire that truck and bring it to me.
And he says, if anybody says anything to you, say the Lord has need of it and bring it to me.
As Peter and John leave, John says to Peter, I'm a little nervous about this situation.
He says, I tell you what you do. When we find this truck, you get in and pop the cap off of the steering column and use your screwdriver and I'll climb in the passenger side and let's get out of the driveway just as fast as we can in case somebody comes out.
They walk into town and they're parked in the driveway. Exactly what Jesus described, this truck.
There's some people up on the porch, kind of rough looking, construction people having iced tea.
John says to Peter, you know the thing that worries me the most?
He says, it's that NRA sticker on the back bumper.
They come in, the guy's up on the porch watching these two guys. One of them says, those two preachers looking your truck over.
The guy says, let them look. Poor preachers, they never seen anything like that. Just let them look.
He says, you know they're getting in your truck.
He says, they just never smelled anything new before. There's just something about the smell of a new car. Let them smell it.
Then all of a sudden they see Peter screwdriver pop the head off of that steering column and it roars to life.
And he says, friend, little preachers have hotwired your truck.
They're starting to roll back down the driveway and he comes running down off of the porch and Peter lowers the window and he says, the Lord, the Lord has need of it.
And the guy says, take it and go.
And they drive off.
Peter and John do not understand what happened. The people on the porch don't understand. His wife doesn't understand. Let me tell you who a one doesn't understand is that guy's accountant.
What has happened when they said those words back through the space and time, that encounter came as clear in that man as if as you can see my face, he heard Jesus. He saw Jesus face. He heard the words. Someday all you'll hear is the Lord has need of it.
And in that moment, do what I ask.
I believe that there is an interaction between a God of blessing and the people of grace and generosity.
And I believe that there is a balanced way to think about it that will be a tremendous blessing in your life.
The first is this.
We do approach God and experience his blessing at a level of obedience.
I do believe in obedience. For example, I believe in tithing.
I don't know if people preach tithing anymore. Pastor Moore and I haven't talked about this except his agreement not to bless me. But apart from that, apart from that, I don't know what anybody teaches about tithing. But I want to tell you something. I believe in tithing.
I believe in giving 10% as a way to start, as a way to understand giving.
My wife. I didn't grow up in a Christian home. My wife didn't. We were young Methodist. I was a Methodist pastor, pastoring a little tiny church before we discovered tithing and we began tithing in our first church. And we've never missed a week. Tithe. I believe in tithing, and I believe that it is. I believe we are called to obey God in that area. However, having said that, I want to say two other things. The first is this. Some people say to me, I don't believe in tithing. That's law. That's the Old Testament. We're not under law. We're under grace. And therefore, I don't believe in the law of tithing. Great.
I say great, wonderful. No problem. I'm with you. We're under grace and not under law. And tithing is the law. I just have this one question. Does grace do less than the law or more than the law?
A lot of those people say, you know, I'm okay with the law.
Tithing speaks to me.
The second thing is this. I believe in tithing, and I believe that God wants to bless us back. What we don't want to do is turn it into a cash on the barrel head, arm's length business arrangement. That's where it becomes cold and mechanical. Lord, here's my thousand dollars, and I expect $100,000 by nightfall, or you're not God. You know, we turn it into this kind of thing. That's not what it's about.
It's about a graciousness of life. But tithing is a way to anchor yourself. Saying, I'm starting here.
I believe in tithing and I believe in practicing tithing. But if you make it legalistic, here's what happens. I don't know who counts the offering at this church as I haven't discussed this with anybody, but I wonder if you ever get these checks.
$487.13. Do you ever get those really, really rounded up?
I know what that's about. I know exactly what it is. They take their paycheck, they sit down with a calculator, multiply it by dot 10 and they say, okay, there's a check, $435.18 or whatever it is. There it is. God, we hope you're happy with your 13 cents.
But you see how mechanical that makes it. What God wants is for us to experience joy in it, the delight of giving.
I don't want to say something like, I hear this said. Sometimes when people are preaching on financial issues, they say, I'm not just talking about money. Obviously I'm talking about money.
However, I'm talking about an approach to life, an approach of generosity, a graciousness of life.
Aren't you glad that God is not stingy with us? Aren't you glad that his whole approach to blessing and giving and forgiving God doesn't just dole out pennies, he blesses?
What about the whole issue of forgiveness?
What if God was stingy with his forgiveness? Oh, God, I've sinned. Can you ever forgive me? Okay, I forgive you. But I just want you to know how you've hurt me.
What if you.
God says, God, can you forgive me? I forgive you. Can I come to heaven? Yes, you can come to heaven, but don't come around me.
You're in heaven. You come, you walk in the throne room and there's Jesus and Peter and John and some of the others and they're all laughing at a joke. And you walk in and Jesus says, shh, there he is.
That's not heaven, that's hell.
He says, well, I forgive you, I forgive you, but I'll never forget it.
That's not your God, that's your mother in law.
God is gracious.
Why don't we forgive? If that's grace, that's part of the grace of life. Somebody says, can you ever forgive me for this? I already forgave you.
I already forgave you. I don't ever want you to mention that again. If you bring that up again to me, I'll be hurt with you. It's finished. It's all over. My friend, I forgive you as fully, completely and totally for whatever that was as God has forgiven me. That's the grace.
It's not just grace in finances. What about just grace in life with each other?
We live stingy lives.
We are stingy with our compliments.
Guys, I have a word for you. This morning when your wife comes in from the shopping mall and she's got that new dress on, she says, look what I bought today at the mall.
She's modeling that dress for you.
She's showing. Look what I bought. She didn't want you to peer over the top of the sports page. How much did that set me back?
I'm going to have to confiscate your credit card.
And let me tell you something else, too.
You don't want to make any jokes about Abdullah the tent maker.
Go. Not this way. This way leadeth to destruction.
There's a bunch of stuff that's funny on Seinfeld, and it isn't gonna work in your house.
When she walks out with that dress and she says, look what I bought today. Throw that newspaper aside and jump to your feet and say, whoa, whoa, baby. Look at you.
You look like a million bucks in that dress.
You wear that on Wednesday night and we're going to be late to prayer meeting.
Now, that's what she wants to hear. That's grace.
That's not a stingy little penny compliment. That's grace. And that's how God treats us. And that's how God wants us to live with each other.
It is also how he wants us to give.
Yes, I believe in tithing, but I believe tithing is not the penthouse. It's the basement where we start.
I believe God wants us to experience the joy, the delight of giving.
I was in a church in Nigeria, Benin City, Nigeria, some years ago. It was a big church, big crowd. And they were receiving the offering. And this lady came forward. She had a live chicken, had the wings pulled back and roped like this. Little claw sticking up like this. And two eggs. She had a live chicken with two eggs. And she was weeping and weeping, and she came up and laid that live chicken and those eggs on the altar. I said to the pastor, what's wrong with that lady? Why is she crying like that? He said, no, they're tears of joy.
He said, for weeks now, she hasn't had anything to put in the offering. And now she has a chicken and two eggs. She's weeping for joy and I thought to myself, oh, God, if American people could sense the joy, the joy of. Let me tell you something. You have not seen an offering till you've seen an African offering.
It is joy unspeakable and full of glory. And I'm not saying that we have to put big barrels up here and dance forward with your offering and all the rest of it, but I don't think we want.
I wish we could see an offering happening in a church the way God sees it.
Then purse comes by and somebody says, all right, here's your money. I hope you're happy.
There's no joy in that. There's no joy in that. When it says in Scripture, it's a passage we quote all the time. God loves a cheerful giver. We quote that all the time. God loves a cheer. We in the church, we'll take money from a grouch. We're not stingy.
But the joy of it.
That's what God is saying. It's not just that God takes a delight in our cheerfulness. It is that he wants us to know the joy of giving. He wants us to take a delight in it. Scripture is full of places where the liberty of giving just got loose in the body.
Do you remember this passage where they're going to receive an offering to build the tabernacle in the wilderness? The people who have just escaped from slavery and looted Egypt, and they're going to build a tabernacle, and they say, we need gold and jewels and things like that. And you remember the offering. Until finally the elders came to Moses and said, you've got to make the people stop.
We can't deal with it. Make them stop. They're just giving and giving and giving.
I've been in the ministry for 50 years.
Next summer, 2017, I became the youth pastor of a Methodist church. 50 years ago. 50 years. I've been half a century in the ministry.
I'm not saying every Sunday, but just once before I die.
Just once, one Sunday somewhere, I want the men counting the offering to come and say, oh, Brother Udlan, you got to tell them to stop.
We can't even count it. We can't get it in the bank. We can't get it. Oh, you know, I just want to see it one day.
No, but the point is the generosity, the grace, the joy, the enthusiasm of giving, not just doing what. Not just doing some little bit, but going beyond the delight of it. It doesn't even. It doesn't even.
Doesn't even challenge us anymore. It's just fun.
You Remember when David. Here's another one. When David returns from baal, Judah with the ark of the covenant of the Lord of Hosts and he brings the ark of the covenant of the Lord of Hosts up to Jerusalem and they get to the outskirts of Jerusalem and David stops and sacrifices bullocks to the Lord.
He gives to God open heartedly, but he's not even content with that. He says, I don't want to just give to God, I want to give to people. And it says, listen to this. He gives a loaf of bread, a side of beef and a flagon of wine to every male and every female, every adult person, male and female, in Jerusalem.
A loaf of bread, a side of beef and a flagon of wine. I don't have any idea what a flagon is, but I expect it's enough to get a good buzz on.
But think of the cost.
Think of the cost.
A loaf of bread, a side of beef and a flagon of wine to every adult in the city of Jerusalem. I believe that he basically bankrupted the treasury of Jerusalem, of Israel that day.
But he moved his act of spontaneous, total joy of giving moved Israel into God's place of total generosity and grace and blessing.
When David died, he gave to Solomon all the resources necessary to build the temple. He had even paid for the architectural plans. Solomon didn't have to do anything except build it. We call it Solomon's Temple and it is Solomon's Temple. And for sure.
But actually all the resources, all the construction material, and it says in scripture, even the architectural plans were all done, all finished and all paid for when Solomon took over.
All he had to do was the construction. Where did all that come from? I believe all that huge blessing came from David's act of spontaneous, liberated, joy and generosity.
I believe that's where God wants to take us, where God wants to speak to us about anything in our lives, everything in our lives, and we would say anything, Lord, I want to challenge you.
I know it seems it's a little bit scary, frankly, isn't it?
Finish this sentence. If the Holy Ghost spoke to you about anything in your life, anything, any relationship, any situation, any financial thing, any possession, and he said, the Lord has need of it. Whatever it is, I can't plug that in. Take that out. Whatever it is, the Lord has need of it. That one thing you say, Lord, speak to me about anything. But Lord, not the truck, I want you to put in there, whatever it is.
If God spoke to you about that this morning, how big of a hurdle would it be for you to Surrender.
See, the problem is that we want God to deal with all the convenient stuff.
But the Holy Spirit finds that one place, he finds that one thing, and he continues to hammer right on that thing.
I've often said I think the Holy Ghost is like an American physician. Anybody ever go to a doctor with a sore place in your arm? You come in and say, I've got a sore place right in my arm. Who can tell me what's the first thing the doctor does?
Yeah, push on it. Yeah. He says, does that hurt? He says, yes, it hurt. I told you it hurts. I came in here and said, my arm hurts.
How about that? Does that hurt? Then you pinch it. How about if I do this? What if I kick it? Does that hurt?
I think that's the way the Holy Spirit does.
We say, lord, take all of this and all of this and all this. He says, I don't need any of that. How about that?
How about that? Does that hurt?
What if I pinch right there? Does that hurt?
I was preaching a revival service at a very large Methodist church in Georgia, First Methodist Church in Marietta, Georgia. I was staying in an extremely prosperous home, man and woman. And they had, like, a whole wing of their house that they let me stay in while I preached the revival. It was the dead of winter, freezing cold, snow. And the service one night really went well. And this lady that owned the house, my hostess, she came to the altar and she said I preached on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. She said, I want to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But she said, I'm afraid to let go. I'm afraid to let go of everything.
And I said, is there something particular that just.
She said, I'll tell you what it is. I know it's stupid. I know it's selfish, but I'll tell you what it is. I said, what?
She said, that house. She said, I don't know if you've noticed our furniture, but that huge house is totally decorated in very expensive antiques. She did every table. Everything in that house is an antique. She said, I've spent my life accumulating those antiques. And she said, I have no idea of the hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of antiques that are in that house. And she said, I'm terrified that if I say to God, I give you my whole life, he'll make me give up my antiques.
I said, ma', am, I can't really help you with this.
I don't know what to say to you. I don't think God is into antiques.
Nothing tells me that God collects antiques. I'm not sure he's gonna say, okay, that's it. Here's the Holy Ghost, I'll take the antiques.
But I said, on the other hand, I can't promise you he won't. He said to the rich young ruler, go and give everything that you've got and come and follow me. So I said, I just can't promise you. You'll just have to break before him and say, here it is.
And she did.
She wept. She said, lord, it's yours. They're all yours. My life is yours. My house is yours. Everything.
So weeping. And then after the service, we were standing around talking. Her husband came and said, look, it's so cold outside and snowing. I'm worried about the dog. He said, I'm going to go on home. Will you bring Dr. Otland when he gets finished? Will you bring Dr. Oatland into the house with you? Yes, no problem. So he left. We finished shaking hands, meeting everybody like that. I got in her car with her. We went to the house.
When we pulled up in the driveway, she just stopped the car and started laughing and laughing. She put her head right over in the steering wheel, laughing.
I said, what's so funny? She said, the dog. Look at the dog.
I looked. I said, ma', am, I just don't see it. She said, I sent my husband home and told him to put out something for the dog to lie on. She said, that's a $15,000 antique quilt.
She said, I surrendered it to God. She said, I was willing for God to have the antiques. I didn't know he was going to give them to the dog.
Sometimes I just think God has a sense of humor, the joy of giving, the delight of it. That's where I think we want to be. Yes, I believe in tithing. I believe in being obedient to that. If you're not there, you may say, look, I just don't know if I can get to tithing or not start somewhere. If you can only do 5% or 7% or 3%, whatever it is, start weekend and begin to move forward, knowing still that's a beginning place, that's a beginning place. The Bible speaks of tithes and offerings, but listen to this.
You cannot give an offering until you've paid your tithe.
The tithes are the way that you can get to give an offering. Offering is only over and above the tithe. So if you're behind on your tithe, the offering is just part of the tithe.
I never, ever get an Amen on that. I don't know.
Just once, would somebody just yell Amen? Just decided, okay. I just wanted to hear it one time, even if you're not happy about it.
I went when I was a young guy, I went with Dr. Claude Smithmeyer. I was learning from him, following him around. He let me drive him to a revival one time. And as we came in the door, there was a businessman there that came to me and said, Dr. Smith Meyer, do you recognize me? And he said, young man, I know you, but I can't place you. He said, I was in my 20s at a church that you had 25 years ago. And he said, I was so poor, so broken right out of jail. He said, I was broken, and you prayed with me to receive the Lord. And you taught me to tithe. And I started tithing in that church. And he said, I want to tell you something. Dr. Smith Meyer. He said, a little bit proudly. He said, I just want to tell you something. He said, I'm a. I'm a multimillionaire. He said, I make about a million dollars a year gross, gross revenue. And Dr. Smith Meyer said, that is great. He said, I'm so proud of you, and I'm proud of God. He said, do you still tithe? He said, Dr. Smith Meyer, you're not listening to me. He said, I can't tithe. He said, think what my tithe would be. I make at least a million dollars a year. Think what the tithe on that would be. I can't afford to tithe on that.
Dr. Smithmeyer said, well, would you like me to pray for you again? He said, I would.
Dr. Smith Meyer put his arm around that young man's shoulder like this, and he said, oh, Lord. He said, I'm asking you to cut this man's revenue back to the place where he can afford to tithe.
I believe in the tithe, but that's the beginning. That's just where we start.
What I really believe in is. Is the joy of giving, generosity of life, generosity with our families, generosity with our kids, generosity of the spirit of giving and the delight of it. That's where I believe God wants to take us. And then to the highest level, to the highest level, where God moves in, the Holy Spirit moves in and says, I want that.
I want that.
I want the truck.
I don't believe that that was an easy thing.
Think about that. He had just paid. It says that in the Bible. It says, we just read it, that that truck still had the sticker on the window.
I Know. You say, wait a minute. That wasn't in there. Oh, yes, it was. It says, upon which never man had sat.
That was a brand new truck. You say, well, how. Why do you call it a truck? A means of conveyance and a means of work. That's a truck. That's an F250 paid for. It's all his.
And the only thing he said, the Lord has need of it. That's the only explanation we have.
Did you hear that? The Lord has need of it. Oh, well, okay. Take it and go.
That's the. That's the. That's the place where God wants to take us, where he can speak to us about anything at any moment.
I didn't tell this story in the first service, but I want to share it with you.
I was with Mark Niswander. We were in a Holy Spirit conference some years ago and came time for the offering.
And they received the offering. It was fine. They received the offering. And as they started to bring the, you know, these plates, you know what I'm saying? As they started to bring the plates forward to us, a lady came running up the aisle and she says, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
She came running up and put her hand over the plate like this, and then turned around and went back and sat down. She was just crying, crying.
And so when it was finished, the service was over, some of the ushers came and they said, we want to tell you there's a very, very expensive diamond ring offering.
And they said, do you have any idea about that? I said, I know exactly who gave it. I know exactly who gave it.
So I just went to her. She was still in the lobby of the church.
And I said, ma', am, I'm not trying to press you or anything, but I just want to ask you. You put that diamond ring in the plate, didn't you? She said, yes, I did.
And I said, look, that's a very expensive ring, and I just want to make sure. Is that.
That what you want to do? She said, I have no regrets. But she said I had been battling with God for weeks.
She said, I inherited that diamond ring from my grandmother.
She said, it is worth a great deal of money. She said, for weeks I've been hearing God, give me that ring. Give me that ring. Give me that ring. She said, it was almost all I could hear. She said, I got to the place where I could hardly go to church.
And she said, tonight, when you receive the offering. I felt the Lord said, now, tonight, give me the ring. And I'LL give you liberty. And she said. I said, no.
And she said, when they passed me coming, they passed the plates all the way to the back. When they passed me coming this way, she said, the Holy Spirit said, I give you one more chance. She said, I jumped out and chased him up the aisle. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. She said, take that ring. I said, ma', am, I just want to ask you one more time. Do you want the ring back? She said, back.
It's not mine.
It's not mine.
She said, the minute I put it in that plate, it was no longer mine. You can't give me what isn't mine.
I said, are you happy about it? She said, I've never felt so free in all my life.
I don't want anything I say in this sermon to be misunderstood.
If you have an F250 in the parking lot, I wasn't scouting.
If God's been dealing with you about a diamond ring, he didn't reveal it to me.
I'm just saying that there is that level where God will say, whatever it is, it is. The Lord has need of it.
That's a high level. That's high risk.
But what is the highest level of blessing that God takes us to a place of such wonderful liberty and such abundance and such blessing.
That's where I want to live.
I was at a meeting where a friend of mine, a great friend of mine, Tommy Barnett, pastors a church in Phoenix, Arizona.
He was speaking on the Dream center in Los Angeles, and he said, look, I want to pray for you to be blessed. I want to pray that you'll be blessed. But he said, I want you to make an effort. You do something.
He said, nothing will go to me. It'll go to the Dream Center. But he said, I want you to take a step and then let me pray for you if you do that.
And I felt the Lord said, I'm just going to tell you, okay? I felt the Lord said, write a check for $1,000.
Now, I'm not at a place where that's just, you know. Oh, oh, well, sure, a thousand dollars. It seemed like a pretty substantial check to me, but I wrote it.
They've had people come and put it up on the front and then stay and you could receive his prayer. And he prayed for me to receive blessing and for the university. I was the president of a university that was struggling.
I had taken over a university that was in horrible condition.
And we were standing there, he prayed, and I really felt something happen in my life, you know, I mean, I just.
I just called my wife and I said, baby, I'm at meeting with Tommy. And I said, I got to tell you, we've turned a corner tonight. We turned a corner.
A few months later, a man came to my university. He used to go to a church I pastored years earlier.
He's an elderly man.
I'd known him, but he was, you know, had kind of stained khakis and wrinkled shirt. And he came to the university and I recognized him immediately. I said, man, it's great to see you. He used to bring me oranges. I was in Orlando. He used to bring me oranges in a brown paper sack and do some oranges for my trees. I said, oh, great. So I saw him, we talked. I got the presidential golf cart. We drove him around the campus and showed him the tour. And the children were wonderful. The college students were great. They just came and loved on him. I took him to chapel. He sat in the front row with me at chapel, and college girls came and sat around him and they were all loving on him. He's in his late 80s, early 90s.
Then I told him goodbye. He came a couple more times to the campus. One time I came in the cafeteria. He's in the cafeteria having lunch with a couple of young co eds there. And I said, well, hey, Joe, how you doing? He said, frankly, this is one of the better days of my life.
Then I got word that he had fallen in the airport and broken his hip and he didn't make it.
So I went to attend the viewing at the funeral home and a man came over to me and he said, are you Dr. Utland from southeastern University? I said, I am.
He said, well, I don't know if you know. He said, joe has left Southeastern in the will. I said, oh, that's nice. I did not know that.
And he said, it's a substantial amount, but he said, we've got to deal with some things first, and then it'll take a while to get you the check. I said, great. What do you mean by substantial? He said, well, it's a million dollars.
I said, a million dollars?
I said, I didn't know Joe had two pennies to rub together. A million dollars. He said, he owns hundreds of acres of orange groves. He used to bring me oranges and a brown paper safe. He said, these are off my tree. I thought he meant the tree in his backyard.
So I called Tommy and I said, tommy, we've received a million dollar contribution. The first million dollar contribution ever given in the history of that university.
I want to tell you what he said to me. He said listen, this is great news for more reason than one. I said why? He said, great for the million dollars. But he said, the best thing is this.
It means that you are only now in a place to receive your second million dollar gift. He said you had to have the first one first. Now you've had that, that's out of the way, you're in line for your second million dollar gift. I said, I love the sound of this.
Few weeks later, Just a few weeks later, a beat up old flowered van pulled into the circular drive in front of Southeastern. Goes like this and the president's office is here. Looks right out on that circular drive. And it came in. Two very eccentric looking people got out. The lady don't know flowered moo moo. This flowered van looked like it came right out of the 70s. The man got out, he had a ponytail down to his waist and flip flops. And I said wow. I mean it looked like they were escapees from the 70s, you know. And it just.
And a little while the secretary came back. She said, there are two people in the lobby that want to meet with you. I said, is it the folks that got out of that van? She said, yes, it is, Dr. Olton. I said, well I'm. I've got the time. Bring them back here, I want to meet them. So they came in, sat there and the man never said word one.
The lady said, Dr. Alton, we just drive past this university all the time and we see the new buildings and the things you're doing. And she said we see the children, children, college students. She said we see the children and everybody seems so happy. And she said, well, I've received an inheritance from my mother.
And we just said to ourselves, what are we ever going to do with this? She said our house trailer's paid for.
And she said the van's paid for.
She said we just, we couldn't. So she said we'd like to give it to Southeastern. I said well that'll be fine, that'd be great. She said I'm going to give it right now. I said sure, that'll be great.
She said I'm going to have to ride it on two different banks.
Are we communicating?
I said why that'll be just fine. However many banks it takes you.
So she wrote me a check on one bank for $485,000. She wrote me a check on the other bank for $525,000. Our second million dollar gift.
It's so hard to communicate these things and not get people all tangled up.
I'm not saying that God said, okay, say the angels, okay, that idiot's written a thousand dollar check. Let's get him 2 million bucks.
What I'm saying is that there is a way to move into a kind of spirit of giving that lubricates the mechanisms of grace, that we just move into a place of liberty and joy and obedience and where it's a thrill.
Is this making sense to anybody?
Well, you've been very patient. Let me close with this. I'm going to tell you where my whole understanding of giving changed. A little boy changed it. It changed everything in my life.
In 1975, I was pastoring a Methodist church. I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and I began to get invitations to travel all around and preach. I don't think it was that I was that good of a preacher. It was. Nobody had ever seen a spirit filled Methodist preacher. And, you know, they just wanted to see me.
And so there was a kid in my church. We were childless at that point. And there was a kid in the church whose father was a very cruel alcoholic, very mean.
And I used to take Jimmy with me when it was within driving distance.
Obviously not when I spent the night in the current litigious atmosphere. I wouldn't do this at all. But it was an innocent America in those days.
So he loved to go with me. It was great fun. The ladies in the church would love on him. If there was a church supper, they'd ply him with banana pudding and he'd sit on the front row and the worship service usually fell asleep. And then I'd take him home and give him back to his mother.
So one night I went to pick him up and he got in. He was quiet, his head down.
I said, now, Jimmy, were things bad at the house tonight? No. He said, I'm all right. I said, I've told you, if you'll call me on these things, I'll call the police.
We can get this. He said, it's not that. He's not even home.
So we drove a little while longer and I said, jimmy, what's the matter?
He said, now, Pastor, I love to go with you to these revivals and I have a good time. But he said, I need to tell you something. There's something that I hate.
And I said, what is it? He said, I don't like the offering.
I said, well, Jimmy, you're actually in the majority on that.
But I said, why don't you like the offering? And he looked down and he was embarrassed, and he said, I'll tell you why. Because I ain't never got nothing to give.
And I said, oh, Jimmy, that's on me.
That is my fault. That's on me. Will you forgive me?
And I reached in. The only thing I had in my pocket was a $20 bill. I said, here, the $20 bill. If you want to, you can give the whole thing in the offering tonight.
You'd have thought I gave that child a million dollars to spend on himself.
He was so excited. He sat in the front row. It was in the old days. The pastor and I sat up here. Remember when the preacher used to sit up here in the big chairs? Your feet wouldn't touch the ground or anything. And we're sitting up here, and Jimmy's in the front row and he's got that $20 bill out. He is so excited. The service, you know, it's a Methodist service to sing two or three hymns, and it's kind of going along, but Jimmy's sitting on the front row with that $20 bill. He was excitement just building like this. And he stuffed it in his shirt collar like that. And then he rolled it up and put it behind his ear and. And then he pretended to smoke it. And he was just getting more and more like this, you know. And finally the poor little Methodist preacher got up and he said, well, if the ushers will come forward, it's time for the evening offering. And Jimmy said, yay.
And I said, that's it.
That's it.
That's what God wants.
He wants to say, oh, God, it's the offering. Yay.
Let me pray for you.
If you'll bow your heads and close your eyes.
Every head bowed and every eye closed. I want to pray. Three prayer. One of three prayers. You just choose if you want one or all three.
If you say, Dr. Olan, will you please pray for me? Please pray that God would take me into higher levels of blessing. I need blessing. I need financial help. I need a better job, higher pay, more salary.
I need more customers. I need more contracts. Will you pray? Just pray that God will take me into the. In a higher level of blessing than I've ever known. If that's you, I would be honored and delighted to pray for you. Will you lift your hand up right where you are, all over the house. If you say, please pray, God will bless me. Bless me. There's nothing wrong with that. What could be wrong with that? He wants to bless you.
Heavenly Father, I do Pray, Lord, you see their hands, their hearts. You know their checkbooks. You know exactly where they are. I'm asking that you will open the windows of heaven and bless them. I believe, God, that they will receive money from grants, from gifts, from resources that they'll have. That they will have promotions and raises.
God, I pray that it will come through wills and estates. I pray that you will bless them. Not just in pennies, but, Lord, I believe that you will open the windows and bless them. I thank you for it, God. I pray that. And I pray blessing upon this church. I pray that there would be blessings in this church as never before.
Now, with your heads bowed, a second prayer. If you say, Dr. Mark, will you please pray for me? Please pray also that God will take me into greater joy in giving. I give, I tithe. I'm trying to do my best. But will you pray that I'll find joy in it? I want to. I want to be a joyful giver. If that's you, then you lift your hand up, let me pray for you.
Yes, yes, yes, sure. Why not? Why not? If we're going to give, let's be happy. Lord, I pray that you will grant them joy. I'm believing you for it, God. Joy unspeakable and full of glory. That they will delight in every dollar given as if it were a million dollars received.
I believe you for it. I claim it with them by faith that the joy of giving will be theirs.
Now take your hands down and here's the last prayer. This is the big Boy prayer. Are you ready?
If you say, Dr. Mark, will you please pray for me that God would speak to me about specific things, that I would hear him say. Whatever it is, the Lord has need of it. And I will be instant and joyful in my obedience.
This is a big Boy prayer. Don't raise your hand if you don't mean it, because God may just say, I'm going to give the quilt to the dog.
Are you ready? If that's you, then lift your hand and say, I want the Lord to speak to me about specific things.
Wow, this is an amazing church. I got more hands on that than any of the other two.
Lord, bless them. I'm believing that you will bless them with specific words that you will call to them about areas in their lives, relationships, unforgiveness, bitterness, resentment.
Specific things, God. I'm not listing anything. You don't need me to list anything, God. That you will speak to them.
The Lord hath need of it, and they will instantly and joyfully obey you.
I thank you for it in advance. In the wonderful name Jesus, Amen and amen. God bless you and God bless Sojourn Church.
[00:52:08] Speaker A: Foreign you've been listening to the leader's notebook with Dr. Mark Rutland. You can follow Dr. Rutland on X at Dr.markrutland or visit his website, drmarkrutland.com where you can find information about his materials and his app. Join us next week for another episode of the Leader's Notebook.
