The Generosity of Faith | Jabin Chavez | City Light Church

Hey, what's up, family? Jabin here, and we are about to jump into God's Word. I'm so excited about this sermon. I believe it's gonna speak to your heart and be a blessing to you, to your friends, your family, just to your whole world as you are following Jesus. Listen, if you have not done it yet, would you please like and subscribe and, I don't know, do all the things that they tell us to do, hit the ring notifications. All of that would be such a blessing. As we're just trying to spread this message that God is doing here in Vegas to the world, you're gonna love this sermon. I'm gonna talk to you at the end of the message as well, so let's jump in together. All right, we are in a series entitled, By Faith, and we're talking all things faith, and we're talking all things living a life of faith and a life by faith. The phrase by faith is found 23 times in the Bible, and it is truly the invitation of God to the people of God that we can walk a life of faith where we walk by faith and not by sight. Genesis chapter four, let me give you a little bit of a setup here before I start preaching. This is not an apology, this is just for context. It's May, we're five months into 2026. I have not taught on finances

in the five months of this year. I haven't taught on finances since November of last year. So I'm gonna teach on finances. So if you're new and you're like, oh my God, I finally came to church, or maybe you brought a friend, you're like, I have been telling them, Jabin, to come to church, and they finally came, and you're preaching about money, I'm gonna knock you out, sorry. Sorry, not sorry. I'm gonna help you today, and this is gonna help you. And honestly, the life of generosity is the greatest life. If you kind of say yes to it, I was talking to one of the guys yesterday, and he said, you know, for the first time, we started giving at the end of last year, and he said, it's changed our life. And I said, it's like seeing in color, huh? It's like everything just like turns on. And he goes, that's exactly it, it changed my life. This is a church guy born and raised, but had never taken that step. And so this is not something we talk about a lot, but you know, randomly throughout the year, I'll maybe teach on generosity once or twice, and then we do a series at the end of every year where we really take a focus on giving. It's always our lowest attendance of the year. You know, I'm not offended. Everybody comes back after.

And so I just preach to the front row for a couple of weeks, and then we go back. And so this is one of those truths that actually really changed my life. And I wanna just say that, you know, last week I was talking about prayer and how I pray with music. And so many people wrote me this week ago. Oh my God, pray with music, that's so life-changing. Oh my God, that really helps. I need to start doing that. Thank you for telling me. And so I think sometimes I'm living things and experiencing things in God that I forget to tell you about. Y'all know what I'm saying? And so this is gonna be one of those things that it's like, if you'll do it, it'll change your life. If you don't do it, that's fine. We don't check who gives at the door. We don't have a cover charge. How much did Morgan Wallen charge last night? What did he, what was the average ticket price? 300 bucks, nosebleeds, 400. What was it on the floor? Did anybody know? Hey, you know, you were there. You're like, hey, bro. So we don't do that. People come, and if people feel led to give, they give.

And if they don't, they don't. So we're gonna look at the second offering in scripture. This is Genesis chapter four. It's the first offering given by a man, but it's the second offering. The first offering in scripture is actually when Adam and Eve sinned, God clothed Adam and Eve with the skin of an animal. I love this about God, that the first offering in scripture actually wasn't man to God, but God to man. Because everything in scripture is God first. God, grace is the initiator. The Bible actually says, before the foundation of the earth, the lamb was already slain. That is who our God is, amen. Genesis chapter four, Abel became a shepherd while Cain cultivated the ground. So we have a shepherd, we have a farmer. When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some, notice that, some of his crops. Everybody say some. Some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. Notice, you're gonna see the difference here. Some. Abel also brought a gift, the best. Everybody say the best. So we have some and we have the best. Portions of the firstborn lambs of his flocks.

The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry and he looked dejected. Notice how God is involved in the offering. Let me just say this. Offerings are not a necessary evil to keep the church's lights on. Offerings are worship unto God. Big difference. God was involved in this. God cared about this. Why are you so angry? God said. The Lord asked Cain, why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you do what is right, but if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out. Now watch this. God doesn't say that Cain's offering was a sin, but notice this. His lack of generosity was going to open a door to sin. Look, sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you, but you must subdue it and be its master. Now what we just read, the writer of Hebrews, New Testament now, is going to shine a little bit more light on it, a little more revelation. It was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did. So now we see that Cain's offering was not by faith, Abel's was by faith. Abel's offering gave evidence that he was a righteous man and God showed his approval of his gifts. Although Abel is long dead, he still speaks by his example of faith. I want to talk about the generosity of faith today, and I'm praying, Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus, that you would speak and lead and guide, that you would remove every distraction from this moment, that we would hear clearly your word and the leading of your spirit today.

I thank you, Lord, for wherever people are on their faith journey, I thank you that today you would say something to every person in this room as they live by faith and not by sight. I thank you for all of this in Jesus' name. I wanted everybody to say amen. Amen. Come on, if you're ready for a word from God, let's clap our hands and let's have church today. Amen. So I was 15 years old, I was on fire for God, I was a new Christian, I was a baby Christian, but I was just, I was like all in for God. I was so all in for God at 15 that I was watching Christian television, y'all know what I'm saying? Like, I was like, like I was, I threw away, this is old school, I threw away all my CDs. Does anybody know what a CD is? I threw away Metallica and I threw away 311 and I threw away, no doubt, I was a real rocker, and I threw away, I threw away all my secular music. That's like non-Christian music, that's what we call it, secular music, when you're a super Christian. And I stopped watching TV and I was just like, I was like all in for God. And I'm watching this preacher one day and this old preacher, he grabbed $10, $1 bills and he said this, he said, if God gives me $10, I give him one back, it's called the tithe. He said, but the order is important, I don't give him the 10th, I don't give him the last one, because by that time it wouldn't require faith, that's a tip and you don't tip God. Okay, I didn't say it, an old preacher said it, don't get mad at me. He said, I give him the first, because the first requires faith, the first is the best. What makes it the best? Because it's first. And I just remember being 15 and I went, okay, that's 27 years ago and I've been tithing

for 27 years and it changed my life, it changed my life. Now for the person who's in here who's worried about this or maybe the person experiencing this, if you're thinking to yourself, Jamin, I cannot tithe right now, I cannot give right now because it's between giving or my electric bill, it's between giving or feeding my family. Listen to me, look, look, look, look, feed your family. If you can't feed your family, call us and we'll feed your family. So don't get it twisted, don't get it twisted. I just saw a preacher on TikTok go viral because he said, he said, even if you can't afford to tithe, put it on credit and God will bless you. Give me that camera right here. Hey bro, hell is like so hot and you shaking down the church for money is not worth your soul. Repent in Jesus name and become a Christian and get out of ministry, go sell cars. There's hope for you to be a Christian, but you're done with preaching, you're done, we're done, you're done, we're done, you're done, you're done. FYI, just want to make all that clear. So Jesus reminds us that money is more than paper, money is more than gold, money is more than numbers or currency, money actually has a spiritual. element. He said it like this in Luke 16, if you've not been trustworthy and handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches. In other words, Jesus is saying, if you can't pass the money test, how could I ever trust you in the invisible? There's a whole realm that God wants to release to the body of Christ that he can't even do yet because we, we can't even give God a dime on every dollar. Think about that. If you, if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, in other words, if we have not stewarded God's money, watch this, who will give you property of your own?

No one can serve two masters. You'll either hate the one and love the other, or you'll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. That's Jesus. Not Jaben. That's Jesus. Not Joel Osteen. That's Jesus. Not Tony Robbins. That's Jesus. And so this really matters because if I can't pass the financial test, how can God ever trust me with what really matters? And I believe today God is inviting people and it's an invitation that man, you could enter into a life of generosity. It will change your life. And so few in America have done this. You know, the in America of all the people who profess to be Christians, only 5% tithe only 5%. And by the way, in the Catholic church and the Mormon church, which people would count them in Christianity, they're crazy about tithing. I mean, it's like, so out of that 5%, a lot of that's actually Catholics and Mormons. Cause us Christians are free. We do whatever the heck we want. So it's, it's very rare to find someone that's even taken that first step into the tithe. And I want to challenge you to do it. By the way, if you're listening to this and you're going, this is self-serving. This is for you. This is for, this only helps you. Then take everything I'm gonna preach today, go to another church and do it there. Cause this will change. This will change you. All right. Number one, let me, let me give you these quickly. Generosity surrenders my entire life to the Lord. When I give to God, it submits the entire,

the entire scope of my life to the Lord. Let me say it like this. I don't give God my 10% like I'm paying off a mob boss and then I do what I want with the 90. I actually give God the 10 to tell the Lord, Lord, it's all yours. It's all yours. Whatever you want to do. I'm, I'm actually opening up everything about my life to you. Whatever you say, I'll do. It is a surrender to the Lord. The Lord accepted, watch this, Abel and his gift did not accept Cain and his gift. You cannot separate a man from his generosity. The Bible said that we know that Abel was a righteous man. Why? Because his offering gave evidence to it. Think about that. Cain gave some, some. All right, I guess we're going to give, let me, uh, I got some, I got some beets. I hate beets. Let me get some beets tonight. I hate asparagus. Let me get that. And I'm, I'm allergic to tomatoes. Let me get that. And I got some rotting lettuce here. Here you go. Here you go, Lord. And God goes, I don't want your leftovers. The Bible says actually in, in the Psalms, we, we quote the scripture, God owns the cattle on a thousand Hills. Uh, we, we say that kind of like faith filled. It's actually a rebuke. God's going, I don't want your offerings. I don't need them. I own a cattle on a thousand Hills. In other words, if it ain't your best and from your heart, I don't even want it. Oh, cheerful giving. We'll get there in a second. No, no, no. He gave some, what did Abel do? Abel gave the best. How do you give the best? Well, it's first, number one and number two. You know, you're giving your best when you go, kind of startles you. Oh God. Yeah.

Jesus, I'm committed. Oh my Lord. You start thinking about what you could do with that money. Come on somebody. That's how you know it's the best. You're like, we could have bought a boat this year. My God. I don't know what boat costs, but it felt right. That's how you know it's the best. Abel gave his best. By the way, I said, you can't separate a man. from His offering? You can't separate God from an offering. How do I know God loves me? How do I know God really loves me? Because He sent me a text? No. Because He wrote the Bible? No. Because He sent me a heart emoji? No. I know God loves me because I see it in the cross. I know God loves me because He gave me an offering for God so loved the world that He gave. How do I know God loves me? Because He gave. And how do I know I love God? Because I give. It gives evidence. The offering gives evidence. So when I tithe, I'm submitting all of my life to the Lord. This is a seed that I sow, not a debt that I owe. Look what the Bible says in Deuteronomy, bring the tithe to the designated place of worship. The place the Lord your God chooses for His name to be honored. Now watch what happens when you do that. Doing this will teach you to always fear the Lord your God. Like it reconnects you. It reattaches you. It re-centers you. It brings you back. And you go, oh my God. Oh yes, I love the Lord. It's that weekly, that bi-weekly, that monthly reminder that God is your source. And it just, watch, it turns your heart over again to the Lord. Are any married people in here with kids? And you go on a date with your spouse without the kids and you go, you're actually great. Come on somebody, don't say amen, but just

smile, look at me. You're like, we're actually cool. We're great. It's quiet. This is nice. Let's have another kid. It's like, no, no, no, wait a minute, no. It says, you're actually great. It's that you have that date night and it kind of reconnects you. Yeah, anybody? Anybody go on a date with your spouse? Anybody still dating your spouse? Okay, amen. In the same way, when I give to the Lord, it reconnects me. It re-centers me. It refocuses me on, oh yeah, the Lord is my source. And I remember this, I'm 42. In my 20s, my tithe was a sacrifice. It cost. Everybody go to Chipotle, I'd go home and eat. I didn't have the money cause I wasn't going to rob God. I just, I was 21 and radical and I was like, no, I ain't doing that. Everybody would go to the movies and I wouldn't go to the movies cause I wasn't going to rob God. I had to budget in the tithe and it hurt. I remember one time we had this formal dinner we all had to go to and you had to wear a suit and tie and I didn't have a suit and tie. So I went to Target and I got me a suit and tie and I went to the formal dinner and I didn't eat cause I couldn't get food on the suit and tie. Y'all know where I'm going with this? And the next morning I went back to Target and I said, you know, it just didn't fit right. It just wasn't the perfect fit for me. I'm going to go to Nordstrom. I didn't have Nordstrom money yet. Amen. I didn't have Nordstrom rack money yet. I didn't have Target money yet. And I returned that cause I wasn't going to rob God. It was just, it was a sacrifice. In my thirties, something shifted and I saw, no, this is a seed. Right. Actually, it's not leaving my life. It's just leaving my hands and it's going into my future, creating a harvest for me that one day I'll walk into.

By the way, hi, you're it. You is my harvest. All those people that waved at me said, I'm new to church. Yeah, cause I gave and I gave and I gave my harvest is not a jacket. My harvest is not jeans. My harvest is not a ring. My harvest is souls. God, God was able to trust me with worldly wealth and now he's trusting me with things that really matter. People give yourself a hand. Come on, clap your hands. Boy, I like this service. And now in my forties, it's not a sacrifice or even a seat. It's my source. Like I couldn't imagine not living a life of general. You couldn't, you, you couldn't convince me to stop giving to God. You got me too late. If you find me in that lobby afternoon, you know, the tithe was actually, it was actually great. You know, it was different back then. Too late. You missed me. You may go make a YouTube video and tag me in it. I won't watch it. It's it's too late. I've given too much and I've seen the Lord do too much in my life. And by the way, when people say stuff like that, it's like, yeah, if we were still bartering with veggies and seed, I would give that too. But now we have cash. So it's different. Like just use your brain for 30 seconds. Not you, the mythical enemy I'm preaching to you on YouTube right now. Imagine we're building this building, we go to the contractor, we've got some peanuts here, if you would. We've got some lambs and some chickens, if you would build us a building. Okay. I think there's two groups of people in here who can hear this with two very different responses. Number one, there's wealthy people in here. I don't know who you are, but you're here. And you think to yourself, I can't give. What would that church do with my money?

That's crazy. That's ridiculous. And you just think you're giving would be too much. I think there's other people in here who are not wealthy, who are thinking, man, what's my 20 bucks going to do? What's my 50 bucks really going to do? What's my $100 a month really going to do? It's not really going to. And both of you are being convinced that your generosity doesn't have power. The reality is if the wealthy would do their part and the people who are not maybe wealthy yet would do their part, it would be our collective generosity that would actually change the world. Now, we say something in church that we actually don't believe in. Here it is. We say it's not equal amount, it's equal sacrifice. And here's what I want to, I'm just going to submit something to you and everybody buckle up. It is very rare to find a wealthy person who sacrifices financially. It might look like it, but it's not really a sacrifice. Okay. Well, it got quiet in here. I felt the oxygen leave here. Turn on the air conditioner. I'm sweating. Okay. You'll go, you'll go to an aviators game and they'll go tonight. There's a sponsorship from such and such, you know, multimillion dollar company for $2,500. And they bring out this giant check. I'm like the check costs more than the money you're giving, bro.

There's a story in the gospels where Jesus is watching people given the offering. Imagine that, that'd go viral if I just sat by those little dispensers as you're walking out and just checking it out. And people are dropping in large amounts of money, looks large, not large to them. And then all of a sudden this little widow comes with two pennies and drops them in. And Jesus goes, attention, attention, look, look, look. She just outgave the entire room. There is nothing wrong. Now look at me. I am not a socialist. I'm a capitalist. I'm not trying to be political, but I'm not a socialist. So listen to me, you can have your stuff, get you that house, get you those cars. You get a new watch. Let me see it. I'll gas you up. I'm good with all of it. We are in America. You can have your stuff, listen, but make sure that you are not just investing on treasure on earth where Jesus said, moth and rust destroy. I want to make sure that I'm also sending money into eternity for what really matters. And I'm preaching to myself. God has blessed us. God has helped us. God has prospered us. And I am always reevaluating. Am I truly giving God my best? And since I'm already out in the deep end, let me go a little further. And then I promise I'll get out of your business. There's two people who are very prominent in America, who we would think of as like

kingdom billionaires. It's the Green family who own Hobby Lobby, and it's the Cathy family who own Chick-fil-A. And by the way, if you're offended with me today, let me take you to Chick-fil-A after this service and I'll buy you lunch. You'll just meet me there. I'll be there. And I'll take you to lunch. That was a church joke. That's so deep in the weeds. You got to like really know church culture to know. And so, by the way, both companies are closed on Sundays to honor the Lord. It's amazing. Okay. So I was thinking, why are there only these like kind of two prominent families who are giving, I mean, billions and billions and billions away to the kingdom? And I thought, why are there only two? And I had this thought. I'm not saying it's God, but I had this thought. There's only two of these kind of kingdom billionaires because there's very few kingdom millionaires. There's very few who as God has prospered them have not just gotten their stuff. Again, get your stuff. But I hope a part of your vision is not just Ferrari, is not just 7,000 square feet, is not just country club. I hope a part of your vision is how much can I fund? the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now I'm preaching to me. I ain't preaching, I'm preaching to me because I have more than I ever thought I would have. So I'm constantly going back to the,

literally to the numbers going, how can I do more for the kingdom? Because I've got this short window. I'm here today and we're gone tomorrow. How much can I do for the gospel? So that like Abel, I've got this short window, though dead, my offering is still speaking. Okay, it's gonna get better, everybody relax. Number two, generosity opens my heart to a whole new way of living. It just, it changes you. You start thinking different. You start thinking like Abel who said, I wanna give God the best part. You know how you give God the best part? You actually have to think about it. You actually have to consider it. You actually have to pray about it. You actually have to, it's actually something you have to kind of like think through and consider it. Man, I wanna give God my best. It was a different way of approaching things from fear and greed to faith and generosity. Look what Ephesians chapter four verse 28 says. If you are a thief, quit stealing. Okay, let me go back to this whole idea. This is a man who was using and taking the generosity of the church and living off the generosity of the church.

And Paul finally says, okay, you needed help and we helped you, but now brother, it's time to go get a job. And every single lady in here said, amen, amen, right? You want your man to work, amen. So he said, hey bro, go get a job. Go use your hands for hard work. Now watch this, he's gonna catch and attach, excuse me, a vision to his work. Then give generously to others in need. Look what he just said. You've been helped by the church. Wonderful, necessary. Hey, you need help this holiday season? We're gonna bless families. Hey, you need a turkey this Thanksgiving? We're gonna bless families. Hey, you need help through a tough moment in your life? We're gonna help you, done. But don't lose a vision for how you can eventually give. Amen, amen. Does that make sense? So Paul's going, brother, you needed help. I helped you, but now it's time to actually start thinking about how could God prosper me to begin to give more to the kingdom? Look how it says it here in 2 Corinthians 9. Let each of you give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity. If you feel any pressure to give, do not give.

If you feel any pressure from me to give, I forbid you in Jesus' name from giving money today. Because God will only accept one kind of offering and it's a cheerful giver. Now notice what Paul says. He says from his heart. So I've kind of been saying it wrong because here's what I say every Sunday. Give as the Holy Spirit leads you. Give only if the Holy Spirit leads you. That's not what Paul said. Paul said, give from your heart. Here's what I think Paul knows that I still need to learn. That if you're following Jesus and you love Jesus and you want to honor Jesus, eventually your heart and God's heart start aligning. And you don't really know, is this me giving or is this God telling me to give? And it's kind of like, yes. Isn't that wonderful? And I actually like that because then it's not so super spiritual. The Lord told me, praise God. How about just, man, I love the Lord and I feel led to give and I know it's not the devil. Devil never told you to give nothing. Look what, okay. Old Testament, King David. He is living in this beautiful mansion. Nothing wrong with that.

Living in a beautiful house, nothing wrong with that. I hope you hear my heart. Nothing wrong with that. But he says this, he goes, man, I'm living in this beautiful mansion, this beautiful palace. My God, the tabernacle, the temple of God was living in a tent. And he goes, it's not right that I live in a house and God lives in a tent. So he says, it's in my heart to build God a house. And Solomon writes about his father and says this in first Kings. My father had it in his heart. God never commanded David to build a temple. God never said, David, build me a house. I don't know what God sounds like, that's not. It was in David's heart. This is why the scripture says, David was a man after God's own. heart. So did God want a temple built? Yeah, because he blessed him to do it. Did David want a temple built? Yeah. Was it the Lord? Was it David? Was it? Yeah. Maybe our hearts could get so intertwined with God's heart that all we want to do is do things for the Lord. What a blessing. What a blessing. What an honor. What a privilege. What an incredible opportunity. Think about that. Think about all of us. Everybody in this room, eventually we all gonna die. We all gonna die. We all gonna die. But a radical group of people said, let's take 10 acres and let's take it from Sin City and let's make sure

these 10 acres never become a casino or a brothel or a dispensary or a bar or a liquor store or condos or anything else and let's plunder hell and let's take 10 acres and let's build God a house. Was it God? Yeah. Was it us? Yeah. What a privilege. It's a whole new way of thinking. Okay, I got to get moving. Lastly, generosity sets me free. Let me have the team come or the keys come. I got to wrap it up. Generosity sets me free. It sets me free. Look what God told Cain. Sin is crouching at the door. When I give, I'm saying yes to God and no to temptation. Look what sin wants to do. It wants to control you. It wants to subdue you, wants to master you, but you can subdue it. You can master it. You can be in charge of your money. And how do I get in control of my money? I surrender it to the Lord. If I can't give it, it owns me. Wow. Let's see, giving is more than just what you give. It's what you're willing to say no to. Generosity is about having integrity with money. I'm going to end with this story. It was the beginning of last year, 2025, January, I think, a cold. I remember it was cold. And a family reached out that I didn't know. And they said, hey, we want to meet with Javen about giving an offering. Now we were building this building and we were cooked. Remember I told that story last week? We were cooked. So I said, yes, I'm free. Wedding anniversary? No, I'm free. You know, birthday? No, I'm free. Like, yes, yes, let's meet. 3 a.m.? I'm free. You know, it was like anybody reaching out with we would like to give, I was like, amen. I, you know, my schedule is wide open because we were cooked. So we met here. I remember it was cold. It was cold in this building. And we had been partnering with, and we still do to this day, partnering with and blessing the Dream Center in LA.

Pastor Tommy Barnett. And in the midst of our own need, we were sending money to LA because we wanted to be a part of that ministry. The Dream Center is a beautiful ministry where they're feeding people and clothing people and helping people and get people off the street. By the way, if you want to give to the Dream, give to the Dream Center. Amen? Right? So, and we give to the Dream Center. And they said, Javen, we love the Dream Center. We love Pastor Tommy and we love your love for Pastor Tommy. And they're talking, they're talking. And they said, and we want to help you start a Dream Center here in Las Vegas. And as soon as they said those words, they were beautiful words, but I knew it wasn't time yet for us to start a Dream Center in Las Vegas. Because we had to finish this building. We didn't have, I didn't know if we were going to finish this project, let alone start another thing. Does that make sense? And they're telling me and I'm nodding. And then they go, so we're going to give you a million dollars to start a Dream Center. No, wait, don't clap yet, girl. It's about to get bad. Hold on. And something in the integrity of my heart said, you know, you can't take that right now. Because you can't start a Dream Center today. You need to believe for this building. You've got one project at a time. You cannot do this right now. But I could feel sin crouching. At my door, because I couldn't, exactly, oh yeah, yeah, praise God, one of these days, amen, give me that check, praise God, we'll get there. And here we would have been 15 months later without a Dream Center and that family would have been going, where's my Dream Center? And I knew I had to say no. So the first million-dollar check ever given to us by a family in this church, I said no to.

And it sucked. I was sick, my stomach was turning, I was sweating, it was freezing, I was sweating. And they were shocked, right? Like everybody's shocked, everyone's like, you're welcome, I don't know, thank you, no, I don't know. And then it's like, okay, see you Sunday, maybe, if you still come here, you know, it's like, it's just bad. And I cried the whole way home, like, did I just miss God? I'm an idiot, who says no to a million-dollar gift? What am I doing? Why would I do? Jabin, you're such a loser. I mean, I was just like, I was going through it, and I called a friend, like, I don't know if I just did the right thing, but I felt like I had to do the right thing, it just felt like the integrity to do to say no, because I know I can't build a Dream Center right now, and I know I can't go buy land right now, we don't got no money for that, the bank ain't gonna give us no money, and I can't hire a new staff, and I'm crying. And all of a sudden he just cackles, belly laughing. Ah, ha, ha, ha, oh my God! On speaker, and I'm staring at my speakerphone like this, and he's, ah, ha, ha, I go, what? I'm crying, he's laughing. He said, welcome to the smallest fraternity in the body of Christ. I said, what's that? He said, a preacher who can say no to money. I said, I'll rebuke you in the name of Jesus. Be seated, be seated. I'm not done yet, be seated. And he said, Jabin, the first million dollar check we ever received as a ministry, I had to say no to. I said, what?

He said, yeah, a family came into our church, they sat down at our desk, they wrote a million dollar check, they slid it across the desk, and they said, we're going to give you this, but we want you to name our children's wing after our family. That pastor took the check, and he slid it back, and he goes, I can't do that. I can't, I can't name our building after a family, it doesn't sit right with me. And they stormed out of the place. He said, a month later, they came with tears in their eyes, and they repented, and they said, we're so sorry we put any kind of thing like that on you. God told us to give it, and they gave him the check. He then told me a story about a mutual friend of ours. The wealthiest man in their state had come under fire for some different things going on in his life. So he called the pastor, and he said, hey man, you know, I'm kind of having a PR nightmare. I'm going to give the church seven and a half million dollars, but I need to do it on a Sunday with one of those big checks, because I need the news to see it, you know, I need it to go viral and all that. And that pastor, my friend, said, no, I'm sorry, we can't do that. Let me just say, that's a man of God, because I'm telling you right now, I put that check on the screen. I put that check on the screen. And that man was so offended, didn't give the money. A few years later, the financial crisis hit in 08, and he lost everything, and he called that pastor back, and he said, I'm so sorry. He said, you're the only person in my life who would ever say no to me. He said, you're really my pastor. I'm so sorry for what I did. They prayed. He ended up getting through that financial crisis, and a few years later, as he recovered, he ended up giving that church $12 million privately without anybody knowing. All right, this is my story.

I'm supposed to be telling you my story. So it ends. Family had a great motive. They wanted to help. They wanted to start a dream center. I had, I believe, the right motive. See, I think God was stretching their faith and testing my faith, because one month before that whole meeting happened, a man of God who did not know me said, there's gonna come a gift of giving on you and your church, and God is going to trust your church with hundreds of millions of dollars. That was a month before. And now I'm saying no to the very thing, because God was testing me. Six weeks later, I get a text. Can we meet with you again? Say yeah. And they say, God told us to give that money. And we had a plan for it, we had a great motive for it, but we realized the Lord told us to give it. And we want to help as we finish this building up. And they pulled out a little personal check. I took it out. I kicked him. I kicked him and grabbed him. And we cried and we prayed. We praised God together. And God provided for us during a very critical time. The first I had to say no, because look, look, I was talking to that preacher about going to hell over whatever. I ain't going to hell over a million dollars.

I'm not going to lose my integrity. And I believe from the time I was 15 years old and I started giving to the time at that time I was 41 years old, God had been putting this generosity barrier between me and sin so that when the temptation came, I could say no. Changes your life. Changes your story. And I'm so glad I have that now in my heart to be able to say no, I said no to that. I can't be bought. I won't be bought. And you can get to that place too where you're not bought. You have integrity. And it's a beautiful place to be to be free from the love of money. All right, so what do we do with all this? Well, you do whatever you want. Give if you want to give, don't give if you don't want to give. Tithe if you are not a tither, if you want to. Keep tithing if you want to tithe, don't tithe. Give an offering. I don't know. You got to go talk to God about it, I guess. You got to be stirred in your heart. But let me just remind you of the promise of God that if you'll honor the Lord with your wealth and the first fruits of your produce, look what will happen. This is Proverbs 3, nine and 10.

And your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with new wine. Barns with plenty is natural. Vats with bursting wine, that's spiritual. In other words, when I honor the Lord, every area of my life begins to overflow. Amen. Hey, I'm hoping that today's message was a blessing to you. I know that God is speaking to you and I pray more than anything, ministering to you, to your soul, to your family, and talking to you about your walk with Jesus and your life in the future. So man, I'm just so honored that you would take time to be with us today. I want to take a moment to just reach out to you. If this ministry has been a blessing, if my preaching and teaching ministry has ever spoken to your heart, I'd love to ask you to prayerfully consider partnering with us in this ministry. Las Vegas is one of the most unreached cities in America, in the most unreached state in America. And we're doing everything we can to tell everybody we can about Jesus. And again, if this ministry has been a blessing to you, would you consider partnering with us? You can go to citylightvegas.com and you can give there. You could send in checks, whatever you want to do. All the giving will be down below,

but again, we can't do this without the faithful support of God's people. As the Apostle Paul said, he said in the book of Philippians, we're partners together in the ministry. And this ministry see hundreds of people every week come to Christ, hundreds of people water baptized every month. And more than that, man, we're just helping people and serving people. And if you've got a heart for missions, if you've got a heart for unreached people, if you've got a heart to see the gospel go to new places, then there is no better place that I could think of, especially in America than Las Vegas. And so if you want to help us, that would be amazing. And I'm just so grateful for you. I'm so grateful you're following along on this journey and I can't wait to see you next week. God bless.