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one day you are going to wake up and go, "You know, we have more than we need! We really
do! We have way more than we need!" Then, because we have a heart of generosity, you
are not going to think the more is all for you, instead you are going to realize, this
is a place that I can be more blessed by giving. So, not only do you tithe to your church,
return 10%, but you give offerings whenever you can, and then when you see some need,
you just jump in and go, "I can meet that need!" When you see someone wanting to go
on a mission trip, you don't even have to pray about it, because you have got more than
you need. You just cut a check immediately. Someone else who is need, you reach out to
help them, why? Because you are more blessed. Your basket is overflowing. You are experiencing
the abundant blessings of God. You don't have a 'bag mindset', you have got a 'basket mindset'.
Little Anna, she is 11, my daughter; she has a basket mindset. She came in one day and
she goes, "Daddy, I need $40.00." I said, "Get to work!" She said, "I've got $20.00
for my birthday money, but I need $20.00 more. I need this bad!" I said, "Let's do some jobs!"
So, I gave her a job for fifty cents, next day a job for a dollar, next day a job for
fifty cents, and she worked and she worked and she worked and she worked. And after several
weeks, she came in and she brought me a *** full of $1.00 bills, some change and dimes
and she said, "Dad, here is my $40.00." "Okay." She said, "Daddy, I want to use this to buy
Bibles. Mommy told me in China there are people that don't have Bibles and I want to buy 20
Bibles with this $40.00, because mommy told me I could do this! I sat back and I said,
"Baby, this is one of the proudest moments of my life!" Here is a little girl who truly
knows that she has more than enough and she wanted to be a blessing to others. It is the
'basket mindset'. I don't want to trust what is in the bag, God is a God who overflows.
I have got more than enough. I'd love to meet needs of others.
The third type of mindset, and this is where I pray that some of you will be faithful enough
to experience this one day. There is the bag, there is the basket. Number 3 is what I call
the 'barn mindset'. This is the one who knows that God is infinitely more than enough. Deuteronomy
28:8 says this, "The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your
hand to." Imagine this, imagine you are faithful with what is in the bag, and then you are
what is in the basket, and then one day God gives you barns that are overflowing. God
gives you barns that are overflowing. Joseph experienced this in the Old Testament. When
he was faithful, God elevated him from the pit, and he was faithful in prison, and God
put him in a palace one day, and as he was faithful, there a great famine came and he
said, "You know what, I've got barns overflowing!" He was able to feed everyone in Egypt because
his barns were overflowing. When you are faithful in a similar way, guess what God will do?
God will use you to bless many, because your barns will be overflowing. You won't be just
a tither, that is a beginning point for givers, you might be a 'twither'! You know what a
twither is? That is someone that gives 20%. I have got a good friend, he has the barn
mindset. He tried to out give God. He said, "I want to give more and he went to 20%, then
he went to 30%. This guy now lives off 10% and gives 90% away! Very blessed! The 'barn
mindset'.
Here is the deal though. God wants to know, how much can he bless you with? Are you going
to be a 'bag person', a person who never has enough? Or, are you going to be a basket,
a funnel, that lets the overflow be a blessing to others? Or, will you have such great faith,
that you are going to say, "You know, this stuff isn't for me, I would give generously."
You are going to have a 'barn mindset'. God wants to know how much he can bless you with.
Luke 16:10; "Whoever can be trusted with very little.." (What's in the bag.) "...can also
be trusted with much," (What is in the barn.) "...whoever is dishonest with very little,"
(the bag) "...will be dishonest with much." So, if you've not been trustworthy in handling
worldly wealth, he said, "Who will trust you with true riches?" (Who will trust you with
the blessed life?)
Proverbs 3:9-10 shows us how God is actually watching and testing us. The Bible says, "Honor
the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops;" (For us, that would be
the first tenth. We return to God the first tenth. The tithe belongs to God.) "Then,"
the Bible says, "Your barns will be filled with overflowing." The beauty of the tithe
is that it teaches us to trust God. It teaches us that God can do more with 90% that is blessed,
than 100% that is not blessed. When we return the tithe back unto God, he blesses our finances.
When we don't, Scripture says you are under a curse. When you return to God the tithe,
the tithe actually breaks the grip of materialism where we want more. We think it's all for
us, and it teaches us to put our faith in God. You will be blessed. I can only imagine
God saying, "I'd like to give you barn blessings, but many of you think that if I give you more
it's all for you!" It's not all for you, because I want you to be more blessed. Having more
than enough, that you can be more blessed to give than to receive.
There was a guy in the New Testament who thought everything was for him. Jesus told this parable,
Luke 12:16, he said; "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought
to himself, 'What should I do? I have no place to store my crops.' "Then he said, 'This is
what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store
all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid
up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." Which is what so many of us
do today, we think everything in the barn is for us, right? "I need a bigger house,
bigger car, nicer clothes, new boats, I can be so blessed by God to get my boat, that
I can go to the lake on the weekend and forget about God and church." Sorry, I just stepped
on a few of you right there! "I will tear down my barns and I will bigger ones.." because
I believe that everything in the barn is for me. "But God said to him, 'You fool! This
very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared
for yourself?' "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but
is not rich toward God." Check this out, God was not angry at this man because he was blessed.
God is the one who blessed him. God was angry at him because he didn't know how to be blessed.
He thought that all of the blessings were for him. This was a guy that had 'barn blessings'
with a 'bag mindset'. I will say it again, this is a guy that had 'barn blessings' with
a 'bag mindset'. And may I say very respectfully, that is most of us. That is most of us. You
are going to say, "Well, I don't have a barn, I don't have a barn." No actually, you've
got a barn most of you for your cars. When you look at your life compared to the people
around the rest of the world, you have 'barn blessings' with a 'bag mindset', and the reason
you are not more blessed is because you still actually believe it is more blessed to receive
than it is to give.
I went on a mission trip to help build homes for people. Some of you say, "Craig, you look
like you've lost weight!" I have! My wife read a book about not feeding me meat and
I've lost weight. Some guys go out of town to drink beer and chase women, I go out of
town for a steak, baby! I went to this place and there were these people and I was thinking
to myself, we are so much more blessed than them. They had nothing, no toilets, no running
water, nothing. There was this lady who brought us into a little hut, you couldn't even call
it a house. She served me meat, and my thought was, "I wonder what animal that was, because
I don't see any cows around here. I ate it. Afterword, my translator said, "Craig, did
you realize that she didn't have any meat on her plate?" I was like, "Well, why is that?"
She said, "You heard that you loved meat and you didn't get very much. So, this woman has
been saving up for 6 months so that she could bless you with meat." I thought to myself,
here I am a guy who has everything, and she has nothing! And then, it dawned on me, you
know why those people are often truly happier and more fulfilled than we are? It's because
they are actually often more blessed. Not blessed with the material things that really
don't matter, but they know that it is more blessed to give then it is to receive.
As for me and my household, we no longer have a 'bag mindset', we no longer just have a
'basket mindset'. But, we truly believe that what God has given us, he has given us to
be a blessing to others. The more we give, the more we are blessed. I believe that God
wants to bless your life. The key to a blessed life is a heart of generosity. It is more
blessed to give then it is to receive.