Yeah. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Come on. Thank the Lord.
Give him a great big hand. God’s been so good to us. Amen. Thank God.
I had to give a hug here cuz I I uh this this is Austin. And Austin is from Step
out so the camera can get you at your Austin is from Yakama location.
I so appreciate the men in our house.
Like they they’re men by day, they’re men by night, they are men seven days a week. And part of that is they are bold when they praise God.
And they’re not a they’re not afraid.
They’re not ashamed. I So, so here’s the here’s the here’s what I was thinking. I was I was just enjoying today worship
and praise and I I thought I wonder how many people would think that Austin is a police officer.
He’s up here acting like a enforcer of the law.
The praising policeman. The praising policeman.
I love you. Amen.
Okay. You’re glad to be in God’s house today,
man. I just I I think God’s up to some really good things here today. And I want to welcome all of you in Yakamal,
all of you in Deont, all of you in Belleview, all of you online, all of you right here in Tacoma. Uh, welcome to
today’s today’s gathering. And you know, our our our hope is that we just want to we want
to help you move your life forward in your relationship with God and to be
able to week after week just continue to grow in God’s plan. So, I don’t know where you’re at. You might be brand new
to faith. You you maybe haven’t even come to faith yet, but you’re inquisitive and you’re you’re wondering
about it. You’re thinking, you’re maybe negotiating with God a little bit. And then some of you have served the Lord for 10 years, some for 40 years or more.
And uh wherever you’re at, we just want to continue to help you. That that’s the heart of Champion Center. Help you be a champion. help you to be an overcomer,
help you to win in life. That’s that’s God’s will for your life is that you would overcome every obstacle, all
adversity, continue to be the person that God called you to be, and stay on assignment with his will, his plan for your life. Amen.
So, I want to thank all the great people of Champion Center who at every location who serve uh in in the parking lots, who
serve in our our church kids, who serve today as ushers, serve in technology,
cameras, all all that you do. God bless all of you and u you are all part of
making Yeah. making a difference in people’s lives.
Give somebody a high five. You may be seated. Amen.
Everything I need. Everything.
Everybody say, “The Lord will provide.” The Lord. Say it again. The Lord will provide.
The Lord will provide. twoeek series that I’m in. Last week, I I explained to you that Jehovah Gyra is a place, it’s a
place where Abraham trusted God, obeyed God, and believed the Lord would provide. Now, we we call Jehovah Gyrus,
one one of what’s called the compound names of God in the Old Testament. But it started and originated in a place where where the Lord did provide for
Abraham. And he he he the the scripture says that he called that place Jehovah Gyra. He called the pl it was like this
is the place where the Lord has provided for me. And he was on uh assignment from
God obeying God trusting God. And he took his son Isaac to give him to the
Lord on the mount of what was Jehovah Gyra but it wasn’t named that yet. It
was in uh Mariah in the region of mountains around Mariah and Abraham took his son there and then he looked over in
the thicket and there was a ram there and and the ram was the provision of the Lord and and what God did is he said
because you’ve had faith and you’ve not held back anything from me, you’ve put me first in your life, I’m providing for
you in this place. My message for you today is that Jehovah Gyra, the Lord,
our provider, shows up in the place where we trust, we obey, and believe the Lord will provide.
That’s my message for you today.
Jehovah Gyra shows up in the place where we trust, we obey, and we believe that
the Lord will provide. So from that song, the song we sang today is scripture. I want to read that scripture
beginning with ma Matthew 6:25. It’s a little bit uh lengthy, but it’s the words of Jesus. And he said this. He
said, “Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life.” Everybody say, “Do not worry.” Do not worry. Say it again. Don’t worry.
Don’t worry.
Don’t worry about your life. What you will eat or drink or your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food,
and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them.
Are you not much more valuable than they?
Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? Jesus is
just reasoning here. He’s like, “Think about it, guys. You’re worrying way too much. Worry doesn’t help anything. Worry
worry doesn’t change anything. That like you got to you got to not worry. Don’t worry.” He just like pressing his
thought home to them. And he says, “And why do you worry about clothes? See how
the flowers of the field grow? They don’t labor or spend. And yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all of his splendor was dressed like one of these.
And if that’s how God clothed the grass of the field which is here today and tomorrow thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you?
Oh ye of little faith. So again, do not worry saying what we will what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall
we wear? The pagans run after all of these things. But your heavenly father,
he knows that you need them.
I love I I love the way Jesus reasons this out. He doesn’t try to say it’s not that that you don’t need these things.
It is that God knows you need these things. and and while you’re worrying about and putting all your energy into
how you can have these things in your life, he’s already looking at you with the heart of provision.
He wants to provide for you. He wants to take care of you. So, it’s like Jesus is saying, get your eyes off and out of
worry and get your eyes in a place of faith where you look to heaven and you know that he is the Lord, your provider.
Yeah.
And then he gives the key to them in the New Testament. Same thing that happened with Abraham, but he puts it into
New Testament verbiage. He says, “But seek first his kingdom.” Everybody shout, “First.”
First. Say it again. First. God’s never wanted to be second.
God’s never been interested in being down your list. Right.
He’s always and he he says it right up front. Like he’s not shy about it. He’s not like playing a little barter game
with you. Okay. Well, if you’ll no none of that. Like wants to be first. And he says, “Seek first
God’s kingdom and his righteousness and then all these things that and that what he’s referring to is your your clothes,
your you know your your goods, your the things that you pray for, hope that you have like all these things like food,
like stuff that’s like everyday needs.
All these things are going to be added to you as well.
Just give that promise and what’s the what is the prerequisite to the promise? Seek first the kingdom
and don’t worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will worry about itself and every day has enough trouble of its own. Can you say amen on that one?
Amen.
Amen. So, it’s common today, as it was back then, and maybe even more so, I
would say, for people to worry about not having what they need.
Different people worry about different things at different times in their life.
Like sometimes uh uh I looked up and the the four most important or the four most
common things people worry about. They worry about job security. They they worry about relationships,
worry about health, theirs or somebody else. And and just, you know, I think there’s another one. There is another one. But you get the idea. They’re just
things that are common like that we tend to like get caught up in and worry about.
And and Jesus says,
“Who of you by worrying can help anything?”
And how many of you know that’s easier said than done?
Right? I’m not telling you something today and saying, “Well, that’s just simple and easy.” I’m just saying this is what the Lord tells us to do
to to know that our father in heaven knows we have need but to seek his kingdom and he will provide for you.
God wants you to see him as your provider.
He wants that. He wants you to see everything that you have as coming from him.
Think about this.
If you’re working hard and you’re not able to get ahead, stay faithful. Amen.
See the Lord as your provider. Believe for opportunity and open doors in your life.
If you’ve experienced loss, don’t give up.
Ask God to restore your fortunes. Pick yourself up,
dust off, get back in the game,
and see the Lord as your provider.
See the Lord as your provider.
There’s a a scripture when David said when David and the people in the Old Testament were building the temple, they
brought their offerings for the temple and Dave David said this. I wanted to show you this verse. David says, “But
who am I? Who am I that you keep me out?” Sorry that just Who am I? Who are these people?
that we should be able to give as generously as this.
Like he’s saying, I am blessed to be able to give.
I’m so thankful you gave me the ability to give. It wasn’t like a lot of people like you want me to give.
You telling me to give?
He’s like, who am I that I get this great opportunity to be able to be a part of what you’re doing on the planet?
And then he said this, “Everything comes from you.”
Everything. Somebody say, “Everything.” Everything. Say it again. Everything. Everything.
Everything comes from you. And I I I love this last line. I memorized it when I was when I was uh in my late teens
starting to attend Bible college. And he says that we have given you only what comes from your hand.
Do you notice that?
Like he sees it all as belonging to God and God giving it to him.
Everything comes from you. Now, why is this important?
Well, it’s important because when you give,
let’s just start with the tithe, not offering, but when you give tithe to him, you’re not giving him your money.
It’s all his.
But then he said that the tithe is holy to the Lord. So, if you’re familiar with scripture,
you know that people who don’t tithe,
God calls them robbers. Why would he call people robber? That sounds mean,
doesn’t it? Like me. He’s just simply saying like, you’re taking my money.
That I told you was holy. It’s meant to do holy things. Wow.
He says the 90% is yours to steward over. Do a great job with it if you would steward over it.
Be responsible.
Take care of your families. Invest for increase.
But I want you to understand that everything you have began with me, comes
from me. Every good, every perfect gift comes from the father above.
I want you to understand that. I want you to look at your life like that. Know that you have nothing without me.
You are nothing without me.
And then I’ve got this part that I call holy to the Lord. The 10th,
don’t take it and use it on yourself.
So, what I want to do in the rest of my time, I think we’ll I think you’ll enjoy. I think this will bless you.
I want I want to set the prerequisites for for the things I’m going to tell you now about the Lord providing because I think sometimes people get all excited.
Yeah, Lord’s going to provide. He’s going to provide. you’re going to provide. You’re my provider. And they don’t they don’t understand that there’s prerequisites
in scripture to receive the promises of God.
There’s there’s what’s called conditional promises and unconditional promises in scripture.
And the blessing of the Lord is a conditional promise. Okay?
You don’t have any promises from God that don’t have the condition attached to it.
The only things that you have from God would be the things he’s going to do by his sovereign will with you or without you.
But when it comes to a personal relationship with God, it’s always covenant. It’s always I will if you will.
And he always does a whole lot more in the deal than we do. Always.
I’ll send my son. I’ll give up my son. He’ll die on a cross for your sins.
And what I’ll do for you is I’ll forgive you of all your sins.
My grace will cover you.
I won’t remember those things against you.
I set you free from the curse of sin.
I’ll set you free from condemnation and guilt.
I’ll do all that for you. What do I want from you? I want you to come to me and put me first in your life.
That’s what I want from you.
So I want to I want to just share three ways because I don’t know how you think the Lord provides and I want to help you today with three ways for sure that the Lord provides. Number one is God gives you power to get wealth.
God gives you power to get wealth. This comes out of uh Deuteronomy chapter 8.
I it’s it’s a whole there’s a text there but I just wanted to grab that part. He says basically when I’ve helped you I’ve
blessed you I’ve done great things in your life then you say in your heart my power and the might of my hand have
gained me this wealth. He’s saying when you start thinking like that we got problems.
When you start thinking it’s all you. I don’t like that. I don’t appreciate that. But he says, “You shall remember.”
He’s given them instructions for their future. “You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the
power to get wealth.” Can you say this with me? Say, “God gives me power God gives me power to get wealth.” to get wealth.
Say it again. God gives me power God gives me power to get wealth.
In other words, don’t say, “I went to school. I studied for the test.
I got my degree.
I worked hard for all that I have.
It’s all me.
He’s saying here like don’t don’t think that way.
I want you to remember the Lord gives you the power. He gives you the ability to learn. Yeah.
He gives you the ability to gain knowledge and understanding.
He gives you ideas. He gives you thoughts. He gives you the ability to process. He gives you the ability to
imagine, to come up with solutions, to solve problems.
He gives you the strength. He gives you the skill. All the things that you have came from him.
He gives you the strength to to do labor on the job.
He provides. Listen to he provides for you through you.
Research shows that only 20% of people achieve anything close to their true potential.
Wow. only 20% of us.
And I think it mainly has to do with us not thinking right.
You see, you’re you’re you’re most valuable asset. You’re more powerful than you realize.
You should invest in yourself. You should take good care of yourself. You should be the best you can be.
Right? If you had a million dollar racehorse, you’d make sure it eats the right food,
wouldn’t you?
You’d make sure that racehorse gets the right amount of exercise.
Well, you’re more you’re worth more than a racehorse.
20% of our potential.
That’s kind of average. what most people live in.
I want to just say to to the youth and to young adults today and actually others need to hear this as well, but I
wanted to I want to just speak to the the young people today who are just getting started in your life.
If you can just stay out of your own way,
If you can just utilize what God’s given you,
you have more potential than you realize.
The enemy wants to sabotage you. Wants you to sabotage yourself.
But if you can just stay out of your own way, you will increase and prosper.
Let me stay out of my own way, Pastor Kevin. What’s that mean? Well, well, it means have a good attitude.
Don’t sabotage your future by having a bad attitude.
Who wants to be around somebody with a bad attitude?
Who wants an employee who has a bad attitude? Right? If you can just be cheerful,
if you can be courteous to everyone,
get to work on time, don’t be the first to leave.
There’s a lot of people that look at these things and we see it in our world right now like bad attitudes.
Bad attitudes.
I’m a I’m a I like drinking coffee. I like going to Starbucks.
And I don’t care if you don’t like Starbucks. Doesn’t matter to me. I like them. I But when they got the wrong people working, it’s not nearly as good.
You walk in there and they’re like, “Oh man, another person I got to make coffee for.” They had attitudes.
And they’ve suffered a lot of loss because that’s kind of been the status quo.
And near my house, they brought up a manager from California. the little Starbucks by my house and she’s full of
life and energy and she’s hiring different people. You walk in every everything is better.
And then the lines have come back, the business booming again. I’m just saying like get out of your own way.
Get over yourself and you’re you’re I’m trying to help you today.
You know, be showered, fresh,
put effort into how you look. Got a whole bunch of young people, young adults over here. Keep looking over here. Like,
look people straight in the eye. Always tell the truth. Listen carefully. Follow instructions.
Go the extra mile. Don’t complain. Don’t grumble. Treat the company that you work for as if you were the owner.
Why? Because he provides for you through you.
And when you got it all messed up and you’re sabotaging, he’s like, “Come on, I’m trying to help you.”
And you’re getting funky and weird and coping a stupid attitude.
You’re running with your peers who don’t they they don’t they don’t know how to think any better than you do and you’re just copying what they do. And I’m just saying get out of your own way.
And when you do, God’s like, “Yay, I can use that. I can I can help you.” Now,
God wants to help you through you. Okay.
The second way that the Lord provides is God causes men to give to you.
Jesus says, “Give and it shall be given unto you. Good measure, pressed down,
shaken together, running over.” And then that last line, “Shall men give in to your bosom?” It’s like he could have just said,
“Shall I give to you?” But he didn’t say that. He’s like, “Shall men.” So he
causes men, God causes men to give to you.
He’s basically saying like when you’re generous, I’ll bring people into your life.
I’ll give you favor with the right people. I’ll cause people to want to hire you,
to want to open doors for you, to want to invest in you, and to champion you.
Elijah. Elijah, prophet of God. God God sent him.
He sent him to a woman. He said, “Go to Zerapath.” This is a famine going on. And And he said, “Go to Zerapath.
There’s a woman there who’s going to feed you.” That’s what I’m talking about. God uses people. Amen.
He causes people to want to open doors for you, extend kindness to you, be a blessing to you.
Just after Sheila and I came to the Northwest 40 years ago, a banker asked me if we
had moved our our stuff here yet. We were, as you know, there the the uh first little church that we were pastors
of was in bankruptcy when we came. And so I was talking a lot to bankers at that point. And the banker asked me one day, “Have you moved here?” He liked me.
He wanted me to stay. He didn’t want me to get scared and leave.
He’s like, “I I think something could maybe happen here.” And I said, ‘N no, we haven’t been been able to afford to,
you know, to move here yet with our furniture and all of that. It’s it’s back I’m in the Midwest and personal things. So, I’m literally sitting in front of him and he picks up the phone.
He says, you know, just let me make a call. He picks up the phone. He makes a phone call and he called a large
Christian-owned moving company where we knew no one, right?
and he explained our situation and they put
everything of ours on the truck and brought it all the way across the country free,
no charge and charge us anything.
Now, that’s good enough to clap like you’re clapping. But let me tell you a crazy twist to the story is that it turns out after my mom passed away that
my dad met and married the owner of that moving company.
I got I I became what do you call brother? Like half brother step brother I don’t know. He He was my He became my
brother. The guy who put it on the truck and moved it to us.
Can you see like how we had a lot of fun with that?
Finally, after years meeting up with the the guy who said, “Yes, we’ll do that.”
Now, let me ask you, why did the banker make the call?
Why did the owner want to go through the process?
Why did what compelled him to do something like that for somebody he had never met and didn’t know?
Why? I’m going to tell you why.
The Lord will provide.
That’s why the Lord will provide.
I had a little saying I picked up back years ago. God’s will is God’s will.
You step in, you know, you step into things for the glory of God. And God doesn’t say, “Hey, you’re out out there
on your own right now. Hope you do good.” Let me tell you about this. One of the pastors on our team, Roger and
his wife, Sarah Stanton, they oversee our Celebrate Recovery. Yep.
Now, Roger has been a successful architect overseeing big jobs here in our city. He was the architect over the
$85 million park on Tacoma’s waterfront.
Six-digit salary set up good for retirement. But God put it in his heart to go back to school and get a master’s degree in counseling.
Yeah.
To take steps to be in full-time ministry. It was a massive move of faith. But one of the big lot of lot of
great things happened along the way. But one of the biggest things that happened unexpectedly was when the non-Christian government executive director over him,
the non non-Christian government executive director
sat him down and said to him, “Hey, I’m sad you’re gone, but I want to just help you out.”
He said, “Since you built us a bridge in the park, I want to build you a bridge from one career to the next.”
And he he arranged an early out package that provided a severance that equaled 6
months worth of salary, 6 months worth of benefit, and a guarantee to hire him back if he ever needed it.
Come on. God causes men God causes men to give to you.
So when we sing songs, the Lord will provide and we believe the Lord our provider. I want you to know that we’re not talking about some magic, you know,
formula, a genie in a bottle, something from heaven shows up in our mailbox,
right?
like just shows up. You open your computer, this is heaven sending you
a fresh deposit. No, no, no. We We don’t think of it like that. I’m talking about how God works. Are you hearing me?
And when you start to see it, when you start, you can’t not see it. I see the Lord providing all the time.
I mean, I could tell you story after story. We were going through a tough time in our ministry and one Monday I
got a phone call from our office and they said, “Hey, uh, wanted to let you know we we received an unusually large donation this weekend.”
I’m like, “Praise the Lord.” Like, I knew where we were at. I know I knew,
but I’m I’m like, “So, so how much and who gave it?” They told me how much. And then they said, “We don’t really know these people.
Like, we don’t know their name. They don’t go to our church. They’re not on record anywhere.”
And that was the first of several large offerings that came from somebody out in
the mountains or the hills of Washington who had been watching me on television
and said, “The Lord told them to support us.” And it came at just the right time.
Trying to tell you, God causes people, to want to help you, give to you.
And thirdly, I got to get to this quick.
God supernaturally directs and redirects resources to you.
supernaturally directs Deuteronomy. The Lord tells his people,
he says, “I’m going to give you a land with large flourishing cities that you did not build,
houses filled with all good things that you didn’t provide,
wells that you didn’t dig, and vineyards and olive groves that you didn’t plant.”
What What’s going on there? This is God redirecting resources toward his his people
and the people of God become beneficiaries of of someone else’s resources
that by way of mismanagement or things happening in their life. But but let me tell you tell you a scripture. Proverbs
13:22. It says, “A good person leaves an inheritance for their children’s children.” That’s what we call think three,
but a sinner’s wealth is stored up for the righteous.
You can you can think about that. It’s called the great transfer the great transfer of wealth.
And two ways the Lord uses to direct and redirect resources into your life. Generational blessings and inheritance.
And we’ve seen it happen here in our church. Like we’ve seen people receive inheritance they didn’t know know they were going to receive and then we just
see the tithe off it or man you hear their testimony and they’re like I don’t know how it actually ended up in my hands.
transfers of property.
We’ve had we’ve had people just turn over the deed.
People that don’t attend our church even. I That’s the That’s the amaz I know I keep saying that, but it’s the amazing thing when it’s really from the outside.
It’s like you you don’t you don’t know where. So I I I I learned to like just you, you know, teach and and share the
word with you, but you’re not you’re not our source. God’s our source.
So I don’t want to lean into people. And I I don’t want to be a path who talks
about, you know, giving in a in compulsive ways, arm twisting ways. We don’t do that here. We don’t need to do that here.
We just need to teach God’s word about giving and how God responds and blesses us when we give.
But as a pastor, I I I just trust the Lord. I I trusted the Lord when we had 70 people.
I trust the Lord when we have 7,000 or or whatever we I I trust the Lord when the number goes down. I trust him when it goes up. Like at the end of the day,
the Lord is our provider. all of us, every one of us, he is our provider.
He is your provider.
So, I hope you’re being encouraged. I I hope today like one more good example of that is Joseph. You remember the story
of Joseph when he was betrayed and sold into slavery by his own brothers. Time passes by. He gets introduced to Pharaoh,
the most powerful man in the land who owned more real estate than anybody else in the world, more wealth than anybody.
And God gave God gave Joseph, the boy sold into slavery,
gave him favor with Pharaoh. What was going on there?
Well, God was preparing everything to come under the command of
Joseph. And when famine came to the land, Pharaoh ordered Joseph to oversee everything.
Make decisions with everything I have.
And he even ordered him, Pharaoh ordered him, Joseph, send wagons full of provision to your family in Canaan where
there’s a severe famine going on. And and also just I I want I want want you to send enough wagons to actually bring
them back to Egypt and give them the best of the land.
Now, if I was Joseph, I’d have to really think about that cuz they they sold me into slavery. like you want me to give that to my brothers.
Brought all this pain on me.
But that’s what Pharaoh did for him. He used him to provide not only for himself, but for his family and all the
children and the grandchildren and the children’s children where they could h have their own land and build houses,
have everything they needed for the future.
It’s over and over and over again. You get the point today.
I hope you get it. I hope if you’re in a difficult situation today or in a
blessed place today, I hope you just understand, seek first his kingdom, his righteousness.
Surrender your life to him. Look to him. Work hard, give your best,
do all that you know to do, but look to him as the one who ultimately is your
provider. When things are good, remember the Lord. He is your provider. When
things are bad, remember the Lord. He is your provider. When you seek him first,
the other things will be added. Somebody say no worry. Say it
again. No worry. Say self no worry. The Lord is my provider.
Let’s give the Lord a great big hand right now. He is our provider.
And God, today I thank you for your word. I thank you for your promises. It never returns void. It always accomplishes what it sent forth to do.
Today is no exception to that.
I know that your word is finding good soil to land in today. And I thank you
that you remind us. I thank you that you teach us. I thank you that you prompt
us. I thank you, Lord, today that you convict us. I thank you that you bring things to our memory.
I pray right now, God, that your word would continue to guide us and develop us, teach us, hold us, help us. I pray as we walk out our lives today,
help us, God, today to fulfill your word, your promise in our life, let every person who calls you Lord today,
let them be filled with encouragement today. Let them be filled, Lord, with with the understanding that your favor is on them.
That your blessing is on them.
That if an earthly father desires to give good things, how much more does our heavenly father want to bless us and provide for us?
We thank you, Lord, for all you’ve done,
all you’re doing, all you’re going to do in our lives. And with every head bowed and every eye closed right now, I want to just invite you if you’re here today
and you need a new beginning in your life, in your relationship with God.
You want to turn the page. You want to get a new a new day going. God specializes in new beginnings.
He specializes. He kind of interrupts sometimes what we’re doing, what we’re thinking to say, “Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Will you come my way?
Will you come my direction?
And I believe this is one of those moments for some people today at all of our locations. I believe
this is one of those moments where God’s saying, “Will you let me pause? Let me interrupt. I’m going to use this pastor
guy today to give you a chance to make a new decision in your life. A a decision that will impact your future.
Let me be your leader. Let me be your Lord.
If that’s you today, while people are praying the will of God into this moment, I just ask you to raise your
hand up high. Whoever you are, just good. Hands are going up around this room. I believe around other rooms today. Hands are going up. Thank you,
Jesus, for new beginnings. Thank you, Jesus, for a fresh start. Wow.
Wow. I see at every level of our auditorium here. Hands are up in the air. Keep your hand up if you would. And
everyone at every location, I’m going to ask you to join us in this prayer. And if your hand is up, just say it out loud. Say it loud enough so you can hear
yourself say it. Say this with me. Lord Jesus, welcome to my world. Forgive me of all my sin.
come into my life and make me a new person.
I receive you now receive as my leader as my Lord. I welcome your
will into my life. I want to follow you.
Give you my best for the rest of my life. In Jesus name.
Let’s celebrate this right now. Can we church? Can we just celebrate? God bless each and every one of you who prayed that prayer.
God bless you.
Prayed that prayer of salvation. And uh we just want to say