In this episode of The Red-Letter Crusade, Pastor Bob Thibodeau shares a powerful message on “The Word.” He reminds us that Jesus’ words aren’t just history—they’re alive, filled with life and power to change us today.

Pastor Bob challenges us to go beyond just hearing Scripture and to let it take root in our hearts so our lives reflect Jesus. With his down-to-earth style and a touch of humor, he shows why feeding on God’s Word is just as essential as daily bread. This message will encourage you to make the Word a priority and live it out every day.

Takeaways:

• This episode highlights the importance of understanding Jesus's teachings as a foundation for faith and stewardship.
• Pastor Bob emphasizes that our financial struggles often arise from poor stewardship rather than spiritual attacks.
• Stewardship isn't just about money; it's about managing our resources and responsibilities wisely in accordance with God's principles.
• Gratitude and intentionality in our finances can lead to greater blessings and spiritual growth, especially during the holiday season.
• The Parable of the Talents teaches that faithfulness in small things can lead to greater responsibilities and rewards from God.
• Ultimately, being a good steward aligns our hearts with God's priorities, setting us up for success in all areas of life.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Website: https://WDJSBOOKPROJECT.com

Hey Affiliate Marketers! If you would like to share the Words of Jesus and earn additional income - visit this link for more information: https://wdjsbookproject.com/ffp

Welcome to Freedom Through Faith and the Red Letter Crusade, where the words of Jesus take center stage.

Join us as we bring healing, unity and clarity to your walk with God by focusing on one thing.

What did Jesus say?

Now let's join Pastor Robert Thibodeau for the Red Letter Crusade.

Because when it comes to understanding the entire Bible, his words matter.

Hello everyone, everywhere.

Pastor Bob Thibodeau here.

Welcome to Freedom Through Faith and the Red Letter Crusade.

It is such a blessing to be back with you again today.

Praise the Lord.

I'm excited about today's message, I really am.

Praise God.

Let's go to Lord with a word of prayer and we'll get started today's broadcast.

Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus, we come before your throne of grace and mercy this day.

Thanking you, praising you just for being a child of the most high God, saved by our Lord and Savior, Jesus, the Messiah himself.

Lord Jesus, we pray that your Holy Spirit would lead, guide and direct this conversation today to bring someone somewhere into the body of Christ that they may be born again, saved, forgiven of all their sins.

And Lord, we thank you for the technology you have made available for us to broadcast your message throughout the world.

And Lord, we give you honor, glory and praise for all that you accomplish.

In Jesus name we pray.

Amen.

And Amen.

Praise God.

Join me in a confession of faith commonly referred to as the Lord's Prayer.

We do this each and every week.

Just what I like calling.

Lay the solid foundation upon which we're going to build.

Amen.

Just repeat these words out loud.

Loud enough for your own two ears to hear, folks.

You know, just don't.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

What?

No intentionality.

Praise God.

Be intentional with your prayers.

Say this out loud.

Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God.

And this is red letter words.

Jesus taught us to pray like this.

Our Father who art in heaven, holy be thy name.

May your kingdom come.

May your will be done in this earth just as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Forgive us of our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from all evil.

For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.

In Jesus name.

Amen.

Praise God.

You got your Bibles?

Grab them.

Turn over to Matthew chapter 25.

As we get started today.

Hallelujah.

Now.

We'Re going to talk today about stewardship.

Stewardship.

And folks.

How can I say this?

I want to start with a statement that.

Should serve as a wake up call to the body of Christ.

Really?

Okay.

Because we've been lied to.

Yeah, we have been lied to.

We've been lied to about money for so long that many believers that never question the phrases they grew up hearing.

Amen.

I mean, some were told that money was evil and wanting more money meant that you were greedy, which made them feel guilty for dreaming or planning.

Others were told that if they just said the right words or they claim that they made the right promises, God would drop money out of the sky for them.

Well, neither extreme came from Jesus.

Jesus never taught poverty as being holiness, and he never taught greed as being a blessing.

Jesus taught stewardship.

He taught responsibility, faithfulness, learning to handle what the Master placed in our hands and doing so with wisdom.

Amen.

Jesus said, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

And that one sentence reveals the entire truth behind every single financial struggle we face today.

Because your heart will always follow your treasure.

It's not the other way around.

Jesus used money as a diagnostic tool because money exposes priorities faster than our speeches ever will.

Amen.

He also said, you cannot serve God and mammon because money is a master.

If you don't master money.

Think about it.

You either use your money to serve God or you use your God talk to serve money, but you can't do both.

Jesus, he wasn't trying to scare us with this, okay?

He was trying to warn us about misplaced loyalties.

Oh, Amen.

Glory to God.

And if you're honest with yourself, you'll realize that most of our financial difficulties are not spiritual setbacks.

In reality, they're stewardship issues.

They come from decisions that we make, decisions we have made in the past.

Impulses we didn't restrain.

Responsibilities we delayed.

Boundaries we may have ignored.

You know, Jesus doesn't condemn us for this.

Okay?

But he does correct us.

He offers us correction.

And he does so through the red letters.

Praise God.

Amen.

The clearest teaching on this is the Parable of the Talents in Matthew chapter 25.

Now, this is not.

What can I say?

This is not a motivational story.

It is a kingdom operating system.

Jesus said the Master gave resources to his servants.

How?

According to their ability, which is a revelation of how heaven distributes responsibility.

This means God does not reward your desires.

He rewards demonstrated ability.

Think about it.

He doesn't promote based on what we say we will do.

No, he promotes based on what we have already shown him we can do.

Faithfulness is the foundation of all kingdom increase.

I know this may not be the kind of preaching you want to Hear right now.

Especially at this time of year, right, Right after Thanksgiving, getting ready for Christmas, when credit card balances are going to be increasing exponentially.

But I'm here to warn you, those January statements will come in the mail.

Amen.

Don't shut me down.

I'm preaching.

Good.

I know I'm stepping on toes today.

Praise God.

Those statements that you receive in January will reflect if you were a good steward.

Or not.

Today, with Thanksgiving fresh in our hearts and Christmas right around the corner, this message is even more important than ever.

Amen.

This holiday season.

Exposes our priorities and our habits, gratitude and our stewardship to the Lord.

And Jesus has something to say about all of it.

Amen.

Praise God.

So let's turn over to Matthew 25.

You come right down, verse 14.

Start reading there for a sake of time.

I'm just gonna summarize some of this, but according to their ability.

And the Master is the one who decides.

Gets worse.

What?

Right.

So in Matthew 25, turn over there.

Jesus begins this parable by describing a master who's preparing for a long journey.

And he calls his servants together, and he distributes some operating expenses.

He distributes his wealth among these servants, giving one five talents, another two talents, and another one talent.

Now, this distribution is not just.

Just done randomly.

He is intentional and strategic in what he's doing.

Here.

Look at it.

Scripture says he gave to every man, every man, according to his ability, which reveals God evaluates how we handle what we have before he decides what to give you next.

Think about that.

God watches our patterns, our habits, our decisions, our discipline, long before we ever pray for increase.

And he's not moved by your emotional promises.

He is only moved, according to this, by consistent demonstration of stewardship.

God never gives a new assignment without first checking your track record with what you did with the last one he gave you.

Amen.

He never releases more responsibility if you struggled under the weight of less responsibility.

Think about it.

God's evaluation is accurate because he is wise and never ever unfair.

You may feel it's unfair, but it's not.

And this principle explains why some people, they just seem to experience rapid increase while others feel stuck in place.

And the difference is not favoritism.

It's called faithfulness.

The Master releases more to those who have demonstrated they can handle more.

Now, I know this is deep, so let me lighten this up a little bit here with some Pastor Bob humor, because I know conviction gets heavy.

Imagine giving your teenager $20 so they put gas in their car and they return home with no gas, two energy drinks, a bag of chips, and a story that begins with, well, you see, what happened was right.

No parent in their right mind has that kid 100 bucks the following week and tells him to do the same thing.

No, I mean, you're not being mean here.

You're being wise.

You're simply acknowledging that their stewardship revealed their current capacity of obedience.

And until they show that responsibility with the $20.

Giving them more would not be a blessing to them.

It actually bury them even deeper into a habit that will cost them down the road, wouldn't it?

Well, Jesus applies the same principle to us.

He gives according to our ability.

And our ability is demonstrated by our consistency.

God's increases are assigned to those who treat his blessings.

With intentionality.

Some believers pray for greater opportunities, but ignore the smaller ones that are already in front of them and in their hands.

They'll ask for financial breakthrough while neglecting the stewardship of what they already have.

Folks, heaven does not release more to someone who has not honored what's already there.

Amen.

I know I'm stepping on your spiritual toes right now, especially after Black Friday.

Amen.

I know I am.

But you see, the Master system is simple.

Faithfulness qualifies you for increase.

If you cannot manage the minimum, you cannot steward the maximum.

It's not punishment, folks.

It's actually protection.

Because Jesus teaches us not to shame us, but to really wake us up.

Amen.

The reason many people feel financially stuck is not because God is withholding blessings, but because we have not proven ourselves ready for the next level of blessings.

The Master loves us too much to give us a promotion that would actually crush us in the end.

Because God's increases are based on demonstrated stewardship.

So the question is not what do you want?

But what have you proven you can handle?

Amen.

Until our stewardship matches our prayers.

Our increase will always remain limited.

Amen.

Now let me ask you a question.

Would you like to know where most financial trouble actually comes from?

Huh?

Most of our financial trouble does not come from a spiritual attack, but from a stewardship gap.

Amen.

The enemy.

The enemy gets blamed for things he had really nothing to do with.

Because many of our problems can be traced back to decisions we made.

Be honest with yourself.

Jesus addresses this directly through his teachings about counting the cost, about being faithful in a little, about seeking first the kingdom.

Financial frustration often comes, hear me now.

From impulse spending, from emotional buying, from lack of budgeting or committing to payments in the future that we cannot sustain without God's divine help.

Amen we tend to spiritualize confusion.

When discipline would have prevented the entire problem.

Jesus doesn't condemn us for this, but he does confront it so that we can walk in freedom.

Jesus said, count the cost.

Not to burden us, but to protect us from our own mismanagement.

He calls us to evaluate resources before committing to something, because planning is a sign of wisdom.

Faith never removes responsibility.

Faith directs responsibility.

And many, many believers can cast out devils in the name of Jesus, all while ignoring the debt that they are lingering.

They rebuke financial storms that came really from their own impulsive decisions, not spiritual warfare.

Think about it.

Jesus is inviting us into responsibility because discipline begins.

I gotta say, this discipline aligns us with his blessing.

Amen.

Yeah, that's good.

Being faithful in little is a kingdom requirement.

I know that hurts the feelings of some of you listening to me right now.

I know it does.

You see, faithfulness.

Is not measured by the size of the paycheck, but by the stewardship of the paycheck.

I mean, God looks for order and consistency and intentionality before he releases increase into your life.

Jesus warned us, you cannot serve God and mammon.

It's not possible.

You can't do it because mammon.

Competes for our attention or our affection and is involved in our decision making.

Mammon promises us identity or comfort or control and happiness.

But it never, ever delivers peace.

Amen.

And Jesus confronts mammon not because money's evil.

No, it's a tool.

But because misplaced trust in Mammon, in money, is destructive.

Most people, maybe you.

But most people do not have a money problem.

They have a management problem.

They have enough to live on, but not enough to waste.

And when we ignore stewardship, we magnify stress, and that shrinks our joy, doesn't it?

Amen.

And this brings us to Thanksgiving.

Amen.

A season designed to recalibrate our hearts.

This entire past week has reminded us that everything we have comes from the gracious hand of our Heavenly Father.

Thanksgiving is designed to redirect our focus from accumulation.

To appreciation, from craving contentment, from wanting more, to thanking God for what we already possess.

And the pilgrims understood this in a way modern believers today rarely do or even can.

Look, they endured a bitter winter and disease and hunger and loss on a catastrophic level that we just don't understand.

I mean, they buried more people in the ground, ground than they had sitting at the table for dinner.

Think about that.

Amen.

Yet they stopped and gave God thanks.

They thanked God not because everything was perfect, but because God was still God and he was present.

Thanksgiving was not a feast of abundance.

It was an altar gratitude.

That first Thanksgiving reminds us that gratitude is not based on quantity, but on awareness.

Amen.

Gratitude does not look at what we lost.

Gratitude looks at what we survived and praising God in the process.

Gratitude recognizes God's fingerprints even in seasons of lack.

Can I get an Amen?

Praise God.

Hallelujah.

When we give thanks.

We dethrone entitlement.

We silence comparisons.

We align our hearts with God's goodness.

But the moment Thanksgiving ends, oh, here comes the cultural ambush of consumerism.

Amen.

Before the left, before the leftovers are even cold, the world starts bombarding us with messages saying, you know, screaming, buy now, don't miss this.

Get more hurry before the sale ends.

I mean, Black Friday becomes Black Weekend.

Then Cyber Monday becomes Cyber Week.

And the pressure to buy never stops all the way through to the end of the year.

Then there's a new year sale or end of year sale and all that stuff.

There'll be post Christmases sales and the malls will still be crowded.

Amen.

Amen.

I mean, Thanksgiving says, thank you Lord for what I already have.

That's what it's designed to do.

Then consumerism says, well, you're not enough till you get even more.

What's Jesus say?

Beware of covetousness.

Now covetousness does not mean wanting something.

It means believing you need something in order to feel valuable or happy or whole.

It means we look to things.

To fix what really only Jesus can heal.

It means the world pulls us out of gratitude and into a spirit of grasping at things.

Folks, Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks for our blessings.

Christmas is a time to share love with others.

Neither holiday was meant to drive us deeper into debt or to distract us from Jesus himself.

No, it was designed to bring us closer to Jesus.

So many people overspend during the holidays because they confuse generosity with indulgence.

They feel pressured to prove their love with larger gifts or pressured by culture to buy things they really can't even afford.

And this pressure.

This pressure becomes a trap that follows you into the new year and that generates regret.

I mean, Jesus never asked us to go broke to prove we love other people.

No, love is expressed in our presence.

Not presence.

Love is showing in compassion and conversation and patience and forgiveness and being intentional in moments, not in how many receipts we accumulate.

When you keep the focus on Jesus during the holiday season, you stand against a cultural current that tries to drown you in debt.

Amen.

I mean, you think about it, you can protect your family from the Weight of unnecessary financial pressure.

You can prioritize relationships over the retail.

Thanksgiving creates a heart that recognizes God as the provider.

Christmas invites us to share from the heart God established.

I mean, together, these two seasons teach us stewardship, generosity, and gratitude.

Praise God.

Now.

With our hearts properly grounded, we can return to Jesus's teaching in this parable on the talents.

I guess I could call that my introduction.

Amen.

Praise God.

Let me get a drink of coffee here.

Hallelujah.

You see.

Gratitude prepares us for the lesson.

Stewardship empowers us to live it.

Amen.

And thanksgiving is the soil and obedience is the seed.

And the parable of the talents is not.

Listen to me now.

The parable of the talents is not about the money.

It's about responsibility.

This is Jesus blueprint for how heaven evaluates and then rewards stewardship.

Every single detail in this story reveals the character of the Master and the expectations he has for his servants to perform.

The Master gives five talents to one servant, two talents to another, and one talent to the third.

Now.

These talents were not coins, okay?

They were massive sums of money, extreme wealth.

The Master entrusted each servant with something valuable enough that would shape their entire future.

The first two servants respond with immediate action.

They invest the talents.

They took initiative.

They strategize, they negotiate, and they multiply what they were given.

Their faithfulness shows their understanding of the Master's heart.

Amen.

Then we come to the last servant.

He responds in fear.

He buries the talent until the Master returns.

He preserves instead of producing.

He protects instead of progressing.

You see, fear will always bury what faith was designed to multiply.

Fear freezes our potential.

Fear suffocates our purpose.

Now.

The Master here is not harsh when he calls the servant wicked and slothful or lazy.

He's simply being accurate.

He recognizes that fear based stewardship never honors the gift or the giver.

Jesus teaches this parable so we can examine ourselves.

We are either multiplying or bearing what God gives us.

We are either advancing or avoiding.

That's it.

The Master's reaction to this unproductive servant exposes the seriousness of stewardship.

He takes the talent away from the servant who buried it, and he gives it to the one who multiplied the most.

Amen.

Listen to me.

Heaven redistributes resources based on demonstrated responsibility.

That's not being unfair.

We want to be honest.

It's called divine wisdom.

Because God does not reward potential, he rewards obedience.

He entrusts more to those who have proven they can handle more.

Amen.

Stewardship is not about the size of the gift.

It's about the faithfulness of the servant because God evaluates what you do with what he gave you.

Faithfulness.

Faithfulness is the currency of promotion in the kingdom of heaven.

Amen.

Yeah.

Praise God.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

There are three purposes, really, if you want to get down to it.

There's three purposes of kingdom giving.

To demonstrate trustworthiness.

Second, to increase the kingdom, and third, to release the blessing.

Amen.

Giving in the kingdom is never, never, never, never, never.

Just about the money.

Jesus teaches that giving reveals the condition of the heart, the maturity of the steward, and the readiness for promotion.

Amen.

Giving is a spiritual action that has, we can call them, natural consequences and eternal impact in the future.

And Jesus makes this very clear.

You read this In Luke chapter 16, verse 10, I think it is when he says, he that's faithful in that which is the least is what faithful.

Also in the much.

That verse is not simply about behavior.

It reveals heaven's evaluation system or evaluation scorecard.

Faithfulness over little is the qualifying factor for receiving.

Greater opportunities, greater responsibilities, and greater assignments.

Amen.

The first purpose of giving is to demonstrate to the Master you can be trusted.

That's the first purpose.

Trust is not built on emotion or sentiment or crying or nothing.

It is built on patterns of faithfulness over time.

Heaven studies our habits long before heaven increases our resources.

For some, that's a bad thing because you've been studied.

For others, it's a good thing.

Jesus said, if you have not been faithful with unrighteous man, who will trust you with true riches?

Think about it.

This means God uses financial management as the training field and our personal evaluations for spiritual promotion.

If we cannot steward temporary resources with discipline, we'll never steward eternal assignments with wisdom either.

I mean, just think about it.

I know this is a slap in the face to many of you.

Listen to me right now.

I know that.

But Jesus wants you to get a slap in the face to wake you up spiritually and Amen.

I mean, every time you give.

You demonstrate where your loyalty lies.

Giving, says God, you are first.

You come before my comfort, before any other impulse.

You come before any other fear.

Giving proves that the Master can trust you to move his resources in the direction of his priorities.

Because heaven is looking for stewards, not spenders.

Heaven is looking for servants who treat money as a tool, not a trophy.

When the Master finds a trustworthy steward, he will place more in their hands because he knows it will not be wasted.

That's why Jesus sat across from the treasury watching people give.

He didn't do this to embarrass anyone.

He did it to reveal that giving is really a heart test.

Remember the widow and her two mites?

Those two mites carried more weight in heaven than the large offerings given.

With no thought or sacrifice effort made.

Her giving was not about the amount.

It was about the trust she demonstrated because she gave all all that she had because she trusted God to sustain her and heaven responded to her heart, not to her handful.

Amen.

Now the second purpose, as I said in giving.

Is to bring increase to the kingdom of God.

Jesus says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and kingdom first.

Giving is the practical expression of kingdom first living.

Amen.

You cannot claim to put God first while putting his work last.

Financially.

Kingdom increase happens only when believers invest in gospel work.

Every soul reached, every believer strengthened, every ministry supported becomes fruit that continues long after the giver is forgotten about.

Your giving becomes spiritual.

Multiplication.

Instead of addition, it's being multiplied.

When you fund kingdom work, you become a participant in the mission of Jesus.

You help carry the gospel into places you will probably never go personally.

You help lift up the red letter words of Christ.

Homes and churches and cities and nations around the world.

Praise God.

That's what this whole book is about, the red letter words of Jesus.

No personal commentary or anything like that.

It's just the red letters.

Supporting ministries like this book project and the red letter Crusade is part of that calling.

Amen.

These projects place the words of Jesus directly into hands of hearts and ears of people who desperately, desperately need to hear them.

Every dollar invested in this work produces fruit in eternity.

Amen.

Glory to God.

Hallelujah.

Kingdom giving accelerates evangelism and discipleship and restoration and revival.

Praise God.

It amplifies the voice of Jesus exponentially.

It multiplies the reach of the gospel around the world.

And that brings me to the third purpose.

The third purpose of giving is to position the giver under a divine blessing.

Praise God.

Jesus said, what give and it what you give shall be given to you again.

Because giving unlocks a spiritual law of reciprocity.

God responds to generosity because generosity aligns your heart with his own nature.

Jesus also said, with the measure you use.

It will be measured back to you.

Ooh, that could hurt a lot of people today.

Because heaven responds proportionately.

Hear me now.

Proportionally to your willingness to release what God has already put into your hand designated to give to others.

Blessing is not a bribe from God.

No, it is a principle set in motion by your demonstrated obedience.

Amen.

Praise God.

God does not bless giving to reward greed.

He blesses giving to empower stewardship.

He extends favor and opportunity and wisdom and increase to those he can trust with more of the same.

Praise God.

Blessings may come in many forms, far more valuable than money.

Okay.

Blessings may come as supernatural peace or open doors or new relationships or divine ideas.

Blessings may come as protection from financial harm or from.

From insight that saves you from loss.

When you give, folks.

You are aligning yourself.

With a divine flow.

Giving breaks the fear, the grip of fear.

Giving releases the weight of greed and opens your life to God's provision.

Amen.

Giving will allow heaven to release resources into your life without those resources destroying your life.

Amen.

Some people fear giving because they believe they'll lack if I give you this money, then I'm going to be lacked.

Jesus confronts that fear straight on, doesn't he?

He teaches that giving leads to increase over and over.

You never see him say giving leads to decrease.

He teaches that generosity is a sign of spiritual maturity and a pathway to divine blessing.

Despite what some TV preachers may say, blessing does not always come instantly, but it will always come accurately, proportionately.

God knows exactly when and how to release provision into your life.

He knows what you need and when you need it.

And he knows also what will develop you or what will hurt you.

Giving demonstrates who you trust.

Who do you trust?

Giving demonstrates where your heart leans in at.

Giving demonstrates your readiness to receive more.

Kingdom giving builds the kingdom.

Kingdom giving strengthens the giver.

Kingdom giving honors the Master.

Amen.

Praise God.

I hope you're taking notes on all that.

I'm gonna go back and listen to this tape myself.

Because giving aligns with your purpose, your responsibility, your personal reward.

That's why Jesus emphasizes so strongly in his teachings.

Giving is not about the church needing money.

Giving is about the believer needing alignment.

Giving is about the heart.

Learning, obedience.

Giving is about responding to the promptings of the Master because the Master promotes those who multiply, not just those who are maintaining.

Amen.

You could read that in the story Matthew 25.

Heaven pours increase into the hands that release, not into the hands that cling.

Generosity is not about wealth.

Generosity is about willingness.

Oh, amen.

Praise God.

All right, Lord, let's keep moving on here.

Praise the Lord.

Clock keeps ticking, doesn't it?

Let's talk about practical stewardship, because that's where daily discipline really builds eternal destiny.

Amen.

Because, folks, stewardship is not a mystical concept.

It is the daily discipline of managing what God has already placed in your Hands.

Jesus taught that stewardship is not just theory.

He didn't teach it as a lifestyle.

Because what you do daily shapes what God can entrust you with eternally.

Good intentions do not produce kingdom results.

No discipline habits produce kingdom results.

And the first practical principle of stewardship is simple.

Track your treasure.

Amen.

But yet, that's where a lot of us are messing up the very first step.

Jesus said, where your treasure is, there is where your heart will be also.

Which means you cannot know about your heart without knowing about your spending.

Oh yeah.

Tracking where your money goes reveals, truly reveals what you value and what you prioritize and what you avoid.

You cannot steward what you refuse to look at.

Many believers experience financial stress not because they lack resources.

Hear me now.

Because they lack clarity.

Ignorance is not innocence.

Ignorance ends up being very expensive.

So stewardship is the first principle.

And if stewardship is the first principle, then budgeting has to be the second principle.

Many people think of budgeting as a bad thing.

But folks, a budget is not a restriction, really a direction.

Because without direction, money will just drift around into places you never intended for it to go.

Jesus said to count the cost because intentional planning reflects intentional faith.

People who fear budgets.

How can I say this, Lord.

Just say it.

They fear accountability.

They want miracles without management and increase without insight.

But Jesus ties increase directly to stewardship.

Because budgeting honors God with your intentional giving.

Amen.

Thirdly, budgeting will eliminate the waste.

Many financial difficulties come from unnecessary expenses that drain resources so slowly but consistently.

Eliminating that waste is not about deprivation.

It's really about alignment.

Because some problems disappear when your subscriptions you never use disappear.

Some financial crisis or stress leaves when bad habits leave.

So simplifying your life helps to strengthen your stewardship.

Amen.

I want you to see something here, folks.

Jesus never condemned the poor, not one time.

But he confronted wastefulness all the time.

Waste is a sign of misalignment between purpose and practice.

Eliminating waste really is stewardship in action.

Amen.

Fourth.

Before you can see prosperity, you must always give first.

Jesus said, seek first the kingdom, which means the kingdom should not receive your leftovers.

Giving first is a declaration that God's priorities outrank your personal impulses.

Oh, I know this is getting heavy.

Giving after everything else is not giving.

It's called tipping.

Giving first requires faith and courage and discipline.

It positions your heart to trust God's provision instead of your paycheck.

Fifth, you need to invest in a skill.

Your income grows when your wisdom grows, because stewardship includes your personal development, excellence, honors God because excellence reflects God's character.

If you become excellent in some skill set, God can use that excellence to bring increase into your life.

Then you can also be a blessing to others.

Glory to God.

I mean, this is a never ending circle.

Amen.

But it does require you to take the first step.

Jesus said, to whom much is given, much will be required.

That applies to talent and time and training.

Folks, investing in yourself is not selfish, really, it's strategic.

Because God cannot bless gifts you never sharpen.

Amen.

Sixth.

Support kingdom assignments.

With intentionality.

The kingdom you support is the kingdom you experience.

And the kingdom you experience becomes the kingdom you reflect.

Think about it.

Supporting the work of God strengthens your spirit and aligns your purpose with Heaven's mission all the way down the road.

Amen.

Kingdom stewardship requires both discipline and generosity.

Generosity without discipline, folks, that leads to chaos.

But discipline without generosity, that leads to dryness.

Jesus teaches the balance of both because balance is what produces fruit.

Stewardship also will develop maturity in you.

Maturity will develop your capacity.

And your capacity is determined by your level of responsibility.

You see how it all flows together like one stream.

Amen.

I mean, praise God.

Some people desire promotion without preparation.

They pray for increase, but they want to avoid the process that prepares them to carry the increase.

God cannot bless what you will not build.

He just can't do it.

If he did, he'd be wasting kingdom resources.

If he did, somebody else would be lack because you wasted it.

So he requires you to line up with him, not the other way around.

Amen.

Stewardship is not about getting rich.

It's about getting responsible with what you already have.

Then he can give you more so you could distribute that more.

It's all about managing what you have already with intentionality, with purpose, and with gratitude.

Remember from our story here in Matthew 25, God promotes stewards, not spenders.

Think about it.

Amen.

When you take stewardship seriously, heaven takes your increase seriously.

God is being drawn to disciplined servants because discipline reveals trust in God.

And trust is the soil where increase will grow.

Amen.

Stewardship is not glamorous work, but it is powerful.

It is built through these small individual decisions you make throughout the day, daily consistency and intentional daily habits.

It's formed in the quiet moments when there's no applause being heard, no attentions being given to it.

But guess what?

Jesus rewards what is done in secret.

Faithfulness in private creates promotion in public.

Obedience in the unseen places will prepare you for assignments in the visible places as well.

Amen.

Praise God.

So stewardship is a daily choice, not a New Year's Day resolution.

Every decision moves you closer and closer to increase or deeper and deeper into stress.

One of the two small habits builds large destinies, not the other way around.

Amen.

Every single dollar in existence, in existence has a destination.

Whether you choose it or not.

Every single purchase you made is a seed into something of some kind.

Whether it's into the store or into the offering plate, it's a seed of some kind being sown for your future.

Every act of discipline is a brick being placed in the foundation of what will become your destiny.

Amen.

If you want to shift your financial future, you must first shift your daily habits.

If you want to experience peace instead of pressure, you must align your practices with God's principles.

He doesn't align his principles with your practices.

No, it's the other way around.

You must align with Him.

Amen.

So transformation begins with your intentional choices.

Folks.

Jesus never asked us to be perfect.

He asked us to be faithful.

And faithfulness is not about skill.

Faithfulness is all about consistency.

God can strengthen and God can multiply anything we bring to him if we bring it to him in faithfulness and with consistency.

If you refuse to steward what you have now, that means you will struggle to steward more later.

You cannot manage small responsibilities because larger ones will crush you.

Increase with no preparation would just become a burden to you.

You know, as you know, I was in the military and in the military if you have a big, we'll say 6 foot 6, 280 pound private who can crush cinder blocks with his head, right?

That's a good thing to a point.

But you can't put that private in charge of a platoon or a company though, because he'll get everybody killed quickly.

You have to train him in the way he should go, giving him practice and leadership skills slowly over time.

And in a couple of years, he could possibly lead a platoon into battle.

Give him more training over more time over years.

And yes, he could possibly eventually lead a company of men into battle successfully, but not as soon as he graduated basic training.

Doesn't matter how big he is, he get himself killed and all his buddies too, right?

Well, it's the same way with the Kingdom of God.

You must be trained properly, you must demonstrate ability to handle the little bit before God promotes you to the next level and finally, ultimate prosperity.

Amen.

I mean, in the military you start off as a private, then you become a private first class and then a specialist or a corporal.

And now you're in charge of two or three people and then a section leader.

And after the section leader, you know, you might.

You might have, you know, seven or eight people in your section or squad.

And then section leader, you got 25 people.

Four squads, we'll say, and then a platoon, you've got 30, 40 people with three or four different sections.

And then you get charge of a company.

You know, a first sergeant or a lieutenant goes.

Becomes a captain.

And then a battalion and then a brigade.

And then you got a whole division with 12,000 people in your responsibility for.

They didn't put a brand new second lieutenant in charge of 12,000 people and lead them into battle.

No, it all goes to demonstrated ability.

That's where the promotions come from.

Amen.

I know, folks, this is going against all the prosperity preaching that you hear of all the time, but they are talking on the ultimate level.

Okay?

I'm using my training as a drill sergeant right here to explain to you how to get to that level the fastest.

As a drill sergeant, my job was not to make trainees feel good about themselves.

No, it was not.

But my sole job was to teach them the fundamentals of being swift.

Sometimes the fundamentals.

How could I say this, Lord?

The lessons were swift, painful, and memorable.

We'll put it like that.

Where they would remember their shortcomings and then learn the proper way of doing it.

That was not so painful.

Okay.

But it was always memorable.

Amen.

Basically.

I guess that's what we're doing here today.

Praise God.

Because if you're saying ouch several times during this teaching today, let that serve as a wake up call.

Amen.

Praise God.

Because stewardship will unlock opportunities for you.

Stewardship will release wisdom.

Stewardship will produce confidence.

And when you steward well, you can walk into this next season, next year with order instead of chaos.

You can enter new assignments with clarity instead of confusion.

You can move forward with purpose instead of panic.

You can be in awe and wonder instead of wondering what you're gonna do.

Jesus teaches stewardship because it positions you for maturity.

And maturity will position you for promotion.

And promotion positions you for maximum impact.

Amen.

That's why stewardship is not optional for kingdom people.

Stewardship is obedience.

And stewardship is worship.

When we steward what God gives us, we demonstrate gratitude for the blessings he provides.

We show him that we do not take his gifts to us lightly.

We.

We prove that we understand the value of what has been entrusted to us.

Stewardship is the pathway to our stability in the future.

And stability will create confidence, and confidence is what builds our influence.

Amen that's why stewardship, folks.

Stewardship must be practiced in every season, especially between Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year.

Praise God.

Thanksgiving cultivates gratitude for what we have.

Christmas invites generosity with what we have, and the New Year signifies new beginnings.

Amen.

Together, these seasons call us back to stewardship.

They call us to be intentional with our money, our time, our energy, our decisions.

Amen.

They call us to honor God through our discipline and our generosity.

They also call us to support kingdom work with our stewardship and our giving.

Amen.

So you need to become a servant that the Master can trust.

And the parable of talents here in Matthew 25, which we study today.

It ends with a dramatic moment that reveals exactly how Heaven operates.

The Master returns, praises the first two servants who multiplied what they were given and said, well done, good and faithful servants.

Enter into the joy of your Lord.

Their faithfulness over little became the foundation for their promotion in his business.

Over much.

Brother Bob, you said it was like 20 years wages.

Yeah, maybe I didn't go into that in detail.

I may have skipped over that on my notes.

A talent, if you look it up, a talent in that day was equivalent to 20 years wages.

One guy got five talents, think about it.

Another got three and the other one got one.

20 years wages.

So if you made 50 grand a year, this guy got a million bucks.

Amen.

This guy, you know, the one with three, he got what, $150,000.

Whatever.

And third guy, he got a whole year's wages.

What could you do with a million dollars?

What could you do with $150,000?

What could you do if someone just gave you $50,000?

Amen.

That was giving them, putting them into a position where they could impact not just the Master's business, but their own lives as well.

Amen.

But notice the Master had more.

He had more than that.

I mean, we just looked at what, $1.25 million?

We'll just say he had more than that.

That's what he gave them to run the business with.

That's what the Master gave them to manage.

He had more.

Yet they had proven themselves prior to that point where he was getting ready to leave.

So the Master trusted them with that amount.

Remember, it said, according to their ability.

What would happen right now if God blessed you?

I don't know, winning the lottery or something, you suddenly had $250 million in your bank account or something.

What would be the first thing you did.

If you said anything except give half of it to my church or ministry work?

Well.

I'LL just call that a clue as to why you haven't received that amount yet.

Amen.

Don't shut me down.

I'm preaching.

Good.

Praise God.

Think about what we've been talking about all morning here.

Amen.

And you'll see that I'm right.

Amen.

Promotion in the Kingdom is never random.

It is always the result of proven stewardship, faithfulness, consistent obedience.

The Master celebrates not the size of the return, but the heart of the servant.

Amen.

And faithfulness is not measured by the amount you were given.

It's measured by what you did with what you had.

The five Talent man and the two Talent man received the same praise because both were faithful according to, Hear me now.

According to their ability.

Amen.

The tragic ending of the story lies with the one Talent servant.

He returned the talent exactly as he received it.

But he returned it without increase.

And he protected instead of produced.

He maintained instead of multiplied.

Amen.

And Jesus called that servant wicked and lazy, not because he was immoral, but because he was unproductive.

Fear, folks, will always bury what God designed to grow.

Fear will always shrink what God intended to expand.

So folks, as we get ready to close, I just want you to know that the WDAGS Book Project is.

How can I say this is examples of Kingdom assignments worthy of support.

These efforts put the red letter words of Christ into the hands of believe and seekers around the world.

And your giving and supporting this work is all about fulfilling a calling, demonstrating you can be trusted with more participate in the expansion of the Kingdom.

So go over to wdjs Book Project right now and click that link and become part of something bigger than yourselves.

And we're back.

Next time.

Till then, this passed by reminding you to be blessed in all that you you do.

Thank you for joining us for this session of the Red Letter Crusade.

Remember, in a world full of noise, only one voice still speaks with eternal truth.

That's the voice of Jesus through the red letter words in the Bible.

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Remember, in a world where clarity is needed now more than ever, his words matter.