God has an extremely amazing plan for our lives.
This is week 1 of the series, “Secure the Bag”.
This is the time of year that we take to honestly realign our lives and get stronger; Stronger is the word for the year to get stronger in the areas of stewardship, finances, and generosity.
Since the onset of Mike’s ministry at Transformation Church (TC), the leaders started teaching TC to live a blessed life. Not just a blessed wallet, or a blessed home, but a blessed life. Many of us don’t know how to live a blessed life.
Robert Morris, one of Mike’s spiritual mentors from afar, wrote a book outlining how to live a blessed life. Mike initiated the teachings on living a blessed life, then God advised him to let the church learn through video.
This was Mike’s opportunity from God to be an example of being HOT, humble, open, and transparent. The church, including Mike, listened to Robert Morris, “The Blessed Life”, for 5 weeks in a row. Mike took notes from the pews and led by doing what was best for the people following him.
Every year, God would continue to give TC more revelation. Then a few years ago, God led Mike to teach a couple of messages in the series. The church did “Wait Til I Get My Money Right”, then last year, “Ducks in a Row”.
This year, we’re doing “Secure the Bag”.
As a vital note, this is a season of abundance for the church, e.g. the building is paid off. This series is not being taught because the church needs more money. TC isn’t having a separate offering or anything of that nature. This is being taught because Mike is passionate about you living a blessed life. He doesn’t want the church to flourish as an organization, but for the church as an organism to fail to flourish. Mike wants your life, your bank account, your health, to be blessed.
Declare that you will live a blessed life.
Transformation Church has been called to be a generous church. In the early years, the church took up an offering and raised $8,000 to give away. This was a seed to mark TC as a generous church. Today, during the next 4 weeks, the church will be giving away $350,000 to different organizations and non-profits that helped changed cities, the US, and the world.
Due to TC’s generosity, and the people who already caught this message of the blessed life, we’re able to be a blessing, not just ask for one.
What would happen if you could be a blessing and not just ask for one? What would happen if you walked into the room and it was clear that the blessing just showed up?
It is Mike’s desire that we can be the blessing people are praying for wherever we work, wherever we go, i.e., the answer to prayers instead of just praying for them. That takes us being able to walk in a level of generosity and stewardship that allows us to live the blessed life.
What is the concept of securing the bag?
Proverbs 11:24 (MSG)
24 The world of the generous gets larger and larger;
the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.
In the kingdom of God, when we are generous with our gifts, our talents, our finances, our love, people’s world gets bigger and bigger. However, when we hold back, and try to keep it only for ourselves, or our family, our world gets smaller and smaller.
Some of us are in a tight space, not because of where God wants us, but because of where our faith is in terms of generosity.
For instance, over the years, God will bless you, but you won’t give anything. He’ll expand you, but you won’t share your knowledge. He gives you more contacts, but you won’t hook anyone else up. Then your world begins to collapse on you. You’re claustrophobic because of what you have done.
Today, Mike wants us to get stronger in the areas of generation and stewardship.
So, what is “Secure the Bag”? – It’s an expression used to describe the act of taking advantage of a situation or keeping something of value.
Today, we’ll be discussing what we value.
When we think of what we value, our natural inclination is to secure it.
We keep things secure because they’re valuable, OR, because they’re vulnerable.
The thing about our lives, especially with finances, the only reason we secure something, is when what’s extremely valuable, becomes extremely vulnerable.
1. The Only Reason You Secure Something, is When What’s Extremely Valuable becomes Extremely Vulnerable
When it’s valuable and vulnerable, you secure it.
Anecdote: Mike displayed a photo of himself, Natalie, MJ, Bella, and Ava standing in front of Disney World wearing matching turquoise shirts. He said that the night before, he got to a webpage talking about kids who got lost at Disney World. He started freaking out, then stayed up all night designing T-shirts for the trip. He didn’t do it for aesthetics, but because what was valuable, his family, would be vulnerable when they got to Disney World. When something is valuable and vulnerable, we’re naturally inclined to secure it.
So when we think about our finances, our families, our gifts, and our talents, many of us have been securing it because it’s valuable to us, but in some area of our life, it’s been vulnerable.
If we do not feel like something is secure, we secure it ourselves. This is the key to why many of us do not walk in our callings and don’t give what we’re supposed to give. It’s because we’re insecure in the environment that we are in.
Insecurity always comes from a lack of trust. When I am insecure, I secure.
2. Insecurity Always Comes From a Lack of Trust, and When I Am Insecure, I Secure
You begin to take things into your own hands when you don’t trust that what you value is secure.
Being a control freak, or wanting to be in control, is rooted in trust being broken somewhere along the road. You don’t trust anyone, so you’re insecure now.
So when you’re insecure, you secure.
When you have something that valuable, that is put in a position that makes it vulnerable, then you take away trust, it equates to insecurity.
3. Value + Vulnerable – Trust = (In)security
If you had a dream when you were younger, it was valuable. Then you got vulnerable at some moment and you told a friend, someone you trusted, that took away trust by saying that you were incapable of achieving it. It resulted in insecurity, because now you’re grown and questioning your purpose.
Or perhaps worse, you were sexually pure, and it was valuable, and you vulnerably went to an uncles house to spend the night, not knowing you would be touched inappropriately, thus taking your trust away. Now, it has translated to being insecure. Perhaps the inability to stay faithful in relationships, or stay true to something because now you’re insecure and don’t know your own self-worth.
The wounds and the pain that you have in your life, all of the things that are going on, a lot of it is because we’re just trying to secure what has been damaged in other seasons.
That’s why when you get a cut on your hand, your first instinct is to put a Band-Aid on it, because if you feel insecure, “I secure it”.
Many of you are claiming personality traits like shyness, because you used to be bold, but trust was taken away and now you’re trying to secure yourself from getting hurt anymore. You stop trying, you don’t step out, and you don’t do what God has called you to do. If you feel insecure, then “you secure it”. That’s why many people don’t get in small groups, because “I tried to trust people before, and I told somebody something that really hurt, then they gossiped about me, now I’m insecure about that, so I secure it”. Similarly, you might not even be stewarding at church because of a bad experience with someone else from another church.
When you’re insecure, the sentiment is, “I secure it”.
Are you securing the bag? People say that culturally from a positive standpoint, i.e. “I gotta go secure the bag baby”, “I’m out here securing the bag”, or “I’m about to secure the bag”.
This term cannot be realistically perceived as positive when it comes to the kingdom of God.
4. If You’re Securing the Bag, That Means God Isn’t
- If you’re the provider in your life, that means that God isn’t.
- If you’re the way maker in your life, that means that God isn’t.
Securing the bag yourself is not something we should be proud of. You’re securing what you’re insecure about.
So when you’re “securing your family’s future”, you’re not letting God secure what he’s already paid for.
So if you want to be the provider, i.e. secure the bag, it contradicts what God says he is. In the word, he says he is Jehovah Jireh, your provider. There can only be one of those.
Open up your heart and trust God with your finances, family, and future. Many of us are securing what we should be sowing. We should be sowing our gifts and talents, but we’re securing them.
Many of us should be sowing our abilities and our time, but we’re securing them.
It’s a shame because we didn’t do anything to earn what we’re securing in the first place. It was God’s grace that gave us our abilities. It was the grace of God that brought us to the place where we’re at right now. Some of us may have forgot where we used to be but it’s nothing but the grace of God.
Now we’re securing what God says, “no, if you give it away it’ll multiply”, “if you give it away it’ll come back to you”, “if you give it away, or if you’re a blessing to somebody else, you can be a blessing to more”, but instead you’re securing it, and that’s not what you need to do.
So in that vein, a more suitable series name might be, “Don’t Secure the Bag”, because if you’re securing it, that means that God isn’t.
God is so good, that he knew we would struggle with this in our mortal bodies, so he gave us this parable (a truth alongside a story).
Matthew 25:14-15 (NLT)
Parable of the Three Servants
14 “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. 15 He gave five bags of silver[a] to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last—dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip.
[a] Greek talents; also throughout the story. A talent is equal to 75 pounds or 34 kilograms.
In this story, the man is God. He entrusted money. He could have used any example, but he uses money. Money and possessions are referenced over 800 times in the Bible. It’s the second most talked about topic in the Bible, because it matters.
“Dividing it in proportion to their abilities” – we may already assume that God’s unfair because ‘my situation wasn’t like their situation’, or ‘my set up wasn’t like their set up’. That’s the plan of the enemy, for God’s grace to be snuffed out because of comparison.
None of the servants deserved any bags. What happens is we get the grace of God then start looking at what other people got.
God is a good God. He tell us why they were given the portions received – i.e., “Dividing it in proportion to their abilities”.
Most of us want it to be “fair” even though we squandered the last season God gave us, or we didn’t do what we were supposed to do with the last opportunity we got.
The next season of ability is going to depend on the last season of responsibility.
How did you steward over the last year, the people you have under your leadership, over the $53 you got from a job last week? Many times, we don’t count it as anything and decide, or presume, that we don’t have to do anything with various things, but the master is watching your ability. He’s watching how you handle what he’s placed in your hand.
The next level is going to be based on how you were responsible with the last level.
5. God Knows What You Can Handle, Cause He’s Watching How You Handle
He knows what we can handle, because he’s watching how we handle what we have. We can’t get a new house if we can’t steward over our apartment.
God is watching how you handle what you have right now.
God wants us to go to a new level of being blessed, but our next season of ability is coming from our last season of responsibility. The biblical term for this is stewardship.
Stewardship is powerful. Mastering stewardship allows you to accomplish things that your education and pedigree don’t correspond to.
God is looking for someone he can trust.
Stewardship says, “today matters”. When you’re a good steward, you’re not looking to the future. You look at what you’re doing today. Be better today.
Be a better friend today. Be a better employee today. How we love today, matters. How we respond today, matters. How we save our money today, matters.
Today matters because today always shows up tomorrow.
Weight gain over time is a great example of how today matters.
Today matters.
In the story of Matthew, we see two types of people. One who would steward over what the master gave them, and another who would secure it.
Assess yourself with the bag barometer below to see which type of person you’re going to be. The person that stewards the bag, which is what God wants us to do, or to secure the bag, which is what our fear wants us to do.
THE BAG BAROMETER
STEWARD THE BAG SECURE THE BAG
Manage the Bag ——————————————- Own the Bag
Sow the Bag ——————————————- Dig a Hole for the Bag
Acknowledge God ——————————————- Assume of God
Trust God’s Plans for Future Bag ——————————————- Afraid to Lose the Bag
Use the Bag They Have ———————————- Use Excuses for the Bag They Have
When you’re managing the bag, you can acknowledge that God is the owner. God’s money, God’s family, God’s job, God’s church, etc. You have to avoid taking the place of the owner, and regard yourself as “just a manager”.
Matthew 25:16-18 (NLT)
16 “The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more. 17 The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. 18 But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money.
If you’re managing something that God gives you, you can sow it, you can invest it, because any good farmer knows, when you sow something, it’s put in a place where it can produce more. So many of us are scared to sow because we don’t understand the concept of sowing and reaping. When you put something good in, you will get something good out. If you don’t put anything good in, nothing good will come out.
How many of us are trying so hard to secure what was supposed to be a seed? For example, the book you haven’t given to anyone because you’re scared of their judgment. That wasn’t the best seller you were supposed to write. That was just supposed to be a seed. You were supposed to sow that. It wasn’t the book that would be successful. It was the book that would allow somebody to see you and partner with you for the book that was actually going to blow up. However, because you dug a hole and hid it, you’ll never be able to see what God wanted to do with it because you didn’t sow it.
Dig up what you have tried to put in the ground and hide. Dig up the song, dig up the curriculum, dig up the art piece, the idea, and take it out of the place where it was going to be buried in a grave, and plant it in faith that God is going to take it and multiply it.
I’m going to sow the bag.
God is in the idea of trying to get what he placed in you, out of you, and he doesn’t want it back in the same way he gave it to you, he wants it multiplied.
You can only multiply something if you steward it and know that you’re the manager, not the owner, and you refuse to dig a hole for the bag. You’re going to sow the bag.
Matthew 25:19-20 (NLT)
19 “After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. 20 The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, ‘Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest, and I have earned five more.’
This servant acknowledged where the bags came from. That’s necessary if you’re going to steward over what God has given you. You have to acknowledge God.
Proverbs 3:6 (NKJV)
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
Some of us have been on the wrong path because we stopped acknowledging the one who made the path.
Proclamations of Acknowledgement We Can Make:
- God, this isn’t the job that I want, but I’m here, and I thank you for allowing me to be here
- God, I acknowledge that you can make a good situation out of a bad one
- God, I acknowledge that the only reason I have my right mind right now is to be able to bless people and help people
- Father, I acknowledge that you helped me to refrain from profanity when others upset me
We have to acknowledge God.
In direct contrast, if you try to own the bag, secure it, and dig a hole for it, this is what you do:
Matthew 25:24 (NLT)
24 “Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate.
He assumed that he knew what God was going to do with what he gave him. When you are stewarding the bag, you acknowledge God, but when you are securing the bag, you assume of God.
Pride can cause you to look at relationships and assume we know what a relationship is going to be.
When you assume you know what God is going to do, it’s characteristic of a person that doesn’t trust God and is trying to secure the bag.
When you start assuming of God, God may have to remind you, that you don’t know him (like that). People try to make assumptions about what they don’t know. People try to make assumptions about people who they don’t know.
It’s very bad to listen to people who don’t have a relationship with God when it comes to areas of your life because they will assume, and put on you, what they assume about God, and they don’t have a real relationship with him.
This man assumed he knew what God was going to do.
Isaiah 55:8-9 (NLT)
8 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
Stop assuming how God can take a little bit of sacrifice, a little bit of seed, a little bit of intentionality and multiply it into something that will bless so many others.
You don’t know what God has in store for you. No clue what he would do with a little obedience, or faithfulness, or love to somebody who feels like they’re broken and downcast. You have no clue.
Acknowledge that God is the reason you enter any situation and ask him to direct your path. Be open to what he wants you to do and what he wants you to say.
Praise him! Take 5 seconds to praise him.
Affirmations:
- I don’t have to secure my finances
- I don’t have to secure my future
- I don’t have to secure my family
- I don’t have to secure the bag
- I don’t have to secure it because I’m just stewarding all of this anyway
When you’re securing these things, it exposes who you trust. Most of us, as Christians, act like we trust God, but we actually don’t.
Our actions expose who we actually trust.
Today, let’s not respond like the guy who received one bag. Let’s respond like the people who stewarded the bags in the right way.
Matthew 25:21 (NLT)
21 “The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’
Even the 5 bags, though they may have seemed like plenty in comparison, they were still a small amount. It was still a test.
God is the God of abundance, He is the God of a blessed life. He is not limited to our perceptions of value; he can always do more. He came for us to have life abundantly. What we perceive as blessed is still a small amount. God wants to take us from glory to glory, level to level.
6. God is Not Limited by Our Small Thinking; He is Limited by Our Small Obedience
We must start obeying God at the “small” level, with what seems insignificant to us. We have to be faithful over the small things so that we can reap what God has in store for us.
God sees so much bigger, but we have to be faithful to sow a small seed and be obedient when nobody is looking.
Don’t look at what others are doing. Your obedience at the level specified is significant, and that’s true stewardship.
Matthew 25:22-23 (NLT)
22 “The servant who had received the two bags of silver came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest, and I have earned two more.’
23 “The master said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’
He received more responsibility, not more money. This isn’t a prosperity gospel. The reward of being a good steward is more responsibility. This is a gospel of responsibility.
Can God trust us? God isn’t trying to make us rich to be rich. He’s trying to make us blessed to be a blessing. This is a world that is dying. There are people who require their needs to be met. They don’t want to hear about our God when they need a home, shoes, rescued out of sex trafficking. Unfortunately, because we tend to be so broke, we can’t be a physical extension of God’s hand and his heart, so what we have to do now is repent.
Give God another chance. He wants us to be generous and to steward over what God has given us.
God is healing perspectives, hearts, and minds. The enemy’s trick is to let man keep you from living a blessed life.
God is coming to restore trust in his Word in the men and women of God that he has entrusted it to.
Matthew 25:24-25 (NLT)
24 “Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. 25 I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.’
Fear was the culprit that kept him from faith. You can wear a crazy faith hoodie and still be walking in fear. Over the next 4 weeks, Mike is going to break the spirit of fear over us.
2 Timothy 1:7 (KJV)
7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
The man trying to secure the bag wasn’t bad, he was just afraid. Afraid that God doesn’t have a plan that’s bigger than your savings account, or your first divorce, or your failure. God’s plans are to prosper you, and not to harm you, to give you a hope and a good future.
Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
That’s why we can’t try to secure the bag, dig holes for it, or assume of God. Many of us are doing this because we’re afraid.
When you steward over something that you know you’re not the owner of, you’re just the manager of, and you sow what God gives you, and acknowledge God at every step of the way – what you do, is that you trust God’s plan for the future bag.
When you’re secure in God, you don’t have to worry about where the next bag is coming from. Instead of worrying, God is saying, “Have faith and trust me”.
Have the faith to see it to completion. He is alpha and omega, beginning and the end.
If you sow today, the next bag is coming from the one who supplies all the bags.
Matthew 25:29 (NLT)
29 To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away.
This is what the blessed life sounds like. Securing the bag is not how we should live our lives. When we secure the bag, it exposes our insecurities, that we don’t trust, because we only secure what’s valuable, and what’s vulnerable.
When you steward the bag, you use the bag you have. All you have is all you need.
He just needed to the flip the bag he had – Sidenote: For more on flipping the bag, watch Flip The Bag | Kingdom Clout Part 4 | Pastor Steven Furtick | Elevation Church – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7Pg4BW3j5o
God was only looking for the person with one bag to come back with two bags.
When you double what he gave you, you get a “well done, my good and faithful servant”.
Matthew 25:29-30 (NLT)
But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. 30 Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
This is what many of our finances look like.
Our only true security is in trusting God.
7. Education of Security: Trust + Value + Vulnerable = Security
When trust is the foundation of what we value, e.g. trusting God with your money or resources, and it’s vulnerable, e.g. blessing others or giving it away, but that’s the only way we have true security.
The same way that Bella can jump to Mike in the deep end of a pool, knowing she can’t swim, but trusting that he will catch her and keep her safe, step out and put your trust in God, the one who will never fail you. Be vulnerable with him and he will catch you and secure you.
Open your heart to what God is saying.
8. When You Trust God with What You Consider Valuable, and You Are Vulnerable Enough to Sow It, He Provides True Security
This is what Mike wants for us, our families, and TC as a church. Put your trust in God.
This is why we need to learn so much more about generosity and stewardship.
This series will change the trajectory of our entire lives.
Maybe it’s not the best thing for us to secure the bag. Instead, Steward the Bag, because I’m secured by God.
9. I Don’t Have to Secure the Bag Because I’m Secured by God!
Matthew 25:28 (NLT)
28 “Then he ordered, ‘Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver.
This shows that God will give more to the person who will steward over it properly. He doesn’t want to take from us. He just wants what he gives us to be used properly.
The servant with 10 bags didn’t know he was getting another bag. God put his grace, his abundance, the blessed life on it.
10. While You Are Trying to Secure A Bag, God is Trying to Supply You with Bags
Plural! If you would steward over it.
SUMMARY NOTES:
- The Only Reason You Secure Something, is When What’s Extremely Valuable becomes Extremely Vulnerable
- Insecurity Always Comes From a Lack of Trust, and When I Am Insecure, I Secure
- Value + Vulnerable – Trust = (In)security
- If You’re Securing the Bag, That Means God Isn’t
- God Knows What You Can Handle, Cause He’s Watching How You Handle
- God is Not Limited by Our Small Thinking; He is Limited by Our Small Obedience
- Education of Security: Trust + Value + Vulnerable = Security
- When You Trust God with What You Consider Valuable, and You Are Vulnerable Enough to Sow It, He Provides True Security
- I Don’t Have to Secure the Bag Because I’m Secured by God!
- While You Are Trying to Secure A Bag, God is Trying to Supply You with Bags
THE BAG BAROMETER
STEWARD THE BAG SECURE THE BAG
Manage the Bag ——————————————- Own the Bag
Sow the Bag ——————————————- Dig a Hole for the Bag
Acknowledge God ——————————————- Assume of God
Trust God’s Plans for Future Bag ——————————————- Afraid to Lose the Bag
Use the Bag They Have ———————————- Use Excuses for the Bag They Have
Full link to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkBotQo25-s
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