Hey, listen, I'm ready to preach God's word. You ready to receive it today? Feels like I got a lot of stuff on this table. The year was 2011, and I was on my first trip with a group of pastors to an area in northern Minnesota called the Boundary Waters. Initials, it's the BWCA. Boundary water, uh, and I think it stands for canoe area, is what I've always thought it said, because literally on those lakes, a million square miles of lake water, all connected, um, moving crazy amounts of water. And uh so we went there first time ever. There's no motorboats allowed on most of those lakes. Um, you have to canoe in, and then when you get to the end of one lake, you literally pick up all of your gear and supplies, and you pick up your canoe, and you walk up a hill called a portage to the next lake, put all your gear back in the canoe and begin to paddle again. And um some guys go in there for days and days and days. Some people travel from that. We met a group of people traveling from that boundary water area between Minnesota and Canada, and they went all the way to New York City in one summer. I thought that's too much time in a canoe. Anyway, back to my own story. 2011, we were there for the first time, and um, you know, I like to call it a catching trip because it's not just a fishing trip, because we actually catch fish, like more fish than we know what to do with, and you don't bring any of it back because it's far too long to get back, so you just throw them back in the water and let somebody catch it again another day. And uh so it's a lot of fun. You catch massive fish, and I was fishing one day and um had a little bottle of water with me, and finished my bottle of water and you know, put the plastic, scrunch it up, and put it in the back of the canoe to take with me out of there later. And well, we just kept fishing, and I kept thinking we'd be going back to the camp anytime soon. And the guy I was with, he was like, No, we're gonna keep fishing. And so I was like, I was ready to go back, he's ready to stay out there longer. And so I finally was like, Man, I'm super thirsty, but I've I've I've consumed all my water. And he's like, Oh, um, you you do know that we're on like a million square miles of lake, clean, pure water, and you know that uh this is good water to drink. And I was like, Okay, well, I mean, what am I supposed to do? Scoop it up with my hand? Like, what? He's like, Where's your water bottle? I was like, Well, I scrunch it up. He said, Well, unscrunch it and put your ham in, like past your elbow, and fill that thing with water, and you'll be able to drink that water. It's that clean. I was like, okay, and I did, and it was clean, pure, cold, freezing cold water. And for the rest of the week, I just carried that one bottle and filled up that water whenever I wanted to on that lake. And and really, it was the year that I learned that if you want the blessing, if you want the blessing, you need a vessel. Or you could say it this way: God's not withholding blessing from our lives, he's waiting for a vessel. So why don't you just turn to your neighbor and say, Here's my cup. And then to the other bump them and just say, It's about to be filled up. Beginning a brand new series entitled Increase. On our way to Giving Tuesday, which is the first Tuesday in December following Thanksgiving, as we accelerate the vision of the church through our generosity beyond our tithe and our offering. And we're gonna camp out in this passage of scripture right here, Psalm 65, 10. Are you ready? Here we go. This is what the psalmist writes You drench the plowed ground with rain, melting the clods and leveling the ridges. You soften the earth with showers and bless its abundant crops. Somebody tell your neighbor, increase. This series, increase, is um is really not about um, it's it's it's not about addition in our life, but it is about activation in our life. And I did a word study on the word increase and spent some time breaking it down, going back to the root, going back to how the word was built, how it was established, how it became a part of our our language and about a part of our culture. And what I discovered is this word increase, uh, the deeper meaning of increase is this the potential is actually already planted in you, ready to be released and fulfilled. So when somebody says you're getting ready to experience increase, it means the potential is actually already there. It just needs to be released to be fulfilled. And so, increase is not the addition of something new, but it's the release or uh it is the release of something true. That God has established in you the capacity already for increase in your life. In fact, God has established in you all of the miracles and the signs and the wonders and the blessings that you could ever hope for already established in you. You need healing, guess what? He's already paid the price for healing. You want freedom, he already paid the price for your freedom. You need deliverance, he's already accomplished by claiming the keys to death, hell, and the grave. Listen, God has already established it in you. It just needs to be released. And God wants to release it, but he needs a vessel. The thing is, that means the blessing doesn't come from out here, the blessing comes from in here. The blessing is already in us. We just need to know how to activate it. So we're talking about God fulfilling his promise in our life. So I'm gonna give you a couple of principles of increase, and then we're gonna talk about how to prepare yourself for increase. Because here's what I know on our way to Giving Tuesday, there's something that happens when we uh go above and beyond in generosity. We open up a window of heaven and we we have this potential within us to be released. And I don't know about you, but how many of you want increase in your life? So, so check this out. Let's let's go with the principles. Number one, the principle of increase. Number one is preparation precedes increase. The level of increase you want in your life is gonna re is is gonna be very much uh tied to the level of preparation in your life. For instance, if you ever had to go to the DMV or the Secretary of State office to get your license or your real ID, don't show up without paperwork. That little guy meets you at the door, says, What you here for? I'm here for a driver's license and a real ID. Do you have all your paperwork? I have my current driver's license. That's not enough. You need the paperwork. Uh, don't you dare, couples, to go down the wedding aisle without a marriage license. Uh, that happened not too long ago. I was doing a ceremony, and um I married this couple, and I left in the middle of the reception time because honestly, sometimes I think everybody's just waiting for the pastor to leave so they can have fun. You know, I'm just sitting there like this. So we leave, and it occurs to me when we get home that I that I didn't sign the marriage license. I said, hey, um, just need to meet up with you to sign the marriage license. I didn't, you didn't give me that before I left. And the groom responded back, what marriage license? I said, the document you need to satisfy the requirement of the state, according to God's word, you're married, but according to the state, you are not. So then they had to come into my office on Tuesday, and we did a ceremony. So that poor guy has two dates he has to remember for anniversaries. And then they went out of they went out of the country for an out-of-country marriage for the family. Now he's got three. Listen, I can barely survive on one. But you have you have to be prepared. So simply to say this, if you want increase in your life, you have to prepare for increase. Look at what uh Samuel says to the Israelites. He says, prepare your hearts for the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you. Prepare your hearts. The reign of God's blessings may not be deferred in your life, but they can be delayed until the preparation is complete. We have to prepare our hearts, prepare our lives, prepare ourselves for the blessing. The second principle of increase is this the plowed ground releases the potential. The plowed ground releases the potential. Now, when the ground is dry, and we we lived near 20 years in Texas, and we would see in summertime extensive seasons of drought and dryness and no, sometimes in Texas it rains every day, and then sometimes it doesn't rain for like nine months. And when it hasn't rained for nine months and there's no water on the ground, the last thing we need is for a heavy rain. Because that heavy rain, and we've seen it around here through periods of drought, a heavy rain falls on dry ground. It doesn't rush into the ground, it rushes over the ground. It causes flooding if the ground's not prepared for for the heavy rain. That's why when I'm doing getting my yard ready and I'm gonna put fertilizer out and I'm gonna treat my yard and get it ready, it always says on the little note lightly water your yard in advance of putting this product down so that this product won't be washed away if it were to rain. It's because the ground has to be prepared for what's about to come. And it's the same with you. Now, check this out. In Chronicles, Rehoboam, this this is what this is what was said about his life. King Rehoboam, he did evil because he did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord. He didn't do evil because he was evil. He did evil because he didn't prepare his heart. That's why in Mark 2 and 22, it says that no one puts new wine in old wineskins because the old wine can't skins can't hold what's new. And so you have to make a preparation. If you want the new wine, you've got to make a preparation of the new wineskin. You need to be prepared to receive what God is pouring out. And God isn't about situational success. God is about sustainable soil in your life. It's called good ground. The good ground of your heart. And that takes preparation. And if you're not prepared, if your heart's not prepared, this is what happens. This is how we know our heart is not prepared to receive what God gives us. When our heart is not prepared, number one, we're gonna think we did it on our own. Or we're gonna think we earned it somehow. Or we think we're owed it. Or the worst part is that we own it. So we got to prepare our heart for what God wants to do in us so we have the right response from our heart. So, how do we do this? How do we get ready? You wanna get ready for increase? Here we go. Number one, you must believe God wants to bless you. Thank you for that one amen. That sounds like the first year of church in the theater. She's my best amen corner. I'm gonna do it again. You must believe God wants to bless you. Because if you don't believe God wants to bless you, you have a problem with your belief system. Somebody's told you differently. Maybe you've experienced differently because you haven't been aligned or prepared. And I want to help you understand God wants to bless you. Many times through scripture we read about the blessings of God in our life. And sometimes we we love we love men. We love the verses that have these promises, but we've got to be prepared for them. I I had a friend tell me this if I'm not getting the results I believe for, meaning if what I'm seeing isn't lining up with scripture, I must change my belief system to experience the abundant life God offers. Meaning, the reason why, I'm not changing that I believe in God, but I need to change what I believe about God. God is not angry, authoritarian, pointing his finger down at me every time I fail. God wants good for me. He wants to bless me from abundant riches. He wants to bless me over and over again, and I must believe that. I must believe that God wants to bless me because my beliefs are tied to my values, and my values are tied to my behaviors. Look at Moses wanted escape, but God offered deliverance. David wanted a pasture, but God offered a throne. Israel wanted a king, but God offered a kingdom. God always is going to go beyond what you want and desire because he's capable of it. The problem is we run into this idea of lack mentality. And back in the garden, Adam and Eve, the number one problem they had was it's it's crazy. God says, eat from every tree in this garden. From every tree, eat from every tree in this garden but one. And that one tree is the tree that's reserved. You can't touch it. That belongs to me. Have all the rest of it, but don't touch the one. And you know, you know the the reason why they they fell is because they the the that that serpent had them focus their attention not on all that they had access to, but on what they did not have access to. That is the lack mentality, is when I focus on what I don't have instead of what God has already given me. God's already given me so much, but I still sit and I think about the stuff I don't have. No, I need to lean in because God's given me so much. And yes, there's more God wants to do in me and through me and for his glory, but I don't focus on what I don't have. The other part of the lack mentality is this that it's when my mindset is too small to receive what God is releasing in my life. That I don't think he's capable of actually opening up the windows of heaven and pouring out blessings that I can't contain. So I'm not gonna test him in my covenant of finances. Or I don't think he's capable to do exceeding and abundantly more than I could have ever asked for or imagined. So I'm just gonna limit my thinking. Listen, we don't we don't need to change, we don't need to think bigger. Bigger thinking leads to pride and arrogance. We need to think higher. God's ways are higher than our ways, God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts. We need to think God's thoughts over our life, and He wants to bless you, and you've got to believe that. A pro golfer, um, Jack Nicholas was invited by the king of Saudi Arabia to come and play a round of golf for play golf for the week with him and actually give him some lessons. And so, so Jack Nicholas goes and he plays golf with the king and beautiful courses, beautiful weather. And at the end of the week, Jack's like, Man, I had a great time. Thank you so much. And the king says, It's my tradition, it's my honor to send for for you helping me with my golf game to send you a gift. And I'd like to send that gift. And what what would you like me to send? And and Mr. Nicholas, like, listen, honestly, it's not it's nothing. I this is my honor to be here. I've had a wonderful time. You've treated me incredibly, you've been so generous. There's I didn't I have need of nothing. I'm fine. And the king says, No, I insist, it's it is it's my it would be I'm offended if you don't allow me to do this. And Mr. Nicholas is like, okay, well, if you insist, I collect old golf clubs. And so Mr. Nicholas leaves, goes back to the United States, and a week later an envelope arrives, and inside the envelope, when he opens it up, it says, Please enjoy compliments, and it says the king of Saudi Arabia. And he he looks at the papers, and it's the title indeed to an old uh a golf course, the whole country club. Jack Nicholas was actually saying, I collect old clubs. And the king's mentality is, well, I'm gonna get him a club. And so many times in life we are asking God for a club when he's capable of blessing us with the whole course. You gotta believe God wants to bless you. The second thing that we need to believe when we prepare, because it is our responsibility to prepare. Number two, we need to believe, or we need to prepare and plow the soil of our heart.

Amen.

Listen to this verse in Proverbs. Says this much food is in the fallow ground of the poor, and for lack of justice there is waste. Now, can I just bring that down to like just a life application for us? That the diff, there's a difference between fallow ground and plowed ground. The fallow ground is is not is overlooked, undercultivated, overgrown. Many times it's grown with briars and thickets, and and you just drive by a field and you think, man, nothing to do there. Man, that ground's terrible. There's, man, no, barely any life there. No, the reality is that ground holds the same potential as the harvest fields, but no one's ever done the hard work to prepare the ground. You don't get a harvest without the plow first. And I wonder if that's so much of an analogy of the condition of our hearts sometimes. That we know the routine, we know the drill, we know just enough to experience the presence of God in our life, and we know just enough to know that when God's moving, wow, it feels amazing, and I get a goosebump here or there, but then we go out unchanged because we have allowed our heart to be overlooked, undercultivated, and it becomes overgrown with thickets and briars and patches that protect our heart from being hurt, but don't allow the result of the harvest God wants to work through us. The Bible says, out of the heart, a man speaks. The abundance of a heart, a man speaks. And we protect our heart. I wonder if that's why literally, I was reading this stat, it blew me away. There is one in America, one church for every thousand people. And yet our country's worse off morally than we've ever been. I wonder how many of us are undercultivating our heart. We're not willing to do the hard work of plowing the soil of our heart with God's word, with the preached word, with discipleship through small groups. And God wants to bless something, He wants to increase your life tremendously, but it's gonna take some preparation of your heart. You're gonna have to plow through some of those areas of your life because there is a rain that's coming, and you don't want it to flood out, you want it to fill up to overflow. This is so critical for us. Jeremiah 4 and 3, it says this. This is what the Lord says to the people of Judah and Jerusalem plow up the ground of your hearts and do not waste your good seed among thorns. Jesus said it like this in Matthew in the parable of good ground. He said, Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. Like, church, I just want to challenge you. God wants to bless you. There is a principle of increase over your life that stands with the promises of God behind it. But we have to believe God wants to bless us, and then number two, we have to do the hard work of plowing the ground of our heart so that we can receive it. So that the Bible says God's word never comes back void. But man, what kind of harvest are we missing out on because we don't spend the time to do the hard work? But look what look what happens when we line up with obedience and discipleship and we work on our hearts. Psalm 1.3, that person is like a person planted by streams of water, which yields fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. And then look at this phrase. This is a phrase for you to capture and underline and circle and have as just an echo of your heart. Whatever they do prospers. Not whatever they think about, not ever what they hope for, what they do prospers. God's not blessing intentions, he's blessing your actions. And when you do the hard work to prepare, there's a blessing for your life that is on the way. Can you receive that word today?