Curses and blessings...

Hemmed in.

Promises are like that, you know, you have to keep them once they are made. That has been a hard lesson to learn at times, but I now, more than ever, see the need to do so. People depend on promises made. I do. Every day we sell ads to people who say, "yes, publish my ad and I will pay for that ad." Sounds simple enough, but if everyone, or any ONE of those people doesn't pay, well, it's a disaster for my company. So, I made a promise last week. To whom?

Well, it's a little complicated. Beginning two weeks ago tomorrow, we were on our final sales push for the December issue of our magazine, What's Up, and we needed A LOT more ads than we had sold up to that point. That whole week found me fretting about money, our sales staff seemngly unable to sell anything, and wondering if we were going to publish a magazine for December.

Pastor Sean. I awoke one week ago today to a feeling of, well, dread, and wondering if I had been somehow cursed in my business. Yes, I know, sounds a little superstitious, but I felt that way. It dawned on me that maybe this had something to do with tithing, which we had not been dong lately, and had a fleeting thought that Sean might just preach on tithing that morning. Lo, and behold, he did.

Cursed. When I don't tithe, the Bible says that I "rob God." Now that sounds kind of weird. How can you rob God? But in a sense it goes back to what I said about promises. Once made, people depend on those promises and some literally go hungry without those fulfilled promises. But the Bible also says, "Test me in this (tithing) and see if I will not give you a blessing you an unimaginable blessing!" (Slightly paraphrased by moi!) Well, I am a guy who loves a challenge, sometimes rashly so, so ...

At the end of that service, at Naz Visalia, I knew what I had to do. Sometime ago I had told a guy I know, who happens to have a ministry that I believe in, that I would give him $300. But due to life and circumstances I kept forgetting to give it to him. So I ran, almost literally to his house to drop off the check, hoping to be released from my self inflicted curse. If nothing else, my guilt was immediately assuaged because I had PROMISED him the money. But there is more.

The next morning, last Monday, I felt led by God to make another promise, that I would give 10%, from dollar one, of all new sales in the following 48 hours. Mind you, we had not made hardly any sales the week before, but I was now convinced that this promise would yield some result, even though our situation had not changed that much since the Monday prior. I ended up at lunch with another friend, Geoff Ludlow, of Full Sail Ministries, where I made the following statement: "Geoff, I told God I would give 10% of our ad sales to His work and I would like your ministry to benefit from that promise."

One of the most frustrating experiences for a sales person is to sell nothing in spite of significant effort. The week before had been so frustrating for Wynter that I feared she might give up altogether. The next week (last week) everything changed. We sold almost $4,000 in new ad sales in the 48 hours that elapsed from Monday to Weds afternoon. I called Geoff and told him I wanted to being him a check right away, to which he replied, "you don't need to do it today." Yes I did. It was my word. I took a check to him and fulfilled my promise. But it wasn't just me ... God did His part, too, for every sale last week was a miracle.

So I decided to make yet another promise. I told one of our advertisers, Janeen, of Janeen's Furniture Gallery, that I would pray for ALL of our ad customers, that their businesses would prosper, not simply so they would continue to buy advertising from us, but so they could continue to fulfill THEIR promises, which would help others fulfill their promises and, well, you get the picture. When everyone does their part, well, everything works out.

Now, I am not telling you this to make a big deal out of what I did, because I didn't give a lot. But I do want to encourage you to do dig down deep, ask God to give you a big dream, and bless someone in the process. MAKE A PROMISE. FULFILL that promise. Miraculous things will happen. Now there's a sermon for you!