The last three imaginary conversations you had, what was the topic? Who was it with? What happened? That's what you're hallowing in secret. Listen, we love imaginary conversations. We do. All of us love imaginary conversations, and the reason is because we never lose right? You never lose an imaginary conversation. If you lose an imaginary conversation get your head checked. It's your imagination, you can win okay? [Laughter] So if you lose an imaginary conversation you've got different problems. You can always win an imaginary conversation, always. But if you want to check the state of your heart ask yourself this question: your last three imaginary conversations, who were they with, what was the topic and who won? Who won? And those are things that need to be dealt with. Private grudges always result in corporate chaos. What you hallow in secret you'll manifest in public. If you hallow in secret the fact that people don't like you - well, they're just not going to like me. If I got off that plane yesterday and thought gee, I have a good relationship with this church but this time it's going to be different. They're not going to like me - how ridiculous is that?
But if I hallow that in secret you realise I'll do something that will bring that out of you. What you hallow in secret always manifests in public. If you hallow depression in secret you'll be depressed in public. If you hallow rejection in secret you'll be rejected in public. If you hallow in secret you'll be angry in public. Private grudges always result in corporate chaos. Why? Because of ahad. Listen, if you can just be mad - see this is where the lie is. People say well my anger's between me and God. Listen, if that's true fine, do whatever you want to do. God can handle you. I'm serious. Do whatever you want to do that's between you and God, but the problem is it's never between you and God. It's always between you and God and whoever's in your organisation, and then the broader reaches of the organisation. You could actually sabotage - just like the Butterfly Effect, your anger, your breath of anger in the wrong direction can have catastrophic effects far away from you, always. Why? Because of ahad, so we have to deal with that.
So the cure for guilt is to confess, put a big light on something. The cure for anger is to forgive. Number three, the cure for greed - that one's obvious - is give, give. The cure for greed's writing a cheque, not prayer. I mean of course prayer can be the catalyst to it, but it better end in that. Generous giving, both strategic and spontaneous, breaks the power of greed in our life. Generous giving forces us to face some of the deepest fears we have as a leader, which is not having enough. Generosity is so important to God. I'm going to preach this at some point this weekend because it's so important. [unclear 01.00.11] Developing - I will probably end the whole thing on Sunday night with developing a generous spirit, because I want to move - listen, when you're preaching there's a way you can preach because you have to and some of us do that - all of us do that at times. But there's a way you can preach because you actually have something to say, and there's a way to preach because it's Sunday but there's also a way that you're preaching to move people. I want to move people this week and I want to move into - let me just give you a taste real quick of this. This is how important generosity is okay.
Here is the word righteous in Hebrew. [unclear 01.00.47] That's the word righteous. Here is the word generous. [unclear 01.00.59] It's the same exact word. This is the verb form of this. It means to reveal it. You put a ['he' 01.01.32] on the end of any word, it means to reveal it. So righteousness revealed is generosity. There are 2106 verses of scripture that talk about the righteous' responsibility to be generous. In Hebrew it becomes obvious because it just says [tzedak 01.01.55] people do tzedakah. Like Psalm 111, Psalm 112:5, a righteous man deals generously. Out of all the adjectives that He could use to describe righteousness He calls them generous; a righteous man deals generously. Listen, there's something that nourishes your soul when you do something for someone else without expecting anything in return. I want to tell you something, it does something to you. It does something to you.
The rabbis called it - I don't want to preach the whole message because you'll hear it Sunday night. The rabbis called it this, [tzakute. 01.02.27] The rabbis said that it is possible to know God even outside of the Torah if you're practising tzakute; that you know God when you give without any expectation of return. I may as well go where no man will go. I'll do it Sunday night - unless you tell me not to - but this is something the Lord showed me recently. You guys can handle this right? [unclear 01.03.00] There's this scripture that always scared me to death, always did and it says this - Jesus is talking: Many will say to Me in that day Lord, Lord, and I'll say I never knew you. So Jesus seems to indicate that there are a lot of people at the end of the day who think they're in but they're actually out. That's scary right? [Yeah.] Why? Why is that scary? Because you think you're in right? [Yeah.] So what's separating you from them? They've cried out Lord, Lord. Have you, right? So they argue. They say hold on, You're mistaken. Remember us, we've cast out devils? We've prophesied. That's us.