Keion Henderson - The Layaway Plan

Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6: «For unto us a child is born, unto us a Savior is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulders, and His name shall be called Wonderful.» See, when I’ve heard a Greek read before, people say His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, but there’s a comma there. He’s Wonderful, and He’s a Counselor. Come on, the Mighty God, come on, Prince of Peace. Now let’s go listen to this because this is probably not even making sense to you right now. It didn’t make sense to me when the Lord gave it to me, so lay aside every weight. «But God, I have stuff I can’t get rid of.» That 's okay, because unto us a gift is given. I want to talk about the layaway plan. If anybody in here has something in layaway, God’s about to pay it off. Come on, give your neighbor a high five and say, «God’s about to pay off your layaway.» You may be seated in the presence of the Lord. I don’t know how y’all grew up, but we grew up in the Kmart era, and I don’t know what y’all’s mama did, but we used to put stuff in layaway. I remember, in the summertime, Mama would go find a winter jacket, and we would go to Burlington Coat Factory. Y 'all remember that? They didn’t rebrand; they just said Burlington now. But we would go to Burlington Coat Factory, and Mama would get all of our school stuff and put it in layaway. She would go over there and put $10 on it every week, and eventually, she would pay it off. I didn’t know, but see, when you’re young, you think something is wrong with that. Like, you know, we had food stamps, so we were embarrassed, but now I look back, and everybody had food stamps, and if the Lord’s social just makes it affordable and opportunistic for me to have them today, I will not be silent. I will praise Him in the temple and in the city. I didn’t know. I didn’t know. You know, when you’re growing up, you don’t know, and that’s the problem. You think you know, but you don’t know. I didn’t know that what Mama was doing was that she understood she had a bill she could not pay in full because she was human. And so, like humans, we have to pay our debts, and that’s why we have to forgive those. As you see, every morning there is new mercy because we don’t have enough mercy for all mornings. So, when you’re dealing in the natural, there is this thing about incrementalism where you have to do things. You can’t pay it all upfront. Most of us in here right now would say, «I would never use layaway,» but that’s really what you’re doing when you go to the car dealership and you don’t pay cash for it. Come on. If you didn’t pay cash for your car, your car is on layaway, okay? Somebody gave you the car, and they provided the money, and incrementally you’re paying for it. I try to teach my children this. My daughter, right now, praise God, is doing so good. She called me the other day and said, «Dad, I want to buy a Benz.» I said, «Okay.» I asked her, «What do you think?» I had only one question: «At 23, can you afford it?» I know what the thought is, but my question is, «Can you afford it?» And look at the floodgates of heaven opening up. She says, «Absolutely! My rent is 25% of my income, and I shouldn’t spend more than 10% on the car note, and if I get a cosigner, it’s zero down, and the interest rate is 5,99%.» She had it all laid out. I said, «Congratulations, you can afford it.» But even though she can afford it on a layaway plan, she does not have the means yet to walk right into the bank or to the car lot and say, «I’m going to buy this car.» And they’re going to ask you, «Do you want a payment plan?» Yes, one. How many of you are looking forward to the one-payment plan? You 're going to walk in there, and they’re going to ask you, «How much are you putting down?» «All of it.» Let me tell you, when you put it all down, you can negotiate better. Don 't miss what I’m saying because what is happening in the text is Nero, the emperor, is sitting in a stadium. Okay, let me give you the background of Hebrews because we talked about the great cloud of witnesses, right? But these witnesses were once spectators, and there is a difference. Now you have Nero, the emperor in Rome, sitting in the stadium, called a stadium because it is actually 600 Greek feet long, which is a stadium. So, it is called a stadium because of its structure, not because of its location. He’s in a stadium, and he’s sitting up, watching all of the runners. And you know that in those days, the Olympics, and the Olympics are not a new thing; the Olympics have been around before any of us have been around. They were running in the Olympics back in the Roman days, and the emperor would have them running there. And, more than likely, you can get an idea of this if you go back to Daniel and see the Hebrew boys in the fiery furnace and Daniel .