Introduction: We’ve had an amazing couple of weeks here at Believers! Two weeks ago, when we introduced this series we learned the importance of needing Jesus, of pressing in to him. We learned that there is a division in our lives between what we can do in our strength and what God can do in his strength. We looked at the story of the father who was desperately trying to get his son, who was demon-possessed, healed and he did everything he could – he went to the doctors, he went to the priests, he went to the synagogue…he even went to the disciples of Jesus but absolutely nothing happened.
I told you that week that this dad was living over here – he was doing life to the best of his ability – he was doing life in his strength and his power and with his wisdom…but it wasn’t enough! The dad finally went to Jesus Himself and Jesus did what only Jesus can do! He reached out to this boy and he completely restored him to good health!
The father had a battle on his hands. So do many of you! Some of you are battling over a marriage. Some of you are in the battle for your life over your soul – you are far from where God wants you to be! Some of you are in a battle for your health or for your job – many in this room are in a battle for your finances! You are in a battle.
I used this rope to demonstrate the battle line – remember that? I said on this side of the rope was you doing life to your best but ultimately a life lived in your strength and your power, while good, is ultimately what? A cursed life! Then I said over here is life with God’s best and God’s strength and I said that this side was called what? The blessed life. I also told you the first week – the big principle we learned that week – was that the blessing always comes after the battle.
So, if you are in a battle this morning – you are in a good place! You are right where you need to be! The only way to get from this side of the line to this side of the line is to press into Jesus. Jesus told the disciples that you press into Jesus through prayer and fasting. That first week of this series I issued a challenge for you to pray and fast with me, to press into Jesus and ask him to pull us across the line to blessing. I asked you to fast for one meal, one day a week, for one month. Are you still doing that? We just wrapped up week number two. I’ve been doing it right along with you and let me tell you it has been hard! It has been. On the days when I fast I am ravaged with hunger! I know, that sounds crazy because I’m only missing one meal – but let me tell you it’s true. I try to remind myself that I don’t need food – I need God! I’m pressing in to Him.
I also asked you to fast and pray about 5 areas of battle in our church and then to add your own stuff to it too. Remember the 5 things? I asked you to pray for 150 people to come to faith in Christ through Believers this ministry year (from September 1-August 31, 2009). To date we have seen 22 people come to faith! That includes children/youth and adults. How is that going to happen? It’s going to happen as you and I invite other people to come here on October 5th. (Say a word about SE/Invitations and ecclesiology). We are praying for 150 to be baptized this year. Next Sunday we are celebrating baptism here @ 4:30 – if you haven’t been baptized since inviting Jesus to come into your life then I strongly encourage you to sign up on the communication card today. That’s next Sunday.
We’re praying for weekly giving of 16k per week and also praying that we can pay down 300k on our building loan and while those sound like financial goals, they are also spiritual goals. The reality is we won’t realize those goals if there are people in this room who don’t make a decision to make God first place in their lives. When you make a decision to break the Spirit of mammon in your life and commit your finances to God – those financial goals will be realized.
We’re also praying for 300 people to be in small groups. Are you in one yet? Sign up today – small groups start a week from Monday – on October 6th. So, please get in one before sign-ups are closed. If you aren’t in a group yet then you should know that 157 people are praying and fasting that you will get into one because we believe that fully participating in a small group has the potential to bring spiritual growth into your life it has the potential to connect you relationally and make a big difference in your life! Do that today.
All that was the first week, then last week we looked at two big principles. The first was the spirit of mammon versus the spirit of God as it pertains to how you relate to money. I told you that many of you are living financially cursed because you are living with a spirit of mammon. The next big principle we discussed is how to break the spirit of mammon, the principle was first things first. We looked at how when we give God the first he what? He blesses the rest! We also saw how withholding your tithe, that is the first 10% of your income from God, places you over here - cursed. When you bring your tithe to your place of worship – we learned that God blesses that.
I know that was a lot of review – but all of that is important to understand before we move on! You ought to pick up a CD of the first two weeks of this series over in the Resource Center, next week we’ll have the whole series available there.
Today we have a new principle that we need to learn in order to insulate ourselves from financial pressure. This will build on everything else that we have already talked about. It is the principle of multiplication. How can God take our finances and stretch it – multiply it – and exactly what does this look like – what kind of promise is this promise?
Let’s go to a New Testament story to flesh out this principle of multiplication. Luke 9 starting with verse 12: “Late in the afternoon the twelve disciples came to him and said, “Send the crowds away to the nearby villages and farms, so they can find food and lodging for the night. There is nothing to eat here in this remote place.”
To fully grasp what was going on here we need to kind of put ourselves in their sandals for a little bit, okay? Jesus had been busy all day healing people and teaching the people and it’s getting hot and it’s getting late. They are on a hillside by the Sea of Galilee and after a whole day of being out, the disciples start getting a little concerned. They’re concerned because during the course of the day a real large crowd has started to develop. The Bible tells us that there were 5,000 men – so one could argue conservatively that there were 15-20,000 people counting women and children. This was a big crowd.
These people gathered are getting hungry. There’s no chick-fil-a restaurant, there’s no drive through nearby. So, the disciples get together and say, I’m hungry, are you hungry? We should go tell Jesus that we need to eat and get rid of these crowds so that we can get down to some eating!
So, they go to Jesus and they say, Jesus, you know we love you and we could listen to you teach all day long, you know that! But, these people are hungry. This isn’t really about us – we’re just looking out for them. And, we don’t have any food, so why don’t you send them away, let them go home or whatever and get something to eat. What do you think Jesus?
Jesus said, “You feed them!” (verse 13) and then look at what the disciples say, “But…” How many times is that our initial response when God tells us to do something? How many of you after last week said, “I understand that you want me to bring the first part, the first tenth of my income, BUT!” The disciples continue: “But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish,”
We would obey you Lord, but have you seen how little we have? But, I only have this small job! But, I only make X amount of dollars, but I only, but I only, but I only! It’s amazing, isn’t it how human nature hasn’t changed. Then look at what they said, “But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered. “Or are you expecting us to go and buy enough food for this whole crowd?”
How often do we do what the disciples did? You’ve heard the saying, “Little is much when God is in it.” That axiom comes from this story. Sometimes we do like they did, we look at all that we have and we say to Him, “But God! I only have….” Whatever it is that you have and we forget to add God to our equation.
That’s what happened to the disciples. That’s what happens to us. God my marriage is lost, nothing can save it! God, my child is lost – nothing can bring him back! God, I’m in financial trouble – there’s no hope! That’s why you need him. The same God that said let there be light and there was is the same God that is talking to the disciples here and he is talking to you this morning too! Stop making excuses. When God tells you to do something you do it! I had a conversation with someone this week who admitted to me that he was resisting God’s teaching on giving. He wasn’t resisting me – he was resisting God. He heard me teach on giving last year and I said when you withhold from God that you are cursed, that’s what we read last week.
He told me that he was thinking, come on Jamey, don’t go over the top! Cursed? C’mon! That’s ridiculous. But you know what, God kept bothering him about that, and he would say to God, But God, I’m in debt. When I get out of debt, then I’ll really start giving to you! You know what happened? A year later, he wasn’t out of debt, he was in more debt! Then last week he heard the message again, God spoke to him and he said, I’m going to sign up for e-giving so that I can settle this once and for all. He said I’m going to figure out what 10% is and start giving it every month! No more excuses! What excuses are you making this morning for not doing whatever it is that God is calling you to do?
So, Jesus tells the disciples “Tell them to sit down in groups of about fifty each.” (14b) we read right over that, but I can tell you that getting people to follow along isn’t very easy. They had 15-20,000 people that they had to get to sit in groups of 50, (about 400 groups of 50) and these people are hungry and restless. But, they do what Jesus tells them to do.
Then read what happens next Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Did you catch that? Before anyone touched the food or took a bite of a morsel of food Jesus blessed it! Before anything can be multiplied it must have the blessings of God on it! God never has and never will multiply what has not been blessed. How do we bless our finances? We looked at this last week - you bring the first 10%, the tithe, to God.
Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he kept giving the bread and fish to the disciples so they could distribute it to the people. They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftovers!(16b-17)
There’s an interesting detail included here for us, did you see it? I always thought that Jesus broke the bread and the miracle happened at the hand of the disciples, that as they were passing it out, the basket just never emptied, but that’s not what happened. Do you see it? It says that Jesus broke the bread and he kept giving it to the disciples. They would hand out what they had and go back to Jesus and he would hand them more – then they would give out what Jesus gave them and then come back for more and that just kept happening until everyone was stuffed!
Here’s what’s interesting to me, when Jesus gave the disciples the blessed food they had a choice. They could have eaten it, or stuck it in their pocket because they were unsure of where the rest was going to come from or they could choose to pass the blessing on to others. By faith, they kept coming back to Jesus who kept giving them more and more.
This is what happens when we give too. When you give, you give in faith, just like the disciples. They gave in faith, there was no guarantee of what was going to come next – the only guarantee they had was the amount in their hands at the time – then in faith they would have to reach back to get the next load from Jesus. See, this brings us to the principle that only what is blessed and given can be multiplied.
Does someone have a $100 bill that I can have? Anyone? Bring that on up here to me. Thank you so much! See, when Jesus gave the disciples the food that had been blessed, they were completely aware that this was a supernatural work of God. It wasn’t theirs. God had blessed it. Because of that understanding they were able to just give it away. Remember what we learned last week? We didn’t look at this verse last week but let’s look at another verse that teaches the same principle. Leviticus 27:3, it says, “One tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain from the fields or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord and must be set apart to him as holy.”
One tenth, that is the tithe of all that you produce, no matter how you produce it, belongs to who? To the Lord – and then it is to be set apart as holy. Holy just means set apart for use by God. Another passage in Deuteronomy says this, When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you as a special possession and you have conquered it and settled there, put some of the first produce from each crop you harvest into a basket and bring it to the designated place of worship—the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to be honored.” Deuteronomy 26:1-2
See, what Jesus was giving to the disciples was holy. If they ate it or pocketed it they would have been robbing God, because it wasn’t theirs, it didn’t belong to them. We tithe because it belongs to God, right? It’s his! In a real way when you tithe you aren’t giving God anything – you are simply returning to the Lord that which already belongs to him! The Malachi passage we read last week said that the people were robbing God of their tithes. That indicates that they were taking something that wasn’t theirs. They were to return to God what belonged to him!
Some of you grumble at this. I don’t want to give God my tithe! I can’t afford to give God 10% of what I earn. If you don’t, it’s like he’s handing you the blessing, but rather than pass it on, rather than setting it apart as holy, rather than return it to the Lord, you decide to keep it for yourself! When you do that – all of what you have is then unholy. You wonder why ______________ was so quick to give me that $100? Because before the service started I gave it to him and told him that I’d ask for it back! So when I asked for it, he enthusiastically returned it to me. He didn’t have to experience any emotional struggle, there was no grief over it, no emotional conflict – why? – because it’s mine!
God has given you all that you have – he asks you to return 10% back to Him and then when you do – he is able to bless you. Then he is able to multiply your giving. Remember the principle from last week – you give the first, he’ll bless the rest.
In this book, the Blessed life, there is story after story of how God has blessed and supplied for those who give. Butch Merrill, a guy in our church told me the story of when he was asked to do something unethical at work. He prayed about what to do – took a different job but paying significantly less than what he was making. He took the job and even with the pay cut continued to tithe and you know what happened? Times didn’t get tougher – they got easier. Why, because when God multiplies what is blessed and given!
Okay, so how does this work? Does God take your $20 and turn it into $200 or $2,000? No. Remember what Jesus said on the Sermon on the Mount when he said, Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. Matthew 6:33
That verse doesn’t say that when you follow Jesus you’ll get everything that you want – what does it say? It says, when your greatest desire is to live for me, when you make a decision to place me number one in your life, not just in the area of finances but in every area, then God will ensure that you get what you need. You make Jesus number one – and he’ll bless the rest of your life. Same principle.
Jesus isn’t the genie in the bottle – and sometimes we treat him that way. That’s the difference between what I’m teaching today and what you will hear on TV. A lot of people who teach on money essentially say, “Come on! Give to God and you’ll get back more! This is a great deal!”
While it is true that you can’t out-give God, Scripture does not say that God can bless a motive of personal gain for our giving. How must God feel when His people only get excited about giving toward His kingdom purposes when they are whipped into a frenzy through some get-rich-quick promises? Do you think God ever says, “Boy, if only My people could catch the vision of having a lot more stuff!” That’s the Spirit of mammon. No, God wants us to catch the vision of giving.
When we give what is blessed, God can multiply what we give! That’s what happens at Believers when we give – our efforts are multiplied! I mentioned last week that if every adult in our church said, I’m going to dedicate $1 more a day of what I earn – more than what I already give to Believers, just give one additional dollar per day – we would pay $145,000 dollars off of our loan this year. Just a dollar. Isn’t that amazing?! If you decided that you wanted to give up a five-bucks, I mean a starbucks every day, just Monday through Friday – and every adult did that, you know how much we could pay on our building? Over $500,000! If you decided to give up one lunch per week – we would pay about 150k on the building. In a sense, this is a multiplication of our efforts. It’s something that none of us could have done alone!
On your communication card there is a place that says I will surrender ______ dollars per day to pay on the building. We’re all praying and fasting that we will pay off 300,000 on our loan this year. How will that happen? When we take action. When we make God number one in our lives! When we break the spirit of mammon in our lives. Remember, this is over and above your regular giving – will you reach back and trust God to multiply what he has given you? (see chart in notes).
You might be thinking, you still haven’t answered the question – how is it multiplied? I have, actually. God multiplies what is blessed and given. When you become generous with what he has entrusted to you – he will start entrusting you with more. I’ve had people say, I give, but I haven’t seen God do anything spectacular. I’ll ask, do you tithe, do you return to God what is his? Well, no – then don’t expect God to bless you in this area. God will never unleash his power and blessing on poor stewards! Remember the parable of the talents? The one who faithfully stewarded what was given him was what? Entrusted with more. The one who hung on to what wasn’t his to begin with, what happened to him? Even what little he had was taken away from him!
See, I think God gets blamed for an awful lot of stuff. I see this all the time. People come in looking for help – and they wonder where is God – where is his help when I need it? I’ll look over their financial situation and they are paying 600 dollar car payments and 150 dollar cable bills and 100 dollar cell phone bills and then they blame God! God is not responsible for bills He does not initiate. We are responsible for our money. Suppose you have $500 till payday – and you go out to eat for three meals and then go shopping at Macy’s and you only have $100 dollars left and then your power bill comes in at $190 – friends, that’s not the judgment of God! That’s arithmetic!
God rewards good stewardship. The truth is that if you’re going to live the lifestyle of a giver, and be the generous person God desires you to be – then you’re going to have to make the lifestyle adjustments that allow you to have something to give. Get out of debt! Do that by refusing to incur more debt, get rid of your credit cards, start prioritizing and only do the things that you have to do – and when you start making those adjustments God will bless you. Let me caution you though, don’t try to get out of debt while you’re robbing God, because that’s not going to happen. That was the question I asked you last week, do you want to live on 100% of your income with all of it cursed or live on 90% with all of it blessed? The choice is yours.
Our last verse today. Paul is writing to the church of Corinth and he says, “Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop.” (2 Cor 9:6) This is what I said earlier – it echoes the words of Jesus when he said in Matthew 6:38 – “Give and it will be given to you!” You reap what you sow. When you get ready to give to God, remember you can’t out-give God. When you give – he gives back to you. Remember, that this promise is given not to create our motivation for giving but to free us from fear and show us the reward of giving.
Then Paul continues, “You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.” (verse 7). See, you are the only person on Earth who can decide what the right level of giving is for you. It’s between you and the Spirit of God. We know what God blesses, but beyond that it’s up to you. God is not looking for tithes, offerings and gifts that are given reluctantly or under compulsion. The blessed life is an outgrowth of “cheerful” giving. How do you become a cheerful giver? There is only one way: God must do a work in your heart. He wants to do a work in your heart.
When we decide to give cheerfully and not under compulsion here’s what Paul tells us in verse 8, “And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.”
Notice what it says. When you give God will be generous with you. He will bless you, when he is first in your life he will provide for how many of your needs? All your needs. Then look – you will always have how much of what you need? Everything. And plenty left over, remind you of a certain story? No matter how little you have – when you bless it and give it – he will multiply it. Why does he multiply it? So, you’ll have more to share with others! He blesses us not so we can drive a better car or accumulate more stuff but so we can be more generous with other!
Let’s pray!
