The Pace of Provision
We like to talk about provision. You can get shouted down when you begin to talk about provision. I may not get an “amen” when I preach about lust, gluttony, or anger, but when I get off on provision you can bet amens are coming.
American Christianity is particular is obsessed with provision. Our obsession with provision has led to prosperity preaching that has become more than skewed it has moved over into absolute manipulation and often outright fraud. Cadilacs for coins and Beemers for bucks are the promise. Miracles dependent on moolah. Debt relief in exchange for dead presidents. Healings hinged on how many $100s we can donate. Hogwash!
However, in spite of all the perversion that has taken place in talking about provision I have come two conclusions:
1. God still provides and He is a God of provision. Regardless of how self-serving preachers become or how gullible God’s people are, and even though we have allowed our view of God to become diminished into some cosmic Santa Clause, and even though too often we try to work the “system” to get what we want when we want it God is and always will be faithful. He is in fact mindful of us and longs to be our provider. He is still the source of our provision whether that be financial, emotional, spiritual, relational or otherwise. God still has abundant supply that He willingly shares with us!
2. The second conclusion that I have come to is where I part ways with the “name it claim it”, “confess it and possess it” crowd. The thing I have discovered is that according to Scripture there is a pace of provision. Prosperity preacher don’t talk about this because this disrupts the “send me $1000 today and you will get your blessing tomorrow” message. Gullible folks don’t want to hear this because now their “get rich quick scheme” and their decision to throw money at things that took them years to get into in hopes of a 1 minute solution is blown away.
There is a pace to provision. Now let me stop here and say this to you this morning. If you have never been in need or a desperate situation then this message will mean nothing to you. If you have never wondered where your next meal was coming from, how you were going to put gas in your car, how you were going to keep the collectors from taking what you have, or how your babies were going to have school clothes this won’t help you. If all you have no is excess and silver spoons, and caviar, and perfect relationships, and perfect jobs, and perfect days then you won’t get this message. You may get beat up after the message, but you won’t get this message!
I just know from my personal experience – working full time for $6800 a year – that there are days that I don’t care for or appreciate God’s pace when it comes to provision. If He has access to a cattle on a thousand hills what’s the hold up with sending me a calf today by 3:00pm? It could even be a calf that limps, with one eye. I just need a calf. I don’t know about you but I have lived in seasons when I felt decalfinated!
Needs everywhere. Desperate. Stressed. Worried. But no calf in site. Bills in site. Bankers in site. But no calf. I think that we need to understand this morning that God is a God of provision. How many of you need provision? I do. But we must also understand that sending some slick haired, gold ring wearing scam artist with holy water, holy sand, holy paper, gold dust flowing from his hands scam artist isn’t the means or pace by which God produces provision. There is a pace to provision!
I want to take you into an extremely familiar portion of Scripture that speaks to the truth.
Genesis 22:1-18
1After all this, God tested Abraham. God said, “Abraham!”
“Yes?” answered Abraham. “I’m listening.”
2He said, “Take your dear son Isaac whom you love and go to the land of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I’ll point out to you.”
3Abraham got up early in the morning and saddled his donkey. He took two of his young servants and his son Isaac. He had split wood for the burnt offering. He set out for the place God had directed him. 4On the third day he looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5Abraham told his two young servants, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I are going over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.”
6Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and gave it to Isaac his son to carry. He carried the flint and the knife. The two of them went off together.
7Isaac said to Abraham his father, “Father?”
“Yes, my son.”
“We have flint and wood, but where’s the sheep for the burnt offering?”
8Abraham said, “Son, God will see to it that there’s a sheep for the burnt offering.” And they kept on walking together.
9They arrived at the place to which God had directed him. Abraham built an altar. He laid out the wood. Then he tied up Isaac and laid him on the wood. 10Abraham reached out and took the knife to kill his son.
11Just then an angel of GOD called to him out of Heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Yes, I’m listening.” (truth in here about being able to listen to God – too many of kill things because we aren’t listening).
12“Don’t lay a hand on that boy! Don’t touch him! Now I know how fearlessly you fear God; you didn’t hesitate to place your son, your dear son, on the altar for me.”
13Abraham looked up. He saw a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. Abraham took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
14Abraham named that place GOD-Yireh (GOD-Sees-to-It). That’s where we get the saying, “On the mountain of GOD, he sees to it.”
15The angel of GOD spoke from Heaven a second time to Abraham: 16“I swear—GOD’s sure word!—because you have gone through with this, and have not refused to give me your son, your dear, dear son, 17I’ll bless you—oh, how I’ll bless you! And I’ll make sure that your children flourish—like stars in the sky! like sand on the beaches! And your descendants will defeat their enemies. 18All nations on Earth will find themselves blessed through your descendants because you obeyed me.”
Before we can talk about provision we must first talk about sacrifice.
1. We are called to journey of sacrifice. Not just 1 day or 1 time. Abraham was called to take a journey of sacrifice.
After these things – after what things? Left home, comfort zone, loved ones, split with Lot, the harrowing escape from Sodom and Gomorah, Ishmael disappears into wilderness, Sarah is placed into the harem of a wicked king. After these things God tests Abraham. Hasn’t he already been tested? Hasn’t he already passed these things?
Some you feel like you have already withstood all you can. You have faced every trial you can handle. You thought you were done and now you find yourself face to face with an “after these things” moment and you wonder what is going on.
After all the sacrifice he has made Abraham is called to give up his son. I can’t wrap my mind around this. Give up your son. I have two and I couldn’t do this. It is when we are tested after these things that we should recognize that God is doing more in us!
We are called to sacrifice daily. It isn’t sacrifice if you don’t love it. It may be an inconvenience, but isn’t sacrifice. We need to quit act like we are making sacrifice when in reality all most of us are doing is being inconvenienced. God is calling us to a journey of true sacrifice. Where we give up what we love in order to obtain that which He has for us! Sacrifice doesn’t begin on the mountain. It comes to a culmination on the mountain. It begins on the 1st day of the journey.
What have you given up lately? What have you killed lately? What have you burned up lately?
Remember the priest’s duty we talked about a few months ago. They made daily sacrifices. They didn’t make daily inconveniences. They made sacrifices. Blood was spilled. Death was a way of life.
Our lives should be marked by more than inconvenience. Our lives should be marked by death and sacrifice. What you give up determines what you can have! You cannot truly follow God and not be marked. We haven’t
arrived. We must continue on this journey of sacrifice. A small sacrifice will lead to greater sacrifice. Greater sacrifice will lead to increasing sacrifice. If we long to move from glory to glory we must recognize to get that requires us to go from sacrifice to sacrifice. Sacrifice is hallmark of genuine Christianity. Dead sacrifices are easy – Romans 12 tells us that we are to become living sacrifices. That is more difficult. We are to live a life of sacrifice.
We need to come to the place that we love God more than we love our Isaacs!
2. Your provision is not only dependent on your willingness to sacrifice, but also on your preparation for sacrifice. God told Abraham in advance that he was to make sacrifice. It isn’t like he was instructed to take a journey and then when they arrive God told him what he wanted. Which, by the way would have been easier emotionally. No he had time to think about it, He had to plan it = get the wood, the knife, the rope, get the boy. He had to prepare.
Some of us are willing to sacrifice we just won’t prepare to sacrifice. So since we are never prepared, even though we are willing, we never actually sacrifice. We must prepare for sacrifice.
Yes, there are moments when you are challenged like last week to give and you make an impromptu decision to sacrifice. But I am asking you to go deeper. I am asking you to prepare to sacrifice. Pray about what God wants you to sacrifice time, resources, talent, desires, agenda, attitude and prepare for the day when you will be asked to lay it down!
We act like sacrifice can only be made on the spur of the moment. That is why manipulators can get us to sacrifice and a consistent plan of giving is scoffed at by most! That is why missionaries with pictures of starving babies get us to move. We are moved by emotion and then we respond. That is great. We should respond. However, I think a better model is for us to take stock of our world and realize that there are starving babies whether anyone stops by with pictures or not. So in response we need to make plans to sacrifice on a regular basis. If you sacrifice like that you will be more committed and it will mean more.
Abraham had 3 days to think about it! We need to think about what we need to sacrifice. Have you given any thought lately to what you need to sacrifice? What do you need to give up for God and to God? How do you need to prepare to make the sacrifice He is calling you to? What plans need to be made, what changes need to be made, what needs to be put in order to be able to sacrifice? Quit spending now. Downsize now. Work the extra job now.
3. Your place of provision may be a distance off. Therefore, you must continue your journey towards your provision. Some of you have a glimpse of it, but you are not there yet. 3 days from nowhere. Some of you feel that way. You see the place, but can’t seem to get there. Keep going.
You need provision now and it is somewhere out there. You need answers now and it is somewhere out there. Don’t give up on the brink of a miracle. It is out there if you will just keep moving. You have to move towards provision.
Make the right choices now. Worship now. Abraham revealed an attitude of worship prior to provision. We will go to worship. Before he was sure he would have provision he worshiped. He revealed an attitude of faith before provision. He called God Jehovah Jireh before he ever went up the mountain. It is easy to call Him Jireh when the cupboards are full. It requires faith to call Him that when they are empty.
We must continue to move towards our provision. We can’t wallow in our need and stop moving. Haven’t you met someone like that? They are sick and that sickness causes them to stop worship, stop faith, stop life. They are broke and that lack causes them to stagnate and become mired in depression. They are hurt and the pain causes them to quit the journey. Hear me today, while he was going up one side of the mountain knowing that it wouldn’t be easy and that there was and would be pain, knowing there are struggles, hard choices, difficult tasks – while he was going up one side of the mountain God had his provision working its way up the other side of the mountain (you might not see it yet, but it is coming). Need and provision collided at the top. Close the distance by continuing to move forward. Keep walking to that place of provision in the distance.
4. Your provision is often dependent on partnerships. Who has to cooperate with you? Who is God bringing you into relationship with to produce provision? What relationship should you be cultivating? Use Tal to illustrate. Can’t get there without you. Issac was by most accounts 25. He could have resisted. He could have run. He could have overpowered his 120 something father. Instead he laid down on the altar. Abraham was submissive, but so was Isaac. Abraham had a partner in this act of obedience. He cooperated. Your provision is wrapped up in partnerships!
5. The prerequisite to provision is a knife. Get the wood ready. Get the rope. Get the supplies. But it wouldn’t be an impressive story if he had left his knife at home. What makes this story awesome is not that he went on the journey, or that he carried wood, or took rope. It isn’t even that he had enough faith to say me and boy will be back. What makes this story an epic account of faith is that he actually took the knife.
It is one thing to say He will provide. It is one thing to take the chance and expect him to come through. But Abraham was prepared to go all the way. Too many of us claim faith, but we leave our knife at home. Use knife to illustrate.
Feel impressed to give, but conveniently leave the wallet in the car. Feel as though we need to fast, but end up at sonic to get a milkshake. Feel impressed to serve, but “forget” and schedule something on top of that time.
We leave the knife at home. We leave the cutting part out! Make the cut!
The disciples had to learn this. They left everything but to follow Jesus, but they forgot to burn their nets. So when it got tough they went back to what they knew. Elisha knew he had to use the knife. When called by Elijah he broke up the plow, he kissed his ox goodbye and killed it and sacrificed it. Provision requires the act of faith!
That is why I know people like the Scammahorns, Allens, Boyds will be blessed. Took faith to make the moves you have made. It was tough. Cuts! You used the knife. Now it is time for provision!
6. A seed of blessing is wrapped up in your provision. Your blessing isn’t just for you. It is for generations to come. Don’t waste the provision on just you. Let it flow out to others. Your provision contains a seed in it for others. If you have need of a financial breakthrough and God opens up the windows of heaven and pours out a blessing you need to remember there is a seed in that provision for blessing someone else. If we consume the whole blessing the seed is lost and no one else benefits and the blessing stops with you. Stop and think for a moment and ask yourself how has God made provision for you?
Is there a seed in that that could bless someone else?
7. Provision comes at the right pace. Right on time. Right amount. It didn’t come three days early. Ram too early, no faith. Ram too late, no hope. I can’t tell you the day or the hour. But I can tell you the time. The right time. Right when you need it. Right when there was no other way. Right when it seems impossible. Right when it seems that is over. Right when all hope seems to be gone. Provision will come at the right pace!
Your provision is coming – prepare for it, move towards it, partner for it, believe for it, share it. If you will do those things the pace of provision will pick up and your ram will find its way into your thicket or onto your hook!
Fish with coin. Jesus’ command sounds almost as ludicrous as the instructions given to Abraham. Throw a hook in a sea and the one fish who has a coin in it will bite. Right on time. Right on the money! Not before. They had already helped them catch a multitude of fish from the same sea. But no coins. Now 1 fish and 1 coin? It is the pace of provision. Before they needed nets full, now they just needed 1 fish and 1 coin.
Prayer:
Need Provision – wait on His pace. Prepare for Jesus understood this lesson. He made sacrifice. He was more than inconvenienced He died. He made preparation for sacrifice. Before the foundations of the world he was slain. He was born dead. He kept the goal in sight. You! So he kept moving to the provision of grace brought about by the cross. His provision carried a seed that now gives birth to the opportunity for you to know God and be in relationship with God. Provision has been made
