JOHN 10:10
"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."
The Good News Bible translates that statement of Jesus as,
"I have come in order that you might have life ---- life in all its fullness."
That’s what our faith is all about; God made us, and Jesus saves us, so that we can have fullness of life, spiritually, emotionally, intellectually, and physically.
Jesus spoke of life as like a vine that either bears no fruit, some fruit, or much fruit.
JOHN 15: 1-5
"I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does not bear fruit he prunes so that it will even be more fruitful."
In MARK 4:2-8 He spoke of seed that never grew, of other seed that did, some multiplying itself 30 times, some 100 times. In 1 PETER 1:2, Peter wrote, "Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied."
It’s possible to live our life without God’s blessing, or to get only a little bit of it, even though most of us would say we would like to have His blessing in abundance. We need to remove all of the obstacles in our lives that keep God at a distance, so we can let God love us. After all, it’s His desire to give us His gifts of good things, “pressed down, shaken together and running over.”
In PSALM 84:11 we are promised,
"no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly."
God wants to bless us, and an amazing thing about our heavenly Father is His math often doesn’t add up the way our math does. Would you like to receive God’s abundant blessings, definite blessings, increased blessings, multiplied blessings? Let’s look at His spiritual arithmetic.
In 1 PETER 2:1
"Therefore rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind."
Rid yourself of it, lay it aside, or SUBTRACT it from our lives. Subtract wrong attitudes, ill will, insincerity, pretense, jealousy, and anything else in hidden in your heart that is not 100 percent in line with the loving, perfect will of God. These negative things completely spoil your life. When you make a sincere effort to live for God, when you try to eliminate whatever you know is wrong, in your actions and deeds, when you align your thoughts with His Word, you’re readying your life for His multiplied blessings.
When you read the Old Testament, you find it is full of "don’ts," but the New Testament puts the emphasis on "DO," and shows us that God wants us to add certain things to our faith. Faith is the beginning of every good thing, but for multiplied blessings, your faith needs to grow.
The people in the Old Testament did not have a Savior yet, so they were ruled by God’s laws. In the New Testament we find Jesus, Our Savior, finally came, so with the advent of Jesus, we are ruled by faith.
So what do we need to Add?
2 PETER 1:5 says
"… for this very reason, make every effort to ADD to your faith goodness and to goodness, knowledge, and to knowledge, self-control, and to self-control, perseverance, and perseverance, godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, love."
He said to add virtue to our faith. Virtue means excellence or simple goodness. He wants us to excel, and be good at whatever we do, to achieve excellence.
In ACTS 10:38 it says Jesus "went about doing good."
In MATTHEW 5:16, He commands us to "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven."
Simple goodness leads to a better, happier life. After goodness, ADD knowledge. God’s blessings are multiplied in our lives "through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord."
How do you get to know someone? By spending time with him, learning what he thinks, how he reacts to different circumstances, and it’s the same with getting to know the Lord. Take time for Him, learn from experience how wonderful He is, and your blessings will be multiplied.
After knowledge, we must ADD temperance or self-control. We can easily be controlled by an impulse, bad habits, or our emotions, or even by another person. Without self-control these things hold us prisoners, but Jesus came to set us free. When he is our Lord and Master, He helps us get control of ourselves.
Perseverance, or, patient endurance, means refusing to quit. In the game of life, if we drop the ball along the way, we just need to pick it up again, and keep on playing. Jesus promised, “He who endures to the end will be saved.”
In ROMANS 2, God says,
" to those who by persistence in doing good, seek glory, honor and immortality He will give eternal life."
As it says in Hebrews, "let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith."
Another important quality to ADD to our faith is Godliness, which means becoming like God in our spirit. He wants us to look at everyone with the same loving attitude He has for us.
In MATTHEW 5:45, it tells us -
"You have heard that it was said, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in Heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."
Godliness means reverencing God while treating others justly and lovingly at the same time.
Which leads to brotherly kindness. Jesus treated everyone like a beloved and treasured sister or brother, and we must do so, too. Human nature says it makes sense to love your friends, and hate your enemies, but Jesus said, “love your enemies.” No matter how much evil or hatred exists, brotherly love is stronger.
But, the most important thing we can ADD to our faith is love. Agape is the word Peter used to describe Jesus’ self-giving, complete love, so much more than brotherly love. Agape love is as broad and wide as the love that God has for the whole world.
Love is not a passive emotion, love is ACTION, it is focusing our whole heart on God, believing completely in Him, learning to love Him and then loving everyone else the same way Jesus did. It is totally giving OF ourselves, just as Jesus did, and when we do, He promised, “ by this all men shall know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another.”
So, as you SUBTRACT all those wrong attitudes, thoughts and actions from you life, and ADD excellence, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love to your faith, you will see how awesome God’s math can become.
The word ABUNDANCE comes from a Latin word that means, “to rise up in waves, or to "“overflow." God’s blessings will come surging in like the waves of the ocean, one after the other, and soon we will say, “my cup runneth over.” Out of the riches of the presence of Jesus, shall we be blessed.
In GALATIANS 6:7 it says,
"whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
If you’ve ever planted a garden, you know what this means, if you plant corn, you don’t get potatoes, you get corn. In the material world, what we invest our money in will either bring a good return, or a poor one, and if we are careless, we may lose everything. So, it is true spiritually, too. What we put in our minds and hearts will produce a harvest of good or evil.
So here’s the lesson in spiritual arithmetic, God’s math. The minus sign is negative. It is flat, horizontal, and is limited to this material world. But if you put a line pointing upward, in the middle of it, you have a plus sign.
When you insert Jesus, in your life, He becomes that spiritual plus sign, from where the blessings come from, and adds new possibilities to those worldly negatives. What if you give the plus sign a little shove, then it becomes a multiple sign. 10-10 = 0 10+10 = 20 but 10 x 10 = A LOT!
I am not talking about a prosperity gospel here. I am talking about blessings that God gives you of all kinds! In EPHESIANS 1:3 tells us that God has already (past-tense) blessed us with every "spiritual” blessing in the heavenly realms." For instance, when we try to live righteously for God’s sake, He will bless us tremendously. That blessing might take shape in the form of a sick one being healed or saved, or it might mean a more loving and peaceful marriage. Whatever form that blessing takes, God is true to His word and He will bless us as we bless Him with the way we live our lives.
God wants us to live in the abundance of His love, and His blessings. He offers us life more abundantly when we receive His Son, Jesus, into our hearts, and He shows us how we can multiply those blessings by filling our minds, our hearts, and our lives with His knowledge. Get into His Word, put it into action in your life, and see what will happen. We must surrender our lives to Him, trust and obey His commands, step out in faith, and watch how He will multiply everything in your life.
If you don’t know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and you want to ask Him into your heart today, I ask you to come forward and stand with one of the elders that are up here with me. If you know Him but have drifted away and want to rededicate your life to Him, step up here and let Leon and Olen pray with you. If you want to join the church, or if you need special prayer, please come -
INVITATION
