Prosperity for 2005
Where we ended last week;
1.Hard work, determination and commitment to God produce prosperity.
”Choose to love the LORD your God and to obey him and commit yourself to him, for he is your life”. “Then you will live long in the land the LORD swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."
(Det. 30:20)
3 John 1:2 says; "Beloved I wish above all things that you prosper and be in good health, even as your soul prospers".
-If God is truly your life, than let your actions prove it!
A lazy person will not prosper
Turn your Bibles to*Proverbs 12:27 says; Lazy people don’t even cook the game they catch, but the diligent make use of everything they find.
-Lazy people leave everything half cooked or half done.
-They never finish what they start.
*proverbs 15:19; “A lazy person has trouble all through life; the path of the upright is easy!”
- They are always looking for a new job. They got fired from the last one.
- They will always have problems with their finances.
-Always owing somebody something.`
- Always hiding from bill collectors.
-Always starting to read a new book but never finished reading the last one.
*proverbs; 19:15 says; “A lazy person sleeps soundly and goes hungry”.
- You can’t seat at home watching television all day and expect to achieve what others have with hard work.
- A lazy person is always tired, bored.
Never has any money left over for anything.
- They can’t participate the same way that others can.
*Prov. 10:4; “He who is lazy becomes poor, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.
* Prov.13:4; Lazy people want much but get little, but those who work hard will prosper and be satisfied.
2. You must make a choice how you want to prosper.
Jesus said in Matthew 6:24; 0 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
Paul’s Charge to Timothy
11But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. 12Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you 14 to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.
17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
20 Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, 21 which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith.
Grace be with you.
Jesus said; "No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon"
3.True prosperity is good stewardship
Stewardship; means that you know that everything that you have belongs to God and that you are just an administrator.
The 33 laws of stewardship, written by; Dave Sutherland and Kirk Nowery
They say; “Think of all the assets that you have under management: your money, your time, your possessions, your opportunities, your influence, your relationships and much more. And to this long list can be added the spiritual assets with which we are entrusted: The Gospel of Christ, the mystery of Godliness, the secret things of God. This is no small responsibility we bear, and to handle it rightly demands absolute faithfulness.”
-The money that you have, you are administrating for the Lord.
-Your time belongs to God.
-Your resources, God has given them to you to administrate for the Kingdom of God.
-Your talents God gave to you, to help you prosper and also to use for the Kingdom.
-Your house is God’s house. God wants you to live well but maybe one day when you least expect it, a missionary may need a place to stay for a weekend. God wants you to be alert to needs.
-Your ministry. You are only an administrator of all these things. They belong to God and He has entrusted you to them.
ALL THESE THINGS MUST BE LOOKED AT AS SACRED (DEVOTED TO GOD’S USE)
(TURN YOUR BIBLES TO MATTHEW 25:14-30)
Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a trip. He called together his servants and gave them money to invest for him while he was gone. 15 He gave five bags of gold to one, two bags of gold to another and one bag of gold to the last. Dividing it in proportion to their abilities and then left on his trip. 16 The servant who received the five bags of gold began immediately to invest the money and soon doubled it. 17 The servant with two bags of gold also went right to work and doubled the money. 18 But the servant who received the one bag of gold dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money for safekeeping.
19 after a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. 20 The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of gold said, Sir, you gave me five bags of gold to invest, and I have doubled the amount. 21 The master was full of praise. Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!?
22 Next came the servant who had received the two bags of gold, with the report, sir, you gave me two bags of gold to invest, and I have doubled the amount. 23 The master said, well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!?
24 Then the servant with the one bag of gold came and said, sir, I know you are a hard man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. 25 I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth and here it is.?
26 But the master replied, you wicked and lazy servant! You think I am a hard man, do you, harvesting crops I didn’t plant and gathering crops I didn’t? Cultivate? 27 Well, you should at least have put my money into the bank so I could have some interest. 28 Take the money from this servant and give it to the one with the ten bags of gold. 29 To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have abundance. But from those who are unfaithful, even what little they have will be taken away.
Conclusion;
One day we wil all have to give an account to the Lord about how we administered what He gave to us. The Lord has already prospered you in one way or another and when He sees that you are faithful with the the little He will place you over much.
If you are seeking prosperity for the new year, you need to begin by being faithful with what you already have and make a determination to prosper God’s way.
