(2 Corinthians 9:10-11 NLT) For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. (11) Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God.
(2 Corinthians 9:10-11 MSG) (10) This most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you. He gives you something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, (11) wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God.
Why teach a series on Biblical Prosperity?
(Philippians 4:17 TPT) I mention this not because I’m requesting a gift, but so that the fruit of your generosity may bring you an abundant reward.
- There is a fundamental connection between our spiritual lives and how we think about and handle money.
(Matthew 6:21 TPT) For your heart will always pursue what you value as your treasure.
- Prosperity – is the ability to use the power and ability of God to meet the needs of mankind in every realm of life: spirit, soul, body, financially, and socially.
Say this: My motivation for accumulation is distribution. I am a source of THE BLESSING to others, and I love to give.
(Psalms 25:12-13 TPT) Who are they that live in the holy fear of God? You will show them the right path to take. (13) Then prosperity and favor will be their portion, and their descendants will inherit all that is good.
(Psalms 35:27 NKJV) Let them shout for joy and be glad, Who favor my righteous cause; And let them say continually, “Let the LORD be magnified, Who has pleasure in the prosperity (peace, secure, things go well for) of His servant.”
- Poverty – the state of being inferior in quality or insufficient in amount. (a lack of the common needs of life)
- Materialism – Trying to solve spiritual needs or problems with material things.
God has no problem with us having things. He just doesn’t want things having us!
God’s Economy vs. the World’s Economy
Economy – the wealth and resources of a country or region, including production and distribution
(John 17:14-17 NKJV) I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. (15) I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. (16) They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. (17) Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
- We are in this world, but we are not of this world.
World – (Gk) “Kosmos” – the order or arrangement
(Galatians 1:4 AMPC) Who gave (yielded) Himself up [to atone] for our sins [and to save and sanctify us], in order to rescue and deliver us from this present wicked age and world order, in accordance with the will and purpose and plan of our God and Father—
- There are three kingdoms at work in the earth today.
(John 18:36 NKJV) Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”
(Colossians 1:11-14 NLT) We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, (12) always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. (13) For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, (14) who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.
- We belong to the Kingdom of God, of which Jesus is Lord because we belong to Him.
- We have the choice to function in God’s economy or in the world’s economy.
(Matthew 6:33 AMPC) But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.
- When we choose to function in God’s Kingdom, we can receive the protections that God provides in His Kingdom.
(Psalms 27:1,5 NKJV) The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid? (5) For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock.
(Psalms 32:7 NKJV) You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah
Money is like a brick.
A brick is absolutely and completely neutral.
The brick has no ability to hurt or help anyone on its own.
In the hands of a person, it can build a church, school, or hospital or it can destroy, hurt, and bring ruin, or even death.
The brick did not do it, it is the individual that had the brick.
- Money is absolutely and completely neutral.
The brick is a revealer of the heart of the one whose hands it is in.
- Money is a revealer of the heart of the one whose hands it is in.
(Matthew 6:21 CEV) Your heart will always be where your treasure is.
Religion would tell us that God does not want you to have a lot of bricks because those bricks will corrupt you and lead you to sin.
Religion also says that “bricks are the root of all evil.”
The brick does not generate the corruption, the man that has the bricks generates the corruption which leads to his downfall.
It is only when I fall in love with bricks and begin to lust after them that they become the root of all kinds of evil.
- It is only when I fall in love with money and begin to lust after it that it becomes the root of all kinds of evil.
(1 Timothy 6:10 NKJV) For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
We must know and understand that God does not have any problem with you and me having plenty of money just like He has no problem with me having a lot of bricks.
We have all made a series of decisions in our lives that have positioned us where we don’t have any bricks. We are up to our ears in debt in that we owe a lot of bricks to a lot of people.
(Proverbs 22:7 NKJV) The rich rules over the poor, And the borrower is servant to the lender.
God never intended for us to become servants to bricks.
- God never intended for us to become servants to money.
It has always been the plan of God for bricks to serve us.
- It has always been the plan of God for money to serve us and His purposes.
So, we need to learn to make the right decisions that can begin to change the course of our lives and start causing our bricks to serve us instead of us serving our bricks.