Lesson 4: God Economics

Review Of Last Week

Last week we spoke about the principle of wealth and wisdom. We worked through many verses in the book of Proverbs finding out what the wise King Solomon had to say about wisdom and wealth and how they are woven together in such a way as to bring blessing into our lives.

We learned 5 important lessons: We learned that we should…

1. Honor the Lord with our tithe and this will bring blessing to our life.
2. To be humble about our wealth and fear the Lord because t brings blessing to our life.
3. God expects hard work and diligence when it come to making money and not “get-rich-quick” schemes or dishonest wealth
4. God expects us to be honest with our money and show kindness to the poor.
5. Lastly, we learned that money is only temporary it here today and gone tomorrow. We need to place our trust in eternal things not earthly things that fade away.

Today we want to talk about the final thought in our sermon series God Economics and that is the purpose of wealth. Why does God want to bless us and how does God want to bless us but more importantly WHAT DOES GOD WANT US TO DO WITH OUR BLESSINGS?

Scripture Focus

Misfortune pursues the sinner, but prosperity is the reward of the righteous. (Proverbs 13:21)

Let me ask some of you a question this morning. I will give you a little time to think about it then I want to get some of your reactions. Are ready for the question? Here we go…if you were given R10 million today, what would you do with it? Why?

(GET PEOPLE TO RESPOND INTO THE MICROPHONE)

Introduction

Do you know the scriptures tell us having wealth is supposed to be a blessing? There are typically to kinds of ideas about God’s blessing of wealth:

1. All Christians should be poor
2. All Christians should be rich

Neither of these ideas is right. God does not condemn us if we are poor nor does He love us more because we are rich. Whether we are rich or poor god expects us to manage what He has given us by His word and in His will!

Sometimes though we begin seeking the Lord and asking Him to make us wealthy or at least to have a little more than we already have. When we do this we must understand why God would bring wealth into our life…in other words what is the purpose of wealth – does God want to give to us because He has a plan for the gift? Let’s look at this very carefully today.

Purpose #1: To Bless The Work Of God

Let’s take a look at an awesome protion of scripture found in the Old Testament book of Exodus 36. While you are turning there let me set the stage for what we are about to read. Moses had been given a plan by God to build what is called THE TABERNACLE. This would be the place where worship of God would be carried out, where sacrifices would be made and where the presence of God would come and dwell. This tabernacle was to be portable: it was to be built in such a way that it could be packed up and moved. Remember the children of Israel are on their way to the Promise Land so everything had to be able to be moved until they got to their destination.

In order to build the tabernacle God asked the people of Israel to take an offering. The building of the tabernacle would require a huge amount of gold, silver, mirrors, skins and more in order to complete. Moses, the pastor of Israel, told the people what was required and began taking an offering…look though at how the people gave to the work of God. Let’s read…

They received from Moses all the offerings the Israelites had brought to carry out the work of constructing the sanctuary. And the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning. ⁴ So all the skilled craftsmen who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left their work ⁵ and said to Moses, “The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the LORD commanded to be done.” ⁶ Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: “No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.” And so the people were restrained from bringing more, ⁷ because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work. (Exodus 36:3-7)

Look at this…the people had to be “restrained” from giving. They had overwhelmingly saw the need and the Bible tells us, “what they had was more than enough to do all the work…”

Progressing God’s Kingdom requires money. I know most of you might think all we need to do is pray or fast and the Kingdom will move forward. This is true but it also requires money AND WHERE DOES THAT MONEY COME FROM – IT COMES FROM GOD’S PEOPLE.

It is possible the reason the Lord has given you the blessing you have received because there is something needed in the work of God. Most of us (including me) are often blessed with material things and we automatically assume the blessing is for us but maybe God gave it too us so we could benefit the work of God.

(Possibly mention our opportunity at Tiramisu)

Purpose #2: To Be A Blessing To Others

¹The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. ² “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:1-3)

Look at the words the Lord spoke to Abraham “…I will bless you…” then God tells Abraham why He want to bless Him “…you will be a blessing…”

Could it be the Lord has put blessings into your life so you could in turn bless someone else? Possibly the Lord is testing you willingness to give and trust you with the small blessings before He will pour out the BIG BLESSINGS? Who knows?

One thing I do know is that God wants us to be a channel of blessing to those around us. Look at what the Apostle Paul told the church at Corinth. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 9

You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion. (2 Corinthians 9:11)

Why does God want to make us rich? So we can have more and do more? So we can drive a fancy car or have a fancy house? NO! NO! NO! God will trust with wealth when and ONLY WHEN we realize what the purpose of having the wealth is:

1. To Bless the Work of God
2. To Bless Others

That’s it! If God gave you R10 million today what would you do with it? Would you look for ways to bless the Kingdom or bless yourself? Now don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with having a nice car or house. There is nothing wrong with having nice clothes. However, there is something wrong when we are entrusted with God’s money and all we can think about is ME ME ME!!!!

The Opportunity Before You Today

Over the last few weeks we have talked a lot about money and God’s principles of managing that money. I have challenged you to become tithers and to become radical in your generosity. Today I am going to give you the opportunity to let God use you to be a blessing to His work and to others.

Let me read something too you from Rev. Bruce Howell, the General Director of Foreign Missions of the United Pentecostal Church International. This letter is written to the YOU the people of Turning Point…

Turning Point Community Church

Johannesburg, South Africa

Pastor Davis and Congregation:

Christian greetings.

Thank God for the faithful pastors, churches, and individual saints who make the difference in reaching our world with the gospel. If it were not for people like you, we would not be able to report the great things that happen each day across the globe. Just this past week, I gave reports of the United Pentecostal Church International establishing churches in Congo, Brazzaville, Kyrgyzstan, and Moldova. Every day there are hundreds being baptized in Jesus’ name and being filled with the Holy Ghost. We, you, and the worldwide family of the United Pentecostal Church International are doing this together.

You have been faithful in this past year with your support of Faith Promise. Thank you for an offering of R11,500.00 for missions. Your faithfulness has made the difference in the lives of thousands of people this year.

You are now in your annual Faith Promise service. I am in prayer for you and never forget that the way to receive is to give. God is going to bless your church and your individual lives for giving to Him.

The Regional Missionary program is where we send missionaries from all countries. I understand that the majority of your giving this year will go to that program. What a worthy cause.

Once again, on behalf of the worldwide family of the United Pentecostal Church International, I thank you.

Yours for the Lost,

Bruce A. Howell,

General Director of Foreign Missions

On 19 July 2008 I am going to stand in front of delegates from all over Southern Africa and present a cheque in the amount of R6000.00 to Bro. Caesar Moraes who is a UPC missionary from the country of Brazil working to establish a revival church in the country of Mozambique. Where does this money come from – IT COME FROM YOU.

Some of you every month give a FAITH PROMISE offering to help Turning Point support the cause of missions around the continent of Africa. Beginning in August we are going to partner with Bro. Gistophe of Madagascar. He and is family will be moving to Brazzaville Congo to establish the United Pentecostal Church and lead it into revival. This man has a 25-year history in the ministry. He has been a pastor and teacher and a leader of the work in Madagascar but is giving that up to do the will of God in his life.

How will we support this man of God? We will support him through YOUR FAITHFUL GIVING. I am asking you to consider becoming a FAITH PROMISE giver. This is a monthly offering OVER AND ABOVE YOUR TITHE that will go directly into the work of world missions. You may never be called to the Congo but God will use your money to send someone and that someone will preach this gospel and you will one day meet that person in Heaven because of your faithful giving.

The ushers are going to begin passing out forms to you and we are going to have a time of prayer and then we are going to make a commitment to FAITH PROMISE. We will every month pledge BY FAITH that we will give an amount OVER AND ABOVE OUR TITHE TO SUPPORT THE CAUSE OF WORLD MISSIONS THROUGH TURNING POINT COMMUNITY CHURCH.