Hebrews 10:23 (TEV) tells us: “Let us hold on firmly to the hope we profess, because we can trust God to keep his promise.” Do you believe that today … that you can trust God to keep his promises?
It’s been said that God’s promises are dated in heaven. And since we know only ‘in part,’ as the Bible says (I Cor. 13:12), we don’t always know when those promises will be fulfilled. But, we do know this: God will keep them!
Folks, suppose a wealthy person gave you a note saying, ‘Sometime in the future, a time I’ve decided upon, you will receive $50,000 that I have set aside for you." Although you might get impatient as you wait for the money, you’re confident you’ll get it.
Now, if that same person were to say, ‘Well, if everything works out, I might give you $50,000,’ you’d expect the money only if they didn’t go bankrupt, change their mind, forget their promise, or die. Of course, the first situation carries the greatest certainty. And that’s the way it is in God’s economy…
God dates many of His promises according to His sovereign will … and in keeping with His perfect knowledge of what’s best for us. This in no way weakens God’s promises, because God backs them up with the strength of His character. What’s His character?
• God never changes His mind…
• God never forgets His word…
• God never dies…
God may seem to delay the fulfillment of a promise, but we can be encouraged that every promise is as good as His word…
Some of us have been in tough situations before, only to realize that as we placed our faith in God, God came through with what we needed … and just at the right time. (Cory Berg) He was neither incorrect nor slow; his timing was just right. So, don’t be discouraged! Keep claiming the promises! God is the FAITHFUL PROMISER… Hear this story of the FAITHFUL PROMISER right now:
“Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. 8 Then the word of the Lord came to him: 9 ‘Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food.’ 10 So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, ‘Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?’ 11 As she was going to get it, he called, ‘And bring me, please, a piece of bread.’ 12 ‘As surely as the Lord your God lives,’ she replied, ‘I don’t have any bread–only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.’ 13 Elijah said to her, ‘Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 14 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord gives rain on the land.’" – 1 Kings 17:7-14 (NIV)
Folks, today is a day when we all will have an opportunity at the end of this service to affect God’s provision for many… When it comes to tithing and giving even beyond a tithe, that’s really what we’re talking about—God’s economy. God’s economy is this: God provides for others … through us, his people, his church. But, are we living out of God’s economy? And, do we trust the FAITHFUL PROMISER, not only for our needs … but for the needs of others?
QUESTION: When considering needs in this life, do we use the formula of human computation … or the power of divine math? ‘Divine math’ is the Christian perspective whereby we live with a resurrection worldview; resurrections don’t make sense, apart from God. But, resurrection is a part of our reality. Again, this whole series this month is really about getting our minds aligned with the mind of Christ—his thinking on money and stuff… So, how do we being to go about this? How do we live out of God’s economy? … There are 3 components of our walk with God that we need to look at, to begin to understand God’s economy … and live out of it. The first component is this:
SURRENDER. We need to come to a point where we can surrender all we have to God… That’s what happens time after time in the history book of God!
• Do you remember what God asked Moses … when he was asking him to ‘step up to the plate’ for the sake of God’s Kingdom? God asked him, “What is that in your hand?”
• Then, here’s what Elijah says to this widow: “Use what’s in your hand.”
• When we look at the miracles of Jesus, we see that God never makes something from nothing…
o When 5,000 people were hungry, Jesus didn’t smack his fingers and have ‘Happy Meals’ fall out of the sky; he used what was there, bread & fish…
o When Jesus’ friends needed wine at the wedding feast, Jesus didn’t snap his fingers and make wine appear; he used what was there, basins of water…
o When the widow dropped a mere 2 mites in the offering box at the Temple, why was Jesus so excited? Because he can use … and bless … what’s already there—no matter what the amount…
The miracle comes from what you have, not from what you don’t have; God always asks us to surrender … what we already have … and then we trust. That’s the relationship…
Again, we’re not talking about living out of resources you do not have; in God’s economy, we’re talking about living out of what you already have in your hand; that’s what God wants to bless, if we’ll but surrender all we have to him! A second component in learning to live out of God’s economy is this:
TRUST. God doesn’t want us to be slaves to anything; he wants us to experience freedom and abundance in every way, in our walk with him… In order to experience the abundant life that God desires for us, however, we need to build a trust (with God); how do we do that? Really trusting God—true faith—involves 3 things: your head, your heart, and your hands… It doesn’t become resource-releasing faith (as Mike Slaughter would put it) from God’s perspective … until it involves all 3:
• First, folks, you need a head full of promises—God’s promises. You have to know the promises of God. Mike Slaughter says, “People of resource-releasing faith come to the word of God with open hearts and open notebooks.” Every time you sense God speaking to you through his word, for instance, and you’re obedient to act on it, God’s going to honor that obedience and release his resources into your life! Spending time with God in his word is not just a religious exercise; it’s a process of coming to know the truth of God, then practicing the truth of God in your life. But, you can’t practice it, if you don’t know it. You’ve got to have a head full of promises and those promises are right here (hold up Bible)!
• Then, those promises need to move from your head to your heart… I’ve been told that the longest 18 inches in the world is from here (head) to here (heart). And, I believe it. But, it’s a part of the process of trusting God for your every need … and for the needs of others … that just has to happen! READ ISAIAH 58! It will become clear to you that God’s priority is … the poor! We know God’s promises; they’re in our head. But, we need to transfer that truth of God to our heart! And, you have God’s truth in your heart when you go beyond just knowing it, to trusting it…
• Finally, God’s promises need to move from your heart to your hand… In 1 Kings 17:15 (NIV), we’re reminded about the widow: “She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family.” Notice the order … and the priority; notice to whom she released it. YOU MUST RELEASE IT BEFORE GOD CAN INCREASE IT! There is a cause and effect relationship (a part of our relationship with God) between generosity and increase (in many areas) in your life…
This is the relationship of surrender and trust that God calls us to—a relationship that then will end up in FREEDOM—total freedom to be who God has made you to be, to reach the potential in life that God has created you for, and to never want again for anything … because you know, in faith, that because of your obedience in relation to God, God has everything else covered… That, folks, is GOD’S ECONOMY; that the mind of Christ that we’re to be living out of … even right here in Southwest Wisconsin…
Folks, I’m not talking to you about something I don’t know about. To be honest with you, Jane and I have experienced the freedom that comes from surrendering all, building a trust with God, and living out of God’s economy for our whole married life together. Here’s some background on my family history…
During the Great Depression, everything financially was tight. My grandfather’d been out of work for quite some time, due to high blood pressure. Then, he finally got a job as a night watchman downtown Greensboro (lived on S. Elm). He’d always handled the family finances up to that point. He was making $10 a week, for a family of 4…
Not long before this, they hadn’t really been ‘church people.’ But, they had started going to the Salvation Army services in the neighborhood—mostly because of my Aunt Barbara. She would hear the band play, as they would walk by, and Barbara wanted to go in and hear that music. She kept badgering them, and they finally went to a service there. After attending for some time, both my granddaddy (who’d actually been baptized previously) and grandmother responded to an altar call, went forward and gave their lives to Christ—their lives changed from that point on…
My grandparents began to study their Bibles, at this point, finding out what God’s word really said. They discovered that God’s word says we are to tithe, as God’s people. My grandfather came home from work one day, couldn’t make ends meet on $10, and he said to my grandmother, “Mother, I just can’t make ends meet on this $10 a week. See what you can do!” Her response? “Not only are we going to live on $10 a week; we’re going to learn to live on $9. The first $1 is God’s!” And, that’s when my history of tithing began. My parents both grew up tithing. It’s God’s way…
The real question for us today is, as we consider living in God’s economy & learning to tithe faithfully: IS GOD ENOUGH? You have to answer that question for yourself. Then, we need to surrender it all … and build a trust with God.
When Jane and I give today, we give 10% of both of our incomes to the general funds of the church; we believe that is being faithful to ‘Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse….’ as God asks us to in his word (Malachi 3:10, NIV). And, we do this for both churches; 1/10th of my tithe goes to the Ridgeway: Grace UMC. Then, as God blesses us with extra, we give to special projects where we feel God is leading us to give that extra. It has to always be about God’s agenda—not ours. There’s the best example I can give you of healthy giving—what Jane and I’ve been doing for the past 30+ years…
Folks, we can live this life! We can do it! We can know God’s very best for us … if we’ll just live our lives God’s way—including our finances—in God’s economy… And the world—especially the poor—will be much better for it…
Again, today, we all have a chance to affect God’s provision … for many, many people—in our community and beyond. In God’s economy, God provides for others … through us. So, what’s your part going to be? What are we going to be able to do for God’s Kingdom in 2010? It all depends on our focus… Let God bless you … as he wants to; learn to do things God’s way … and you’ll never turn back!