The Gospel and Money - 7 Principles - Part 4 Jesus Multiplies what He is given!

GREET EVERYONE-

If I have not had a chance to meet you; My name is Scott and I am a follower of Jesus and have the privilege of serving Him as the Lead Pastor among the people of Stonewater Fellowship.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

1 - New Members Class part 3 today

2- Tuesday 10-31 - Hallowwnies -

3- Sunday November 5 - Prayer for the persecuted church before worship

Baptism Class after worship

4- Saturday - 11-11 Stonewater Women's Ministry “Cultivate” kickoff gathering - More info coming.

Stonewaters Cultivate Women's Ministry exists to engage all women into a multiplying relationship with Jesus Christ by cultivating an encouraging, loving, and caring community through) connection, prayer, and service as we reach others for Christ.

5 - Sunday 11-12 Prayer Sunday

6 PRAYER CARDS and PRAYER SPACE.

LETS GRAB OUR BIBLES IF YOU HAVE ONE AND

Open it to Any one of the 4 Gospels of Matthew Chapter 14, Mark Chapter 6, Luke Chapter 9 or John Chapter 6 today as we continue exposing what Jesus says about how money and the Gospel intersect in our fall series called “living well in a culture of money”

AS WE DIVE INTO THE GOSPEL NARRATIVES - I WANT TO REINFORCE A COUPLE OF BIBLICAL TRUTHS ALL OF US

In this series we are unpacking and unwrapping, in the midst of our imperfections, from the whole council of scripture the “7 biblical principles of the Gospel and Money”

There are a couple of over arching Theological truths that blanket all 7 of these principles.

1 - God LOVES US - HE is all knowing, He is sovereign, HE knows that beginning and the end - and in the ultimate working of His love for us, He knows what is best for us, wants what is best for us, and takes great care to work to bring what is best for us to us - through His working in our life and through the principles and precepts revealed to us in His word - all of which are a revealing of His character and Nature.

2nd - If we are followers of Jesus and saved by His grace through faith, regenerated unto new life by the power of the Holy Spirit and repentant unto new life. then We are absolutely set free from the Law.

HOWEVER, it is not like the Law of God has no effect on our life.

Here in lies our freedom form the Law.

We are set free from the consequences of the law - The very law that the apostle Paul would say is the Law of sin and death that brings death.

However there is something that we are not set free from -

We are not set free from the principles of precepts of God that are communicated to us through His word and some of those come through the Law.

Because God is the giver of Life and His principles and precepts are life giving as they are also life changing.

Because the Gospel changed EVERYTHING -

Sometimes we don't apply the Gospel transformation to Every area of our life.

This morning we are unpacking the 4th Biblical Principle and that is that “Jesus multiplies what He is given”

I first heard of this principle several years ago from Robert Morris, who is a Pastor up in the Dallas Ft Worth.

This is one of the sermons that we are going to have a lot of fun walking through.

One of the reasons is we will take this story form all 4 gospels at once.

This narrative is found in all 4 Gospels. and one of the things that you and I can do to get a whole picture of what is happening in any of the narratives of the Gospels is to look at them completely combined together.

the 4 Gospels are the 4 witnesses of Jesus life - Mark, Matthew and John - Eye witnesses -

Luke - Exhaustive Researcher and Copious author of all of the details.

So when we combine them we get a more complete picture of what happened.

So lets read them all mashed together.

The words are on the screen.

TRUTH

The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught.

Now when Jesus heard this, He withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by Himself.

And He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.”

For many were coming and going, and they, the disciples, had no leisure even to eat.

And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.

After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias.

And He took them and withdrew apart to a town called Bethsaida.

When the crowds learned it, they followed Him, many people saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot

from all the towns and got there ahead of them because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.

Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat down with his disciples.

Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Lifting up His eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward Him; a great crowd.

And he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

And he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God. And he began to teach them many things.

And healed their sick; cured those who had need of healing.

And when it grew late, the day began to wear away it was evening, the disciples, the twelve came to him and said,

“This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and

countryside, to find lodging and get provisions and buy food for themselves.”

But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”

Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.

And they, the disciples, said to Jesus: “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?”

Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.”

And he said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.

One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to the others:

“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.”

For there were about five thousand men.

They said to Jesus, when they had found out, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.”

And Jesus said, “Bring them here to me.”

Then Jesus ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, He commanded them all to sit down.

Jesus said to the disciples: “Have the people sit down.”

Now there was much grass in the place. And He said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.”

And they did so, and had them all sit down. They sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties.

The men sat down, about five thousand in number

And taking the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven and said a blessing.

Jesus took the loaves, when he had given thanks, and distributed them to those who were seated.

Then He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.

So also, the fish, as much as they wanted. He divided the two fish among them all.

And they all ate and were satisfied. And when they had eaten their fill, Jesus told his disciples:

“Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.”

So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by

those who had eaten, and full of the broken pieces of the fish that was left over.

And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

When the people saw the sign that Jesus had done, they said:

“This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”

Perceiving then that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

PRAY

DESIRE FOR THE MESSAGE

My prayer for this series is that we would understand from the full counsel of Scripture how the Gospel and money Intersect.

That God has given resources to you and to me for 2 things

1 - to advance the Gospel and 2 - Human flourishing.

There there is nothing evil about money but there is a purpose and an intent that God has with money and that is to Advance His kingdom and for human flourishing.

My Prayer for this message is that we would be rooted, grounded and built up in Christ, established in the Trust of Jesus in all things.

and as we are built up and established in Him, we would be set free from the philosophies, that are from the empty deceit of our human traditions, all of which are all based on the elementary principles of this world, and not based on Jesus.

ENGAGEMENT

Mathematics - How many of us are good at mathematics.

Well lets take a small text on some basic Math Facts -

2+2=??

5+5=??

5+5+5+5+5= ?

Way know once we get the basic understanding of addition we can them simplify 5+5+5+5+5 to a smaller equation of 5 X 5

You see both of their answers are 25.

God has given us Mathematics so that we can Make rational sense of His creation.

and to define some aspects of His creation.

Mathematics is a Gift of Knowledge from God.

He gave human beings the ability to develop the knowledge of mathematics.

Church hear me - Math is not God - Math is a tool that God uses to explain things to us.

Math is also a tool that God uses to command His creation. In the very story of Creation God says “Be fruitful and Multiply after you own kind - He says this to Every thing that has life in it.

Birds of the Sky -= Beasts of the Field - Trees of the orchard - Grass of the fields = Plants of the harvest -

All of it - Multiply -

He says and causes the same thing to happen about the Church -

over and over and over again you will hear the terms - in the Bible -

Bear Fruit- Good soil bears fruit i.e. multiplies 30 60 100 fold - God added to the number day by day those being saved - And the Church multiplied -

God is a multiplying God -

TENSION

However - Here is the Problem.

Math is an elementary principle of this world. IT is a tool that we use to understand this world.

It is a tool that brings in rational thought and reason to our human existence.

and in a lot of cases we are imprisoned by the logic and reason that math brings into our life.

becasue it is an elementary principle of this world and as such we have built human tradition upon it.

I was thinking about the number of human traditions that we in our culture find ourselves held captive by -

There are way too many to count.

Here is a quintessential one -

Jesus tells us to pray for our daily bread -

The Proverbs writer of the 30th proverb says as he is speaking with God: and I am paraphrasing this one:

God- I don’t want to be poor or rich!

God if you would just feed me with the food that I need for today, I’m good with that.

Because God is you give me more than what I need, I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?”

God - I cant be poor either becasue if I am poor and hungry I might be too tempted to steal and profane the name of my God.

Here is the truth - None of us are comfortable with “Daily”

WE need pantries, and supply closets, bank accounts and 401k’s full becasue we cant really stand the radical idea of trusting God for “daily”

And you might say - “Pastor God gives us wisdom to store up for a rainy day”

I looked “rainy day” and there is only one verse in the whole bible that mentions rainy day:

Proverbs 27:15 (ESV)

15 A continual dripping on a rainy day

and a quarrelsome wife are alike;

You see way way way to many of us, who Claim Jesus as savior and surrender to him as lord, as Master of their life - Who Trust more in what the mathematical conclusions tell us than in what Jesus tells us.

When this happens - We live trapped by the resulting sums, products, differences and quotients of mathematics rather than the working power and awe bringing miraculous works of Jesus in our life.

And what we will see is that the disciples, the very people that were in the inner circle of Jesus as He did and taught phenomenally miraculous things were taken captive by mathematics as well.

SO Lets do this with this Narrative -

Lets place us - You and me in the Narrative as if we are seeing it happen live and in person and participating as one of Jesus disciples.

SETTING

Jesus has sent the twelve out on a missional demo ride so they would get a glimpse of what is coming toward them for their life.

Jesus has empowered them to heal the sick and gave them power over the demonic spirits -

Some thing has also happened - Jesus cousin John the baptist has been beheaded -

and this is where we pick up.

We will do this like Peter is the main spokes person - Ya know cuz Peter like to talk.

PETER

Hey Jesus – Man oh man what t trip. WE taught the thing you said and we cast our demons and John healed a blind person and Phillip He made a lame man walk =- Ohhh It was a great trip.

Oh and By the way – We heard that you cousin John was killed by Harrods.

JESUS

Ok, I’m gonna be alone for a minute – Say you guys come with me cuz there are too many people who can see us and we need to go an pray for a minute.

In fact lets got on a boat and I know of a place we can be alone. Its on the other side of the sea of galilee.

When we get there were going to go to Bethsaida.

THE NARRATIVE SAYS

people figured this out and they followed Jesus and crew – the people ran ahead of them and got there before Jesus and his guys.

Jesus takes his guys on top of a hill – Sat down with them –

Its Passover season and so there are a lot of people. And the narrative says “there was a large crowd of people that came.

JESUS

Hey guys look – Lots of people coming to towards us – Man that is a beautiful sight – Love these people. Look at them They are like sheep without a Shepard.

“welcome welcome friends –

NARRTIVE

So what Jesus does is he begins to teach them of the kingdom of God.

AND he begins healing all who were in need of healing.

And this goes on and on and on – “the day grew late”

PETER

Peter comes up to Jesus and says “Jesus – This has really been great – All the teaching WOW and the Healings – Double WOW and sick people – the demon you took care of – Truly amazing –

And listen Jesus – Me and the boys were talking - and were concerned about the people.

Ya know – we could go all day and night – but were worried about them.

How about we do this –

How about you kinda wrap things up and land the plane and since this is a desolate place –

Why don’t we send these people into the villages to go eat – and find a place to stay, so they can take care of themselves.

JESUS

Peter – these people don’t need to Go away – You give them something to eat.

PETER

I beg your pardon – You want us to give them something to eat – Ahh Jesus did you see the size of this crowd?

JESUS

Hey Phillip – Where are we going to buy bread so that these people may eat?

PETER

Are you asking US to go and by bread for all these people, like two hundred denaris worth of bread? We don't have that kind of money, in fact we don't have any money - when you told us to go out and do these fantastic things you told us to leave the money behind.

PHILLIP

Ahh Jesus, I have done the math over here with Matthew and two hundred denari’s worth would not be enough for all of these people to even have a little – Two hundred denari is way short of what we need to feed all these people.

JESUS

Well how many loves of bread do you guys have – go check that out-

ANDREW to the other disciples

There is this kid that I met a minute ago – He is caring lunch for himself and his family – He has 5 loves and two fish – But that is all I know of and reality is – that is way short unless we go and buy some more food.

And I don’t have that kind of cash on me, in fact I don’t have any.

JESUS

Well what do you guys have?

PETER

well Jesus, here is what we have managed to scrape together - we only have 5 loves and two fish. That is ALL WE HAVE!

JESUS

bring them to me.

Hey everyone sit down were going to eat – Sit down on the grass

Peter and Andrew take the others and have them sit down, on the grass in groups of fifty –

PREACH

Watch what Jesus does – The disciples bring to Jesus 5 loaves of bread and two fish along with this completely and totally unreasonable challenge of feeding more than 20000 people.

Look what Jesus does - Jesus – Blesses them –

Jesus then break them – Jesus takes the 5 loaves of bread and make them smaller top distribute to the crows –

Jesus then Hands these smaller pieces to all of the 12 and says – Give to the people who are seated –

I want you to notice - There were not huge stacks of fish and bread that suddenly appears out of no where -

Jesus – Said to his disciples – The ones who are in training to be the leaders who make more leaders to be the point of the spear and lead the gospel proclaiming assembly of the called-out ones AKA the church.

Take these resources, that you think are scarce and satisfy the need of the people with them.

Here is what happened - Just like the old testament o story of Elijah where the flower and oil of the wissow did not become depleted.

Here is what happened.

They would break off the piece of bread that the first person wanted and they would give it to them.

and while their attention was on the person and handing them the bread and fish - Jesus would add more bread - and when A fish was given He would add a fish.

In other words as the disciples handed out the resources to satisfy - Jesus was multiplying what was given to Him in feeling the people who had no Sheppard.

After the meal – in order to prove that Dive math and earthly math are not the same math –

Jesus tells them to take up the fragment’s leftover – In other words the resources that the people did not use –

12 baskets full – Each disciple home with a doggie bag –

Look at what Jesus did – When His servants bring all they have to Jesus – Jesus Blesses it – Multiplies it – Gives it to His gospel servants to give the people what they need, people who contributed nothing to the resource – And then returns to whose who gave it a multiplied resource in the form of “left over fragments” to bless his servants.

This is exemplary, in other words and example of the Gospel - You and I are collected together as the assembly of the called out ones -to use the financial resources that we bring to Jesus and He blesses - to satisfy the need of the people and the number one need that every person has is the Hunger for the Bread of Life.

Of course the hungry people wanted to get more from Jesus than they needed and they wanted to make him an earthly king – so He says - hey guys time to go.

STICKY POINT PRAISE TEAM AND PRAYER TEAM

Here is what needs to stick with us this morning -

Jesus blesses and then multiples what He is given.

Jesus’s math is so much higher than our math -

Jesus math is so much more powerful than our math -

Here is where most of us or possibly all of us are this morning - as we have walked through these Principles of living well in the culture of money.

We live trapped lives

Trapped by the resulting sums, products, differences and quotients of the mathematics of the world rather than the working power and awe bringing miraculous works of Jesus into our life and the lives of people around us.

When we hear God speak of money - We have take a step away from the principles of living well in our culture of money at some level becasue we have been or we are, taken captive by the elementary principles of the math of this world.

We might be like Peter who hears the command of Jesus to do the impossible and instantly becomes helpless - “You give them something to eat” Jesus says and we say - “i beg your pardon.... do what?

How that lives it self out is when we hear the principle of “Jesus is Lord” Jesus is creator - becasue Everything was created by Him through Him and For Him.‌ And as Lord His decides how the money in our life is to be distributed.

But there is a little voice in our hearts and minds that says “I work too hard for my money to give it away” and in the verbage “my money” we lay claim to that which Jesus is lord and master over.

WE might be like Phillip Who says “I have done the math over here with Matthew and there is not enough with in any reasonable ability to acquire what is needed to do what you want us to do.

How that lives out in our life - when we hear the principle that effects all of our life “the redeeming work of Jesus”‌

Where we place God first in everything - our thoughts, What we believe, and what we trust, and in what we DO -‌

What happens to our life in every area is we will see Gods regard, God’s redeeming work from the curse, from the fall.

When we hear - about the principle of redeeming work of Jesus that is applied to the financial resources that God allows in our life, That when we bring the first fruits of our income to Him so that He can have regard, blessing and receive what we bring to Him -

But there is a little voice in our head that says if we put Him first with money and bring Him the first fruit - the first portion - the first that leaves my hand or account; how will I know that there will be enough for what I need and want.

We might be like the disciples who said “This is all we have and its not enough unless we add to it” That might work itself out in when we hear the Fallen Nature of Money and the urgency of the Gospel.‌

The Fact that money is in our fallen world and has a fallen nature to it and can have a negative effect on us.‌ And that effect is to make the advance og the gospel NOT urgent.

This happens becasue the worries of this world, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desire for other things can so easily take over. And the word God become fruitless and powerless in our lives.

There might be this little voice that says- But Look at all I can do and could do for the kingdom if get this or if I had that and acquire this or that things, I could be a whole lot more for Jesus -

All of us this morning need to look to Jesus -

understanding that what we bring to Him he multiplies.

We need to hear how much He loves us and surrender to Him everything and respond to His prompting in regards to the money that he allows to flow through our lives.

Place Him as Lord over the money

Let the redeeming work of Jesus change the way you bring to God the first fruit portions and let the rest have the regard of God, the blessing of God, Redeemed becasue of the redeeming work of Jesus.

Repent and turn away from the worries of this world the decietfullness of wealth and the desire for other things and bear fruit by locking arms together and making the Gospel so urgent reflected in the flowing of money through your life.

The watch and be in awe, as you see jesus defy the elementary principles of the mathematics of this world and multiply everything He is given and use those resources as one of the resources He puts to work for His glory and for His fame so that HE could do more than we could even imagine or ask for according to the Holy Spirit power that is in us so that He would get all the glory in every generation and throughout the church.

AMEN?

PRAYER TEAM!