Prosperity Week 3: Don’t Stop The Flow

1 Corinthians 11:27–29 NLT

So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself.

Are things right between you and God?

If not, you need to know that the blood that he shed was for you

Blood was the only acceptable payment for sin

It had to be from a spotless lamb in the Mosaic law

Jesus was the perfect lamb of God

For those that have experienced salvation we move into a blessed ordinance

We enact this ordinance because it is one of two that were commanded by our savior.

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1 Corinthians 11:23–24 NLT

For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Thank Him for His Body

Partake of The Bread

1 Corinthians 11:25 NLT

In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it.”

Thank Him for His Blood

Partake of The Cup

1 Corinthians 11:26 NLT

For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again.

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RECAP

We’ve been in a series over the last couple of weeks called “Prosperity: More than Money, More than enough”

Week 1: God is more than enough. The oil never ran out, the jars did. Our job is to bring more jars. (Dreams of Generosity)

Week 2: Tithing is trusting. The first tenth is not a surrender, it is a celebration that God lets me keep the ninety.

In the first couple of installments we have leaned into two things primarily

who God is

the first ten percent.

Today we’re taking another step and talking about living in generosity beyond the tithe.

Today we are stepping out of the “me” focused areas of prosperity.

The belief that God will meet my need is me focused

The fact that I’m trusting him with ten percent so he’ll bless my other 90 is me focused.

The tithe is not the only thing that is blessed…in scripture he also blesses the offering.

The offering is when I bring more than the 10% and give it to God as an act of worship.

The tithe proves I trust God. The offering proves I’m becoming like Him.

God has never blessed anyone with the intention it would stop with them.

John 10:10 NLT

10 The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

I'M PREACHING TODAY ON

Don’t Stop The Flow

LET'S PRAY: KEYS OUT

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OPENING STORY

In Israel there are two bodies of water that get a lot of air play.

They both are fed by the Jordan river…Same source.

The Sea of Galilee takes water in and pours water out.

It is full of life.

Fishermen work it.

Jesus preached from its shores.

The same river keeps flowing south, into another sea.

That one takes water in and gives nothing back.

No outlet. It just holds.

We call it the Dead Sea.

Nothing lives in it.

So salty, so concentrated, so full of what it refused to release, that it cannot sustain a single fish.

Two seas. Same water. The only difference is one gives and one keeps.

That which is stingy creates that which is stagnate.

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Seed is for sowing

We see this principle played out in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 9:6–8 NLT

6 Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. 7 You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.” 8 And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.

The part of this text that cannot be debated is this: Believers in Jesus should be marked by their generosity.

Another takeaway from this text is that

The level of my prosperity is often directly correlated to the level of my generosity.

Today I want to look at some principles we can see in this text regarding the flow of finances that God intends for you and I as believers.

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1.  In the Kingdom…we don’t give…we sow

The world looks at the giving moment through the lens of subtraction.

What you give in the offering is subtracted from your bank account.

You have ten, you give two, now you have eight.

Paul gives us the proper perspective on our giving in this text…

The Kingdom does not do subtraction. It does sowing.

A farmer does not lose the seed he plants.

He surrenders it so it can be transformed…

He surrenders it so it can be multiplied…

In this scriptural metaphor the reality is…The farmer would lose it by keeping it in the barn.

Many of us are questioning the effectiveness of our seed when in reality the issue is not the seed…

it’s that we are storing what was meant to be sown.

The only way my financial seed can create a prosperous future is for it to leave my hand and go into the ground.

Luke 6:38 NLT

38 Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”

Unsown Seed = Urealized Harvest.

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Grace Giving

Please understand I am not telling you to give everything away as an investment strategy…

Giving is only a strategy for growth when we do it out of obedience.

A $20,000 check in the offering will bless the church no matter what…

but it will bless you when it is something God prompts you to do.

Paul goes on to give us some differentiation…not all of your money is meant to be sown…

2 Corinthians 9:10 NLT

10 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.

Don’t eat seed…don’t sow bread…be sensitive to God’s leading in stewarding your finances.

2 Corinthians 9:8 NLT

8 And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.

The word for generously is rooted in the word Charis…

God will always make the resources available when He is the one leading you to give.

THE STORY OF KAYLA AND I ON FOR THE FUTURE SUNDAY.

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2.  In The Kingdom We aren’t blessed for us

One of the earliest blessings spoken over a person in Scripture.

Genesis 12:2 NLT

2 I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others.

God finds Abram and makes him a promise…Inside the promise we find the reason for it.

I will bless you, and you will be a blessing.

Abraham shows us a paradigm shift that is life changing…

We are meant to be the carrier of the blessing…not simply the recipient

The blessing in my life an address, and it’s not mine.

It’s those God puts in my path.

We were never meant to be the end of our blessing. We were meant to be a curator for it.

2 Corinthians 1:3–4 NLT

3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. 4 He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.

Notice the pattern.

God comforts us so we can comfort.

God supplies for us so we can supply for others.

WHAT GOD DOES FOR ME HE INTENDS TO DO THROUGH ME.

The blessing is always in transit.

The moment you make it terminal, you make it a Dead Sea.

God gives to you so he can give through you.

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3.  In The Kingdom, Abundance is about Assignment

Come back to our text. Why does God make grace abound toward you?

So that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, GRACE TO MEET MY NEEDS

AND may have an abundance for every good work. GRACE TO ACCOMPLISH GOD’S PURPOSE

The abundance is not simply so you can upgrade your lifestyle.

It is so you can fund the work of God in the earth.

Prosperity is not a reward. It is a responsibility.

God does not give you more than enough so you can sit in it.

He gives you more than enough because He has deemed you can be trusted with the mission.

Three things I note about God’s provision by God’s grace.

God’s provision is enough to supply the need…(food, shelter, provision)

God’s provision is enough to supplant the narrowminded…(tithes to prove it’s not about me)

God’s provision is enough to start the new…(Kingdom initiatives.)

Overflow is not a status to enjoy…it’s an assignment to steward.

Keys Out

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What about when it’s legitimately bad?

But Pastor Tyler I’m in a really bad spot right now.

I lost my job

The economy has really been strugglesome

We often think that tithing is the ceiling for us when we’re in a season of struggle.

But generosity and it’s benefits is not something reserved for those who make six and seven figure salaries

Look at Paul’s recounting of a church in Macedonia.

2 Corinthians 8:1–3 NLT

1 Now I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, what God in his kindness has done through the churches in Macedonia. 2 They are being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor. But they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity. 3 For I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford, but far more. And they did it of their own free will.

Being poor in a season doesn’t cancel purpose

Being poor in a season doesn’t disqualify prosperity

Being poor in a season isn’t our problem…being selfish is.

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Giving is Godly

If we are to be a reflection of the God we serve…then we are to be a people who manifest generosity.

There’s weight in that reality

But there is also grace in that reality.

The text says we are Enriched for all liberality

That means He resources the generosity He calls us to.

He never asks us to be a river and then cuts off the source.

The supply is upstream. Our job is to keep the channel open.

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CLOSING STORY

When I opened this sermon we talked about two streams.

Same Jordan feeds both.

Sea of Galilee gives, and it teems with life.

The Dead Sea hoards, and nothing can survive in it.

The water is not different. The way the water is released is.

one lets it flow and one refuses to.

Some of us have been praying for increase while living like a reservoir.

Maybe the reason the overflow has not come is that God will not fill a vessel that has no outlet.

He is not going to pour more into a life that only holds.

The good news about that reality is this: The moment we become a river, Heaven provides greater flow from the source.

To the person here who feels like you have nothing to give: In the kingdom: A river is not measured by how much water it holds.

It is measured by whether it moves.

You do not need to be rich to be a blessing. You need to be open.

The widow with two coins moved more of heaven than the rich men who gave from their surplus, because she was a river and they were reservoirs.

God is not looking for containers big enough to impress. He is looking for channels clear enough to flow through.

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Ending

— Stop asking God to fill a vessel you have sealed shut.

— Where is God asking you to become an outlet, not just an inlet?

— The tithe made you faithful. The offering makes you free.

GOD BLESSES CONDUITS, NOT CONTAINERS.