Prosper # 2
I. There are 2 main things that you need to know about prosperity.
A. 1st you need to know that it is God's will to prosper His people. 3JOHN 2
1. The word “Wish” in this V would be better translated “Pray.”
b. The apostle John that walked with Jesus, knew Jesus, and served the Lord for many, many years, who would soon write the book of revelation, said “I pray for your prosperity.” (Also said many other things in this V)
B. The 2nd thing we need to know is the reason for God prospering us.
1. Look at EPH 4:28
a. The reason why God blesses us with a job & with prosperity is so that we can do something about the poverty in the world.
i. That would include giving to the church, but it also includes giving to those that are without.
b. (MAT 6:19-20) Says, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon Earth, where moth & rust doth corrupt, & where thieves break through & steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.”
i. If we just give to someone without them ever receiving the Jesus as Lord, they're going to go right back to the same situation.
II. God loves us & wants the best for us, but many times are motives are wrong when we are asking for prosperity.
A. JAMES 4:3
1. The word “consume” in this V means “Spend in a bad sense, To waste.”
a. The word “Lust” means “pleasure.”
b. I like it the way the NIV puts it, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your own pleasures.”
B. (Psalm 35:27) Says, “Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.” (KJV)
1. God does take pleasure when we prosper.
2. He just wants us to do it with the right motives.
C. MATT 6:33
1. If we want prosperity we have to do what the Bible says.
a That's where a lot of us miss it, we want to do it our own way & we want to do our own thing.
b. If we want our prosperity to come from God, we need to do things Gods way.
c. People sometimes think, “I don't care how the prosperity comes, just as long as it comes.
2. PRO 10:22
a. In the phrase “The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich,” the word “Blessing” can also mean “Prosperity.”
b. And when he uses the word “RICH” it means “Rich, or Wealthy.”
3. But he goes on to say, “He addeth no sorrow with it.”
a. Prosperity that comes from a source other than God is going to have a lot of sorrow with it.
b. The word “sorrow” in this V means “pain, hurt, toil, sorrow, labour, hardship”
c. I don't want my prosperity to come with a lot of hurt, pain & sorrow.
d. I want my blessing to come from the Lord.
i. But know this, we all ready have a lot of prosperity just by living in this country.
ii. If it's not from God, it will come with a lot of sorrow.
III. In (JOHN 10:10) it tells us how it is the thief that steals, kills, & destroys.
A. It's telling us that the thief is Satan.
B. But (John 10:10) goes on to say that Jesus has come to give us life & life more abundantly.
1. Some have said the word “life” in this V means “Life after death,” but in the Greek it means “all of life.”
2. Let me share with you something that a Greek scholar writes about this word “life.”
a. It means, “A life real and genuine, a life active and vigorous, devoted to God, blessed, in the portion even in this world of those who put their trust in Christ, but after the resurrection to be consummated by new accessions (among them a more perfect body), and to last for ever. ”
b. What this Greek scholar is trying to say is that the abundant life that Jesus came to give us is for the here & now, and in the life to come where we'll be with the Lord forever more.
C. The Lord says in (JOEL 2:25-26) “And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm. (26) And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed.” (KJV)
1. God is in the restoration business.
2. PRO 6:30-31
a. The Devil is not going to give back anything on his own free will, but God will make him restore sevenfold of everything that he took.
IV. 1COR 15:57
A. (2 Corinthians 2:14) Says, “Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.” (KJV)
B. There are times that we are doing what we should be doing, but we still don't see the victory. Look at HEB 10:36
1. The NIV puts it this way, (Hebrews 10:36) “You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” (NIV)
a. “Persevere” means literally in the Greek steadfastness, constancy, endurance: it's the characteristic of a man who is not swerved from his deliberate purpose by even the greatest trials and sufferings:
V. DEUT 30:19-20
A. This also applies to the NT believer because of the covenant that was made with Abraham and his seed.
1. According to (Gal 3) if we are Christ' then we are Abraham's seed.
B. But notice that we are the ones to make a choice. God is not going to choice for you.
1. If we don't choice life, the curse will automatically come on us.
2. What is the curse?
a. DEUT 28:15
i. He's about to list the curses, not the blessings.
b. DEUT 28:16-18
i. This is talking directly about the area of finances & our families.
ii. Poverty or even lack is a curse; but it's not God's fault. We made a choice whether we know it or not.
C. But God doesn't want that for us.
1. (Galatians 3:13-14) “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: (14) That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. (KJV)
2. Remember God has given us a choice.
a. Let's look at the choice that we have to make in order to receive the blessings.
3. DEUT 28:1
a. I don't understand how someone can say that they are a Christian, but don't do what He says.
i. Then they wonder why things are falling apart.
ii. He says it right here in V 1b-6; 8
D. Remember what (Proverbs 10:22) says, “The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.” (KJV)
WOLCC 5/2/93 SUN AM