THE WAY OF PEACE AND PROSPERITY

Series: StewardshipLesson #1

Today we begin a new series on the doctrine of “Stewardship.” It is required of a steward that he be found faithful (1Cor. 4:2). Stewardship is faithfulness to God and it is required in a life of godliness to be faithful to the Almighty. This sacred task of our stewardship to God says, “For ye are bought with a price…” (1Cor. 6:20). I am His bondservant which means that I can own nothing. Whatever I have, material or spiritual comes from God. God owns it, I am the steward and it is required of a steward that he be found faithful.

In the 8th Chapter of the book of 2Corinthians, Paul deals with giving in a very personal way. I am going to talk about “The Way of Peace and Prosperity.”

2Cor. 8:1 Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia;

2Cor. 8:2 How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.

Notice that Paul said that this giving, this liberality was a gift of God and was the grace of God.

2Cor. 8:3 For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves:

2Cor. 8:4 Praying with much intreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.

2Cor. 8:5 And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and onto us by the will of God.

2Cor. 8:6 Insomuch that we desired Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also finish in you the same grace also.

2Cor. 8:7 Therefore, as ye abound in every thing, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also.

2Cor. 8:8 I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love.

2Cor. 8:9 For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.

2Cor. 8:10 And herein I give my advice: for this is expedient for you, who have begun before, not only to do, but also to be forward a year ago.

2Cor. 8:11 Now therefore perform the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance also out of that which ye have.

2Cor. 8:12 For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.

2Cor. 8:13 For I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened;

2Cor. 8:14 But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality:

2Cor. 8:15 As it is written, He that had gathered much had nothing over; and he that had gathered little had no lack.

I. In The Fall, Man Broke Relationship With God, And Became A Victim Of His Environment And Circumstances.

1. His destiny since the fall is to, “live by the sweat of his brow” (Gen. 3:19).

2. Man struggles to make his living by his own tools, his own hand.

3. Man chose that way by his disobedience to God. God had a much better plan.

4. In the fall, man triggered a flawed relationship with God and nature – so life, in the fall, became a struggle and has been a struggle ever since.

II. After The Fall Of Eden, God Had To Restructure His Dealing With Man And Set Down Rules And Laws.

1. In the program God gave us an operations manual - The Word of God. The Bible is God’s instructions to you and I as believers. As we walk in the way of this Book, having been birthed of God and filled with the Spirit, we have come back in line with God.

2. God gave us this operational manual of how we should live and conduct our lives. By so doing, we remain in fellowship with Him.

Mat. 4:4b …Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

3. Its perfect guidelines are in full force today. The violation of these guidelines has brought about all the grief, suffering, and heartaches that are suffered today. If we could just know and learn that. Experience teaches us, and the Bible tells us, that is the way it is to be.

4. All of the problems of man are a violation of these instructions, these principles that God has given us, His people, in the Word of God.

5. When God delivered Israel out of Egypt and they began the journey to the Promised Land, He said to them right from the beginning, “The land that you are going to is not like the land you came from where you watered it with your foot” (Deut. 11:10).

a. In Egypt they irrigated the land with their foot. God was saying here, “This is not to be a man-made operation. The land I give you is a land of hills and valleys, watered with the rains from heaven (Deut. 11:11). If you will keep My commandments, and obey My statutes, I’ll send you the rain in due season” (Deut. 11:13-14).

b. What God said was, “When it comes time for rain and it doesn’t rain, don’t bother Me, the problem is you. You are walking in violation of what I’ve instructed.” That has been and continues to be the cause of all the problems of the earth.

6. The Bible reveals the course of victory in every situation of life.

III. God Gave His Rules To Help Us, Not To Deny Us.

1. God wants the best for His children. This is not making God a God of faith. I am simply saying that as we walk with God, God walks with us, and His blessings naturally follow. You cannot walk in rebellion to God and expect to have God prosper your way in this life.

2. {Getting to know God’s laws and applying them brings harmony and success.}

3. {We must learn God’s laws governing every phase of life.}

IV. God Sends His Rain On The Just And Unjust.

1. {God’s laws work for all that will live by them.}

2. When a sinner chooses to live by God’s law in any area of his life, this will not save him, but he will prosper in that area.

3. For example, if you obey God’s dietary laws as they are revealed in the Old Testament you will enjoy better health.

a. We live in this 20th Century and in the last 3 or 4 decades, man discovered that the major cause of heart disease is that he eats too much fat. Eating fats causes high cholesterol. This thing we call cholesterol clogs up the arteries and causes strokes and heart attacks. All of it is because we eat fat.

b. In God’s dietary law, He specifically said that we were not to eat the fat. So, if a sinner will obey that dietary law and eat less fat, he will have better health.

4. Any person or society that will obey God’s laws of hygiene will be germ free.

a. To visit countries of Africa you are recommended and in some cases required to take a cholera shot. Cholera comes from human waste in drinking water. Those people in many areas do not obey God’s laws of hygiene and cholera is rampant among them. If they would obey God’s law for disposing of human waste, the plague of cholera could be eliminated.

V. The Area Of Money.

1. In no area of life is the above more true than in the area of money. Jesus taught more about money than about anything else, because He knew that nothing was so likely to become our god as money.

2. You cannot serve God and mammon (money) says the Word of God (Mat. 6:24). In other words, Jesus said money can become your god.

3. Covetousness is idolatry (Col. 3:5). That means you come to worship things. Money and the things that money can buy can become you god.

4. God’s Word has much to say on this matter of money and finances.

a. In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses wrote, “It is He (God) who gives you power to get wealth” (Deut. 8:18).

b. Paul came along centuries later and gave us the meaning of the power to get wealth. He says, “He that giveth seed to the sower multiplies the seed that is sown” (2Cor. 9:10). God gives you the seed to sow, and only the seed which you sow will multiply. That is God’s teaching, what we sow we will reap (Gal. 6:7). As we give we receive, as we sow we reap. Sow sparingly and you reap sparingly – sow bountifully and you reap bountifully.

5. God uses the pressures and discipline of money, of making a living, to shape and to mold our spirit.

a. These shaping, economic winds blow regularly and sometimes violently. {Proper response to these financial forces can bring growth of character.} Unless we know that God is not here for our destruction, we will get mad at

God. We must always recognize that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28).

b. {Learning to harmonize with God’s laws of economics will prosper us here, and now, as well as prepare us for eternity. On the other hand, careless responses to these forces can be destructive.}

God used the pressure of finance to teach me a lesson. At one time I was on television pretty much across this country. There came a time when I went through a very difficult time. A thief in the post office started the debacle, and I ended up $400,000 in the red (in debt). I went through the torture of financial pressure for a period of two years.

6. Violation of God’s Word in financial matters brings chaos and heartache.

7. Coveting the fruits of another, cheating, lusting for riches, worrying over financial security, selfishness, laziness, etc. bring about terrible problems to the human.

VI. These Types Of Violations Of Spiritual Laws Bring Down These Money Related Woes.

1. Money is a dominating factor in broken marriages. Money arguments break up friendships, businesses, and even churches have been torn up over this problem. Money is behind robberies, violence and murder.

2. Selfishness and lawlessness are convertible terms, but money itself is not the root. It is the lusting for money that is evil.

1Tim. 6:10For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

3. Those who have no money can lust for money as much as those who have much money.

VII. God Uses These Strong Life Currents Swirling Around The Money Realm To Orchestrate, Test, Teach, And Shape Our Spirit.

1. These things are used of God. We look at them as being terrible. We look at them as being the worst kind of pressures, and certainly they are, but God will use these to shape and mold our spiritual life.

2. All through life we feel the interplay of Satan’s unholy spirit urging us to cheat on God’s Word - that is to withhold. He is always trying to get us to withhold that tithe.

3. The tithe is the basic principle of our giving, and of our relationship to God. Satan is always telling us we cannot afford it, we need it for something else. But as we come

to recognize what terrible things come from withholding from God we have learned the truth that enables us to move on and to grow spiritually.

4. All the time, God’s Spirit is urging us to follow the rules that lead to God’s best. So in our being, there is a constant warfare between Satan’s ways and God’s ways. The choice is always the same, “Am I going to follow God, or am I going to follow myself?”

5. It is on this battleground of the soul, that our ultimate destiny is determined.

6. Through ten thousand tests and choices we are slowly etched into the image we choose by our own free will. The one we choose is the one we become.

7. As we walk, making the choices, we are slowly etched into that image. Either we are changed into the image of Christ, or into the image of Satan. There is no middle ground.

8. The forces of Jesus and Satan can be felt contending for every life, but we have the power of choice. You realize in your own life and in the life of those you will be teaching, God will never force you to choose His will, but He will enforce the choice you make. God gives each of us the will to select.

9. If your choice is to follow God, then He gives the power to enforce the choice.

VIII.The Powerful Grind Of Finances Affects Every Life. This Is Why God Has Recorded So Much About Money In The Bible.

1. He wants us to have His secrets of peace and prosperity.

2. They are unseen by the world, for they are not seen by the children of darkness.

3. The prosperity of the wicked never brings peace; it always leaves emptiness.

IX. The Signs Of The Coming Of Jesus Are So Vivid Here In The 90’s That Only The Dead Are Blind To Them.

1. We stand on the threshold of the most electrifying moment in history - Christ is about to return for His own.

2. The Lord said the last days would be marked by great distress and perplexity.

3. One of the problems would be with man’s riches. “Go to now ye rich man…” (Jas. 5:1a). When God talks about a rich man, He is not talking about the Rockefellers, He is talking about the middle class, you and I. We have more riches than ancient kings. {“…weep and howl, for your miseries are come upon you” (Jas. 5:1b).

4. What are his miseries, they are the worst that can happen to the covetous - his money becomes useless.} “Your riches are corrupted...your gold and silver are cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days...” (Jas. 5:3).

2Tim. 3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

2Tim. 3:2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

5. {This is so prevalent in the church, such a small percent pay the bills.}

6. In the Evangel (the magazine of the Assemblies of God), we were told that only 29% of church members tithe. Think of that! Only 29% tithe. Not only do such people limit the outreach of the church, they curse themselves. “You, are cursed with a curse” (Mal. 3:9).

7. Jesus said, “When ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand” (Lk. 21:31).

X. Millions Of Christians Say They Believe Jesus Is Coming, Then Prove With Their Actions That They Really Don’t Believe He Is.

1. It is time for you and I, as ministers of God, to review our priorities so that we may bring the church back to a place where those priorities are right.

2. If we are about to face Christ, then our lifestyle, schedules, plans, programs, and spending must be reworked.

3. If we really believe Jesus is coming back in our lifetime, why do we struggle over our wills, and buy insurance so that our children can benefit in the next generation?

4. Why do we count and hoard money that could advance the kingdom of God?

XI. Yes, Many Cry, “He’s Coming Soon” But Act As Though All Things Will Continue As From The Beginning.

1. How terrifying to think of missing Christ’s return by a few hours like those poor, foolish virgins.

2. We go on pulling down our barns, building bigger ones, buying things we don’t need, while millions perish for the want of the Gospel of Christ.

3. Do we really believe He is coming?

4. Christians hold assets valued in the billions. Yes, I said billions! Businesses, lands, stocks, jewelry, cars, boats, bonds, and money.

5. What are we doing? Are we storing up for the Antichrist?

6. If we really believe our Bible, shouldn’t we get our bags packed to go with Jesus?

7. Shouldn’t we not only give our 10%, but also give from our capital?

8. It is time to sell off all but the essentials. The proceeds from this liquidation can release enough finances to finish the work of taking the gospel to every creature. Jesus said, “…then shall the end come…” (Mat. 24:14).

XII. It Is An Hour To Spend For Christ.

1. It is a time to invest for eternity; not a time to hoard and hug the withering coins of time.

2. We have to do our giving now. The heathen wait to hear - Christ commands us to go - How will we face Him?

3. “Bring all of your tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house” (Mal. 3:10). God asks, “Will a man rob God, yet you rob me” (Mal. 3:8). How do we rob Him? By withholding His tithe and offering.

4. If you don’t teach that church to bring the tithe and offering into the storehouse, then God will curse you for unfaithfulness to His Word, {and He will curse that church for not doing even though she didn’t know what to do, because you failed her.} You cursed the church by not teaching the truth of stewardship.

5. This is God’s way of supporting the church and carrying the gospel.

6. God never intended for us to hold bake sales or rummage sales. Give your clothes to the poor.

7. God’s way is for every one of us to bring our tithe to the house of God, not to your poor kinfolk, not to the TV Evangelist, bring it to the church; so that the church may minister to the world.