Sermon Central
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Living In The Sufficiency Of God
Contributed by Marilyn Murphree on Jul 15, 2014 (message contributor)
Summary: God has enough or more than enough to meet any need we have. We have to believe that he wants our needs to be met, we have to be a consistent person to be in his flow, and we need to be grateful and appreciate what he does for us.
Valley Grove Assembly of God
July 13, 2014
Dr. Marilyn S. Murphree
Living in the Sufficiency of God
God doesn’t expect us to live on miracles all the time. He expects us to live in His sufficiency.
Many times people wait until a crisis situation occurs and then call out to God in desperation for a miracle. He can give you a miracle if you need one, but He would rather you live in His sufficiency as you go along. We may think sufficiency refers just to money to pay our bills, but it goes far beyond that. It can mean a lot of different things—for example a lot of people live in some kind of a crisis all the time. Their household is stirred up all the time with no sense of calmness or peace. Somebody is fighting over something or somebody is always depressed over something. Or someone is always offended by what people say.
God expects us to position ourselves so He can get us in the stream of His sufficiency—sufficiency means enough and more than enough. How do we know this? Let’s take a look at our scripture for today in II Corinthians 9:6-15. This scripture starts out by talking about sowing sparingly and sowing generously. He says when you sow sparingly you reap sparingly or when you sow generously you reap generously. But today I want to focus on verse 8. And God is able to make all grace abound to you so that in all things at all times having all that you need you will abound in every good work. He is saying you have the opportunity to decide how you are going to sow—and how much of a harvest you prefer to have come in. We drove up to the Amish country and there were big fields of corn growing on both sides of the highway—looked like there was going to be a good harvest unless some fortuitous circumstance happened like a storm or something to wipe out the crop.
“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work” (II Corinthians 9:8 KJV).
How do we move on over into His supply? I came up with three things we should consider.
1. Believe that He WANTS you to live in His sufficiency: “But my God shall supply ALL your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).
Psalm 23:1 says,”The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.’ Another version says, “I shall not be IN WANT.” (NIV)
Psalm 34:10 says, “The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.”
Psalm 84:11, “No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.”
There are enough scriptures to let us know that God has PLENTY for us and is glad to give us what we need. One preacher preached on Psalm 23:1 and said, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” and promptly followed it with the statement that it doesn’t mean that.” So much of the time we DON’T BELIEVE that God wants us to live in His supply whether it be finances or our health or any number of things. Listen to people talk about “my diabetes—my this or that.” We put the limits on God in so many ways when we don’t believe. Scripture says, “All things are possible with God.” Did it ever occur to you that God doesn’t want us to be healed all the time??? He wants us to live in health which would be better.
Jesus said, “with men this is impossible but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26).
Luke 18:27 says, “the things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”
Does God want to do this for us? Matthew 7:9-11 says, “what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish will he give him a serpent?”
If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?”
We have to reprogram our thinking when it comes to God. We get so used to believing that there is lack and not enough in the world and we live by the world’s economy instead of God’s economy. Not enough to pay my bills, can’t be in good health if I’m old…
Psalm 91;16 SAYS, “With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.”
Find some scriptures that convince you that God has ENOUGH to meet any need you have and that he is able to get it to you no matter what it takes.
