The Unsatisfying Easter Bunny
For most of people the word “prosperity” connects with the idea of being successful financially and living the “good” life. But in God’s economy prosperity is so much more than a thick roll of money in your pocket, two SUV’s in the driveway, a 3D Television in the theater room, a freezer full of steaks, and a net worth of 7 figures – that’s 7 digits before the decimal point.
That’s the world view of the good life… but it is as empty and unsatisfying as that huge chocolate bunny you get your kids at Easter. I mean it looks fabulous… but it’s hollow and it tastes like flavored wax.
For the past month I’ve been exploring with you what the Bible says about living a satisfying life.
A Satisfying Life
Week 1: Giving is the only way to a Satisfying Life
In week 1 we discovered that God created us to be in his image and to follow in his ways. The satisfied life comes from giving, not getting, keeping, spending, borrowing, saving, begging, or gambling.
Week 2: Debt is the biggest obstacle to Giving
In week 2 we looked at what the Bible says about borrowing money and debt. What we learned is that debt is the biggest obstacle to giving in most people’s lives. We want to give but because we’ve spent money we don’t have to get stuff that doesn’t satisfy we can’t be generous and give to God’s work or help those who need our help. And that’s just wrong. A good first step to becoming a generous giver is to get out of debt as fast as you can.
Week 3: Tithing and Offering Giving results in God’s favor
In week 3 I spent some time exploring the blessings that come from God when you return the tithe to God and when you give offerings to worship and honor him. The blessings are amazing and cover not only all our needs but also extend through us to those around us. It’s exciting to learn what God wants to do through us if we let him.
Week 3: Obedience is the Evidence of Faith in God
Last week we learned that eventually it all comes back to obedience. Following God is takes more than just being one of his fans! Saying you have faith in God is one thing but the evidence of that faith is always obedience even when and especially when we don’t understand.
Week 5: Prosperity is a rich, full, and satisfying life.
Today I am going to close this study by spending some time on a popular and controversial topic – prosperity. It’s popular because everyone wants it. It’s controversial because everyone has their own definition and their own means of achieving it.
Today we’re going to look at what the Apostle Paul says about it in his letter to the Christians in Corinth two thousand years ago. That’s a long time but the principles he taught are valid today just as they were then.
Prosperity
1 Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways! 2 You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.
Psalms 128:1-2
The phrase “it shall be well with you” is translated from the Hebrew word “towb.” Literally it means to be pleasant or delightful.
Prosperity is a life that is rich, full and satisfying. This is God’s plan for you. He wants you to have a rich and full life but you won’t find it by chasing the things of this world.
You will find it in the Kingdom of God… not just someday but here and now within His church. And you won’t find it by going to church but by being the church.
In fact in God’s economy the church family is the means through which you will experience prosperity in life. If you seek a satisfied life – look to God’s Kingdom, the church, because this is where you will find it.
But be careful. Not all churches are faithful to their King. Look for example at the church in Laodicea that the Apostle John speaks of in the book of Revelation.
LCC: Laodicea Christian Church
17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
Revelation 3:17
The church at Laodicea was one of the seven churches addressed by Jesus in Revelation. It was the church that was condemned as lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – and worthy only of being spit out of the saviors mouth.
There is so much here to take to heart. I fear that much of the American church today is exactly like the church in Laodicea. They had so much and at the same time they had so little. Many of us today are just like that because we have so much and we’ve forgotten why God gave it to us.
Remember that prosperity is not about having stuff. And remember that the key to a satisfied life is not getting… It’s giving.
Before you dismiss this warning because you don’t have much contrast what is said to the church in Laodicea with what was said to the church in Macedonia.
MCC: Macedonian Christian Church
We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.
2 Corinthians 8:1-2
Here is a totally different message. This is not a warning. It’s a commendation of the church in Macedonia and an appeal to the church in Corinth to be just like them.
The church in Macedonia was located in a land that had an economy based on mining precious metals like gold and silver but the mines had played out. Once a rich land this was now a poor and tired country. And yet, the people of the church in this land were praised by Paul because of their “abundance of joy that overflowed in a wealth of generosity in spite of their extreme poverty.”
After Paul says this he goes on at some length and teaches at some length about the connection between generosity in giving and prosperity.
Generosity Determines Prosperity
The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
2 Corinthians 9:6-7
If you are stingy, cheap and hold on to every dollar so tightly that Washington can’t catch his breath then you’ll discover that there is no joy and no sense of prosperity no matter how much you have. Greedy people who hoard and hang onto all their money and stuff are not happy people.
Givers are happy, pleasant and delightful people because they have made a conscious decision to give their possessions generously.
Your prosperity is directly connected to the decision to let go of something you possess (time, money, life) so that you can provide something for others that will prove to be of greater value than what you would receive by keeping it for yourself.
It isn’t forced and it isn’t mandatory. It is a freewill decision to put God and others first. When God sees that he’s thrilled and excited because you have chosen to walk in his paths.
Prosperity isn’t so much a state of possession as it is an attitude of custody. We aren’t owners… we are caretakers of what God has allowed us to have and to hold.
Zig Ziegler, a Christian motivational speaker for years, said it this way, “You will get all you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want.”
Your Prosperity Is For Doing Good
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.
2 Corinthians 9:8
Grace is “undeserved favor.” It is the gift of God’s goodness when we have done nothing to earn it – yet because we are God’s kids He gives us all we need… and more. God wants nothing more than to pour out his grace on us but God’s favor has a purpose. He says “so that…” There is a reason he is willing to make us prosperous.
Prosperity is not about the possession of more things. It is about using the things you have in a Godly way. It’s an attitude of compassion and caring. We’re talking about the openness in your heart that says God has given me all that I have so I can help those who are in my life – freely, with abandon and and even lavishly.
Let me share with you how this works in real life: Several weeks ago a person who has been blessed by God handed me an envelope. I was asked to give the envelope to the person whose name was on it without revealing the identity of the giver. I did and a week later I received this email:
I had NO idea what that envelope contained when you handed it to me, I actually thought it was a note from someone in the church. As soon as I opened it, tears immediate rushed down my cheeks!
You see, Saturday I was at the bank making my minimal car/loan payments and the teller asked me if I wanted to catch up the loan payment that had been one month past due every month for the past several months because I had gotten behind last fall.... As I thought of your sermon last week, I told him I would definitely catch it up when my income taxes were filed and then walked away adding it to the list of fall behind payments with a sigh.
The payment is 332.00 and Lo and BEHOLD, the envelope contained $300.00! FIRST THING THIS MORNING, I was able to pay that past due payment and WORDS CANNOT EXPRESS how freeing that felt.
I HAVE NO IDEA who handed that envelope to you but I DO KNOW THAT OUR GOD KNOWS and GIVES US THE DESIRES OF OUR HEARTS and GETTING OUT OF THE CLUTCHES OF DEBT COLLECTORS has been the DESIRE of my HEART FOR A WHILE NOW!
With that said, could you please THANK THAT AMAZING PERSON and let them KNOW that their heeding to GOD’S WILL was not only PERFECTLY TIMED but LIFTED a huge boulder off my shoulder!
Now as encouraging as that email was this is even better! I forwarded the email to the person who gave me the envelope and within a few days received this in response.
Thank you so much for passing that on to us. Sometimes we wonder how our efforts are received and if it is accomplishing what we intend. When I saw what your message was about, I called my wife back to the office and we read it together. Reading through it, it wasn’t long until we were both shedding some tears of our own. It was awesome to thank our Lord right then and there for helping us to be a blessing and a conduit. Thank you for allowing us to help others in this way.
MCC February 2014 Edited to remove names
God hasn’t given to you so you can take care of yourself. He has prospered you so that you can abound in every good work!
He didn’t prosper you to go out and get more stuff for yourself and he certainly didn’t prosper you to go into debt to get more stuff.
By the way: I don’t want to go on a rant but this is why debt is so wrong. We spend money we don’t have to get stuff that doesn’t satisfy and then can’t give to support God’s ministry or the people around us that need help. This is why giving is so right.
Generosity of Prosperity Multiplies the Results
He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.
2 Corinthians 9:10
That’s just plain exciting. God is the source of all good things! And God will actually multiply and amplify our work in ways we can’t begin to see with our limited vision. In fact, it’s not just multiplication… it’s exponential.
I was talking with a couple following the first service this past week. They had given themselves as Junior High Leaders for several years and at the time wondered if it did any good. This is what they said to me in an email this week:
After we left Sunday we were trying to remember [the kids in our Junior High group]. Brian Dumont was connected to the group, along with Mike Couchman (both now DJ’s on Smile.fm) and a young lady (Mackenzie Covault) who became a teacher at New Covenant (her now-husband was also a part of our small group).
Anyway, Mike, Mackenzie and Adam (Mackenzie's husband) in particular I remember in my small group because the boys were, well, typical junior high boys. I remember thinking how goofy they were and wondering if anything we said sunk in - and sometimes wishing the boys had been in a different group than mine!
Trying to keep them focused and getting them to contribute anything on topic was sometimes a real challenge. Our JH pastor would often remind us of the scripture about how some plant, some water, some weed, etc. We clung to that scripture! (and frankly, sometimes doubted it.)
We were in JH ministry for several years when we were first married, about 20 years ago. It took a long time - probably more than 10 years - before we saw some of the kids in our group ministering - and now they're out there more than we are!
Because people were willing to invest their life in a bunch of rowdy JH kids literally hundreds and thousands… even tens of thousands are being helped, encouraged, and blessed through radio and school.
When you are generous with your prosperity lives are transformed even though you may not see it for years.
Generosity of Prosperity Produces Thanksgiving
You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.
2 Corinthians 9:11-12a
Do not reduce prosperity to being about getting or having money! Prosperity is not about getting. It’s about giving. You have been enriched in every way so you can be generous, which will produce thanksgiving to God!
There are some today who believe that “greed is good” because it drives the market and makes us all better off. Jon Foreman said, ““Greed, envy, sloth, pride and gluttony: these are not vices anymore. No, these are marketing tools. Lust is our way of life. Envy is just a nudge towards another sale.”
If you go back some 80 years you end up in what is now called the “roaring twenties.” It was a time of great financial prosperity. Everyone had money and everyone was pursuing more until the stock market crashed in 1929. Then we entered into an era now known as the great depression.
My grandparents lived through that time. My parents grew up in middle of those years. The stories they tell is of some really tough times. Yet in spite of the lack of money there was a deep sense of thanksgiving to God for what they had.
My grandpa was a gardener. He had rows and rows of vegetables. My grandmother was a canner. She had rows and rows of mason jars filled with those vegetables. They were always giving to others and those who received were thankful to God.
This is a good place for me to stop for a moment and thank God for all of you who have generously shared with Donna and I these past three months. We are blessed and I tell everyone I can about this great and loving church.
But there is one final teaching about the Generosity of Prosperity.
Generosity of Prosperity Gives Glory to God
… they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them ...
2 Corinthians 9:12-14
The crowning work of prosperity is that we are to use it to bring glory and honor to God. This glory does not come from the sharing of things. It comes from the testimony about Jesus.
Ultimately, I am prosperous, not because of what I have but because of who I am. I am a child of God, saved from my sin by the work of Jesus on the cross, born again into new life, and a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. When I share this testimony with my family, my friends, and the people I meet every day at school and work – then God is glorified and his Son Jesus is honored.
This is what drives us here at Meridian Christian Church. Everything we do, all that we give, is driven by the purpose of prosperity which is the testimony of the good news about Jesus for this is what brings honor and glory to our father God.
It’s why we are supporting Katie Bollman in Venezeula.
It’s why we are going to Haiti this summer.
It’s why we have a youth program and life groups.
It’s why we build a house in the parking lot in the summer.
It’s why we run a Kids Kamp in the summer to help out working parents.
Helping People Find The Way Home.
Prosperity Steps
o Repent and be Baptized
o Give generously to someone today
o Give Generously to God’s Ministry at MCC
o Participate Generously in Ministry at MCC
o Pray and Prepare for the Generosity Offering March 30
