Sow Yourself Out of a Hole: The Secret of the Thousandfold

Sermon outline

There is a level beyond the hundredfold: God, your true source, wants to increase you a thousand times more, and faithful stewardship of money, beginning with the tithe, is how you sow yourself out of a hole.

1. Faithful with unrighteous mammon

   Every action you commit to on this earth is a transaction with God, and God will not entrust an anointing and holy things to you if you are not faithful with money; non-tithers struggle with revelation and understanding. He was born into another religion and gave his heart to the Lord in his mid-20s, and learned by experience that as you render to God what belongs to God and show good stewardship, you grow. Keep to sound doctrine, the middle of the road, where the wisdom from above is married to common sense.

   “Most people are living Christianity from the outside in.”

   • Colossians 1:13
   • Luke 16:11
   • Matthew 22:21

2. Beyond the hundredfold: a thousand times more

   In the parable of the sower only one of the four soils bore fruit: the wayside had no understanding, the rocky ground gave up under persecution, and the thorns were the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches. Good soil produced 30, 60 and 100-fold, but there is a level higher than the hundredfold Christian, the thousandfold. His foundational scripture is Moses' blessing that the Lord would make His people a thousand times more and bless them as He promised.

   “There's a level higher than the hundredfold Christian. That's called the thousandfold.”

   • Matthew 13:1-8
   • Matthew 13:18-23
   • Deuteronomy 1:11

3. You can sow yourself out of a hole

   He did not learn this alone but through years of reading and listening to men of God such as Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Oral Roberts and Dr Mike Murdock, from whom he learned that the seed is in your hand, not God's. Everything comes from God, the ultimate source, and how much blessing is enough depends on how high you want to fly: raise your expectations, because God is looking for a receiver who hungers and thirsts for a higher level.

   Illustration: As the prophet asked the widow, 'What have you got in your house?'

   “The seed is in your hand, not in God's hand.”

   • 2 Kings 4:2
   • Colossians 1:16-17
   • Matthew 5:6

4. Seven reasons God wants you to increase financially

   God wants you to have enough to provide an uncommon income for your spiritual leaders; to send out ministers to preach the gospel (the church sows to the Bible Society, whose Bibles reach hotels and guesthouses); to pay your taxes gladly for good governance; to return the tithe; to give uncommon gifts to your children and those you love, as an ambassador of God; to help the poor without advertising it; and to handle any emergency, because money answers all things.

   Illustration: He started tithing on an income he had not yet received, giving more because he expected more.

   “The first tenth of your income belongs to the Lord.”

   • Matthew 22:21
   • Leviticus 27:30
   • 2 Corinthians 5:20
   • Proverbs 10:22
   • Matthew 6:17-18
   • Ecclesiastes 10:19

5. God is your true source

   Our true source is the Holy Spirit, the Comforter Jesus sent in His place: your job and your company are only means, and circumstances change, but God never does. God loves being your daily source, daily loading you with benefits, and He loves giving good things to His children. Don't think God is stingy or that your sins disqualify you: righteousness is not right living but a nature God imparts, and He looks at you through Jesus.

   “Your job is not your source. Your company is not your source.”

   • John 14:16
   • Psalm 68:19
   • Matthew 7:11

6. A capable provider and the giver of every good gift

   God promised to be a sufficient and capable provider, clothing you as He clothes the grass of the field, and a source of blessing and wealth to those who fear Him: wealth and riches shall be in their house. Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness; He is not a man that He should lie, and a believer is someone who takes Him at His word and acts on it.

   “A believer is a person that takes God at his word and puts it into action.”

   • Matthew 6:30
   • Psalm 112:1-3
   • James 1:17
   • Numbers 23:19

7. The Holy Spirit is the gift and the giver

   The Holy Spirit is God's gift to you, the One who made you and gave you breath, and He is also the giver of every other gift you receive. When people bless you, be thankful, but know that God is behind it, prompting them; God is a blesser.

   “God is a blesser.”

   • Acts 2:38
   • Job 33:4
   • 1 Corinthians 2:9-10