From Member to Dangerous Partner: Four Levels of Partnership

Sermon outline

Tithing is only the first grade of giving; God wants every believer to grow from member into a radical, aggressive and dangerous partner with an anointed local ministry, because sowing, not praying for money, is what releases financial blessing.

1. Laying the foundation: partnership in Scripture

   The women healed by Jesus ministered to Him and the apostles of their substance, which shows that a man of God and a local church are sustained by God's people. The 400 distressed men partnered with David, and Aaron and Hur partnered with Moses so that the whole nation won the battle. The power of agreement in Matthew 18:19 also works when you partner with an anointed ministry with your heart, gifts, talents and substance, because God anoints a minister not for himself but to feed, teach and guide the people.

   Illustration: Aaron and Hur holding up Moses' tired hands on a stone until sunset while Joshua defeated Amalek. He also pictures a wild tree in the field beside a righteous tree planted by the rivers.

   “When you partner with us, you become a participator of the anointing of God.”

   • Luke 8:1-3
   • 1 Corinthians 9:9
   • 1 Samuel 22:1-3
   • Exodus 17:8-13
   • Matthew 18:18-19
   • Psalm 1:3
   • John 14:6

2. Membership and the tithe are elementary: course 101

   People move from casual visitor to member to tithe-paying member, but that is kindergarten. The tithe, at least a tenth, is compulsory and not an option, and a settled church member who does not tithe has not yet passed grade one. You must progress from membership into partnership.

   Illustration: He taught his sons to tithe from every bit of spending money; to this day Adrian goes all over the building looking for Mark to pay his tithe before he spends anything.

   “It's not an option. It's compulsory that you should bring your tithe to the house of the Lord.”

3. Partnership, class 201: level one, the normal partner

   Partnership means that everything the ministry needs becomes your need, and everything the ministry accomplishes abounds to your account. If ten souls are saved at a crusade or people are touched by a television programme you helped pay for, you share in that grace. A normal partner responds when the pastor announces a need, such as R20,000 for a cry room.

   Illustration: The pastor stands up and says the church is building a cry room and needs R20,000, and the partner jumps up to contribute.

   “Partnership means that everything that ministry needs becomes your need.”

   • Philippians 4:17

4. Level two: the radical partner

   Where a normal partner gives R100 to the cry room, a radical partner seizes the need as an opportunity and sows R5,000. Like Paul, the ministry does not desire the gift for its own sake but the fruit that abounds to the giver's account. He insists that a lack of giving, not demons, is often what holds growth back.

   Illustration: A pastor he heard had 2,000 members and kept rebuking the demons stopping growth at the back row, until the Lord told him to sow; the church grew to 10,000. He and his wife then wrote asking for ministry account numbers so they could sow big for church growth instead of rebuking demons.

   “It's your lack of giving.”

   • Philippians 4:17

5. Level three: the aggressive partner

   The aggressive partner looks at what others have given and sows R10,000, but even that is not a level to stay at. As children grow up and live by their own choices, believers choose their own level in God. If you want hundreds, sow in hundreds; if you want thousands, sow in thousands.

   Illustration: Needing R100,000 to buy a building, he drew R10,000 out of the account, prayed over the cheque and sowed it into another pastor's life. A week later a man gave him a cheque for R100,000; Brother Sam, who drove him, asked if it would bounce.

   “You choose your own level in the things of God.”

6. Level four: the dangerous partner

   The dangerous partner asks how much the whole project costs and pays the whole bill. Prayer, fasting and reading the Word are all good, but fasting and praying for money is unscriptural, because God gives seed to the sower. Grow into your level by faith rather than giving beyond your faith, as the widow did when the prophet asked for the first cake.

   Illustration: He imagines the newspaper headline: not 'Prophet steals money' from a poor widow, but 'Man of God comes to town, woman of God taps into miracle'.

   “But when you're fasting and praying for money, you are wrong.”

   • 2 Corinthians 9:10
   • 1 Kings 17:12-16
   • 2 Kings 4:7
   • 2 Chronicles 20:20

7. Your local storehouse is your local church

   In the Old Testament the storehouse was the temple and the Levitical cities where the priests lived; today it is your local church and nowhere else. Every ministry should itself be a partner to a ministry, and every believer must partner with their own local storehouse, bringing tithes, offerings and pledges. Don't wait for God to activate miracles; ask what is in your hand and activate your own.

   Illustration: The church tithes and sows into Pastor Chris' head office ministry. When Pastor Chris announced the Togo project to broadcast his programme there, he scribbled a note to say he would pay for it, and every person reached in Togo abounds to the church's account.

   “Your local storehouse is your local church.”

   • Exodus 4:2
   • Exodus 14:16
   • Malachi 3:10

8. If you can't tell money to go, you can't tell it to come

   Money is currency and currency must flow; it is a servant you command. You can only claim 'my God shall supply all my need' once you have sown the sacrifice that was a sweet-smelling savour to God, as the Philippians did when they alone partnered with Paul. Giving is not a loss but an opportunity, like paying the taxes of the kingdom you live in.

   Illustration: He calls himself an ex-miser who once tore open the tithe envelope, took money out and taped it shut again. Then he and his wife began blessing their pastor with groceries and envelopes, and he rose from a poor young policeman to colonel and, by about 1995 or 1996, bought his house in Umhlanga for cash.

   “If you don't have the power to tell money, go, you will never have the power to tell money, come.”

   • Acts 20:35
   • 3 John 2
   • Proverbs 23:7
   • Exodus 36:5-7
   • Philippians 4:11-19

9. Dress yourself financially and deal ruthlessly with poverty

   Prepare your offering before you come to church, because many financial problems come from not giving God what belongs to Him. Taking God's presence to the world, planting churches and employing pastors and missionaries will take money, and money used this way paralyses the devil. Poverty is a spirit that shows in bargain hunting, cheap choices and hoarding, and it must be dealt with ruthlessly.

   Illustration: A 24-year-old friend of Wesley, from a Catholic background, started tithing, and within three months an uncle he had met only once left him a whole house in Pietermaritzburg. He also tells people to sow a seed, go and order a bunny chow, and go home expecting favour.

   “Poverty is a spirit, you need to deal with it ruthlessly.”

   • 1 Corinthians 15:10
   • 2 Corinthians 5:21
   • Matthew 9:37
   • Luke 6:38
   • Matthew 17:27
   • Philippians 4:6
   • Proverbs 18:16
   • Luke 4:18