If You Do Not Plan, God Will Not Give You the Budget

Sermon outline

The feeding of the five thousand is a pattern for business: plan and organise, keep a faith-filled environment, involve God as your partner, and look after the fragments, and God will add His super to your natural.

1. Sit down: careful and meticulous organisation

   Making the people sit down represents planning, organising, activating and controlling your organisation. A business or profession cannot succeed without a written vision: the building, the vehicles, the staff and the payroll. God can only give you what you have planned for, so do the groundwork and then hold the picture in your heart until it hatches.

   Illustration: If you want your own building instead of paying rent, have you read the papers, visited estate agents, chosen a location, been to auctions and asked the bank about a bond? For the church he gets two or three quotations and a catalogue picture even when he does not have the cash, and meditates on it like an egg kept warm by the Holy Ghost.

   “If you do not plan, God will not give you the budget because He can only give you what you have planned for.”

   • John 6:10

2. The grass: an environment conducive for the wealth of God

   Jesus did not seat the people on rock or a riverbed but on green grass, which he takes as a picture of an environment God can work in. Do not walk into your business complaining or telling everyone that things are tough, because you will have what you say. Call the business blessed, plan big before success arrives, and if your spouse is not at your level of faith, stop fighting them and agree with the Holy Spirit or your pastor instead.

   Illustration: The Lord told him one morning to turn the church building into a conference centre. Others suggested renting it out, which would have brought in about 12,000 to 15,000 a month; hiring the venue out brought the same income in four hours. He never once walked in and said it would not work. He also tells business people to photograph a building they like in Springfield Park and put a picture of their future office in front of them.

   “There's a difference between a good idea and a God idea.”

   • John 6:10
   • Psalm 23:1-2
   • Mark 11:23-24

3. Sow a seed of equal proportion, and operate in faith, not fear

   Every now and again your vision will be tested and you will lose something. When that happens, sow a seed of the same size into the kingdom of God rather than backing into a corner. The enemy brings pressure on a radical giver to induce fear, so receive, pray, distribute, confess and declare by faith, and speak life over your business and workplace.

   Illustration: If a customer fails to pay you 5,000 rand, take 5,000 rand and sow it into the kingdom, and tell the devil you are not going to fear.

   “Do not operate in fear, but operate in faith.”

4. He gave thanks: involve God in your business

   When Jesus took the bread and the fish He gave thanks. Giving thanks means you bring God into your business and profession as your partner, involved in everything down to the smallest detail. Do these things from the top of the passage down and every barrier to supernatural overflow is removed. He pauses here to say a strong anointing is on him and to urge people to put things right with God before he prays for them.

   “Giving of thanks means you involve God in your business and in your profession.”

   • John 6:11

5. Twelve baskets of fragments: overflow with order

   Twelve is the number of government and order: twelve tribes, Elisha ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen, twelve disciples. The fragments left over show that God gives more than enough, and in the same breath He tells you not to be wasteful. Jesus was not tidying the environment; He was teaching His disciples to value what is left.

   Illustration: Some say they do not have enough. Sit down with a pen and paper and count what you have, and it will surprise you.

   “Your riches may be in your fragments.”

   • John 6:12-13
   • 1 Kings 19:19

6. Do not be extravagant: sow it as a seed

   If you already have a good car and the means to buy one worth double, do not buy it merely to show people you can. Forfeit the right and sow it into the kingdom, and God will raise up a ram in the thicket. When a large amount of money comes into your hands, ask the Lord first what to do with it, and put the house of God and the kingdom first. He is clear that he is not telling people with an average car not to change it.

   Illustration: He had looked at a sports Jaguar at about a million rand, which loses 300,000 the moment it leaves the showroom, and a new Mercedes ML that he and his wife both liked. He walked out feeling good, because the church needed land and buildings in Umlazi and Phoenix and a church in Richards Bay. When he said the church needed a panel van for crusade equipment, his wife said, "Sell my Volvo and buy the church the Quantum bus."

   “Now that's kingdom mindedness.”

   • Genesis 22:13

7. Prevent losses and be frugal

   The best way to become rich is to keep your losses small and stop theft in your organisation. Warn a dishonest worker once and then let them go, because stealing grows from small amounts to large ones until the whole organisation is in trouble. The same applies to a scorner or anyone who causes division. He begins to advise keeping a buffer account as the recording ends.

   Illustration: A thief who starts with 10 rand moves on to 100, then 1,000, then 10,000.

   “The best way to become rich is to minimize your losses and prevent stealing from your organization.”

   • Romans 16:17
   • Galatians 5:9