No More Death in the Pot: Living and Giving in God's Economy

Sermon outline

There are two economies, and you live in God's by trusting His Word with your money: bring the tithe and offering willingly, the right way, with prayer, confession and gladness, and He will rebuke the devourer and take the death out of your pot.

1. Living in God's economy means trusting Him

   There is an economy of the world and an economy of God. To live in God's economy is to lean on Him and rely on Him, to adhere to Him as the Amplified Bible puts it, and to trust the word of the Lord for your finances. The Spirit of God has been showing him not to assume that everybody knows what the preacher knows: people grow at different rates, and truths already taught can slip away. So this message is a reminder of the basics.

   “There's an economy of the world and the economy of God.”

   • Hebrews 2:1

2. Death in the pot: the wild gourds of human reasoning

   In a time of famine the prophet told his servant to put on a large pot and boil stew for the sons of the prophets. The Lord impressed on him to tell the church that He has prepared a pot for them too, to feed, bless and sustain them out of His economy. But someone sliced wild gourds into the stew without knowing what they were. The wild gourds are human reasoning about the tithe, the offering and giving to the Lord, sown into your mind by people who prosper without giving and who are not in God's economy. Such reasonings must be cast down, because God's Word is true and His promises are yea and amen.

   Illustration: People say, 'That's crazy, you don't have to give to the Lord. Look at the car we have, look at the house we have, look at how well we're doing, and we don't give money to the Lord.'

   “Some people will sow wild gourds into your mind.”

   • 2 Kings 4:38-40
   • 2 Corinthians 10:5
   • Romans 3:4
   • 2 Corinthians 1:20

3. Bring me some flour: the Word of God is the cure

   Sometimes our finances come to a place where there is death in the pot: we come to church and do what needs to be done, but we are not completely obedient. The prophet's remedy was flour. Flour stands for bread, and man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, so the cure for death in the pot is the bread of heaven. He declares an end to unemployment, debt, barriers and lack, and says his own prayer is to owe nobody anything, because the borrower is servant to the lender.

   Illustration: Some people are comfortable with their store accounts at the clothing chains. He tells them they are coming out.

   “What we need when we experience death in the pot is bread, the bread of heaven, the word of God, to bring a cure to the death.”

   • 2 Kings 4:41
   • Matthew 4:4
   • Proverbs 22:7
   • Romans 13:8

4. Return to me: Malachi 3 and the windows of heaven

   He has the people mark the word "return" and reads on: a nation that robbed God in tithes and offerings was told to bring all the tithes into the storehouse and to try Him, and He would pour out a blessing too big to hold. He wants that kind of shortage of space for himself and for the church, with children who do not lack as their parents did and neighbours blessed because of them. He then contrasts religion that looks right with a church that carries God's power, and says the anointing that heals the body is the same anointing that delivers people in their finances. He speaks to dead finances to live again.

   Illustration: Where you took the bus and the taxi, let your children drive cars. A plastic cake in a shop window can only be admired; he wants the cake with the cream and the jam that you can taste.

   “I want to have a shortage of space problem.”

   • Malachi 3:7-10

5. I will rebuke the devourer for your sake: the tithe is holy

   God's promise is personal: for your sake. To live in God's economy you have to begin here and get back to the basics: the tithe is holy and the offering is holy, and we bring them willingly, in obedience, not because we are forced. He is not saying it because they do not tithe but to remind them, because the enemy wants to steal these truths and neutralise them. When you give with the right heart God rebukes what has been eating at your home. Be hungry for God as David was, go for the undiluted Word and not for what relatives say, and be a doer and not only a hearer. Storms will come, but a house whose foundations are dug deep on the Word will stand.

   Illustration: The washing machine breaks, then the tumble dryer, the toaster, the microwave and one tyre after another: somebody is eating your stuff. He likes to think of a rat trap: when the devil creeps in from a corner you did not know existed, God traps him.

   “You've got to make up your mind the tithe is holy.”

   • Malachi 3:11-12
   • Leviticus 27:30
   • Psalm 42:1
   • James 1:22-25
   • Luke 6:48

6. Restoration and recovery: a setback means a comeback

   He defines restoration as the act of restoring to a former, original condition, giving back something lost or stolen. Your original condition was to be made in God's image, lacking nothing and covered with His glory. Satan marred that picture and Jesus restored it, redeeming us from the curse of the law, so you are no longer cursed but blessed. To recover is to find again, to regain lost money or time, or a former or better condition. Whatever the cankerworm and the palmerworm have eaten, it stops from this day.

   “When you have a setback, what it simply means is that you have a comeback.”

   • Genesis 1:26-27
   • Galatians 3:13
   • Deuteronomy 28:6
   • Joel 2:25

7. Add giving to your praying: the memorial of Cornelius

   The angel told Cornelius that his prayers and his alms had come up before God as a memorial, and salvation came to his whole household. It is not only your prayers but your giving, your tithes, offerings and first fruits, that comes before God. He tells the young people in matric and at university that whatever the policy or economy of the country, they will find work and be well paid. But everyone must play their part for God to do His. From the Living Bible he reads that your crops will be large and your grapes will not shrivel before they ripen. The devil is a thief, and the way he brings a curse on your finances is to talk you out of giving.

   Illustration: Shrivelled grapes are raisins. In God's economy your grapes won't shrivel.

   “If you would add giving to your praying, you would be living in God's economy.”

   • Acts 10:31
   • Acts 10:4
   • Proverbs 3:9-10
   • Malachi 3:11
   • John 10:10

8. Practical steps: a quality decision, followed through, with your eyes off the circumstances

   He says he struggled for many years with tithes and offerings and confused the two, because the word he heard then had religion mixed into it. Number one, make up your mind: a quality decision that every month without fail the tithe belongs to the Lord, not a debate at month end when the salary comes. Satan will come immediately to steal that word and something will happen to challenge you. Number two, follow up your decision and become a doer. Number three, do not look at your circumstances, because that brings fear and doubt, and you are a product of faith. Make it your lifestyle and put the tithe first on your list, not tenth or fifteenth.

   Illustration: When the time comes to release the church's own tithes and offerings into other ministries, he has to do it by faith, because he has so many bills to pay.

   “I'll give what's due to God. God will give me back what's due to me.”

   • Galatians 5:9
   • Mark 4:14-15
   • 2 Corinthians 5:7
   • Romans 1:17

9. How he gives his own tithe: the envelope, the confession and a glad heart

   As soon as money reaches his hand he takes out the tithe, at least ten per cent and sometimes more but never less, and seals it in an envelope with an offering. He writes his name and details on it and sometimes a prayer request or a statement of faith on the back, keeps it in his Bible where nobody else touches it, and speaks a written confession over it after reading Malachi 3. If you give by electronic transfer, print the proof of payment and treat the printout the same way, as your point of contact. Come to the offering already cheerful, sing and dance, and as you place it in the basket thank God that the blessing is on your life. Many tithe, he says, but not in the right way, and he wants them to get the result.

   Illustration: If a young man goes to see the girl he is dating with a sad face, she is not going to kiss him. Giving time is glad time, and it should bring at least a smile.

   “Might be more than 10%, but at least 10%.”

   • Deuteronomy 26:13-15
   • Hebrews 6:20
   • Genesis 14:18-20
   • 2 Corinthians 9:7

10. The first fruit, and why your pastor should know how you sow

    The first fruit is hallowed to the Lord: your first things, such as the first salary from a new job. He reads a confession for it that recalls being saved out of sin, sickness and poverty and then presents the first fruit as love, gratitude and honour. To those who prefer to give in secret he answers that under the old covenant the priest examined the offering, so the pastor should know how you give in order to speak a priestly blessing over you. Write your name on the envelope.

    “Your pastor must know how you sow.”

    • Deuteronomy 26:3-10
    • 1 John 2:16
    • Psalm 40:2-3

11. Jesus rebuked, and it left: a rhythm of miracles

    With the church standing he lists what Jesus rebuked: the wind, and it ceased; the deaf spirit, and it left the boy; the spirit that was destroying the boy, and it left that same hour; the unclean spirit in the synagogue; and the fever in Peter's mother-in-law. In that same anointing he rebukes every devourer in their finances. He then prophesies that miracles will not be sporadic but a cycle and rhythm, one after another, and that whoever the channel is, the Lord is their ultimate source, so they should move away from carnal reasoning.

    “God shall keep you in the cycle and the rhythm of miracles.”

    • Mark 4:39
    • Mark 9:25
    • Matthew 17:18
    • Mark 1:25
    • Luke 4:39
    • Isaiah 40:31
    • Luke 6:38

12. Prophesy over your wallet

    He asks everyone to take out a wallet or purse, not for an offering, and to prophesy over it after him: multiplied seed, no lack, increase on its way, and the mountain of debt removed. On the way he teaches them to give their money neatly and not crumpled, because a crumpled note looks like something thrown away. To those who think speaking to a wallet is crazy he answers with the fig tree: nothing seemed to happen when Jesus spoke, but the next day it had dried up from the roots. You do not need to know how; God knows how.

    Illustration: He borrows a banknote from someone in the congregation to show the difference between a note squeezed in the fist and a note opened out and neatly folded.

    “But there is a God that knows how, and he will give you your miracle.”

    • 1 Kings 18:41
    • Psalm 68:19
    • Mark 11:23
    • Mark 11:12-14
    • Mark 11:20-22