Ice Cream Tubs and Heaven's Windows: Breaking a Poverty Mindset

Sermon outline

Heaven has windows and doors: generous, faithful giving opens the windows, Jesus is the door to everything you need, and the open door God sets before you no man can shut.

1. There are windows in heaven

   Israel was robbing God in tithes and offerings, so His hands were tied. God's deal is simple: take care of His house, and He will take care of you, whatever the size of your need. 'Prove me now' means put Him to the test: His Word is failure proof, faith proof and fool proof. Then comes the part people skip: 'if I will not open you the windows of heaven'.

   Illustration: If you earn R10,000 a month and give God R1,200 in tithe and offering, He undertakes to meet a need of R20,000 or even R300,000 for a property.

   “God's word is faith proof and it is fool proof.”

   • Malachi 3:8-10

2. The opening and shutting is on your side

   When Christians struggle it is not God's doing; often they are walking in fear of insufficiency, afraid that if they give they will not have enough, and what you fear comes upon you. Under the new covenant you are not under the blessings and curses of the law; you are simply a doer of the Word, and doing it invokes the blessing. Check yourself: do you tithe, give offerings, and bless people who cannot pay you back, or do you hoard?

   Illustration: Grocery cupboards where empty two-litre ice cream tubs fall out by the dozen, drawers of Nando's sauce sachets and KFC serviettes, a tool kept since 1940, and a thirty-year-old shirt: all signs of a poverty mentality.

   “A poverty mentality will make sure that's where you will end, poor.”

   • Job 3:25
   • Deuteronomy 28:1-68
   • James 1:22

3. Windows, plural, and not room enough to receive it

   God says windows, not window: some believers have none open, some one, some many, and consistency opens more. He promises a blessing with not enough room to receive it, and every room has a door. Be a blesser, give beyond the tithe out of love, and learn to receive a gift humbly, because God can only bless the giver if you accept it.

   Illustration: When people bless him with money he takes out the tithe into an envelope, and one day, with a stack of notes on his table, he told the Lord a tithe was not enough and added more because he loved Him.

   “Be consistent. Keep on doing it.”

   • Malachi 3:10
   • Genesis 12:2

4. The tithe came before the law

   Leviticus 27 commands the tithe under Moses, but Abraham tithed long before the law, Jesus endorsed it in Matthew 23:23, and Hebrews 7 says that in heaven He receives it. Old thinking such as 'money doesn't grow on trees' is a deep root that must be cut out like a boil, by renewing the mind and casting down every thought against the knowledge of Christ.

   Illustration: A doctor does not bandage a big boil and send you home; he lances it and gets the poison out, and teaching the Word is no different.

   “God is bigger than your needs.”

   • Leviticus 27:30
   • Genesis 14:20
   • Matthew 23:23
   • Hebrews 7:8-9
   • Romans 12:2
   • 2 Corinthians 10:4-5
   • Philippians 4:19

5. Jesus is the door

   Jesus said 'I am the door': whether you need salvation, healing, peace or provision, He is the door to everything you will ever need, and He came to give life more abundantly. Those who are anointed carry the key to doors no one else can open. The anointing is the burden-removing, yoke-destroying power of God, the vaccine against fear, doubt and oppression.

   Illustration: The Holy Spirit told him, 'We have the vaccine': when someone comes burdened, lay hands on them and they get a dose of the anointing.

   “Jesus is the door to everything you would ever need.”

   • John 10:7-10
   • John 14:6
   • Luke 4:18
   • Joel 2:25
   • Isaiah 10:27

6. A door open in heaven, and the joy of the Lord

   John saw a door standing open in heaven and heard 'come up here'; believers have access to the throne of grace. Serving God is joy, so stop being sad and serious: give your face a rest and laugh in the Holy Ghost. Happiness is in your hands, so don't let people who don't like you decide whether you are happy.

   Illustration: Years ago his wife told him he hardly ever smiled, so he turned the rear-view mirror towards himself and practised smiling all the way to work until his jaws were sore.

   “Happiness is in your hand, gladness is in your hand, God gave it to you.”

   • Revelation 4:1
   • Hebrews 4:16
   • Matthew 4:4
   • Acts 2:16

7. I have set before you an open door, and no man can shut it

   Your prosperity, happiness and healing are in your hands, and if God ordained your blessing, no relative, neighbour, boss or co-worker who dislikes you can shut the door He has opened. He calls it a year of laughter: as God fulfils His promises, you will laugh.

   “No man can shut your open door.”

   • Revelation 3:8