How to Receive Financial Abundance from God | Jonathan Evans

we didn't do any work we just received the unmar favor of somebody else which is the definition of grace and so when you give to somebody else cuz you've already purposed in your heart the soil has come and then you have donated to that cause typically that person will say oh my goodness thank you God then makes all grace abound To You Paul is using the word all because he can't find another way to talk about the level of Grace this is yeah in other words when you give to somebody else and you shock them God gives you an abundance of Grace that'll shock you ((applause)) ((music playing)) ((applause)) I don't know if y'all know who that was singing But if you don't know that's Mama Esther Collins who ((applause)) has who has Faithfully served our church for 30 years and she's up here singing about grateful and it's going to be all right while her husband is fighting cancer and tomorrow he undergoes surgery because the doctor said it is small enough now we can go in and get ((applause)) it so I want everybody in the room just to stretch your hand right to this corner Mr and I want all the church to pray for tomorrow that God would guide the hands of the Physicians he would be the great physician the great healer that he is Lord by faith we're believing that it's going to be all right we pray Lord that tomorrow he walk out healed amen guide the hands of the doctors and the Physicians not by their hands but by your hands Lord we pray for a miracle because you are The Miracle Worker we give you the glory the honor and the praise because we know with you it's going to be all right we love you and honor you today in Jesus name all God's people said amen go ahead and get back up for the reading of God's word found in second Corinthians verse 67 and 8 2 Corinthians 9 chapter 9 verse 6 seven and 8 online get your Bibles or open up your app and press the button and get to 2 Corinthians 9 67 and 8 and this is what it says Church it says now this I say he who SWS sparingly will also reap sparingly and he who SWS bountifully will also reap reap bountifully each must do just as he has purposed in his heart not grudgingly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver and God is able to make all grace abound to you so that always having all sufficiency in everything you may have an abundance for every good deed today I want to talk to you from the title let's go farming you may be seated in our cultural context we have been conditioned into the American dream the American dream really is the Relentless Pursuit for money materials and possessions it is one's pursuit of the accumulation of their own riches and wealth we are living life in American culture even in the church for our own come up we are chasing the bag we're grinding for that paper we making moves stacking chips and getting bread because we have been conditioned that life is about the Relentless of pursuit of money materials and my possessions even when we came into this series called the overflow when I announced it at the end of January we're going to go into the Overflow series people was like all right now cuz in our context when we think of blessed and favored we thinking about our stuff this ideology of the American dream has crept into the church and become the church's nightmare you'll even hear it from the pull pits that God wants all of you to be rich matter of fact all you have to do is name it and claim ((applause)) it if you come you're going to be rich and wealthy and God is going to have favor on your life we have gone so far to trade the sovereignty of God for the sovereignty of the believer so that in and of themselves they have the ability to make themselves rich on the Accord of their own faith making God no more than a Genie in a Bottle whose job it is to Grant the wish of the believer's own selfish Indulgence and I need us to understand something today um God is not your personal ATM he is not your slot machine where he exists to be your jackpot he is not your personal chat GPT where he instantly responds at the Press of a button just because you have a question he is not on demand where by faith you get to demand what you want he is not your door Dash where you can make an order and he'll instantly go pick it up set it on the porch of your request and send you a spiritual text to let you know it has arrived he is not Burger King have it your way he's not a remote control where you get to control the story God God is in control he is not under your control that's why 1 Timothy 6:15 says God is Sovereign he's the king of kings and Lord of lords things happen in his timing Psalm 103: 19 says God is Sovereign and rules over all that's why in 1st Samuel 2 verse 7 it says that God is the one who makes low God is the one who exalts God is the the one who makes poor God is the one who makes rich it's God now don't get it twisted God is not against prosperity in third John 1:2 it says I pray that you prosper even as your soul prospers there's there's nothing wrong with prosperity so if you're in here today and things are going well for you from a material resource St standpoint good good for you don't apologize that's great I'm glad God's favor is on your life in an abundant way when it comes to your material resources that's great Abraham was wealthy David was wealthy Solomon was wealthy job was wealthy there was a lot of people in the Bible who had a lot that God used however you have to just toos that idea with the reality that Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:11 that I was hungry thirsty poorly clothed and homeless you have to just to position that reality with Jesus himself who said the foxes have hoes the birds have Nest but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head and the last time I checked Jesus was a faithful Christian and so there will always be a variance in the world and also a variance in the body of Christ because Jesus's lot was to give a lot that's what his calling was and so a lot of times we have what we have based on the lot that God has given us I'm not talking about people who are lazy cuz if a man doesn't work shouldn't eat but understand that in 2 Corinthians 9 Paul is calling the Church of Corinth the belever in Gin to give a gift to the needs of the Saints in Jerusalem which means there were variances in needs or there would be no need for him to encourage a gift understand that God wants us to have a focus as Believers and that focus is not the accumulation of your own riches that's not our focus in mark 4: 19 he says if that's your focus it will choke out the word in Matthew chap 6 verse 24 he says you cannot serve both God and money in Luke 12:1 15 it says guard yourself from every form of greed and the sharpest antagonistic statement in scripture I believe as it relates to the American dream it's found in Matthew 6:1 19-20 do not store up for yourselves Treasures on Earth where moth and rust destroy and were thieves break in and steal however do store up for yourselves Treasures in Heaven where moth and rust cannot destroy and where thieves cannot come in and steal in other words God's Focus for the believer is not the accumulation of riches it is the accumulation of righteousness he's trying to pull us from the American dream to God's dream therefore if you want to have a conversation about the Overflow of prosperity you must precede that with a conversation about the believer's Overflow of generosity so let's go farming shall we that's it I've been wanting to say that all week thank you for affording me the ((applause)) opportunity because he says in verse six now this I say he who SWS sparingly will also reap sparingly he who SWS bountifully will also reap bountifully when I was looking at this I was like well God what do you what do you what else do you want me to say it seems like it says what it needs to say he said that's it say what it says it simply says if you give a little you get a little if you give a lot you get a lot the verse is letting you know how it works as it relates to giving so the question is if the believer is not a giver then they either don't know that their resources are seed or they simply don't trust God many people see generos it as an an expense and not an investment they see generosity as subtraction and not multiplication they see generosity as a liability and not an asset but he says if you sow sparingly you going to reap sparingly if you sow bountifully you're going to reap bountifully he's talking about farming okay what if you went to a farmer and said hey farmer hey how are you um are you getting ready to sew this season well absolutely not I'm Not sewing I'm keeping my seed for myself excuse me you're not going to sew the seed that you have in the field that you've been given know i' like the accumulation of my own seed for myself I just want to store it up so that I can have more seeds I don't know about you but I'd say you're an idiot you're a farmer how is it that you can be a farmer and as a farmer you live for the accumulation of your seed and not sewing the seed you've accumulated um ocbf you're a farmer you're a Christian you mean to tell me that you just live to be full today even though you'll be starving in a year well that makes no sense how can God's people work and live life to store up seed and never sew it don't they know by sewing it there's a harvest so we push back from the table of our own Harvest because we'd rather have our self-centeredness um that makes no sense um in the financial World they understand this concept clearly matter of fact Robert kosaki says in inflationary times the Savers are losers because you're saving money at a in the bank at a point 00000000000000 1% interest but your eggs cost $1 trillion so you're trying to save money while the things that you buy cost much more so then you're a rat on a real I mean people be at the store making lifechanging decisions they're like can I just take three eggs out the ((applause)) carton so you're trying to save where there's no yield it's going down because life costs more then two weeks later you put money in there to try to get it back up to where it was before only to watch it drain again so you're in a constant Cy ccle of never being able to have more unless you find a secure high yield interest bearing account that you can sew your money into that can keep up with the rate of inflation you're competing against if you don't do that you'll always be losing by trying to save God is saying I have a high interest secure yield account called generosity for the believer if you don't put it in there you're losing while thinking you're gaining because there is an inflation tax called self-centeredness on every believer it's found in Proverbs 11:24 Proverbs 11:24 says he who gives freely will surely Prosper yeah yeah it says but the one who withholds will surely come to poverty not might could it be that our resources are only a mirror that reflect back to us what we ((applause)) give um while I was uh studying verse six on Tuesday I was in there studying I was I got a phone call phone ring picked up hello it was one of our older Church mothers who was calling me she said Jonathan I said hey ma'am how are you doing she said I'm doing good um I just called the church because um my Social Security they had a glitch in the system it didn't come through I got everything taken care of but my light bill so I called the church cuz they know we know we have a benevolence Ministry so I called the church and they said right now unfortunately we're doing Atmos Energy that's what we've been set up to do and so Jonathan she said I was just wondering if there was anybody else in the church I can call so that I can get this taken care of because my light my my energy gets cut off on March the 3 I said oh we won't let that happen I put down I said I'll call you right back I put down the phone and I started calling the church my heart was full I wanted to make sure she was taken care of and as I'm calling the church remember make this happen God started knocking uh yes Lord Jonathan what are you doing I'm calling the church I want to make sure she's taken care ((music playing)) of um Jonathan yeah yes Lord um why do you think I had her call ((applause)) ((music playing)) you um Lord can you hold for a ((applause)) second no Jonathan I can't um why are you calling the church she asked me to call the church to see if she can get help he said um not only are you the church I sent her to you and you're the lead pastor of the church I said oh yeah I forgot it's only been a few weeks ((applause)) so what are you saying I should do I'm ((applause)) confused Jonathan you're literally studying verse six and you're about to preach it in a few days and I brought you soil ((applause)) I put down the phone and I asked the dangerous question well Lord what would you have me do he said Jonathan you're studying verse six I said well really what do you want me to do I didn't know it was going to be on me I thought that I can put it on the organization he said no the church is an organism and you're in it I said so Lord how much do you want me to ((applause)) give he answered simply what kind of harvest do you want safe to say she was taken care of and when you have the people of God to step up all of a sudden there's no paperwork all of a sudden there's no lines all of a sudden there's no system and structures and all that kind of stuff because God will send you your soil and you'll know it because you'll start talking to yourself and competing with God and like no that's too much why would I do that and as you're doing that you got to decide whether you're backing away from the table of your own Harvest now I know what you're thinking well Jonathan I can't give to everyone well no farmers are not called to sew in everybody else's field they're called to sew in theirs and God makes that evident to the believer well wait a minute wait a minute here it go wait a minute but I have bills and debt yes you asking me to give to somebody else I need somebody I need you to tell somebody ((applause)) else I'm over here struggling and you're asking me to seow Ecclesiastes 11:4 says he who looks at the wind will never plant and he who looks at the cloud will never reap could it be that God sent you that soil for the Harvest that you're complaining about now uh Jonathan it sounds like you are teaching give to get theology um 1 Timothy 6:1 18-19 says be ready to share with everyone and you will store up Treasures Proverbs 1917 says Those Who lend to the po po poor actually lend to the Lord and the Lord will repay them we've been saying it every week Luke 6:38 says give and it will be given back to you he will pour out on your lapag so it is perfectly right to motivate someone to do something and show them the consequences of their actions when you tell someone not to do something you're telling them what the consequences will be well if you do this I wouldn't do this because ABC and d and what you're doing is you're showing them the end result so that they will make the right decision up front if you do it negatively should you not do it positively this is literally what Paul is doing he's motivating the Saints in Corinth by showing them the consequences of their actions and that is perfectly okay so am I teaching a give to get theology yes and no yes in terms of motivation so that you'll see how God works no in terms of you having a crooked heart to try to manipulate God you cannot manipulate God because he tells you where giving really comes from in verse 7 in verse 7 it says each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart God is reading the heart of the believer and I love this because it says purposed in his heart the word purpose means predetermined that this is a person who has already predetermined that they are givers like a farmer already predetermines that he's going to sew so when the season comes for sewing he's already ready Farmers don't get mad that it's time to sew grudgingly Farmers don't give uh don't sew under compulsion they're like oh oh it shocked me it's time Farmers have already predetermined that that's what they're going to they have already purposed it in their heart in other words the farming Christian has already purposed in their heart that sewing seeds of righteousness as it relates to material resources is something that I do therefore 1 Corinthians 16:2 Paul says put it aside and get it ready how do you make sure that you do not have to give with a grudge or you do not have to give under compulsion this is not a message to say okay Jonathan just preached it let me compulsively just go out there and find someone to give to no how do you make sure that you can be a cheerful Giver well you're a farmer this means in your budget line item there is a line item that says benevolence for your family and throughout the years the weeks and the months you always always just store up seed because Farmers preow that they have already predetermined that they are going to give a seed whenever God calls them to a certain soil whenever you're not ready that's why you like uhuh I want to keep my seeds for myself because you have not predetermined we have all of these light items for our bills our shopping are this are that and you're a farmer there's nothing in there that has anything to do with sewing seeds of righteousness as it relates to monetary resources so if you want to prepare like a farmer I'm giving you something practical you go home and you look at your budget and see what part of your budget doesn't have something to do with you and then you reorganize your budget you stop going to ((applause)) Starbucks because giving by nature is a sacrifice well Jonathan I don't have anything else well and you put B and our family I'm not talking about me I'm talking about you our family we're going to be generous when God calls us and we're not going to give under compulsion and we're not going to be have a grudge about it or give begrudgingly cuz we already pre pre-planned to sow we have already predetermined in our heart we've been storing up for this all year and you came and you'll realize that sometimes the need matches what you stored up cuz God will make that thing plain and it says D you position yourself now to be a cheerful Giver the word cheerful means hilariously give that you can hilariously give because as a farmer you have predetermined in your heart that that's what you do and it says that God loves a cheerful Giver um this is different this is um there's a general love for everybody John 3:16 for God to love the world there's a specific love for his kids John 13:1 he loves his own then there there's a special love for those who G give cheerfully I don't know if you you've have anybody at your job that um they just work with a smile they just give and and so there there just a different level of that's my guy right there the way they operate and the way they give at ocbf we have a maintenance guy who's always running around here serving at a whole another level named Jose he will run from this side of the foyer to the other side of the foyer when he sees you coming towards the door just so he can open it for you and he opens it and he's just standing there and he's like hey thank you so much thank me thank you no thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve every day if there's any ocbf staff in here that know what I'm talking about just wave your hand every day and it ain't just me it don't matter who who you are he Ser if you drop something he runs and picks it up and gives it to you he serves at the highest level and we love each other at ocbf as staff but all of us when we talk about Jose we're like that's my guy because he gives cheerfully or you have that kid in your house that just get and they just yes ma'am no ma'am yes sir no sir and they just running around and giving you like yeah I love all of my kids but there's one special ((applause)) every now and then now I know why my dad did it to me for so many years when he said God loves a cheerful Giver one who takes the resources that God gave them and hilariously shares with other people God is saying that's my girl that's my guy um me and my dad um we we went to a a donor and we were we were working for the national Ministry and at the national Ministry which is where all the broadcast goes out and all the sermons go out of Dr Tony Evans as it relates to the radio and so we were talking to a donor letting him know about our ministry for a donation and the donor had his hat on and while we were talking he was just doing this I'm like Dad what's wrong with this ((applause)) guy we finished our presentation is we were just at lunch and then he just did this he didn't say a word I got it and I said ((applause)) oh I said sir thank you it was a check for a million doll I wasn't expecting that at all I said sir I almost lost my breath thank you he said no thank you I said what in God's name are you talking about thank you he said no uh-uh he said thank you I said sir you gave me the money he said yeah but you just gave me an opportunity at a harvest he understood verse eight yeah and God is able to make all grace abound to you so that always having all sufficiency in everything you may have an abundance for every good deed this all Grace when he gave that to us we said oh my goodness we weren't expecting that why because we did do any work we just receive the unmar favor of somebody else which is the definition of grace and so when you give to somebody else cuz you've already purposed in your heart the soil has come and then you have donated to that cause typically that person will say oh my goodness thank you God then makes all grace abound to you okay you're not get that um you know without work you made that person go oh my goodness Paul is using the word all because he can't find another way to talk about the level of Grace this is yeah in other words when you give to somebody else and you shock them God gives you an abundance of Grace that'll shock you he will start finding you in Nooks crannies and crevices that you weren't even thinking about he gives you a level of there is a a general Grace everybody gets up and gets to breathe there is a specific Grace you're saved by it and then there is a special Grace for the person who is The Giver that finds them in Nooks crannies and crevices without their work and they receive the Overflow of the unmerited favor of God but he says not only will all grace abound to you you will always have all sufficiency in everything we don't understand these principles um when a farmer gets the Harvest that's the all Grace oh my goodness it's much more than what I planted when you plant an apple you don't get an Apple you get an apple tree and all the apples have multiple seeds in them so that all Grace is a derivative of that type of thinking and then you get the Harvest much more than what you planted then what you do with that Harvest as a farmer is you go set aside so that your family can have all sufficiency in everything in other words he's taking care of your life in every single area in every single way because it's coming from that all Grace Harvest you just pulled out of that field and so now you've taken advantage of that for your family so you have all sufficiency in everything then he says I'm going to give you an abundance for every good need for every good deed okay all Grace We're sufficient we're taken care of then what does a farmer do he takes the Harvest which was the all Grace he puts them aside for his family so they can eat and then he strips the seeds from the rest yeah yeah yeah oh no you don't get it he why does the farmer then pull seeds out of the original Grace that they received so that they can have an abundance for every good deed okay let me say that again Harvest Grace sufficient my family in every area that I need then I strip the seeds from it because I have purposed in my heart that that Grace wasn't then the accumulation for me that Grace was the accumulation to reso and do good deeds with what I've been given and when you seow from the all Grace that takes care of your family and you strip the seeds you now are able to seow more seeds than you originally seow to begin with which means you get a bigger and then you do it again and then you do it again and then you do it again because your goal is to not take God's grace and abuse it your goal is to take God's grace and use it yes sir I was sitting at the table with the donor and I asked him sir what do you do for a living I had to know I may have to get into the business ((applause)) well I'm a farmer um ocbf yeah you're a farmer yeah so let's go farming shall we am cuz that's what God has called us to do we should be exploding and I'm going to tell you this and it's safe to say I'm going to tell you why we should be exploding your personal life and the church in material resources I'm not talking about love kindness all that stuff that's not this right here talking about monetary this is talking about money that's what Paul is trying to get them to give a gift we should be exploding in material resources to reso this is not a building that does the work it's the body of Christ that goes out has predetermined in their heart got it in a budget cheerful givers and then when all Grace starts abounding on the people who are coming into the building we will be explo why do I say material resources because the Harvest must be the same nature of the seed the seed in this chapter is money I'm not talking about name it claim it Prosperity I'm talking about believers who are ready to continue to store up so we can sew store up so we can sew store up so we can sew and then there will be many Thanksgiving to God verse 10 says it will be overflowing in the community of people who are saying thank you so much oh we are just getting started