If You Are Not Faithful With Three Thousand, Why Expect Thirty?

Sermon outline

Stand fast in the liberty Christ gave you and do not be entangled again by debt and a poverty mindset; a spirit of generosity and faithfulness with what is already in your hand is what God increases.

1. Out of control finances equal an out of control life

   It starts with a decision that I will not go back there, even if it kills me, and nowhere more than with money. The bank that phones to say you have pre-qualified for a credit card is the same one that phones to say you owe them. Avoid accounts where you can; there is good debt that grows in value, like property, and bad debt on things that perish, like a car that loses half its value when you sign.

   Illustration: When he and his wife married they bought a couch, a coffee table and a few things on account for about twenty thousand rand. Five years later, after legal trouble, he still owed almost the same amount and ended up paying about four times the price. From that day they decided never to buy furniture on account. Buy the thousand rand New Balance and wait until you can afford the six thousand rand Jordans.

   “Out of control finances equal an out of control life.”

   • Galatians 5:1

2. The tithe sanctifies the rest

   God gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater, but if the seed goes to paying accounts there is never bread to eat. Whatever social media says, Abraham gave a tenth long before the law. Giving the tenth sanctifies and protects the other ninety percent; withholding it means losing it anyway in debt, medical bills and repairs. What begins as obligation grows into a relationship.

   Illustration: If you earn ten thousand and give your thousand, you sanctify the other nine thousand, and you will be able to use it as if it were eighteen thousand.

   “It's better to give, to sow the seed, than to pay the seed on interest and never receive the bread.”

   • 2 Corinthians 9:10
   • Genesis 14:20

3. A spirit of generosity, not a spirit of poverty

   Generosity is a way of thinking, the point of departure for how a family makes decisions about money and business. A mentality of self-preservation, me and mine, is a spirit of poverty and a form of unbelief. God is an investor who gave His Son, and the one who gives freely grows richer while the one who withholds suffers want. There is no legacy in poverty, only in the spirit of a giver.

   Illustration: Spending five thousand rand on shoes while there are no groceries in the house and no tithe paid is a misappropriation of what God has blessed you with. Asking what the church will do with your money is not a liberated mind but a slave to money.

   “There's no legacy in poverty. There's only legacy in a spirit of a giver.”

   • John 3:16
   • Ephesians 1:15-18
   • Job 31:24-28
   • Proverbs 11:24-25
   • Malachi 3:10
   • Matthew 7:9-11

4. Idle hands get nothing: sow your time

   Employers ask what you have been doing while you looked for work, and they do not hire the person who has been sitting at home. When unemployed people ask him to pray for a job, he invites them to come and serve at the church. Nine out of ten do not come, but those who do get the job, the promotion and the increase, because they sowed their time, skill and labour.

   Illustration: He has testimony after testimony, family after family, of people who came to serve without asking what they would be paid, and found work that followed them even through retrenchment.

   “As a Christian, idle hands don't get anything. But working hands, the faithful will gain.”

   • Proverbs 14:23
   • Matthew 6:26

5. The blessing of the Lord adds no sorrow

   What God gives cannot be taken away, so you are never afraid of losing it, and it is not only money but health and vitality too. The devil also gives money, but always with a hook, as he offered Jesus the kingdoms of the world. A job in another province or a wealthy suitor that takes a young person out of the house of God is a red flag, which is why children should be in church from Sunday school onwards.

   Illustration: The moment a young man gets involved in church and his life begins to fall into place, a job appears in another province. The moment a young woman starts running a home cell, a man from a wealthy family appears.

   “When the devil comes and he gives you the money, there's always a hook.”

   • Proverbs 10:22
   • Matthew 4:8-9
   • Isaiah 55:1
   • Proverbs 13:22
   • James 1:17

6. Faithful with three thousand before thirty

   When God promotes you or places you somewhere you did not deserve, it comes with responsibility, and not only financially. If you are not faithful with three thousand, why would He give you thirty thousand, then three hundred thousand, then three million? The right amount of money in the wrong hands is still bad, and a broken heart and mind given millions will only be more broken.

   Illustration: That is why the lotto does not work: whatever you put in the player's hand, the first thing they do is buy what they never had, and the money finishes fast while the person is still the same.

   “Money is a good servant, but a terrible master.”

   • Isaiah 55:11

7. Do something with your talent

   In the parable of the talents, the servants with five and two took a calculated risk and doubled what they were given, and were set over much. The one with a poverty mentality buried his talent out of fear and lost even that. Whether you have a million rand or a hundred rand in the bank, it is seed in your hand. Working nine to five, watching Netflix and singing two songs on Sunday is not doubling.

   Illustration: He quotes his father: true success is the ability to do the mundane things every single day, being faithful and trusting the Lord. The person who sleeps through the four o'clock wake-up, or chooses the movie over the word, will lose it.

   “Grace can't abound if we do nothing.”

   • Matthew 25:14-30

In this message