Mysteries of the Kingdom | Deceitfulness of Riches | Mac Hammond | LW

well this is number 18 in our series i can't believe we've been in it for 18 weekends but it's already number 18 in our series mysteries of the kingdom and i probably got another 18 to go the way it's looking uh um for a while anyway but i really don't think there are any there are a lot of things more important than this i truly don't because if the kingdom of god is a mystery to you if it's a mystery to you why this happens and that didn't happen and something else we see and you know answered prayer and the list goes on if things are a mystery to you about the way the kingdom operates it shouldn't be because our basic text as we've talked about mysteries most recently has been mark chapter 4 the parable of the sore and he tells us it's given unto us as believers to know the mysteries of the kingdom of god now a mystery the greek word mysterion literally means not profitable to natural understanding not something that human understanding or logic is able to grasp it requires revelation of god and that is only available to you if you're born again if you're a christian if you're a member of the family of god it's given unto you to know these mysteries but it does require revelation from god for understanding to come that's why you read the bible learn what the word says lean on the holy spirit's ministry of revelation that's why you pray and commune with the lord that's why you come to church because anointed preaching is often a way that lights go off because it is vital that you understand these mysteries that's what growth in god is that's what meaningful christianity is that's how you mature in the faith by these mysteries being resolved now you know some of the mysteries are time sensitive god isn't going to show you something that you're not equipped to handle or to deal with at this point in time and you know that's part of w e vine's definition of mystery it is time sensitive and so there will be some things you don't understand from one time to another no matter how much you may pray about it so you just kind of set it on the mental shelf and know that when the time is right you know the lord will open that mystery to you so mysteries are important thing for us to understand as the word is used in the bible these are points of understanding that are going to bring our faith together that we really need to have there are ten mysteries in the new testament that are specifically mentioned that we're teaching on right now most recently the mystery of sowing and reaping in mark chapter four and as i've said you know jesus talked about this mystery as being foundational to your understanding of anything in the kingdom he said you're not going to get anything unless you understand the parable of sowing in reaping in verse 26 of that chapter he said so is the kingdom as though a man should cast seed into the ground so basically the the you know the burden is on us to position our lives to understand what these mysteries mean it's the reason for preaching about them sowing and reaping being the most fundamental to the operation of life in the kingdom we've seen the uh seed defined as now remember as i've said previously a parable uses a natural analogy to demonstrate a spiritual truth so we're using an agricultural analogy here jesus is to illuminate spiritual truth to us and we see that the natural seed that we would think about in the agricultural environment on the spiritual plane the seed is the word of god meaning ideas views perceptions of life from the word of god principles of life that come from the word of god and once that seed is planted in the garden or the soil of the human heart it has the capacity to produce fruit that you're going to want to have in your life the kind of fruit that makes you effective and makes life worth living we saw from galatians 5 22 the fruit of the spirit and that's the reborn human spirit that's had the seed of the word planted in it is going to be love and joy and peace and long-suffering or i should say cheerful endurance gentleness and kindness all of those things that are listed there are things that are going to happen within you when you've cultivated the garden of your heart and the seed the god ideas that have been planted there it's going to produce these things that's what makes life worth living it's what luke 16 calls the true riches the true riches are the things that make you i mean the ability to feel peace in the midst of a storm the ability to laugh and be joyful when there's nothing to laugh about the freedom to love somebody instead of to hate and resent and be bitter these are what makes life worth living and of course you know it all begins with an understanding of how that seed the seed of god's word god's idea ideas gets sown in your heart now you have the responsibility to cultivate the garden of your heart that's what the parable of the sower has most to do with what you do with the ideas you've been exposed to good seed comes from the word of god bad seed thorns thistles uh weeds whatever you want to call it which are a product of worldly ideas it'll choke out the fruit of god's word you you know the peace won't come the joy won't come the frustration will be there the anger the hatred that'll all be there you know so basically it's a conflict of ideas the world says one thing god says another thing in many instances and so this really has to do with what ideas are going to shape your view of life your belief system and therefore your behavior and the way you live is it for instance that love never fails obviously a god idea from the word of god or is it the worldly viewpoint that you can win best by intimidation a good defense is a strong offense i mean a lot of sayings in the world but when it contradicts a truth of the word you've got a choice to make and of course today you know last sunday we talked about the first of the weed seeds these are they which are sown among thorns this is mark 4 18 such as hear the word go on in the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the lusts of other things entering and choke the word and it becometh unfruitful we look first at hard ground than stony ground we talked about you know as far as taking care of your heart the way you should how to remedy those heart conditions so seed can penetrate and begin growing but then we got to the weeds last sunday we started with the cares of this world there are three categories of weed seed which say that basically ideas from the world that have the capacity to choke out the word of god will all fit in one of these three categories and because there's a specific remedy for each of these categories in the bible it's important that you understand that this would imply that not every idea that comes to you from the world is bad and that's true there are certainly uh ideas that that are shaped by our learning curve living in this temporal arena that we live in science has made a lot of pros progress in a lot of arenas of life and those are truths that we should embrace because it has to do with living life naturally in this earth successfully you know that would be of course you know s such things as the law of gravity i've used as an example you need to know that if you jump out of a tree you're going down off a building you're going down that's just the way it is when you live in this arena but as a believer there are two arenas of truth that that confront you if you're not a believer the only arena of truth you can deal with is the natural temporal world that we live in as defined by the understandings we've gained from scientific endeavor but there's another arena of truth the spiritual arena that is for you if you are a believer you are the only creation that is made as a spiritual being able to live and function in a temporal world you are spiritually alive unto god and have an arena of truth available to you that's not available to anybody else that isn't a believer but yet you're required to live in a temporal physical world so you have two arenas of truth to deal with and this confuses a lot of people because often times they're in conflict one arena of truth says you you know uh you don't look very holy you know you don't look very separated unto god especially the way you acted last night and yet the bible truth if you're in christ is you're the righteousness of god in christ jesus period amen so you know how do you reconcile these two different arenas of truth well then you know if you get up feeling real sick one morning and the doctor tells you that you got such and such and it's gonna run its course in about two weeks and it might even be terminal for you and yet you've got the bible that says by the stripes of jesus you were healed so you are healed there's a conflict there how do you reconcile the conflict well being the only being that is created to function in both arenas of truth you know you need to begin with the eternal you the real you this natural world is called temporal because the word temporal actually means temporary or subject to change one of these arenas of truth is subject to change the other is not the spiritual arena is called eternal truth it never changes it's always the same it's the dominant truth and as a spiritual being with a physical body living in this natural world when you invest your faith i want you to see faith is the bridge between the two realms of truth when you use your faith to believe that the dominant truth the creative purpose of god the higher truth is that you're healed then it will change the natural physical reality to line up with the spiritual truth faith is the bridge and faith is more than just wishing it were faith is knowing that you know that you know it's a product of maturity over time and it will get you to a point where more and more of those spiritual truths are going to be dominating the natural arena producing change there that improves your quality of life now all of this is necessary to say we did cares of this world last week this week we're doing deceitfulness of riches two points of consideration if you weren't here for cares of this world it's a category of weed seed you need to learn about please pull it down from the archives get caught up today is deceitfulness of riches two primary considerations deception and money deceitfulness of riches there are things you need to know about the terminology riches doesn't uh mean some kind of great wealth which is what a lot of people think riches mean it does not mean that rich simply means excess over need it doesn't quantify the excess it can be one dollar more than you need or it can be a billion dollars more than you need when you see the word rich or riches it just means the experience of more than you need excess over need and it doesn't tell you how much the other item that you need to be aware of is that there's always deception involved in the natural consideration of money there's always deception attached to money yet you need money god wants you to have money you know two of the primary deceptions regarding money one is a religious idea that says money is evil you don't want anything to do with money or material possession that's all unimportant you know uh and so you have people that take vows of poverty check into monasteries they're in one ditch of deception regarding money the other the other ditch is that you actually come to trust in your bank balance and what money can do to enhance your experience of life more than you trust god so you've got these two ditches of deception where money's concerned one is that you shouldn't have it it's evil it's bad it's contrary to being spiritual the other ditch of deception is that it really is the primary determinant of how much you're going to enjoy this life it's uh ability uh to gain you the things that are going to make you successful and happy and so with the this in mind i'll mention that i did a fairly long running series a long time ago 25 or 30 years probably i don't know how much of my doctrine has changed since then i think the basics are intact but everybody grows so i don't know if i want to recommend you go get it but it was it was entitled uh if the devil can't deceive you he can't defeat you which is based on the simple truth that since it's truth that sets you free truth that will break every bond of captivity of any sort you've ever experienced truth is the commodity that we all ought to seek and understand that that's where real freedom is found deception has a very simple definition deception is a disregard of the truth or a distortion of the truth a disregard of it or a distortion of it as we've already discussed regarding the two realms of truth that we live in to live successfully you take the truth from the temporal arena that doesn't contradict spiritual truth all of the laws of legitimate science you know will corroborate truth that you find in the word they're not contradictory the bible doesn't say avoid science it says avoid false science and i've touched on this i think briefly in a past sermon or so so i'm not going into it deeply but you know there are laws that science have unveiled to our understanding about this physical arena we live in that are going to benefit us if we cooperate with them law of gravity jumping out of a tree being a simplistic way of saying that is an example but science is the process of uh empiricism which you start with a premise or a hypothesis and through observation or experimentation you validate its truth or you determine it to be a falsehood and that's great for determining truth in the spiritual arena not so when it comes to spiritual or did i say spiritual physical arena not so when it comes to the spiritual arena uh that truth cannot be empirically validated you can observe or experiment with whether there is god or the devil or life after death or heaven or hell there is no amount of observation or experimentation that can validate you know the premise that the bible is true that god is real that heaven is real these are truths that we accept is divinely inspired and god breathed for our benefit and these are things he wants us to understand to know about the enemy's purpose is to deceive if he can't deceive you he can't defeat you he's got to get you to believe there's a higher order of truth than the spiritual arena that tells you who you are in christ what your destiny is your privileges on this earth god's purpose for you while you're here your responsibilities as a christian all of the word gives you revelation of these kinds of things and when it's in conflict with natural circumstance that seems to say i'm sick not healed i'm poor god hasn't met my need love i've tried it it doesn't seem to work too well all of the contradictory circumstance that you see when it tells you you're something different than what the spiritual arena tells us through the bible you have a decision to make which are you going to hang your hat on and i guess i you know i could i could go on indefinitely i started out the first service this morning by saying i'm gonna hold the review to five minutes today everybody broke out laughing that was a good way to start off yeah you know all of that that big vote of confidence but uh it's true i get going on rabbit trails even in the introduction and it seems like the time just adds up um i preach for 66 minutes the first service i am not going to do that this service do you believe why are you laughing i mean i i really think i can do that i mean all of the church growth people tell you that in this modern time if you preach a sermon more than 20 minutes you're going to lose people well i hate to tell you you know you got a decision to make because it would be a miracle akin to raising the dead if i preach 20 minutes but basically i will try to keep it reasonable which is 45 minutes maybe an hour we'll see but thank you thank you hey there's two people that want to hang around but basically um the deceitfulness of riches tells us that if there are three categories of weeds that choke out the fruit of god's word and one of them has to do with money and deception being tied together that deception may just hinge on how you handle your money and i'm speaking about deception in any area so i want you to approach the subject with me in this way the devil can't deceive you he can't defeat you that's fact and i would carry that one step further and on the basis of what i just said and we'll be studying this morning if you get it right with money you close the door on deception as a strategy he'll still try to pressure you he'll still try to push you around a little bit but his strategies will fall flat if he can't deceive you and this suggests to me that if you get it right with money you close the door to deception let's start by looking at uh first timothy six verse i guess we'll begin with verse 9. but they that will be rich fall into temptation in the snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition and this would seem to say right out of the box now go back i'm not through with that yet this would seem to say right out of the box that uh yeah hey you know if you want to be rich then uh you got trouble ahead and that's not the case we want to be whatever god wants us to be and he wants us to prosper he wants us to have an abundance so that should be a clue to you and again remember rich means excess over need it's not talking about having a whole pot full of money it's talking about excess over need not how much that might be but when you have an excess the temptation begins and the snare begins when your focus is on having subsistence needs met it's a little bit different now uh i mean you know the all of the principles that come together to generate an income uh have to do with working hard and being diligent and you know that seems to happen when there's a lot at stake but once you've got your needs met then the matter of money and excess even if it's just a little bit uh opens the door to a temptation and a snare but the key to this verse is not just wanting to be rich you want to be what god wants you to be the word is actually crave and most of the other translations use the word crave they that crave to be rich or on the wrong path and that having been said let's go to verse 10 and then we have this favorite famous verse favorite of many money is the root of all evil no it doesn't say that it says that the love of money is the root of a little bit of evil financial evil all evil and for a while this kind of blew my mind i can see how money would be the root of some things that are really evil but all evil how can it have anything to do with sickness or disease or relationship what i don't know how could it be all evil and it says it's a root meaning even if you don't have any negative fruit yet if that root's down there there's going to be some evil showing up in your life pretty soon and it says that's what the love of money is so uh we have to focus on the love for a moment love here the greek word is agape normally the word we define as the god kind of love because god so loved the world that he gave that's agape or the god kind of love that's the word that's used for love here but it has no relationship to god it is defined as giving so when somebody gives themself to the acquisition of money or the pursuit of it that's what's being talked about when this is what you give your life to this is what you give your heart to this is where your primary effort is invested all of your thinking goes here the acquisition of more money what's money money as you've heard me say in the past if you've been here for a while is nothing but a medium of exchange that represents the material realm you've got enough money you can buy whatever the world wants whatever it wants including people you can buy anything the world has to offer if you have enough money and so the reason that this attitude about money you're going to pursue it at all costs this is your highest uh uh level of motivation in terms of you know having money that's it for you and it says that love is the root of all evil it's a medium of exchange that represents the material realm the material world satan is the god of that world and so when your primary motivation is a medium of exchange that represents the world he is in charge of he is the god of the natural world we live in if that's news to you uh well it's a result of adam having bowed his knee on behalf of all humanity to satan and obedience as opposed to god and forfeiting the dominion and authority that god had intended humanity to exercise he gave it to the one he bowed his knee to in obedience and so until the end of this dispensation there is an evil force in this world personalized by the name of satan and then all of the demonic hosts behind him satan has the right to manipulate circumstance in this natural world and people that don't know any better to produce evil his evil purposes and so when the medium of exchange that represents that entire arena is your primary motive in life your entire life is open to the enemy of your soul that is literally why this is the root of all evil so you would say as most christians would i don't love money you know uh let's put a little test to that i mean this is something i had a problem with uh for a while in my life but basically let's look at verse 17 i believe it is and still talking about money charge them that are rich in this world and a lot of people might say well that's not talking to me i'm not rich remember rich just means your needs are met and you got a little excess could be a dollar you know so for most americans you know most americans are not going to die because they don't have enough food they don't have enough clothing they don't have shelter a lot of them are that way because they have opted out of the responsibilities of life they'd rather panhandle than work that's not always true and i don't mean to suggest i don't have compassion for people in that condition but in america they're going to get fed somewhere they're going to get some food they're going to have some clothes they'll you know they'll they're not going to die because their subsistence needs are not being met and the reason for saying that is this is really speaking to most of america we're the richest nation in the world there are a lot of places where people are dying because they don't have enough to meet basic human need but not so much in america so basically you know this charge is to most of us that we be not high-minded which makes another interesting point when you've got excess over need and that's what rich is the first thing it does when you've got a little more than you need is the seed of arrogance is sown the seed of arrogance and pride that relates to your earning capacity or your financial acquisition has been sown even if it's only a little bit more than you need so the first exhortation is don't get caught up in how great you are you're seeing yourself as the provider instead of god and that's a dangerous place to be and then he goes on to say nor trust in uncertain riches but in the living god who giveth us richly one or two things occasionally no it's all things to enjoy if you'll believe him for it just like you're a parent if you had the capacity to bless your child with something that they would really enjoy would you not want to do it well of course he does there are things he's blessed me with i didn't deserve earn nothing but i'm his child and he says he gives me richly all things to enjoy if i trust in him and not in uncertain riches so here we are confronted with this truth that the litmus test for whether or not the love of money is active in your life is what do you most trust to bring satisfaction contentment fulfillment to your life is it your bank balance is it the new house that you want to you want to build is that where you're hanging all of your hopes for you know an exciting new experience of life that's going to make life worth living what is it that you put your trust in you know i was confronted with this for the first time in my own life a long time ago probably probably 30 35 years ago we were in a uh kenneth copeland meeting and the lord put it on my heart to make the first really big gift you know for me at that point in time that i'd ever made and it came to me pretty strongly and i i was i was just going to blow it off you know as a a just a weird thought because i didn't want to do it and i turned to lynn and i said lynn you know what the lord i felt like the lord said to me it just couldn't be right and uh she confirmed it and said yeah that's what i had in my heart wasn't any help at all you know i'm so i'm trapped here because i had saved a significant amount of money for for us you know at that point in our life which is about 50 grand a little more and i had something in mind for it that i wanted and that i had been planning on and now god's telling me to give it so who do i trust who do i trust you know it only really comes to the surface when it has to do with your excess over need your need is pretty well spoken for certain amount of food certain amount of shelter certain amount of clothing but you know excess now this becomes my deal what do i want to do with this and so i would suggest that trust is key in helping us understand whether or not uh the love of money is functioning in our life and i i'm not uh suggesting that every dime that you have above your needs should go to the lord uh you know there are a lot of times that you you you pray about giving something that you now have available that he'll just tell you to hey use this for your family you know go buy your wife no he doesn't usually say that [Applause] of course he does of course he does and you know but there are times that that uh you know he'll specifically speak to you about using your financial capacity to bless yourself and your family i'm not saying that won't ever happen but the point is what would you do with the money would you do it like he said invest it in the kingdom uh if he puts that on your heart or you're going to are you going to use it for yourself but trust would be the way that i think you begin looking at this because there are there are a lot of things that i trust my bank balance to do even now i've got to keep from looking at bank balances i've got to keep from looking at what i can do you know i have i have every confidence uh because i've lived long enough to be around enough to establish this truth that he is going to more than be trustworthy in my life but at any rate let's look at this in matthew chapter 6 for a moment because this brings us at the matter from another a little bit of another angle in matthew chapter 6 verse 20 it says lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven in the previous verse we didn't read it but it says lay up not for yourselves treasures upon earth instead lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven we're neither moth nor us nor corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal he's saying this is the only secure investment you can really make it's an investment in the kingdom of god how do you lay up treasures in heaven by being kingdom minded in your use of money that means primarily and uh you know i've this is just the way the word reads there is no wrong motivation in my saying this but the bulk of a person's giving should be at the church where god has been pleased to put them that's certainly where your tithe goes and most of your discretionary giving beyond the tithe would go there too he doesn't it's like brother copeland said to me one time he said you know what really gets to me and and i i said what we were i don't remember where we were at moment but uh we were having this you know some fellowship and he said one guy came up to me and thanked me profusely for sharing enough word on giving sowing seed prosperity uh that he was able to give a hundred thousand dollars to oral roberts and he said i love oral roberts he couldn't have sown into a better ministry that's like buying a hamburger at burger king and you know paying for it at mcdonald's and so basically the idea is you know for a person who has a church your basic uh you're going to war with that group of believers that's where god's assigned you this is the army of the lord you know if he signs you up for a particular division in the army he doesn't expect you to run over here and fight a battle with the marine corps most of what you do is going to be in the place that it's pleased god to put you and so when it talks about uh making your deposits in the heavenly arena it's talking about using your money to promote god's purpose and not just anywhere but where it's pleased god to put you in the body of christ and then he says this in verse 21 for where your treasure is excuse me there will your heart be also god wants your heart that's how he can reach you that's how he can motivate your life in the proper direction that's how he can bring revelation to you and it's going to follow where you put your treasure it's been said that everybody can uh everybody's primary love or motivation in life can easily be seen by where or how they mostly use their money uh because where a man's treasure is not his occasional giving not his occasional investment but where his treasure is that's where his heart's going to be you know there are i can tell you well i won't i'm going to try to keep this shorter than i did last service so i'll limit some of my commentary but now he's been talking about money and the use of money and it continues into verse 24. but verse 22 and 23 seems like the lord lost his train of thought he says the light of the body is the eye if therefore thine eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light but if thine eye be evil thy whole body shall be full of darkness if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness you know i mean if if what is in you that you think is light is actually dark how great is that darkness it's really great but it seems like he got off off subject here because he's been talking about money and will continue to do so momentarily most of the other translations it says you know if therefore thine i be single the word single in the greek actually means clear and healthy and in the next verse where it says if then i be evil the word evil actually means and should be rendered diseased or cloudy but i like the moffat translation because it got it right it keeps it in context with the rest of the rest of this passage the moffat says the eye is the lamp of the body so if your eye is generous the whole of your body will be illumined in the next verse if your eye is selfish the whole of your body will be darkened and your very light turns dark then what a darkness it is and then we go on to the next verse verse 24 back to the king james no man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one love the other or he'll hold to the one and despise the other you cannot serve god and mammon so it's back to money now mammon being the god of money mammon being a name that is used on multiple occasions in direct reference to satan because obviously he's the god of this world and the medium of exchange in that world you know is under his influence and carries the power of deception with it so he says you're going to choose one or the other whether you know it or not you're going to serve either god or you're going to serve the god of money and what determines who you serve is based on how you use the money do you use the money to you know um promote kingdom purposes in the earth you know to support ministry that you're associated with how do you use your money or do you use it for selfish purposes are you generous in your money being made available to the work of the ministry kingdom purposes or are you selfish when it comes to that these are questions that that we all have to ask you know every now and then somebody will write me and say you're you're you're making scripture fit your agenda i'm not i'm going to a lot of different scripture to establish a point about our our management of money but you're going to serve either god or the god of money and that service will be defined by how you use the money well at this point you know i guess uh it's like i i think that perhaps in the interest of time um i should get right to the closing theme which is so how do you break the power of deception that is always attached to money because it's that medium of exchange that serves the world or the kingdom that satan has got over how do you take care of the deception that is potentially attached to money well we should look first at james chapter 1 verse 22. but be doers of the word not hearers only deceiving your own selves oh you know there's a way you can deceive your own self and you just do the enemy's job for him and that's by hearing the word but not doing it now there's some preachers of the grace message that have gotten out of whack on this and they say no you know that god's not saying you got to do the word that's legalistic that's you know that's what he got on the galatians about no that's not the galatians were chastised by the apostle paul the spirit of god through the apostle paul because they had made a religious mockery out of the word this is how people uh were justified in terms of loving them or being friends with them or this is you know you did this to get god to do something for you it was a religious manipulative kind of process god's just saying here he's making the point for our benefit that if you hear the word but you don't do it that in itself is deception and it opens the door to the enemy of your soul so without any further discussion about this and the other things that could be said what does the word say then about managing your money because if you do what the word says about managing your money you're not deceiving yourself and you're going to begin dealing with the problem of deception that often is associated with money so what does the bible say about managing your money and most of you know where this is going because it's preached here a lot and it's preached in other places as well but the first thing you do to destroy the power of deception that's on money the first thing you do to be sure you don't love money the first thing you do to be sure you don't crave to be rich is to tithe because the tithe will supernaturally break that power of deception you're taking the first 10 of your income which is what the tithe is somebody said to me once well i'm tithing a little bit i'm i'm up to about 3 percent no i'm sorry you're not tithing at all because until 10 has come out of your increase then what god says belongs to him you've still got the tithe belongs to me saith the lord because you're no longer your own you've been bought with the price you belong to him therefore it is important to him that you acknowledge your trust in who he is covenant wise to you when you give god the first 10 of your increase you are saying i am not trusting in uncertain riches but the living god this is my trust i'm taking the first ten percent i am giving it to him and declaration of my heart being invested in him no hands ifs and buts about it so the tithe is the first thing and let's look at this in malachi chapter 3 right quick i hope it'll be right quick bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse there is a the storehouse that is an old testament analogy for the new testament church we are your storehouse in old testament lingo if this is your church and it says bring all the tithes into the storehouse didn't say if you're at the jericho storehouse you send a part of your tithe off down to the jerusalem storehouse there is a the storehouse that serves the local divisions of god's company or in the new covenant the body of christ said bring all the tithe to the storehouse you don't divvy it up send it off in different places and you do this that there may be meat in mine house meat refers to two things first the provision that's needed to operate that stored house it is a reference to the operating budget of the storehouse or the church is to be made by the tithe and it also means that if there's to be meat what else is called meat in the word of god the word is meat if there is to be the meat of god's word the kinds of things that can change your life for sure you're going to have to tithe in order for that to be the case if you don't bring all the tithe into the storehouse there's not going to be any meat of god's word for you in that storehouse these are just principles that we're we're seeing and he says prove me now here with he doesn't say that very often he says prove me now herewith said i'll make this known to you i will prove it to you if you'll bring your tithe i will open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing there isn't room enough to receive opening windows or doors in the bible is synonymous with opportunity god's not going to drop a bag of coins on a window out of heaven on your head he said that he's going to open opportunities to you windows and doors are always used in the word as synonymous with god granted opportunity god's going to open opportunities for you to go into the nba that just popped up in me here interesting to go into the nba to play professional athletics or sports in any arena open the opportunity for a new business venture give you a witty idea or invention that's going to produce tons of income for the kingdom of god he's going to open opportunities for you now this implies you're going to have to be looking for the opportunity if you're not looking for it you'll miss it and you're going to have to take a step of faith which means there's going to be a little risk involved because the return won't be guaranteed in this natural world but if god has opened the opportunity to you and you take that step of faith then he says it's going to produce a blessing sufficient that there will not be room enough to receive it that means all your family's needs going to get met something is going to get left over and you're going to have a heart change you won't be able to keep it all you'll have to give some of that away because you can build enough barns open enough bank accounts this is talking about a supernatural change that occurs in your life there'll be meat of god's word in your storehouse that you can grow on become a man or woman of faith there's going to be opportunities that god presents to the tither that when you take that step of faith knowing that you've tithed you've prayed you believe this is for you don't take uncalculated risks you you'll be able to see and know and hear that something is is you know it's a god-given opportunity and ideas or a partnership that's looming on the horizon or many things that it could be but when you take that step of faith then he's going to pour you out a blessing that word means an empowerment to prosper or increase he's going to empower you to succeed in that opportunity you've taken a step of faith into sufficiently to cover all of your family's needs and have something left over you're going to be so excited blessed you won't even be able to keep it you will become a sore this is how somebody becomes a sore so let's look at hebrews 7 1 right quick you know somebody says every now and then that's old testament what about new well in the new testament the last verse of the previous chapter says that jesus christ is our high priest after the order of melchizedek we know most of us that he's our high priest today seated at the right hand of the father a lot of people don't realize it says that he's our high priest after a particular order the order of melchizedek all we know about melchizedek we see in the first two verses of chapter seven for this melchizedek king of salem priest of the most high god and this most commentaries agree is an old testament appearance of jesus christ for this melchizedek king of salem priest of the most high god who met abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him continue to whom also abraham gave a tenth part of all he tithed to melchizedek first being by interpretation king of righteousness and after that also king of salem which is king of peace jesus is our prince of peace if this isn't an old testament appearance of jesus christ then it's a powerful type of the ministry of jesus to come it makes that clear jesus is our high priest after this order of priesthood melchizedek now only two things we know about melchizedek is that he received tithes from abraham and conferred blessing very similar to what we read in malachi chapter 3. you know abraham brought the tithe to the man of god that the lord had brought him into contact with and that man of god produced the blessing of god in his life in accordance when that tithe was tendered and if you doubt that this is what's going down now in the new testament church look at verse 8 verse 8 of chapter 7 says this and here men that die receive tithes talking about god's representatives on the earth in this particular instance it was the levitical priesthood but it would be you know a pastor of a church today or a man that dies receives your tithes but make no mistake about it because people have said i'm not giving my money to you i'm going to give it to the lord what where's the brain you know did you lose your brain i mean basically uh you have to give through a man on this earth and he said here men that die receive tithes but there he receiveth them who jesus christ our high priest after the order of melchizedek of whom it is witnessed that he liveth and so make no mistake about it jesus is in receipt of your tithe when you tithe in the new testament and it will produce opportunities that you step into in faith then blessing will come such that all of your needs are met and you have a lot left over what do you do with that well the next verse i want you to turn to right quick second corinthians 9 8 this i say he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully paul is talking to the church at corinth encouraging them to give to the support of the jerusalem church which was under great persecution at that point in time and they needed help and the only time the terminology sowing and reaping is used in regard to money is when that money is being used to expand the kingdom of god either through the preaching of the word or whatever has to be done then the use of money is called sowing or reaping otherwise we're told that we are to give to the poor you know we are to give on certain occasions but sparingly or sowing and reaping is when it's used to promote kingdom purposes in the earth and he says if you're so sparingly going to reap sparingly you write your own ticket or you sow bountifully you're going to reap bountifully because god isn't going to be mocked that's the way it's going to be and we see in the next verse uh we see every man according as he purposes in his heart god wants you to do this from your heart not because you feel a religious obligation or somebody's watching what you give no no no no every man as he purposeth in his heart let him give not grudgingly or of necessity for god loveth a cheerful giver to what in the next verse says this and god is able to make all grace boy that's a lot that's a mouthful all grace abound toward you that you always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work wow this is over and above giving and over and above receiving we see the next verse saying this now he that minister is seed to the sore in other words god's given the sword the seed because that person was a tither and he gave him enough to meet his need with something left over that's how this guy got seed and he's a sore because he had a heart change he can't even receive it all now he's going to have to give some more away so god ministers seed to the sower he also takes care of your needs he ministers bread for your food but then he multiplies your seed sown best investment in town thirty sixteen hundred fold and he increases the fruits of your right standing with god i could preach a sermon on that but i don't have time the next verse says this being enriched in everything to all bountifulness don't you ever tell me god doesn't want you to prosper don't you ever suggest to anybody that he isn't interested in you having as much money as you can possibly make but if you're going to make it by his hand then you're going to serve him with it and along the way he'll give you richly more things to enjoy than you can even imagine you'll wake up one morning there's something else to enjoy in your garage there's something else to enjoy you know i don't know in your hangar i'm into that but basically this is this is how you shed the the tendency for deception from your use of money this is the way you get a handle on deception and since the enemy can't defeat you if he can't deceive you it'll do worlds for your experience of life

Channel: Living Word Christian Center

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Keywords: LWCC, living word christian center, living word church, mac hammond living word, jim hammond living word, lynne hammond living word, living word brooklyn park, living word christian center minnesota, christian church minnesota, mac hammond, jim hammond, lynne hammond, LW, living word, mysteries of the kingdom, mysteries of the kingdom of god, mysteries of god, bible sermons, bible

Id: m1rdsY_GbCU

Length: 61min 51sec (3711 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 14 2021