Strength to Strength – God’s Principles for Financial Increase - Part 8

To not talk about money in church is to ignore large parts of the Bible’s instruction. In fact, Jesus taught more about money than He taught about heaven and hell, prayer and faith. How we use money is spiritual.

The Bible infers our use of money is spiritual. It’s one of clearest indicators of our loves, our values, our hopes, and it reflects whether we’ve grasped the basics of the Bible and the gospel.

When it comes to churches talking about money, there can be extremes:

· Some talk about money all the time
· Never talk about money for fear of offense – and in doing that ignore large portions of Jesus’ teaching on the topic.

When churches never talk about money:
· Christians become ignorant
· The church is impotent

The Principle of God's Supply

Philippians 4:19
And my God will supply all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

The Bible presents various names for God – each describe some truth about His nature.

· El Shaddai – God Almighty
· Jehovah Rapha – the Lord our Healer
· Jehovah Shalom – the Lord our Peace
· Jehovah Shammah – the Lord is Here

Jehovah Jireh means “The Lord our Provider”

1. God supplies our needs continually

Philippians 4:19
And my God will supply all your needs …

Ultimately my employer, my clients, my parents and the government are not my supplier.

God is the source of our supply!

1 Timothy 6 tells us that God is the One who “…richly gives us all things to enjoy.”

James 1 says “…every good and perfect gift is from above…”

You and I must settle in our hearts that God is the source of our supply so that we don’t run the risk of placing our hope in people or things other than God.

George Mueller
A young man growing up in Germany in the 1800s. He twice snuck out of a hotel without paying for the room. He was caught by police and put in jail. He was a thief, a womaniser, and a playboy.

When he was 20 years old, he met some real Christians, something stirred in his heart, and he gave his life to Jesus.

George Mueller decided to go back to college to train to become a Pastor. He didn't know how he would pay his fees. He got on his knees and asked God to provide. An hour later, a professor knocked on his door and offered George a paid tutoring job!

George became the pastor of a small church in England.

He felt God call him to start an orphanage to care for the children on the streets.

One morning there was no food to feed the children in the orphanage breakfast. There was a knock on the door. The local baker stood there:

“Mr Muller, I couldn’t sleep last night. Somehow I felt you didn’t have bread for breakfast and the Lord wanted I to send you some. So I got up at 2 a.m. and baked some fresh bread and here it is.”

Then a second knock on the door. A milk cart had broken down right in front of the orphanage and the milkman wanted to give the children his cans of fresh milk .

During his lifetime it is estimated that he received £1,460,000 from a host of different sources.

Matthew 6:33
“Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.”

2. God supplies our needs creatively

God has creative ways and means of supplying our needs.

· For the Israelites as they left slavery in Egypt, it was via the hands of their Egyptian slave-masters that God got silver and gold into their hands.

· For Elijah, it was via ravens that God got meat to him during a drought, then it was via a poor widow that he received bread.

· For Jonah, God supplied transport when a great fish to carry him to Ninevah

· For Peter, when he needed to pay the temple tax, it was via a coin in a fishes mouth.

We should never lose heart when it comes to our supply, because God supplies our needs creatively.

3. God supplies our needs broadly

My God will supply all your needs…

It’s a mistake to think that God only provides our practical needs – food and clothing. It’s a mistake to think God only provides for our spiritual needs, and doesn’t care for the material needs we have.

God doesn’t just supply some of our needs – He supplies all our needs.

· For our minds, he gives peace.
· For our souls, he gives rest.
· For our bodies, he gives energy.
· For our sins, he gives mercy.
· For our confusion, he gives clarity.
· For our troubles, he gives comfort.
· For our hunger, he gives bread.
· For our thirst, he gives water.

4. God supplies our needs abundantly

Philippians 4:19
And my God will supply all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

If God supplies us, we will be well supplied, because He has an infinite capacity.

God’s nature and signature is abundance.

John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

5. God supplies our needs personally

It says “My God will supply all your needs…”

· The same God who provided in Bible times
· The same God who Paul thanked from a Roman prison cell
· He’s not just their God, He’s my God.

Here are three affirmations all of us can declare over our own lives.

1. “Because God is my supplier, I will not doubt.”

2. “Because God is my supplier, I will not fear.”

Psalms 23:1
“The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.”

3. “Because God is my supplier, I will not withhold.”

2 Corinthians 9:10-12
“Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.”

God supplies from His hand, so he can supply through our hands.

Because I know God will supply, I don’t need to withhold from opportunities to be generous.

We can live with an open hand, and be confident I’ll have all that I need tomorrow.

God is my provider

· I will not doubt
· I will not fear
· I will not withhold