Understanding Financial Prosperity

TRINITY HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH

 

SUNDAY SERMON

18th December, 2022

Topic:                         Understanding Financial Prosperity

Preacher:                   Reverend Ebenezer Olawuyi

Text:                           Job 22:21 – 30

 

MESSAGE

This morning I want to talk about money. Anyone who preaches to you and say money is not important is molesting your intelligence. You know how burdensome life is when you don’t have money; you know how miserable it is when you can’t meet the basic needs of life. One interesting thing about money is that Jesus gave more parables about money than that of heaven. In the book of Matthew, about 18 parables out of 38 talk about money. God has told me many times that in this church, He is going to raise up millionaires. We just have a handful of millionaires now, however, it is going to come to a time when every seat will be filled with millionaires. It is going to come to a time that people will give ₦50,000 as offerings. So, don’t be moved by what you see today but by what the Word of God says. You are a millionaire. You are God’s project and He has not finished with you yet. A project is something that has a deadline and when you are done, you submit it; just like your project in school, you cannot graduate without finishing and submitting your project. Every project has a beginning and a deadline; I want to tell you that God has not rounded off with you yet, He is still working with you, He has not handed you over. This your hand will count money; it won’t just count somebody else’s money, you will count your own money.

Understanding financial prosperity.

1. Financial Prosperity is a Choice (Deut. 30:19): It is a choice, you can choose it – “I refuse to be poor.” If your parents were poor, you can say, “I refuse to continue in this trend; I break away from the generation of poverty.” Deuteronomy 30:19 says, “…therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;” that is, you can choose life and say, “I refuse to die.” It is a choice, you’ve got to make up your mind that you are not going to continue that way and that you want to be wealthy, rich and have money. Having money is not just having surplus, having money is having enough to meet your needs and be a blessing to others. God told Abraham that He would bless him and make him a blessing. It is not just to have surplus like the rich fool in Luke 16 who had money but forgot God – that’s not the kind of money God will give you, He is giving you money to be a blessing.

God wants to give us money but He demands accountability and stewardship. He is not giving you money so that you can lavish and squander it and marry another wife. I tell you, you don’t know who is proud until the person has money. Remember the story I told you sometimes ago: a man and woman started together, struggling in a one-room apartment. The woman would go to prayer meetings, do business to support the family and God was helping the family. From nothing, the man bought a bike, then a taxi and was doing well. The woman was always backing the man up with prayers, before she prayed for herself, she would pray for the husband…. Women are trying. At every prayer meeting, when you see women praying, they are either praying for their children or husband, theirs is always the last. God will bless all women; anyone who wants to destroy the fruit of your labour, God will destroy them. God bless our women!

Back to our story. From a car, the man bought a 9-11 truck that he was using to carry dried fish from New Bussa to Lagos and he was doing well. From one-room apartment, they built their own house, became landlords and had plots of land. When the man got money, what next? He looked for another wife. He would abuse the woman and beat her. One day, out of anger, the woman put her hand on her breast and cursed the man that the man would go back to where he started from and truly, the man went down. Friends, understanding financial prosperity is a choice and you must know that God demands accountability and stewardship. You can’t spend money anyhow.

2. Financial Prosperity is a Response to the Open Floodgates of Heaven. In other words, you must recognize that blessings come from above and not from abroad. People who don’t understand this labour all their lives. If your heaven is not open, you will struggle and that is not God’s wish for you. You must recognize that there is a floodgate in heaven and God must open it. There is one thing that open the floodgates of heaven and that is Tithing.

Some people are so familiar with Malachi 3:10 that it does not make sense to them anymore. I always tell people to find out about John Rockefeller, the great billionaire that the world has not beaten his record. There is a window in heaven, even though you cannot see it. If God does not open the window, you will struggle. When you see a man who is being blessed, it is because his windows have been opened. When Jacob was praying for his children, he prayed for Joseph in Genesis 49:25 and said, “By the God of your father who will help you, And by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above…”, that is, everything begins from above. Haggai 1:9-10 talk about the children of Israel struggling because the windows of heaven had been locked against them – “Therefore the heavens above you withhold the dew…” (Haggai 1:10). Until you find the key to open the door, you will continue to struggle.

The only thing to open the window of heaven is your tithe. Tithe is the only request God makes from man with the percentage you are to give to him fixed. For offering, He asks you to give cheerfully but for tithe, He fixes it and asks you to give 10 percent. I keep on saying that tithe does not come through the law, it comes even before the law and was even present in the New Testament (Matthew 23:23). If you want to open the windows of heaven, don’t joke with your tithe.

If you stop tithing, things will be tight for you. Abraham understood this so he did not joke with it. When he met Melchizedek in Genesis 14:20, the Bible says, Abraham gave him a tithe of all. After coming from war, he met Melchizedek, a high priest without beginning and end who represented Jesus. Abraham gave him a tithe of all; he was the first to do that and that was before the law was instituted in the time of Moses.

I have told you that Satan can give somebody money but what he is more interested in is the person’s soul not being saved. He doesn’t mind if you have money as long as your soul is not saved. What is the essence of having money and you end in hell? What is the essence of having billions and end up under demonic oppression in hell? In Genesis 14:21, the King of Sodom told Abraham to take goods and the money but he should release the people to him so that they may be under his bondage. Satan doesn’t want people to be free, that was why the Devil said in Luke 4 at the temptation of Jesus that Jesus should bow down to him and he would give him the beautiful things of the world. Satan is not interested in your money, he can cause money to come as long as the person is still under his bondage. However, that is not the blessings God want to give to you.

The meaning of tithing is you saying, “God, you are my source; everything I have is from you.” It is not because God is a beggar or that He needs money but He wants you to always remember that He is your source, so whenever He gives you anything, you give Him 10%. This was the idea that Joseph had which made him tell the wife of Potiphar when she tried sleeping with him, “How can I commit this act and sin against God? My master has left everything with me except you.” God is also saying, “I have given you everything, take 90% and bring 10%,” if you go ahead and eat the 10%, that’s wickedness against God. God is saying you must be connected with Him (John 15:5), that is the reason why you give tithe. Don’t let anyone deceive you. I don’t think anybody at this stage should struggle with the issue of tithing in this church and that nobody will give 2% instead of 10% with the thought that God will understand. No! You can mock man but not God.

3. It is a Fulfillment of Covenant Relationship (Deut. 8:18). God is fulfilling a covenant by giving wealth – Covenant blessings. God told Abraham that He would make him great. If you are a child of God, you don’t have a covenant of poverty. If you keep on dreaming about rags or about going back to the primary school you have left, be angry. You don’t have a covenant of poverty, you are a child of God (Ps. 105:37). We were redeemed from poverty into blessings and riches. God brought the children of Israel out of the life of poverty in Egypt to that of silver and gold; He redeemed them (3 John 2; Deut. 28:1 – 14). You are a child of God, you are a child of covenant.

This is why you’ve got to be born again and have a good relationship with Jesus (2 Cor. 1:20). All the blessings of Abraham are in Christ Jesus, so once you have Christ Jesus, you can draw those blessings (Gal. 3:13). Deuteronomy 28:15 downwards talk about curses and they are summarized in three ways: (1) Poverty (2) Sickness (3) Premature death. That is why the Scripture says in Galatians 3:13, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”). Through the relationship with Christ, He has redeemed you from the curse of the law. Hold on to this Word, this is God’s promise for you. If you are a child of covenant, God wants to fulfil this word in you. You are a covenant child, poverty is not your portion. So, anytime you dream about rags, get angry, rise up and wrestle.

4. It is a reward for the fear of the Lord (Ps. 112). “Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who delights greatly in His commandments.” The heaven and earth will pass away but not the word of the Lord. This was what happened to Abraham, he delighted so much in God’s word and that was why he didn’t struggle. People who understand covenant don’t struggle at all. Abraham told Lot to choose the place he wanted to avoid strife amidst them. When he got to the King of Sodom also, he told him to carry the goods away so that in the future, the King of Sodom won’t be able to claim that he made him rich. He told him to take away the goods and that he won’t even take a shoelace from him.

Look at Joseph also. He said, “Never,” because he knew the dream that God gave him. There are some people whom God has given great dreams about their future but the flesh won’t permit them to move. Joseph had a dream and saw all his brothers and father bowing to him, the Devil moved to stop it from happening but Joseph was wise; He feared the Lord. Another person might have said, “Nobody is here. This is FOC – Free of Charge, let me have it.” If you don’t have the fear of the Lord, you will lose what God has for you. Joseph said, “I would rather lose my coat than lose my character. I would rather lose my position in this house than my position with God. What God has for me would not be denied.” He told his brothers later on that they should look at what God had made him in Egypt and that God saved him because of his brothers. Young people, fear the Lord. Don’t copy ‘Yahoo Yahoo’ boys, they don’t have a future. Fear God. It may look as if it is slow now but you will laugh last. Uzziah became a King at the age of 16 and the Bible says about him in 2 Chronicles 26:5, “…and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper.” Friends, fear God; there is a reward for fearing God. Wealth will come! Fear the Lord. Psalms 128:1 also says it, “Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways.”

5. True blessings come from God. There is what we call enduring riches, not the riches that will give you pain. Enduring riches come from God (Prov. 10:22). The kind of blessing you will have and not be able to sleep, may you not have it. The blessings that you will have and lose another thing… for example, some people have blessings but lose their children, they become vagabonds – that’s not blessings.

Holistic and all-round blessings; God will make you rich. Psalms 128 continues about the person who fears the Lord. In verse 3, it says, “Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the very heart of your house, your children like olive plants all around your table.” The ‘fruitful vine’ produces wine and when you take wine, it makes you happy. The scripture says, “Wine makes glad.” When you fear God, God will give you the wife that will make you happy and you will not die before your time. Some people had wives that are like Jezebel and that was why they die untimely. “…olive plants all around your table.” What does olive plants produce? Oil and oil makes the face to shine, in other words, you won’t be disgraced. Your children will not bring shame and disgrace to you. Your daughter will not get pregnant out of wedlock and your son won’t become a prisoner. God will give you wealth and good family. Fear God and know that the blessings of the Lord are the only true blessings. True and enduring blessings come from the Lord.

Prayer

You are a covenant keeper. I am praying for your children that you will fulfill the covenant of wealth in their lives. Anything contrary, I rebuke in the name of Jesus. Help your people to fear you, keep your word and honour covenant obligations in the name of Jesus. Thank you faithful father, blessed be the name of the Lord.

 

If you haven’t entered into a covenant relationship with Jesus and you want me to pray with you so that these blessings will be yours, put your left hand on your chest and say: “Lord Jesus, I surrender myself to you. I know that you died for my sins and rose up the third day. I accept you as my Lord and Saviour. Please, wash me clean and write my name in the book of life. Thank you for saving me.”