Open your Bibles to 3 John chapter 1 and meet me at verse 2, 3 John 1 verse 2. We're going to continue our series today that we have been talking about over the last several weeks regarding prosperity. And the Apostle John says this to us very, very boldly. He says, beloved or be loved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health just as your soul prospers. So understand that the prayer, the desire, the expectation is that you and I prosper in all things and be in health.
Thank God that his will is for us to prosper and to be in health, but it's contingent upon or in direct proportion to our soul prospering. And our soul consists of our mind, our will, and our emotions. It's where our thoughts take place, our decision making, the place where we meditate, our faculties where we think about ourselves. For he who thinks about you are what you think you are.
Is that that verse? for as a man thinks, that's what I'm trying to say, for as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. And so that is the soul aspect of us. And so if we're going to prosper, we're going to have to prosper on the inside first. We're going to prosper from the inside out. And that prosperity not only includes spiritual prosperity, but emotional prosperity and relational prosperity, and mental prosperity, and physical prosperity, and you better believe financial prosperity as well.
And so it is God's will that we prosper in all things, and the prosperity is going to take place from the inside out. You have to see yourself prosperous on the inside first before you would experience prosperity on the outside. You have to see yourself healthy on the inside first before you experience health in the outside. You have to see yourself debt-free first before you experience debt freedom on the outside.
And so that's why the scripture tells us in Romans chapter 12, verse 2, that we need to be conformed. We do not be conformed to the world, but be conformed by the renewing or transformed by the renewing of your mind. We're going to have to change the way we think. And once we change the way we think, we'll begin to prosper on the outside. Somebody say amen. Psalms 35 verse 27. Psalms 35 verse 27 says, let them shout for joy. Glory to God. And be glad who favor my righteous cause.
And let them say, watch this continually. Let the Lord be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of his servant. Notice the Lord is magnified in our prosperity. When we prosper, when we advance, when we succeed, when we go forward, when we progress, when we thrive, the Lord takes pleasure in our prosperity. Psalms 118.25. Psalm 118.25. Save now, I pray, O Lord. O Lord, I pray, send now prosperity. Say, send now prosperity. Send now prosperity. Say it one more time.
Send now prosperity. Now, this is a godly biblical prayer. Lord, send now prosperity. If I was a politician and I was running for governor of the great state of North Carolina, one of my campaign lines would probably include the word prosperity. I want people to prosper. I want them to advance. I want them to have jobs. I want them to succeed. I want them to fulfill their dreams. I want them to prosper. And everybody would agree we should prosper. We should prosper.
But, you know, we may disagree on how we should prosper, but everybody would agree. This is how we should prosper. We should prosper. We should prosper But as a preacher I get up and say I want you to prosper And all you hear is all pastor wants is your money. I don't want your money I heard one preacher say this one time. I don't want your money. I got my own money. Amen I don't want your money. I got my own money. No, I don't want your money I want you to advance.
I want you to thrive. I want you to succeed I want you to experience true life I want you to prosper in all things, and I want you to be in health. Come on, somebody say amen. Job 36, 11. Job 36, 11. If they obey and serve him, watch this, they shall spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasure. So if we obey at a high level and worship and serve him, God's will is for us to spend our days in prosperity and our years in pleasure.
Look at John chapter 10, verse 10. John chapter 10, verse 10. The thief does not come except to steal, kill, and destroy.
Glory Jesus said I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly and so it's the will of the Lord that you have life and that you have it more abundantly the amplified classic says that you have it to the full until it overflows and so God is interested in your prosperity God is interested in you advancing and thriving and succeeding he's interested in that. And as we've been talking about in our series, the purpose of prosperity is to meet the needs of humanity.
The purpose is not to live a lavish lifestyle. The purpose is to meet the needs of humanity. That is the purpose of prosperity that you have and are experiencing more than you need so that you can be a blessing to someone else. Somebody say amen. God isn't against you having money. He's against money having you. Right? Let me say it again. God isn't against you having money. He's against money having you. There's nothing wrong with money. Money is amoral, meaning nothing is wrong with it.
If money was just laying here on the ground, there's nothing wrong with it. Whoever picks the money up determines if something is wrong with it. Whatever heart condition you are in, whoever is your God, if God is your God, you pick it up, that money is going to be a blessing. But if mammon, Satan, is your God, you pick it up, you're going to use it for the love of money purposes. So money in and of itself is a moral, and God isn't against you having money. He's just against money having you.
The problem comes when we trust in money, chase money, and build our lives around money. When we trust in money, chase money, and build our lives around money, then that is an issue. And we've been talking about a wrong relationship with money. Our relationship with money should simply be it is a tool to not tool to enjoy life and to bless humanity. It's a tool to fulfill the Great Commission. Money is a tool. Say that money is a tool. Say it again. Money is a tool. One more time.
Money is a tool. Just this past week. Stacey and I had to spend a lot of money Because something broke down in our house And I started to get a little nervous about it Oh Lord, we got how much that cost? And I remembered my messages, Money is just a tool. Amen. Why am I getting all upset? Because I had to cut a big check to fix something in our house. It's a tool. Now, I understand it was a lot of money, but thank God he blessed me with the money and we were able to pay cash for it. Amen.
It's a it's a tool. And so I told Stacey just as quickly as that money came back, God's going to send it right on back in. Amen. It's a tool. But see, a lot of us have wrong relationship with it, and money will begin to cause you to break up relationships. You know, one of the number one reasons for divorce is money. Money issues are the number one reason for divorce. Money will have you acting a certain way that God never intended for you to act.
And so when we begin to see money as a tool, money as a way to take care of your family, as a way to enjoy life, as a way to be a blessing, and the priority as the way to fulfill the Great Commission, go into all the world and preach the gospel. How many of you know the word go means it's going to cost money? Anytime you go somewhere, it costs money. For you to come to church today, it costs you some money to come.
Why? because you had to jump in the car and you had to put gas in the car and you had to get here and you got clothes on that weren't free probably. So you had to pay for those clothes. The word go means it's going to cost you some money. And Jesus said, go into all the world, which simply means it's going to cost money. So he needs for you and I to be prosperous. He needs for you and I to be financially enabled to help fulfill the great commission on the earth. Somebody say amen.
A recent survey found, watch this, that 77% of households live paycheck to paycheck. 77% cannot miss a paycheck. Four in 10 Americans can't afford an unexpected $400 expense. Four in 10 can't afford an unexpected $400 expense. 22 and a half million Americans can't afford their rent. 22 and a half million Americans can't afford their rent. More than one in two adults say that mental health, their mental health is suffering because of money stress.
More than one in two adults say their mental health is suffering because of money stress. Forty six percent say they are struggling to maintain their financial position. 82% report feelings of stress, anxiety, worry, loss of sleep, or depression due to economic factors 37% of Americans have more credit card debt than retirement savings, The Bible talks more about money than it does about faith and prayer combined, There are over 2,300 verses regarding money.
Jesus brought up money when he walked the earth more than heaven and hell combined. And so you think, well, why is money mentioned so much? For where your treasure is, there your heart will also be. Jesus understands that in order to get to your heart, it flows through money. If he can impact your money, he can get to your heart. There's a string attached to your heart. It's an imaginary string attached from your heart to the money.
And if you look, like I said, we had to cut a big check this week. That was trying to affect my heart. It was trying to affect the rest of my day, the rest of my week, right? Because there's an imaginary string attached to your money, which affects your emotions. So I had to remind myself, no, this is just a tool so that we can continue to have this in our home. Amen. Poverty limits people in their ability to fulfill the Great Commission.
Poverty limits people in their ability to fulfill the Great Commission. And ironically, the Bible talks about money more than faith and prayer combined. And so a preacher like me gets up and says, I want to talk to you about money. Everybody gets all nervous. This is what the Bible talks about. Money. Because if you can get your finances in order, I believe you can be used by God in a way that he could never use you before.
Amen. One of the ways I get asked a lot, you know, you guys know my story. I left a six figure paying job to go into full time ministry, working in the banking industry, doing very well. The Lord told me to leave. He told me to go into full time ministry. I wanted to do both. He said, I want you to do both. I want you to cut, leave that six figure paying job, go into full time ministry. Talk to my wife about it. We prayed about it. We agreed.
This is what the Lord said do. And I say it all the time. As you can tell, I've never missed a meal. Praise God. Looking good. Right. Hey, I couldn't do that if we didn't have our money in order. We had our money in order. So when the Lord spoke, we were able to move.
But if you're in a lot of debt and if you don't have your money in in the right order in the right you can't obey God sometimes because you owe Peter and Paul and Peter Pan you know and so you got to have your money in order and the Bible wants you to have the money in order so that you can obey when God tells you to obey somebody say amen Deuteronomy 8 18 Deuteronomy 8 18 And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the power to get wealth,
that he may establish his covenant. The Great Commission, which he swore to your fathers as it is today. Notice the Lord gives you the power, gives you the ability, gives you the wisdom to acquire, to seize wealth. He's got no problem with wealth. He wants you to acquire, to possess the wealth, and he's given you the ability to do it. Why?
So that you can be a blessing to humanity, so that you can fulfill the Great Commission, so that you can have more, so that you can give freely and be a blessing. And we said this last week, I encourage you to go back and listen to last week's message where we talked about the prosperity trap because we got to remember the Lord. He's given us the ability. And a lot of times when we increase financially, we have this tendency to forget the Lord.
As we as our standard of living increases, we tend to be become more lenient and relying more on our wealth than we do on him. And he says, you got to remember the Lord because he's the one that gave you the power and the ability to get wealth. There are four ways to get wealth. I'll talk about this. I talked about this a little more in detail last week, but I'll remind you the four ways to seize and get wealth are work, work and labor.
Eighty five percent of millionaires simply just worked and acquired their wealth. Service and a product is number two. What type of service do you have? What type of product can you sell? That's the second way of getting wealth. Wisdom and an idea is the third way to get wealth. What type of creative idea do you have? Maybe you're working for a company and you have an idea so that they can work more efficiently. They will pay you for that idea. Amen.
It's a way to get wealth. And number four, save, invest, and give. Save, invest, and give. It takes money to what? Make money. Say it again. It takes money to what? It takes money to make money. So if you save money, invest money, and give money, that is a way to get wealth. Now, go to 1 Timothy chapter 6, and we'll go through 17 through 19. 1 Timothy chapter 6, 17 through 19. Paul is talking to Timothy, who's the pastor of the church.
He says, teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment. Verse 18, tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others. By doing this, they will be storing up their treasures as a good foundation for the future so that they may experience true life.
Now notice in this passage of scripture, the first thing in verse 17, Paul tells Timothy to teach those who are rich. The King James says, charge them who are rich in this world. Let me ask you this question. How much money would it take for you to feel rich? How much money? Think about this. How much money would it take for you to feel rich? What I want you to know is whatever number you said is great, but the truth of the matter is you are already rich.
If you have consistent shelter, water, clothing, food, you are rich. If you have a working iPhone, Galaxy, you name it, you are already in the top percentage of the wealth of the world. So you're already rich, whether you feel rich or not, you are rich. Say, I am rich. Say it again. I am rich. Say it one more time. I am rich. When you declare that you're rich and you realize that you're rich, you understand that the scripture is talking to you. Charge them that are rich in this world. That's me.
And what are we charged to do? Don't be prideful. Don't be full of pride. God is my source, and I am not going to be full of pride. Or better yet, I am not going to feel like I'm better than somebody else. Charge those that are rich in the world. That's you. Don't think you're better than somebody else. Have you ever really just talked to a extremely wealthy person? I have. And did they just seem a lot more happier to you? No. Matter of fact, if they're talking to me, they got issues.
You're a pastor. I want to talk to a pastor. I got this going on. They got issues. Did they just seem to just be just more happier, just more content with life? And just nothing ever went wrong for them and they had no family problems and they had no health problems and just everything was just hunker-dory. No, no, you're not better than anybody because you're rich. Did their soul just seem to be more at rest?
You know, they just seem, you know, that more money gave them just a restful soul. No. Matter of fact, a lot of them were afraid that they were going to lose their money. A lot of them were up at night thinking about, hey, I might lose all of this money. No. So being rich doesn't make you better than anybody. Being rich doesn't make your soul more at ease. Being rich doesn't make you just, you know, feel just simply more internally satisfied.
You might just even become more greedy by being more financially rich. And so Timothy is telling his church, Pastor Devon is telling his church, the Lord is telling us, teach those, charge those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money. Don't trust in your money. Don't rely on it. Don't lean into it. Don't trust in it. And let me tell you this, Don't be afraid to let your bank account go to zero.
Let me say it again. Got quiet in here. Don't be afraid to let the bank account go to zero because God is the one who supplies. He's the one who is going to give you what you need. He's the one that's promised to take care of you day by day, every single day. So don't even be afraid to let the bank account go to zero. I'm talking to myself. Praise the Lord. We have emergency funds and all that set up and we had to take a chunk of it out to pay for something at the house.
I said, Lord, it dropped down and God said, I'm still here. I said, amen. Just maybe the bank account reduced by X amount, but I'm still here. Hallelujah. And so charge those who are rich in this world. Don't be full of pride. You're not better than anyone else. And don't trust in your money because your money is so reliable. Your trust and your dependency should be in God. Let's put that back on the screen. Verse 17, guys. 1 Timothy 6 and verse 17.
He says, teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud, not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Where should their trust lie? In God. Where should their trust lie? In God. Why? Because God richly gives us, glory to God, all we need for our enjoyment. Somebody say amen to that. Notice he didn't say he richly gives us all we need for our daily needs. He went a little step further and said, I'm richly going to give you everything you need for you to enjoy life.
John 10, 10 says he came to give us life and life more abundantly. And so God wants you to enjoy life. God wants you to be able to pay your bills on time. God wants you to be able to go on vacation and pay cash for it. God wants you to be able to buy that new watch if you want to buy that new watch. But don't idolize the enjoyment. It's his will that you enjoy life, but that's not the purpose for financial prosperity.
The purpose is, and he gets into this in verse 18. Let's put that on the screen. This is what he says. He tells Timothy, don't shame anyone for being rich, but teach them. Don't be afraid of them. Boldly teach them that they should use their money to do good. So shift their mindset. I want to shift your mindset today. Stop thinking about money as your enemy and start thinking about using money to do good. To do good with the money. Use your money to do good.
What else? Tell the rich they should be rich in good works. What does that mean? Planning and looking for ways to give. Planning and looking for ways to give. I want to pause there for a second. Rich and good works means I am planning to give. That means you may have to have a bank account set up that you call a giving account. Are you listening to me today? This account is not to pay any bills. This account is not to get my hair and my nails done.
This account is just simply set up to give money away. Are you listening to me today? You got to plan and set up ways that I am going to be a blessing. I am going to give and I am looking for ways. I'm looking for opportunities to be a blessing. This is the purpose of financial prosperity. This is the purpose of God giving you money so that you can be a blessing. And I'm not only talking to those that have more than enough. I want to talk to the ones that are struggling right now financially.
It's tight, but it's right. I know how you feel. I know where you've been and where you're at. I know how tight it is that you check that bank account every single day just to see if enough money's in there. I know about that. I know about robbing Peter to pay Paul. I know about telling somebody to wait, wait, wait. I know about this. But I want to tell you this in the second year of our ministry. So when we first started the church, our first year was like a honeymoon.
Like people were just excited and people were coming and people were giving. And I was like, my goodness, praise God. Is this how ministry is? The first year money was coming out. My friends were giving money and people in other states were giving money. I said, glory to God. This is ministry. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We're going to help a lot of people. Glory. Until year two came. And year two, all that dried up. I mean, literally, people stopped, right?
I mean, just stopped giving money, stopped coming in, and we was tight. I mean, we were extremely tight. And our bookkeeper, who just retired, Frank, our bookkeeper, I loved him. He just retired. But Frank came to me and said, Pastor Devon. If you ever met Frank, that's how he said, Pastor Devon. Frank, he said, it's really tight. He said, I just want you to know, I mean, we may have to miss the payment for the church. And I said, well, maybe just hold my check.
No, we don't want to hold your check, you know, because the pastor needs to get paid. But, you know, we need to. I said, no, we just hold my check. No, no. And then the Lord said, why are y'all talking about this? The Lord said, I've already instructed you what to do when you get tight. You start giving. I said, Frank, we're going to start giving money away. And he's like, Pastor Devon, there is no there's no money to give. I said, we're going to give.
And I started giving when we just gave. We found somebody. You got something. You need a new soundboard. We're buying it. We're buying you a new soundboard. You need this over here. We just started giving money away.
And as it as I'm telling you, as we started giving the money away, somehow someway wane the money kept coming back in and we were given and the money kept coming back in and one particular time it was so tight we didn't have the rent here and a man called me from another state he said the lord spoke to me he said how much is your rent payment and i told him what it was he said the lord told me to send you a rent payment this month and he said i'm gonna,
FedEx and I said glory to God because we needed it FedEx hallelujah He FedEx did that money came the Lord said listen I can get to you anything from anyone. Anywhere at any time and so he began to just give people calling like that They don't even know why they call it the Lord told me to give you some money glory to God Why because we started giving. And we started to open up and say, you know what? I can't just keep, keep, keep and expect God to bless, bless, bless.
I'm going to have to take a step of faith and put the principles into play. And we started giving. And at the end of that year, Frank came to me and we had a meeting. And it was literally out here in the foyer. We had a meeting. And he said, no, no, yeah, yeah, because we've got this building year one. Yeah, we're out here. And he said to me, Pastor Devon. I said, he said, I have never seen this before, but a few months ago, we was tight.
Now, we have more than enough. I said, Frank, I told you. I said, what did I tell you? What did I tell you, Frank? He said, you said that we have to give more money away. That's the only way we're going to get out of this situation. He said, and you said it. He goes, I've worked with churches. And this is the this part right here is when they begin to close down because they're not obeying the principles in Scripture.
So to our own hurt, we started giving money away, believing that God will replenish. 30, 60 and 100 fold. Come on, somebody say man. And I didn't come to the church and say, won't you help me? I need y'all help we're going to close the building help lock the doors help help I didn't do none of that. I trusted the Lord and say, Lord, take care of it. Now, that doesn't mean that we're not a family and we don't talk about stuff, but I needed at that time to put the principles into play.
Amen. And so Paul, through Timothy, is telling the church and telling you and I, let's put verse 18 back on the screen. Tell them to use their money to do good. This is what the rich should do. Use the money to do good. They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need. I love that. Always ready and always being ready to share with others. Always being prepared to give your money away. And willing to share means you are willing to divide and distribute.
So you're planning and looking for ways to give. You're being prepared to give your money away and you're willing to divide and distribute. These four areas will cause you to experience true life. Look at verse 19, 1 Timothy 6, verse 19. By doing this, they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future. That's what I did. For the future, I was giving now so that our future could be brighter. so that they may experience true life. Hallelujah.
And so the rich were commanded to give and are commanded to give to set up, to store up treasure as a good foundation for the future so that you can experience abundant, true life on this earth. Notice, having money doesn't cause you to experience true life. Just having a lot of money, having multiple bank accounts, sitting on millions doesn't cause you to experience true life. Even sitting on billions. I was listening to a billionaire the other day who's terrified about losing
all of their money. We're talking about a billionaire. A billionaire, terrified of losing all of his money, scared to death. He was even shamed that he felt bad that he even had all that money. He felt less than a person because he had all the money. Shame, terrified. Now, once he starts giving it away, then he'll start experiencing true life. Then he'll get purpose for his life. Then he'll understand why God created him when he starts giving money away.
Watch this. Listen to this now. Now, instead of seeking status through wealth, Paul tells us to find true riches in generosity. We're going to find true riches in our generosity. Living the lifestyle of a giver requires that you make the necessary lifestyle adjustments that will allow you to have something to give. Let me read that again. Living the lifestyle of a giver requires that you make the necessary lifestyle adjustments that will allow you to have something to give.
Ask yourself, am I trusting in wealth or in God? Am I rich in stuff or rich in good works? Am I building for now or investing for forever? Am I trusting in wealth or God? Am I rich in stuff or rich in good works? Am I building for now or investing for ever? Don't be rich in shoes, cars, and square footage. Be rich in good works, generosity, and impact. Somebody say amen. Don't be rich in shoes, cars, and square footage. Be rich in good works, generosity, and impact.
When people talk about you, you're the rich. When the people talk about you Will they say He had a lot of stuff. Or he was generous, kind, always ready to bless somebody else. I want people to say about me at the end of my days, he was generous, he was kind, and he was always ready to bless somebody else. God is not afraid of you being financially prosperous. Matter of fact, I believe that some of you that are in here today are listening online or that even will listen to the replay.
Even if you're in a stuck place, I want you to tap into the will of God for your life, which is abundance.
God desires that you'll have more, but remember the purpose The purpose is to be a blessing To use your money to do good To be ready and willing to distribute and to share with someone else You don't want you just don't want money just so you can just have money that doesn't make you happy Being a blessing is what causes you to experience an abundant life There's nothing like being a blessing There's nothing like putting gas in someone else's tank There's nothing like
buying someone else's lunch There's nothing like paying someone else's light bill Nothing like it And even to the point you don't even got to look for a person in need Just walk up to somebody and say, you know, I'm going to pay your light bill this month. Glory to God. Amen.
I need to say this and I'll wrap this up. When you live this lifestyle that I'm talking, that you're looking for ways to give and you're willing to distribute and you're saying, I just want to be a blessing and I want to buy that for you and I want to take care of that for you. Factor in, everybody look at me now, everybody look at me, factor in that you will be taken advantage of. Just go ahead and factor it in. Somebody's going to take advantage of you.
And here's what I do. And I'll tell this story and I'll wrap it up. This one particular time, Stacey and I, we're always looking for ways to just be a blessing. And I met with this pastor. And this pastor told me that his car was going to be repoed. And I said, oh, my gosh. So I told Stacey about it. And she was like, let's cover two months of car payments for him. Just so he can kind of get caught up a little bit. And so we sent him. It's how much a car payment he told us, and we sent him,
you know, two months worth of car payments. Glory to God. We just want to be a blessing, and God forbid that a pastor's car get repoed, and we're just here to be a blessing to help you out. Well, then later on, I called him. I said, hey, man, did everything get taken care of? And he said, yes, praise God. He said, the repo man came. I said, the repo man came. He said, yeah. Now, this was before he even received the check. I checked in with him before he even received the check from us.
He said, the repo man came, and I said, well, listen, I don't know if y'all know, but I know about the repo man, okay? If the repo man coming, he coming to get the car. That's all he's there for. He's not there to have a conversation or, you know, you shoot the breeze with you, he's there to pick up the car. And so he said, repo man came, and I said, oh, man, he took the car.
I said oh man we just sent a check to you to just be a blessing he said oh I got the check I said oh praise God he said no the replay came the card didn't get taken I said well what happened he said I had to go to my savings account. And give him three months worth of car payment to cover so he wouldn't take the car. I said, let me get this straight, brother. And I'm fired up now. I said, you had the money in your savings account?
He said, yeah, yeah. He said, you know, we were a couple months behind on the car, but I had the money in my savings account. I said, that's what the money's for, to cover the car. He said, no, that money was for something else. I said, man, I sent you money. OK, and you had money. He's like, no, that money was something else. And I started to get upset. Right. And y'all don't want to see me upset. All right. And the Holy Ghost spoke to me and said, factor in. That's when I heard it.
When you want to be kind, somebody might take advantage of you. I said, brother, be blessed with that money. And you know what? He ain't never got no more money from me ever again. Amen. But just go ahead and factor in. Somebody might take advantage of you. This man had money in his savings account and didn't even consider using that money to pay off or get caught up in his car loan. So you know what my next question I ask people now when they ask for money? How much is in your savings account?
Or when they ask the church for money. And that's a question we have. How much is in your savings? Because in his mind, savings were for something else and not to catch up. So I learned the lesson there. But you know what? I'm glad I did because I wanted to be a blessing. It just showed my heart. I just wanted to be willing to give and distribute and to help and to be able to be a blessing in someone's life.
And so I wanted to do what Paul tells us here through Timothy to just be willing to give your money away. And if you are in a tight place financially, this is how you get out of a tight place. Start giving. I know that's countercultural, but it is a kingdom principle. You start giving and it jumpstarts the kingdom principles and God will begin to give unto you. This is how you experience true life.