The Promise of Provision

2 Corinthians 9:6-10

Also:  Isaiah 58:11; Psalm 37:25:  Philippians 4:6-9,19; Ephesians 6:6-8, 10-18

2 Corinthians 9:6-10

“⁶ Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. ⁷ You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.” ⁸ And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. ⁹ As the Scriptures say, “They share freely and give generously to the poor.  Their good deeds will be remembered forever.”

¹⁰ For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you.”

Before I even begin this message, let me preempt it by this is not a message on tithing or giving. But rather, it is a message to show you who is the one blessing you and giving you all that you have so that you can be His vessel used to bless others.

Provision is defined as “an amount or thing supplied or provided; supplies of food, drink, or equipment, especially for a long journey.” It is all the things you need…not want, but need!  Tina and I use this concept of ‘want vs need’ to help keep our budget in check. Is this item we are looking to purchase a want or a need? Even if it is on sale or on clearance, does it fulfill a need in our lives?

The scriptural basis for the statement we have probably heard many times in church “Where God guides, He provides” is found in Isaiah 58:11:

“The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring.”

From the very beginning of time, God has provided for all of mankind’s needs…Adam and Eve in the garden; Noah with the plans for the ark to save his family and the animals; a wife for Isaac; blessing everything that Joseph put his hand to do, and the list goes on and on. If God is the same yesterday, today and forever, wouldn’t you think that He is still doing those same things today?

Testimony of provision: My electrician (I had the money, but God provided a blessing)

I. Physical Provision

Testimony from David:       Psalm 37:25

“I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread.”

Exodus 13:21-22

“ The Lord went ahead of them. He guided them during the day with a pillar of cloud, and he provided light at night with a pillar of fire. This allowed them to travel by day or by night. ²² And the Lord did not remove the pillar of cloud or pillar of fire from its place in front of the people.”

Acts 16:16-40

~It was providential that they would be there.

~They were released, but stayed to lead the jailer and his family to know Jesus

Exodus 15-16

~Fresh water from different sources (later it came from a rock)

~Daily bread (aka manna)

From Keith Green’s “So You Wanna Go Back to Egypt”

Manna hotcakes, flaming manna soufflé, manna waffles, manna burgers, manna-cotti, bamanna bread.

They had water, a carb and a protein!

Matthew 14:13-21

~Limited resources

~God gave the increase, they all ate as much as they wanted and had leftovers!

II. Spiritual Provision and Protection

Ephesians 6:10-18

~Full Armor…not pick and choose. Belt of truth, Breastplate of righteousness, Shoes of the gospel of peace, Shield of faith, Helmet of salvation, Sword of the Word.

*Special note….no back piece, because it is God who has our back!

~We have to be the ones to put it on. Then and only then will we be able to stand against the schemes of the devil!!!

Ephesians 6:12

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

I could easily get on a soapbox right now and talk about why I believe and feel convicted about not practicing certain holiday traditions, or read certain books or watch rated R or horror films. Then it becomes a thing of “that’s what you believe, or your religious upbringing.” So instead, I want to pose this question…

Is God being glorified in what you are doing/reading/watching?

The devil is doing all he can to desensitize us to the real ‘spiritual warfare’ that is going on around us. A friend pointed out that C.S. Lewis wrote of this in The Screwtape Letters, about how we get distracted and waste the most precious of our gifts…time!

“…you will find that anything or nothing is sufficient to attract his wandering attention. You no longer need a good book, which he really likes, to keep him from his prayers or his work or his sleep; a column of advertisements in yesterday’s paper will do. You can make him waste his time not only in conversation he enjoys with people whom he likes, but also in conversations with those he cares nothing about, on subjects that bore him. You can make him do nothing at all for long periods. You can keep him up late at night, not roistering, but staring at a dead fire in a cold room. All the healthy and outgoing activities which we want him to avoid can be inhibited and nothing given in return, so that at last he may say…’I now see that I spent most my life in doing neither what I ought nor what I liked.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

We cannot be complacent to that which is going on and just write it off as a part of life. We as a church are called to be the game changers, not us changing to be like the world. We should be bringing God’s grace, truth and love into mix! We are called out to ‘not be conformed to the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds’, getting rid of the stinking thinking like Jerry talked about last week. It is not about us and what we want, but rather what God wants.

Let me re-read a portion of the scripture passage for today from the ESV

“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. ⁹ As it is written,

“He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor;
    his righteousness endures forever.”

¹⁰ He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. ¹¹ You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.”                                                                                                     

2 Corinthians 9:8-11

It is not just about the provision, but rather what that provision truly is…God’s grace! God’s grace is freely given to us and we are to freely give it to others. We cannot truly show God’s love if we are giving to meet a need, but looking down our noses at them. Remember, there but for the grace of God, go I! This is where the rubber meets the road on showing who we are truly serving.

Paul gives us the recipe for success, and Pastor Jerry shared it last week, but needs to be repeated.

Turn to Philippians 4:6-9

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.  Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.  Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.”

If we are doing this, then there is not time for idle talk, because we will be talking about what Jesus is doing in our lives. If we are filling our minds with the good things of God, then we won’t have space for the sinful thoughts to take up residency. For it is God’s peace that we need to experience and have as the protection and provision of our hearts and lives.

God loves us so much that He has given us the tools/provisions to be able to go through this life’s journey. If we are needing anything in our lives, we need to take it to Him in prayer and believe that He will provide just what we need.

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The Promise of Peace (Pt 3)

Ephesians 2:13-16 (NAS95)

We are in the third and final message of a three-week sermon to teach you how to live victoriously in God’s promise of peace. It is my desire that you will experience the power of the promise of peace in your everyday life, to the glory of God!

This promise is one of the most relevant promises we can manifest to our culture that is currently experiencing a national panic attack (or is it a temper tantrum?). We, the people of God, have the solution; so, let’s bring the peace of God (Jehovah Shalom!) that transcends all human understanding to the world (The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit), by first experiencing Him for ourselves and allowing His presence in us—God’s peace is Himself—to make us both holy and whole. We are called to pass the peace of God to others—the ministry of reconciliation that has been given to all followers of Jesus Christ!

Here is a very quick review that leads us into today’s teaching:

Peace with God that guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus means that the promise of peace is not just a vertical and internal reality, it is our greatest witness as it brings external peace between us and other people. Listen to Paul in Ephesians 2:13-16 as he gives the larger context of our memory verse for today:

But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.

This is the Church’s mission! This was radical thinking for the first century Jewish listeners. It is still radical today! In their minds, God loved His people, but the Gentiles were not His people (Hosea 2:23). Passages such as what I just read and John 3:16 were shocking to them because Jesus was challenging the idea that God loved Israel exclusively. Jesus was declaring the parts of their Scripture that the people had ignored: God would ransom the Gentiles through the seed of Abraham—Jesus Christ. This is what Paul was talking about in Galatians 3 and concludes his argument about the seed of Abraham being fulfilled in Jesus Christ in Galatians 3:26-29:

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.

Experiencing the peace of God in both our holiness and wholeness allows us to give God’s love and grace towards others because we have received (faith) and internalized (baptism) it in our own lives—we are now children of God (1 John 3:1). By the Spirit we are to build bridges with people to unite them in Christ alone—our peace through His shed blood on the Cross of Calvary!

Let’s be clear though: God’s peace means that we can have peace with God, we can have peace within, and we can act without hostility toward others. But it doesn’t mean we can avoid all conflict. It doesn’t mean that the battle of the flesh or the brokenness of the fall or the prevailing darkness of the prince of this world won’t be brought to us. As Paul says in Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

The gospel ministry of passing the peace is for every follower of Jesus because peacemakers are commanded to be ministers of reconciliation during this ancient conflict—we, the Church are a liberating force seeking to save that which has been bound up by evil and the fall! Paul explained this in 2 Corinthians 5:16-21:

Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

The ability to pass the peace to others is only possible because you have a peaceful heart yourself. The holiness of God (Christ in you!) manifests as your ministry of loving your neighbor as you have learned to love yourself. That is why I keep pointing out to you that these three directions of God’s peace align to Jesus’ teaching on the Greatest Commandments. Jesus taught us this in Matthew 22:37-39: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment. “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

Furthermore, Paul emphasized in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” The “us” in this passage is critical to our ability to pass the peace. It’s not a “me” thing—it’s an “us” thing!

Why are we commanded to love others and pass the peace of God? Because we recognize that God loved “us” (all of us!) first. Our love for ourselves (and for others) isn’t something that we “work up”, it’s a recognition and submission to His love for every man and woman. It’s a love that is transferred upon us through the righteousness of God—His love dwells in our hearts!

Listen to John teach us this in 1 John 4:17-21,

By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

We are brought back into a relationship with God the Father through Jesus’ relationship with His Father. The holiness or righteousness of God flows into our lives from the Father through the way of the Son by means of the Holy Spirit. As we become whole through the progressive process of sanctification, we become the answer to Jesus’ prayer in John 17:20-26:

I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.

The ministry of passing the peace that you first received is truly the work of the Holy Spirit! Allow me to pray for you and all of us, in agreement with Jesus’ promise of peace, that in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we walk as His people of peace. Let us pray … Amen!

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