Empowered to Give Supernaturally: Unlocking God's Grace

Jesus teaches the importance of investing in God's kingdom

A true sower risks their time, money, and effort for God's desires

The kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, entrusting his servants with goods

A 100% profit is expected from the servants, and those who fail are considered unfaithful and false believers

That's why he gave it all up for you and me. It's the way of the master. Now, number two, the steward's job or the sower's job is to invest them back to God and get for him a hundred percent increase. Now, let me show you the story that Jesus lays down to teach us this. This is on a Matthew 25. Listen careful to this. You will see that Christ is definitely teaching this for every believer. Watch what it It says, the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country. The kingdom of heaven is talking about what? What is the kingdom of heaven? Before we go further, we want to make sure you understand what we're saying. What's the kingdom of heaven? Think of a king. Who's a king? And who's our king? Jesus. Okay. So who's in his kingdom? Who's in Jesus' kingdom? Well, Christians are. we went under his lordship. Everybody else doesn't say lord. They say I'm lord or whatever. So the Christians are the kingdom because a king has to have a kingdom. That means he has to have people to serve him. The king Jesus and he has servants called Christians. So when he says the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, where's Jesus right now? He came here when he was a baby. Then he died on the cross. Then he was resurrected from the dead. And then where'd he go? He's in heaven. So he left this place and he went to a far country. See, he's talking about himself. Right now, he's not here. The Holy Spirit's in presence, but Jesus went back to heaven. We don't see him anymore. Now, he's going to come back and he'll visibly set up his kingdom in Israel, but right now, he's not here. And that's what he's saying. The kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. Church, people in Del Rio, here's my goods. And to one he gave five talents. Talent isn't in English what we call English or talent. We think a talent is I can dance. It's talking about bucks. Talents are piles of silver or gold. It's money stuff. He gave five talents to another two and to another one. To each according to his own ability to use it. He thought how he could invest it properly. And immediately he went on a journey. Notice he knew that everybody was not created with the same abilities. The guy that he gave one to wasn't a put down. He knew that guy could only, if he gave him ten, he wouldn't be able to know what to do with it. So he gave it to them as he felt their ability. And then he went on a journey. Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them and made another five. He made a hundred percent profit for the king. Now, likewise, he who received two gained two more. He made 100% profit for the king. Notice also he who had received one went and dug in the ground and hid his lord's money. After a long time, the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. Now, notice what happens. So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, Lord, you delivered to me five talents. Look, I have gained five more talents beside them. His lord said to him, well done. Super, great, awesome. You doubled it. Good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a few things. I'm going to make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord. Woo-hoo! Celebrate for the rest of your days, baby. You did what I wanted you to do. He also who had received two talents came and said, Lord, you delivered to me two talents. Look, I've gained two more for you besides them. His Lord said to them, Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things. I'll make you rule over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord. Notice the five and the two got the same reward. No different. Now the two guy only got two. The five guy only got five. It didn't matter. Because they doubled what they were given. They got the same reward. It doesn't matter that some people have more stuff than others. The point is what do you do with your stuff? Right? What are you doing for God with your stuff is what the issue is. Then he would receive the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew you'd be a hard guy. I mean, I could just see it in you, you know, reaping where you have not sown. Notice the term you want profit for you where you didn't sown because you want me to do it for you. And gathering where you have not scattered seed because you wanted me to do the scattering is what he's saying. well I was afraid because what happens if I did it and it didn't come back and I didn't receive a crop? Then you'd be mad at me. So he basically said I was afraid and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, you can have it back. I don't want it. I don't want it. Here you can have it back. Now his Lord answered and said to them you wicked and lazy servant. You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers. Yes, they had banks back then, and yes, they paid interest back then. And at my coming, I would have received back my own with interest. So take the talent from him. Give it to the one who had the ten. Give the guy that made the most money. Give him another one. For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance. But from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away and cast the improbable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Notice how that goes from the natural into eternal damnation and hell. I mean, that's just showing you that there's a clear teaching here. What do you see that he's trying to get you to understand here? what happens to a guy or a lady who refuses to take what God's given them and deposit it for his kingdom or risk it all to sow for what God wants? What's the result? He considers that person not only unfaithful, but he actually is a false, not a true believer, and he goes to hell for it. Because only a true grace person who is driven by grace would give up of their own property and their time and efforts and invest it into God's desires to help other people and to minister his word. Instead of saying, I'm too busy, I don't have enough time, and besides, I'm afraid, so I'm just going to keep it. I'm going to use it for myself or just not use it at all. Notice how clear this is given here. Jesus is clearly teaching the idea of sowing and reaping is a part of the Christian life, which is different. They didn't teach that back in the Old Testament. This is a new way of life for disciples of Jesus Christ. Now, a sower then will establish two accounts or a way to measure. He's going to have a personal needs account, which everybody has. We keep an account for our personal needs, and we don't usually have a second account. But the sower sets up a second account for his master. The one so he can take of his time and his money and his effort and use that, risk it for the kingdom. Notice, he doesn't say that you have to give up everything so you starve to death. You still need an account to make sure you have food for your family and clothing and the necessary things. But here's the thing. a true sower watches to make sure that he just deals with his needs. If you think of Jesus being God and walking this earth and as he began to walk in the spirit, he could have had nice gold chariots to drive around in when everybody else was starving to death. He could have everybody kiss his feet. He could have everybody wear robes. He could have had 10,000 angels visible so everybody would see him in awe at the angels walking through town? He didn't do any of that, did He? What does it say He did instead What did Jesus do instead of being rich and famous like the kings of Israel and Rome What did He do instead Yeah He just kept giving He was a sower. He sowed His life into every person He could get His hands on. He sowed into them help. He sowed into them love and care and the message of the Word. And He healed the sick and He raised the dead and He helped those in need. He always, always, always gave. didn't ask for anything from anybody, did he? He was an absolute grace-driven guy who became poor so everybody could be rich. When people said, I'll follow you, Jesus, he said, well, that's kind of dumb to do because I don't even have a house. No place to lay my head. So if you want to follow me, you're going to have to kind of live out in the street like I do because I don't have a house. He became poor. He could have had a house, but he chose not to. He gave up even a house and slept outside so he could give more to those around him. Right? That's what it said. He had nothing. He made sure he had nothing. He only had one clothing to wear. He didn't have a bunch of clothes. He wore and made sure it was clean, but he had one thing. He just did not choose to do anything but make himself poor to make others rich. He invested and sowed in the lives of everyone he was around. That's an amazing difference to our culture. God invites you to purpose in your heart to be a sower. Notice how it was worded there. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart. He wants you to purposefully make a choice to be a sower. And then choose to set up a separate account so that you can have something to give. Now if you're so poor you have no money, then you're going to have to sow time, maybe. If you have some money, you intentionally purpose in your heart how much you're going to take out of your weekly wage so that you can sow for God's kingdom. And it says, purpose it. Make sure you set a purpose to do it. Not grudgingly or out of necessity like the law made you do, the tithe made you do that. He says, for God loves a cheerful giver. But the thing is, it's higher, not lower, than tithing. It's bigger, not smaller. Most Christians get here and say, Yoo-hoo! I don't have to tithe anymore, so I'll give God a quarter today. You missed the whole point. You'll never get any blessing doing that. You're never going to see the supernatural grace of God until you see it the other way. I have a mighty God who will so take care of me. When I start to sow, He will supply my need. That's a whole different story. Now, that's why the purpose is there. Now, number five, when a Christian establishes this purpose, he begins to see the mighty power of God's grace in action. This is when you begin to see the miraculous protection of God. Now, when we were very young, and we lived back in Muskegon, Michigan, where my in-laws, by the way, are here today from Muskegon, Michigan, my wife and I had little kids at the point. I don't know, they're big kids, but they were little then. And we found that as we lived this life, we didn't have a lot of money to do anything, in fact. We had given up as much time as we could give. We gave up everything we had to do the walk with God. What we found with this concept was that God began to do a mighty work in our lives. That mighty work was the fact that we would receive God's hand of protection and provision in our life. Outside of what I could make was definitely not enough. So God stepped in as we walked in this way of sowing into his kingdom. We found his hand of provision. I would get a call on the phone. Randy, do you need a car? Yeah? Well, I know you didn't ask for one, but I feel that God wants me to give you a car. Thank you. I knew God just called me on the phone using someone. and then they'd give us a car. And on it would go that we received cars and food and clothing, house, education for my kids. In fact, I can't even remember. I was trying to think actually how many cars I've been given, maybe about 15 given to me, something like that. And I say given, I mean not buying. Somebody gave it to me. Now, were they all brand new? Of course not. Some were pretty ragged. Some were not so ragged. But they always provided for us and gave us transportation and fulfilled our needs. God continued to supply my need as I continued to try to fulfill the concept of sowing my life into his kingdom as he called. And he always took care of us. And he taught valuable lessons. If you've been with me for a while, you probably heard this story because my wife's story is the best one. It's not a big amount of money, but my parents, my mom and dad, and my dad's passed away now, but they lived down here. I was still in Michigan. We were part of a ministry, a small ministry, and we lived in an old 100-year-old house. It was old, but it worked. We heated with wood, so we were warm. We had food to eat, but we had little money. And I came to a point, one of the times in the wintertime, where we needed to, Now, you laugh because the electric bill was like 50 bucks, you know. Everybody says, 50 bucks, you know, ha ha. Well, believe me, I didn't have 50 bucks. We didn't have 50 bucks, and we couldn't pay our electric bill. And my wife, during this point in time, began to sense that my father and mother were going to send us a check for money. Now, they never sent us a check. Every time they would call and ask us, we'd say, we're fine. We're not telling you we have any need. We just trusted God. to teach us his ways because he said he would protect us and provide for us if we walked this way. So we would just say, thank you. But for some reason, she began to sense God saying to her, you're going to get $50. Well, she kept running to the mailbox, no $50. And she started to get upset with God and everything. And then God spoke to her again and said, why are you trusting in that mailbox instead of me? And she was like, I don't know. and she was confused and crying and she finally said, Lord, you promised to take care of us. I surrender. The next day, an envelope came in the mail from my mother and dad. She opened it up. There's a check in there for $50. Never communicated with them. She didn't know it. It came in the mail. Well, then I called my father and said, Dad, I don't know why you did this, but you're a direct answer to prayer. we needed that desperately to pay a bill that we needed. So we were afraid our electric bill would be turned off or whatever, and you supplied us with this need, and I know it was of God. He said, you don't understand. I felt a few days ago back that I should do it, and I kept procrastinating. Finally, I was in bed at midnight, and God said, get out of bed right now and go to the post office and mail that check. So he had to get out of bed in the middle of the night, go down and mail that check. As long as that's what he told me. That's right, Mom, right? Yeah. And so it came exactly at the point to teach my wife God's grace. I didn't even know. She never even told me that God told her all these things. I was just, you know, until after we got the check. Then she spilled her guts and told me the story. And I was like, wow. But what we learned from it was God says so, He will give you increase. It came not from my hand, natural. It came supernatural, out of the natural. They could not know naturally our need. They felt God compel them. Remember what we talk about grace? What's grace? The impelling desire that God gives you within and then the ability to accomplish it. God's grace pressed him to rise up out of bed to send that. We did not tell him we had a need. God's grace caused that to happen. His grace connected with it brought us supernatural salvation or solution to our needs. Exactly what I need you to understand has got to be a part of your life. This is the only way you'll experience the grace of God. You can hear about missionaries, you can read it in the Bible, but God wants you to walk in His experience. He wants you to know His grace. He wants you to have the thrill of knowing He loves you and holds you up cares for you and will deal with you as you need it That what He wants from you He wants you to have the thrill of that Now number six God supernaturally multiplies the money in the sewing account so you can give more and more good works. If you actually commit yourself to the idea of living a life of sewing, you have to understand what that means. That's not your stuff. It's like working for your boss at work. It's not your money. Now, you set it aside because it's his money. When it comes in, you take it and put it in the bank. Not your account, the store's account if you work at a store or whatever. You put it in their account. This is an account, God's account. It's for the point of sowing. And you establish in your mind what that is for God's work. Let me give you an example where a guy just read from this. He had in his sowing account $5,000. That's what he had established. That's what God purposed in his heart to have for him to minister as God led. He went to Romania just recently. While he was in Romania, there he found a ministry that God was using to reach very hurting people. He sensed God speak to him while he was there meeting with him to give all his money, his sowing money, to him. So he wrote out a check for $5,000, emptied his bank account right out and gave it to them. He came home to America about a week later. of all strange things. And tell me if this is not strange. His birthday was there. He received a birthday card in the mail. A gift. Guess how much the birthday card was? $5,000. Who gives a birthday present of $5,000 to anybody? He about fell over. He had never received a gift like that in his life. A birthday card. But he received the $5,000. Now, did he say, good, put it in my pocket, I'm going to buy a new car. No, he took it back and put it into his sewing account, God's account. He knew it was God. I mean, you don't have to be too smart to know that that was God putting it back into his own account. So he put it back into his sewing account to minister again. A few days later, a music ministry group came into their place and sang like a concert type of thing. One of the young girls that was in the group was a dear friend of his daughter. That man had just passed away within a few months ago. She was struggling and she was hurting. She needed support to keep her going in this ministry without her dad there behind her. She was on her own then. She knew, she now, he felt that she was an orphan. And he immediately, his heart sank for her. And he felt God say, give $170. Not $5,000, but $100. So he gave her $170, odd number, but he gave $170 to her. She came up to him and said, you can't believe what you've just done. I've been crying to God for support to the finish this month. My support's spent up. I didn't have any more. And I had another week or so before my next support check came and I needed the money. And God used you. Then he taught her the idea of sewing. She got so excited about it, she purposed in her heart to become a sewer also. So she set up in her mind a sewing account also. The first thing that happened within two days, she was ministering to some little kids. And she had this bottle of perfume that she had given to her from her mother. I think she said it was a gift. And they all wanted to smell it. And they all loved it. And it was all wonderful. And all these little girls were excited because this little bit older girl was ministering to them. And then she felt God say, Give your $30 bottle of perfume to this one little girl. Oh, okay. Is it my special thing for my mother? She gave it to her. She said, I remember, God said, become a sower. So she sowed into this little girl's life and gave that $30 of gift. Two days later, she received in the mail a check. Guess how much it was for? But you can't guess. Oh, $30, you're right. She received a check for $30. She had helped teach a Sunday school class at a church for a little bit. You don't get paid for teaching Sunday school. but they said, this is an honorarium to help support you. Thank you for teaching. It's $30. She contacted them and said, wait a minute. I just taught us. I didn't ask you for money. We didn't ask you to ask us for money. We feel God wants us to give you this. Okay, so she put the $30 back in. You know what I'm saying? Now, maybe not always will be exact fits here, but those are incredible stories, I think, that will help you understand what we're saying. Learn to change your Christianity. to become a grace-driven sower like Jesus. You will be different than most Christians who don't even think in these terms. But you'll become an active, usable servant of the living God. And believe me, you will find His action fun. Fun. I can't tell you how encouraging it would be for us like when we first moved here. and we found so many blessings from God to supply our needs. And I mentioned to you even last, what, a couple weeks ago, I think I mentioned to you, my wife was, usually it starts with my wife on something like this. She'll go, you ruined our sofa because I sat in the stupid thing so long and slept in it so long. I sweated on it and wrecked it, broke it, made it stink, everything else. She said, we need a new sofa. That thing's rotten. And it's like, I know, now we don't have the money to buy one. She said, I would like to have one of those curved sectional leather ones. It's like nothing like an expensive one. You know, you want something very expensive? Great, you know. And it's like, okay, fine. Two weeks later, guess what happens? My son, Nathan, calls up and says, Dad, or I think she talked to Mom. Mom, I was at work at the golf course, and I was telling the guy that I needed a little sofa for my office at school. and this guy said, I got a sofa. He brings me over to his house. It's not a sofa. It's one of those long, curved, leather sectionals. You know, it was the same color my wife even said she wanted. I mean, nothing like picking out a gift. She gives me the color, the leather, and everything. And then he calls up and says, here it is. Everything she asked for was there. The only thing she was thinking about was having one that had a pop-up chair. But I don't know why. She just yelled at me for wrecking the other one for the same thing. So I didn't have the pop-up chair. Brought it in, delivered for free. It cost us $80 for shipping because we had to rent a truck and get it over there. So it cost us $80, but the gift was free. Now, that's the idea of being sowing, sowing to the point where God then supplies your need. If you don't follow lifestyle, you don't find that. You must be the sower first. You must sow, not sparingly, but how? Bountifully. You must bountifully give of your life over and over again. You must learn this if you experience or want to experience the love of God. God is able, notice this, God is able to make all grace abound toward you. Now let's say that again. Say it with me. God is able to make all grace abound toward, and put the word me in there. Let's do it again. God is able to make all grace abound toward me. Now, are you going to call God a liar? He is able to bring grace toward you, abounding toward you. Why not be a sower like God said? He's able. Do you believe it? If you believe it, you'd respond. See, it says that, and here's the description of what that means, that you always having all sufficiency, have enough in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. He's able to make it so you've got abundance, It's more than you need so you can do His work. Simple as anything. Now, as we respond to God's grace in sowing, He produces righteousness in us. This is very significant. Not only do you find that God's hand of grace comes into your life and actually solves your issues that you don't even understand, but works to develop and supply your need, He also makes changes in who you are by His grace. You find your heart bending, changing, and becoming right before Him. Instead of struggling in sin and unrighteousness, it causes change. That's a good thing. People can either cry about how they can't ever seem to change and sin always beats them down, or you can understand this is a development of the mighty power of God's grace. It develops righteousness in you. Chapter 9 of 2 Corinthians. He has dispersed abroad He has given to the poor Notice the concept is right there still His righteousness endures forever Notice the connection how righteousness is developed here with the idea of giving This is the righteousness that causes grace to work. Romans 5.21 says, So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness. Where? To eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The grace reigning in a believer's life means that it takes precedent and shoves everything behind. It does force a change in your life so that righteousness becomes a part of your reality. It's not a dream or a wish. Grace causes you to have an altered heart, a new direction. You do the things that God wants you to do and not wish for them anymore. The hypocrites wish, the believers do. Understand the difference. And grace is that mighty power. Number eight, God supplies the increased supernaturally. He does it beyond description or explanation. So he gives extra seed to sow. He also says, though, he gives bread for personal needs. He does both. Look at how it's worded here in 2 Corinthians 9.10. Now may he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food. Notice the two things. He doesn't just supply supernaturally the help for you to do the sower account. It does say he gives you blessing to take care of you. Unexplainable. That's why I wanted to give you an illustration of the sofa. Unexplained, he gave an extra blessing for us beyond what we could explain for our own need. So both are there. He supplies and multiplies the seed you have sown and increases the fruits of your righteousness. Notice how it connects to righteousness. it increases the fruits of the righteousness inside you and it causes you to bless others also while you are enriched in everything for all liberality freedom which causes thanksgiving through us to god what's that mean couple things when we sow into the lives of other people when you actually make those steps of sowing the amazing result is it causes the people around you to praise and thank God for your blessings to them. When you sow into their lives, they can say and thank God for who you are. You don't give it in your name, you give it in God's name, and God gets glory from that. Secondly, they desire to copy your grace. When they see God work in your life, they say, I want a God like that. That glorifies God. And it also says in another portion of scripture, they begin the desire to pray for you. Well, that's a good thing. I want people to Pray for me, don't you? We ask for prayer. This causes people to pray for you. Now, number 10, greater blessings come from this type of life than from the blessings of those that had the old-fashioned tithing. These are more abundant blessings. I want you to see why it's the better road. It's the better grace. You get more blessing than they had. Now, just like in the Old Testament, the Lord rebukes the devourer of our assets, just like He did in the Old Testament, it says. but also he blesses the work of our hands to make it so that it accomplishes the task. It also causes others to entrust funds to us so that we can sow for them because they don't see how they can sow wisely so they want us to do it. Here's where I get this from. Luke 6.38. Watch this. Give. That's sowing. And gifts will be given back to you. Good measure. pressed down, shaken together, and running over. That's a whole bunch of stuff happening. It's not just getting equal. It gets... You give something, you get overwhelming back from the grace of God. It says, Will they pour into the pouch formed by the bosom of your robe and used as a bag? In the old days, they didn't carry purses, ladies. They had a little pouch inside their clothing, which was kind of their purse. And so it's just kind of a spot where they wrapped it together, and that's what he's talking about. In your bosom is where they kept it. In other words, I don't keep my wallet in my back pocket so nobody rips me off. I keep it in the front so I can kind of watch my wallet. So nobody can tap me and steal my wallet without me knowing it. Well, they had a better job. They had it inside their clothes to kind of keep them from, so that people didn't pickpocket them very well. That's what he's talking about. It's their style of clothing in that day. But it's saying that basically they'll pour into your wallet. Basically it's saying it's going to pour into your wallet. For with the measure you deal out, notice again the sewing. If you sow sparingly, you're going to get back the same. It says with as much as you measure, you deal out. It says that's what the measure will come back to you. With the measure you use when you confer benefits on others, it will be measured back to you. The same law of sowing and harvest are here. So Jesus taught it from the very beginning. Now warning, one thing before I let you finish with this, is there is a difference between the biblical sowing and the false teaching of the TV. a lot of them say it called the prosperity gospel. What's the difference, do you think? What's the difference of what I talked about and the difference of what you hear on a lot of these people on TV who say, send me your money to my ministry, invest in my ministry, and you will be blessed. What's the difference? The money that you sent to that guy, he definitely got blessed because he got your money. Now, there's something wrong with that. What is wrong? Anybody think what that is? Psalm 62. If riches increase, do not set your heart on them. You give so you can get. Your heart's on the riches. You want this stuff. That's exactly what God says not to do. And James makes it clear. James 4.3. Or you do ask God for blessings and yet fail to receive because you ask with wrong purpose and evil, selfish motives. Your intention is when you get what you desire to spend it on your own selfish pleasure. The teaching of that false prosperity is get it so you can get stuff for yourself. That is literally teaching people to sin against God. That is such a horrendous sinful thing that you hear in American, many televangelists or places. That is a terrible, terrible, wicked thing. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about not to gain, but to have more, to continue to minister even larger for the kingdom of God. You see the difference? Make sure you don't misunderstand what I'm saying. So remember then, grace and giving and grace and power are tightly connected together. They are united, the same as your body. You take the water out of my body, what happens? I'm going to collapse and die. It's closely related to my life, even though my life isn't just water. I don't even think about it. But it's closely related to what I am to make me exist. The same thing. These are greatly related, but yet they're not the same things. Grace empowers us to desire to do God's will and empowers us to do the works Christ did when He walked the earth. We're empowered to give. Last example. I didn't put on there. I thought I had Acts on there. Right here. I skipped it. And with great power, notice the connection, the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace, notice grace, power, and giving, all there connected was upon them all. Nor was there anyone among them who lacked, for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, brought the proceeds of the things that were sold and laid them at the apostles' feet. They gave them, they distributed them. They had such a loving concern for those people who were poverty stricken at that time. They were willing to sell their extra lands and whatever to help those who are struggling without even considering it a problem. That's the idea of connection of grace and power and God's love in one unit. Does that make sense to you today? I hope I've introduced you a whole new way of life that's exciting that you will consider entering because God wants you to be, like Christ, a sower of His kingdom. Stand up and shout, shout it. Shout it. Shout it. Stand up and shout it if you love my Jesus. Stand up and shout it if you love my Lord.

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