Week 5 Sermon ” Take Home”
Sermon Theme: Through His Poverty
Sermon Text: 2 Cor 8 : 1-9
(Sub Text) Deuteronomy 8:20, Hebrews 3:7
In 2 Cor 8:1-9 the church at the time was very poor yet they made the commitment to help the ministry of Paul financially. Paul was surprised at their commitment. It was overwhelming that these Macedonians first made a commitment to the Lord/ to serve the Lord in a deep way along with finances because they were not wealthy by any means. But Paul was using them as an example to admonish the Corinthian church. The Macedonian church was committing to giving more than what they actually had and God blessed them for it. Paul points out that this was the same grace that was on Jesus.
-Mere riches are physical things whereas wealth is spiritual thing
-Jesus was raised in poor settings (Nazareth) . Poverty was the covenant path God had laid out for Him so that through the poverty of Jesus we might become wealthy.
—when it comes to us believers we have a covenant path that God has made for us.
-Jesus came to restore our wealth because it was stolen from Adam and subsequently us.
—When we have spiritual wealth we begin to unveil and manifest physical riches.
-God gives us the power to get wealth/ to confirm His covenant with us.
There are 4 aspects of a covenant
a)Value : build value as believers/learn to apply God’s truth to our lives. (Jesus spoke about the church washing his bride so that she is without without spot and without wrinkle by water by the washing of the word…otherwise these defects bring about devaluation. It is when we apply Gods word to our lives it brings us value. Jesus gave himself to us just as the way the Macedonians were giving themselves to the work of God through dedication/comittment/finances. When we do these things we bring value to ourselves.
Joseph became a slave for Potiphar. But the truths( the word of the Lord) that Joseph carried from his father and forefathers brought value to his life. Joseph had wealth in his spirit and because of that he was promoted. He kept appreciating in value until he became Prime Minister of Egypt. Apply the word of God/ truths to your life you will start to appreciate in value, in grace and favour. Embrace the word of God and apply it to your life. As you apply the word of God to your life your co-workers may make a mockery of you but just remember that you are adding value to your life through God’s word.
Wealth is spiritual. To increase in wealth we must tackle it from the spiritual realm and it will manifest itself in the physical realm. We add value or wealth into our lives by applying the word of God to every every area of our life.
b) Belief
-when we hear the voice of the Lord( word of God) we should not harden our hearts in unbelief.
-when we have unbelief we invite demons into our realm/space.
-our entire spiritual world is our thoughts or thought life.
-doubt invokes demons into our realm/ spiritual space and they resist the work of God from manifesting in our lives. So it is important that we believe and that we hold steadfastly to what we believe.
