Five Principles of Prosperity | Part 1

Is it unbiblical and and fame, like we may be led to believe, to prosper means that God's hand is upon us helping us do the things he wants us to do. In Genesis 24, Abraham chose his most trusted servant, Eliezer, to find a bride for his son.

In the same way, God has commissioned the Holy Spirit to call out the bride of Christ so that we may prosper. If you have your Bible, turn to Genesis chapter 24 as Adrian Rogers reveals the five principles of prosperity. Would you be finding in the Word of God the book of Genesis? That's the first book in the Bible, obviously, and fast forward over, if you would, to chapter 24. And then when you get into chapter 24, go down to verse 56, and I'm going to read that verse.

Then later on, we'll get into the entire chapter. We're talking to you about prosperity and five principles of prosperity. Notice in this verse that I'm referencing here, and he said unto them, hinder me not, seeing the Lord hath prospered my way. How would you like for God to do that for you? How would you like to be able to say, listen, God has prospered my way? Now, the Bible teaches clearly and plainly that God takes pleasure in the prosperity of his servants. And the first psalm in the Bible, Psalm 1, speaks of the man who's like a tree planted by the rivers of water, and that psalm ends with a gigantically glorious promise. Listen to it.

Don't try to water it down. It says this, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. So don't tell me that God doesn't want you to prosper. God takes pleasure in the prosperity of his servants.

Are you ready for these five principles of prosperity? They're going to come out of this chapter, and let me give you the background for the chapter. Abraham is the father of the Jewish nation. He has a son of promise. That son's name is Isaac. Isaac in the Bible is a type or a figure, an illustration of the Lord Jesus who is to come, because both of these sons were sons of promise, sons of miracle birth, and sons of sacrifice, and so forth. We don't have time to get into that, but just put it in your mind that Isaac is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Isaac needs a bride, and the desire of the father, Abraham, is to get a bride for his son Isaac. Do you know what the desire of our heavenly Father is? A bride for his son Jesus, and the church is the bride of Christ.

Now, guys, I don't know whether you like the feeling or not, but you, too, are a bride. We are the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, and what is the desire of the father? Well, the father wants a bride for his son. Now, this is the background of this, and so Abraham chooses his most trusted servant whose name is Eliezer, and he sends him off on a mission to get a bride for his son, and he comes back with a beautiful girl named Rebekah. Now, Abraham typifies and pictures God the father. Isaac pictures God the son, and Eliezer pictures God the Holy Spirit. Well, what is the purpose?

What is the office work? What is the motivation and the high privilege and responsibility of God the Holy Spirit? To seek a bride for Isaac, and so the Holy Spirit is working here today just calling out a bride for the Lord Jesus Christ, and so Eliezer is going now to seek a bride for Isaac. Now, that is the background, and God prospered Eliezer, and God gave Eliezer good speed. God gave Eliezer prosperity as he said, the Lord hath prospered me in my way. Now, we can look at that, and we can find five principles of prosperity. Are you with me so far? Principle number one, establish your cause.

Put it down in your notes or put it down certainly in your mind. Establish your cause. Now, you've got to have something that motivates you, something that drives you. Every person needs a cause, a reason, a God-given goal and purpose for his life. Read now the first four verses. And Abraham was old and well-stricken in age, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things.

And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house that ruled over all that he had, Put I pray thee thy hand under my thigh, and I will make thee swear by the Lord the God of heaven and the God of earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, but thou shalt go unto my country, unto my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac. Now, clear, beyond any stutter, stammer, or apology, Eliezer had a cause. He had a mandate. Question, do you have a cause? I mean, are you just drawing your breath and drawing your salary, fighting to live and living to fight? And you don't have a cause through life.

You're just enduring life. Have a cause in your life. You need goals in your life. And beware of vague goals. Most folks could not write down what they intend to do, what they want to do, what they feel God has called them to do.

They just, rather than being a definite specific, they are sort of a wandering generality. Tiger Woods is supposed to be a great golfer, is that right? But I can beat Tiger Woods playing golf, if you let me set the conditions. All I do is just take Tiger Woods and I'll blindfold him, first of all. And then I'll turn him around about 15 times and keep the blindfold on and I can beat him. I can beat him because he wouldn't even know which way the pin is, you see. Now, I mean the best golfer, if he's blindfolded and he can't see the goal, he's not going to make it. If he can't, if I can beat Tiger Woods when he can't see the goal, how are you even going to succeed if you don't even have a goal? Much less one that you cannot see. You've got to have some goal in your life.

And it's got to be specific. If you don't have that, you're like a ship at sea on a dark night without a rudder, without a chart, and without a compass. Most people don't plan to fail.

They just don't plan anything. Well, you say, sure, you're a pastor. You ought to have some goals. Mothers ought to have goals. Teachers ought to have goals. Students ought to have goals. Athletes ought to have goals. Medical doctors ought to have a goal in their life.

And a church in general ought to have goals. Is your goal, your cause, specific enough? You could put it on paper this morning.

Suppose I would just pass out paper this morning, say, all right, write it down. What are you all about? What motivates you?

I mean, what are you trying to do? Number one, you must establish your cause. Beware of vague goals and even more, listen carefully, beware of unworthy goals. I mean, what is success? What is success?

How many people have the wrong idea of success? Somebody said, you know that you're important and successful if you're invited to the White House for a conference. Somebody said, no, that's not success. You're successful if you're invited to the White House for a conference and you're in the Oval Office and that red phone rings and the president is so interested talking to you, he doesn't even answer the red phone, the emergency phone. Somebody said, no, that's not success. Success is you're in the Oval Office, you're talking to the president, the red phone rings, he does pick it up and he says, here, it's for you.

Now that, in the eyes of the world, is success, but not necessarily so. You can be important and not successful. You can be rich and not successful. You can be notorious and not successful. You can have power and not be successful. What is success?

Listen very carefully. One definition of failure is succeeding in the wrong thing. That is failure. If you are succeeding in the wrong thing, a wise man has said, whatever a man does without God, in that thing, he will do one of two things. Either he will fail miserably or succeed more miserably. Are you listening? Failure is often success at the wrong thing. Now I've said that you need to have a specific goal, but do you have a worthy goal?

Really? Do you have a worthy goal? May I ask you to ask yourself some questions this morning? Is your goal, is your cause, is it God-given?

Is it? I mean, does the thing that moves you, is it God-given? Number two, does it create in you enough motivation necessary for its fulfillment? It's not a worthy goal if it doesn't motivate you enough to fulfill it. Number three, does the cause that you serve demand of you your very best? Is there anything that demands of you every inch, every nerve, every ounce, every sinew, every corpuscle of your body to say this one thing I do? Number four, in the cause that you have, can you pray and ask God to help you fulfill it?

I mean the thing that melts your butter, the thing that motivates you, the thing that drives you, can you honestly get on your knees and say, almighty God, in the name of Jesus, in the authority of Jesus, help me to do this thing? Beware, friend, of vague goals. Beware of unworthy goals.

Many folks are listening to radio station WIFM. What's in it for me? Rather than wanting to do the will of God. Beware, I say, beware of vague goals. Beware of unworthy goals. And listen, precious friend, be aware of unbalanced goals. You need to have goals for every area of your life, not just for one area, not just physically, not just financially, not just domestically, not just spiritually, but your entire life needs to be a life of balance.

That's why God gave you two legs. There's an old story of the school college dean who came to the football coach and said, you're a star athlete. I want to tell you about him. Here's his report card. He's got four Fs and a D. What do you have to say about that?

The coach said, well, looks to me like he's concentrating too much on one subject. Your goals need to be balanced. Now, what we're saying is this. You have to establish a cause.

There was no ifs, ands, and buts about it. Eliezer knew what he was about. He knew what his cause was. Establish your cause. May I ask you some questions about what you're doing right now?

I want to ask you three questions. If you get to where you're going, and everybody's going somewhere, if you get to where you're going, where will you be? You think about it. You're headed somewhere. Everybody is headed somewhere. If you get to where you are going, and I'm not just talking about heaven or hell. I'm talking about what we call in this life. If you get to where you're headed, where will you be?

Second question. If you accomplish your goals, what will you have? What will you have? And then when you consider what you will have, here's the big question. Are the things you're living for worth Jesus dying for? When you get to where you're going, where will you be? When you achieve what you want to achieve, what will you have? And are the things you're living for worth Jesus Christ dying for? Principle number one, therefore, is establish your cause.

Number two, principle number two is this, examine your condition. Now, this is what Eliezer had to do. He knew what his cause was, and then he had to see where he was right now. Beginning, look if you will, beginning in verse five. And the servant said unto him, peradventure, the woman will not be willing to follow me into this land. Must I needs bring thy son unto the land from whence thou camest? In other words, if Rebekah won't come back with me, will I take Isaac to Rebekah? And Abraham said unto him, beware that thou bring not my son thither again. No, you can't take Isaac back to where I came from.

You've got to bring Rebekah here. And the Lord God of heaven, which took me from my father's house and from the land of my kindred, and which spake unto me, and that swear unto me, saying, unto thy seed will I give this land, and he shall send his angel before thee, and thou shall take a wife unto my son from thence. And if the woman will not be willing to follow thee, then thou shall be clear of this my oath, only bring not my son thither again, and so forth.

I could read this more, but what is obvious is this, that Eliezer says, look, this is a problem. You're asking me to go to a land, meet a girl that I've never met, establish a relationship with her, and convince her to come and marry a man she's never met, and to leave father, mother, houses, lands, brothers, and sisters, and come with me. That is my job. That's what I've got to do.

Now, those were the conditions. Folks, you have to see where you are this morning, not where you want to be, not where you wish you were. Take an honest inventory and see where you are right now this moment. If you were to call me on the phone, and maybe you're from out of the city, and you would call me on the phone and say, Adrian, maybe it's an old friend. Adrian, we're in town. We want to come by and see you. How do we get to your house?

What is the first question I would ask them? Where are you now? Where are you now? Because I cannot give them direction to get to my house unless I can, first of all, help them to establish where they are right now. And you can't get to where you need to be until you understand where you are. That's very obvious, and we need to take an inventory of ourselves and find out where we are.

Now, therefore, you need to diagnose your problems. Here was Eliezer. He had to find the right girl. He had to convince her. He had to convince her parents.

He had to take care of all the details. And in your life, it's not just enough to establish your cause. You have to ask yourself, what is standing between me and that cause? What are the obstacles?

What are the roadblocks? Now, the roadblocks don't mean that God is not with you. Eliezer had difficulties.

He didn't mean that God was not with him. Paul said, there's an open door set before us, and there are many adversaries. And the door to the room of opportunity swings on the hinges of opposition. And really, problems are just opportunities in reverse.

Did you know that? If you're in business, you say, my business has problems. Thank God your business has problems. You have a job, you say, my job has problems. Thank God your job has problems. If there were no problems, you wouldn't have a job.

Did you know that? Do you think people pay you for doing nothing? The greater the difficulty on your job and your corresponding ability to solve those difficulties and overcome those difficulties, that determines your worthwhileness to the organization. And listen, if your job didn't have any problems, somebody, or if it had few problems, somebody with a lot less ability than you and a lot less pay than you're getting would do that job. It is your ability to meet and solve problems that constitute your job, so quit griping about your problems.

No. See where you are and look at yourself and design a plan to meet those problems. If you begin in chapter 10 and see that Eliezer saw his problems, and then he got a plan, and the servant took 10 camels of the camels of his master and departed, for all the goods of his master were in his hand, and he arose and went to Mesopotamia, under the city of Nahor, and so forth and so forth. He had a plan.

He was going to find the right girl, and then he's going to get invited to her home, and then he was going to share the promises of God with her, and then he's going to pop the question, and then he's going to get, he's going to ask her parents for permission, and then he's going to bring her back to Isaac. Now, there's nothing wrong with planning. Planning is not unspiritual. Planning is very spiritual. God planned my redemption before he made the world.

I was in the heart and mind of God. The Lord says, which man intending to build a tower doesn't sit down first and count the cost? You make plans.

I've already told you, to fail to plan is to plan to fail. A man asked a girl, how do I get to the county fair? She was a beautiful girl.

The man had a pig in one arm, a chicken in the other arm, and a basket. He was going to the fair, and the girl said, well, you go down here a mile and turn left and go another mile, you'll come to the county fair. He said, couldn't I just take a shortcut through the woods? She said, well, yes, but you might get lost in the woods. Well, he said, couldn't you go with me through the woods and guide me through those woods? Well, she said, no, I couldn't do that. He said, why not?

Well, she said, you might get me out there in the middle of the woods and try to kiss me. He said, now, listen, how could I do that? I've got this pig in one arm, a basket, and a chicken. That'd be impossible. Aw, she said, I don't think so. Said, you could put the chicken on the ground and put that basket over that chicken, and I could hold that silly old pig. Difficulty doesn't mean it can't be done.

No. You have to see what your condition is and know again that the door to the room of opportunity swings on the hinges of opposition. Number three, number three, encourage your confidence. You know, many of us just, we just think we can't do it. We don't think that God wants us to prosper, but encourage your confidence. Now, how do you encourage your confidence?

Number one, there's the promise factor. Get a promise from the Word of God. Look, if you will, in beginning about verse five. And the servant said unto him, peradventure the woman will not be willing to follow me into this land. Must I needs bring thy son again into the land from whence thou camest?

Now notice this. And Abraham said unto him, beware that thou bring not my son thither again, the Lord God of heaven, which took me from my father's house and from the land of my kindred and which spake unto me and swear unto me, saying, unto thy seed will I give this land, he shall send his angel before thee and thou shall take a wife unto my son from thence. Do you know what he's saying? Hey, this is based on the Word of God. We have got a promise from the Word of God.

And coming up tomorrow, we'll hear part two of this important message. But maybe today you have questions about who Jesus is or what he means to you, how to begin a relationship with God through Christ. You can find how to do that at our Find God's Love page at lwf.org slash radio. We have resources and materials that can answer questions you may have about your faith.

Again, go to lwf.org slash radio. And at the top of the page, click Find God's Love. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of today's message, you can call us at 1-877-LOVEGOD and mention the title Five Principles of Prosperity.

You can also order online at lwf.org slash radio, or write us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. Thanks so much for studying in God's Word with us today. If you'd like to start receiving daily devotions and links to our program, be sure to sign up for our daily heartbeat emails at lwf.org slash radio. And join us again next time for the conclusion of Five Principles of Prosperity right here on Love Worth Finding.

Here's a note we saw recently on our Facebook wall. Pastor Rogers was a man of God and a giant among men of God. He lived for eternity, and his preaching speaks the eternal message of Christ just as powerfully after he has gone to heaven. Well, we are honored to be able to continue sharing these timeless messages, and we're only able to do so because of your prayers and your gifts. When you donate to the ministry this month, we want to thank you with a copy of God's Wisdom is Better than Gold. Anyone who reads the Bible ought to know that there's no cheap, easy, or lazy way to serve the Lord Jesus. In this book, Adrian Rogers shares God's way to health, wealth, and wisdom according to scripture. Request a copy when you call with a gift at 1-877-LOVEGOD or give online at lwf.org slash radio. And thank you for your generous support of Love Worth Finding.