If you've ever seen a full barn or an overflowing vat, You've seen illustrations of God's abundant style of supplying our needs. Today, on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah returns to the book of Proverbs. to explain why we often miss out on God's blessing by holding too tightly to our finances. From Investing for Eternity.
Here's David with the conclusion of his message, five pictures of God's provisions. One of the things I love about the Bible is the way that it illustrates the truth. You know, illustrations are the window into your soul. And when Jesus taught, when the Bible teaches, there are always. Just look around the corner and you'll see a story or an illustration, some picture that is there to help you internalize the message that's in the scripture.
And that is certainly true when it comes to stewardship. We're looking at five of the pictures that are in the Bible that speak of the provision of God for those who are faithful in their stewardship responsibilities. We'll get back to that in just a moment. But first, we're more than halfway through the month, and so my time to tell you about this month's resource is getting shorter and shorter.
So I just want to make sure you know that during the month of January only, When you send a gift to Turning Point, you can ask for a copy of the book, What God Promises You: a beautiful. Beautiful gift book, 208 pages. Hardback cover, beautiful pictures inside, and a wonderfully designed cover. Seven truths that will change the way you live. In this book, you will discover God's promises about provision and forgiveness and peace and protection.
You will learn about purpose and relationship. And most of all, about eternity and how the promise of God is yours for eternity if you know Him. This is a great encouraging book, and I'd like you to have it as you begin this new year walking with the Lord. Once again, it's yours for the asking when you send a gift of any size during this month. And now, let's get back to five pictures of God's provision.
What God does is, He takes what we give and He starts a cycle when we do it. That cycle goes like this: we give to God. He in turn gives back to us. We invest what he gives us in ministry. It affects others.
We continue to give, and the process just keeps going. And God has said in His word, men and women, that He will always do for us what He has promised to do. We will always have an efficiency and a sufficiency, and it will be in all things, and we will have an abundance on the basis of that for every good work. I dare say to you, if God's people believed that, there would never be a need in the Church of Jesus Christ. Because we would always be doing What God has called us to do.
He in turn would be providing the needs and we would continue the cycle of sufficiency. Let's look at the second verse, Malachi 3.10. Let's read it out loud. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse. That there may be food in my house, and try me now in this, says the Lord of hosts.
If I will not open for you the windows of heaven, And pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. Malachi 3:10. Here's the picture. Get this picture in your mind. The windows in heaven.
God put that in the Old Testament in that graphic language so we would never forget. In our mind's eye, we see heaven. And God standing at an open window, ready to pour out through that window upon us His wonderful blessing. But it is not an unconditional promise, it is conditional. It is based upon our giving through our little small window up toward heaven our tithes and offerings, and then watching God out of that huge, gigantic window in heaven pour out upon us.
His blessing. how he loves to do that. how he does it over and over again. Are you standing under the window of God? Are you living under God's window?
I remember hearing when I first started to give that when we give to God, we give with our shovel. When He gives back to us, He gives with His shovel, but His shovel is a lot bigger than ours. God's window is a wonderful picture of His provision. I want you to understand, men and women, who are maybe teetering on the threshold of this decision. You can trust God.
When you do what He says, you place yourself under the spout of His blessing, and the window of heaven becomes the source of His provision for you. There are hundreds of stories of how God. has opened up his window. to bless those who have trusted him. I want you to look with me at the third passage of Scripture, which is Philippians chapter 4 and verse 19, and let's read it together.
And my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19. This is a powerful verse that tells us. That God's promise is personal. My God.
It is positive, he shall supply. It is pointed all of your need. It is plentiful according to his riches in glory, and it's powerful because it's in Christ Jesus. But the real key in this verse is not that alliterated outline. The real key in the verse is the little words according to.
My God shall supply all your needs according to his riches and glory. And the picture is the bank in heaven. God Himself is the President and Chief Financial Officer of God's Bank in Heaven. And he says that when we invest in that bank, He will supply all of our needs according to his riches.
Now, let me tell you why that's so important. If I have $1,000 in my piggy bank. And you come to me and you say, Pastor Jeremiah, I have a need and I need for you to help me meet that need. And I say to you, I will be happy to do that. And I reach into the top of that piggy bank and I pull out a dollar.
and give it to you. I have given to you out of My riches. But look at the text. It does not say that he has promised to supply our need. out of his riches.
He has promised to supply our need. What is it? According to his riches.
So that means that his supply has some connection with his. Ability to supply. And what that means is that when you get involved with God through the giving that is a part of our stewardship in the kingdom's work, what God has promised is that He will not be miserly in His response to you, that He is going to supply, and the basis of His supply is His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. And you can count on it, you can trust it. He has promised to do it.
I was graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary back in 1967. Every year that I'm out of the seminary, I become more and more aware of the great privilege I had in going to such a God-honoring and A word of God honoring school. I never really took much interest in the history of Dallas Seminary until someone gave me a little bit of its history and how God had supplied its needs through the years. Shortly after Dallas Seminary was founded back in 1924, it almost folded. It came to a point of bankruptcy, believe it or not.
All the creditors were ready to foreclose at 12 noon on a particular day. That morning, the founders of the school met in the President's office to pray that God would provide. In that prayer meeting was a man by the name of Harry Ironside, a well-known Bible teacher and writer of commentaries. When it was his turn to pray, he said in his refreshingly wonderful way, Lord, we know that the cattle on a thousand hills are thine. Please sell some of them and send us the money.
That's what he prayed in his prayer.
Well, just about that time, this is a true story: a tall Texan in boots and open-collar shirt strolled into the business office of Dallas Seminary. and said, howdy. I just sold two carloads of cattle over in Fort Worth. I've been trying to make a business deal go through, and it won't work. I think God wants me to give the money to the seminary.
Yeah. I don't know if you need it or not, but here's the check, and he handed it over. The Secretary took the check, knowing that the founders were in a very intense prayer meeting, knocked on the door. And timidly gave Dr. Lewis Perry Schaefer, the founder and president of the school, the check that she had been given by the cowboy.
When he looked at the amount, it was for the exact sum of their debt. And then he recognized the name on the check as that of a very well-known cattleman in their community. Turning to Dr. Ironside, he said, Harry, God sold the cattle. Yeah.
I love it. Do you think God can do that? What does it say? My God. shall supply all your need.
according to his riches in glory. By Christ Jesus. over and over again. Individuals and ministries and people who have come with their stories of the provision of God. have told me their version.
of that particular truth. I told you about Donna and I as we headed off to seminary. At Dallas, and how the Lord provided for us. We were so young, and green, and naive. Committed to giving to God, but not very much into financial planning at that moment in time.
We were getting ready to leave Cedarville, Ohio, where we went to school, and I went down to the bank in Cedarville to close out my account. They were very glad to see me because they told me I was $80 overdrawn. I could not believe that. I did not remember that happening, but I was in a hurry. They said I owed them 80 bucks.
I found 80 bucks and got it, closed out the account, and off we went to Dallas.
Well, we were so farsighted in going there as a young couple to study that we had enough money to last for two weeks. I mean, that seemed like a lot of money for us. We didn't know that after we got a job, it would be two weeks before we got our first paycheck.
So, about three and a half weeks into our Dallas experience, we ran out of money. We lived on 21 cent craft TV. Macaroni and cheese dinners. To this day I hate them. I can't stand it.
You could go to the store and for 21 cents you could buy a box that had a macaroni and cheese dinner in it, take it home, and that was, and we lived on that. But we were down to nothing. I was too proud to call my parents. I didn't want to do that. We didn't know anybody in the city.
On the day when we were Empty. We got a letter, and this is what it said. Dear David. In our monthly audit at the Miami Deposit Bank in Cedarville, we discovered that we had deposited one of your deposits to your father's account. Here is a check for $230 reflecting what you gave us and also your deposit.
And I thought to myself, God knew. We would need that money when we needed it and he banked it for us. And sent it to him. He had to use a mistake in the part of somebody else, but he provided over and over again. Yeah.
God has demonstrated to us. his care for us as he has for you. And the reason why some of you don't know that is because you've never trusted him. You've never put him out there in that position of faith where he can do. What he's promised to do, and you're missing out on an adventure, an adventure that is incredible.
You can trust the Lord, and if you're unwilling to trust Him, you will never know the excitement. of his provision. My God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory. by Christ Jesus, the heavenly bank.
Now, notice number four, Proverbs 3:9, and 10. Let's read it out loud together. Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the firstfruits of all your increase.
So, your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine. Here's the picture in your mind. Full barns and overflowing vats. The barns and the vats were the economy of the day of Proverbs. It reflected that God's provision was not just minimal or average, but that it was abundant.
Do you remember driving through the countryside back in the Midwest during the time of the harvesting of hay? And seeing a barn with hay that had been piled up in it, and it's sticking out of the windows, and it's hanging off the edge of the loft and out of the end of the barn. And you look at it and you say, well, that barn is absolutely packed with hay. That's the picture. God doesn't want to just give you enough to squeak by.
He wants to give you what you need in abundance, and that's what he has promised to do. the full barns, and the overflowing vats. Finally, the last one is to me the most wonderful of all. Let's read the Luke 638 passage out loud together. Give, and it shall be given to you.
Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you. I like to call this God's incredible harvest law. The picture is of a harvest. And of the reaping of it.
What God is saying is: if you will trust Him by sowing the seed, He will make it work for you in the harvest. And that is not a law that we have to debate, for it works in every area of life, does it not? Isn't it true that you get what you sell? You sow love, you get love, you sow hate, you get hate back in your face. It's a principle that you can't deny.
I was at a conference, and somebody gave me a book that had some wonderful stories in it, and I was reading this to Donna. Telling her that I couldn't wait to share it with you because it's written in kind of an old English style, but it gives you the picture. Of the sowing-reaping concept of how, if you don't sow properly, you can never reap. And it goes like this: there is a certain millionaire. Who hath his office on the second floor of the First National Bank building?
And when he goeth up to his offices, he rideth in the elevator and when he goeth down, then he walketh. And he is an haughty man, who once was poor and hath risen in the world. He is a self-made man who worshipeth his maker himself. And he payeth his rent regularly on the first day of the month, and considereth not that there are human beings who run the elevators and who clean the windows, hanging at a great height above the sidewalk. And who shovel coal into the furnaces under the boilers, neither doth he at Christmastime remember any of them with a tip or with a turkey.
And there is in that same building. A poor woman who scrubbeth the stairs and the halls. And he hath walked past her often, but never seen her until recently, for his head was high in the air, and he was thinking of more millions.
Now it came to pass on a day that he left his office and started to walk down the stairs. Yeah. And the scrub lady was halfway down, for she had begun at the top and was giving the stairs their first once-over. And upon the topmost stair, in a wet and soapy spot, there was a large cake of soap. and the millionaire steppeth on it.
Now the foot which he set upon the soap flew eastward toward the sunrise. And the other foot started on an expedition of its own toward the going down of the sun. And the millionaire sat down on the topmost step, but he did not remain there. As it had been his intention to descend, so he descendeth. But not in the matter of his original design.
As he descendeth, he struck each step with the sound as if it had been a drum. And the scrub lady stood aside courteously and let him go. And at the bottom, he arose and considered whether he should rush into the office of the building and demand that the scrub lady should be fired. But he considered that if he should tell the reason, there would be great mirth among the occupants of the building, and so he held his peace. But since that day, He taketh notice of the scrub lady and passeth her with circumspection.
For there is no one so high or mighty that he can afford to ignore any of his fellow human beings. For a very humble scrub lady and a very common bar of yellow soap can take the mind of a great man off his business troubles with surprising rapidity. Wherefore, consider these things, and count not thyself too high above even the humblest of the children of God. lest haply thou come down from thy place of pride and walk off with thy bruises, aching a little more, by reason of thy suspicion that the scrub lady is smiling in her suds. And facing the day's work the more cheerfully by reason of the fun thou hast afforded her.
For these are solemn days. And he that bringeth a smile to the face of a scrub lady hath not lived in vain. He got what he sewed. He reaped The harvest. In a very strange and humorous way.
And that is true for all of us, isn't it? This is not about stewardship, this is about life. We get back what we invest. Garbage in, garbage out, they say in the computer realm. We're always complaining about life as it is, but if we go back far enough, we'll discover that in most cases we are reaping what we have sown.
We are getting back an investment. that we have made whether we know it or not. And so it is that God says in His Word, If we will reap a harvest from God, We must understand the picture of God's great harvest law.
Now, let me tell you how that law works. Number one, we only reap. If We sow. Number two. We only reap What?
We saw. Number three. We always reap. More. Than we sell.
Because when you put a seed in the ground, it does not come back one for one, it comes back multiplied over the amount that was invested. We only get if we sow, we only get what we sow. We always get more than we sow, and this is a hard one for many of us. We always get after or later than we sow. You don't reap on the same day you sow.
So you have to be patient. And God's word says that we can trust Him. When we invest, that he will give back. And it won't be again. a miserly return.
It is pressed down shaken together. And then running over. Do you see it? It is packed down. And then shaken so that all of the loose places are filled up, then shaken again and pressed down again, and then it's running over the top.
That's how God provides.
Sometimes People have come to me and said, Do you know, Pastor Jeremiah, in this church or in that church, our pastor stands up and says, that he challenges people if they will give. And God doesn't supply to come to him. Or to the church at the end of the year, and they'll return their investment. Why don't you do that? I've never ever thought of doing that.
I wouldn't do that because for me to do it is an undersell. You know why? Because God has already promised it. Why would I want to undersell what God has promised? God has promised that you cannot ever Ever.
Lose. when you do what he's encouraged you to do. God is not a debtor to any man. I've never had anyone come up to me during stewardship month or after it and say, Pastor Jeremiah, I did everything the Word of God said. I did it with the right heart and the right spirit with all of my heart, and I want to tell you, it was a bust.
God didn't do anything for me. He will do it. Let me just tell you this. I've given you five pictures of God's provision. Pictures that I hope you will just etch in your mind, his cycle of sufficiency.
He always comes through. the windows of heaven which he's promised to open on your behalf. The harvest law, which we've just talked about, the barns filled to overflowing, and the vats filled to overflowing. Those are the pictures God has given us of His provision, and you can trust Him. I just want to tell you, you can trust him.
He Um is worthy. of your trust. You will never find out. Until you take the step. You know, I have to tell you that um We, as a couple, Don and I, have been giving in more than tithing for many years, and we're always amazed at how God.
Just miraculously cares for us and takes care of us. We've been through some interesting times with sickness, and every time we turn around, we just sort of smile because what God promises to do, He always does. He's there for you, and as I've said so many times, God is enough. When you trust him, he will always be your security and your helper. He is everything he claims to be.
I hope you will learn to trust him and therefore follow his instruction and how to live life. Tomorrow, we're going to talk about the faith of commitment. What does it mean to make a covenant with God, a commitment to Him, and how does that affect your life going forward? I hope you'll join us then. Until then, this is David Jeremiah, thanking you for being a part of this daily teaching program and especially for your prayer and financial support.
We love you guys. See you next time. Our message today originated from Shadow Mountain Community Church and Dr. David Jeremiah, the senior pastor. Reach out and tell us how this ministry helps you grow by writing to us at TurningPoint, P.O.
Box3838, San Diego, California, 92163. Visiting our website at davidjeremiah.org/slash radio or calling 800-947-1993. Ask for your copy of David's new book, What God Promises You, Seven Truths That Will Change the Way You Live. It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also download the free Turning Point mobile app to instantly access our content or search in your app store for the keywords Turning Point Ministries.
Visit davidjeremiah.org slash radio for details. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue the series Investing for Eternity on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.
