Genesis 22:8 - "Abraham said, 'God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.'"
Psalm 50:10 - [The LORD says,] "For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills."
PASTOR CHRIS'S WARNING TO READERS: Do NOT read further if you only have a minute, if you are feeling easily offended today, or if you want your life to stay the same. So if you read on, don't say that I didn't warn you.
I can almost guarantee that you're living too small. Noted American researcher, George Barna's studies show 90-95% of American Christians are living a life of scarcity. Most Christians forfeit their spiritual wealth and, therefore, unnecessarily live a life of scarcity instead of abundance.
Let's change that!
But you're going to have to not only believe, but you're also going to have to put your faith in action.
That's what Abraham did in today's first Bible verse. Abraham lived large; he lived a life of abundance. But it all started by putting his faith in action.
When Abraham walked up that mountain with his son, Isaac, so that he could sacrifice his son, his only son, as God had commanded, look what Abraham says, "God will provide for himself." In other words, Abraham claimed the character of God and the promise of God. Abraham believed that God would provide for himself out of the riches of God's own abundance, as noted in today's second verse in Psalm 50:10, "The cattle on a thousand hills [is mine, 'says the Lord.]"
Have y'all ever heard of a faith promise pledge? A faith promise pledge is pledging to give something before you have it because you believe that God is going to inexplicably provide it. That's what Abraham was doing. He was living large, a life of abundance, pledging to give something before he had it, believing God would provide out of God's own bounty.
I know you're saying you've never been given a test like Abraham and asked to sacrifice a child like Abraham, but actually that's not true. When God, in Malachi, chapter 3, calls all of us to tithe (which is to give ten percent of our income to God's life-changing work through His church), God is asking us to sacrifice our loved ones because the studies show that the main reason people don't give 10% as God commands is because they don't want to take away things from their loved ones.
But in God's economy, that "don't-obey-God-so-you-can-give-more-to-your-loved-ones" thinking is scarcity thinking. The bottom line is that scarcity thinking actually has the audacity to believe that you can give more to your loved ones than the God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills and promises to give them to you by opening the floodgates of heaven if you'll just trust Him by thanking Him with the Biblical tithe, the first ten percent of your income!!! Are you kidding me?
Friends, interestingly, more than ninety percent of y'all who receive Day of Praise don't worship at my church, so this isn't a fund-raiser for me. No it's a FUN-raiser for you. It's a call for you to live large, to live out of God's abundance instead of your scarcity, to live a faith promise, to tithe the Biblical ten percent, to give something to God even before you have it because you believe that God is going to inexplicably provide it, believing that God does what he promises to do.
God owns the cattle on a thousand hills and the storehouse of heaven, and He wants to pour it out on you!
Start living large like Abraham. Start trusting God and tithing today!
You can't outgive God, gang. You can't outgive God!
Praise God!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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