Spirit of Generosity – Part 5 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

Praise the Lord, friends, I’m so glad that you’re with us today. So glad to be sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. I have a question for you, would you like to break out in the realm of receiving? Would you like to receive at a new level? I believe if you wanna go to a new level in your reaping, you’ve gotta go to a new level in your sowing. So stay tuned, I believe you’ll be blessed as you receive God’s Word today. Friends, I’m so glad that you’re with us today, and we’re glad to be sharing about the spirit of generosity. You know, you just can’t beat God giving. There is a great example that we’re gonna be sharing about today. We’re actually gonna go to 2 Kings 4, and a number of things that are happening in 2 Kings 4, and they are just really amazing. And praise God, I’m gonna let Aaron share here 2 King 4, when we start in the first part, but there’s actually a number of different examples that we can use. And you know what, giving and receiving works, Old Testament, New Testament, all through the Scripture, all through our life. It’s just a principle that works in the planet. You know, Proverbs says, “There’s he that scatters and yet increases. But there’s he who withholds more than sufficient,” right, “and it tends to poverty,” Proverbs 11:24. And then Proverbs 11:25 says, “The one who blesses others will be blessed himself.” Praise God, we wanna stay on the good side of that.

Amen, so here in 2 Kings 4, we’ll start right in verse 1, it says, “A certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha saying, ‘Your servant, my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord. And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves.'” This woman’s in a very desperate situation, you know, so in debt that, you know, her husband had passed away, and she’s about ready to lose her two sons into slavery. Verse 2, “So Elisha said to her, ‘What shall I do for you?'” So that’s a kind of an interesting question right there. You know, it wasn’t a very, you know, if most people were to respond that way, they’d get very offended.

Right.

You know, if someone’s in a very desperate situation, and they go to someone in a position of authority, a position to perhaps help, and they kinda respond, “What shall I do for you?” He was trying to get her to change her perspective.

Right.

You know, on the outside there’s a lot of pressure. Her husband had passed away. She’s about ready to lose her two sons, but he gets her to shift her perspective.

Right.

And sometimes for you to have breakthrough in your life, breakthrough from the realm of the spirit into your natural life, into the natural realm, sometimes there has to be a dramatic shift of perspective. Some people never have that shift, and they just stay stuck, and things just keep getting worse and worse and worse. So, Elisha, rather than just try to gradually shift her perspective, just bam, “What shall I do for you? I’m not your answer, something is in your house. God has given you the answer. God is your answer, and he’s gonna do it. You know, it’s not about me, it’s about your faith in God.” So he just, you know, gets her to shift her perspective. “Tell me, what do you have in the house?” Notice, I’m not putting the blame on Elisha, I’m not putting the blame on God. I’m gonna look at what I have. What do I have in my house now?

When we look at this, in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, is the greatest dissertation on giving and receiving, or sowing and reaping, that we see in the entirety of the New Testament. And Paul is talking about the grace of giving. But he actually is encouraging the Corinthians to get involved in giving and receiving. He uses the Macedonians as an example. But then he goes on later in 2 Corinthians 8 and he says this, “If there first be a willing mind, it is accepted according to what a man has, and not what he does not have.” So God is never looking for what you don’t have. And then he asked this woman, I like what you said, Aaron, “What do you have? What do you have in your house?” You see, the key to your need is in the seed that you have, you know.

And something really cool too about this story, you know, Elijah, his mentor, or his, you know, father spiritually was Elijah.

Right.

And God sent Elijah to a widow, also in a very desperate situation, to this widow in Zarephath, which was the capital of Sidon, where Jezebel was from, the capital of Baal worship. God sent Elijah to that specific widow.

Right.

And, you know, he told her, you know, “Give me something to eat.” And she said, “Well, I’m about ready to die. I’m cooking my last meal for me and my son.” And Elijah, kind of like Elisha, didn’t just look at that person’s situation, but he looked in the deeper realm of the spirit and said, “You do what God said to do first, which is to feed me, and then he’ll take care of you.”

Right.

And Elijah kinda has a similar attitude. He’s not just coaxing this woman, but he just said, “I’m not your answer, what do you have in your house?”

Right.

And this is actually where her breakthrough is. You know, a lot of people just wanna be, just get sympathy rather than the real answer, rather than real breakthrough. But Elisha’s gonna tell her something that’s gonna bring her true breakthrough. “‘And what do you have in your house?’ She said, ‘Your maidservant from has nothing in the house, but a jar of oil.'” So she probably sold everything she had. She sold all of her clothing, sold all of her furniture, sold all of her utensils, all that she had left in her house was a single jar of oil. I believe that’s all she had, because if she’s trying to keep her sons from going into slavery, she sold everything. She sold the cat, she sold the dog. You know, she kinda did what Dave Ramsey says to do if you’re trying to get out of debt, just Craigslist everything, Craigslist your cat, Craigslist, you know? So that’s what she did, she did the Dave Ramsey method, and just Craigslisted everything, and she’s just down to this jar of oil. And this is what he says, verse 3, “Then he said, ‘Go borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors, empty vessels. Do not gather just a few.'”

Glory to God.

“And when you come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons.” I love this miracle, it’s just her and her sons. It’s her and her immediate family. Notice it wasn’t about Elisha. It wasn’t about what he could do for her. It wasn’t about him, you know, calling all the other prophets, and calling all the, you know, people to come give her more oil. He just said, “You go borrow these empty vessels.”

Yes.

“And you go in your house with your two sons, and you shut the door. It’s between you and God.” And, you know, “Shut the door behind you, then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones.” So he’s already telling her what’s gonna happen.

Right?

He’s saying, “Set aside the full ones.” So he’s saying, “God’s gonna take that jar, and fill up those full ones.”

Fill up the empty ones.

Yeah, fill ’em up ’til they’re full. So he told her what the miracle was gonna be.

Right.

It wasn’t a surprise for her. He said, “There’s gonna be full ones.”

Right.

“So set them aside.” So, you know, so how much she believed that word is gonna determine how many vessels she borrows.

Right.

If she really believes that word, she’s gonna pack her house full of vessels.

Right.

If she just thinks it might be true, she might just gather 10 or so.

Yeah .

But he believed the word though. He believed that word from God. That’s why he said, “Don’t just borrow a few.”

Right.

He’s saying, “Get all you can,” Verse 5, “So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons, who brought the vessels to her, and she poured it out. Now, it came to pass when the vessels were full that she said to her son, ‘Bring me another vessel.'”

Yeah.

“And he said to her, ‘There is not another vessel,’ so the oil ceased.” You know, the oil didn’t cease, the miracle didn’t cease because God made it cease. It ceased because she was at full capacity from what she could receive.

Right, she-

Her faith determined-

Right-

The capacity of that miracle.

The realm of her harvest. So it wasn’t God that limited her, but she thought big.

She did think big, and I know she thought big, and she probably had a lot of oil because it says, you know, that she was able to sell this, and get her sons completely out of debt. So it says, “She came and told the man of God, and he said, ‘Go sell the oil, pay your debt, and you and your sons shall live on the rest.'” So she had enough extra, you know, to pay the debt. But also there was an abundance, so she could live off the top, she could live off the rest, and even her sons. So it actually set up an investment account, not just for her, but for her two sons.

Praise God, so this woman’s husband was a minister of the gospel, and he had basically sowed his life into the gospel, but he probably hadn’t been a good steward in the area of finances, so on and so forth. Or he just never really focused on that. And many times people are like that that are in the ministry. I mean, they’re focused on the things of God, and sometimes they’re not focused in the realm of finances. And so he left his wife and his children in a very bad situation. However, because he had sowed spiritual seed, there was seed that was sowed in the ground, right? And he reaped a natural harvest, because when his wife went to Elisha, the prophet of God, Elisha gave her a word and said, you know, “What do you have?” And she said, “Well, this is what I got.” So, you know, God’s never looking for what you don’t have. He’s just looking for what you have. But if you give him what you have, right, and if you use what you have, and many times the key to your supply is in someone else’s need.

And sometimes you have more than you realize too.

Right.

And what you have, in the hands of God, God can take what might seem small, and he can multiply it.

Right.

I love here that we see a blessing of multiplication. You know, when the gospel was first preached to Abraham, it said, you know, “I’m gonna multiply you and your descendants, and in you, all the nations of the Earth will be blessed.” So Jesus said in John 8 that God preached the gospel.

Yeah, he actually said in Galatians 3.

“Abraham rejoiced to see my days,” is what Jesus said in John 8. But in Galatians 3, Paul said that the gospel was preached-

To Abraham.

To Abraham.

Yeah.

And in that gospel, that promise, that revelation that was spoken to Abraham, there’s that blessing of multiplication.

Right, it’s part of the gospel. When you believe the Word, you know, some people, you know what, they’re 10% gospel. Some people are 20% gospel, or 25%. Some people are 50% gospel. But if you believe the entirety of the Scriptures, you can’t leave out the realm of sowing and reaping, or giving and receiving. In fact, in Genesis 8, God said, “As long as the Earth remains, seed time and harvest, summer and winter, cold and heat, day and night shall not cease.” You know, there’s a lot of people that like to put a lot of fear and say, “We’re gonna run out, we’re gonna run out, we’re gonna run out.” But that’s just fear. You know, in the 1970s, they were saying that we were gonna run outta oil. We had an oil shortage. I had uncles and cousins that were working in the oil field in Eastern Colorado, and they were drilling wells that were good wells, and capping ’em. And they were actually creating a shortage. They were making, you know, and it was fear. Your brother, Andrew, works in the oil industry, gas and oil industry, and he says, “There’s enough gas and oil in the United States to just take care of the world for over 200 more years, just in the United States of America. There’s more than enough.” And I believe as long as we’re here on the Earth, there’s gonna be more than enough supply for every person on the Earth, of everything that we ever need, because God is a God who’s more than enough. But you have to begin to see what he has. We’re gonna be back right after this break, stay tuned. Friends, I am so glad that you are watching today. We’ve been talking about the spirit of generosity. I have my good friend, Mark Hankins with me, who has a tremendous revelation in the area of finances. And for any new partner that gives any partnership of any amount, in the United States of America, we’ll send this book to you, “God’s Extravagant Generosity,” free of charge.

There is so much power in the spoken blessing. Things happen in the spiritual realm when you speak the blessing. You might not see anything happening in the physical realm, but you need to speak the blessing, because things are happening in the spirit realm. There is a blessing in the congregation.

Friends, I’m so glad that you’re still with us. We’ve been sharing about more than enough, and we talked about in the first part of 2 Kings 4, there was a woman, her husband was a minister of the gospel, and yet she found herself in a very bad place, where she’d sold everything basically, and her sons were gonna have to be sold as slaves to pay the debt that he owed. So he probably wasn’t good in the realm of finances. And yet she went to the prophet of God, and the prophet of God said, “Well, what do you want me to do?” But then he gave her a word and said, “What do you have?” God is never looking for what you don’t have. God uses what we have, and if we get involved using what we have, God can multiply it. And he multiplied the oil. She said, “I have nothing but a pot of oil in my house.” He multiplied. The Bible says that God gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater, and he multiplies the seed sown. You know, I have agricultural background, I grew up on the farm. And one thing that you cannot receive is you cannot receive a harvest if you never sow any seed. And so if you wanna receive harvest, you’ve gotta get involved in seed time. You’ve gotta get involved in sowing. And the Bible calls it, “Sowing and reaping, seed time and harvest, giving and receiving.” And Paul talks about that, 2 Corinthians 8, 2 Corinthians 9. Philippians 4 he said, “No church communicated with me in the area of giving and receiving, but you only.” And so when we get involved in this thing called sowing, we can get involved and reap a harvest. God wants us all to reap. “God is good to all,” the Bible says. “His tender mercies are over all of his works,” in the Book of Psalms. “He opens his hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing.” There is more than enough supply with God. There’s more than enough supply on the Earth. There’s never gonna, as long as the Earth remains, there’s always gonna be enough supply for the people on the Earth. I don’t care who lied to you .

Yeah, and a lot of people get into fear because fear is pushed on people. It’s pushed on people from the world. Even some ministers push fear, because they can get, you know, if they can make people afraid, they can manipulate people. Fear is often used as a manipulation tactic.

Right.

And it’s not good, it’s deceptive. We shouldn’t be fear motivated, we should be faith motivated. And I’ve seen a lot of believers who’ve been, you know, kind of bought into some fear thing.

Right.

And, you know, I’ve been to, you know, pray for them in their homes, and you know, down in the basement, they have just, you know, hundreds of five gallon buckets of dried food. And, you know, it’s because they heard some prophetic word, and bought this prophet’s, you know-

Junk.

Apocalypse, you know, food supply. And, you know, it’s a very sad thing actually, to think, you know, people really bought into that. And that’s where their mindset is. Their mindset is just doom and gloom. And how am I gonna barely survive this thing? That’s not God’s best for us.

Amen, you know, the Bible says “At destruction and famine you shall laugh.” And you know, we’re gonna be teaching on Joseph, at some time, but, you know, Joseph laughed at the famine. The reason he laughed at the famine is because he knew it was coming before it came, because God revealed it to Pharaoh in a dream. Pharaoh didn’t know what the dream meant, but Joseph interpreted the dream, because Joseph had revelation that came from God. And Joseph was prepared for the famine. And the Bible actually talks about, number one, you gotta learn how to stay alive in the famine, right? But then not only you learn how to stay alive in the famine, you learn how to be satisfied in the famine. Paul said this in Philippians 4, he is talking about giving and receiving. He said, “Listen, I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound.” And if you can’t learn how to be abased, if you don’t know how to be abased, you’re never gonna know how to abound. But Joseph knew the famine was coming, and Joseph told Pharaoh, he said, “Listen, there’s seven years of tremendous plenty. After that are gonna be followed by seven years of famine.” So Joseph laughed at the famine, because he was prepared for the famine. And you know what? Joseph made Pharaoh the richest man on the planet, because he was a man that not only knew what was gonna happen, he knew how to deal with it. He had not only a vision, he had not only a dream, he had a plan, praise God. So he prepared, and then when the famine came, did you know what? The people prospered. And when you have a relationship with God, you just don’t have to fear.

Amen, and God’ll prepare you too. You know, he’ll lead you and guide you. And I like something that you talk about financially, and that’s a 10-10-80 plan. And that’s a great, you know, starting plan for a lot of people, to give 10%, to save 10%, and to live off of 80%.

Right, a lot of good financial planners teach that. It comes from Joseph. Joseph told Pharaoh, “You save a fifth, you save 20% in the time of great abundance.” And then, you know, Pharaoh put Joseph in charge of it. So he was very diligent in carrying out that plan. So then when the famine came, he could laugh at the famine.

And something I’ve noticed too about giving 10%, saving 10%, you know, the 80%, if you really commit yourself to giving 10%, saving 10%, God actually does awesome things with that 80%.

Amen.

And he brings you blessing in that 80% that you need to use for yourself, you know, to meet your needs, and meet the needs of your family. God can-

Amen.

You know, make that 80%, he can make miracles happen. He can give you a great deal on your rent. He can give you a great deal on a car you’re gonna buy. You know, when you give 10%, save 10%, you know, you do what the Bible instructs you to do, that 80%, God does miraculous things there.

Amen.

And that 80%, you know, it goes a lot further than if you had been trying to do all the 100% just towards surviving off of it.

Yeah, you know, you can give more than 10%, you can save more than 10%, but you need to give the first 10%, save the next 10%. Mom and I, over the years, we’ve done the math, we’ve given in the neighborhood of 30% of all the money we’ve ever made. And you just can’t beat God giving, and our net worth is far beyond all the money that we’ve ever made. So we’ve been super, super blessed. And there’s no way you can explain it, you know, except God, you know, got involved in our business.

And some people, one trap into like not giving, not saving is that fear-based mentality, or that insufficient-type mentality, that there’s lack. And a lack mentality is very dangerous. It’ll stop you from investing, stop you from growing, stop you from stepping out in faith, stop you from taking these opportunities when they’re there.

Amen.

And you know, I remember when, you know, Jesus fed the multitudes with five loaves and two fish. And he asked Philip what he should do, and Philip, like, just said, “This isn’t enough. There’s no way.” And he said, “Even if…” Well, but Philip, exactly, his exact words were, “Even if we had 200 denarii,” that means 200 days wages, so like-

Worth of bread.

If you made $200 a day, that’d be $40,000. So he said, “Even if we had $40,000-“

Worth of food.

“That’s not gonna feed these, you know, 5,000 men, women, and children.” So many, there’s 10,000 people there, that’s about $4 a person, he said, “Even if we had $4 a person.”

Well, there’s about 20,000 people there.

So $2 a person.

5,000 men, plus women and children, yeah.

He’s saying, “Even if we had,” he was just very focused on lack.

Yeah.

He was focused on lack, and because he was focused on lack in the realm of finances, your heart about finances usually reveals something deeper in your heart.

Right.

With your relationship with God.

Right.

And so Philip here, Jesus actually spoke to Philip, and it said he tested him. So Jesus was testing Philip’s heart, “How are we gonna feed these people?” And Jesus was testing him, like, “Do you trust me as being more than enough?” And he just said, “There isn’t enough. Even if we had $40,000, it wouldn’t be enough.” He was just very negative, very pessimistic. “Even if we had this money, and we don’t have it, you know, we don’t have, like, well, we don’t have it. It’s not enough.” And later on in Scripture, at the Last Supper, Jesus is speaking in John 14, just pouring out his heart to his disciples. This is the last message he’s preaching to his disciples before he goes to the cross. I’ll take you there, it’s really profound what Philip says. And I believe that Jesus tested Philip, you know, with that miracle, the five loaves and two fish. But let’s go to John 6.

I’m in John 6.

Sorry, John 14:6.

That’s, yeah, well, in John-

So John-

John 6 is the story of the-

I wanna read, yeah, John 14:6. Jesus says to Thomas here, “I’m the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” So that’s a bold statement. That’s like a cornerstone belief for Christians is that we only go to the Father through Jesus. And he says, “If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.” So this is like the Trinity here. This is cornerstone, foundational beliefs for Christian believers, right?

Right.

“If you’d known me, you would’ve known my Father also. And from now on, you know him and have seen him.” And it’s really interesting what happens in verse 8, Philip pipes up.

Yes?

Jesus tested him earlier, testing his heart, and he had a lack mentality. And his lack mentality about finances was because he had a lack mentality about Jesus. And he says this, man, this is just a complete slap in the face to Jesus, Philip says to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it will suffice us.”

It’ll be sufficient.

So he’s saying, “Jesus, you’re not enough. Jesus, you’re not sufficient.” Man, I’m sure Jesus was probably just crying here.

Yeah.

How terribly sad, how terribly pathetic. And I think there’s a lot of believers like that today, that they’re just stuck in a lack mentality.

Right.

You know, “The promises of God are not enough. God’s not gonna meet my need. God’s not gonna take care, God’s holding out.” Man, that mentality, it is so sad. It grieves the heart of Jesus.

Right. Yes, and then Jesus answers him back in verse 9 and says, “Philip, have I been so long with you and you not know me? Don’t you know whoever seen me has seen the Father? Why are you saying, ‘Show us the Father?'” In verse 10 he says, “Don’t you believe that I’m in the Father, and the Father in me? And the words that I speak to you, I speak not of myself, it’s the Father in me, he does the works.” In other words, Jesus said, “I’m speaking my Father’s words, and I’m doing my Father’s works.”

And I wanna say something really quick before we run outta time, and that’s how to get out of a lack mentality. A lot of people are stuck in a lack mentality. And that lack mentality, it doesn’t really matter how much money you make. I know people who are very wealthy, who are very just living in fear, and insufficient-type mentality. But number one is to thank God for what you have.

Right.

Begin to thank God. That’s what Jesus did with the five loaves and the two fish. He blessed it and he gave thanks for it.

Right.

So thank God, man, thankfulness will cut the chains of a lack mentality. And number two is be generous, give, you know.

Amen.

Start being a giver, maybe give into ministries that preach the gospel, that preach the promises of God. And number three, just do something outta the box. Do something extravagant for someone, for yourself, for someone you love, just-

Amen, right, yeah.

Do something, just break out.

Some people just really struggle, you know, in that realm. And you know what? If you’ll break out in some areas, it’ll help you move into new realm with God. Praise the Lord. Thanks for being with us today. I want you to remind you that we have our website. We have absolutely hundreds of hours of free teaching and a children’s curriculum. It’s absolutely free of charge, check it out. And if you don’t have a home church, we’d love to have you at Charis Christian Center.

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