I.
GOD IS INTO
MULTIPLICATION.
1. The Word
Multiplies in us.
Mark 4:8
8 And other
fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and
brought forth, some thirty, and some
sixty, and some an hundred.
2. God Multiplies
Resources
1 Kings 17:2-15
“…Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the
Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan…6 The
ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the
evening; and he drank from the brook. 7 And it happened
after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the
land. 8 Then the word
of the Lord came to him, saying,
9 “Arise, go to Zarephath…See, I have commanded a widow there
to provide for you.” 10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And
when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering
sticks. And he called to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a
cup, that I may drink.” 11 And as she was going to get it, he
called to her and said, “Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.”12 So
she said, “As the Lord your God
lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil
in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and
prepare it for myself and my son, that
we may eat it, and die.” 13 And Elijah said to her, “Do
not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first,
and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son. 14 For thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘The bin of flour
shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth.’ ”
15 So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah;
and she and he and her household ate
for many days. 16 The bin of flour was not used up, nor
did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the LORD, which He spoke by Elijah.
Luke
9:11-17
10 And the
apostles, when they had returned, told Him all that they had done. Then He took
them and went aside privately into a deserted place belonging to the city
called Bethsaida. 11 But when
the multitudes knew it, they followed Him; and He received them and spoke to
them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who had need of healing. 12 When the day began to wear away,
the twelve came and said to Him, “Send
the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and
country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here.” 13 But
He said to them, “You give them something to eat.” And they
said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food
for all these people.” 14 For there were about five thousand
men. Then He said to His disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of fifty.”
15 And they did so, and made them all sit down.16 Then
He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed
and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. 17 So
they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were
taken up by them.
2 Corinthians
9:6
6 But this I
say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows
bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 So let each one give
as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a
cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound
toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an
abundance for every good work. 9 As it is written: “He has
dispersed abroad, He has
given to the poor; His
righteousness endures forever.” 10 Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread
for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of
your righteousness.
II.
GOD’S
MULTIPLICATION IS CONNECTED TO COVENANT.
1. God Multiplied
Abraham.
Genesis 17:1-8
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him,
“I am Almighty God; walk before me and be blameless. 2 And I will make My covenant between Me and
you, and will multiply you exceedingly… 6 I will make
you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come
from you. 7 And I
will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in
their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and
your descendants after you.
2. God Multiplied
Israel from Egypt.
Exodus 3:21-22
21 And I will give this people favor
in the sight of the Egyptians; and it shall be, when you go, that you shall not go empty-handed. 22 But
every woman shall ask of her neighbor, namely, of her who dwells near her
house, articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing; and you shall put
them on your sons and on your daughters. So
you shall plunder the Egyptians.
Exodus 12:35-36
35 Now the children of Israel had
done according to the word of Moses, and they had asked from the Egyptians
articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing. 36 And the Lord
had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted
them what they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.
Exodus 25:1-8
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 “Speak
to the children of Israel, that they bring Me
an offering. From everyone who gives
it willingly with his heart you
shall take My offering. 3 And this is the offering which you
shall take from them: gold, silver, and bronze… 8 And let them make Me a sanctuary,
that I may dwell among them.
3. Promised Blessing
is always for Covenant.
Deuteronomy 8:18
18 “And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives
you power to get wealth, that He may
establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this
day.
Deuteronomy 28:1-14
“Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His
commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the
earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and
overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord
your God: 3 “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed
shall you be in the country. 4 “Blessed shall be the fruit of
your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the
increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. 5 “Blessed
shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 6 “Blessed shall
you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. 7 “The
Lord will cause your enemies who
rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against
you one way and flee before you seven ways. 8 “The Lord will command the blessing on you in
your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you
in the land which the Lord your
God is giving you. 9 “The
Lord will establish you as a holy
people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the
commandments of the Lord your God
and walk in His ways. 10 Then all peoples of the earth shall
see that you are called by the name of the Lord,
and they shall be afraid of you. 11 And the Lord will grant you plenty of goods, in
the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce
of your ground, in the land of which the Lord
swore to your fathers to give you. 12 The Lord will open to you His good treasure,
the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the
work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. 13 And the Lord
will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and
not be beneath, if you heed the
commandments of the Lord your God,
which I command you today, and are careful to observe them. 14 So
you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to
the right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
4. Jesus Taught We Are
Stewards.
Luke 16:1-13
He also said to His disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was
brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. 2 So he
called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of
your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.’ 3 “Then
the steward said within himself, ‘What shall I do? For my master is taking the
stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. 4 I
have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may
receive me into their houses.’ 5 “So he called every one of his
master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my
master?’ 6 And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ So he said
to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7 Then
he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ So he said, ‘A hundred measures
of wheat.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ 8 So
the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the
sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. 9 “And
I say to you, make friends for
yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.
10 He who is faithful
in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. 11 Therefore
if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to
your trust the true riches? 12 And if you have not been
faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own? 13 “No
servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the
other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
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