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Prosperity Brings Envy
(But In God’s controlled prosperity there is peace).
Preamble:
People pray to be prosperous and might take any of these actions to achieve this:
(1) Some believe in hard work and so trust in their ability.
(2) Some believe in short cuts and may rely on demons, fraud or cheating, People call this strategy sharp practices; and
(3) some have trusted in God, while doing the best they can.
Prosperity is the wish of God towards all creation . Apostle John the divine, drew the attention of this subject when speaking to Gaius in 3 John 1 : 2:
1:2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. (3 John 1:2).
He that aspires to be wealthy is not breaking God’s law, the one thing is that it should be pursued with godliness because :
1) PROSPERITY MAKES PEOPLE VISIBLE.
2) VISIBILITY BRINGS ENVY AND TROUBLES; AND
3) ONLY GOD COVERS THOSE HE HAS MADE VISIBLE; OTHERWISE IT IS TROUBLE TO BE RICH.
The best way to be prosperous is to trust God in the search, because if God prospers you, He will also protect you. But in any other method which a man adopts, the individual must find protection outside God. Prosperity makes a person very visible and this attracts envy.
We will use Issac as a test case of this sermon today.
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Let us go to the scriptures. Abraham handed over to Isaac. In the course of time there was famine in the land and Isaac must have considered to relocate :
“And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; (Genesis 26: 2-3).
GOD RECONFIRMED THE PROMISE:
26:4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. (Genesis 26:4-5)
Thus Isaac sojourned in Gerar of the Philistines. It will be an error to think that because God has taken you to prosper in any place in life, there will be no challenges. You have to obey God and He will give you the power to face the challenges, which might crop up. So Isaac had to face some challenges to be able to sit on God given prosperity.
First Challenge In Gerar.
Rebekah was beautiful, and Isaac taught they will kill him for her sake and lied that she was his sister. But this could not be sustained, because Abimelec the king discovered that Rebekah was the wife of Issac.
Beauty Makes Women Visible.
Ugly women may not be the attraction of most men even though some men are dogs.
Most men have lost their lives because of men who secretly lust after their wives. Examples abound and Uriah was never different.
Abimelec king of the Philistines charged all the men concerning Isaac and the wife because he percieved sone possibilities.
Read : Genesis 26:10-11.
Isaac settled in the land and sowed and became very prosperous. You can note what happened in the following verses:
Reading from Genesis 26:
“Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him”.
“And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great”:
“For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants: and the Philistines envied him”. (Genesis 26:12-14).
THE CATTLE HERDSMEN OF GERAR.
YOUR ENEMY MUST LOOK FOR A WAY TO VEX YOU.
These people started closing the wells which had been dug even from Abraham.
If you read from Genesis 26: 15-22 you will notice that the frustration of the herdsmen and even the king of the Philistines said to Issac :
“……….. Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we. And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. (Genesis 26 : 16-17).
Prosoerity brings war.
Because God was behind the prosperity of Issac, He God made the Philistines to be afraid of him.
Wells and the struggles to Rehoboth.
Gen. 26:22 And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the LORD hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.
Gen. 26:23 And he went up from thence to Beersheba.
Gen. 26:24 And the LORD appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham’s sake.
Gen. 26:25 And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac’s servants digged a well. (Genesis 26 : 22-25).
Promise of God must be realised through struggle. By the time Isaac reached Rehoboth, he had really struggled to take hold of the promise.
When Israel was about to take the promised land some of them said to Moses:
Numbers 13:33 “And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight”. (Numbers 13:33).
Lazy people cannot harvest honey. So if you want to prosper without sweat, note this, “you are entirely on your own”. God will prosper you as you go on His course and will give you the covering in the land He has promised to you..
May God bless this message and please pray over it and share this with your friends. This is a message for all times.
Prayer: You oh Lord, has brought me out of Egypt, to take me to the land of my prosperity. Give me the power and courage to face every opposition in the land which you have promised me in Jesus name. Amen
Miracle Valley Gospel Ministries, February 2018 Sermons.
email: outreach.mvgm@yahoo.com
Phone : +2348037179735
website : www.mvgmng.org
+2348037179735. 18 – 2- 2018.