Faith in Times of Economic Instability

0:00:00     Hey, sometimes I hear that the stock market might crash or the economy might crash. Well, it might, but you don’t have to crash with it. I’m going to tell you how to stay on top on the next more faith more Life podcast. Hello, everyone. Welcome to another more faith more Life podcast. Today we’re going to talk about faith in times of uncertainty. And this is certainly the time of uncertainty, isn’t it? And we’re specifically going to talk today about the economy and having faith in times of economic instability.

0:00:30     All right, so here’s the deal. As people of God, we’ve got to be stable. So we can’t let the instability of other things and other circumstances and outside things affect our stability, where we become unstable in all our ways. We have a double mind. We have a mind. Oh, God’s good. God’s going to help me. But, oh, no. Oh, no. Look around you. Oh, no. Oh, no. So we become unstable in all our ways because sometimes we’re thinking of the mind of God and the promises of God and the love of God.

0:01:01     Oh, no. We’re looking around, look at the economy, look at the prices of everything. So what we want to do today is talk about faith in the time of instability when the economy doesn’t look so good. Now, we don’t know. We hope it gets better. But that’s right now, as I’m speaking to you today, not so good. We have a lot of situations going on in the world that could affect our economy and prices and empty shelves maybe when it comes down to around holiday time, are we going to have everything you want to buy? I don’t know, but that’s not going to make me unstable in my ways.

0:01:40     So how do we do that? How do we have faith in times of uncertainty and faith in times of economic instability? As far as the stock market, food shortages, rumors of war, all these things about what’s the value of the dollar and of course, the national debt. Well, what do we do? Well, first of all, we have to get ourselves into a different economy. We need to move ourselves over from regular worldly economy, which is still there. And as we teach, you, don’t stick your head in the sand to pretend that there’s not the instability.

0:02:17     But you get yourself, while looking at the instability, you move yourself over into God’s stable economy. Cause he. Listen, God’s been in business a long time, and he’s still going to be in business, and he’s never going to go out of business. So we move ourselves over, move by faith, over into God’s economy, all right? And the first thing that I do, I did and still do is realize God’s economy is different than the world’s economy, okay? So the world’s economy is there’s only so much good in the world, and there’s only so much goods in the world, okay?

0:02:57     So therefore, if we only have so much good and so much goods, then I better scramble and get what I can get. And if I get it, I better hold on to it, because if I don’t, somebody else will get it. So that’s why. That’s totally against the kingdom of God. To where you hear over and over and over, we’re running out, or we. We have to be careful, or we’re going to run out. Now, I am not environmentalist, but I am a conservationist. In other words, conserve when you can conserve.

0:03:31     I’ve been known by my wife and family. I’m very conservative when it comes to money because I like to save money. I enjoy saving it, putting it away and saving it more than I do spending it. Well, after so many years, that’s going to pay off. If you enjoy saving, being conservative, conserving money rather than spending it. And we do have to spend it, don’t we? We have to spend it on things. Well, years will pass, and you’ll have more conserved money than you had spending money, but you still spend everything. In fact, you know, the Bible says that we should seek first the kingdom of God, I and his righteousness.

0:04:09     And when we do that, all these things we probably mentioned this before will be added unto you. So by I can afford to save money because things are being added to me through my life, not just in one day or one year. Through my whole life, things have been added to me because I’m going to spend time seeking and running and thinking after God’s kingdom and his righteousness. And then that promise comes to life for me.

0:04:38     Because it takes faith to do that. It takes faith not to. Not to start squandering yourself on trying to grab, grab, grab. And also, it takes faith not to be in anxiety all the time. Anxious, fearful, fearful. We’re going to run out. We’re going to run out. We’re going to run out. And in God’s economy, that doesn’t happen. And in God’s world, it doesn’t happen. I’ve heard a lot of people that talk about, you know, we’re running out of land. We’re going to get so many people that we. We’re going to run out of land. And, you know, if those must be people that don’t live in the United States, even in our neighborhood here in Kansas City, you can take off and drive from our house right in the city and pretty soon you’re still in the city.

0:05:22     But there’s nothing for miles and miles around and it’s still the city limits. So you can put, I think you can put the whole world somewhere. Could live in one in the United States, probably. Big place. Big place. But so you’ve got to start looking in God’s economy. And in God’s economy, first thing, there’s no shortage. So that’s why it’s so enjoyable to be in God’s economy. You know why? Because you can be blessed and I don’t have to worry or be concerned that if you get blessed, well, now we’re going to run out. Where’s my blessing?

0:05:58     So now I got to go take his blessing. Take her blessing. I got to go take. I can’t give, I can’t be generous because I don’t have enough, but that person does. So I got to go take from them and give it to myself. And God says, no, you don’t. My economy is plenty. So you can be happy when someone else is blessed and someone else is doing well. They got that new house, they got a new car. They got, they looked, they dress nice or whatever.

0:06:27     Be happy for them. You know why? Cause what they have doesn’t take away from what you can have. Cause in God’s economy, there is plenty for everyone. Nothing runs out. Okay. There’s plenty. So I like to conserve because God’s treasures are worth conserving. God’s world is worth conservation. We don’t want to squander. We’re not people of wasteland, but we’re also not people of fear. That feels like I have to take or change or cut off because we’re not going to have enough. We’re not going to have enough trees or something, you know?

0:07:03     So of course we are. You just got to study the numbers a little bit better. So. So then we have to move our minds over to out of God, out of the world economy, into God’s economy. That there’s plenty. Okay, so God has plenty. What I need to do is move on. So his plenty fills that gap in the economy which is unstable or maybe is running short. But I’ve got God, see, I’ve got God’s economy. I have God’s provision.

0:07:39     And for me personally, I’ve been laying up for myself treasures in heaven for so many years. I just need to call some of those treasures in now. If I need to, right now, I don’t need to, but if I would need to, I could call in that, right? And Paul wrote and said, you know, when you’re giving with your money, your money, you’re giving your money to the ministry. He says you’re adding to your account, your heavenly account.

0:08:07     So we need to do that. Because today, at least today and looking around, we’ve got plenty. Here at my house, we got plenty. I don’t think the shelves are empty or the store, but. But if it would go there, if something would change in the world, I’ve got my treasures in heaven, and I’ve got an account in heaven that I can begin to draw off of. And God’s got plenty. So now I fill the gap. I fill the gap in my life with. With the blessings of God. While other people feel uncertain and undead, the instability of the economy and gas prices and food prices, then I’ll have plenty. Cause I’ve been laying up for treasures, and I’m in God’s economy.

0:08:49     And God says, and Bible says, my God shall supply your need according not your riches, not their riches, but according to his riches in the kingdom of God. And by Christ Jesus, so he’s got riches. And so we get in those situations where it looks lack, it looks hard, it looks impossible. We can call upon the Lord and his riches, because we have God’s economy. And my God shall supply. So if it says that if the Bible says, my God will supply all your needs, well, then God is not only the God of love, he is the God of supply.

0:09:30     My God shall supply. My God shall love you. My God shall forgive you. My God shall have mercy on you. Right? My God will care about you and all those things, but my God will supply you. And that’s where people fall apart, isn’t it? They can get. Well, God loves me. Okay, but that’s just kind of a relational feeling. But if God’s a supplier and you don’t have any of that supply, you got a ways to go.

0:09:57     And a lot of people think that our economy here and around the world could become more, you know, unstable. Well, then you need to know how to operate in God’s economy. So the first thing is you have to get rid of the fear of running out. Okay? God’s not going to run out. That’s not the problem. Then you have to get yourself out of relying only on the world’s economy. It’s good to have it. Good to have a paycheck. Yeah. And that’s the way we do. We work we get paid, right, but that’s good too.

0:10:28     But there’s a whole other economy. And that’s God’s economy that adds the supply line to your house. That if the world comes up short, you’ve got a supply. Cause you’ve laid up treasures in heaven. You’ve given to your account in heaven. So now you got treasures in heaven. Your account in heaven that Paul talked about when he said, I’m not asking you to do this for me, he says, I’m asking you to give, to increase your heavenly account.

0:11:02     So we got treasures in heaven, we’ve got an account in heaven, and then we’ve got a supplier in heaven. God is our supply, and my God shall supply. And instead of being like a pagan that runs after things, you call yourself Christian, it says pagans run after things. That’s what Jesus said. But me, I hope you, we’re going to, if you need to change, change the direction, start running after God. Give God your attention, spend time, read the Bible, make sure you start being a great attender at church.

0:11:34     I’d love you to go to a church that really preaches the word of God in the Bible, but that’s harder to find. You’ll have a reference to the scripture, but then you’ll hear humanism, secularism, me ism, all that stuff mixed in with it. But I like it. I just like a Bible preaching person. So you want to do that. Cause that’s where the blessings are. Cause faith comes by hearing the word of God. And so you want to build your faith there.

0:11:57     And, and so, and so now as our faith moves into God’s economy, which doesn’t run out, where God is a supplier, now we have to free ourselves from our timing. Our timing. Cause we get nervous because we think it should happen faster than it is or it happened right now. I prayed right now, but I didn’t see anything right now. Sometimes I do right now and sometimes I don’t, but it doesn’t matter. In my heart, faith has already called for what I hope for and is the evidence of what I haven’t seen yet.

0:12:33     So I’m okay with God’s timing. Doesn’t have to be today. I’m solid on the rock. I’m living on the rock of Jesus, so it’s okay. And so I can trust in God’s timing and God’s provision. So I’m going to get myself over in his, his economy. I’m going to live by faith regardless of what I see. God’s not going to run out. God will supply my need. He’s a supplier. So I need to just continue to seek God, and then let’s go one more.

0:13:02     And if. Even if it gets worse, we’re not going to say it is. Or if the economy worsens and it gets harder, what do you do? Well, what the natural person does, the normal person does is they start grabbing what they have and protecting it. Right. They want to begin to protect it, and they get nervous there’s not enough. We’re going to run out. We say, well, God doesn’t run out. And then we got that. We have our treasures in heaven.

0:13:30     We’ve got our account in heaven. I. And we’ve got our supplier in heaven. All right. All involved. So that’s all heaven. Now what do I do? Well, I have to exercise my faith all the time. I don’t get to, or I don’t need to look around at the economy or the gas prices, food prices and energy prices, all those things which are real. And it is hard. Buying a house is hard, right? Getting. Going to the grocery store. You see that line of people, and I can watch them go, like, oh, God.

0:14:03     You know, somebody told me the other day, they bought. They bought a box of cereal for $8. $8. I don’t know what it was. It better been good, right? It should be Cheerios with bits of gold in them, right? $8. Okay. And that’s discouraging for people and fearful, but I see, I’ve done all these things, and I’m not going to look at the cost of that box of cereal and say, now I have to change who I am because of a box of cereal.

0:14:34     I’m a generous person. I want to give to the kingdom of God, and I’ve been given to the kingdom of God. But, oh, no, can’t now, cereal, Cheerios, or whatever, it was $8, and it goes on and on. Well, I can’t do that. I can’t be generous. Well, I’m going to let the economy of our nation change who I am. I was generous. I was not anxious, I was not fearful, but, oh, that cereal or that. Now I’m going to move back into worry and fear, and I’m going to start grabbing what I have.

0:15:07     Oh, this is not going to work. Nope. You’re in God’s economy. See, we’re talking about faith in times of uncertainty and in economic instability. I’m in God’s kingdom. So what am I going to do? I am going to continue in God’s economy without fear because God doesn’t run out. I’m going to continue in God’s economy because it’s stable. He’s always been stable. And it won’t change. He’s got more than enough. It won’t run out.

0:15:36     And he is a supplier. I have an account in heaven. I got treasures in heaven. I got a supplier in heaven. So now I can’t change my behavior. So what am I going to do? Or, well, I can’t back away. Maybe you haven’t got, maybe you haven’t got the clue here. The clue I’m giving you is maybe you haven’t been that generous. Maybe you’re not a giver. You do already hoard and hold on and keep everything for yourself.

0:16:01     Well, what I would do in times of instability, in time when the economy looks the way it does right now, uncertain times, you do what a child of God would do, not what a child of the world would do. And what will the child of God? He says, well, you know what? In all this instability and everything, looking around, you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to do what’s not natural to mankind. I’m going to give some away what you can’t do. You know how much groceries, you know how much oil costs? You know how much our heating bill was, our air condition?

0:16:30     Yep, I do, but watch, I’m going to give some money away. I’m going to give more money to the kingdom of God, this ministry. I’m going to give money to Steve Gray ministries. I’m going to give money to more faith, more life. I’m going to give money to my church, whatever you are. Well, where do you come from? You’re from outer space? No, I am from the kingdom of God, and I trust the Lord. I trust the Lord in all things.

0:16:56     Cause what? Got treasures in heaven? I got an account in heaven. I got a supplier in heaven. So all my needs are going to be met, and they’re going to come to me, because in times of instability, instead of switching and focusing just on me, just on my money, just on my economy and what’s happening around the world, in the midst of that, I’m going to start seeking the Lord, chase after him, not worrying about a thing, and know that God is going to meet all my needs, because he is my supplier in all things.

0:17:28     Can you do that with me? Can you get this? Do you understand what I’m saying? Because most people believe it’s going to get more uncertain, because it’s going to before it’s going to get uncertainty. So you want to get in God’s economy and think like God? God’s not running out. God’s not afraid. Of anything. God’s got a big supply. I’ve been spending time. If you’ve been. And maybe you’re. Maybe the money you’ve been given has been on the low side. But if you’ve been given some money consistently to the kingdom of God and you’ve been attending church, and you don’t forget to talk to God, and you open your Bible once in a while, all those things, you’ve got to pursue the kingdom of God, then, no, you may have a small account in heaven, but you still got an account in heaven.

0:18:10     And you can add to it now by your generosity, because that’s what Paul said when they gave money. He said, you’re not giving it to the person in need. And Paul says, I want you to give, not because I’m in need. Now, listen, Paul didn’t say, I’m going to pretend I don’t have a need. I’m going to pretend I have no needs. Because God, no, he says, yeah, I’m in need. He needed the money. He needed some supplies.

0:18:37     But he said, but I’m not asking you to give, to give my supply. Because I trust God is going to – God’s going to figure this out one way or the other. But for you personally, you’re laying up for yourselves treasures in heaven. You are. He says, I want you to do this. Because I want you to have a full bank account in heaven. A full account in heaven. Because God’s a supplier. And he not only supplies out of his supply because it says, my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches.

0:19:04     You can also get your supply out of your riches because you’ve laid up treasures for yourself in heaven. And you’ve got an account in heaven, and you got a supply house in heaven. And you got a father who knows how to help you in uncertain times and times of instability. But you’ve done it. You haven’t had. Then you’re not going to do nothing and start hoarding. And if you do that, if you just hang on everything for yourself, then, and forget God and forget God’s kingdom, forget God’s church, well, eventually it will run out and you’ll be starting to beg, or you’ll need government supply.

0:19:41     You’ll go to the government, or you’ll go to a friend and need them to loan you money because you’ve run out. But God doesn’t run out. So I’m trying to teach you how to not run out. You won’t run out if you do it God’s way. Stay generous. Keep your account open in heaven. And believe God and be faithful to God, because God will be faithful back to you. And so this is all I can tell you. This is what I have to say.

0:20:04     This is what I tell you to do. And don’t start pulling everything in out of fear and anxiety. Let loose of it, right? Let loose of it. Don’t change who you’re supposed to be, because the world has changed what it is and what it is to be. Don’t change yourself. You be who you’re supposed to be, and it’ll all work out in your favor. Right? And God will be your supplier. Oh, it’s a great life. I hope you’ll get this word today.

0:20:30     In times of uncertainty and economic instability, God doesn’t run out, and neither will you. Well, remember to go to our website, https://morefaithmorelife.com and check out the book,  If You Only Knew: A Guide to the Clueless Generation and the music CD I put out a few years ago, You Will Restore. I haven’t promoted it. I’m not trying to sell CD’s. But you might be surprised.

0:20:58     Download one song and find out if I can carry a tune. Or am I just an egotist who can’t sing? You ought to do that. Check out my other books too like When The Kingdom Comes, and the book that’s shaken up a lot of religion called My Absurd Religion. All that’s right there, Also be sure to like and follow us. Tell your friends, get on board. We’re going to need words like this. And if you’re not getting words like this where you come from or who you listen to, well, I’m not saying don’t listen to them, but I’d want, right now, I’d want to hear a man of faith who teaches me how to work in God’s economy.

0:21:30     No matter what happens, I’m not going to look around at everything else. I’m going to trust in God. Till next time. Bye.