Flourishing Financially In Impossible Situations by Pastor Sam Adeyemi: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Flourishing Financially in Impossible Situations

2 Kings 4:1-7 — One day the widow of a member of the group of prophets came to Elisha and cried out, "My husband who served you is dead and a creditor has come threatening to take my two sons as slaves. What can I do?" Elisha asked her, "What do you have in the house?" She replied, "Nothing except a small flask of olive oil." Elisha said, "Borrow as many empty jars as you can. Go into your house with your sons, shut the door, and pour the oil into the jars." She did as she was told. Soon every container was full. Elisha then said, "Sell the olive oil and pay your debts — and you and your sons can live on what is left over."

Run to God First

The first thing to do when you don't know what to do — especially financially — is what the widow did: she ran to God. But run to God with understanding, not with a purely religious mind.

Money is not mysterious. Money is a means of exchange of value. God did not create money — man created money. Before money existed, trade by barter existed. People exchanged items of relative value. With time, they created symbols to represent that value — copper, cowry shells, gold. Money is just a symbol representing value.

The reason you should run to God is because God is the ultimate creator of value. It is God that gave gold its value. It is God that gave wood its value. It is God that gives you value. If the whole money game is about value, go to him who defines all value.

God Will Uncover Your Value

At the River Jordan, God said of Christ, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." God defined his value. When Satan came to tempt Jesus, his first attack was, "If you are the Son of God" — attempting to make Jesus measure his value by proving it through material demonstration. Jesus replied: it is written, man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. He was saying, "I will never measure my value by my accomplishments. My value is defined by what God says I am."

Matthew 6:26-34 — Look at the birds. They don't plant or harvest, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren't you far more valuable than they? The erosion of your material possessions should not erode your intrinsic value — because it cannot. God has already expressed how he values you: he gave the life of his Son.

There Is Always Something God Can Use

God told the prophet to ask the widow, "What do you have in the house?" The Holy Spirit said to me: I will never allow anyone to get to the point where there is nothing in their lives that I can use to move them to the next level.

When God called Moses to lead Israel, Moses said, "I cannot." God replied, "What is in your hand?" A rod. Throw it down. It became a serpent. God was not taking it from Moses — he was showing him that when you release what you have to God and allow him to use it, he can do miracles with it.

You are not the one who determines the value of what you have — the person for whom it solves a problem determines the value. Malaria tablets have no value to a healthy man but are invaluable to someone dying of malaria.

Four Levels of Adding Value

1. Employee — You use your technical skills to help someone else achieve their goals and receive compensation for the value you contribute.
2. Manager — You add people skills to your technical skills and can now supervise 10, 50, or 100 people, achieving goals that one person could never achieve alone.
3. Leader — You have vision. You can move a whole group or organisation to cooperate toward a goal. Communication — the ability to sell ideas and motivate people — is the major skill here.
4. Creator — You have learned to use your creativity as a co-creator with God. Genesis 1:27 — made in his image means you can create. You bring something out of nothing that has value to people. Whether it is a business, a ministry, a product, or a service — you are creating at the highest level.

Turn the Oil Outward

The widow took small jars of oil. The logic would say: pour from big barrels into small jars. But the prophet reversed it — pour from the small into the many. When she turned the oil outward toward the empty jars — serving others, meeting their needs — a miracle flow began.

You must break free from self-centeredness. Take what God has given you, turn it toward other people, and the flow begins. Seek first the kingdom of God — God's system does not allow his people to go to bed hungry. The church that was birthed at Pentecost immediately began massive food distribution. Love is the basic value that drives God's system.