Jentezen Franklin - God's Economy System
If you have your Bible, I want you to open it with me to the book of 2 Corinthians 12. This is the apostle Paul speaking and he says, "I will very gladly spend, and be spent for your souls though the more abundantly I love you, the less I feel like I'm loved". He said, "I will very gladly," Not grievously, not having, "I will gladly spend and be spent for souls". I love that. And then I wanna read one other quick verse of scripture from Acts 13:36 this is a beautiful ending and its words spoken about David and the end of his life, "For David," Listen to these words, "After he had served his own generation by the will of God fell asleep and was buried with his fathers". He served his own generation.
Really, each of us are supposed to serve our own generation, that is, if you don't like the way things are, you are called in every generation, I think about people in our military, I think about people: doctors, and nurses, and all kinds of people who serve. They're serving their generation. The person who puts the tires on your car at the service station or whatever, whatever you do in life you are to serve, you are to contribute, you are to spend and be spent and serve your generation. The Bible says of David, "He served his generation in the will of God". In other words, he did the will of God for his life. He did what he was put on this Earth, the purpose for which he was born, he did it.
If you're a part of a generation it's harder for you, an older generation, it's harder for you to serve them. I speak for myself, I don't understand the younger generation. I don't understand their dress, I don't understand their music, I don't understand their stuff, the rings in their noses and ears. I'm not against it, I just don't understand it. It was different so I'm gonna influence the best I can, but when God wants to touch that generation, He'll raise somebody up in that generation and I can equip them, and I can help them but God uses people out of their generation to touch their generation. Say, "Amen," somebody. I think when I read the scripture about when they were released from Babylonian captivity, and it's so typical of how things are as people, one generation gets older, and a new generation comes alone. The Bible said, "God told them to rebuild the temple". And the scripture said, "When they laid the foundation and had built the temple, that the young generation, the now generation, they were shouting, and they were happy".
And you know what the Bible said? Said, to old people, that older generation was sitting over in the corner crying. Crying at the dedication of the new temple because it didn't look like it used to be, "It's not like the church we grew up in". And it's always been that way. And it will always be that way. And I don't wanna be that old man that does that, I wanna cheer 'em on. I wanna say, "Hey, I got some money, let me help you do that". Right? I got something that I can contribute to you. It's really something when you understand, because a lot of times what happens to people is their future, you're doomed when your future gets behind you instead of in front of you. Israel kept letting their future get behind them. And so, they would be moving into the promised land, but they would start whining, and they would start saying, "I remember the leeks, and the garlics, and what we had in Egypt".
And the most amazing thing is the further you get away from your past, the better it looks. Because they forgot about the slime pits, they forgot about feeding their sons to crocodiles, they forgot about the whip beating their back and chains, they forgot about the little nasty huts they were living in, they forgot about the scarcity of food and making bricks out of straw, working 20-hours a day in slavery. And they actually would allow their future to be put in their past and put behind them. And that's what happens to people when they start living in the good old days and how it used to be. It wasn't all that great, the further you go back the better it looks. Israel forgot what God had done. I want to boldly proclaim today that God's got great things ahead in all of us, in our future, great things. Great things.
I heard this story and I wanna give it to you. I'mma pull all this together and you'll understand exactly what we're trying to say up here today. But this little story I heard was about a man who was growing upon a farm with his grandad, and he would spend most of the summers there with his grandad and he said that they would just work, work, work, all the time on the farm. Had an old farm place, had fences that had to be repaired, and barns, and all kinds of stuff. And there was particularly one field that he said, "Every summer for year, after year, after year, they had to go out and at some point in the day after they'd worked hard, they had a old flatbed trailer pulled by a mule, and they would pick up heavy rocks, just pick up rocks and out 'em on that trailer, you know, and they 'em across the street and throw 'em off. And the bad thing is", he said that "The field was positioned around some little hills and stuff and every time it would rain it would just gully wash some of those rocks and they", he said, "We'd get the biggest piles out and then there'd be more that come from every direction". And he said, "Our whole life, my whole childhood I remember one thing about that farm of my grandfather is picking up those rocks and putting 'em on that trailer".
And he said that his grandfather died at some point, and they buried him there on the property, and put rocks all around his burial place. And they said that, you know, they sold the home place, the family did after a certain amount of time it all went to somebody else. And they had a family reunion 20 years later and he went home to his family, and he had not been there for many, many years. And someone had bought the old home place, and they had added onto it and fixed it up. And the yards were manicured, and the house was absolutely stunning and gorgeous, and they'd torn down the old barns and just redone everything and did it their way. And had a swimming pool and all this and said, and even beside them, the field, that huge field that they had year after year picked up rocks with his grandfather. The guy had corn in it, and he said, the stalks were taller than he was. And the thought hit him so strong that that man is eating corn out of the same field that all my granddaddy ever did was pick up rocks out of.
And so, he got emotional about it, pulled the car over, got out and tore down one of the corn stalks and I don't think he had permission to do it, and went over and laid it on his grandfather's grave. And he said, "Grandad I just wanted you to know that you picked up rocks, so another generation could eat corn". And, you know, when you think about it, one generation picks up rocks so someone else can eat corn. The gathering of rocks is hard, and strenuous, and heavy. There's heavy lifting for the rock gatherer, and he doesn't always get to eat the corn. He doesn't always get to see everything that the heavy lifting is going to do, but you realize, "I'm doing this not just for me, but I'm doing it for someday a generation that will eat corn where I just picked up, where I had toiled, and I had labor, and I had sacrifice, and I have skin-up knuckles, and I have cut up hands, and broken fingernails, but it's beautiful because there's a generation that is going to eat corn because a previous generation picked up rocks".
Turn to somebody who looks old and say, "Thank you". All you old people stand up. How many of you are 40 and up? You're old, stand up. Give 'em a big hand. Hey, I love you guys. I love you guys. I don't wanna be one of you, but I want, I love you, amen. That's funny. That's funny. Now, young people turn and say, "Can I have some money to eat after church"? Just go ahead, go on and get it over with. It's good, good moment.
Alright, let me finish my little sermon. Haggai 2:8, now this is where it's all gonna come together just building a little something here. God Almighty declares in Haggai 2:8, "The silver is mine, and the gold, says the Lord of hosts". God says, "I own it all. Everything the Earth has of value it is mine". And yet the odd thing about it is God doesn't ever carry any money on Him. Jesus never had any money on Him although the silver and the gold was His. He's like me, I don't carry money, I don't carry cash on me. I carry a plastic credit card, usually, that's about it. And if I break down and their machine's broke, they not getting paid, y'all gon' have to come get me or something, I don't know. But I'm just telling you I'm broke, ask anybody I'm broke all the time. I have money I just never see it. I have it, it's out there somewhere. Cherise knows where it's all at.
I think for some reason I get little allowances. I get allowances, $20, $50, and I feel like I'm a rich man, I really do. If I've got $20, I feel like I'm ready to go on a long trip. Think of a God who has silver and a God who has all the gold, He owns it, but He never carries. If I were God, I'd at least carry some diamonds in one pocket, some gold nuggets in another, and put some silver bars on my backpack and, because you never know when you gon' wanna feed 5,000 people. You never know when your taxes are gonna need to be paid and you don't have any money. Why wouldn't he carry around money? Because the thing that you have to understand about Jesus and about God is in God's economy, this is really what we're talking about, in God's economy He does not spend money, He spends people.
When God is going to do something in the world, He does not buy the lost with money, He doesn't put silver and gold in His pocket, He puts you, and He puts you, and He puts you, and He puts you in His pocket. And He says, "Alright, I need something done in the Earth and I don't spend money, I spend people. And I'm gonna spend you, you're gonna, this person that you're about to buy is gon' cost you. I'm gon' spend your prayer life. I'm gon' spend your stress life. I'm gon' spend your fasting. I'm gonna spend all those tithing dollars you give. I'm gon' spend, I'm gon' spend everything you've got". And if God is spending you over some situation, it's only because He's buying somebody. So, when you go home as a parent and you feel spent, and you feel used up, and you lay there and scratch your head, just know that that's part of the process. That's why the apostle Paul said what he said, "I am willing to spend and be spent". Where did he get that concept from?
Alright, let's go, Acts 7. Listen to this, "They cried with one voice stopped their ears, and they ran at him in one accord. And they cast him out of the city," speaking of Steven. "and they stoned him". "And the witness," This is so important, "Laid down their clothes," the witnesses laid down their clothes, the rock throwers laid down their clothes, "at the feet of a young man named Saul". Do you know who Saul was? Saul would become the great Apostle Paul, but he was the man who was persecuting the church.
Now, I want you to see this picture, look up here just one moment. So, you got Steven who is a good man, full of faith, full of the Holy Ghost, full of miracles, full of anointing, full of grace, full of love. And you've got Saul of Tarshish who is full of hate, full of violence, full of anger, full of religion, full of persecuting the church, and God says, "I'm about to make a purchase. I'm about to buy this man that nobody sees value in the kingdom". Because anybody in their right mind in the kingdom would say, "Hey, God it's a good time for a miracle. Why don't you buy the good man and let's waste the bad man? Let's let him die". But God says, "No, I'm about to buy somebody whose name is Saul and two chapters later he's gonna encounter me. I'm gonna knock him off his horse and he's gonna ask me, 'What would you have me to do?' And I'm gon' tell him, 'I'll have you to write half the New Testament. I want you to write the epistles. I want you to write the book of Romans. I want you to write, tell people about my grace. I want you to take the gospel to all over the planet, all over the world. But in order for me to buy him I've gotta spend a good man".
God will spend a good man to buy a bad man. God will spend a good person to buy a bad person because God sees the value that nobody else sees. By the way, I'm so glad that when Jesus went to the cross, He was willing to spend and be spent so that you and I could be bought, and could be cleansed, and could be forgiven. They killed a good man. They killed a holy man. They killed a righteous man, and they bought a dirty man, an unclean man, an unworthy man, but that's how God does it. He doesn't walk around with money in His pocket. He says, "Gimme your life. Surrender everything to me, I got you. You surrender, you love me, you're giving me your time, your talent, your treasure, you care". "Yes, Lord". Good. And then when He sees somebody that's costly, He will reach in His pocket and He will say, "You're about to go through stuff. You're about to suffer. You're about to be hit with rocks. You're about to be, your life is gonna be shortened".
You don't even know why God takes certain people, but sometimes God takes people to buy people. He spends people. The only reason some of you are sitting here this morning listening to this preacher is there was somebody that God said, "If that one comes to be with me, that one will bow their knee". And you don't take guilt on that, that's God's stuff. But I would've loved to been in Heaven. See, the thing about picking up rocks is you don't ever get to see the corn. Steven never understood when he was being stoned, he just looks up and he sees this young kid named Saul standing there grinning, laughing at him being stoned to death as they put a pile of coats at his feet.
And that's one of the last things Steven saw, he had no idea this guy's, God's gon' re... He didn't know it. He went to his grave not knowing it. He didn't know that Acts 7 where he died is not the end. There's an Acts chapter 8, there's an Acts chapter 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20, 25, 28 chapters of miracles. Can you imagine the day that they cut the apostle Paul's head off? Can you imagine the day that he stepped on the streets of gold? And Steven still don't know what's going on, he's up in Heaven, he's walking on streets of gold, and he's waving at people, "Hey. Hey". And he bumps into that guy who was standing up on the hill holding the coats of the rock throwers. And I could almost see Steven say, "What are you doing here"? To the apostle Paul. "The last time I saw you, you were grinning and laughing at me getting stoned, getting hit with rocks. I was under the pressure of heavy rocks".
That's why the apostle Paul said in my text, 2 Corinthians 12, "I am willing," Listen, "To gladly spend and be spent for your souls". What he was saying was, "The Lord did that for me. When I never got over it". Look at me everybody. Do you understand what that story is telling you? That pile of coats identifies God orchestrated that Saul would be there and watch Steven die. He would never get over that moment. He heard him, in one of those verses he said, "Don't lay it to their charge, Lord". While they were hitting him with rocks, "Lord, don't lay it to their charge, don't charge them with this. I forgive them". And it messed him up, that Paul as watching this. And it messed him up and he said, "I could never get over that moment". When you were spent, it bought me. And now, he says, "I gladly spend". Throw it back up. "And I am willing to be spent for your souls". And I like how he ends it, but you probably won't get a lot of credit for it down here. He said, "Seems like more I give, the less I'm loved and cared about".
So, don't become a victim, and don't become a little whiny box. Just say, "Well, you know, this is how it goes. But I was never laboring for them in the first place, they just get to eat the corn. I was laboring for Him". Hallelujah! When you understand what I'm preaching today, when you get to a place where you say, "Spend me, Lord. Take my time, take my talent, take my treasure, take whatever I've got. Make my life count. I wanna serve my generation. I'm tired of criticizing it, I wanna see it turn around". God's not through with America. God's not through with this nation. God's not through with this generation. God's not through with this city, with this state. God is not through. Somebody's gotta serve their own generation and say, "We can turn it around and we will".