John K. Jenkins Sr - The Keys to God's Prosperity (01/24/2026)
In this powerful message from Malachi 3 at a South African church, guest preacher John Jenkins shares the keys to God’s prosperity: returning to God by ending rebellion through robbing Him in tithes and offerings. He challenges believers to make tithing a priority—bringing the full 10% to the storehouse—promising that God will open heaven’s windows, pour out blessings beyond capacity, rebuke the devourer, and cause fruitfulness in every area of life.
Opening Prayer
Father, thank you for the privilege that You give us to worship You. Thank you for Your loving kindness and the multitude of Your mercies. I pray that our hearts would be open to receive Your word today. Speak to us, almighty God, that we might hear what Your Spirit is saying to the church on this day. In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen. Amen. All right. I’m glad to be back at my other house, my other home. I salute and honor your pastors. Thank God for Pastor Bert and Pastor Charet. Y’all know they are incredible people. Do y’all know that God blessed you with tremendous pastors? I’m so grateful for their friendship and how much they have played in my own personal life and the life of our church.
Greetings and Appreciation – Honoring Guests and Pastors
I also want to thank the Lord for the Loves—I’m sorry, CeCe Winans and her husband Alvin Love here today. What an incredible couple they are. I love them, and I just give them my love today. And you know, CeCe has a tremendous voice, but her personality and her character is even greater than her voice.
Now you know, I’ve been around a lot of professional artists, and some of them—it’s difficult to be around them. I don’t want to burst your bubble and your image of what they are and who they are. But I love being around Alvin and CeCe Winans, and they are tremendous people, and I love them.
I was at the Women’s Conference yesterday. I know I’m not a woman, but I was there. It was amazing. It was remarkable. And I’m going back refreshed. Oh, my wife is here today. I need to… Stand up, First Lady. I want y’all to see my bride. Stand up, baby.
Love for South Africa – A Place to Call Home
Now my wife don’t like to travel, so for her to come here—y’all must… Y’all know she love Charet and Bert and y’all—for her to fly 20 hours to come here 'cause I can’t get her to go 5 minutes down the street. But we thank the Lord. She loves… And just, I love… I love South Africa.
I tell people all the time: I could live here. This is a place I could live. If I ever relocate from the United States of America, this here is where I’m going.
The Keys to God’s Prosperity – From Malachi 3
I want you to open your Bibles to the book of Malachi. It’s the last book in the Old Testament, the book of Malachi. I want to talk to you today about the keys to God’s prosperity. Say that: the keys to God’s prosperity.
Say it. That’s kind of weak. Let me try that again: the keys to God’s prosperity. Say it. That’s what I’ve been assigned to talk to you about today—is how to have God’s prosperity in your life.
Personal Testimony – 50 Years of Faithfulness
In about 31 days, I’m going to turn 65. Yeah, go ahead, lean over to your neighbor, say: he looks so young. Go ahead, tell him. And I started putting what I’m going to talk to you about right now—I started putting this in practice in my life when I was 15. And so in 50 years of my life, I have always seen God meet every need in my life. Matter of fact, He goes beyond my needs. Yeah.
Now I can’t remember if I told y’all this or not, but since I’ve been with y’all, our church paid off its mortgage. Oh, that’s right. I know… I know that don’t mean… I know that don’t mean nothing to y’all. But we owed like $25 million, and we paid it off and still had money in the bank. Somebody say amen.
Yeah, that’s remarkable. And that’s after having built a Family Life Center that cost $25 million. This is US dollars—I don’t know what that amounts to in rand. All I know is a whole lot of rands. We paid that with cash—$25 million. We paid the building with cash.
God’s Supernatural Blessing – In Life and Ministry
So God’s favor and blessing smeared not only in my personal life, but the same principles that I put in place in my personal life, we put in place in our church. And we have seen God… I have seen God’s hand regularly bless my life and the ministry in supernatural ways.
And I just want to… I want to share with you today what those principles are. It’s nothing new. You know about it. But it becomes so easy for us to stray away, and it becomes easy for us to abandon what we know to do. And my assignment today is to try to challenge you today and to regurgitate it and to put it back in your mind and try to get you to a place of committing to it regardless of what the circumstances in your life might be.
Background on Malachi – God’s Final Words Before Silence
So Malachi chapter 3. Y’all in Malachi? Did y’all get that? Turn there real quick. Let me tell you a little bit about Malachi. Malachi is a prophet that God sent to Israel. And what is unique about Malachi is it’s the last book of the Old Testament. And God speaks to Israel through Malachi before He is about to shut the heavens down and not talk for 400 years.
There’s going to be 400 years of silence before God speaks again. What does God want to say to a people that He has become so disgruntled with, so unhappy with, as to why He’s going to get silent? Why? What is it that He wants to say to them?
I want to suggest to you that He might want to be saying the same thing He said to them to some of y’all. Look at your neighbor, say: I wonder if God wants to say this to you. Go ahead, look at him. And tell… Did y’all say that to the person next to… Malachi chapter 3.
God’s Call to Return – He Does Not Change
I want to start at verse number six. Here’s what God says to them. This is going to be His last words to them before He shuts it down—before this 400 years of silence. What does God say? Chapter 3:6: «For I am the Lord, I do not change; therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.
Yet from the days of your fathers you have gone away from My ordinances and have not kept them.»
You… You have walked away. God says: you’ve walked away from My precepts and My ordinances, and it’s bothering Me. How many of y’all know I don’t want to bother God? I might bother you, but I don’t want to bother God.
He says: you have not kept them. But then He says this—here’s what I love about God—He says: return to Me, and I will return to you. You know what I love about God? He’s always a God who gives you another chance.
You might stray away. You might forsake God. You might not do what you’re supposed to do. But God is a God who gives you another chance. And He says: you’ve not kept them, but if you return to Me, I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.
And then He says this: but you said, «In what way shall we return?»
That’s a great question. Now I got just a few points I want to talk to you about today. Here’s the first point. I want to say I got three points, and all of my points have subpoints. Go ahead, Pastor—say: go ahead with your points and subpoints.
Point 1: The Problem – Rebellion and Robbing God
The first point I want to highlight today is that Israel has a problem. That’s the first point: there’s a problem. Now somebody in your section has a problem. Go ahead, look and see if you can figure out who it is. Go ahead, look around. Don’t point to them. Just say: let me look around, see who might have a problem.
They have a problem. It’s a problem. And the problem—first, here’s what the problem is. He says in verse number seven: «Yet from the days of your fathers you have gone away from My ordinances.» And here’s my subpoint here: the problem is they have rebelled.
There’s a rebellion that’s going on. «From the days of your fathers you have gone away from My ordinances and have not kept them.» God says: that’s the problem. There is a problem of rebellion.
And I know that there are people here today—even though I don’t know you—but the Holy Ghost told me that there’s some rebellious jokers up in this camp. They rebelled. He says: you and your fathers have left the principles and the ordinances. And God says: I’m crying out for you to return. I’m asking you to come back.
Robbing God – In Tithes and Offerings
And what is the problem? They said—in answer to Him—"In what way shall we return?» How do we get back? How do we return? What’s the problem, and how do we get back? I’m glad you asked the question.
There is a problem: they’ve rebelled. And the way they have rebelled is mentioned in verse 8: «Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me.» But you say: «In what way have we robbed You?» And God says: «In tithes and offerings.»
I knew y’all were going to get quiet when I got to that point. I knew there would be some tension in the room because in church we don’t like to talk about money. We want the pastor to talk about everything but how we deal with our money.
But I come to get all in your business. I come to irritate you. I come to challenge you. I come to speak truth to you. I’m here to testify—to tell you that in 50 years that I’ve been tithing and paying my offerings, God has met my need. I never been hungry, never been in a bad space.
In 50 years, I never missed a day. I have never missed a week paying God my tithe. I’ve never gotten paid and not paid God my tithe. Go ahead, celebrate with me. Be happy for me. I want you to say: I’m next. I’m going to prosper in response to that question.
Understanding Tithing – 10% Belongs to God
That’s what God says: you robbed Me. What a strange question: will a man rob God? How can you rob God? That’s a strange question to ask. But yet, how can a human being ever take anything from God?
But yet that’s what they did. Because the truth of the matter is everything belongs to God. And all He asked us to do is give 10%. And some of us are struggling with that. He said: give Me 10%. That’s tithe. A tithe is 10%. A dime out of every dollar. A dollar out of every 10.
What do y’all have—rands? Is it… A rand 100 is 10 rands? Is it 10? Whatever—10 something out of whatever it is. It’s 10%. Y’all figured out. I don’t know what it is.
Now there’s a difference between being a robber and a thief. When you are a thief, you take it, and you don’t want it to be discovered that you did it. But a robber comes in seen, and he wants it, but he doesn’t care that you see that he did it.
God didn’t say you were a thief. He says you’re a robber. In other words, He saw you doing it. He saw you taking the money that belonged to Him and His kingdom and for advancing His program and for reaching the lost souls for the kingdom of God. And you put it in your pocket and used it for yourself.
Repercussions of Robbing God – A Curse on the Nation
He called you a robber. He said: and yet you have robbed Me in tithes and offerings. A robber also takes it by force. It defrauds. A thief takes it secretly, but a robber does it by trying to defraud and put it in his name.
Anytime you take something from God, it’s robbing God. Now you can rob me, but please, bro, don’t rob God. Some of you are going through some hell in your life right now 'cause you robbed God.
Wait a minute, let me tell you this. Because right here in the next verse—there are repercussions to your robbing. Somebody say: repercussions. Repercussions. What are the repercussions? It’s right here in verse 9: «You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me—even this whole nation.»
He said: everybody’s doing it. The whole nation is doing it. He says: you are cursed with a curse. You robbed Me. You have put yourself in a detestable position. You have put yourself in abomination before God because you’re robbing from God.
The last thing I want in my life is to have a curse from God on my life. You don’t want a curse from God on your life. And yet that’s what the repercussion is. It says right here plainly in verse number nine: you are cursed with a curse, for you robbed Me—even the whole nation.
That, my brothers, is the problem.
Challenge to the Young People – Start Tithing Now
Now I want to talk to you about this today because I want to… Where the young people at? Let me see where the young people are. I want to challenge you to put this in place in your life.
I don’t care how much money you earn. I don’t care what your circumstances might be. I don’t care how difficult life might treat you. I don’t care what it is. Honor this principle in your life. And I am a witness to you that over 50 years, I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging for bread.
Make it a practice in your life. Make it something that you do regardless of the circumstance. Every piece of dollar and every piece of rand that comes in your hand, honor God and give it to Him with your tithes and your offerings. And you will never hunger. You will never lack. God will always see to it that you will get everything you need. God will open up doors for you that nobody can close.
Point 2: The Prescription – Get Your Priorities Right
So this is the problem. These are the problems. This is the challenge. It is the problem of rebellion, robbery, and the repercussions to it. But God provides point two: a prescription. Go ahead, look at that. God has a prescription for you.
You know what the prescription is? It’s something to fix your sickness. It’s something to help bring you back and make you whole. And what is the prescription? Here’s the first thing: it’s in verse 10. He tells you to get your priorities in order. That’s my subpoint. Somebody say: priorities.
Priorities. Verse 10 says: «Bring all the tithes into the storehouse.» Bring all the tithes. Somebody say: bring all the tithes. Bring it all. Bring the whole 10%. Bring the whole kit and caboodle. Bring it. Bring the tithe into the storehouse.
It says: bring it into the storehouse that there may be food in My house.
Commending the Church – Food in God’s House
Let me tell you what I love about 3 °C. Let me tell you what I love about this church and your pastors and the work that you’ve done. I’ve been here many times—I don’t even know how many. I don’t even know how many times I’ve been here. I’ve been here a whole bunch of times.
And I’ve gone to see the work that y’all do. I’ve seen the schools that you minister to. I’ve been to the universities. I’ve been to the shanty towns and to Soweto and all these places where there are hungry people that you are feeding and taking care of and serving on a regular basis.
There’s food in this house 'cause there’s some people in here who are tithing and who are giving. And I believe God’s going to meet this ministry’s every need. I know y’all got needs, but you’re going to see God open the windows of heaven and do some spectacular things on your behalf because of what you do to help the poor and the needy in this community.
And I salute your pastors that this is one of their priorities—to serve the needy. He says: bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there might be food in God’s house.
Make Tithing a Priority – Before Other Bills
I want to tell you today: make your tithe a priority. Somebody holler: say priority. Priority. Tell your neighbor: make it a priority. Make it a priority. Tell them—I mean, tell them with your head rolling around, snap them fingers, and just tell them with attitude. Tell them: have an attitude. Make it a priority.
Bring the tithe. Honor it before you pay your other bills. Pay your tithe before you pay your rent, before you buy your groceries, before you do anything else you do. Make the tithe your priority. Go ahead, tell your neighbor: he preaching better than you saying amen.
I know somebody saying: well, tithing is for the Old Testament people. It was for… It’s in the law. Let me tell you something: tithing started before the law. Abraham gave a tithe to Melchizedek, and that happened before the law.
This is… Tithing got instituted and modeled for us before the law. And when I look through the Scripture: Jacob tithed, Levi tithed, Hezekiah tithed, Nehemiah tithed, Jesus tithed. And if it was good enough for them, it’s good enough for me.
Tithing in the New Testament – Even Hypocrites Did It
Oh, hold up. Hold up. I feel tension in the room. Oh yes, I feel some kickback. I feel some people resisting. I see y’all. I saw some of y’all grab y’all purse when I… Y’all heard me. Check—loosen up, baby. We ain’t going to steal. We not going to rob you. We want you to give freely and willingly when you see how great it is.
But hold up—in the New Testament, even the hypocrites tithed. So if you ain’t tithing, you haven’t even risen to the level of a hypocrite. You less than a hypocrite. And that’s a bad posture—to be less than a hypocrite.
If it was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me. So I want to challenge you today to bring it all. And where do you bring it? Bring it to the right place. Here’s the next point: it’s the place that you bring it.
Now this is important 'cause He said: bring it into the storehouse. 'Cause I meet a lot of people who think that they can take their tithe and divvy it up and send a piece here and a piece there—a piece to their cousin, a piece to their uncle. They divvy it up.
No, no, no. The tithe belongs to God, and it belongs in the storehouse of God.
The Storehouse – Where You Are Fed
If you don’t bring it to the storehouse… Somebody say: but where is the storehouse? The storehouse—thank you for asking, young man. I appreciate it. The storehouse is the place where you are fed, where you’re ministered to, where you’re serving.
And so God is telling us: bring it there that there might be food in God’s house. Now I feel… I still feel this tension in the room. I don’t know why I feel so much tension in the room. I’m walking right through the Scriptures right here.
By the way, He said: bring the tithe and the offerings. Let me say that 'cause some of y’all—some people… Y’all don’t… I know y’all don’t have this problem here, but we had this problem in America—that people pay their tithe down to the penny: $37.56.
You mean that God hasn’t been good enough to you that you can’t round it up to the next? Are you that tight that you can’t round it up with all the doors that God has opened for you and all the miracles He’s done for you and all the prayers He’s answered for you? Can’t you round up?
Point 3: The Promise – Windows of Heaven Opened
All right, let me close with this. Here’s my third and final point: there’s a promise. Amen. Amen. Here’s where… Here’s where I’m shouting—that when He’s talking here in Malachi 3, He includes with it a promise.
And I’m thanking God for the promise. And in verse number 10, He says: bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in My house. And then He says this in the promise: I want to give you some proof.
He says: try Me now in this, says the Lord, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.
Let me testify to you today that I love the fact that God’s not just opening up—He’s opening up the windows of heaven for you and I when you honor God and make this a priority and do it as a practice in your life. Put Him to the test. Put Him… And try Him.
He says: let Me show you how awesome I am. Let Me show you how amazing I am and prove to you what a mighty God I am. God wants you to see how awesome He is. He says: put Me to the test. Try Me and see if I will not make… Show Myself strong on your behalf.
God Will Rebuke the Devourer – Protection and Fruitfulness
And then He says this: watch Me perform. And y’all see my points—I alliterated these points for you. He said: watch Me perform. And look at verse number 11: here’s what I’m going to do to perform for you.
He says: I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes so he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field, says the Lord of hosts.
Oh, I love that right there. God says: I’m going to cause stuff that would break down not to break down. He said: when the devil would try to steal your joy and make stuff not work no more…
I’m telling y’all: I had stuff break down in my house early in my… When we got married—did I tell y’all we’ve been married for 43 years? Did I tell… 43 years. She let me stick with her. Now she has tried to leave me on a few occasions, but every time she tried to leave, I would follow her and say: I’m going with you. Whatever you going, I’m going with you.
But in 43 years, we’ve seen the hand of God do spectacular things. We saw God give us tuition for our kids to go to school, and they all graduated with no debt when they went to school. I saw God take stuff break down that wasn’t working—all of a sudden started working again. God was rebuking the devourer.
Illustration with Fruit – Tithing in Practice
I don’t know who I’m preaching to today, but I just want you to know that God will rebuke the devourer. Tell your friend: I need God to rebuke the devourer, and I need Him to protect my stuff. Somebody say: protect my stuff.
He’s going to rebuke the devourer. He’s going to protect your stuff. And He’s going to cause you to prosper. He says: your vine will bear fruit. I will cause that whatever you put your hand to, I’m going to cause you to prosper.
I don’t know why I thought y’all would be jumping up and down and running around the building. It’s too late to do it now. I still feel tension in the room. I’m grateful. I got… Was it you who just… Yeah, thank you. I wish I had about 10 of you at my church. Can I take you back to America with me?
I need to illustrate this for y’all. I need to illustrate this for you. Bring that… Bring my illustration out. Where y’all at? Yeah, bring it over here. Yeah, yeah. Bring it. Bring it up here. Yeah.
I need to illustrate. Thank you. They did a great job. Y’all anointed. Thank you very much. I got it. I got it. Don’t mess with my stuff. That joker tried to come over here and mess with my stuff.
I got 10 apples, and here I’m going to illustrate this for you what it looks like. God says: you earned 10 apples. You made 10 apples. He says: I just want you… Here’s what a tithe looks like. Take one out—just one.
God says: give it to Me. Set it aside. Give it to Me. God says: you get to keep the other nine.
I got 10… Or is this orange? God say: just take one—10%. Give Me one. Give Me 10%. You get to keep the other 90%.
I don’t know what these are. What is this—pineapples? Is that what pineapple looks like? I ain’t never seen it in this form. It don’t look like eating—I tell you that—in that form.
God says: honor Me with one—10% of the nine… One of the ten. And then you get to keep the other nine. See, when you do it God’s way, you have to manage your 90%. Here go some pears—that’s what that is. One goes to God—10%. You get to keep the other nine.
I got 10 lemons. One goes to God. Now if you’re not tithing, here’s what you’re doing: you’re going over to God’s table and saying: I don’t trust You to take care of me. You’re saying: I need this over here. And you’re bringing it over here.
But what God is trying to tell you: if you do this, I’ll bless this. I’ll protect this. I’ll put a hedge around this. I’ll multiply this. Do y’all hear what I’m saying to you?
Closing Challenge – Honor God with Tithes and Offerings
Is my time up? You’re being greedy not to give God His 10%. And you are inviting a curse on you not to do this. You’re inviting God to bring judgment on you when you don’t do it.
Now you can listen to all the other people in the world who are telling you that tithing is not for today. But I’m telling you that it works. After 50 years, it works.
As a matter of fact, I want to suggest to you that it’s not just your tithe—when you do this, it’s $37.56 cent. But our God is so good to us that we want to give Him some offerings as well.
I’m so far past giving God my 10%. I’m way past that level. And I want to challenge you today to likewise go and honor God with your tithes and your offerings.
Now I’m finished. I’m pulling my plane. I’m landing my plane. I’m pulling my car into the garage. I’m pulling my boat into the dock. Y’all not getting that. I’m putting my dishes in the dishwasher. I’m finished.
But I want to challenge you—those of you who are not tithing—I want to challenge you to make it a practice and a priority in your life.
There are some of you in this building that are part of this church or that are online that have the capacity and the ability to pay your tithes and give substantial offerings to help this church continue to carry out the mission that God gave to you.
And I want to challenge you today to sow into the kingdom of God and watch Him open up the windows of heaven. Amen. And bless you in ways that you will not have room enough to receive.
Let me say one more thing. I didn’t say this earlier, but I’ve seen God bless my life so much that I… Here’s what I prayed to God sometimes. I said: Lord, can You not give me all these blessings at one time? Can You spread it out over the years?
That’s how good God has been to me. And He is no respecter of persons. If He did it for me, He’ll do the same thing for you.