Transforming Scarcity Mentality into God's Abundance
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Bible Study Guide
Sermon Clips
"Scarcity is the natural consequence of a world and people who are cut off from God. Because God's the one who's full of all this abundance. Right? Scarcity mentality, natural consequence. It's normal. If you don't know this God, if you're not connected to this God, the only thing that makes any sense is scarcity mentality. Listen, if you don't know God, and I don't mean this. I don't mean this in a mean way. You should live out of scarcity. It's the only thing that makes sense. There isn't enough time. There isn't enough money. There's not enough love. Not enough applause. Not enough approval. You should just live as sort of a socially Darwinist. Whoever gets the best. Whoever can survive. That's the only thing that makes any sense." [00:15:36] (35 seconds)
"Partly we do that by praying prayers that change the scarcity mentality atmosphere. That we bear fruit in our own lives. And that we pray prayers. Just like Paul is praying for the Ephesians. That they might be set free from all this scarcity to live out of the abundance of God. What does it mean for us to draw deeply from God's magnificent abundance? I used an illustration a couple of weeks ago. Kind of an analogy. An image that's been super helpful for me the last couple of months to pray out of. So I'm going to kind of bring this back up again. Because I think it might be helpful. A helpful way to think about how do we bring God's abundance into our everyday lives." [00:16:55] (34 seconds)
"Scarcity mentality bears terrible fruit. And so, man, it's so easy to fall into this. It's so easy to get sucked into this. Christian, not a Christian, doesn't matter. It's just such an easy thing to have. It's just such an easy thing to have. It's just such an easy thing to have. It's just such a bitchy way to get stuck in. So I want to invite us all into this new place of freedom. And this is part of what the Lord has done, what God has done for us in Jesus, right? So Jesus, all of us Jesus followers are called to change the scarcity mentality atmosphere by drawing on the super abundance of God, all those riches, all that love, all that power. And we do that, one of the primary ways to do that is through prayer for ourselves as we step into God's amazing love and abundance." [00:31:06] (35 seconds)
"Paul closes his crazy prayer piling on adjective and adjective and adjective and abundance and top of abundance. He says this. Glory to God in all generations forever and ever and ever. Amen. And here we are 2,000 years later and thousands of miles in a place that Paul could not have imagined. In a context, in a setting Paul could never have imagined. Generation after generation, 2,000 years later, this thing has changed more lives than any other movement in history. Paul was absolutely correct in his prayer." [00:14:50] (31 seconds)
"To be praying for them over the long haul. To be a person who is just always on their side, always praying that God would change the atmosphere, do something in their lives. Could be a kid, a grandkid, a parent, could be a co-worker, colleague, just someone that you love, that God would do something in their lives. Let's look at a few of these phrases. We're going to look at just a couple of them to see how Paul is changing the atmosphere and praying prayers for the people in Ephesians. He prays this at the beginning, I pray that out of God's glorious riches, God may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." [00:23:53] (33 seconds)
"Lord Jesus, thanks for this invitation to step into deep time and all your resources and all your amazing grace. We pray, I pray for my friends who are here today who know that they're rooted, established in the wrong things, broken things, or who have a sense of, oh yeah, we are rootless. We haven't put down roots. And we've been in and out of church or faith or God and occasionally checking in or occasionally doing things, but Lord, you're calling them to something deeper in 2025. Would they, would we have the courage, strength to do that?" [00:35:31] (28 seconds)
"See, there's a place in us that Paul says, is your inmost being. Paul talks about this, strengthening you with power through his spirit in your inner being. And it's not just cognitive. It's not just knowing the right answers. It's not just having everything all sorted out. There's a place in your heart that God wants to get to that's deeper than cognition. It's at the core of your being. And what God wants to do is he wants to set up shop in your inmost being. He wants to pour the resurrected Christ to your deepest part of your heart, soul, mind, and spirit. And from that deepest inmost being to then bring his shalom, his peace, his joy, his power. Right? Power is the word that gets repeated over and over and over again. His love at the deepest part of you to affect all of you." [00:25:48] (40 seconds)
"Partly we do that by praying prayers that change the scarcity mentality atmosphere. That we bear fruit in our own lives. And that we pray prayers. Just like Paul is praying for the Ephesians. That they might be set free from all this scarcity to live out of the abundance of God. What does it mean for us to draw deeply from God's magnificent abundance? I used an illustration a couple of weeks ago. Kind of an analogy. An image that's been super helpful for me the last couple of months to pray out of. So I'm going to kind of bring this back up again. Because I think it might be helpful. A helpful way to think about how do we bring God's abundance into our everyday lives." [00:16:55] (34 seconds)
"Scarcity mentality bears terrible fruit. And so, man, it's so easy to fall into this. It's so easy to get sucked into this. Christian, not a Christian, doesn't matter. It's just such an easy thing to have. It's just such an easy thing to have. It's just such an easy thing to have. It's just such a bitchy way to get stuck in. So I want to invite us all into this new place of freedom. And this is part of what the Lord has done, what God has done for us in Jesus, right? So Jesus, all of us Jesus followers are called to change the scarcity mentality atmosphere by drawing on the super abundance of God, all those riches, all that love, all that power. And we do that, one of the primary ways to do that is through prayer for ourselves as we step into God's amazing love and abundance." [00:31:06] (35 seconds)
"Paul closes his crazy prayer piling on adjective and adjective and adjective and abundance and top of abundance. He says this. Glory to God in all generations forever and ever and ever. Amen. And here we are 2,000 years later and thousands of miles in a place that Paul could not have imagined. In a context, in a setting Paul could never have imagined. Generation after generation, 2,000 years later, this thing has changed more lives than any other movement in history. Paul was absolutely correct in his prayer." [00:14:50] (31 seconds)
"To be praying for them over the long haul. To be a person who is just always on their side, always praying that God would change the atmosphere, do something in their lives. Could be a kid, a grandkid, a parent, could be a co-worker, colleague, just someone that you love, that God would do something in their lives. Let's look at a few of these phrases. We're going to look at just a couple of them to see how Paul is changing the atmosphere and praying prayers for the people in Ephesians. He prays this at the beginning, I pray that out of God's glorious riches, God may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." [00:23:53] (33 seconds)
"Lord Jesus, thanks for this invitation to step into deep time and all your resources and all your amazing grace. We pray, I pray for my friends who are here today who know that they're rooted, established in the wrong things, broken things, or who have a sense of, oh yeah, we are rootless. We haven't put down roots. And we've been in and out of church or faith or God and occasionally checking in or occasionally doing things, but Lord, you're calling them to something deeper in 2025. Would they, would we have the courage, strength to do that?" [00:35:31] (28 seconds)
"See, there's a place in us that Paul says, is your inmost being. Paul talks about this, strengthening you with power through his spirit in your inner being. And it's not just cognitive. It's not just knowing the right answers. It's not just having everything all sorted out. There's a place in your heart that God wants to get to that's deeper than cognition. It's at the core of your being. And what God wants to do is he wants to set up shop in your inmost being. He wants to pour the resurrected Christ to your deepest part of your heart, soul, mind, and spirit. And from that deepest inmost being to then bring his shalom, his peace, his joy, his power. Right? Power is the word that gets repeated over and over and over again. His love at the deepest part of you to affect all of you." [00:25:48] (40 seconds)
