Now is the time to abandon a life of worry, anxiety and fear, and launch into a life of faith, boldness and power!
Transcription
Ashley:
Have you ever had a fear of lack, a fear of running out of money, a fear of not having your needs met? Well, stay tuned. We’re going to address that right now.
Speaker 2:
Why live a normal life when you could be living the abundant life? Welcome to the Abundant Life program with Ashley and Carlie Terradez.
Ashley:
Hello, and welcome to Abundant Life. We’re so glad you’ve joined us today. We’re in the middle of a series. We’re talking about fear and living a fearless life, and about how God hasn’t given us a spirit of fear. You know, we’re meant to be bold, we’re meant to be taking the promises of God without fear. Fear will come in and it will try and intimidate us, and it will try and hold us back from receiving everything God has given to us.
Carlie Terradez:
It sure will, it sure will.
Ashley:
Amen. Today, what we’re going to do is we’re going to look at something in particular, and I think this is one way that fear manifests, if you like, or one thing we’re often afraid of that can hinder us in our walk with God. That’s fear of lack, or fear of God not providing for us, or fear of our needs not being met.
Carlie Terradez:
Right.
Ashley:
I’ve been there. Even nowadays, often I find myself thinking about this, like, “Is it going to be okay in our ministry?” We’re running our ministry here, Terradez Ministries, and sometimes there could be times where you think, “Is this going to work out financially? Is it going to work out?”
Carlie Terradez:
Right. It’s interesting, isn’t it? Because that fear of lack isn’t even really necessarily dependent on how much money you have.
Ashley:
No, that’s right.
Carlie Terradez:
You can have millionaires that are operating out of a lack mentality, and you can have people that genuinely have no money that have a more prosperous outlook.
Ashley:
Yeah. They don’t have fear. They’re not driven by fear.
Carlie Terradez:
Right. Right.
Ashley:
That’s right. In fact, we’re going to look at a couple of stories, hopefully if we have time, this session of contrast in those two mentalities, but I want to start this with Matthew six.
Carlie Terradez:
Yeah. Sure.
Ashley:
Have you got that?
Carlie Terradez:
I do.
Ashley:
This is Jesus speaking in Matthew six. Matthew six is a great chapter and a lot of it is talking about how God’s going to provide for us and about how we’re to steward what He gives us and about provision. So, I really want to talk about this. This fits in really well with fear.
Carlie Terradez:
In verse 25?
Ashley:
Yeah, start at verse 25 with me.
Carlie Terradez:
Yep. Says this, “Therefore, I say to you, take no thought for your life, what you will eat while you drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than just food and body than clothing?”
Ashley:
You’ve got the men and the women covered. Yeah, I’m going to get in trouble for this one, but it says, “Is not your life more than food, and your body more than clothing?
Carlie Terradez:
That’s the men.
Ashley:
Yeah, men are always thinking about what they’re going to eat there. It’s like they have lunches, it’s like, “What’s for dinner?”
Carlie Terradez:
Yeah, especially teenagers.
Ashley:
So, that’s the men covered. They’re always worried about… Oh, wait.
Carlie Terradez:
Teenage boys, oh my goodness.
Ashley:
Yeah, we’ve got two teenage boys and they eat. They’re always worried about what they’re going to eat, what’s next for food, what’s next for dinner. Then, the women are covered here because it talks about clothing, what you’re going to wear. The women are always worried about what they’re going to wear. I’m going to get in trouble for this.
Carlie Terradez:
Oh, my goodness.
Ashley:
Wait, you’re going to this party tomorrow night? What are you going to wear? They’re always thinking about what they’re going to wear in outfits and stuff.
Carlie Terradez:
What I think is a really interesting observation is if girls show up at the same party and they’re wearing the same outfit, it’s like, “Oh no, I’ve got the same outfit.” If guys show up at party and they’re wearing the same outfit, they’re like high-fiving each other.
Ashley:
Oh man, yes. It’s awesome.
Carlie Terradez:
It’s like great. Isn’t that weird?
Ashley:
What actually happens if two women turn up to an event with the same outfit, they’ll go to their friends and go, “Do I wear it better?” “Oh yeah, you wear it better than her. You look it better than her.”
Carlie Terradez:
Oh, her butt looks big in that.
Ashley:
Carlie, you can’t say that.
Carlie Terradez:
Oh, sorry.
Ashley:
I’m in trouble now. You said it, not me. Okay.
Carlie Terradez:
Right.
Ashley:
Write to Carlie Terradez if you have any complaints. Okay? This is the complaint department. So anyway, where was we? Matthew six. Yeah, keep going.
Carlie Terradez:
Okay, sorry. I’m going to pay attention here, “Look at the birds of the air, for they do not sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns. Yet your Heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much better than they? Who among you by taking thought can add a cubit to his stature?”
Ashley:
Amen, keep going.
Carlie Terradez:
All right, “Why take thought about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field and how they grow: They don’t work or spin. Yet, I say to you that even Solomon in all of his glory was not dressed like one of these. Therefore, if God so clothes grass of the field, which is here today. And tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore, take no thought saying, ‘What should we eat? Or, ‘What should we drink?’ or, ‘What should we wear?'”
Listen up, teenagers, right? “For the Gentiles seek after all these things, but your heavenly Father knows that you have need of these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you.”
Ashley:
Amen. What Jesus is saying here is, “Do not fear.” In fact, it says when He talks about do not worry, that word worry there is talking about, do not be anxious, do not fear how you’re going to get provided for.
Carlie Terradez:
Right.
Ashley:
He’s saying, He’s really emphasized it, and our heavenly Father, our dad. You know, we did that verse at the last episode about how we cry out now, “Abba Father.”
Carlie Terradez:
Yeah.
Ashley:
He’s powerful.
Carlie Terradez:
Right.
Ashley:
Our heavenly Father-
Carlie Terradez:
That’s really intimate.
Ashley:
He’s intimate. He’s going to provide for us. That’s His promise to us. The only people that can block God’s provision for us is us. Okay? God is going to provide for us if we’ll let Him. He’s going to provide for us.
Carlie Terradez:
Yeah.
Ashley:
Jesus is saying, “Do not worry, don’t take thought, don’t be preoccupied with how your needs are going to be met.” Now, this doesn’t mean, “I want to balance this out.” Some people take this verse to extreme and say, “Well, God my Father’s going to provide.”
I was talking to a young man once and he come to me and he was going broke, he was out of money. I said, “Why don’t you get a job? I can help you find some work and I can help you get a job.” You know what his response is? He said, “No, no. God’s going to provide for me.” I said, “Yeah, God’s going to provide for you, but He’s going to give you things to do for that provision to come in.”
Carlie Terradez:
Yeah.
Ashley:
Deuteronomy 8:18 says that God gives us the power to get wealth.
Carlie Terradez:
Right.
Ashley:
Everything we put our hand to prospers, I believe that we are to work and we have to put our hands to something, and God’s going to provide for us. That’s a tool He uses to provide for us, but the bottom line is if we have fear that we’re going to run out, if we have fear that we’re going to go hungry, if we have fear that we’re not going to be provided for, then that that is a bad place to be. If our thoughts are preoccupied with that, we have to get to the point of realizing that God’s going to provide for us. God is going to provide for us.
Carlie Terradez:
Its just to me, it’s like a little child, right?
Ashley:
Yeah.
Carlie Terradez:
Especially if you have childlike faith, just simple belief that takes the word of God at face value and simply believes it. When we really have that down on the inside of us, that God can be trusted, and that He really is a good Father, and that He really does love us, and that we really can trust Him to provide for our needs even better than we can, man, we’ll approach this like little child.
Toddlers, they don’t go to their parents and say, “Oh, Mommy, Daddy, will you feed me today? Will you clothe me today? Will you pay for the rent or the mortgage today?” They just believe that you’re going to do that for them because you’re a good, good father. You’re a good, good mom. Right? If we approach dad, our Father God, with that same Daddy, Abba Father kind of attitude, we’re like, “You know what? He said He’s going to look after us. He’s going to look after us.” That’s it.
Ashley:
Right. Yeah. Amen. It really is. What will happen with fear is fear in your finances, or when you allow a financial fear in, what’ll happen is it will hinder how you operate. It will hinder how you give, it will hinder how you trust God. Because what fear will do is fear will come along and say, “You can’t afford it. You can’t afford to give. If you give, then how are you going to get your needs met?” and lies like that.
That’s what’s going to happen. Often, I meet a lot of people, and I’ve been there myself, where the Lord will tell you what you feel led to give or to help someone out like that. What’s going to happen is, is you’re going to have that. If you’ve got fear that says, “Well, who’s going to provide for you?” If you haven’t got it down, if you haven’t got it settled in your heart, that God’s your Father and He’s going to provide for you, then anytime that you feel led to give, that fear is going to stop you doing it. You can listen to that voice of fear-
Carlie Terradez:
It’s going to talk to you.
Ashley:
… rather than listen to that voice of faith. Actual fact is the opposite. We know Proverbs 11:24, “Those one who scattered,” Proverbs 11:24, “One who scatters it increases more. Yet, the one who withholds more in his right and it leads to poverty.” So when we’re in fear and we withhold and we say, “I’m not going to release my finances. I’ve just got to keep all this money to me because that’s out of fear, “I can’t afford to let this money go,” that’s a fear mentality.
Carlie Terradez:
Yeah.
Ashley:
Faith will say, You know, if God’s telling me to give, I’m going to give. It’s going to come back to me, God’s going to provide for me.” But fear will say, “No, hold on to that money. Don’t let that money go,” and that’s fear speaking. Actual fact, the word of God says the opposite. As we give in faith, praise God, as we scatter and we give in faith, we’re going to increase.
But if we withhold our money out of fear, that’s actually going to lead to poverty. It says we’re going to be actually worse off like that.
Carlie Terradez:
Right.
Ashley:
There’s a good example of this in Mark 10. In Mark 10, there’s a story of the rich young ruler coming to Jesus. We talked about how Carlie said earlier you could be a millionaire and be in fear of finances, or you could have no money at all and not be in fear. It’s not about the amount of money. It’s our attitude towards that money.
Carlie Terradez:
Your perception.
Ashley:
Yeah.
Carlie Terradez:
We talked about perception a lot last time, didn’t we, as well?
Ashley:
Yeah. Yep. In this series about fear, this has been a whole series about living fearlessly and how we perceive things, how we perceive that the worst case and things like that is really going to affect our actions. It’s really going to affect how we believe, and the promises of God, how we receive them.
The promise of God is, we read that in Matthew six, the promise of God, He’s going to provide for us. He’s going provide for you. He’s going to provide for us. He provides for His own household. Where is it? In Timothy, I believe, He talks about if you don’t provide for your own household, you’re worst than-
Carlie Terradez:
Then, you’re worst than an infidel.
Ashley:
… worse than an infidel. 1 Timothy 5:8. 1 Timothy 5:8, “If anyone doesn’t provide for his own household, then he’s denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”
Now, that’s a harsh verse. That’s a verse like, “Whoa.” Well, let me just say this about that verse. Who wrote the Bible? Who wrote the scriptures? God the Rather, God, our Father wrote these scripts. He used man to write it, the word of God is His word. So, do you think God goes by His own word?
Carlie Terradez:
Yes, right.
Ashley:
You think God’s going to provide for His own household, or His own children? Of course He is. If you’re worried about that verse, you think, “What does that verse mean, worse than an unbeliever?” Well, that’s real simple. What’s happening with this verse is what Paul’s saying to Timothy of this verse is, is that unbelievers, they don’t have a God to pass the buck to.
Like I said about this young man, he said, “Well, God’s going to provide for me.” I’ve met people with families and they haven’t worked because they just use God as an excuse ,”Well, God’s going to provide,” and that’s taking it to an extreme.
Carlie Terradez:
So, it’s really an excuse for laziness in that case is what you’re saying.
Ashley:
Yeah, that’s just taking it to the extreme, and he wouldn’t go to work. He just said, “God’s going to provide for me,” but at the same time, he had a child and they were virtually homeless at the time, had no money because the father wouldn’t work, wouldn’t go out and work.
The way I look at this verse is, this my interpretation of this verse is an unbeliever, they haven’t got a God to trust in, if you like.
Carlie Terradez:
So, they have to work to provide for themselves. It’s all on them.
Ashley:
They have to provide. They have to provide for their children. If you have an unbeliever, if you have someone who doesn’t believe in God and they have a child, unless they have a mental illness or unless they have an addiction or something, they’re going to provide for their children. There’s a burden, there’s a natural paternal or maternal instinct to provide for their family.
They haven’t got a God to “Trust Him” as an excuse. So, they have to make it happen. So, they’ll go make it happen is my point.
Carlie Terradez:
Right.
Ashley:
Whereas, I meet a lot of Christians who say, “Well, God’s going to provide,” and they use God as an excuse for laziness. So, we’re not talking about taking Matthew six to an extreme, where it’s like, “Well, God’s going to provide, I don’t have to do anything.”
No, we’re saying, “God has provided, God will provide, but He’s going to show us what we can put our hands to. He could show us what we could do.” It’s a little bit like the story we read last episode about taking the Promised Land. God said, “I’ve given you this Promise Land. Now, go and possess it.”
Carlie Terradez:
Right.
Ashley:
What Jesus is saying here, God’s going to provide. The God the Father is going to provide for you.
Carlie Terradez:
We don’t have to worry about that.
Ashley:
We don’t have to worry about it. Don’t take thought, don’t be worried about it. Don’t be anxious about it. Just be like, “You know what? God’s going to provide for me. Now, where’s the job that I can go and do?” or “Where’s the extra work I could do? Where’s the business I can start? How is God going to provide for me?” It’s not if God’s going to provide me, it’s how God’s going to provide for me.”
Carlie Terradez:
It’s how. I remember this when we were going to Bible college and we had just moved across country and we’d signed up to be in Bible college. I mean, it was completely led by the Lord. We knew that we were following God. He supernaturally led us to go to Bible college, and so we moved this house quite a long way from our family, long way from an English person.
Anyway, and then we traveled across country, we rented this house. We were both in Bible college. Our kids had tuition at school as well. At five, lots of tuition to pay and Ashley wasn’t working because we were going to Bible college in the mornings. I think we’d kind of gotten this down on the inside of us that we’re going to Bible college now, so we’re going to be spiritual. So, obviously we’re not going to have to work.
Ashley:
Yeah, and I was a little bit-
Carlie Terradez:
We hadn’t really thought it through, but God is so gracious. He worked with us anyway. But in that meantime, as we were kind of working out that transition, there’s lots of different ways that God provides for us, but that doesn’t mean that we just sit on the couch and wait for it to fall on our laps. There’s partition in there-
Ashley:
Participation, yeah.
Carlie Terradez:
Participation in there.
Ashley:
I have to put my hand in something.
Carlie Terradez:
You have to put your hand to something. But while we were figuring that out, we had really gotten to the end of all of our resources. So, we were in a bit of a pickle because our rent was coming due in a couple of days.
Ashley:
A bit of a pickle. A bit of a pickle. So, we have people watching all around the world. So just to translate, if you’re watching on a different continent, a pickle is an English term, it means a little bit of trouble.
Carlie Terradez:
Tight spot. Yeah, a little of a tight spot.
Ashley:
Tight spot, in a tight spot. But, go ahead. I may just put subtitles in here.
Carlie Terradez:
Oh my goodness, the English translation.
Ashley:
A little bit of a pickle.
Carlie Terradez:
So, we were in a bit of a pickle. Our rent was coming due and we didn’t have any money to pay. I remember that God said that He was going to provide for us. I remember this. Philippians 4:19 was a scripture that I stood on to go to Bible college, which says, “My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory.”
So, there’s me going to the Lord saying, “You remember, God, remember You gave me a promise to stand on? Well, I know You’re not usually early, but it’d be really nice if You weren’t late. The rent’s coming due.” I’m just vacuuming the house and I’m praying in tongues, and I feel the Lord say to me, “I’ve already provided for you.” He keeps His word, right?
Ashley:
Amen.
Carlie Terradez:
“I’ve already provided for you. It’s in your house, it’s in your hand.” So, my question to the Lord was, “Well, if it’s in the house, it’s in my head, where is it? Where is it?” God’s already given it to us, but it wasn’t if, it was definitely a where.
Ashley:
Right.
Carlie Terradez:
This is another plug for praying tongues, we’ve mentioned this before, but God gives us wisdom. As I’m vacuuming, I mean, God starts to give me wisdom and revelation. I’m vacuuming, I hit the baseboard, and out pops a check. I mean, it’s right by the front door where our mail would come in the door.
Then, that check had been sat inside the wall cavity for like two months. It was at two months worth of rent that was sitting there waiting for us, almost like the day we moved in, right from the time of which we needed it. Then, there were so many supernatural things that happened after that. Divine instructions that He told us to go do, but it was things we had to do, but He led us to do it. The provision was already there. It wasn’t an if, it was a where. Where do I find it? But, it was always there.
Ashley:
Yeah, that’s right. So, we have to settle in our hearts that God is going to provide for us as long as we cooperate with what He does.
Carlie Terradez:
Right, exactly.
Ashley:
We can’t just be lazy and do nothing because that’s blocking God’s provision. So, we want to cooperate, and we did. We cooperated, that was the first thing, but there’s other things. I ended up buying and selling things and doing those sort of things and we ended up-
Carlie Terradez:
He showed you how to do that.
Ashley:
Yeah, and He showed me how to do things. Actually, we went through two years of Bible school debt free and it was fine. So, the point is, though, if what Jesus said in Matthew six is if we’re worried, if we’re taking thought about how are we going to get our needs met, that’s worry, that’s anxiety, that’s fear.
That can lead to fear, and that can actually get us to a place where we’re not making rational decisions because we’re in fear. The point I want to make as well is that it’s not necessarily having money or not having money. I know of all our viewers, there’s people here that have got nothing, in dire poverty, and yet there’s other people that are considered to be wealthy and things like that.
It’s not about how much money you have or haven’t got, we’re talking about fear, and living fearlessly is about the fear of our relationship with money, of how we’re handling money. I’m going to give you two examples here, both in Mark, to show you the difference and to basically show you that you can have a lot of money and still be in fear. Then, you can have no money and not be in fear.
Carlie Terradez:
Right.
Ashley:
The point is, obviously the best case is, you want to have money and not be in fear. But, the point is you never want to have fear when it comes to finances, because it’s going to stop you doing the things that God’s called you to do. It’s going to stop you acting your faith.
Carlie Terradez:
We understand that God is a good, good Father. We don’t need to fear.
Ashley:
Amen, that’s right.
Carlie Terradez:
It’s nothing something we’re striving for. We can trust Him to provide.
Ashley:
We know that God’s going to provide to us. That’s right. Amen. So, this is the rich young ruler. This is in Mark 10. So, in Mark 10, I’m going to give a quick summary of this story, but in Mark 10, the rich young ruler comes to Jesus. Basically, he’s rich, he’s young, and he’s a ruler.
Carlie Terradez:
Wow, he’s got it all going on.
Ashley:
I say those three things, I mean, usually once you get rich and a ruler, you use your youth. There’s usually one of those-
Carlie Terradez:
One of them gets a way.
Ashley:
One of those three gets away from you. Usually when you’re young and you’re broke or whatever, but he was rich, he was young, and he was ruler. So, he came to Jesus and he basically said to him, and there’s a whole lot in this story. He called him good teacher, and Jesus, “Why’d you call Me a good teacher? I’m either God or I’m not. Go and call me good,” and there’s lots of the teacher’s lessons there, but the point I want to bring up here, let’s break in at verse 21.
So, it says in verse 21, “Jesus, looking at him, loved him.” Now, I really like this because it shows that what Jesus is asking the rich young ruler to do is for his own good.
Carlie Terradez:
Yeah.
Ashley:
God asks us to do things for our own good. He wants to-
Carlie Terradez:
He leads with love.
Ashley:
He leads us with love. He has good things for us, praise God. He only has good for us.
Carlie Terradez:
Amen.
Ashley:
So when he asks us to do something, it’s for our own good, we can trust that. We know that. So, He says He loved him and said to him, “One thing you lack.” So, Jesus is saying to this rich young ruler, “You lack something. Even though you’re rich and you’re young and you’re a ruler, you lack something.” It says, “Go your way, sell whatever you have, and give to the poor, and then you’ll have treasure in heaven. Come, take up your cross and follow me.”
But, look at this, “But the rich young ruler was sad at Jesus’ word.” Any time we’re sad at what God tells us, we know we were error somewhere. We’ve got to adjust somewhere because, God only tells us good things. So, “He was sad at Jesus’ word. He went his way sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” See, right here, the rich young ruler couldn’t sell everything he had and give it to the poor because he was in fear that he wouldn’t be provided for.
Carlie Terradez:
His source wasn’t God.
Ashley:
His source wasn’t God. He had deceitfulness of riches going on that he was believing, he was trusting in his riches. We haven’t got time to go there, but in Mark four, Jesus talks about the parable of the sower. He says, “There’s three things that choke the word and make it unfruitful in our life.”
Those three things, He explains it in Mark four, 18, and 19, he explains it to His disciples. He says, “Those three things are the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust for other things.” Those three things enter in and choke the word of God and it becomes unfruitful. That’s what He says.
Carlie Terradez:
Right. Then, we’ll find ourselves struggling more with fear because we will lack the peace that the word brings to our life.
Ashley:
Yeah, it brings in fear. It’s fear-based. So, what happens here is, is that this rich young ruler was in fear of his provision. If he was to give these away, he wanted to follow Jesus, he came to Jesus, he loved God. He loved Jesus, he came to him, he wanted to follow Him and everything else. But when Jesus said, “Sell everything you have,” he had a fear of not having those tangible finances.
Carlie Terradez:
Right.
Ashley:
He had a fear of giving that money away. Because he have a fear of giving that money away, he went away sorrowful and he wasn’t able to follow Jesus. That’s huge. I’m telling you, fear will try and pull you away from your relationship with God. Fear will take you away from faith, and that is not good. We don’t want to let fear in like that.
Carlie Terradez:
Yeah. Especially in the realm of our finances, yeah, fear creeps into the realm of our finances. It’ll hinder us from taking up opportunities, it’ll hinder us. God wants to get money to us, but also through us. Right?
Ashley:
Amen, yep.
Carlie Terradez:
Oftentimes, there’s been times when God has asked us to give money to missionaries, to other ministries, organizations, benevolent giving. If we didn’t really deep down, trust God with our finances, and finances, isn’t it the least of all things?
Ashley:
Yeah, yeah.
Carlie Terradez:
Isn’t that what Jesus said, “This is the least important thing”?
Ashley:
Yep, Luke 16, it’s the least thing, least important thing.
Carlie Terradez:
So if we want to really beat fear, I can tell you, one of the things that we’ve found to be a path to success, a path to victory in this area in our life is if we feel like the Lord is prompting us to give, and immediately our flesh goes, “What? I don’t want to do that,” then we know it’s fear that’s rising up. We’re like, “Hmm, the only way to silence that fear is to give.”
Ashley:
Yeah, yeah.
Carlie Terradez:
So, we actually counter, we’ve talked about this before, face our fears in the area of giving, in the area of finances.
Ashley:
Yeah, facing your fears. Yeah. So, this rich young ruler, even though he had a bunch of possessions and he could have given them away, and he could have followed Jesus, he had fear about giving. Even though he had a lot, he had a fear of giving.
As you talked about it, you could have a millionaire who’s in fear with their finances. Well, he’s a great example right here. The second example we’re going to look at is in a few chapters down, and that’s in Mark 12. In Mark 12, we have a completely different example here. In Mark 12, Jesus is at the synagogue and they’re giving, the people are coming up and giving. There’s someone who comes up to give, she has very little. In fact, I’ll bring it in here in verse 41.
This is Mark 12 and verse 41, “Now, Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money in the treasury and how many who were rich put in much.” Imagine this: Jesus today. I mean, I don’t know what church you go to or if you’ve seen offerings taken up at conferences or anything like that, but can you imagine if the leader of the conference or the pastor sat there or stood there and watched how much people gave and how they gave? We’ve actually been to a church like this, where the pastor watched the people giving.
Carlie Terradez:
Yeah, we have.
Ashley:
They had some offerings at the front, some plates at the front, and they’re giving to different missionaries and things. It was type of tongue in cheek, but this guy came up and he gave some money in one of these buckets of the missionary. As he walked off, the pastor went, “Hey, hey, come back. You can do better than that.”
Carlie Terradez:
Wow.
Ashley:
The guy came back, put extra in there. Carlie and I were like, “We’ve never seen that before.” But, can you imagine if that happened, that would be uncomfortable? Well, Jesus sat here and watched how people gave, and He was interested in how people gave.
It wasn’t about the amounts, God is not interested in the amount. It’s how we give and it’s the amount in comparison to what we have to know.
Carlie Terradez:
Yeah.
Ashley:
So, going back to fear, this is a widow woman here in verse 42. It said, “Then the poor widow woman came. This widow woman was poor and she gave, “we know she was poor because, “she gave all she had.” It says that she gave two mites, which make a quadran.” Now, people will say, “What is this? Roughly, it’s just a few pennies. In today’s spending value, the best research I’ve done on this, in today’s spending value, it’s simply about $2, $2 to $3. So, it’s not nothing. It’s not just like a penny. I mean, that’s still money. She still could have maybe bought some ingredients for a meal, bought some bread.
Carlie Terradez:
But, it’s a relatively very small about.
Ashley:
But, it’s a very small amount. But, that’s all she had. So if you only had two or $3 to your name, that’s a big deal. She actually decided to give that, and it says that, “A poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make quadrants. So He called the disciples.” Jesus called the disciples to Himself for a teaching moment. This is a very good teaching moment.
He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury, for they have put out of their abundance, but she out of poverty put in all she had, her whole livelihood.” The point of being here, I always joke when I get to heaven, I’m going to get one of those signs, like Mr. Smith, they have airports and walk around that says, “Mr. Smith,” but I’m going to have one that says, “Poor widow with only two mites.”
Carlie Terradez:
You want to meet her?
Ashley:
I want to meet her because I know after this, she prospered. After this, because she trusted God, we know the scriptures, we know the word of God works. We seek first the kingdom of God, He’s going to add these things to us, all these scriptures, about how when we give and trust God with our finances, we’re going to increase.
Carlie Terradez:
Yeah.
Ashley:
She put it into motion, but that’s not my point today. My point today is the fact that she gave, she didn’t let fear stop her giving.
Carlie Terradez:
Right. She gave out of faith rather than fear.
Ashley:
Amen. If anyone could have feared, it could have been the widow woman, because all she had was two mites, and she gave everything she had, but she chose not to be driven by fear, she was driven by faith, and Jesus commended her for that. Jesus said she is giving generously.
Carlie Terradez:
Yeah. Right. Yeah.
Ashley:
I’ll have you know, when you give generously, it’s almost like God can’t help himself. Read 2 Corinthians chapter nine. He just loves a cheerful giver. He loves it when people give generously, and He’ll just lavish back on them, praise God.
Carlie Terradez:
He’s the biggest giver.
Ashley:
He is the biggest giver. So, a point being is this: if we have fear in our finances, it’ll hinder us because we will try and withhold the little we have. It can actually lead to lack, like Proverbs 11:24 says.
Carlie Terradez:
Yeah. Yeah. You can see this as well. It’s not just in financial things, but people that have a fear have a fear, and it usually tips over from one area into another.
Ashley:
Yep.
Carlie Terradez:
So, things like you can hear it kind of. Fear and faith both speak, so you can hear it in the phrases like, “We can’t afford it,” that comes out a lot. Or people, they want to be kind of greedy, can choke and manifest in greed even, greed and gluttony even.
Ashley:
Yep, yep. Because what that is, that’s a fear of lack. That’s a fear of, “This might be my last meal, so I’ve got eat everything I can,” and that is that fear.
Carlie Terradez:
Yep. Yep. They overeat, worried that they’re not going to get to eat again, or there’s not going to be enough. They struggle to share, yeah.
Ashley:
Yep. Yeah, it’s irrational. This can happen wherever you have an abundance or you don’t, this can manifest. So, you don’t want to let fear in and be operating that fear. Now, if you are, praise God, then it’s very simple. What you need to do is you need to repent and say, “God, I don’t want to let fear in anymore.” God doesn’t want you to be operating in fear, He has better for you.
Carlie Terradez:
Because fear leads to lack.
Ashley:
Amen, fear leads to lack. He has faith for you. He wants you to operate in faith and operate in the promises that He’s given you. He’s promised to provide for you, and He’s promised, praise God, that if you’ll let Him. If you’ll let Him, and what we do is to let Him, we believe it. We believe the promises of God.
In James two, it says, “Faith without works or faith without corresponding actions is dead or not real faith.” So if we really believe it, we’re going to act on it. The best thing about finances, we have something tangible to act on. We can give finances and act in faith, praise God.
Carlie Terradez:
Yeah. You can silence the fear of lack with a giving.
Ashley:
Amen. I tell you, when we give, praise God, we’re saying we’re putting God first, we’re trusting God with our finances, and we give, praise God, out of faith rather than fear. It’s amazing how we can prosper that way.
Carlie Terradez:
Amen. Amen.
Ashley:
It’s how it works. God has set it out this way. It’s more blessed to give than to receive, praise God. When we give by faith, praise God, it’s amazing how it works out. It takes faith, but God wants us to prosper, and He’s made provision for us. Amen.
Carlie Terradez:
That’s right. Amen.
Ashley:
So, we’re out of time.
Carlie Terradez:
Let’s pray for the people. Let me just speak a blessing.
Ashley:
Yeah, thank you.
Carlie Terradez:
Father God, I just thank You for everybody watching this. I just speak a breakthrough, a financial breakthrough, into people’s finances right now. Father, I thank You that You’re enabling us to trust You. We know You’re the ultimate provider, You’re the biggest giver. Holy Spirit, we ask you to come and help us make this real to us, make this alive to us that we can deep down get a revelation, a breakthrough, in this realm of giving. In Jesus’ name.
Ashley:
Amen, amen. Well, thanks for being with us in this Fearless series, praise God. We know you’re going to go out and live a fearless life for Jesus. Amen, we’ll see you next time.