KEYS TO THE KINGDOM - INCREASE

Thank you church and friends for making October such a spiritual  fest!  Our Homecoming service was wonderful and once again the giving  was a “wow.”  Elder Sam Bennett was blessed to preach to us during our  fall meeting from the Psalms about revival, God our refuge, and he reminded us that our God reigns.  The hospitality and hope our fall meeting provided helped us prepare our hearts for the Thanksgiving celebration of November.  The Fall Festival stirred up our love for one another as we came  together on a beautiful Saturday in Christian fellowship, humbled by God’s  favor with family and friends of all ages.  Obviously many of you who could not physically be with us were praying for the church and her influence. Your prayers were answered! Thanks for doing that, and I hope you  all, very soon, can sit together with us in the pews which are really heavenly places.  

“He must increase, but I must decrease.”  John 3:30  

Increase is a verb, an action verb.  Increase means to become or  make greater in size, amount, intensity, or degree.  Increase is the springboard for witness and the kingdom of God needs a witness to glorify the  King of the kingdom and to encourage the subjects of the kingdom; even 

God’s people.  When we live the way we are supposed to live, and do the  things we are supposed to do, and serve God like we ought to, we witness the miracle of God’s saving grace in our lives and there will be an  increase in our love for God and for each other.  On the other hand, if we  don’t do right, live right and practice godliness, we will not testify of  God’s grace nor will we all be thankful.  Disobedience makes God look  bad and His kingdom will not be influential in the way it should be.  Furthermore, there will be a decrease in our love for God and for one another.  Now, when we consider the two greatest commandments, loving God  with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving our neighbors as  ourselves as our job description for kingdom life, we get a clear perspective of the important part increase plays in our earthly life walking with  Jesus. 

Our God is a God of increase.  God is a multiplier.  He created  the earth and universe out of nothing and He made us out of dust.  God  likes growth, he likes increase.  When he made it all and saw the increase, He said it was good, even very good.  God told Adam and Eve to  multiply, to dress and keep the garden thereby increasing its beauty and  fulfilling their purpose.  But when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, there  was a disastrous decrease.  Sin separates us from God and thereby decreases our joy and withers our influence.  The devil is a decreaser and  he will try to deceive us into thinking decrease is divine.   

It’s not that God is just into big things either.  Just because He is  an increaser doesn’t mean he is not into small things.  

“Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to  give you the kingdom.”  Luke 12:32  

God gets much glory when He takes something little and makes it bigger.   The little boy who brought  the two fishes and five  loaves of bread to hear Jesus  preach on the mount, had  what was hardly a meager  portion to feed over five  thousand people.  But Jesus  took what the boy had,  blessed it, and increased it so  much so that there was an  abundance of leftovers.  One  thing we need to remember  as residents of God’s kingdom on Earth is that Jesus  has promised to supply all our needs, even though sometimes our needs  are great and our supplies seem so small.  There is comfort in knowing as  long as we have Jesus there will always be enough.  The bread of life  never gets stale and there will be a fresh loaf of grace every morning that  God sends it.  Remember, God not only created this world, He also sustains it.  And He does so by the principle of increase.  The miracle of the  seed provides a good example of God’s wisdom and power in His provisions in this life.  I understand that fifteen pounds of cotton seed may increase or yield one thousand pounds of cotton and one half bushel of  corn seed can turn out to be one hundred bushels.  

One of the exciting parts of being a Christian is experiencing the  miracle of increase.  Every breath we take is manifestation of the great  multiplier of mercy.  The sun gives light to the trees and the trees  through their leaves give out oxygen.  And the God of all grace supplies,  through His indwelling Holy Spirit, everything necessary to live godly in  this present evil world.  Probably none of us would say that we are where  we want to be in our walk with God, or that we have attained anything  near the perfect righteousness and fellowship we desire to have with our  Heavenly Father here in His kingdom.  However, can’t we all testify that  we are closer to Him than we once were and we love Him more each  day?  For sure, it’s good to know that while we’re not what we want to  be, we are sure grateful that we are not what we used to be.  That, my  friends, happened because of increase and that is why increase is an important key that we should keep close for use in His kingdom work.   Here is a key ring to help us do that:  

Increase Is Priority 

Sometimes when life is really  good, we may have the tendency to  forget that we’re living in God’s  kingdom and think we are in our  own kingdom.  The truth is there is  only one King! 

“And he hath on his vesture and on  his thigh a name written, King of  Kings, and Lord of Lords.”  Revelation 19:16  

Also, it should humble us to know that there are only two kingdoms; the  kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan.  God, because of His love for  even sinners like us, has delivered us from the kingdom of darkness into  His kingdom of marvelous, miraculous light. 

Increase means a lot to God!  It’s not so much that God wants us  to accomplish great and big things as it is that He wants us to use what  we have to make Him look good.  The lesson taught by the parable of the  talents shows us that what mattered to God was the talent was increased  and not buried and unused.  Actually, the man that didn’t use what he  had ultimately lost what he had.  Traveling in the kingdom of God is a lot  like riding a bicycle.  A bicycle is hard to ride standing still.  You either  go forward or you fall down!   

The Lord Jesus provides the key to kingdom life in His Beatitudes.   

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and  all these things shall be added unto you.”  Matthew 6:33 

One point Jesus is making in this verse is that when we make God our  priority, there will be an increase.  In other words, if we are not increasing, that means we don’t have enough of God.  The closer we get to God,  the farther we get from the devil who is the one that steals and takes  away.  Jesus came that we might have not only life but abundant life!    

Increase Is Powerful 

All of us like to see an increase!  Increase is encouraging and   energizing too.  Seeing the fruit of  our labors causes us to work harder.   When someone joins the church at  SPBC, it brings us all joy doesn’t it?   Likewise, when we see a loved one or friend, or anyone repent of sins  and turn to the Lord, it is encouraging.  Every spring when I plant my  garden, I look forward to seeing the seed sprouts down the planted rows  where a few days earlier was only bare dirt.  No doubt about it, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ provides the greatest truth of the Power of Increase. 

“But now is Christ even from the dead, and become the first fruits of  them that slept.” I Corinthians 15:20  

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the  ground and die, it abideth alone:  but if it die, it bringeth forth much  fruit.”    John 12:24 

Increase is powerful because it comes from death.  The increase in  our love for God and our hatred for sin is because we died with Christ  and thereby we died to the penalty and power of sin.  Jesus also said that  in order for us to have life, we must lose it.  The Apostle Paul preached  that we must die daily.  Yes, increase will come only through our weakness and our yielding to Almighty God in our lives.  Give God the right-of-way if you want to go the right way.  Growing in grace happens because God has eminent domain, having purchased our souls by the precious blood of the Lamb, the Son of God. 

Really, the only real increase must come from God. 

“I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.”                         I Corinthians 3:6 

All of our kingdom work’s success depends on God.  Parenting, preaching and participating in church and life in general require the powerful  Spirit of God to make it useful and effective.  God is faithful though;  when we do our part, He will do His.  The bigger God is the smaller will  be our problems.  When God increases, sin decreases and instead of weakness, we are strengthened and steadied for service. The fourth verse of the hymn "More About Jesus" captures a powerful way to tune our souls in the key of increase.  "More About Jesus on His throne, riches in glory all His own; more of His kingdom's sure increase; more of His coming, Prince of Peace." We don't need more money, more health, more happiness or more religion. What we need is more Jesus. He is the Highest Power. Hang around Jesus and He will change you. He will grow you and He will show you the way, the truth, and the life.