Kingdom Economy #3: God Teaches You to Profit — Abiding in the Vine and the Widow of Zarephath

The kingdom economy is God’s way of supplying His people, and it runs on giving, receiving, faith and agreement rather than on fear and the sweat of the brow. In this third message of the series, the pastor teaches that believers live in two systems at once: the corrupted economy of this world and the economy of the kingdom of heaven. He shows from Isaiah 48:17 that God teaches His people to profit, and from John 15 that abiding in Christ is how that provision is held onto.

The message continues from Kingdom Economy Part 2: Optimism Is Vital to Your Success. Below you will find the full video, a structured summary, the Scripture behind each point (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline and practical steps for this week.

Sermon at a Glance

This message was posted at NTC Ministries on March 15, 2022, as part three of a ten-part series. It runs about 73 minutes and closes with a prayer of salvation. The pastor opens by saying most Christians do not realize they live in a dual system. The world sees only what it can touch, hear, taste and smell, but believers can see another realm.

His central claim is that God wants His children to profit, grow and excel, and that the way into that increase is not harder toil but learning how His kingdom works and staying planted in it.

Living in Two Economies at Once

The pastor begins with the fall. When Adam sinned, corruption entered the world and God drove Adam from the garden and away from the tree of life. Everyone born since then is born into that corruption. He reads God’s words to Adam in Genesis 3:17–19 as the description of this world’s economy: the ground is cursed, and people must make it produce by the sweat of their brow.

Yet God placed each of us here at the right time and in the right place, so we must learn to function in both systems. Jesus said to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s (Matthew 22:21). The pastor adds that it takes work to be spiritual, just as it takes work to earn a living.

Through Jesus, God translated us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love (Colossians 1:13). Being saved, he says, does not just mean going to heaven one day. Jesus announced that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, here now, to be entered and partaken of. He told Nicodemus that no one can even see the kingdom unless he is born again (John 3:3).

New birth gives spiritual eyes, but we still have to look and seek, letting God show us how His kingdom runs. That seeking is where the kingdom economy begins.

God Teaches You to Profit

The key verse of the message is Isaiah 48:17: “I am the LORD your God, Who teaches you to profit, Who leads you by the way you should go.” The pastor says God wants His people to have a profitable life, to succeed, grow and excel in prosperity more than the world does.

He confronts the idea that wealth is evil. Money is neutral, he teaches; what it does depends on the hand that holds it, which is why a little in the hand of the righteous is much. Who should hold the world’s resources: the corrupt, or people who will use them rightly?

He then widens the word. In his words, “an economy isn’t just money”; it is knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is the accumulation of facts, and wisdom is their proper application. He points to the proverb that he who wins souls is wise (Proverbs 11:30): knowing great facts about God and never sharing them is not wisdom.

Two examples show the point. A Vietnamese physician who volunteered at the church’s school described luxury cars parked beside one-room shacks, because wealth did not flow. And Chrysler paid Lee Iacocca a large sum because he brought an economy with him: connections and understanding that saved the company and thousands of jobs.

Fear, Faith and Abiding in the Vine

Because the earth is under the curse, fear is everywhere. The pastor says the Hebrew word for fear carries the meaning of “an ever-present attendant.” Faith is different. Jesus asked people where their faith was, and in one region He could do few miracles because they had none. Faith has to be worked at, and Romans 10:17 shows how: faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

He warns against learning only the world’s system and crying out for help when your back is against the wall. Some people chase a prophetic word or a healing but never commit to the local church, where they could be built up and grow. That commitment is part of the kingdom economy.

Then he turns to John 15:4–8. To abide, he teaches, means to stay and to stake a claim. He compares it to the 1849 gold rush: finding gold was only the start, because the miners then had to work hard to keep others from jumping their claim. In the same way, when the word is sown, Satan comes to steal it, then rocky troubles and choking weeds follow (Mark 4:15–19).

The promise is that “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” By this the Father is glorified. The pastor draws a line between a churchgoer and a disciple: Paul wrote to the saints and to the faithful, and it is the faithful, those holding to what God said, who will carry authority.

He adds that in Christ we have been given wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30). God has no problem giving to a person who will use His gifts rightly and give Him the glory instead of clutching them like a child who has just learned the word “mine.”

The Kingdom Economy of Giving and Receiving

Nothing happens in the natural before it happens in the spiritual, the pastor says. He reads Webster’s definition of economy: the thrifty and efficient use of material resources, and the efficient use of non-material resources such as effort, motion and language. Your household, your workplace, your town and your nation all have an economy, and believers need to be aware of the kingdom economy as well.

In Ephesians 3:1–3, Paul speaks of the dispensation of the grace of God given to him. The pastor explains that this Greek word is where English gets the word economy: the administration of a household. God has given us an understanding of His economy because He wants us to profit. He cites Israel’s strong economy among much larger neighbors as an example.

The world’s system is buying and selling, labor for a paycheck. The kingdom works by grace, through giving and receiving, which is why salvation is not a payment for works. He reads Galatians 3:13–14: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law so that the blessing of Abraham would come on the Gentiles. And he reminds the church that the blessing of the Lord makes rich and adds no sorrow with it (Proverbs 10:22).

He uses flight to describe the pressure on believers. Having been in a plane crash himself, he says he only ever studied how to keep a plane in the air. The greatest pressure on a Christian is spiritual gravity pulling attention down to this world’s problems. He recalls the prophet’s servant who saw only the enemy army until his eyes were opened to fiery chariots on the hills (2 Kings 6:15–17).

The centerpiece is Luke 6:38: give, and it will be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over. The pastor pictures shaking a change jar so it settles and holds more, and says the Greek word for bosom carries the idea of a lake, the place where your holdings are kept.

He tells of a brother in Quebec who began helping the ministry at no charge. His online business grew from about twenty-five thousand dollars a month to fifty thousand, though he did nothing different, because he had entered the kingdom economy. The pastor also recalls 1986, when his family gave away everything they owned at the Lord’s direction. A businessman gave them four hundred dollars, a bank found money in an account in their name, and they arrived with seven hundred dollars.

He then reads 2 Corinthians 9:10–11: God supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, multiplies the seed sown and increases the fruit of righteousness, so that we are enriched in everything and become generous in every way, which causes thanksgiving to God. That is the kingdom economy at work.

Speaking the Same Thing: Unity and Amen

Like a plane, the kingdom economy needs certain things to get off the ground. The first the pastor names is two people who differ from each other, a giver and a receiver. Male and female picture this; Adam knew Eve, and they started a home economy. In a church service, he says, the congregation is conceiving: receiving what God has given the minister and responding by saying amen, which means so be it. He also cites the call to shout to God with the voice of triumph (Psalm 47:1).

The tower of Babel shows the power of one language. In Genesis 11:5–8, God said that because the people were one and spoke one language, nothing they proposed would be withheld from them. When their language was confused, they stopped building and their economy collapsed.

So Paul pleads in 1 Corinthians 1:10 “that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you.” The pastor urges the church to read Scripture aloud, because we hear with an inner ear as well as an outer one. Confessing with the mouth and believing in the heart brings salvation, which he defines as being healed, delivered, set free and prospered (Romans 10:9).

Mary modeled this response. When Gabriel told her she would bear a child, she answered, “Let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). God’s word goes out like rain and snow and accomplishes what He sent it for (Isaiah 55:10–11), but it needs someone willing to say amen.

Then he makes a sharp point. A person who sits among strong Christians but keeps speaking lack, doubt, sickness and hopelessness is spiritually deaf. In his words, “you speak what you’re exposed to.” A child raised by Russian parents would speak Russian; a new employee picks up the language of a new job within weeks.

The pastor says he grew up in extreme poverty and had to train himself to speak a different language. Then doors opened, from business owners in Montreal to company leaders in Salt Lake City, many of whom gave their lives to Jesus. He calls it tapping into the kingdom economy.

The Widow of Zarephath and the Economy That Flows Down

The final story is Elijah in a time of drought. God fed him by ravens at the brook Cherith, and when the brook dried up, sent him to a widow in Zarephath (1 Kings 17:8–16). She had only a handful of flour and a little oil and was gathering sticks to make a last meal for herself and her son before they died.

Her language, the pastor notes, was what she saw in the natural. Elijah told her not to fear, but to make him a small cake first and then make some for herself and her son. He was giving her attention to the kingdom first. She did as he said, and the flour and oil did not run out until the rain returned. The kingdom of heaven’s economy built a small economic system in that one household, through a drought the world had no answer for.

The pastor says he would be in sin not to warn the church that hard economic times are coming, and that believers need to be tapped into another economy. He adds Jeremiah 29:11: God’s thoughts toward us are thoughts of peace, to give a future and a hope. The purpose of every promise, like every seed at the seed store, is its fulfillment, and we are born again of incorruptible seed (1 Peter 1:23).

He closes with Psalm 133: “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” The oil runs down from Aaron’s head to his beard and garments, and there the Lord commanded the blessing. The word economy, he says, means to flow down, and “there isn’t a river that flows uphill.” Dam up the Mississippi and everyone loses, above and below the dam.

So he cannot understand people who hold everything to themselves while saying they do not have enough. The widow had that thought too, but she gave first, and what she had kept producing. He shares that for almost eleven years he has not taken a salary, yet tens of thousands of dollars of debt have been paid off through the kingdom economy, not through worry and toil.

Living in the Kingdom Economy This Week

The pastor ends by inviting anyone who has never given their life to Jesus to do so, and anyone who is born again but only working the world’s system to hook up with the kingdom economy. Here are practical steps drawn from the message:

• Seek how the kingdom works. Spiritual sight comes by looking. Ask God, as Isaiah 48:17 promises, to teach you to profit and lead you in the way to go.
• Stake your claim and keep it. When a promise is sown in you, expect opposition and hold on to what God said, abiding in the vine.
• Feed your faith on purpose. Fear is always around; faith is not. Keep hearing the word of God, and read it aloud.
• Give first. Like the widow of Zarephath, put the kingdom first and let God’s measure come back pressed down and running over.
• Change your language. Notice where you speak lack, doubt or sickness, and train yourself to say amen to what God says instead.
• Get planted. Commit to a local church where you can be built up, become stable and speak the same thing with other believers.

Timestamped Outline

• 0:00 Christians live in a dual system
• 1:30 Render to Caesar and to God
• 2:36 Translated into the kingdom of light
• 3:38 Isaiah 48:17: God teaches you to profit
• 4:50 Wealth is neutral
• 9:24 The earth-curse system and the sweat of the brow
• 13:04 Lee Iacocca brought an economy
• 14:26 Fear is an ever-present attendant
• 17:01 John 15: abide and stake a claim
• 20:05 Saints and the faithful
• 22:25 What the word economy means
• 23:35 Ephesians 3 and the dispensation of grace
• 28:37 Spiritual gravity and the plane crash
• 32:08 Luke 6:38: give and it will be given
• 34:15 A business that doubled
• 36:24 Giving everything away in 1986
• 38:57 2 Corinthians 9: seed to the sower
• 41:02 Giving and receiving, and saying amen
• 43:23 The tower of Babel and one language
• 45:49 1 Corinthians 1:10: speak the same thing
• 47:52 Mary: be it unto me
• 51:28 You speak what you are exposed to
• 55:58 Elijah and the widow of Zarephath
• 1:04:09 Psalm 133 and the economy that flows down

Kingdom Economy Series

This message is part three of a ten-part series at NTC Ministries. Start from the beginning or continue where this one leaves off:

• First message: Kingdom Economy #1: The Two Economies — Learning How Heaven Works
• Previous: Kingdom Economy Part 2: Optimism Is Vital to Your Success
• You are here: Kingdom Economy #3: God Teaches You to Profit — Abiding in the Vine and the Widow of Zarephath
• Next: Kingdom Economy #4: You and Change — From Sweat Equity to the Economy of Heaven

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this teaching mean believers should stop working?

No. The pastor is clear that we must function in both systems: if you do not work, you do not eat. His point is about attention and source. Believers still work, but they do not rely on the sweat of the brow alone or give all their effort to the world’s system. Their focus is on the kingdom of heaven first, and they expect God to provide in ways that go beyond their own labor.

Why does the pastor link the local church to economics?

He sees the local church as an economy in its own right: a place where people give and receive, are built up in faith, and become stable. Someone who only drops in for a prophetic word or a healing never commits to that flow. To the complaint that the church only wants money, he answers that God’s will is to prosper His people.

What should change first, my giving or my words?

The sermon treats them as connected. The widow of Zarephath first spoke only what she saw, a last meal and then death. Elijah’s word changed her outlook, and then she gave first. The pastor says agreement with God starts with saying amen to His word, and that same agreement leads to obedience, including giving. He describes training his own speech out of the language of poverty before doors opened.

Scripture References

All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:

• Isaiah 48:17 — God teaches you to profit
• John 15:4–8 — abide in the vine
• Romans 10:17 — faith comes by hearing
• Ephesians 3:1–3 — the dispensation of grace
• Luke 6:38 — give, and it will be given
• 2 Corinthians 9:10–11 — seed to the sower
• Genesis 11:5–8 and 1 Corinthians 1:10 — speaking the same thing
• 1 Kings 17:8–16 — the widow of Zarephath
• Psalm 133:1–3 — where the Lord commands the blessing

How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.

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