Mr. Dillon Knowles, Vice President of Development, Grand Bahama Development Company Photo: Derek Carroll

Freeport, Grand Bahama - The Anglican Church Women (ACW), a service organization formed  in 1963 by then Bishop Bernard Malcolm and is open to all female members of the Anglican church over the age of 18 held their 13th Annual Prayer Breakfast on September 19, 2009 at the Foster B. Pestaina Centre.

Under the theme, "Prospering in spite of difficult times," the organization met as part of their 39th anniversary celebrations, which began on September 12th.

Mr. Dillon Knowles, Vice President of Development, Grand Bahama Development Company gave the following remarks at the breakfast.

My Sisters in Christ – Good Morning.  

I thank you for inviting me to share with you this morning.  When Joan Cuffy asked me for the bio that was used to introduce me I told her that all she needed to say was “Dillon  - a child of God” but she insisted that you would want to know my credentials. I realized that you expected me to discuss this topic from a professional perspective.  It is my belief, though, that this is a spiritual topic – I think that being a child of God is all the credentials I need.    

I am honoured to be here.  I pray that my talk will be a blessing to you.  

Your theme for today is “Prospering in spite of difficult times” and your selected scripture is Malachi 3:10-12 which states,  “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.  Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.  I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” says the Lord almighty.  “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.  

If you will indulge me, I’d like to first deal with this matter of “difficult times”.  Where do difficult times come from?  

We all know that when God created man, He placed him in the Garden of Eden where he had no worries - only good times.  Then ….. Genesis 3:1-3 states,  “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.  He said to the woman, “Did God really say. ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”  The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”    

We all know the storey - verses 11b-19 states that God said,  “Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I eat it.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, ‘Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals!  You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.  And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.’ To the woman He said, ‘I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children.  Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.’ To Adam He said, ‘Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, you must not eat of it, Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.  It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.  By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.’”  

“Difficult times” entered the world through Adam’s disobedience to God.  Not just for Adam, but for everyone involved in the disobedience - Eve and the serpent as well.  

Photo: Derek Carroll

Further, in Deuteronomy 28:15-19, Moses states, “ ……, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all His commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.  Your basket and kneading trough will be cursed.  The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.  You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.”  Moses goes on to list the multitude of curses God will bestow on those who are disobedient to Him.  When you have the time, read them – they will make your head spin.  

So it appears to me that “difficult times” are a product of our own disobedience to God, either individually or collectively.  Therefore, we have some say in whether we experience difficult times or not.  It’s also quite possible that others around you may have difficult times while you do not.  

I have found that God uses “difficult times” to either cause us to stop doing something we are doing or to cause us to start doing something we are not doing.  James 1:2-5 states, “ Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trial of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perserverance.  Perserverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”   

Pastor Rick Warren is quoted as explaining it like this, [and I quote] “Life is a series of problems; Either you are in one now, you’re just coming out of one, or you’re getting ready to go into another one.  The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort; God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.   We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that’s not the goal of life.  The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.” [end quote]  

I’ve come to realize that it’s during difficult times that I grow the most.  It’s also during difficult times that God provides the greatest opportunities to prosper.  Those of us who sit around and bemoan how difficult the times are go nowhere.  Those of us who look for ways to make it better, who try to find solutions or services to offer, normally succeed.  Think about it – every invention known to man came about because someone was having a hard time and thought of a better way.  

So, let’s not get uptight about “difficult times”.    

SLIDE SHOW: The Anglican Church Women (ACW), a service organization formed in 1963 by then Bishop Bernard Malcolm and is open to all female members of the Anglican church over the age of 18 held their 13th Annual Prayer Breakfast on September 19, 2009 at the Foster B. Pestaina Centre. Photos by Derek Carroll

I know that it is not easy to say that when you are going through difficult times, but that’s why we are here discussing this topic today - so that we can all learn to say it.  

Let’s talk now about “prospering”.  

The dictionary defines “Prosper” as to be fortunate or successful, especially in terms of one’s finances; to thrive.  

Just as we have determined that “difficult times” is a direct product of disobedience to God, prosperity is a direct product of obedience to God.  In Deuteronomy 28: 1-14, Moses states, “ If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all His commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.  All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:  You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.  The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock – the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.  Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.  You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.  The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you.  They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.  The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to.  The Lord your God will bless you in the land He is giving you.  The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the lord your God. And walk in His ways.  Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you.  The Lord will grant you abundant   prosperity  – in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land – in the land He swore to give to your forefathers to give to you.  The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of His bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands.  You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.  The Lord will make you the head, not the tail.  If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I gave you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.  Do not turn aside from any of the commands I gave you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them.”  

Simply stated - obedience equals prosperity.  

While your selected scripture, Malachi 3:10-12, specifically addresses the rewards of tithing, the passage is set within a broader discussion on obedience.  It starts at verse 6 and states, “‘ I the Lord do not change.  So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.  Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them.  Return to me and I will return to you,’ says the Lord Almighty.  ‘But you ask, How are we to return?  Will a man rob God?  Yet you rob Me.  But you ask, How do we rob You?  In tithes and offerings.  You are under a curse – the whole nation of you – because you are robbing Me.’”  God admonishes them to return to Him and to be obedient.  

God then follows on at verse 10 to explain what the rewards are for being obedient by stating, “ Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.  Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.  I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” says the Lord almighty.  “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.     

Do you tithe?    

1 Corinthians 9:6-11 states,  “Remember this:  Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.  Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.  And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.  As it is written: “He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures for ever.”  Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.  You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving.”   

Sowing into other peoples lives is as important as tithing but Matthew 6:1-4 warns, “ Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them.  If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.  So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honoured by men.  I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.  But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret.  Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”  

Do you sow?  Sowing takes on many forms – not just the giving of money.  Time and talent are great treasures to sow.  You would be surprised at how great an impact your time can have on some ones life.    

Tithing and sowing are all part of being obedient to God.  They fit within God’s greatest commands to us.  Mark 12:30-31 states,  “’The most important one’, answered Jesus, ‘is this:…….   Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  The second is this: Love your neighbour as yourself.  There is no commandment greater than these.’”  If you truly love the Lord and truly love your neighbour, you will tithe and you will sow.  You will also drop the word ‘I’ from your thought processes.  Your thoughts will be on how you can help others, how you may be of service to them.  How you can make their life better.  And believe it or not, for your obedience in this regard, God will reward you in ways you could never dream of.  I have seen serving out of the goodness of your heart turn into a lucrative business.  I have seen helping others provide you with an idea that sells big.  It’s amazing what obedience to God will do.  

My personal experience with obedience to God and thus prosperity in difficult times is checkered at best.  While I grew up in the church and knew of God, I didn’t really have a personal relationship with Him.  As a young adult I strayed away completely.  I became my own man and stopped going to church altogether.  I thought that I was prospering until God decided to let me know better.  I lost my job of 19 years, got divorced and gave up everything I owned and lost the girlfriend I was involved with all in the same year.  I now knew what difficult times were.  My disobedience had come home to roost.  But God used this difficult time to straighten me out.  I spent 6 un-employed months reading from Genesis to Revelations, getting to know Him personally.  Thankfully, God is more faithful then we are.  My life was changed forever.  I’ve learnt to be obedient.  Tithing and sowing are a part of that obiedience.  

The first checks I write each month are for the tithes of the income that my wife and I received the previous month.  For years, I opened my home on weekends and holidays to a half dozen young boys who are fatherless.  You probably have seen them come to church with me over the years.  Three of them have graduated from high school, one is a Police Officer, one is presently in the Police Cadet programme and the other is seeking a scholarship to attend college.  The remaining three kids are still in high school and are doing well.  A little time has gone a long way.  

The result of my obedience is that God has made me prosper in spite of difficult times.  He has given me a new wife, a Proverbs 31 woman, and a family.  He has given me a new career and some small businesses to support us.  He has made it possible for our daughter to attend college on an athletic scholarship and has paved the way for one of our sons to pursue his dreams at a high school in the US.  And best of all, He has given me a ministry and the reward of seeing others come to know Him personally.  

Oh, I still have bouts of disobedience which I pay for dearly.  My greatest current struggle is obedience to His delegated authority.  Some of those He has put in charge.  But, by His grace, I will overcome that also.  

Pray for me.  

I am not any more special to God than you are.  If God can do it for me during difficult times, He surely can and will do it for you.  I give Him thanks and praise every chance I get for providing for a sinner like me.  What about you?  

I leave you with this final scripture.  Matthew 6:25-34 states, “ Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable then they?  Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?  And why do you worry about clothes?  See how the lilies of the field grow.  They do not labour or spin.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If this is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more cloth you.  Oh you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying, “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”  

Let me repeat that, “ seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”  

May we each grow in obedience.  

Trust God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

“Live long and prosper”.    

Thank you for having me.    

God bless.