It’s Not About what the Church Needs – It’s About What the Lord Wants!
Proverbs 3:9
If you have been with us for any length of time at all, you know that we purposely shy away from discussing one area of life because it is such a hot button for people who have not been to church for a while. It is not sex, it's not dancing or movies or alcohol. It's money. We usually steer clear of the issue because it is an issue that will often cause people who are looking for a new church to grab hold of their wallets and run the other way as quickly as possible. I know that some of you come from a church background where you were not asked to give an offering to the Lord, but were more accurately taxed by your church, actually sent a bill if you didn't give enough. I have heard horror stories of people being pressured to refinance their homes, cash in life insurance policies and leave their entire estates to the church.
Fear not. You will not be pressured to do any of that here. Now it is possible that you may feel led to do any one of those things, or several of them – but unless it comes from your personal desire to honor God with your possessions, it is wrong. If you are new to us, I would encourage you to talk to those who have been here for a while. They will tell you that we have never pressured anyone to give, we have not published giving reports showing the amounts given by each person, and we have not in any way attempted to separate you from your cash. We have never taken a formal offering – it seems to me to be a loose / loose situation more often than not – I can easily be tempted to make a big show of my giving, so that other people see what I am doing, which negates my gift in God’s eyes, or I give because I feel like I am being compelled to give, which completely undermines the attitude with which God desires our giving. He wants us to give as an act of worship – because we recognize that everything we have is from Him, and to recognize our dependence on His mercy and grace.
So as we talk about money in these few weeks at Gateway Community Church, it’s not meant to be an arm-twisting effort to pick your pocket.
But (you just knew there was going to be a "but", didn't you?) But we cannot claim to be a Bible-based church that addresses practical issues of life and ignore the issue of our finances. If you are married, or single; a parent or a child; young or old, I feel very confident in making a claim that there is probably not one issue that occupies more of your time, or causes more stress in your life, than money. I recently read of one marriage counselor who said he felt that the marriage vows could be changed to more accurately read, "'till debt do us part." Without question, money is the number one cause of divorce in America – the average American household has $30,000 in consumer debt. Money is probably the most practical issue we face in life, so why shouldn’t the church address it?
So I ask your indulgence. Just because we are going to talk about money, please don't switch me off right away. I am not going to be asking you to send thousands of dollars to Gateway within the next 90 days or I'm going to die. Rather, please come to this issue with an open mind. Chances are, you've searched for the secret to financial security, or you've sought a source for budgeting information. Just switch on your television on an early Saturday morning or late night, and you wil be bombarded with infomercials peddling “get rich quick” schemes. Everybody has their own version of “10 steps to Financial Freedom.” But today,. I want to share with you today a Biblical guide for handling your money wisely, and I believe that if you employ it, you will find relief from the stress that money can be on you and your family. Turn in your Bible to Proverbs, chapter 3, verses 9&10. Today, I want to give you Gods plan – I’m calling it “God’s One Step Plan to Financial Independence.”
Finances is the single greatest cause of stress in American homes. George Barna recently reported that the average American wants $8,000 more per year to rest easy. A few dollars every week would certainly be nice wouldn't it? But what about the people in the survey who already earn 8,000 more than some others, or 10,000 more? They still feel the need for more. In fact, Bill Gates was recently asked how much money was enough, and his answer was "just a little more."
Can you relate to that? It seems like no matter how much we have, we could always use "just a little more." Ivana Trump, when she divorced “The Donald,” told the court that she needed $6.2 million per year to live. Most of us could live for a lifetime on 1 million and the interest it would generate. But the more we have, the more we seem to need. So what is the answer to the money trap? How do we stop the plunge into this seemingly bottomless pit of work, pay, and debt?
Today, we are going to see a passage of scripture that gives a plan for finical independence. It is authored by an individual with impeccable credentials, and substantial assets – it is from God Himself. And it is free advice – no five easy payments of $29.95 – it is free and available to us all.
In this passage, Proverbs 3:9&10, you will find God's One-Step Plan to Financial Freedom.
Honor the Lord with your possessions,
And with the firstfruits of all your increase;
So your barns will be filled with plenty,
And your vats will overflow with new wine.
This passage sends a clear message that is repeated over and over again in the book of Proverbs and throughout all of scripture: Our financial freedom does not depend on how many possessions we hold, but on how much our possessions hold us. Let me repeat that for you: Our financial freedom does not depend on how many possessions we hold, but on how much our possessions hold us.
We have all met people in our lives who live by the phrase that is popular on bumper stickers and T-shirts: "He who dies with the most toys, wins." But if you talk to those people, who have as their greatest goal in life the accumulation of wealth and toys and luxuries, you will find that they are like Bill Gates - no matter how much they have, they need "just a little bit more" to be satisfied. They believe that the next acquisition will be the one to finally satisfy them. Yet time and time again they find themselves looking for the next source of satisfaction, the next source of pride. Their lives can be described accurately by another Proverb - 23:5 says,
Will you set your eyes on that which is not?
For riches certainly make themselves wings;
They fly away like an eagle toward heaven.
They are constantly grabbing at that which is not - they seek fulfillment in something that offers only a lust for more. As soon as they buy the newest car, their neighbor buys one better, and on it goes. With that philosophy, even the richest are not financially free - the are financial slaves - chained to the desire for more so securely that it takes $6.2 million per year to satisfy - and yet there is no satisfaction. They are held captive by their capitol. They are manacled to their money. They are possessed by their possessions.
It is easy for us to pass this type of judgment on the very rich - but it is not only the wealthy who are possessed by their possessions. Many of us feel the tug to have another pair of shoes, a newer and better riding mower, a home with a second (or third) bath. It is not only the rich who are held by their holdings, it is any of us, rich or poor, who allow the financial priorities to get out of line.
God's one step plan to financial freedom is very simply this: "Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the firstfruits of all your increase..."
What does it mean to "honor the Lord with our possessions?" The word "honor" used originally in Hebrew (kabad) by the writer of Proverbs literally means, "to make weighty, or of first importance." The secret to financial freedom, then is that the first priority of our lives needs to be to recognize God as most important. Many people who are strong Christians, and honor God in many ways in their lives, struggle with honoring God with their possessions. We will give of our time, we give our talent, but it is very difficult for us to honor God with our possessions.
I believe that is true because of our desire to be self-sustaining. We look on our possessions as something we own, something we have worked for and acquired by our own efforts. It becomes a source of pride or at least self-sufficiency. But that is a mistaken notion. If you remember Job, from the Old Testament, you remember a story of a man who was the wealthiest man of his time. he was the Bill Gates of the ancient world. Then in one day, he lost his children, his livestock and all his wealth. On that day he dropped to his knees and said,
Naked I came from my mother's womb,
And naked shall I return there.
The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away;
Blessed be the name of the Lord. (Job 1:21)
Job was a person who honored God with his possessions. Were they a source of great wealth to him? Yes. Did it bring him much joy? No doubt. But did he allow those things to hold him so strongly that when he lost them he turned against God? No way. Job honored God with his possessions by realizing that they were all temporary anyway. He realized that “wealth takes wings and flies away like an eagle to the heavens.” He held his belongings loosely. He did not allow his holdings to hold him.
We honor God by realizing that what we have is not the result of our endeavor but the result of His grace. You may argue the point, and claim that it is by the sweat of your brow that you have that newest possession - but who gave you the body, and the health and the mental capacity to work? In the final analysis, everything we have is a gift from God. Everything we own, every escape we enjoy, every meal we savor is ours because of God's grace. And it is only when we have that in focus that we are able to honor God with our possessions.
When I was a kid, I recall the first brand new car that my parents purchased. My dad got out one of those labeling guns, the kind that printed out white letters on a thin strip of sticky plastic, and he placed a strip above the speedometer that read "This car belongs to the Lord, on loan to the Marsh family." That is a great way to look at our possessions. The car was a 1971 Chevy Vega. Some of you might be laughing to yourselves. The Vega was the greatest mistake Chevy ever made. There was a design flaw in them that caused the front fenders on both sides to rust completely through before the car was one year old. I remember when my younger brother Ed went up to the fender one day as we were getting out of the car to go in a restaurant, and said "You know, this is going to rust right through one day," and pushed his finger right through! We all laughed! The look on his face, the laughable condition of that car - we broke up!
Now what if that car had been some great source of pride for our family? What if we had put all our self esteem in that vehicle? My dad would have had a cow when Ed’s finger went through the fender! We would have been bitter about the condition of the car for months and years. But that didn't happen - and I believe it was because of the attitude that my dad exhibited when he put that sticker above the speedometer. Sure it hurt. Sure he felt like it was a mistake. But the attitude was one of holding the possession lightly. It's God's car anyway.
We are challenged in these verses to make honoring God with our possessions the highest goal in our financial portfolio. We are called to honor him with our possessions, the things we own, and with the firstfruits of all our increase. That means that we need to realize that God is the source of our every blessing now, and we also need to honor him with the product of our labor. The secret to financial freedom is not difficult, it is not really a secret. Most of us know it already, but few of us really take advantage of it. We need to put honoring God at the top of our budgets.
None of us think twice of paying nearly 50% of our incomes in taxes of one sort or another, 20% interest on credit cards so we can have shoes now instead of when we have saved for them, or 15% tip for a waitress at the Iron Ridge Inn for fish fry, but we will not honor God with the 10% that the Bible clearly teaches is rightly to be given back to Him. Think about it, will you honor your waitress more than you will honor your God? She has brought you your meal, and perhaps refilled your coffee, but He has provided you with your breath, and refilled your cup many times over. Yet in most households, the Lord and His work is relegated to the leftovers. Whatever is left at the end of the month is given to the Lord.
But the Bible clearly teaches that the tithe and offerings to the Lord are to be the firstfruits. The first and the best we have to offer. This week I got an email from a person here who really took this to heart. She said that she had read this verse, and it really spoke to her – and she decided that from this point on, every year, she is going to give the first pay check of the year, the whole thing, to God. WOW! She didn’t do that because I told her, or because of some television preacher swindled her out of her money – she did it because in her heart she felt that was a great way to honor God – to put Him first by giving him the first check of the year – that is so cool! And you know what – God will honor her for that! He promises so right here: in verse 10 of Proverbs 3 we read the results of honoring God with our possessions:
So your barns will be filled with plenty,
And your vats will overflow with new wine.
God promises that when we honor him, we will have plenty. We will be blessed and set free from the prison of financial slavery. You may not believe it. You may have your doubts. "If I can't live on 100% of my salary now, how am I ever going to live on 90% of it if I give ten percent to the Lord?" All I can tell you is this: if you are struggling with financial oppression, and if you feel that you can never get ahead, I have the answer - I really do. Put God first in your budget. Honor him both with what you have now and with the wages you get each week. Make the offering to Him the first check you write. And you will see Him bless you. I don't have to guarantee this claim - God does. Have you heard the guy on the radio or TV who has made his millions by saying, “I guarantee it”? Well, this comes with an iron-clad guarantee, and next week we are going to look at God’s guarantee.
So, does that mean that I will never face financial stress again? No – Carol and I still have to watch ourselves, and sometimes things are tight. If suddenly we were brought to a place where money was no problem, it wouldn’t take faith to keep giving, would it? The difference is, we are no longer held captive by our budget – it’s a matter of perspective – God is in control, and we rest in him, instead of us in control, wrestling with our money!
You may be thinking to yourself, "I knew it! I just knew that one day he was going to put this guilt trip on us about giving more money to the church!" I beg your pardon. I have not, and I am not asking you to do any such thing. I am simply addressing the most practical issue you and your family are going to face, and I am addressing it as the Bible teaches. I don't know how much you make, I don't want to know. I don't know how much you give, I don't want to know. But I know that in my home, and I'm sure that in your home, money is a source of concern and stress and frustration. I'm not telling you to give more to Gateway. God is calling each of us to honor him with our possessions and our income. And he offers a promise to those who do.
Are you one of those American families that agrees that another $8000 a year would make all the difference? Do you share Bill Gates feelings that "just a little bit more" would do the trick? If so, you are searching for financial freedom in the wrong place. The secret to finical independence is not in how much we posses, but how much our possessions hold us. Do our tightly gripped hands prevent us from receiving God's blessing? Does our clawing and striving for more and more leave us feeling unsatisfied and frustrated? It's because we are not honoring God first. Honor Him first – and you will be financially independent.
Let's pray.