Banking on God's Promises

God's Promises About Giving

Today we're going to begin a new series for the summer that I'm very excited about. I want to begin by telling you that the words, promise and promises, are actually used over a thousand times, in different English translations of the Scripture. One scholar did a study. He counted over 8,000 different promises of God in the Bible. The Bible tells us that God is a promise-making, and a promise-keeping God. He makes promises in the Bible to literally everybody.

Now, God's promises are like a divine insurance policy. In an insurance policy, when you know what's covered, then you don't sweat it when that circumstance happens in your life. Or that illness, or that accident, when you know what's covered in the policy, you relax. On the other hand, if you don't know what's covered in the insurance policy, if you're ignorant of it, you worry. One of the problems that we have today, is people don't know the promises of God, so they spend a lot of time worrying.

Today, we're going to begin a new series, that I'm calling Living on God’s Promises. Each week we're going to look at a different set of God's promises to you. We'll look at promises of God's help, the promises of wisdom, of power. Promises of forgiveness and guidance. Promises of salvation and blessing, and heaven. Promises of guidance and salvation, of success, of victory, and many, many other benefits.

Fundamental facts about God’s promises

1. God wants me to build my life on His promises.

God doesn't want you to live a life built on petty rules. He wants you to live a life built on great promises. We're going to look at many of these 8,000 promises in God's word to you, God's insurance policy to you.

2. God makes unconditional and conditional promises.

The unconditional promises, there are no strings attached. No matter what you do, when God promises something unconditionally, it's going to happen. For instance, God has made an unconditional promise about the second coming of Jesus Christ. It's not going to be dependent on anything that you or I do. That's an unconditional promise, and we'll look at many of those.

God also makes conditional promises, and these promises are based on your obedience. God says, "If you do this, then I will do this." It's not automatic. These promises aren't automatically yours. You have to meet a requirement, or a circumstance or a condition. If you don't meet that requirement, then you forfeit the promise. In other words, there's a premise to every promise that's conditional. We'll look at what some of those conditions are.

3. God makes promises for us for two reasons:

The first reason God gives us all these 8,000 promises in the Bible, is to teach us to trust Him in difficult times.

1. To teach us to trust Him in difficult times.

The Bible says in Psalm 119:50, “When I'm hurting, I find comfort in your promises that lead to life."

Psalm 119:50 M:BCL

50 These words hold me up in bad times; yes, your promises rejuvenate me.

If you weren't in ever bad circumstances, you wouldn't need the promises of God.

If everything went great in your life, you wouldn't need the promises of God.

Psalm 119:114 NIV

114 You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word.

God first gives us promises to help us get us through the tough times in life. The difficult times, the times when we're hurting or it just looks like maybe He's not even around. We hold on to His promises.

2. To make us more like Him.

God's number one goal in your life is to make you like Jesus.

One of the ways that He does that, is through the promises in this book.

2 Peter 1:4 NLT

4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

The more you trust in God's promises, the more it's going to change your life.

That's what we're going to do the series, on God's amazing promises. You grow more like Jesus through God's promises. In fact, you can't become like Jesus, without trusting God's promises.

Can you guess what subject in the Bible God makes more promises about, than anything else? Can you guess what subject in the Bible God makes more promises about, than anything else? It's not faith. It's not prayer. It's not love. It's not patience.

It may surprise you that God makes more promises in the Bible, about generosity or giving than anything else.

Now, why is that? Why does God make more promises about being generous and being giving? Well, there's a couple of reasons. First, because God is generous, and He wants us to become like Him. God wants His children to take on his qualities. Everything we have in life, is because of the generosity and grace and giving of God.

John 1:16 M:BCL

16 We all live off his generous bounty, gift after gift after gift.

Everything you and I have in life, is because of God's generosity. God wants us to become like Him. He wants his children to be like father, like son, like father, like daughter.

Second reason God wants us to learn generosity is because giving is hard. The reason giving is hard, because it challenges our selfishness. "I don't want to give anything to anybody else. God, I wanted to spend it all on me," so it's hard. God gives rewards for us learning to be like Him. God is a generous God. Everything you have in life, is because of the generosity of God and He wants us to become like Him.

To kick off this series on God's amazing promises, we're going to start with the most frequent promises in the Bible. The promises about generosity. In fact, there are so many of them, we couldn't possibly cover the hundreds and hundreds of promises about this.

God’s promises to me when I’m generous with money...

I've just picked out nine categories. That's all we have time for. We're going to have to go through this fairly quickly anyway. Let me give you nine rewards that God promises to me and promises to you, if we learn to be generous with our money, right? Let's look at nine different rewards that God promises to us, if we learn to be generous with our money.

1. God promises good things will happen to me.

When I learn to give like God gives. God promises that good things will happen to me. Psalm 112:5 says, "Good, will come to him who is generous." Good things come to him who is generous. Proverbs 22:9, "Generous people will be blessed." That's a promise of God.

Psalm 112:5 NIV

5 Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely, who conduct their affairs with justice.

Proverbs 22:9 NLT

9 Blessed are those who are generous, because they feed the poor.

2. God promises my children will be blessed.

Psalm 37:26 NIV

26 They are always generous and lend freely; their children will be a blessing.

If you're not generous, you're not Godly because God is generous. "The Godly are always generous," and notice, "Their children will be blessed."

Now, I want you to notice, that when you learn to be generous, when you learn to give the way God gives, that blessing not only blesses you now, good comes into your life. God says, "It gets passed onto the next generation."

3. God promises He will bless my work.

Not just my family, but also my business. Let me show you a couple of verses about this. Proverbs 3:9 says this: "Honor the Lord, by giving Him the first part of all your income."

Proverbs 3:9–10 NLT

9 Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the best part of everything you produce. 10 Then he will fill your barns with grain, and your vats will overflow with good wine.

We'll talk about that later, but he says, "Then," that was the premise. Here's the promise, "Then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will overflow with the finest wines." Now, I doubt any of you have a barn to fill, or vats to fill with the finest wine.

Let's put this in a cultural context. In the Bible times, many people were farmers. When you looked inside a person's barn and you looked inside their vast, that represented their business. It represented their investments, it represented their livelihood.

What God is saying here, is if you learn to be generous. God says, "I will bless your work. I will bless your career. I will bless your investments. I will bless how you make a living." A verse that goes right along with that, is Proverbs 11:25 that says, "A generous man will prosper," will prosper. "A generous man will prosper, and he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed."

Proverbs 11:25 NLT

25 The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.

God says, "The person who is generous, will profit," Will be blessed in what he does.

Deuteronomy 15:10 M:BCL

10 Give freely and spontaneously. Don’t have a stingy heart. The way you handle matters like this triggers God, your God’s, blessing in everything you do, all your work and ventures.

“The way you handle matters." If you're generous with your money, you're not a stingy heart. "It triggers God's blessing in everything you do, in all your work." That's your job. That's your business, "And ventures."

Some of you are venture capitalists. Some of you are serial entrepreneurs. Do you want God's blessing to be triggered in your work, in your ventures, in everything you do? Well, the Bible says, "Generosity triggers God's blessing on your work." These are amazing promises. God says, "Good will come to you. Your kids will be blessed. Your work, your career, your job will be blessed." Generosity triggers God's blessing on your job.

4. God's promises I will be happier.

Now, everybody knows this, except people with the stingy heart. You already know this already. Jesus said in Acts 20:35, Luke is talking here, and he says, "Remember the words of our Lord Jesus Himself who said...

Acts 20:35 M:BCL

35 In everything I’ve done, I have demonstrated to you how necessary it is to work on behalf of the weak and not exploit them. You’ll not likely go wrong here if you keep remembering that our Master said, ‘You’re far happier giving than getting.’ ”

When I was a little kid, I honestly didn't believe that verse, because I'd rather get Christmas gifts when I was a little kid, than when I was older. I didn't want to give them, I wanted to get them, but that's a mark of maturity. Maturity comes when you realize that there's actually more happiness in giving, than in receiving.

5. God promises my influence will increase.

My influence will increase. Here's another promise. Proverbs 11:24, the Message says this: "The world of the generous, gets larger and larger. The world of the stingy, gets smaller and smaller." If you want your world to get larger, learn to be generous. If you want your world to get smaller, and more compact and harder and harder, and build walls around it, then just be a stingy person.

Proverbs 11:24 M:BCL

24 The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.

6. God promises I will end up with more.

This is part of the economy of God. Now, we don't give to get. I don't give to get a blessing. I actually give to be a blessing, but the truth is you can't out-give God.

God plays this little game and says, "Let's see who can out-give the other person. You give to me, and I'll give to you. You give to other people, and I'll give you and we'll see who wins." God says, "I promise you," and He says this over and over and over in Scripture." That I will end up with more, if I learn to be generous." Let me show you some verses.

Luke 6:38 NLT

38 Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”

God's going to make sure He out-gives you.

What's that talking about? Well, let's say if you're getting grain, and people are pouring grain in your sack. You've paid for a whole sack, you're going to shake it like this. Then you're going to press it down, so you can get the maximum amount of grain or coins, or anything else into that sack.

He's saying, "God wants to give you so much. You have to press it down. You have to shake it together to make more room, because God wants to give you more than your sack can hold." He says, "What you receive will need to be pressed down and shaken together, but it will still," notice, "it will still run over and be poured into your lap."

"The way you give to others, is the way God will give to you."

You've heard me say this many times. You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. You spell love, G-I-V-E. God so loved the world that he gave. If we're going to be loving, then we've got to learn to be giving. We've got to learn to be generous. He says, "Give, and it'll be given to you, and the way you give to others is the way God will give to you." That's promise. He says, "If you're generous, God will give you more than you can handle."

Proverbs 11:24 NET

24 One person is generous and yet grows more wealthy, but another withholds more than he should and comes to poverty.

He's saying, “You are determining how much I can bless your life.”

Proverbs 19:17 NLT

17 If you help the poor, you are lending to the Lord— and he will repay you!

7. God promises to meet all my needs.

Now, that just sounds too good to believe. It just sounds too good to be true, but over and over and over in Scripture, God says, “If you'll put me first in your money, and if you'll learn to be generous and not tight-fisted, not tight-wadded. Open-handed, openhearted, I will meet all your needs.”

Philippians 4:17 and 19, Paul says this: “I want you to have the good that comes from giving.” Circle that. “I want you to have the good that comes from giving.” The whole reason I'm teaching this message, is because I love you. I want you to have the good that comes from giving.

Philippians 4:17 NLT

17 I don’t say this because I want a gift from you. Rather, I want you to receive a reward for your kindness.

Philippians 4:19 NLT

19 And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.

I know the good that comes from giving. I've been doing it all my life. I've been blessed all my life, because I've learned the good that comes from giving.

God just says, “I'm not going to let you to out-give me.” The Bible says this: “I want you to have the good that comes from giving. My God will use His wonderful riches in Christ Jesus, to give you everything you need.” Wow, do you believe that verse? If you don't, you ought to just take an X-Acto knife and cut it out of your Bible.

Proverbs 28:27 NLT

27 Whoever gives to the poor will lack nothing, but those who close their eyes to poverty will be cursed.

If you want to lack nothing in your life, emotionally, physically, spiritually, mentally, then you need to learn how to give to the poor.

When you're driving along, and you come up to a stoplight and there's a homeless person on the side. Do you just kind of keep looking forward, and you close your eyes to what is on your side? The other night Kay and I took our eldest grandchild, Kailey, for her 16th birthday up to see Phantom of the Opera in LA.

She rolls down her window, and she helps them out. That's one of the reasons God has blessed us. It’s because He says, “You'll lack nothing, but if you close your eyes to the needs of the poor," your life's cursed.

2 Corinthians 9:7–9 NLT

7 You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.” 8 And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. 9 As the Scriptures say, “They share freely and give generously to the poor. Their good deeds will be remembered forever.”

If you ever feel pressured by anybody including me on giving, don't do it. Don't give. Why? Because you don't get any credit for it. You don't get any blessing out of it. God doesn't want stingy givers. God doesn't want grouchy givers. God wants people who give cheerfully. That Greek word, there is the word, hilaros. It means hilariously, I enjoy it.

People often you'll hear say, “Well, I give till it hurts.” No, give till it feels good. Give till it becomes joyful. Don't give reluctantly. Don't give under pressure, because God loves a cheerful giver.

8. God promises he will multiply what I give.

He'll take what I give Him, and He will multiply it and make it go even further. Now, there're so many examples of this in Scripture, that I don't even know which one to choose from.

I could tell you about the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. Where He took a few loaves, and a bread and fish, one boy's lunch and He fed 5,000 people with it. He took it, He broke it. He blessed it and He multiplied it. Throughout the Bible, God does this principle of multiplication, the miracle of multiplication many, many times.

He takes a little, and whatever you give God, He turns into a lot. Whatever you need more of, give it to God. Let me say that again. Whatever you need more of, give it to God. You need more time? Give your time to God. Put Him first in your time. You need more money? Give your money to God. Put Him first in your money.

You need more energy? Give your first energy to God, and He will multiply it. You'll have more energy. You know, throughout the Bible, God compares giving and generosity to planting seeds. Let me show you a couple of verses. That's a very common metaphor.

2 Corinthians 9:10–11 NLT

10 For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. 11 Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God.

Now, you might want to write this down. Giving is not a debt I owe. It's a seed I sow. Giving is not a debt I owe. It's a seed I sow, and I sow it in faith. God doesn't need your money. He doesn't need my money. Then why does God want to teach me giving? To teach me to trust Him, and so I become more like Him and to become more generous. Giving is not a debt I owe, it's a seed I sow.

Now, when you plant a seed, do you get one seed back? No, you get a whole plant, with a lot of fruit. In those fruits, there's a multiplication of seed. No one has ever planted one seed, and got back one seed. If I take a kernel of corn, and I plant that corn in the ground. I don't get one kernel of corn back. I get a stock with three or four ears of corn, with literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of kernels on that corn.

This is the principle of multiplication. He says that when you give to people, if you take your money and use it to help others, God says, "I'll multiply it, so that when it comes back, it's multiplied." You don't get one seed back when you plant it, you get a hundred or a thousand seeds out of that one blessing.

Now, God lets you decide the size of your harvest. It just all depends on how much seed you plant. Here's what the Bible says. 2 Corinthians 9:6, “Remember this..."Okay, now, anytime the Bible says, “Remember this,” God wants you to remember it. “Remember this, whoever sows sparingly, will also reap sparingly. Whoever sows generously, will also reap generously.”

Ecclesiastes 11:1 says this: "Be generous," -- and instantly you'll be rewarded. God doesn't say that, doesn't He? "Be generous, and," what? One day, one day, "One day you will be rewarded."

Ecclesiastes 11:1 NLT

1 Send your grain across the seas, and in time, profits will flow back to you.

I put in this, I get this. I put in this, I get this, this week. I remember one time I was out on the patio after service, and a guy came up to me after a message that I taught on tithing. He came up to me, and he said, "Pastor Rick, tithing didn't work for me. I saw no return on it." I said, "Well, when did you start?” He said, "Last Sunday.”

Now, obviously when I'm making three dollars, and one dollar went to tithing. One to saving, one to spending, I was actually tithing 33 percent not 10 percent. I've tithed all my life, and God has blessed me. Then when I got to college, I started learning how to give in faith.

9. God promises my giving is stored up in heaven.

This is a big, big thing. God promises that when I give, I'm not actually giving it away. That God is actually storing it up in heaven.

1 Timothy 6:18–19 NIV

18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

Here's the promise. "By doing this, you will be storing up real treasure for yourselves," He's talking about in heaven. "It is the only safe investment for eternity." Now, I want you to circle two words, for yourselves. It says, "You'll be storing up real treasure for yourself." God says that, when you give to God or you give to somebody in need, "You're storing up treasure for yourself." There's nothing wrong with that.

Where are you storing up for yourself? In heaven, circle that, treasure for yourself, treasure for yourself. What is that? Well, we know that God has set up a bank account for you in heaven. He says, "You could store up treasure for yourself, in that bank account." How do you do that? By giving it away.

Luke 16:9 NLT

9 Here’s the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home.

My starting point: 10 percent

Now, let's review these nine promises of God. The premise is this. If I put God first in my money, first by tithing 10 percent back to Him, the first 10 percent goes back to God, and I start learning to be generous with my money with others. Investing it in good things, and helping people come to Christ, helping people grow. Then I can count on God to do these nine things. God promises that if I learn to be generous, good things will happen to me and He'll bless me.

Number two, my children will be blessed. I don't just get blessed. They do, next generation.

He will bless my work and my business. He will make it profitable.

Number four, I will be happier. God says, "It's a promise. You will be happier, when you learn to be generous."

Number five, my influence will increase. "Your world grows larger and larger."

Number six, I will end up with more. You can't out-give God.

Number seven, God will meet all my needs.

Number eight, God will multiply whatever I give to Him, like the seed.

Number nine, my giving is actually being stored up in heaven as a bank account, in treasure, in heaven for me to use when I get there.