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Today, we conclude this series on money.
We have taken the time each week to look at what the bible says about earning money, saving money, spending money and today we want to look at giving money.
First, I want you to understand.
I am not preaching this sermon because I need your money.
I am also not preaching this sermon because God needs your money.
Remember I said it’s really not yours anyway, God owns everything.
But, the reason I am teaching you what God’s Word says about money is because I believe that God wants to bless you.
And I believe that God wants to bless you in ways that you can’t even imagine, but you have to understand what God says about money in order for you to fully understand what it takes to be blessed abundantly.
So, let’s conclude this series.
Many of you remember the flood that occurred here in Fort Smith several years ago.
It is known as a 100 year flood.
We saw water flowing into areas of Fort Smith that many if not all of us having experienced in our life time.
There was water everywhere along the river.
There were millions of dollars in damages done to homes in the area.
And we are still trying to recover from the effects of that flood.
When water has no place to go, it can be destructive.
Water continues to accumulate and rise, and with nowhere to go, it floods homes and businesses and can take lives.
But water can provide nutrients for growing crops, feeding livestock, and producing life and fruit.
Water needs to overflow in healthy ways.
Our money is much the same.
Just as a lot of water can be used to produce life or destroy it, so can money.
When money is worshiped it becomes blocked up and hoarded, resulting in greed.
But when we allow it to overflow where it is needed, the result of that generosity is fruit and life and growth.
When money is not allowed to go anywhere, it can result in damage to our own hearts and a withholding of blessing from others.
The amazing thing is when money is allowed to overflow in healthy ways, just like flood waters, there is always more than enough.
This is what the practice of giving does in comparison to worshipping money.
Look at what Paul tells the church at Corinth in 2 Corinthians 9:6-7
If you want to worship God instead of money and enter into this journey of overflowing generosity, the best place to start is with gratitude.
You have to let gratitude well up in your heart.
Think about those spring rains coming down to create the flood a few years back.
The water started to rise.
We must let gratitude well up in our hearts in much the same way.
Gratitude is a form of worshiping God.
Focusing on our stuff, or the lack thereof, is also a form of worship—a form of worshiping material wealth.
That’s why gratitude is so powerful.
It breaks the power of negativity and selfishness.
It stops the downward spiral and starts to lift you up.
This last week we celebrated Thanksgiving.
It is a holiday of gratitude.
Begin this week by practicing giving thanks.
Everyday give thanks to God for all that He’s done.
Wake up every morning and thank God for at least three things in your life.
Wrap your mind around the great things of God.
Move past a mind of greed and open up to a mind of generosity and gratitude.
God has blessed each of us abundantly and supplied our needs.
Don’t be an ungrateful recipient.
If we are going to overflow with generosity, we have to start with giving thanks.
Next, we give God our trust.
Part of giving thanks to God is place our trust in God’s hands.
Trusting God
There are two principles that you have to understand in order to fully trust God with your money.
For most people it is easy to trust God fully with everything in their life except their money.
And when you tithe it is an act of faith.
The first principle that you have to understand is...
The First Principle
God is telling us that He has blessings waiting for us.
The sad thing is we miss out on those blessings because we don’t give our tithes.
We keep them to ourselves.
God doesn’t just want a tithe, but He wants the first tithe.
If you have your bibles, go to Exodus chapter 13.
There are more than 500 verses in the Bible concerning prayer and nearly 500 verses concerning faith, but more than 2,000 verses on the subject of money and possessions.
Jesus talked about money in 16 of His 38 parables.
Therefore, from the Bible’s standpoint, we need to understand money and how to handle it.
Why?
Because money is a test from God.
How you handle money reveals volumes about your priorities, loyalties and affections.
It directly dictates many of the blessings you will or won’t experience in life.
The first principle you must grasp, if you are to understand giving, is the principle of the firstfruits.
It can also be called the principle of the firstborn or the tithe.
I have simply called this principle the first principle.
God was very clear to the child of Israel when he said in Exodus 13:2, “Consecrate to Me every firstborn male.
The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether human or animal.”
God wants the first.
Everything is God’s.
God owns it all.
So when He gives it to you, He is asking for the first to be brought back to Him.
And there are only two choices for the first.
It must be sacrificed or redeemed.
If an animal was clean you had to sacrifice it and if an animal was unclean you had to redeem it with a clean animal.
There wasn’t a third option.
You either had to sacrifice it or you had to redeem it.
God was testing them to see if they would sacrifice the clean animal.
Later in the Gospels you can see why this was so important to God.
All of us are sinners.
Right?
We were all born unclean.
But God sent His son Jesus, the spotless lamb, the clean animal to this earth.
Jesus is God’s only son.
He sent Him here to be the sacrifice for us, the unclean.
The clean, which is Jesus, had to be sacrificed so the unclean, you and I, could be redeemed.
Jesus was God’s tithe.
God didn’t wait to see if we would clean up, He gave His son first in faith believing for a return.
Jesus was God’s tithe.
He was His first.
That is why the tithe being the first is so important to God.
If you give it last there is no faith in that.
If you give your tithe first, then you are believing that God will take care of the rest.
If you give it first then it is clean.
Think about it this way, any first thing given is never lost, and any first thing not given is always lost.
In other words, what we give to God we don’t lose because God redeems it for us.
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