Financial Stewardship
Notes
Transcript
Wealth & It’s Acquisition
Wealth & It’s Acquisition
When I say the word Wealth what do you think of?
When I say the word Offering what do you think of?
We talked last week about wealth and this week we are going to finish talking about wealth and specifically how to handle money. There are principles that apply right now in your stage of life that will set you up for the rest of your life. Patterns you establish now will help or hinder your patterns in life later on. We are commanded to honor God with our wealth:
Honor the Lord with your wealth
and with the firstfruits of all your produce;
then your barns will be filled with plenty,
and your vats will be bursting with wine.
We are called to give to the Lord our firstfruits. “Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce. This can be many things but it no doubt includes offering and specifically to the local church. It is the obligation of every Christian to support financially his or her church before supporting other ministries.
In biblical times firstfruits had a very real meaning—farmers waited months for things to grow and animals to be fattened. By the time they are ready they are eager to eat—they can’t wait. However they were called to take the very first, the best, and kill it or sacrifice it for the Lord. It was painful to give things up knowing you would have to wait longer for your share of the food, but that is what we are called to do.
Obviously today we don’t do that, but we are still called to give our firstfruits. This essentially boils down to two main points: priority and sacrifice.
Priority:
Priority:
And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me.’ And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God.
We are to express our gratitude and thankfulness to the Lord through our offering—through our firstfruits. This is an act of worship and appreciation for the redeeming work of the Lord on the cross. For us this means giving God priority over all other things, the first of our wealth. “This includes arranging and monitoring the budget so finances are always available, and establishing a process by which we can always be reminded to give.” That means it is a spiritual duty to properly handle our money so that we can give. We are all wealthy in comparison to to world—not having money is never an excuse to not give to the local church.
Sacrifice:
Sacrifice:
Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”
We have all heard this passage right—its the typical scenario used about giving, about giving until it hurts. The principal here is simple, its about giving your best; to God our firstfruits are a way to give in a way that is truly and personally sacrificial.
This is specifically giving to the church—this is a trap I have fallen into. I give to this ministry or I bought this for ministry purposes or I paid for this education, etc. Those are all good things, but they are to compliment our giving to the local church, not replace it. “Honoring God with our firstfruits means giving our offering completely to him.”
Giving to the Poor
Giving to the Poor
We are called to give to the poor, but again this is in addition to the local church.
Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker,
but he who is generous to the needy honors him.
Whoever mocks the poor insults his Maker;
he who is glad at calamity will not go unpunished.
Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord,
and he will repay him for his deed.
Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor
will himself call out and not be answered.
We are called to help in practical ways.
If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?
We are called to provide food and clothes when we can. These are not doubt opportunities for the gospel to our community and our neighbors.
Idols/Greed
Idols/Greed
Giving is on of the ways the Lord helps protect us from idolatry and selfishness. Giving until it hurts not only brings glory to the Lord, but it also reminds us we have what we need and to be content with there the Lord has placed us.
You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.
Live According to your Means
Live According to your Means
We all struggle in this area. We want to be cool—we want to fit in, right?
Some of us pretend to be rich
We all know this person don’t we, “the person who pretends to be wealthier than he really is and craves respect, attention, and/or self-indulgence. He is more concerned with pleasing himself by portraying a fantasy than he is with pleasing God by living in reality. Often he is also an idolater, convinced that the key to satisfaction is found in the things that money can buy, or in having a reputation for being prosperous.”
Dont pretend to be poor
Some of us also fall into this trap. A dramatic illustration of this is found in the book of Haggai. They are trying to rebuild the temple which was destroyed by the Babylonians. The wealthy Israelites pretended to be poor when it came time to take the offering.
“Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?
It was easy to spend money on themselves but hard to give to the Lord.
Don’t be both at the same time!
One pretends to be rich, yet has nothing;
another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth.
Some of us fall into the trap of acting differently depending on where we are and who we are with. When we are around our friends and close ones we pretend we are rich and we have all these material possessions. However when it comes time to give or help others, we are so poor and unable to help. “We try to appear rich toward our fellow men, then we have the unholy boldness to tell God we can’t afford to honor him financially.”
Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions.
We are taking from the one who gave us very life!
nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
There is a principle of stewardship here and passing on good practices to future generations. Being examples for our kids and grandkids on how to handle money and to give sacrificially to the church.
A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children,
but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous.
Many of you do not have consistent jobs but all of you are getting money in one way or another at times. How do you spend that money? Do you immediately think of ways you can spend it on yourself or do you consider the ways you can give to your church and help others? Do you give from the money you make now to the local church? Those that do have jobs, do you give from this money to the local church? It may not be very much—the exact amount is irrelevant. The idea is to give to the Lord out of gratitude and thanksgiving for what the Lord has done in our lives.