Trust: in all things (part 3)

Good morning everyone. It is such a a great morning. We had Thanksgiving last week and we have our Christmas series starting up next week. I mean what an exciting time! We also have our kids classes now, so I’d like to take a moment to welcome all of our kids to join your teacher back in the back of the room so they can walk with you to class…I say it every week, but I really am grateful we have teachers here that willing to sacrifice of their time to serve the kids by preparing and teaching every single Sunday…Parents, what a blessing to that your children are being welcomed and taught Scripture in a way that makes sense to them…that is just so great!

Hey, welcome those of you that are joining us online this morning…we have people from all over, including some from right here in Ogle County....Listen, if you are here in Ogle County and you are looking for a spiritual family, I want to welcome you to join us in person. Actually, next week is a great time to come. We will be starting a brand new Christmas series so you will get in at the very beginning. It’s going to be great as we move into our Christmas series and begin to look at the Journey that Jesus made to Bethlehem and ultimately to the hearts of millions of Christians all over the world. Actually, lets take a moment and watch this video teaser for the series that we are starting next week.

Watch Journey video

That was so great, I can’t tell you how excited I am about this, Im not going to tell you any specifics about this, but I am going to encourage you to invite others to come and join us either online or in person. Look, starting next week is the beginning of this series, but if people are a little nervous…focus on Christmas Eve…We will have an amazing service on Christmas Eve where we will be focused on spending some time as a family to worship the birth of Jesus Christ. It is going to be so great…But, for now…we have been talking about trusting God in all things that we encounter. Last week was a little tough as we focused our attention to the concept of actually trusting God and not myself…We talked about trusting God’s understanding instead of our own understanding…We talked about trusting God’s wisdom and not our own wisdom…Everything we talked about last week, and the week before leaves us still needing to answer this question...Am I willing to trust God in everything?

Now, as we finish this series on trust and as we have just had thanksgiving I want to offer an opportunity to test yourself. I just asked the question about being willing to trust God in everything…Last week, I left you with the question of trusting God with your resources, and so today I would like to talk about how we can trust God with our resources. Specifically,

How to trust God with my financial resources

Now, let me just say right off the bat that this is a scary topic for any pastor to talk about. This is a scary topic because there are accusations, some justified, but there are accusations that pastors are all about trying to scam people out of money. Now, some of those are true…Some pastors are all about telling people to give their last dollar to the church, or to them and then they will have what God wants to give…There is a problem with that though. You see, these pastors, and I will use that term loosely, but these pastors typically don’t really spend much time talking about your relationship with the Lord…they spend most of their time talking about how you should give them money.

Actually, I will tell you about a man named Robert Tilton. Now, Robert Tilton was a televangelist in the 80’s and 90’s and was based in the Dallas Fort Worth area, where I grew up. I can remember as a kid hearing some of his TV series, and honestly they were a bit like a commercial most of the time. I remember what he would say is that you needed you sew a faith promise in his ministry and that God would bless you. Specifically I remember one day hearing that the listener who was struggling to pay their rent should send the last of their money into his ministry and trust that God would pay their rent for them.

Now, is that possible, can God make sure your rent is paid…Yes, of coarse. However, was this person actually seeking to disciple people in their relationship with the Lord? No, absolutely not. Actually this particular person was investigated and at least fined. You see he would have people send in prayer requests along with their checks, or cash, or whatever else they were sending in. However, those in his ministry would take the prayer requests, trash them and then cash the checks. You see, he was specifically doing what he needed to do in order to get checks sent into his church. In the mid 90’s his TV ministry, church, and school were all shut down. This is the type of scam that many televangelist are a part of. This is exactly why many pastors are scared to talk about financial trust.

Another reason is that a persons finances are one of the most intimate things about that person. What a person does with their finances are an incredibly personal decision. Pastors know that, and don’t want to step on your toes…your finances are your business…right? Well, the problem with that is what you do with your finances shows, many times, what you are worshipping in reality. Actually we read that in

Matthew 6:21 ESV

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

That is a quote from the most famous sermon ever preached. This is Jesus as he preached the sermon on the mount. In that section of his sermon he is discussing where peoples focus is and showing that they cannot claim to worship God and their financial resources. It has been said, “Show me your checkbook, and I’ll show you what you worship”. Clearly that is not exactly a full and clear statement, however it does have some truth to it, doesn’t it? You see, that is why many pastors are scared to talk about money. Becuase when you talk about money people get uncomfortable. The reason is that your finances are a very clear picture of your obedience to God...Either you are obeying God, or you are trying to avoid obeying God. Maybe you are obeying the words, but not really the teaching of Jesus. The thing is that sometimes people will give to the Lord becuase they are trying to pay for a blessing from the Lord, or they are giving out of some sense of obligation. However, Christian industrialist R.G. LeTourneau used to say,

“If you give because it pays, it won’t pay.” — R.G. LeTourneau

So you see, it can be a very touchy topic, so most pastors will stay away becuase they don’t want to come across either as a scam pastor, or a legalistic overly involved pastor. However, Scriptures are very clear about our use of finances, are they not? If Scripture is very clear, and I as a pastor ignore it…then can I claim to preach the whole Gospel? Not at all…Bottom line is that our finances are a discipleship issue...So, this morning we are going to look at a small picture of finances together as we look at (read)

Proverbs 3:9–10 ESV

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.

So the question that I have asked so far is how to trust God with your financial resources…Well, this passage tells us a little about the why and also a little about the how as well…lets look at this together...

Why do I trust God with my financial resources?

That is really the first question right here. The answer to this question is actually pretty controversial right off the bat. If the question is why do we trust the Lord, then we can see right here that we will receive the promises of God. Now, here is where it begins to get tricky for alot of people. You see, there are a number of very well known pastors, both celebrity and even local folks out there that would say, that the way to know if you are doing God’s will is that you will have been blessed financially. Basically they would claim that a true Christian would never have any financial issues, becuase if you did, then that is proof that you do not have enough faith. To be clear, that is 100% false teaching! No where is Scripture does God command you to be wealthy. No where is Scripture will you find the command to give your last dollar to a very wealthy pastor somewhere because if you give it will come back 4 times the amount…That never was said!

So, if that is not what is being said...then what is? In this passage we can see that when we honor the Lord with our wealth that our barns and vats will be filled with plenty. In other words, when we honor the Lord with our wealth then we will have plenty of what we need…make sense? So what does it mean to have plenty then? That is the real question, what is “plenty”? Well, plenty is having exactly what is needed…. So, that means that this promise from God is that when we honor him with our wealth, he will make sure we have what we need. I mean, what is in your barns and your vats, its what you need. Therefore, when you honor the lord with your wealth, then you will have the things you need. That means that honoring the Lord with your wealth would include trusting the Lord, not just with your wealth, but with everything…It’s almost like your wealth, or your finances, are really just a glimpse of what you are really trusting…Warren Wiersbe says,

“If we don’t faithfully give to the Lord, we don’t really trust the Lord…”—Warren W. Wiersbe

Listen, I want to tell you a quick story. This is a story that has always stayed in my mind as I know the Lord was at work. There was a time when Beth and I were just married and I was writing the checks in order to mail off all of our bills, including our tithe. That’s not really a problem, except that there was a day that we did not have enough money to pay the bills. Listen, after we paid everything out…I remember realizing that there was simply not enough money to account for all of the bills. I made some joke about whoever cashes their check first will get paid, but the last one will not get anything…However, and this is amazing! A few days later when all of the bills had gone through I was looking at the account not only did all of those checks clear, but there was an extra $500 in our account…I mean, that was simply amazing! That is what is meant by the phrase, “your barns will be filled...” So when I ask the question, “why do I trust God with my financial resources?”, the answer has to be…the same reason I trust God with anything...

Of coarse, knowing why we should trust God with our financial resources is one thing, its another thing thing altogether to answer the question...

How do I trust God with my financial resources?

So, lets look at that together this morning. How do I trust God with my resources…That is both a thoughtful question as well as a practical question. It is thoughtful becuase you have to remember the promises you read through Scripture, and you have to remember the ways God has already personally provided for you in the past. Basically, God has promised through Scripture…God has proven himself in your life.

I just told you the story of how God provided for my family. I will also tell you that I hear stories like this all this time. I remember one instance where a single mom was struggling to give to the Lord. In order to help her see God’s promises were meant for her, the church wrote a check for her immediate needs, allowing her the freedom to tithe. Then, after she tithed and gave to the Lord, then she got a call telling her that someone else had paid her childcare bill for the whole month. That was a tangible proof for this young lady, that God will always provide for her. These are the types of stories I hear all of the time. It seems that whenever someone makes the decision to trust God with with finances, that God shows up in a big way…So, what is the historical reality in your life? Has the Lord provided for you? The answer to that question will help you understand why you should trust the Lord.

Well, after we look at the thoughtful answer and realize that God has in fact provided for you personally, that leaves us with the practical side of this question. In order to answer that, we need to look at the passage from today. You see, in vs. 9 we read that, We honor the Lord, with the firstfruits of all your produce. So what does this mean? What does it mean to honor the Lord with the first fruits of our produce? Well, if you are a farmer this makes sense…your first crops should go to the Lord (or the temple), right? The problem is that we don’t really live in a society that is based on crops anymore. I mean, crops are a resource, but they are no longer the primary resource. So, how do we translate this so that it applies to everyone. It’s actually really easy. Honor the Lord with your firstfruits means honor the Lord with the first of your finances. So practically what does this look like? This is a tithe…Let me just set this up very easily for you this morning.

You get paid, for easy math…lets say you are paid $100 per day. Then the very first thing you do is you subtract a tithe, or 10% of that to give to the Lord. That means that you give $10. That happens every single time you get paid for what ever reason. Then you plan to live off the rest of your resources. You see, first fruits, means that you do not give God what is left over, but you give God what is first. Now, there are many questions that may be asked when you are considering how much to trust the Lord with your finances. Do I tithe from the net or the gross…do I tithe from bonuses, do I give based from random extra money that I receive for various reasons. In order to answer those questions let me simply ask you if you are giving cheerfully? We read in

2 Corinthians 9:6–7 ESV

The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

You see, there are some practical questions that are left up to the Christian, ultimately if we want to be pleasing to God…then we will trust the Lord with our wealth, and we will do that cheerfully. So, this morning, being honest, are you trusting God with your wealth?

As we close out this morning and as we think about our own personal situation I want to ask you to think about your personal situation. Remember, God already knows about what you are going through, we talked about that last week. So, with that in mind, are you trusting God, not just with your physical situation, but with your financial situation.

Now, this morning I asked that we change things up a little, and I will tell you why. This morning I am going to challenge you, not to give more, but potentially to give less. You see, we are going to worship through giving in a minute. Now, if you came here this morning already planning on giving a specific gift, then I want to ask you to honor the Lord with your wealth. However, if you came here this morning planning to give whatever is in your pocket, or whatever is left over after paying your bills…Im going to ask you not to give this morning. The reason is because I want to honor the words in 2 Cor that say, “each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion”. So, if you are here this morning and you are convicted about your trusting the Lord with your firstfruits, then I want to ask you to hold onto that for this week, and bring it back next week. I am asking you to do that becuase I don’t want you to give reluctantly or under compulsion, but with cheer after thoughtfully talking to the Lord about it. That is how to honor the Lord with your financial resources.

Lets pray