Keep First Things First (Building Godly Stewards)

INTRO: I remember well the feeling of anxiety I had every Monday morning as I raced to the bank. I had to get there before the church treasurer to deposit my check from the church so that my tithe check to the church didn’t bounce. We were young, still newly married (2 years), had a baby, and lived on one income in a house provided by the church.

But somehow, I knew that even though my checkbook was going in the negative on Sunday when I wrote my tithe check, my heavenly account was going to be in the positive. I’ll bet we did that off & on for 2 years before our circumstances changed, and during that time, there was even enough for Becky to go back to school. How many of you can relate to that?

I don’t know how we did it, how God did it, but He did, and not once did we ever go without what we needed. I believe it’s due to this principle we’re going to learn about today– Keep First Things First.

Proverbs 3:9-10, 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. Let’s pray.

Our series is Building Families Through Wisdom, and there are few areas more important than the wise management of our finances- money, wealth, retirement, and Kingdom investment. I know some people think that all the church does is talk about money, but Jesus talked a lot about money.

When it comes to wealth- money, possessions, luxuries, and attitudes about those things, Jesus says MORE about them than any other subject, including heaven and hell. 16 of Jesus’ 38 parables are about how people should handle their money. 1 out of every 10 verses in the Gospels are about stewardship. The Bible contains more than 2,000 references to wealth & property, twice as many as the total references to faith and prayer. It’s no wonder that John MacArthur says (Whose Money is it Anyway?), “What we do with the things God has given us is very important to Him.”

Why is it so important? It’s so important because we invest so much of our lives in exchange for it. Jesus said, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt 6:21). In a very real sense, our wealth represents who we are. So, what does your wealth, or the management of your wealth say about who you are? Will it say that you are a wise steward or a foolish manager?

To be godly stewards, we must learn to Keep First Things First. How?

1. Give God FIRST PLACE in our Heart. It starts with the heart.

Honor the LORD- to be or become heavy, weighty, honored, glorified. It is unusual because it carries a dual sense of becoming “heavier;” negatively- in sin or opposition; positively, heaviness of honor or weight of glory.

This is the root of the word for God’s glory, in this sense of its use, it means the act of giving honor, or as we might say- to glorify God.

It’s the same word the Bible uses to distinguish our parents as the people who should receive our primary respect - HONOR your father and mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you (Exo 20:12). When we talk about honoring God, it is to distinguish Him above all others, giving Him the reverence and holy respect, He deserves.

Context bears that out: Proverbs 1-9 are a series of lectures from a father to his son. These lectures are what establish the importance of wisdom and create the context for the shorter proverbs, i.e., wise sayings, general truths.

In chapter 3, the father encourages his son to trust the LORD. Prov 3:5-8, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, and strength to your bones.”

This principle of giving God first place is based on the belief that God is trustworthy and reliable, and because He is we should acknowledgeHim in every life activity (working, earning, getting, giving) & fear Him- give Him the reverence He is due. This is what it means to Honor the LORD.

Be careful, it is easy to say that we honor the LORD or give the impression that we honor Him, without actually doing it; we can even fool ourselves.

Jesus called the Pharisees hypocrites for doing something similar, for not honoring their parents by claiming that what they should give to their parents, they pledged to God. They taught that people could dedicate resources (like food or money) to God rather than giving them to their parents; in that way, they could keep their stuff. Jesus called them out.

Matt 15:8, These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. This is not a matter of money; this is a matter of the heart. When God is first place in your heart, you hold everything else with an open hand.

2. Make a PLAN: Give God the FIRST & best of what we have

· Possessions- wealth (ESV), or property, the abundance of material possessions and resources; KJV- substance, i.e., stuff

· Increase- lit., produce, in an agricultural society, fruits, vegetables, grains, i.e., harvest. We should be thinking of our income, what we earn.

· Firstfruits - what is the first, the beginning, the best; what it references is the tithe (aka giving 10% of your income)

There is a lot I could say in this area, and as I prepared this, there was a lot that I had to leave on the cutting room floor. But let me summarize it:

1) God made everything and He owns everything (Psalm 24:1).

2) The power to work and to get wealth comes from God (Deut. 7:18).

3) The command to tithe is so we learn to fear God (Deut. 14:22-23).

4) Tithing is older than the Bible itself. The 1st mention is in Gen 14:20, Abraham gave a tithe of all to Melchizadek, centuries before Moses.

5) Jesus commended tithing in the NT (Matt 23:23).

6) Our tithes are supposed to be brought to God’s House (Ex. 23:19). In Jesus’ day that was the synagogue, and now the church (1 Cor 16:2).

The Church is God’s Financial Institution, and we should give at least 10% of our income to the church that God has given us to be part of. That’s easy to say but hard to do, especially in these times. That’s why we need a plan.

When you get paid, you may notice that taxes have already been taken out (7.65%). FICA = Federal Insurance Contributions Act (SS, Medicare, et.al). What we have left after taxes is called our Net Income(Rom. 13:1-7).

But the principle of firstfruits says God is supposed to get the 1st 10%, if taxes are already taken out, then we calculate giving on our Gross Income.

From your Gross Income come your tithes (10%) & your taxes (7.65%), what is left is your Net Income (82% of your gross income and 100% yours!).

I want to share a budgeting plan called 10/70/20 Plan (WORKING Income).

- Use 10% to set up 2 funds: 1) emergency fund of 2-3 times your monthly income; 2) cash-buying fund to avoid future debts

- Use 70% to take care of family expenses- mortgage, car, etc. (with a recession coming, everyone must tighten up spending, sacrificing some things we don’t need or can wait for, & don’t use credit if at all possible)

Credit is borrowing what you do not have, to buy what you do not need, to keep up with people you do not like. Prosperity is having everything you need and the capacity to enjoy it, not having everything you want - John Morgan

1 Tim 6:6, godliness with contentment is great gain.

- The last 20% is for 2 things: (1) eliminate all debts except for your house & car (e.g., credit cards & other debt). (2) invest the rest, after debts are paid stay with the plan, & repurpose 20% for mission projects & needs; education; retirement savings, cash for cars, investments, vacations…

There are a lot of ways to do budgets and handle finances. It’s not hard to figure, but it can be hard to do. Dave Ramsey- Personal finance is 80% behavior and 20% knowledge. His Financial Peace University is a good option.

We plan to offer a class “The Christian’s Guide to Family Finance” in the fall. The bulletin has a QR code to scan & tell us you’re interested. There is a list of recommended resources for you (on back) to help you make a plan.

3. There is a PROMISE: You will have PLENTY & God will provide for you. 10, So your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.

Most of us aren’t storing our income in a barn but in a bank. We don’t have vats overflowing with new wine, but we have lives overflowing with God’s blessings. Wine was a symbol of blessing and abundance.

We should not view God’s blessings primarily as material things. The primary way to view God’s blessings in Jesus is not material but spiritual. Eph 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”

We need to be careful that we don’t trust in riches or wealth, or hold on to those things too tightly, loving them, and serving them, rather than God. Matt 6:24, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (the idol of money).”

Jesus also said to not be anxious for what we will eat, drink, or wear because God knows that we need those things. Matt 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

Times have changed but the principle and the promise have not.When we give honor to God by giving Him the first and the best of what we receive, then we have this promise that there will be plenty.

You know what plenty means? It means plenty. Plenty means you have enough, even more than enough- an abundance, an excess. By giving, you are getting from God, so that you get to give to God & to others.

This is another level of giving. If tithing is the starting place, this level might be called expanding. It’s where you get the chance to grow your giving from your tithe, to meeting other needs as well (i.e., church building fund, First Look, Waxahachie Care, TBHC, Compassion Int., etc).

There is a next level- becoming an extravagant giver, but we want to get the first step right, give God first place in our heart, give God the first 10 of our income, to give to get to give.

ILL: Wonderful story in the OT, the widow from Zarephath (1 Kings 7). God told Elijah there would be a drought (a famine follows a drought). He sent Elijah to a brook to stay, to drink, & the ravens fed him bread & meat. Then the brook dried up & God sent him to a widow at Zarephath who would take care of him. So, Elijah goes, waits by the gate, & there he sees a lady gathering sticks. He asks her to bring him a little water & some bread, and she said, “12As the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”

How many of us have gotten to the end of what we have and felt that way?

So, Elijah said to her, “13Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son. 14 For thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth.” So, she did what Elijah said, and she and her household ate for many days. The flour bin did not run out, and the jar of oil did not run dry, according to the Word of the LORD spoken by Elijah.

We have a word today- Honor the LORD with what you have and with the 1st 10% of your gross income, so that your bank account will have plenty and God’s blessings will overflow into other people’s lives. We don’t have to live with a scarcity mindset, we can live with a generosity mindset. God is a giver, and He gives to us so that we can honor Him with our giving, and if we are faithful with that, there will be plenty for us to expand our giving to others.

Jesus said- “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you” (Luke 6:38).

Invitation: 1) if you are lost, the 1st step is for you to give God your heart, not your money. Acknowledge God & admit you’re a sinner, believe on the LORD Jesus Christ- death & resurrection, and confess Him as your LORD.

2) If you’re a believer, specifically a church member, God us calling us to keep first things first- to give Him 1st place in our heart, to give Him the 1st & the best of what we have, and God promises that there will be plenty for us.

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Giving is a hard subject. Some think “I can’t afford to do that!” God teaches that we can’t afford to not do it. Malachi 3:10-11, Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.

Is God calling you to trust Him with your finances & giving? I will pray