When you consider your finances, what comes to mind? What you have or don’t have? Whom you owe or what to buy? Do you feel stress, or are you at peace? God’s Word offers much wisdom for our financial decisions. In this message, Dr. Stanley covers common concerns, discussing what God thinks, says, and promises regarding personal finances—and what we can expect if we are obedient to His principles. Discover the path to generosity and provision as you learn how to trust Him with this important area of life. For more messages from Charles Stanley, including this week’s broadcast, go to www.intouch.org/watch
Dr. Charles Stanley: When
you think about your finances,
do you have a good feeling
or a bad feeling?
I didn’t hear that answer
but I heard a roar.
A good feeling or a bad feeling?
Well when you think about your
money, for example, do you think
about how much you have,
how much you’d like to have,
how much you don’t have,
what you spent it on?
What do you think about it?
Do you give it
any spiritual thought?
Has it ever dawned on you, for
example, maybe you need to give?
Or maybe you need to give more?
Or would you say that you have
a pretty good excuse not
to give any because you
don’t go to church.
That’s not the only place
you can give.
And so when people think
about their finances, usually
they think about how much
they need and what can they
do to increase their income.
I understand that.
That’s sort of natural
and normal.
There’s nothing wrong
with questioning that
or wondering why.
Maybe you don’t feel like
you’ve been treated right.
You don’t make enough on your
job, whatever it might be.
So, what I want us to do is to
find out what God thinks.
It’s not what man thinks,
it’s what God thinks.
Secondly, what God says,
what He promises.
That is, God keeps His promise
so I want to know what He
promises and I want to know what
I can expect if I’m obedient
to God.
Now if I’m not obedient to Him,
I can expect not to be blessed.
So I want you to turn to one of
my favorite passages in the
third chapter of the Proverbs.
Turn there for a moment
if you will.
And I want us to begin reading
in this fifth verse.
This is an awesome passage
of Scripture.
And we’ll just read
from five down to verse ten.
So listen to this, “Trust in the
Lord with all your heart, do not
lean on your own understanding.”
In all your ways acknowledge
Him, in every aspect of your
life, and He will make
your paths straight.
Do not be wise in your own eyes,
fear the Lord and turn away
from evil.
If you will, it will be healing
to your body and refreshment
to your bones.
Then he says, “Honor the Lord
from your wealth and from the
first of all your produce;
So your barns will be filled
with plenty and your vats
or your barrels will overflow
with new wine.”
What an awesome promise of God.
So when I listen
to that passage, I think, “Well,
according to that I shouldn’t be
worried about finances.
If I do exactly what God says
do, I have to decide whether
I believe that He keeps
His Word or doesn’t.”
Is God telling the truth
or is He not?
Yes, He’s telling the truth.
And oftentimes we’re in
financial problems because we’ve
simply disobeyed God.
He’s not going to challenge us
to do something that’s not
for our best benefit.
So I want us to think for just
a moment, when you think about
your finances, consider the
basic teachings of Scripture,
they’re very basic.
And the very first one is this.
Listen to the fiftieth Psalm and
the second–twelfth verse.
Listen, “For the world is Mine,
and all it contains.”
Well, that settles the issue to
some degree, that everything
that exists, God controls it.
He is–listen, the world is
Mine, and all it contains.
Now there are a lot of people
who think it’s theirs.
They think, “This is my money.
This is mine to do with it
what I choose.”
That’s not what the Bible
teaches.
The Bible teaches that God is
the One who owns it all and He’s
given us the privilege
of being caretakers of it,
managers of it, stewards of it,
but not owners.
There’s a difference.
To recognize that
what you have belongs to God,
it came from God.
You say, “Well, I worked forty
hours or fifty hours last week.”
Well, you could have been sick
and couldn’t work.
You could have been
without a job.
But He is the source
of all that we have.
And so when you look at that
passage and you ask yourself
the question,
“What do I own?”
I’m a steward.
I’m a manager.
I’m a caretaker.
But I don’t own anything.
He can take anything you and
I have away in a split second.
So we’re caretakers.
We’re managers.
And we’re either good managers,
good stewards or we’re not.
And so when I think about
whether we’re good or not,
I think about a passage
of Scripture in the twelfth
chapter of Luke, if you’ll look
there for a moment, which is
a good example for us to see
what happens–watch this.
When you think you’re the owner,
when you forget that you
and I are trustees, that God is
the One who owns it all.
He’s the One
who is the source of it all.
When I forget that idea
and I think it’s mine,
listen to what happens.
In the sixteenth verse
of the twelfth chapter of Luke,
“He told them a parable, saying,
‘The land of a rich man
was very productive.
And he began reasoning
to himself.
That’s always dangerous, saying,
‘What–watch this, “what shall
I do: since I have no place
to store my crops?'”
He’s got a problem already.
He’s owner, he thinks.
Then he said, “‘This is what
I will do: I will tear down
my barns and build larger ones,
and there I will store
all my grain and my goods.'”
Me, myself, and I.
“And I will say to my soul,
‘Soul, you have many goods laid
up for many, many years to come,
take your ease, eat, drink
and be merry.'”
Looks pretty good, doesn’t it?
“But God said to him, ‘You fool!
This very night your soul is
required of you, and now
who will own what
you have prepared?'”
So is the man or woman
who stores up treasure
for themselves and,
not rich toward God.
It’s one thing to recognize that
I’m a steward, I’m a keeper,
it’s something else to think
that I’m a big time owner,
that I own it all.
How fast can you lose it?
One heartbeat
and you’ve lost it.
I think about people who
boast of how wealthy they are,
a millionaire,
billionaire or trillionaire,
whatever it might be,
and their goal in life is always
to out-do somebody else.
They forget, one heartbeat,
it’s all over.
And without Christ,
what a waste.
And so, when you stand
before Him, you cannot boast of,
“God, look what I’ve done.”
Rather it’s going to be what
an awesome failure you’ve been.
Because you see,
you’re judging yourself by the
world’s standard, what I have,
what I can do, who I am,
how I look. and so forth.
By God’s standard
it’s the condition of the heart.
Are you surrendered to the Lord
God, or are you selfishly living
your life for yourself so you
can boast of all that you have?
That’s what he was doing.
So you have to ask yourself
the question, “You’re a manager,
or are you an owner?”
And so, when you consider
the basic teachings of Scripture
about giving,
the first one is this.
The question is, “Are we a
tither of our income?”
He says in Malachi, better
turn there ’cause I want
to show you something.
Look in Malachi
the third chapter for a moment.
And you’ve heard this many, many
times and people have preached
on it and you’ve listened to it.
Some of you have listened
to it, unhappily.
And some of you listened
to it happily.
But listen to this passage
of Scripture.
He says, “Will a man rob God?
Yet you are robbing Me!
But you say,
‘How have we robbed You?’
In tithes and offerings.
You are cursed with a curse,
for you are robbing Me,
the whole nation of you!'”
Then He says, “Bring the whole
tithe, ten percent into the
storehouse, so that there may be
food in My house.”
Giving us a reason, “Test Me”.
God says you can put me to
the test, and says the Lord of
hosts, “if I’ll not open for you
the windows of heaven pour out
for you a blessing until it
overflows.”
One of the purposes
for His blessing us is
to prove Himself to us.
Then He says,
“‘I will rebuke the devourer
for you, so you’ll not,
so he’ll not destroy the fruits
of the ground, nor will
your vine in the field cast its
grapes,’ says the Lord of hosts.
‘All the nations will call you
blessed, for you shall be
a delightsome land,’
says the Lord of hosts.'”
Now, what’s He saying?
He said, “Look.
I’m the source of everything.
My requirement is that you give
a tenth of your income back to
me for three reasons primarily.
First of all, to provide
for the work of the Lord.
Secondly, to provide for
the needs of others.
And thirdly to prove His
faithfulness.”
In other words, one of the
reasons God requires us to give
is, He wants to prove to us
His faithfulness.
That if I give, He’s going
to give back.
If I give He’s going
to give more.
That is, He wants to prove
to us that He is everything
He says He is.
Somebody says, “Well,
now I don’t need to give
to prove that.”
Well, let me ask you a question.
Are you tithing?
More than likely anybody that
questions, that’s not a tither.
Well, I give to God.
How much do you give?
Well, I give enough.
What’s enough?
Well, I can tell you
what enough is.
Enough starts with one tenth.
And somebody says,
well in this day and time,
God does not expect me to give
a tenth of my income to Him.
Well, let’s look back and see
what His reasons are,
to provide for the
work of the Lord.
You want to get the Gospel out?
Secondly, He says to provide
for the needs of others.
You want to keep everything
for yourself?
And thirdly,
He says to prove
His faithfulness.
One of the reasons God requires
of us and ask of us to give
to Him is He wants to
prove Himself.
So, for example, what else could
He do to prove Himself?
And this reaches the heart of
a lot of people, their money.
In other words, I work forty
hours or fifty or sixty,
or twenty, or whatever it
might be and this is mine.
No, it’s not mine.
God provided it for you.
And to prove Himself to you,
give Him a tenth and watch
what He does.
It isn’t that God can’t operate
without us.
That He’s given us this awesome
privilege of working with God so
that He can prove Himself to us
that He’s who He says He is.
Now, he says we’re to tithe our
income and secondly, we’re to
give cheerfully.
And Second Corinthians chapter
nine, look there for a moment.
Second Corinthians chapter nine,
and look if you will
in these verses, beginning
in verse six, “Now, this I say,
he who sows sparingly
will also reap sparingly,
he who sows bountifully
will reap bountifully.”
Now listen to that, watch this.
This is how simple this is.
I either believe God
or I don’t believe.
This is not the words
of preacher.
This is the Word of God.
If I sow bountifully, I’m going
to reap bountifully.
Watch this, “Each one must do
just as he has purposed in his
heart, not grudgingly or under
compulsion, for God
loves a cheerful giver.”
And this is what He promises,
“And God is able to make all
grace abound to you, so that
always having all sufficiency
in everything, you may have an
abundance for every good deed.”
So, God doesn’t put pressure
on people to give.
He says, “Here’s the
opportunity.”
Here’s, in other words,
here’s what God says.
“This is the way I operate.”
God says, “The way I operate is
that I want you to have all your
needs met and I’ve chosen
to do this.
I’ve chosen that as you count
your dimes, ten of them,
you take one and give it to me,
you have nine.”
Somebody says, “But, but nine
and ten are not the same.”
Not with you, but with
a sovereign, omnipotent God,
He can take a little bit
and multiply it far beyond
anything we imagine.
You say, “Well, I don’t know
whether I believe that or not.”
Well, I’ll tell you when you’ll
believe it, when you try it.
One thing for certain, when you
obey God, God is going to honor
your giving You say,
“Well, I don’t know whether
it’ll work or not.”
Well, God is simply saying, “You
don’t have to wonder about it.
Just try Me.”
Imagine trying God.
I love that idea, try God!
He’s not going to ever come up
short and we’re not going to
ever come up needing anything
because that’s who He is.
He’s a God of grace
and love and mercy.
If I should ask you if you
believe that God is a God
of goodness and love and mercy,
you’d say, “Yes.”
I say, “Well, if you believe
He’s that, would you give Him
one tenth of what you have?
It’s just one tenth.”
Think about what He said.
I’m going to bless you
thus so and so.
All I want you to do is to set
aside one tenth of it, one penny
out of every ten, just line them
up, one penny out of every ten,
and see what I do over here
because of what you’ve done.
God is a God who keeps His Word.
And when I think about the
simplicity of that promise and
what He’s willing to do if
we’re willing to trust Him.
So I want you to turn to this
very important passage.
It’s–go back to the Malachi,
the last book
in the Old Testament
and go back to two books.
That’s the quickest way
to find Haggai.
I want you to listen to this
awesome passage of Scripture
which should be a warning to you
about not giving to God.
Listen to what he says,
verse five.
Now therefore, thus says
the Lord of hosts, watch this.
“Consider your ways!
You have sown much,
but you harvest little,
you eat, but there is not enough
to satisfy you,
you drink, but there is not
enough to become drunk, you put
on clothing, but no one is
warm enough, and he who earns,
earns wages to put
into a purse with holes.”
Now is that not an awesome
passage of Scripture or not?
You know what He says
in one sentence?
No matter what you do, it’s not
going to work.
Listen.
People can gain millions and
millions in their income, just
as miserable when they lie on
their bed at night.
You can’t buy a bed anywhere
that takes away the burdens
of the day.
You can’t.
You can’t have a room that’s
so absolutely beautiful and
peaceful and everything is just
right and relieve you of guilt.
God says that you and
I are managers.
We’re caretakers.
We’re people who are responsible
for every aspect of our life.
And money is an area in
which we’re responsible.
God is the giver of every good
and perfect gift, and listen.
Who gives you the strength
to get up in the morning
and get to work?
Who gave your house to live in?
Who gave you a car to drive?
Who’s given you good health?
Who’s the source of
every blessing you have?
That’s right.
Listen, giving to God
is not just appreciation.
It’s obedience.
It isn’t just being good and
being kind and being thoughtful
and being sort of generous.
It’s either obedience
or disobedience.
And either I believe what
He says or I don’t.
So think about this.
Is God omniscient, knowing all?
Let’s, let’s say it
like you mean it.
Omniscient, knowing all?
Omnipotent, having all power?
Well, why don’t you give to Him?
That is, if He’s all of that,
can you trust Him with
ten percent of what you have?
I’m just saying, “Are you
practicing a principle?
And many of you do not even go
to church or many of you do.
And you may listen to whatever
it might be, morning and
not even on Sunday.
But what about your money?
What are you doing about your
money and your relationship
to God?
It is an opportunity to obey
God and watch Him work.
God is always at work
in people’s hearts
who will obey Him.
If you ignore Him, God’s not
going to force Himself upon you.
God gives some people great
abilities and talents and skills
and reasoning in business and so
forth, make lots and lots of
money, and what are they doing?
They’re strutting about
what they’ve done.
Well, I want to go
back to Haggai.
According to Haggai, you got a
hole in your pocket, buddy, and
you don’t even know it’s there.
You can lose quicker than you
made it by far.
And people spend their whole
life making money, accomplishing
more, achieving more, putting
away more and one heartbeat,
it’s all over.
One heartbeat, it’s all over.
Imagine spending sixty or
seventy years doing your best
to become a multi,
multi-millionaire, go to bed
at night and wake up
facing God.
I don’t think so.
So would you say that
you are a spender?
Or would you say you’re
a good caretaker of what
God has given you?
The reason people get in trouble
financially is real simple.
Disobeying God and Haggai
is a good example.
When you got all that money,
does a hole in your pocket.
Have you ever felt like there’s
a hole in your pocket?
Somebody says, “I felt
like there’s a hole in
my whole finances.”
You can lose it, you can lose it
quicker than you can have it.
Amen?
Okay, so consider God’s plan
for our giving to Him.
and if you’ll just jot them down
for your sake and then I want to
read the Scripture.
That is, God’s motivation for
blessing us and causing us
to tithe is love.
First Chronicles twenty-nine,
twelve, “Both riches and honor
come from You and You rule over
all and Your hand is power and
might, and it lies in Your hand
to make great and to strengthen
everyone.
For all things come from You.”
You ought to write that in your
Bible, underline that Scripture.
“Both riches and honor
come from You.
You rule over all.”
The second is not only His
motivation, but here’s His plan.
We read it a while ago, “‘Bring
the whole tithe into the
storehouse, so that there may be
food in My house, test Me, put
Me to the test now,’ says the
Lord of hosts, ‘if I will not
open for you the windows of
heaven and pour out for you
a blessing until it overflows.'”
Get that last part.
He’s not saying, “I’m just going
to bless you up to the rim.
I’m going to bless you
till it overflows.”
Now, my best example of this,
and I love it!
Hm-hm-hm!
And that’s oatmeal
and Raisin Bran.
I like them both.
And the other day I bought
a large carton of Raisin Bran
and it had two bags
of Raisin Bran in it.
Ha!
Fifty percent air, fifty percent
Raisin Bran.
So, I bought a big container of
oatmeal, right up to the tiptop.
And the truth is we
don’t like opening a bag
and it’s fifty percent air.
Thank God that’s not
the way He works.
Then look at this, because
that’s His plan, His promise.
Listen to His promise.
He says, Proverbs three, ten,
“Your barns will be filled with
plenty and your vats,
or barrels, will
overflow with new wine.”
And so, that’s what they were
concerned about most, what to
eat and what to drink,
that’s His promise.
Then what about His protection?
Of whatever we have,
listen to what He says.
He says in Malachi
three, eleven,
“I will rebuke the devourer of
you, so that it will not destroy
the fruits of the ground,
nor will your vine
in the field cast its grapes
before they’re ripe.”
What He’s saying is this.
Now remember,
this is an agriculture life
He’s talking about.
What about today?
What He’s simply saying is
I’m going to protect what you
do have.
You say, “Well,
now how would God do that?
It depends on the situation.”
God knows how to protect us.
He would protect you,
for example,
in decisions that you make.
You’re getting ready to buy
a house, new house.
And so, you and your wife look
at it, or your husband, and
you’ve got the children there
and they all, you all just love
it, and it’s big and beautiful.
Then you go home and you look
at your income and you think,
“Well, that stretches
a little bit.”
And then, deep down inside,
you know it’s more than
you can afford.
So, you say, “Well, what we’ll
do, we’ll just pray about it.”
If you pray about it, God is not
going to lead you into debt.
Now watch this.
Owning a house and having
a mortgage isn’t necessarily
a debt if you can
pay the mortgage.
But if you’re buying
something you can’t afford,
and what happens?
You sleep in a bed that you’re
never comfortable in, because of
how much money you owe.
You sit at a table and you can’t
enjoy the meals because
you’re in debt.
And you can wear the finest
clothes, but if you’re in debt
you don’t, you can’t enjoy them.
In other words, God wants to
protect us in what we have.
And if we honor Him, listen to
Him and you’re getting ready to
buy something, for example,
and you have this little
reservation, mm-mm-mm-mm.
“I don’t know how God uses it
on you, but it’s just like
I’ll just feel, mm-mm,
that’s not of me.”
Then you better drop it
right there.
And it, here’s what we
say sometimes.
We say, “Well, you know what?
I know it’s–nobody’s perfect,
and God understands.”
He does not understand
disobedience.
He just doesn’t.
And if God tells you not to
do something or you have
a strong feeling.
And remember, you have the
Holy Spirit living within you,
that’s His gift,
and what does He do?
He warns us about things and He
encourages us, and He gives us
direction and guidance
and leadership.
And so, God wants you to have
a place to live.
He may not want you at this time
in your life to have a house
that has all these particular
amenities to it.
But He wants you to have
something you can rest in,
enjoy in, decorate in, or
whatever, and have fun in.
He doesn’t want you living
in a house that you’re afraid
financially it’s just going
to collapse on you.
And many people have lost their
houses because they didn’t
listen to God.
They bought something they
couldn’t afford.
They didn’t do it because God
led them, because He warned them
against it.
So watch this.
When it comes to God’s
protection of us and His
watch care–He protects us
in every facet of our life.
Your son or daughter wants to go
to a very, very, very
expensive college.
And there may be one in your
city that’s really just as good
when it comes to the education.
Do you want them to go to one of
these colleges so you can say,
“My son goes to so and so.
My daughter’s at–she
attends so and so.”
Or do you want your kid to get a
good education, love God,
walk in His ways and follow your
example and your leadership
of a good steward?
So we have to be, we have to be
honest with God about things.
Now watch this.
You have the Holy Spirit within
you to warn you against doing
something that is not good,
and watch this.
There are some things that
are not right and wrong.
But that, not right and wrong
doesn’t mean that what is not
necessarily wrong is not
right for you at this time
in your life.
It may be okay a little later,
but not now.
So if you’re obedient–watch
this, if you’re obedient, you
have ears to listen and a heart
to be sensitive to what God is
saying to you, because what He’s
trying to do is to protect you.
Nobody wants to go to bed at
night with debt hanging over
them and they wake up hanging
over them, and they go to work
hanging over them and
what happens?
They have no joy, no peace,
no happiness.
And so, what happens, watch
this, you disobey God in
one area, you’re going to
disobey God in another.
You obey God or you
get in trouble.
It may start with money, it may
end up with immorality.
The devil knows how to use
every tool he’s got.
It’s getting awfully quiet
in here.
Because you know it’s
the truth, amen?
What about His generosity?
Look if you will in Luke chapter
six, verse thirty-eight,
“Give, and it will
be given to you.”
That is whatever you give.
They will pour into your
lap a good measure.
How much is that?
Well when they pour it in it
to be, “pressed down,
shaken together, running over.
For by your standard of
measure it will be measured
to you in return.”
Now look at that!
You know it doesn’t get
any simpler than this.
Look at this.
He says, “By your standard
of measure, be measured
to you in return.”
So, if I give God one dollar
out of ten, I’m going
to get blessed.
It’s just that simple.
I’ve been tithing since my first
job I made four dollars.
I would have felt guilty
if I gave God twenty-five
or fifty cents.
I gave Him a dollar.
I was grateful.
I’ve never just tithed
in my life.
I’m not saying I’m an example,
I’m just saying this.
I know it works.
We forget who we’re
talking about.
We’re not talking about what
I’m going to do for you.
We’re talking about what He’s
going to do for you.
God is going to keep His Word
because that’s who He is.
He’s a God of truth.
Now it’s one thing to tell the
truth, the second thing is does
He have the power to do it?
Yes!
He has infinite power to work
in your life to do His will,
to get His will done.
So, is He generous?
Yes, He is.
Gives us more than we expect,
more than deserve,
more than we ask for.
Then of course, His sufficiency.
Listen to what He says in Second
Corinthians nine, six through
eight, and we read it, “Now this
I say, he who sows sparingly,”
chinchy, you know, just a little
bit, “will also reap sparingly,
he who sows bountifully,” giving
a lot, “will reap bountifully.”
God loves a chinchy giver.
Is that what it says?
“God loves a cheerful giver.”
Now watch this, “God is able to
make all grace abound to you,
that always having all
sufficiency in everything,
you may have an abundance
for every good deed.”
You know what God is saying?
“I’m going to bless you
if you just trust me.”
It’s just that simple.
It all boils down to one thing.
Do I believe the Word of God,
or do I not?
I’ve given you a few
illustrations, but what
I’ve given you is
the Word of God.
We’ve just been quoting
Scripture all morning.
Do you believe Him or not?
Think about your finances,
nobody’s business but yours.
Think about where you are
financially, what you owe.
It’s not wrong to owe somebody
as long as you’re able to pay
them back and you owe them
for a good reason.
Can you pay them back?
Sometimes people can’t help
certain things that happen.
But when it comes to giving to
God, I believe that giving to
God, it covers every single
aspect of our life.
Because He is a God of goodness
and love and mercy and kindness.
And we’ve seen that in
all these verses.
And I want to give
one more verse.
Look at Luke, chapter eighteen
for a moment.
And I want you to look at what
Peter is asking Jesus about.
And it just follows
what we’re saying.
They’re having
this conversation,
twenty-eighth verse.
Luke eighteen.
Listen to what he says.
Peter said, speaking to Jesus.
He said, “Behold, we have left
our own homes and followed You.”
Peter’s just, it’s where he is
at this moment in his life.
He’s saying, “Lord, left
my fishing business.
I was doing good.
Left my house, left my family,
left everything for You.”
He may have been
having a pity-party.
I’m not sure what he was having
but listen to what He said, “And
He said to them, ‘Truly I say to
you, there is no one who has
left house, family, brothers,
parents, children, for the sake
of the kingdom, who will not
receive many times as much
at this time and in the age
to come, eternal life.”
Now I want you to
think about this.
What about your children?
You, some of you have small
children and you talk to
some things about them.
You should talk to your children
about your finances.
You should teach them very early
in life to tithe their income.
And the way you do that is
stack up, stack up ten pennies.
Put one over here, and they have
nine and you say, “Well, son,
which one do you want?”
He’ll say, “Well I’ll take
the nine.”
You should talk about tithing
your income to your children
because they’re going to spend
all you’ve got unless you teach
them how to deal
with their money.
Isn’t that true?
Isn’t that true?
It is true.
And so, what you do, you teach
them to tithe their income.
What you do is, you’re teaching
them to respect the truth of
God’s Word, to respect you, to
honor you, and you are teaching
them to practice
as they follow you,
and follow your lead,
with the tithe.
And when they learn
that very early in life,
they’re going to do
it all their life.
Why?
Because they’re going
to be blessed.
And I think about
in my own life, I could give you
lots of illustrations.
You’ve heard this before.
I’ll tell you again.
When I finished high school,
and I wanted to go to college,
I didn’t have any money.
I finally had
seventy-five dollars.
Seventy-five dollars go
to college, no way.
One night in one conversation
with a pastor, my whole college
for four years is paid for,
with all meals included
and everything.
You know what God did?
God honored what I started
giving to Him when I gave Him
one dollar out of every four.
Now I want to say to
parents and grandparents.
That’s why you should teach
your children to tithe.
Because you don’t know when
they’re going to need it.
You don’t want them coming back
for, to you for something
that God would provide.
So you’ve just heard
the truth this morning.
And nobody here has an excuse
and nobody listening has
an excuse for not
knowing what to do.
And that is, tithe your income.
If it’s your local church or
wherever you get blessed.
You do what God tells you to do
and watch God work in your life.
It may be a revolution that
takes place in your life about
not only your giving,
but everything else
that you’re doing.
Father, how grateful we are that
we never have to in any way
apologize to Your Word.
We really don’t have to
defend it, but just proclaim it
and watch You work it.
We love You, we praise You,
we thank You.
We could never thank You enough.
And Father, I pray for the
person who is unsaved and
they are seated here or watching
and listening, and probably
not very interested in money,
but to realize they have to give
an account to You
one of these days.
They can’t pay their way in,
but it’s a matter of asking You
to forgive them of their sins,
surrendering their life to You,
and by faith, trusting You
to forgive them on the basis
of Christ’s death at Calvary,
shedding of His blood,
payment for their sin.
What an awesome God You are.
Let Your grace, dear Father,
let Your grace rest upon
every person who is trusting
You as their Savior,
believing You for their life,
in Jesus’s name, amen.