Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Now let's go to proverbs. We are going to, going to go back to chapter three where we were last week, and we'll read verses nine and ten again.
[00:00:15] She says, thank you.
[00:00:19] All right, proverbs three, verses nine and ten.
[00:00:23] Um, the Bible says this, honor the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of all thine increase, so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. All right, let's pray again. Then we'll do a little bit of review.
[00:00:45] Our Lord, thank you for the opportunity to meet together as your people. Lord, thank you for each and every person here and as well as those that can't be here but are listening. Lord, thank you for their desire to hear the word and to grow from it. Lord, I pray that you would please help each and every one of us grow as we look at your word today, not just here in Sunday school, but also in the morning service and in the evening service. Lord, just give us hearts that are inclined to your truth, to your will. Lord, bless Sister Pam and sister McLean and Sister Priscilla as they teach today. Lord, help the students to be attentive and give them understanding and wisdom as to how to connect with them and give them the word and instruct them in the ways of God. So, Lord, please give grace there as well.
[00:01:34] We just pray that today would be a day that would be pleasing in your sight. That, Lord, we would grow, we would increase from our fellowship today. In Jesus name, amen.
[00:01:48] So last week we talked about primarily verse number nine, how we can honor the Lord with our substance. And we saw what it means to honor God. That is to demonstrate, do respect and reverence for God. And of course, the Lord wants us to do that in our life, in our words.
[00:02:08] But one way we do that is with our money. And it's easy. As a wealthy american, we're all filthy rich by the world standards, not even in this world, but in the world in which we live. But in years gone by, when you read about in history the way most people lived back in time, I did. When I was looking at the Book of Philippians or the chapter 16 of acts about Philippi, I was studying about how big the houses were, because I was trying to understand how many people were in that city and how so many people could fit in that city and things.
[00:02:50] Most of the average person's house is going to be basically a one room deal, and everything's going to be together. And you have extended family, all living together, and a pretty small dwelling and none of the conveniences that we have whatsoever. And most people, that was the way they lived. So we live in just an opulent, just excessive amount of things, and we all enjoy it. Right?
[00:03:19] But just remembering that in our society, there's this tendency to kind of compartmentalize our money and our faith. Like, they don't cross over, but rather the opposite. The Lord says exactly the opposite. He says they are absolutely connected.
[00:03:41] And again, nothing I'm saying to you is anything that I don't also apply to myself. So it's just as true for me as it is for you.
[00:03:50] So we can honor the Lord and issues. Listen, issues of money don't have to be difficult issues, because just like every other christian discipline or virtue, where does it come from? If the sin that we commit, right, the Lord said all of those things come out of the heart, well, then all the good that we might do, that the Lord works in us also should come out of our heart. And that includes honoring the Lord with our substance. So we looked at some ways, biblical ways, that we can honor the Lord with our substance. I gave you three in particular. What were those? Anybody want to give me one?
[00:04:34] One? Even one? All right, I'll give you a head start.
[00:04:39] Giving to the poor. Giving to the poor.
[00:04:43] He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his maker, but he that honoreth him hath mercy on the poor. So you can honor God by having mercy on the poor, those that are poor. Proverbs 14, verse 31.
[00:04:55] We also looked at several other verses, and we also saw how that priority in the context of the church is given to the people of God. And then as we have opportunity to others as well. All right, anybody want to give another one? Now that I gave you one, there's two more. How else can you honor the Lord with your substance? We saw giving to other believers. I think that's.
[00:05:19] Yeah, that would probably go for number three, which is giving to those preaching and teaching the gospel out of Philippians, chapter four, when we would call that in particular, we would call that missions. Right. That's a way you can honor God with your substance. And then the last way is we saw in Genesis and we saw in Leviticus, that we can honor the Lord with our substance by giving to the Lord's work. And that's another way, because God's work at all periods of time in history has required money. It always does. It's always an issue as a missionary, it's an issue that you constantly have to deal with.
[00:06:03] You're trying to get to a point where the church that you're trying to start is going to be self sufficient as far as financially.
[00:06:12] You got to think about where they're going to meet. Anywhere they meet, except somebody's house, which is not really ideal on a permanent basis, is going to require money. You require money if you do any printing, printing bibles, printing tracks, whatever. All of those things require money. And so the Lord's work does require money, but it doesn't concern the Lord as nearly as much as it concerns us, I believe so.
[00:06:38] I want to look now, though, is one more thing to reiterate, is the principle of first fruits, which is placing a priority on the things that please God above other considerations.
[00:06:54] And then we'll get into verse number ten. So let's look at verse ten, verse number nine and ten again. Honor the Lord with thy substance.
[00:07:02] And with the first fruits of all thine increase. Now, again, from the first fruits in a harvest, you can't tell what your complete harvest will be based upon the first fruits. But that's why it is an act of faith. When you give God the first fruits, you're prioritizing the Lord, honoring the Lord, even though you don't know how much you will have coming in. And so it's a matter of priority. So you might say that the first part of chapter nine is a matter of supporting God's will and honoring the Lord. In other words, showing your honor for God with your substance. The second part is showing the priority, showing the priority of that. Now, when we look at verse number nine, honor the Lord of thy substance. And with the first fruits of all thine increase. Verse ten begins with a conjunction, a conjunction which the word conjunction means to join. So verse number ten is joined with verse number nine.
[00:08:12] In fact, you could say this verse number nine is verse number ten. Rather, I'm sorry, verse number nine is built on the truth of verse number ten because it says, so shall.
[00:08:27] So as a result of what happens in verse number nine, you have the principle in verse number ten.
[00:08:35] That is supposed to. It's intended to help us and encourage us when we think about our money. Listen now, when you think about your money. Now, the truth is this. I'm just going to speak transparently.
[00:08:51] You think about tithing to the Lord. You think about giving offerings to the Lord. You think about supporting the Lord's work. And every single one of us in here has been in a place in our life where we've had some measure of abundance, right? And every single one of us in here has been in a place in our life when we felt we were lacking.
[00:09:15] Right.
[00:09:16] Most people feel they're lacking when they first get married, right? That's usually how it goes. It was like that for me. Sister Judy mentioned it before we started. That was the case for her. John and his wife Tori are, they're in that place, right.
[00:09:32] They, they haven't gotten to what they want to get, so.
[00:09:37] But generally speaking, is it easier to give when you have an abundance or is it harder to give when you have an abundance?
[00:09:46] You say harder.
[00:09:48] I found that the people get the least happiest.
[00:09:56] So really, though, it's not really dependent on what you have.
[00:10:00] Giving is about your heart. It's about where your affections lie. That's all it's about. If your affections lie with the Lord, then it's no big deal and it's cheerful. But if your affections, if you're like you got the Charlton Heston cold, dead hand with your money in, know, that's, that's, it's not going to be cheerful to. That's why, listen, that's why brow beating people about, you know, Brother Stewart didn't do that. I certainly am not going to do that brow beating. I mean, the Lord says he loveth a cheerful giver, so why am I going to try to extract money out of people's hand? I mean, that just doesn't make sense. I had prefer to extract love out of people's heart for God, if I can. Right. And the comparison the Lord gives in two corinthians is to remember how that Christ made himself poor for us.
[00:11:01] And so those things all bring giving into context. So sometimes we have abundance and sometimes we have lack in that variableness of our lives.
[00:11:17] Sometimes it will be hard to give if you're looking at a difficult bill. Like maybe when you're in a place where you got your budget and everything, and everything seems to be going well, but you just don't have a lot of extra. Maybe you got into a rhythm, you got a budget, you got your envelopes or whatever, and you put your tithe or your offering aside to give it to God, and that's a part of your budget. And that's good. That's what I did and that's what I do now in my budget. That's what I have and you give it to God. But what happens?
[00:11:48] How do you feel whenever you get, like you go get an MRI and you have, how much is an MRI these days?
[00:11:57] Yeah, well, CT, I think is more four to eight. But anyway, you go get an MRI for something you had to get done, and all of a sudden you got a $2,000 bill and you're already tight. That's kind of sometimes where it's like.
[00:12:16] And at that point is where we need verse ten, because it says, honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase, so shall.
[00:12:29] Because we honor God, God will ensure that we are taken care of.
[00:12:37] That is the principle in proverbs. Now, we're going to ratchet it up a notch. In just a minute, we'll look at some other verses. But here's the principle in proverbs is that when we honor God with our money, God obligates himself to provide for us.
[00:12:59] It's not that we're twisting his arm. No, he says, no, I'm telling you proactively, before you ever give a dime, you honor me, and I'm going to honor you. Now, let's look at a few verses. First of all, look at proverbs eleven, and I will address the idea of prosperity, the prosperity gospel, in just a minute, very briefly, and I'll hopefully help you understand that this is not what I'm talking about.
[00:13:27] But I trust you'll see in just a minute what I'm saying. Proverbs eleven, verse number 24 says this. Proverbs 1124. There is that scattereth and yet increaseth, and there is that withholdeth more than his meat, but it tendeth to poverty.
[00:13:53] The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.
[00:14:02] Now, this truth in these two verses is what we call counterintuitive.
[00:14:08] It's counterintuitive if you take something and you scatter it. Now, this is not referring to waste. This is referring to giving. How do we know? Because of the next verse. So you scatter it. That tells you, if you take grain, this is what this is referring to as a measure of wealth, right? You take grain and you scatter it, then you're going to have less in the bag than you had to begin with, right? That's natural human mathematics.
[00:14:38] And God says, nevertheless, as a proverb, God says, there is a truth. There is a principle here, which is even though you take it out of the bag and you scatter it, yet you still have more. It increases, not decreases, but it increases.
[00:14:56] So when you give money and I give money away, think about what we said just a minute ago. We give it to the Lord, we give it to the poor. We give it to missions.
[00:15:05] When we give it, God says, the principle is, you'll have more. You'll have more.
[00:15:15] Now, notice in verse number 24, it says, yet increaseth.
[00:15:20] Verse 25, said made fat.
[00:15:24] Verse 25, it says, shall be watered also himself. In other words, those things deal with receiving. With receiving.
[00:15:36] And this is the principle that's repeated in verse 24. And verse 25 is repeated over and over and over again, which is, God will give you more, give you more, give you more. Now, you think about verse 25. He that watereth shall be watered also himself.
[00:15:54] You think if I use my water, I'll get less water. I'll have less water to use. But God says, no, that's not the way it works. You will actually have more. You'll actually have more.
[00:16:04] And based upon verse number 25, I think we should all have this kind of. We should have a liberal policy. A liberal policy. What does that mean?
[00:16:14] That means when you have to decide how generous you're going to be, you should always err. We should always err on the side of being generous. This is what this principle is saying. And not think, well, how much do I have to give?
[00:16:29] Right? In other words, how can I give less? But the liberal policy says, how can I give more?
[00:16:38] How much can I spare, right?
[00:16:43] It's a different mindset. And the truth is, you might come down on the same figure in a particular set of circumstances. But it's a particular mindset of whether you have a policy of liberalism. Or a policy of, you might say, stinginess or withholding more than his meat. Is what verse 24 says, withholdeth more than is meat.
[00:17:08] So in verse 24, notice that there is that withholdeth more than is meat. Again, this is counterintuitive. You think, well, if I don't give it to anybody, then I'll have more. And the Lord says, but it tendeth to poverty.
[00:17:26] This really comes down to this question. Do we believe this principle or not? That's really what it comes down to. Do we believe it or not?
[00:17:33] Does it make sense? No, but do we believe it? Do we believe it?
[00:17:40] Because whether we believe it or not will determine our policy, determine how we give, if we give begrudgingly or not. Look at chapter 13, if you would. Verse number seven says this. There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing.
[00:18:07] There is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches.
[00:18:12] Yet hath great riches.
[00:18:14] The principle here along these same lines is not all riches can be measured in money.
[00:18:22] And sometimes our giving is not something that's given back to us in measure of money.
[00:18:29] You think about especially we'll see in a minute. Matthew, chapter six, talking about laying up treasures in heaven. In other words, there is no measure of that. In other words, God might not give what you give back in the same currency that you gave.
[00:18:43] Look at chapter 19, if you would.
[00:19:02] Verse number 17.
[00:19:05] He that pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord. We've already seen this verse, but notice the second part. And that which he hath given will he pay him. Again, again, this principle that God will restore what we give so that rather than decreasing, we increase.
[00:19:26] Chapter 22. Look at that if you would.
[00:19:31] Chapter 22, verse number, verse number nine says this, he that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed again. Liberalism, policy of giving in excess rather than giving the least amount we can.
[00:20:00] And listen, this is just something comes out of our heart. This is just something comes out of our heart.
[00:20:07] But notice what it says. He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed. The idea being that God's going to fill our cup. God's going to fill our cup. It goes back to the principle and this is a biblical principle that is in other places in the Bible that often God will, if we are liberal and generous in using our money for the Lord, he'll give us more because his intention is to give it to us so that it is sent on to someone else. And you know, think about it. And because he does it that way, he could just drop money out of heaven or he could create an error in somebody's books and their audit or whatever. And all of a sudden whatever that thing is that needs money, it would have money immediately. An error by the IRS, an error by a bank or whatever. And all of a sudden you got another $10,000 in the church bank account or whatever. He could do that.
[00:21:01] But what he's chosen to do is to use people.
[00:21:06] So he's chosen to say, okay, if one of my children is going to follow this principle and is going to have a bountiful eye and have a policy of liberalism, I know they're going to just give it I know. So I'll give it to them. They'll turn and give it to whatever this thing is that I want to have it. And then not only will the end result be that the need is supplied, but also that person is also going to be rewarded by me laying up treasures in heaven.
[00:21:46] So one more verse here. Verse chapter 28, verse number 27 says this, he that giveth unto the poor shall not lack, but he that hideth his eye shall have many a curse.
[00:22:17] Once again, you see just over and over and over. The Lord says, you give but you increase. God will make sure of that. Now, how is this different than prosperity?
[00:22:32] See, the prosperity gospel teaches, well, there are different versions of it, I guess, but the prosperity gospel, prosperity preaching, it teaches that basically, if I am right with God, if I am faithful to God, and oftentimes that little term, right with God, faithful to God, really means sending money, sending your seed donation to the preacher on tv.
[00:22:54] That's how they use it. Okay, but even for those that don't do that, this idea, and really, I was actually talking to Brother Lester about this yesterday and we were discussing American Christianity and American Christianity. Absolutely. And I'm not saying that's true or that American Christianity is all bad or all good. What I'm saying is, as it exists in our country, it is well understood and believed that if a person lives for God, they will prosper financially.
[00:23:30] And if not financially, they'll prosper in their health, they'll prosper, they'll have success in their business.
[00:23:37] It's never often, except by the prosperity preachers. It's never directly stated, but it's always implied, if I live for God, God's going to take care of me. And there are songs about it, ain't God good? Give us so many blessings. And you think about that. And oftentimes we're not thinking about the spiritual blessings we have that are ours no matter what. We're thinking about material things.
[00:24:02] A lot of southern gospel songs highly emphasize this aspect. They really do.
[00:24:10] And so it becomes a part of our psyche. We think, okay, well, if I'm living for God, then things are going to go well. But hold on.
[00:24:25] First of all, that's directly contradicted in the New Testament because number one, we know that we live in a fallen world, so we know things are not going to always go well with our body, with our health. Number two, we know that persecution for those who are faithful, who live godly in Christ Jesus, the Bible says, shall suffer persecution. So you have that.
[00:24:50] And sometimes the Lord brings difficulty in our lives and lack to build our faith. Sometimes he brings difficulty in our life to enable us to comfort others. I mean, there's all kinds of reasons. So it's not like, okay, I live for God and God's a machine and he's just going to pour out the money if I do that. I come to church one time, he's going to give me $10. That's not how it works at all. And everyone here knows that. Everyone here knows that.
[00:25:16] But when things go wrong. Often what we think is, I've done something wrong. And can that be the case? Absolutely.
[00:25:26] But it doesn't have to be the case. But see, our American Christianity teaches us that.
[00:25:31] It's implied.
[00:25:34] Now, how is this different than prosperity gospel? How is it different? Here's how it's different is in all the verses we've just read where God promises to increase a person and promises to supply need and promises to give them their barn shall be filled with plenty and their presses shall burst forth new wine. All those promises directly relate to the use of money.
[00:25:58] It's not like a carrot and donkey type of thing where God says, all right, you come to church and you'll have plenty of money.
[00:26:04] You come to prayer meeting, you'll have plenty of money.
[00:26:07] It's not like that's what prosperity gospel is.
[00:26:10] It's a carrot and a donkey situation. But God says, if you use your possessions to honor me, I am going to honor your possessions. It's directly connected one to one with possessions and the way we use possessions.
[00:26:34] And so that's one way that it's different. We are not looking for payment from God for our obedience.
[00:26:43] The Lord is just, he's stating back in chapter three, verse ten, he's stating this, so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. So he's stating this to generate in us faith.
[00:27:02] You see, if we believe God's word and the principles in scripture about these things, then before we ever give, we can look at this matter and we can say, lord, I don't have a lot of money. I don't know that I can spare this or whatnot.
[00:27:19] But you said that you would take care of me. You said in your word, there is this principle that there are that scatter and yet increase.
[00:27:30] You said, if I honor you, so shall all I have abundance. That's what you said.
[00:27:38] And so acting upon that faith, we give.
[00:27:43] We give by faith. That's what that means. We give by faith before God supplies it often we give by faith and God takes care of us. That's the way it works. And remember, this is not just an Old Testament principle. This is also in the New Testament. Look at Matthew, chapter 16, chapter six, and verse number, verse number 19.
[00:28:31] The Bible says, lay not up. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. Now you know, that verse can be, how do you lay up treasures in heaven? And one way you could say that is by your life for God. In other words, God's going to reward you for your faithful service to him. And that's true. But this principle is also found in other parts of the scripture in that this references the way we use our money. Because in this context, in particular, the contrast, the comparison is being made between how we use our money storing our money versus spending our money for the Lord. That's the comparison.
[00:29:20] And so one way we can lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven is by the way we use our money.
[00:29:26] But notice what it says, skip down, because this is the whole context. This whole context is money.
[00:29:32] He talks about the evil eye serving money to masters, and we'll talk about that later as we look at this subject.
[00:29:41] Then he goes into the context of having worry over money. Money is a great worry for most people.
[00:29:52] Every person worries over money in this world at some point or another. Even rich people do. Oh, no.
[00:30:00] I was going to sell my 8 billion shares of stock like Jeff Bezos is talking about. However many shares he has, it's a bunch. So it's in the millions and he's oh no, is it going to go up, down five?
[00:30:15] How can you worry about that? But people do all the time.
[00:30:20] So the Lord tells us not to worry. And then we go on down to verse. Look, for example, at verse number 30. Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, o ye of little faith?
[00:30:37] Therefore take no thought saying, what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the gentiles seek? For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But here's verse 33 in the context of money, possessions, will I have enough? And that's the question many people ask when it comes to how we use our money. If I give, will I have enough? If I give, will I have enough? That's always a question.
[00:31:06] But the Lord says in that kind of context. Verse 33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. What things?
[00:31:20] What things? Verse 31. What are we going to eat? What are we going to drink? How are we going to be clothed? Am I going to have enough?
[00:31:31] God promises if you seek him first, he will take care of those things. It's the same principle in proverbs look at two Corinthians, chapter nine, if you would.
[00:31:48] Two Corinthians, chapter 19. We see the same principle. It says this, but this I say, verse six. I'm sorry. Two Corinthians, nine, verse six. But this I say, he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly. And he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. In that verse is a principle. You give bountifully, you'll get bountifully. That's that principle in action. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give not grudgingly or of necessity. For God loveth a cheerful giver. And God, here's the worst. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye always having all sufficiency in all things, that's the stuff you have may abound every good work as it is written, he hath dispersed abroad, he hath given to the poor. His righteousness remaineth forever. Now, he that ministereth seed to the sower, both minister bread for your food and multiply your seed sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness. You see, the Lord is plainly saying in these verses that he's going to provide.
[00:33:13] He's going to provide.
[00:33:17] Now look at chapter four of Philippians. This would be our last verse today.
[00:33:32] Philippians four, verse 18.
[00:33:46] Now, I know we've looked over these verses last week, but the reason I'm reading them again is because last week we looked at the giving part.
[00:33:54] Now, I want to look at the principle here. Verse 18 says, the missionary, says, but I have all and abound I am full, having received of epaphroditis the things which are sent from you. An odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God.
[00:34:11] But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory. By Christ Jesus. Paul's very plainly saying, because you have sent to me, God is going to make sure that you have what you need. In other words, you took it out of your bag, and God's going to put it back.
[00:34:27] God's going to put it back again.
[00:34:33] This is not prosperity.
[00:34:36] This is God helping us to act and honor the Lord with our substance based upon faith, our faith that the Lord will provide and make up for that which we give him.
