Money Matters (part 4)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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Our Father in heaven we come before you this morning mindful that our lives are but vapors

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Lord we Thank you that you've seen fit to Take Prudy Davidson home

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Father we would pray for her family. I Think especially Dolly and the other ones

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Who'll be gathering and particularly for those who don't know you? father, I pray that you would be there in a very

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Full sense and that the the gospel would be preached often and that you would use your word to save those who

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Come to pay their respects to Prudy Lord for our time this morning.

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Would you bless us as we look to? really one of the more fundamental matters of life and And even of Christian living and something that's so often overlooked

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Lord. I pray that you would bless us as we Talk about stewardship Talk about finances

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Father bless each one here in Christ name. We pray Amen Well, we've been talking about Money Some of you are probably like why

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I don't have any well Project into the future when you might

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It's a good thing to be focused on even for young ones For the young folks when we talk about College loans and things like that, you know, honestly,

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I was thinking about the other night. I think that if I knew When I was 23 what

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I know now I'd be fat dumb and happy Instead of just fat and dumb.

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I Would probably have a lot more money I think of all the opportunities that I just passed up because I thought you know someday

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I'll get involved in the What what do you call it when you The sheriff's department had something where if you put money in they would match it and all this other stuff and I was like, you know what it was like a

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An optional. Yeah an optional retirement plan wasn't really a 401k thing, but they had this matching fund program

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They had all kinds of programs. I Didn't do any of that because you know when you know as soon as we get some other bills paid and this not the other thing

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We'll do that and you never do but there are many things like that where the more, you know when you're young like here's something

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You know when you sit down you do your budget and we'll do this in the weeks ahead If you just say okay, here's what

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I'm gonna give to the Lord Here's what I'm going to save and then I'm gonna live on the rest. How many do that?

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Don't raise your hand Because the numbers would not be all that great Because even if people give first their second thing isn't how much can

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I save? It's how much can I spend and then at the end? You know, maybe then you save something

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But we've talked about saving savings are a good thing. It's a excellent thing to have. I Don't know if we finished talking about College loans, but let me just say this, you know

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We we have talked about a little bit and I want to say this that for people who graduate with 60 80 100 ,000 or More, I mean, especially if you go to grad school, what do you wind up with in terms of debt?

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120 150 $180 ,000 guess what? You're not gonna buy a home because you've already you already bought it

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It's gonna take years and years years people say things like, you know As soon as we get our college loans paid off, then we'll have children really in your 50s

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I'm not really exaggerating if two people get married and they each went to grad school and they have a hundred and twenty dollars each or 120 ,000 in loans each that's two hundred and forty thousand dollars

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There are many places in the country where you could buy a home and a half two homes For that kind of money.

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That's a lot of money. We need to consider the cost of education.

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You know, it's fine to pursue it But I would say two things about that. Number one is Consider the impact that's gonna have on your life

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Second thing I would say is this you are in essence signing up for To slavery you're just gonna go to work to pay that thing off forever and ever and ever

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But oh and the third thing this is what I was really thinking make sure that you can use it I mean, it is awesome that you can get your

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PhD in the history of comic books That is great.

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I Salute you It might not come in too handy Yes But what

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I really like to do is become a professor and teach the history of comic books Oh so that you can pass your indentured servitude on to others marvelous

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Get a college degree that will actually benefit you that will get you somewhere. I guess it depends on your profession

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But anyway, there's my two cents Let's talk about what it means some other things that we want to avoid in terms of finances

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It is generally a bad idea to become someone's co -signer.

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Let's look at Proverbs 1718 and you know, we've we talked about Proverbs the wisdom literature

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Solomon writing to his son and it is packed with a lot of wise sayings a lot of truisms and In fact,

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I would think that if people knew more about Proverbs, they would make a lot fewer foolish decisions

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Proverbs 1718 listen to this one who lacks sense gives a pledge and Puts up security in the presence of his neighbor.

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The idea is Basically being a co -signer somebody can't

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Buy a car and they say hey Steve Would you be the co -signer for my car?

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You know the bank won't qualify won't qualify me. But if you sign they will what's my answer gonna be?

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Absolutely. I'd love to help you because I need another car payment. I might say something like that in my younger less mature days

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Why would I say that? Why would I think that way? There's a reason they can't qualify for the car loan and what is that reason?

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They can't afford it The bank thinks that they look at this person on paper and they say wait a minute if we loan the money to this guy

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Guess what? He's not gonna pay us back so we need some other Person to co -sign for them so that when the first person defaults the second person gets the loan and Guess what?

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The bank says, you know, if Steve is suddenly paying for someone else's car Do they say well

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Steve then you you get that car. So go get it The answer is no, they don't really care.

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It's not their problem. I get the payment and it's up to me to Resolve the situation with the other person and that's why

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Solomon says don't do that Now can there be exceptions to this, you know if it's your child

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But but but yes, but here's what you need to ask Yourself is is this person that I'm co -signing for whoever it is if they default on the loan, which the bank says they're going to The bank says this person is not going to make it

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First of all, do I believe that I'm smarter than the bank? Secondly if that person defaults am

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I willing to Undertake that burden am I willing to pay for it? Because if I'm not willing

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I'm really being dumb and If I am willing and I am able well, then you know, that's fine.

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Pam. Did you ever come on Pam? Says that when she was 19, she bought a condo and her dad had a co -sign for it

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So he said, you know, I'll co -sign but you have to give me Because she was on commission sales

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He said I'll co -sign but you have to give me your budget and your you know Your plan to pay this thing off because I'm not gonna do it.

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Otherwise, so he at least He knew he was investing. He knew it was a risk, but he also knew his daughter

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But he was like, you know what even so let me see how you're gonna pull this off I'm not just gonna you know, roll the dice as it were and see what happens

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Okay, let's talk about Another way to lose money. We've talked about several. Let me see one was becoming a co -sign

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I mean, I mean if you want to squander wealth, that's one way credit cards are another way Here's another way

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We've mentioned this a few times We talked about the importance of having a plan or a budget

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Well, if you want to lose money don't have one just don't have one

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And at the end of the month you go where'd all the money go? Nobody knows and again having a checkbook is not having a budget

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Having a bunch of numbers and you know Category scrawled out on a piece of paper is not a budget if you don't actuate it if you don't actually follow it

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It doesn't matter People will often say well Yes we have a budget and They'll show me this list of payments and everything that they have and I'll like I'll be like that's not a budget

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Unless you know where the money's going. You don't have a budget another comment or another a couple of asterisks there on the budget matter

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I've talked about having an emergency fund. I'm gonna keep talking about that the importance of getting some experts say $500 some say a thousand

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Steve says two thousand mostly because it just seems when I have bills that are always more than a thousand

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You know when something goes wrong in fact certain person Recently told me that their transmission went out now

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Thankfully it got repaired for free which is pretty nice You have any idea how much the transmission costs on your car anybody had one put in a nitro how much

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About $2 ,000 and that's pretty low Yeah, I mean it could be it could be more than that Steve yes $4 ,500 can

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I hear 5 ,000? It's a lot of money. I see that hand 5 ,000 you know 4 ,000 5 ,000 it can be a lot of money, and if you know you have no money in the bank and all of a sudden

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You're faced with this. You know $2 ,500 bill. What do you do? It's credit card City and the whole cycle starts over again

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But before you get in it and the emergency fund is now That's the first thing why because it stops you from going further and further and further in debt

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Now another note. What is an emergency fund used for? No, no, it's for going out to the movies

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It's for emergencies you know it and and you know an emergency is not like last -minute call, dude

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I've got some tickets to the Celtics game, but I need to get paid back for them. Can you that's not an emergency?

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Unless it's the Lakers or Celtics in it But when you make your budget up some of the other things that you ought to do is you you need to have categories for?

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This things that aren't going to happen every single month for example auto repair Think about that if you you know every month you put away 20 50 $100 or whatever for auto repair and then when the transmission goes you've got your emergency fund

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And you've got your auto repair fund the auto repair fund goes first and then something else you know heating oil to me

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This is a duh You need to be budgeting for heating oil guess what? Unless you are blessed and have natural gas you are going to need heating oil

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And It is pretty shocking these days how much it costs and you know the most shocking place I think on the face of the planet is the so -called chalet the house on the new property that place

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I like to say the windows have negative r10 I mean it's just It's just you know the energy is just going out of there faster than you can possibly imagine and I guess it

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Anyway, I digress But all these things things that go on Every month or maybe not every month.

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You know you go. It's the summer. I don't need to worry about heating oil wrong Don't be like the sluggered you know observe the

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Anto sluggered who does what? Who saves for the day that he knows is coming he squirrels away that food or he ants away that food

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I don't know which it is Stores the food away because he knows the day is coming when he's going to need it in the same way we need to be

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Saving money for the day that we know is coming One man likes to talk about you know

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Christmas and how people go broke every year at Christmas And and they're just like what I didn't know that Christmas was going to be in December this year

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And it's the same thing about oil. It's the same thing about cars. It's the same thing about house repair

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We know these things are going to happen So to pretend you know hot

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I just you know all of a sudden all these things just kind of fell on me And I had no idea We're living in a fallen world things break through things fall apart things wear out

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Our 1991 Honda Accord, you know one day. It just said you know I'm done starting and the mechanic said

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I can't figure it out What do you do you have to do something else you have to have a backup plan?

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What are some of the? Failures you know I've talked about saving money. I've talked about getting out of credit card debt

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I've talked about having an emergency fund stop digging the hole you know it's What we often hear with regard to?

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Certain branch of our government is you know if you get to a point where you just keep borrowing and borrowing and borrowing what happens the interest alone eats up such a big chunk of your income that Things that you ought to be able to do you can't do anymore, but if you fail to plan for the long term

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What winds up happening if you're not saving money if you have no plan?

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Then what I I don't know how many of you get those little statements in the mail from Social Security Telling you you know what you would get if You ever look at that You just go well.

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This is a little bit depressing. I pay you guys how much money and how much am I getting a return? Social Security is not a retirement plan

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Of course it was never intended to be and they've sure made sure that it isn't I mean you cannot live on that at least without massive government help

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You know is your plan The government will bail me out. Is that a plan that's not a plan.

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I'm gonna tell you right now. That's not a plan Do you know how much you will actually have to live on if you retire by the way?

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Because somebody point out to me the verses where it talks about retirement the Bible. I don't think so Anybody know planning ahead knowing what you're going to need to survive

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Very key Very key. There's nothing wrong with having you know long -term

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Care insurance, you know what happens if I wind up in a rest home I Can make some other comments about it, but I am being recorded.

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I don't want to be in a rest home Let me tell you that right now But let me ask you a few questions as we've just talked about Some basics

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I mean these are basics and things that people get wrong and things that people have been getting wrong

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I would say for the last 40 years or so. Are you exercising self -control?

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financially Are you exercising self -control financially do you have the capacity to just say no to new purchases as my daughter used to say

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Purchases do you spend your money impulsively then have to scramble to get back to even

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I? Know I know I spent too much and so now I'm gonna I'm gonna eat peanut butter and jelly

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You know for a couple months the old bachelor diet of the bean burrito, you know made or the pizza bagel

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I Can only say that because I did that the pizza bagel Mmm.

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Do you find yourself listening to others say it explain their needs or talk about it?

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And just really feeling compassion and empathy for them and saying I wish I could help but I'm so over my head

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There's nothing I can do. That's what you think anyway Listen what MacArthur says he says how you handle your money and Possessions is crucial.

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It's a barometer of your Christian life and a test of how well you understand that true riches are

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Spiritual why does he say that? Why does how you handle your money and reflect?

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your understanding of money in general Charlie Christianity should permeate every area of our lives.

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That's exactly right You know it's it's like we want to have the sacred the secular division those things don't exist when we go to work

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We're still a Christian. We need to work as unto God and Yet somehow when we sit down and we do our budget there's this bifurcation where we just go well those those principles don't apply

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Pam yeah

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Pam says that you know how she when she writes out that check For their giving you know nothing kind of tests her level of covetousness like writing that test or writing the check does and You know

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I have been freed from that because Janet writes our check But but yeah, and just thinking about the the unjust steward and how we manage our money, and how we come to just recognize

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That everything that we have here are things that we only have for a season even if we have a billion dollars it's only ours for a season and Then we're gone and that money is still here

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At least half of it or whatever the government decides to leave to our descendants

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Okay enough about death taxes, okay, so and that leads right into our next Category, which is our true riches how we need to think about it our true riches are in heaven

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We read this, but this is a passage that bears repeating Matthew 6 verses 19 and 24

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Do not lay up yourself for yourselves treasures on earth Where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven

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Where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal For where your treasure is there your heart will be also

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The eye is the lamp of the body so if your eye is healthy your whole body will be full of light

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But if your eye is bad your whole body will be full of darkness if then the light is

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If then the light in you is darkness. How great is the darkness? No one can serve two masters for either

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He will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other You cannot serve

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God and money we are to avoid stacking that's what the

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That's what the verb there Lay up for yourselves it has the idea of stacking literally taking treasures and just kind of neatly

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Placing them and just kind of looking at them and going wow I Have a lot of really cool stuff a lot of cool stuff.

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That's the idea that we're not to do that Because they are temporary

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They're subject to destruction. They're subject to theft all the forces of this world

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MacArthur says this if your heart is right concerning your wealth, then you will willingly invest money in God's kingdom

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But if you are reluctant to give God your resources and you continually display attitudes of self -indulgence

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Stinginess and covetousness you need to re -examine your relationship to the

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Lord I Mean this really is a test and it is something you know People will say things like well.

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No one knows my heart. You can't judge me I Agree, no one does know your heart.

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No one can judge you But it's something you need to do You need to figure out

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Even according to 2nd Corinthians 13 5 you need to examine yourselves and determine whether you are in the faith and this is one of the areas where the rubber meets the road we often hear about You know sexual sin and sexual temptation.

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I mean just as an aside. I remember once I had a neighbor who was Norway or Sweden I think he was from and and he claimed to be a

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Christian, but every time I I Would try to preach the gospel to him a he was drunk and B he didn't want to talk about it

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And I just thought that's pretty remarkable and his his attention was always on the wrong things

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I thought in my mind, and I'm going well I can't judge his heart all I can do is look at how he lives and then preach the gospel to him again

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And that same way if someone is to look at your checkbook, and they go. I don't really see The priorities of a

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Christian you can say well, you can't judge my heart, and you're right, but you ought to be judging your hearts if if your checkbook doesn't line up with what you believe then

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You can either change what you believe which I wouldn't recommend Or you could change how you allocate your money.

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You could start living rightly It's never too late to pull up you say I owe too much money Stop borrowing

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Turn it around step by step it might take a while John Calvin said where riches hold the dominion of the heart

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God has lost his authority when you value money as Your number one priority

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God is absent MacArthur also says this we can't claim Christ as Lord if we serve any other master wealth our job other people

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Ourselves, I mean when we go down that list we talk about money

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How many people think about their job that way? You know how many men I talked to in particular that say you know they work too much quite a few how about People who maybe put their spouses first Before the

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Lord you might be married to an unbeliever It is wrong to put your spouse before the

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Lord Okay, keep getting back on the money track here what we give to gospel work here on This earth the

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Lord uses and then rewards us with treasures in heaven That's an incredible thought out of that passage in Matthew 6 in other words if you invest in the kingdom, then what?

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we're to We're going to see But lay for yourself treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust

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Destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal the things that we do for the kingdom cannot be taken away

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Leon Morris scholar says this Jesus points out that the place we choose for our treasures Tells us something about ourselves.

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He does not describe treasure in any way, but he clearly means here that That which one prices most that which one values above all else

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That's what a treasure is the place where we choose to store up and what we value most shows

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What our values are deep down the heart may be used in any of any one of a variety of ways

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It could be the emotions desires wishes But it is surely more

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Jesus is not speaking of passing emotions But of that on which the life centers when he says where your heart is.

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What's the center? What's the focus of your life? The Lord doesn't specify what the treasures are what we're going to Attain in heaven or what is waiting for us in heaven, but he tells us the nature of those treasures that they are indestructible and not subject to theft

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Let's talk about biblical giving Biblical giving MacArthur says

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I'm convinced that if we really understood the scriptures and what God has promised in them We would most look forward to each

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Lord's Day listen at church because of the opportunity to give You know,

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I mean giving is just kind of an afterthought the plate comes by and it just kind of goes by and everything

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Do you think about it as an opportunity? We talked about it as an opportunity to worship. Do you think about it that way?

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Do you think this is part of the worship service? This is part of why we gather together and we're worshiping the

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Lord. I Offering and one of them is to kind of get a look and see if you can put what you're see what your neighbors putting in there

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Another is to suddenly figure. Oh, it's the offering plate. It's time to get going. That's not a good thing to do either

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But why should we look forward to it MacArthur cites

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Luke 638 And he says because God blesses those who give listen

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Luke 638 give and it will be given to you In good measure pressed down shaken together running over Will be put into your lap for with the measure you use it will be measured back to you

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Leona Morris again says the forgiven those who are Christians are open -hearted and open -heartedness has

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Consequences Jesus commands his hearers to keep giving and reminds them that when they do this

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People respond in kind and not only in kind for he speaks of good measure pressed down shaken together running over the metaphor is

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From measuring our grain in such a way as to ensure the full volume is given when it says lap there the idea or that the

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Greek word would really be your bosom and it refers to a fold in the outer garment that Would kind of hang out a little bit and that's where you would stick stuff

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It was kind of a pocket and so what he's saying is your pocket will be more than full be overflowing

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Now does this mean that if you give God ten dollars? He will give you one thousand

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If you watch TBN, that's what it means They do the praise a thon and they bring somebody in who's gonna preach the hundredfold, you know

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Because God will return to some what is it thirty fold others? And then you get to the hundredfold and I'm gonna preach the hundredfold, you know, and for the next ten minutes

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It's the hundredfold and whatever you pledge God will give you back 100 times what a bunch of rubbish

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You want to know how to steal from people you appeal to their greed and you tell them it's what God wants them to do

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But to give as it says there in Luke 638 Give and it shall be given now.

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It sounds like it's a conditional statement But it's not in fact give is a command it's an imperative

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So, how are we to give or who should we give to? I'm a bride

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I knew somebody who used to say well, you know what? We don't give to a church instead. We give to people that we see a need we give to worthy organizations, you know we give to What is the child thing, you know where you can sponsor a child for?

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You know used to be 1995. Actually, I think it started at 10 bucks a month and now it's you know, I Think the kids driving a

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Maserati. I don't know what he Keeps kind of going up, but you know these these things where you can sponsor a child

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That's where they do. They're giving different things like that. And I'm just gonna say this about that That's a parachurch ministry all these kind of things are parachurch ministries and Parachurch means what what what is a parachurch?

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What does that Steve? Outside of or actually kind of a long side because we have the paraclete who is a comforter which means

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The Holy Spirit paraclete means one who comes alongside so that's the idea so a parachurch ministry kind of comes alongside the church is the theory and It does things that the church maybe doesn't do and there are plenty of examples of that But can someone tell me where parachurch organizations are talked about in the

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Bible because they're not

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They're not mentioned in the Bible and they're not Those we never see a scripture or that says much like we would see

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Leaders not to grieve your leaders for it as they who will give an account for your soul

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We wouldn't see that about a parachurch organization because they don't Parachurch organizations are not those who have the responsibility for teaching you and your children the

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Bible Parachurch organizations are not what the Lord promised to build remember he said upon this rock

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I will build my parachurch No, he's gonna build his church What I'm trying to say is your primary giving when you sit down and you plan almost a plot.

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I don't know why When you plan what you're going to give Your primary giving needs to be to the local church now if you want to give over and above if you're able to do that great

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Then you can give to parachurch Ministries, I think it's good for individuals to be able to help other individuals within the church talked about that some time ago where The idea of communicating needs that the church that the rich people in the church

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I think that's in first Timothy 5 maybe That they should be able to meet the needs of those within the church who have need to express those needs.

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That's great But primarily it should go to the local church

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Now while we don't give to get again, that's the idea that TBN would give you You know If you give the

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Lord X then you'll receive Y or actually to be more accurate for those Mathematicians here if you give

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X God will give you 10 X if you give X he will give you X squared You know, however, they want to whatever their current thing is.

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We don't give to get But the Lord blesses those who see their

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God -given wealth as So not something to clutch but Something to use listen to 2nd

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Corinthians 9 6 and then I'll get to Pam 2nd Corinthians 9 6 is this The point is this is

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Paul writing the Corinthian Church He says the point is this whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows

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Bountifully will also reap bountifully But what that does not mean is that if you give a lot

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God will give you a lot of financial reward What do you get out of giving generously to The Lord's work to the gospel ministry.

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What do you get out of that? joy Assurance what why would you get assurance?

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Because and I'm gonna get to this but this is exactly on point if you sit down I even have this in my notes at the end of the year when you go in and you do your taxes.

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I Are you crazy? You could have bought a car with that.

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You could have done this you could have done that Pam yeah,

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I I mean the key the key issue is your money needs to go to gospel oriented

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Ministries absolutely absolutely But whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully and it is really a great

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Indicator of your spiritual health and you get assurance why because you think okay, I'm giving this and it doesn't bother me

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I'm not I'm not I'm not regretting it and we'll get to that. Well, we'll get that in just a second here but again this idea of Reaping bountifully does not mean that God will give you more money.

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He could give you more money right as you're faithful and you

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Give generously He could just give you more Put you in charge of more things

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But these could also be spiritual blessings. I Mean just the idea

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Let's say now this wouldn't be the case here. But let's say there were one or two people keeping this church afloat They would know in their own minds that they were substantially

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Supported in this ministry and then when they saw people getting baptized, they wouldn't think I deserve the credit for that But they would go in my own little way.

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I'm playing a part in that Because of what I'm doing the word of the Lord goes forth.

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It does its work and I'm just gonna keep on going That that's a blessing in and of itself

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Now the wrong view of giving

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Would be something like this. I give as the Spirit leads

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I Give as my wallet or purse leads

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I talked about it Sometimes that you know, I can remember going to church early on and not he could because I had no concept of it

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When I grew up in the Mormon Church, you know Everybody would just kind of give in an envelope and you gave it to the bishop or you put it in some box or whatever you know, it was just a whole different deal and So when the offering plate would come by, you know, sometimes

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The Lord would get a five or ten. I told you I don't like to keep much money and some weeks it was lint

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Because that's all there was I Didn't understand giving that was as the wallet leads giving but listen to 2nd

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Corinthians 9 7 the next verse each one Must give as he has decided in his heart not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver

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So let's talk about characteristics of biblical giving and we won't get through all this this morning.

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We'll have to continue it next week But the first characteristic of biblical giving would be to give purposefully purposefully

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Just as you have decided in your heart. It says there listen what Kistemacher says he says

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Paul specifies that the responsibility rests on the individual and Not on the church as such each person must ponder this matter in his or her own hearts and then decide

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So that the entire congregation may be united and contributing to the collection Everyone therefore participates

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But each individual person has to decide in their own minds how much they should give

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Question comes up and I sent this out of my email, you know, what happens if I miss church, you know What if I'm on vacation for three weeks in Florida?

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What if it snows? And how does that apply to this idea of purposefully well think about this if I have said

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You know, I'm going to give I don't want to use X again because I've already used it.

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I'm gonna give theta dollars What whatever amount it is and I've budgeted that I've set aside that money and then

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I go to Florida and I go Well, you know, it's just kind of folded into the vacation money. The Lord understands Then I haven't really given that money

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Why would I do that? Well, if it snows then I'm you know, the Lord in his own way is kind of telling me keep the money

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That's just not right We decide what to give and then we give so what

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MacArthur says he says our giving should be consistent and systematic not spasmodic and subjective or whenever we happen to remember it if We plan if we determine if we decide the text says

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Then we will systematically give and if we miss a week if we miss two weeks if we're gone for a month

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Then we've got that money sitting in the bank. And when we come back we give it It's pretty simple.

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It's straightforward. It's not our money in the first place We've already determined in our minds that that's what we're going to give

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Now when we talk about giving and we talk about being purposeful It doesn't mean that we should suppress our desire to meet someone's need of the moment someone says

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I mean, you know, they come up to me and they want a lot of money. They're gonna be out of luck Did I say luck?

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They're gonna be out of their providentially designed opportunity Because I I don't do it

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I mean if you ever want to mug somebody don't mug me because it's gonna be so little money It won't be worth the time of Joe But we it's good to meet someone else's need within the body and that's that's fine we want to be able to do that Now let's say

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I talked about vacations a little bit let's say, you know, you're in everybody goes to Florida Why does everybody go to Florida?

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I don't even like it down there. It's hot and nasty but I prefer a cold and Nasty yeah, but you go down to Florida and you're there for a week or two and you visit, you know

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The the Church of the Open Disneyland whatever it's called and you go well,

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I'm going to give my money there Well, you could do that. I just think you know what you're there visiting and why would you why would you then give there?

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You could give something there. I would if it were me I might give my over and above there, but I'm not going to give my regular giving there

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So, how does this work out in practice? I sit down to do my budget as I indicated in the beginning

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I put the Lord first the giving goes first. I remind myself that no matter what my bills are

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No matter how much money I owe no matter how bleak things look. I Have a debt

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That I cannot repay Jesus Christ paid it all and I'm going to nickel and dime him.

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I'm not going to do that My giving is not an attempt and I want to underline that it is not an attempt to get in right relationship with God We don't believe that by giving more giving less that God loves us more or less that's not the issue the issue is

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Giving joyfully planning what to give and then giving joyfully My giving is a loving response to the gift that he has given me now maybe

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You know everybody wants to talk about a tithe and we'll talk about a tithe down the road here What is what is a tithe?

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What is I mean? I'll just kind of give you a preview Tithing is or is not a New Testament concept.

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It is not a New Testament concept It's an Old Testament concept and you know people go

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William will a man rob God, you know, what about the storehouses? Okay, welcome to Malachi Welcome to the

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Old Testament. Welcome to Israel under the Old Covenant Welcome to you give 10 % of this and you give 10 % of that that I mean estimates vary, but it was somewhere between 22 and a half and 35 %

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Was tithing and the reason so much was tithing because it wasn't just giving to the

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Lord it was giving to what? The government that was a taxation system It was the whole thing

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I mean, I think for a lot of us we would be pretty happy if we could give You know total to the church into the government somewhere between 22 and 35 percent.

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That'd be great Less than tight than 10 %

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No, I think 10 % is a I think it's a good kind of guideline

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But for some people let's say you're sitting here today and you're just like I am so over my head if I did 10 %

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I would have to borrow even more money each and every month then I would say you should give less

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But you should never lose sight of the idea that you know what? I'd like to get to the point where I can give 10 % and If you're sitting here this morning and you're like, well, we give 10 % and that's all we give

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I think we have to be careful about being legalistic about it. For example, you make a million dollars a year you give 10 %

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I don't know I'm never I would never be I'm not some kind of socialist who says you know what we all need to give all the money that we make over and above what we need to live and everybody needs to be in a two -room apartment in Worcester and dependent upon public transportation now,

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I'm not saying that's a bad thing if that's where you are I'm saying if you make a million dollars a year, you shouldn't have to have the mindset

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I have to live like I'm impoverished so that I'm giving rightly But we'll talk a little bit more about it what it means to be a sacrificial giver because it needs to be sacrificial

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If you give 10 % and you just go I don't even feel 10 % It doesn't change one thing about how

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I think how I live anything else Then then maybe you need to give a little bit more So I think 10 % is not it's not a biblical

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New Testament standard. I think it may I think it's a good guideline I think for some it's a good goal and for some it's not enough

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Ultimately the Bible the New Testament doesn't talk about a specific percentage a specific amount

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It is always a matter of the heart and I think we constantly need to be re -evaluating that Let's see

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Yeah, I would say that everybody should give something and if you are overextended like I said before I I would say that if you

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Are in such a place where you just go? Okay every month. This is what's happening

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I'm paying more and more and more and We're borrowing more and more and I don't know what we're gonna do.

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Well, then you need to get help, but don't stop giving Something you know, if it's even if it's just a token amount so that you can just keep in mind

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Okay, I'm gonna give my bills are way overboard and I'm just gonna give $20 $50 whatever it is

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But my goal is eventually to get to 10 % of my income that will help motivate you

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I think to even get out of debt Okay. Well, we need to close in prayer and we'll talk more about giving talk more about Getting out of debt and eventually we'll get to setting up a budget

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Walking through how we do that Let's pray father for each one of us here today

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Lord we fail in so many ways we think wrongly we think too highly of ourselves We think too highly of what you've given us.

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We think too highly of our own Work and somehow think that we have there or that we deserve what we have

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Father we did we deserve less than nothing and yet Lord you bless us and for some of us you bless more

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For some of us you have given us less Nevertheless Lord, would you help us to be faithful with what you have given us to be good stewards?

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To think about it in that sense that you have blessed us with everything that we have and that we have the opportunity once a week the blessing to give to the furtherance of the work of The work of Christ to see souls saved to see the word go forth father,

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I just pray that you give us a joy about giving an Excitement about giving and that we would indeed see it as an opportunity to worship you