I want to start with a couple of questions today. How many of us believe that when we prayed to Jesus for salvation that He heard us and answered? Do you believe that He did everything that was necessary to provide for your eternal salvation? Do you believe that He has enough power to take care of you for eternity? Do you really, truly believe all of that? OK, now that we have established that, here are a couple of others. Do you live like His power stops when it enters our atmosphere here on earth? Here’s what I mean. Does Jesus have the ability to take care of us here on earth? Do you live your life like it’s His job to make sure your all good for eternity, but it’s your job to make sure you’re all good here on earth? In other words, you completely trust Jesus for the next life, but you don’t for this one. If you are not sure what I’m talking about, let me put it this way: Your actions will clearly show what you believe. Actions are faith, so the actions you are taking in regard to how you live, are the evidence of what you have put your faith in. Why did I begin with all of that? Because today we are going to talk about money, in an effort to evaluate if that’s where we have put our faith. You can’t talk about money in church without people having strong opinions. But if I’m going to do my job and tell you the truth about the spiritual laws that govern your life, the ones that
govern money have to be near the top of the list because how you treat money affects almost every other area. When I hear someone say money isn’t important, it’s normally because they already have a lot of it. Personally, there have been times in our life over the last 30 years when we’ve had a lot of money and times when we were so broke, people had to bring us food. Let me tell you, life is much better when you’re not broke. All the spiritual laws flow from the foundational teaching that we’ve been covering the last couple of weeks. God has the ownership but we have the rulership. Which means it’s up to us if we want to follow His instructions. You don’t have to believe in them or like them, but they are at work regardless of your feelings about them. We have to understand that there are consequences for not following the laws God has established. Today we will learn about the spiritual laws that govern our finances. Our first scripture is from Deuteronomy. Here, God has just reminded Israel of all that He has done for them, as He brought them out of Egypt. It’s God who has blessed them and caused them to prosper, and they need to keep that in mind. Deuteronomy 8:17-18 “17 Otherwise, you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’ 18 But you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.” It is God who has given you the power to make wealth, not your own strength or wisdom. When we don’t acknowledge that God is our source, it’s easy to begin thinking that we are in ownership, because after all, I deserve it because...I worked for it. Did you?
What if you had been born without the physical or mental ability to work. Who gifted you to be able to work and earn money? Was it not God? As we are about to see, God has given us multiple examples in the Bible of how we should view our wealth. Yes, I said wealth. If you drove a car here tonight, you are probably in the top 50% of the richest people in the world. Jesus had a rich guy come up to Him and ask how he could have eternal life. Jesus basically told him to follow the commandments, but the guy answered and said he had been doing that since he was a child. So Jesus went right to the heart of the matter. He told him to sell all he possessed and give it to the poor and He would have treasure in heaven. At this the guy turned around and walked away. Jesus wasn’t teaching us that we have to empty our bank accounts and give it all away in order to be saved. He was illustrating that money is a barrier to God, if we value it over our relationship with Him. After the guy walked away, Jesus said this to His disciples. Mark 10:24-27 “24 But Jesus *answered again and *said to them, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 They were even more astonished and said to Him, Then who can be saved?” 27 Looking at them, Jesus *said, “With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.” When Jesus said ”It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” He
really summed up the topic. Does that mean people who are rich won’t make it to heaven? Absolutely not. Jesus was using a term that was very well understood in His day. The “eye of a needle” was a term used to describe a small opening in a city wall that would be difficult to fit a camel through. So if your were trying to enter the city through the eye of a needle, the first thing you would have to do is remove all the cargo that your camel was carrying. The camel had to be unburdened with all of the “stuff” it was carrying to fit through the narrow gate. The same principle applies to us. A lot of money can buy a lot of stuff. We have to be careful of how much stuff we are burdened with and carry around, so that it doesn’t prevent us from entering the narrow gate that is used to describe heaven. Matthew 7:13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. Jesus wanted us to understand that money a barrier to God if we try to hang on to it. What is the motivation of our heart if we are not able to let go of “His” stuff? Remember who the Owner is? Are we not motivated by doubt that He will supply all our needs? Do we trust in our ability to earn money...more than His ability to provide for us? And who gave us that ability? Trust is what activates faith, which is an action. If we trust God we won’t have a problem bringing His resources back to Him when He calls for it.
This is also where we have to look at the spiritual laws that are at work concerning our finances. You may say, well, God hasn’t moved my heart to give anything, so I’m all good. But is that God? Did you really ask Him? Or are you operating out of fear and letting your bank account over rule your obedience to God? That’s what happened to the rich guy that asked Jesus how to have eternal life. But there’s another guy we can look at who had a different result. In Luke 19 we read about Zacchaeus, a guy who wanted to see Jesus. Luke 19:1-9 “1 Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. 2 Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. 3 And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way. 5 And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” 6 So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully. 7 But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, “He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.” 8 Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.” 9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house...
In both of these passages a rich man encountered Jesus, but there were two very different outcomes. What made the difference? The rich guy from the first passage came to Jesus seeking something for himself. He asked Jesus “what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” So Jesus answered and showed him what was standing between him and God. Performing the duty of the commandments wasn’t hard because he had been taught them from his childhood. But letting go of his money was a different matter entirely. Jesus didn’t just tell him sell everything a give to the poor, but He continued and said “follow me”. Jesus basically said, you’re seeking the wrong thing. But the man wasn’t willing to let go of his stuff and seek Jesus, trusting God for his provision. He trusted his money more than he trusted God. Zacchaeus on the other hand, was all in from the beginning. He wanted to “see who Jesus was”, so he did what I took to over come his situation. He was seeking a relationship with Jesus, not just something from Jesus. Jesus calls him out and goes to dinner at his house. During the conversation with Jesus, Zacchaeus committed to give half of everything he owned to the poor. He wasn’t going to allow his stuff to come between him and God. Jesus responded to his commitment by saying “Today salvation has come to this house.” Here’s the spiritual law: What we are seeking will determine our outcome. That is the kingdom key to your finances. It’s not actually about money, it’s about not letting anything be more important than
seeking Jesus and following after Him. Jesus understood that your rulership over money is the main hurdle to overcome in doing that. As we consider our motivation for giving, Let’s start with the most basic giving principle The Kingdom tax system. God established a Tax back in the 30th chapter of the book of Exodus for the support of the Temple. Today, you’ve probably heard it called a tithe. The word tithe just means 10%. A tithe is the starting point from the Old Contract. From the beginning, God has always set aside a portion that He keeps for Himself. In the garden of eden, He told Adam and Eve, that they could eat from every tree in the garden...except the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Those were His and were not to be used for food by Adam and Eve. Even though God owned it all, He allowed them to use most of it for their own needs. There was only a small percentage of trees they couldn’t eat from. The principal here is trust and obedience. But what did they do? They disobeyed and ate God’s fruit, which brought about sin and separation from Him. By the time the prophet Malachi came along, Israel had completely stopped honoring God’s portion and God used this prophet to speak to them about it. Malachi 3:8-12 “8 Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You? ’
In tithes and offerings. 9 You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, Even this whole nation. 10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. “11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,” Says the Lord of hosts; Please understand, you don’t have to bring tithes and offerings to church in order to be saved. This spiritual law has nothing to do with salvation, but understand that the spiritual laws that are at work over your finances will affect you either way. If you break this spiritual law of finances the result is listed in verse 9. Malachi 3:9 You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, Even this whole nation. If you want to live under a curse, that’s up to you. But if you want to have God rebuke the devourer (to protect your provision) and open the windows of heaven, you should bring “ALL” the tithe into the storehouse. The Storehouse is your local church body. That is why God instituted the kingdom tax system. So His house could be supplied and the work could be supported. I have never come to the church and found a pile of gold that God put there over night. That is not how He works. Remember when we said that God works through people? If His church is to be blessed, God wants us to bless it, with the resources He has put under our rulership.
Sometimes we talk about “giving” a tithe, but this is not an accurate picture of a tithe. Look at what the verse says again. It says to bring the tithe, if not, you have robbed God. The only way you can you rob someone is if you have something that belongs to them. The tithe belongs to God, not us. The only way you can give something to somebody is if you own it. Again the tithe and offerings were to be brought to the storehouse so there would be food in His house. What does that mean today? It means, you should give to the place you are being spiritually fed. If you aren’t giving it’s the same as going to a restaurant and pulling the old “dine and dash” routine. If you love a restaurant and what you get there, it just makes sense that you should not rob them...so they can stay in business and be there for you next week. But at the end of the day, we need to understand that the amount you give isn’t mandated in the new testament or new contract. You don’t see tithing in the new contract. What you do see is that Jesus had no problem paying the temple tax when the Pharisees asked Peter if his teacher paid the tax. Jesus just sent Peter to catch a fish, and that fish just “happened” to have a coin in its mouth...that was enough to pay the tax for both of them. The point here is Jesus understood that money was needed to run the temple. Just like here at FUEL, when you give, you are giving to God to show Him that money isn’t more important to you than your relationship with Him. The leadership here uses that money to continue to do the work of ministry. So you should view your giving not as paying the church bills, but as an opportunity to not rob God, with a spiritual dine and dash. If God has allowed you to rule over a lot of His resources, you
should be willing to use them to cover the cost for those who are joining us for their first spiritual meal. It’s not an issue between you and the church, it’s an issue between you and God. When you are not robbing God, it allows Him to do what He already wants to do for you. It’s a Divine connection to the keep the windows of heaven open and for protection of what God’s given you. It’s God’s job to rebuke the devourer, not yours. As a side note, a simple definition of Devourer is “seed eater”. We’ll talk more about that next week. Obedience is the motivation for your giving. Deuteronomy 28 talks about Obedience. Verse 8 “The Lord will guarantee a blessing on everything you do and will fill your storehouses with grain. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.” Notice that it says God will bless everything you do. Which means you have to do something, Just like I don’t find money from God here at the church, you won’t just wake up and find money on the kitchen table. God will partner with you to bless the work that you do. Now that we’ve looked at the Old Contract, do you remember what the New Contract said about our giving as a believer? What did Jesus tell the rich guy who asked Him how to have eternal life? Did He not tell him to sell 100% (everything) and give
it to the poor? Did Jesus not tell Zacchaeus that salvation had come to his house after he said he was giving 50% of his wealth to the poor? In the New Contract, it’s not about a percentage, it’s about your heart and not holding onto money like it belongs to you. It’s about knowing what you have put your faith in. Is it God or your bank account?
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