Financial Stewardship, Part 1 Message Preached by Pastor Dean Allen (See the special Handout given when this sermon was preached.) MY purpose this week is to do more than merely give you an intense seminar on how to get and get rid of money. I wish at the beginning, though, to tell you I am not making any effort to be exhaustive. Nor am I here presenting myself as an expert on all the matters of money. I'm not. I do hope that you're wise enough to know how to seek out various counselors who are available to you in your own church and sometimes outside the church. Often the sons of this age are wiser in the use of unrighteous mammon than the sons of the kingdom. We don't have time this week even to mention many of the areas of the management of our earthly resources that would need to be addressed if we were to have a comprehensive understanding of these matters. There is a 33-tape series on the subject available from our church and a shorter series of five sermons that were preached in North Jersey, if you would be interested in going further into the study. I'm not an expert. We're not going to be exhaustive. But I have learned since I've begun to deal with it that apparently there is a vacuum among us of clear and thorough biblical exposition of these principles and doctrines. Before we enter fully into the study, please join me as we pray. O Lord, we beg of you now that you again would draw near to our hearts as we hear your Word even as you already have this day. How we have been thrilled that you have shown mercy upon us and answered our prayers in the previous hour. We ask that again we would know your presence and the opening up of our hearts to the truth. Give your servant boldness. Give him light. May I not hold back anything profitable to your people, nor may I never go further than your Word would go in binding their consciences. Help us, O Lord, with the grace that you know we desperately need. Hear our plea for the sake of your Son. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Now what I want to do is to open up something of the importance of the study of this subject and give you three admonitions that will lay, I believe, a solid foundation for our study the remainder of the week. Then, the Lord willing, we will deal specifically with a cure for covetousness, the biblical doctrine of giving, and debt. The Importance of the Study The thing I want to make sure I accomplish today and tomorrow is to convince your minds and your hearts that the subject of our finances is a matter of the heart. It's at the root of us. It's not an optional fringe issue in religion. It's at the very core of the truth of our religion. From Deuteronomy chapter 8, I believe we can see God's view of the nature of the heart and the relationship of the heart to this matter of possessions. Deuteronomy 8:11-20
This is not a passage that directs itself primarily to how to manage wealth. But it cites wealth as the central issue, rationale, and motivation for the failure to direct attention to the heart. It addresses itself to the maintenance of the heart, and it points to the relative wealth and ease that the Lord had given them as the reason that their hearts had strayed and forgotten. I want to establish at the outset this vital link between what you do with your money and where your heart is. Listen as I speak to you about some of the reasons of it's importance. First, this study is vital because the Scriptures are filled with instructions, promises, warnings, and threats regarding money and its uses. Regarding possessions, the Bible is filled with our treatment of what we possess. We're responsible for the whole counsel of God. Nothing profitable is to be withheld from our souls in the preaching of the Word. This, in America, has been withheld or perverted and must be addressed. Now think a minute about the Scriptures being filled. Think of the commandments. Earlier, we heard of the moral law of God and how it is saturated with the doctrine of worship, the doctrine of the heart and its view to God and its relation to God. The fourth commandment, which is a commandment of worship, starts with directives regarding labor. "Six days you shall labor and do all your work." The primary means of legitimate income is labor. It's the old fashioned way which most of us have forgotten. Most of our children have forgotten it. The fourth commandment, at the heart of the time and the centrality of worship, begins with and has a large part of itself given to the doctrine of labor. That has to do with gainful employment and the means of giving testimony to Christ. In Titus chapter 3, the apostle Paul's heart is burdened with the danger of the reputation of the apostolic ministry in the hands of his helpers and associates. He tells Titus, "See to it that our people maintain good, noble occupations, spend their time working honorably for a living." Why? Because of the doctrine. Because of their reputation. "So that they will have no evil thing to say of us." The doctrine of labor in the heart of the commandments speaks of the seriousness of what we do in obtaining and managing our money. The fifth commandment: "Honor thy father and thy mother." You remember how the Lord applied that specifically to the Pharisees who spoke to their aged fathers and mothers and said, "We'd love to help you in your old age, but we've dedicated this to God's temple. It's Corban." And the Lord said, "You, for the sake of your tradition, have disobeyed the commands of God." He quotes that commandment. "The Scriptures say you shall honor your father and mother, but you greedy vipers have taken the doctrine of worship, and used your tradition as an excuse for not paying the support of your old mother and daddy. You've broken the fifth commandment in holding back your money from your parents." The fifth commandment is applied by the Lord at the specific point of how you deal with your money in support of your parents. He's not talking about sending them a card once in a while. It's seeing to it that they have plenty to eat, medical care, and a place to live comfortably — not primarily someplace other than where you are so you can keep them out of your hair. Honor your father and mother. You do it in the way you provide pocketbook help. The eighth commandment: "Thou shalt not steal" — the sanctity of personal property, yours and others'. The Bible is rich with this kind of subject. The tenth commandment: "Thou shalt not covet." Then it lists various things in the world you mustn't covet. That's the commandment that got the apostle Paul, the one that lowered him to the dust of death. That's the one that slew him when he was alive with the externals. The thing of the heart nailed him and caught him. "If the commandment had not said, ‘Thou shalt not covet,’ I'd have been a free man. But alas, it did not refrain itself. It dealt with where my heart was." Don't covet! The Bible is full of it. The sixth commandment: "Thou shalt not kill." James speaks of those who lust to have and kill to get it. He speaks of the attitude of envy and murder and hate in order to get what other men have and resentment that they have it. It breaks the sixth commandment. This is the murderous spirit of our nation, where men will stop at nothing to get what they want and to eliminate those that have it so they can get it from them. The third commandment: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." What does that have to do with money? The Proverbs tell us what it has to do with money. Agur says, "Lord don't let me poor or rich," and he gives his reason: "lest I steal and take the name of the Lord in vain." What a man does when he uses illegitimate means to get his needs met, is take the Lord's name in vain who has promised to supply all his needs the legitimate way. You see, just in the commandments this is a central issue. In the second place, our attitude toward and our treatment of possessions directly affect the glory of God and the testimony of Christ. We're to be lights in the world. Whatsoever we do we're to do to the glory of God, whether it's eating or drinking or whatever. In I Timothy 5 the apostle is speaking of how to maintain widows younger and older (how to take care of family members who are in need), and he concludes with an application in verse 14 when he says that there would be no occasion for the adversary to speak evil of us. This is the way the church is to view benevolence. The motive behind being careful how we do it is so that the adversary, who is looking constantly for some way to blaspheme, will have no evil thing to say of us. That's the burden of the apostle's mind when he says to make sure you don't get all this out of order. The church needs to know when to be benevolent and when to say no. Pastors need to have the wisdom to say, "Yes, we'll feed you," and sometimes to say, "No. That's the duty of your grandmother who is a member, or your father, or your brother who is a member of this church. You have a believer who is in the family; you take care of that that the church be not burdened." The way we discern that and deal with it affects what the adversary will be able to say about us. Many churches have fallen into great shame because of their attitude toward and treatment of finances. I Peter chapter 2 tells us that we ought to put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. And it tells us that in the context of addressing the practical issue of servants' attitudes toward their masters and employers and how they conduct themselves at work. You say, "What does that have to do with money?" Well, I'll tell you. If you resent your employer because he doesn't pay you enough, and you're not content with your wages, and you're mouthing off constantly at work, and decide not to give him a full day's work since he doesn't pay you what you're worth, and you purloin, and cheat, and steal his time, you're violating the commandments as well as bringing to disrepute the reputation of Christ. You can't expect to win him to Jesus while you're griping about his financial management because of your own greed and selfishness. Titus chapter 2. Filled with this burden of the doctrine of Christ, the apostle speaks to servants about masters. He speaks to wives with husbands and children about how you spend your day, what the central reference point of your life and activity is to be. Why? That the gospel may be adorned, that the evil one have no evil thing to say of us. The glorious gospel may be decorated by our lives. You see, what you do with your money when you spend it on food, motion pictures, circus rides, Bibles, tapes, or whatever you do with your money — whether you save it, waste it, spend it, give it, how you earn it, your attitude about how you earn it, your resentment against those that give it to you when you earn it — directly affects the testimony of the Lord Jesus. Directly. If you read the Scripture carefully, you'll not be able to escape that reality. Some of us aren't stirred by that very much. But it ought to break your heart. If you look back over your past several years and see a trail of waste, if there have been times when there was a need for missions and you just didn't have any to give because you had already blown it on yourself, if you've trained your children that they're to get the best and the most at Christmas time and you live the next six months paying off Master Card, and you just can't give any extra in case there's a special appeal for help in the church, you ought to be broken and ashamed. Third, our culture is ignorant and abusive of resources. Poor planning. Waste. Dishonesty. It seems to me that something happened in my lifetime. Truth has fallen in the streets. I'm surrounded by liars and thieves and men who do not keep the law regarding money. They steal from Uncle Sam as a way of life. I try to do business with neighbors who snow plow, but they refuse to take a check. I have to find a snow plow man that will take a check so I can keep a record of my parsonage allowance, and so I can prove to IRS that I really did use this for snow plowing. They won't let me because IRS will track them down, and they'll have to pay taxes on it. I had to look for months to find a snow plow man. I did find one man who was willing to take payment in whatever way it was convenient for me because he was going to report it and pay his taxes. One! We're in a culture, brethren, for which you will pay a price if you take stands for your integrity. Men come to buy a car from me, and the arrangement is: put on the sales affidavit a price much less than I'm actually selling the car for because that will lower their taxes. They say, "Why don't we just say $100 less?" And I say, "That wouldn't be true." "But see, we can work a deal. I'll pay you this much if you'll help me lower my sales tax. Everybody does it. I bought one from a preacher last year. He did it." (It ought not be as high as it is so they wouldn't even be tempted.) However, my steadfastness in not helping the buyer has lost me the sale of cars in the past. It cost me money. I've had to advertise longer. That's happened. Our culture is ignorant and abusive of resources. Much of this ignorance has come into the church from some of our past lives. Some of you perhaps are new to Christ, and your finances are in a jumble. You know what it means to bring chaos into the church of Christ. Our failure to teach it and correct it often times not only leaves it in the church, but enhances it. When wicked men are not soon punished for their wickedness, they grow bolder in doing it. And when our sins are not soon preached against and dealt with, we tend to get comfortable with them. In the fourth place as to importance, our attitude toward and treatment of our possessions directly affect our eternal comfort and safety and usefulness. I'm not preaching to you on a nice additional subject of practicality while the real important issues of church unity and worship are dealt with by others. This is as vital as the other two. The way you spend a dime directly affects where you're going to spend eternity. You say, "Pastor you're getting a little eager now. You're going beyond the Bible. How can you bind my conscience with such a statement?" I can bind it because the Lord Jesus does. "He that is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much: and he that is unrighteous in a very little is unrighteous also in much" (Luke 16:10). You ask, "What does faithfulness have to do with eternal security?" What is perseverance of the saints if it's not the faithfulness of the saints? It means when the Lord says "Do . . .," you do because He's the Lord. We have a much easier time believing the pamphlets regarding the carnal Christian than we do obeying the directives regarding our pennies and nickels and dimes. And it's because we still have in our hearts the resident resistance to anybody having a right over anything we have and are. Do you know what you've done when you say, "Lord, I'll let you talk to me about $100 but not about $1.00"? What you've done is you've said, "I'm not going to let you talk to me about anything unless I give you prior permission." You've lied when you've called Him Lord. "Why call you me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" (Luke 6:46). The Lord Jesus is very concerned about the little. The widow's mite He noticed. He justified. He blessed. And He compared it to some others'. The Lord is careful to remind us that what we do with our money directly affects our eternal safety, comfort and usefulness. Galatians 6 speaks of communicating to him that teaches the Word in all good things. You're probably more familiar with verse 7 that says, "Be not deceived [or stop deceiving yourselves]; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." "And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not" (verse 9). That is in the context of a directive to saints to give money to preachers and teachers of the Word. I'm not here primarily to use that to bind consciences so I can benefit. Hopefully, there is not anything in my spirit of that as it indeed is in many who proclaim to be preaching Christ in our day. But it is true that to the degree you evaluate the Word of God and give your money to help it and encourage it (literally, to pay those that teach you), you can expect blessing eternally upon your life. That's what the text means. Give (communicate) to them that teach in all good things. "He that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." That's what the text means. I've not wrested the text. Some would. I've not gone beyond the text. It is when stingy people, professing Christ, will not lay their pocketbooks on the altar in worship that God takes seriously the question of their profession. What does it mean "Don't come to worship God with an empty hand" if it doesn't include what you have in your pocket? There are texts after texts regarding this matter of eternal result from the way we deal with and approach our possessions. Let me direct your attention briefly to Luke chapter 16. Luke 16:10-13: He that is faithful in a very little [See the emphasis of Luke? A very little.] is faithful also in much: and he that is unrighteous in a very little is unrighteous also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? [How can you expect your prayers for revival to be answered while withholding your money? What do you pray when you pray, "Lord send laborers into the harvest"? You pray, "Take all I have if it takes it." And if that's not in your heart, you're not praying what the Lord had in mind when you're praying it. You've got to be ready to go yourself, and, in the absence of being able to put your feet on foreign soil, or on local soil, you've got to be ready to support those who do as legitimately as you possibly can.] And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another's [Isn't that interesting? This stuff belongs to somebody else.], who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters [utter impossibility]: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon [the god of this world, the god of things]." You cannot do both. A divided heart is impossible in the service of Christ. You will either be an idolater and go to hell for it, or you'll worship God and He'll have your money. You have not the option of attempting to juggle this issue. "Pastor, how much do I have to give to get by?" "Do I tithe the gross or the net?" Why do you ask? What's the reason for that question? The Scripture described as a fool the rich man who laid up wealth and said, "Take thine ease, soul. Eat, drink and be merry." It says so are all those that are rich toward this world and not toward God. Rich toward God. You see, the principle of the Christian's heart is not "How much do I have to give to keep God off my back?" but "Where can I find additional resources with which to praise Him and serve Him and help His cause?" If you're not giving richness toward God from the heart, you are an idolater. You will perish unless you repent and turn from that. That's the point. You're not here primarily (in my mind) to get a little ditty bag of financial tricks. I'm not going to talk to you about how to get the best return on your investment. There may be an applied issue there, but that's not the heart of the issue. You can't serve God and mammon. You've got to do one or the other. If you're faithful in the little, you'll be faithful in the great. If you're not faithful, you'll be unrighteous. You don't have it both ways. And that will affect your eternal destiny. Some are trying to juggle this issue. "How many things can I possess and still make it into heaven?" If that's your attitude, you've missed the point. This stuff ought to come from a heart that is delighted to see how much it can give and is grieved that it can't give more. There ought to be a holy grief ripple through us as we think about the way we've handled our money that has crippled so much of the kingdom of God's work. I don't want to beat you down with it, but I do want you to feel pain about it. Brethren, we are in a culture in which people can make $89,000 a year and think it's still hard to make a living. I read about it in the papers: two-working-income families making $160,000 saying, "We're just trying to make ends meet." That is the attitude of the love of mammon. You cannot have a little love of mammon and a little love of Jesus. You're going to love one and hate the other. If you've got a little love of mammon, quit deceiving yourself about having a little love of Jesus. That's what that text is about. You cannot have it both ways. It is one way or the other. And you can see the results in the way you treat the little, the five cents and the dollar. May God help us get it through our thick skulls. The preacher is charged to warn those that are rich in this world in I Timothy 6. Why do we have to warn rich men? Because many trusting in the uncertainty of riches have pierced their soul through with many sorrows and have left the faith. We're warned because this very matter is vital to our eternal safety and comfort and usefulness. Remember the rich young man? He perished because he couldn't get his heart off money. He came running to Jesus — running — making a quick emotional decision, asking the ultimate question: "What must I do to have eternal life?" The Lord traced it out and boiled it down to the problem. "Sell what you have, give to the poor, and follow me." And he went away sad (not with assurance of his salvation), but sad because he had great wealth. Perished! Unless there's evidence that God saved him later, that man sealed his doom that day clinging to his money. It looked good when he came running. It didn't look good when he went away with his tail tucked between his legs because the Lord wanted his money — not for His personal self. The Lord is free from that accusation. "Give it to the poor." But he couldn't. He had great wealth. He couldn't. When John the Baptist was preaching and inviting men to the baptismal waters of repentance and they asked, "What must we do to bring fruits meet for repentance?" remember what John answered? In at least three, and maybe four, of the five exhortations and practical applications, he was dealing directly with money. "Be content with your wages." He got to the heart. "If you don't show evidence that you're happy with the money you're getting paid, I won't baptize you because you're not showing evidence you deserve to be baptized. You're not fit for the kingdom of God with your attitude." This is the labor union mentality of our generation. Now I didn't mean to condemn anybody in the labor union. No, I didn't. But the general view in our time that occupies the minds of those that are eaten up with this is discontentment. If that's not what Luke 3 says, I don't know what it says. He said, "Who told you to flee from the wrath to come. Bring forth [works] fruits fit for repentance and then I'll baptize you." What works? "Be content with your wages. Don't extort more than is coming to you, etc." You read it sometime and see how much of that was about money. I trust that you understand that that's the same problem we have today. Much of the reason that Christ has left the churches is money and our attitude toward it. Three Foundational Admonitions First, do not underestimate the central design of the Devil in world economics and your affairs. This isn't just neutral. It's not just up in the air. The Devil has a plan and a purpose. He's out to get you, and money is one of his favorite ways to do it. There's more involved here than you and your money. There's the Devil in this thing. Revelation 12 explains that behind the scene of all the upheaval in the world is an angry Devil who knows his time is short. That's the behind-the-scenes explanation for the whole chaos that is described in the book of Revelation. The Devil is angry. If the Devil weren't angry, we wouldn't have nearly the problems we have. We'd have our sin, but the Devil foments it because he has designs on our souls. In Matthew 13 in the parable of the seed and the sower, we're told that one of the things that happens to many who come running to Christ is that before long thorns grow up and choke out the Word. And what are the thorns? The Lord tells us: the cares of this world and the cares of riches. Often the first thing that happens to new converts, or at least new professors, is they start prospering. Sometimes just the opposite happens. And it confuses them. Somebody makes his decision, and all of a sudden all of his prayers start being answered. Sometimes it's God's blessing, and sometimes it's the Devil. I've watched a lot of young men come to profess faith in Christ and the next day meet Miss Right who wasn't a Christian. "Oh, Pastor, I'm right with God. I've been praying for years. I hardly got saved, and here she is. It can't be wrong." And then we become not their friend who invited them to Christ, but their enemy who is meddling with their private lives. The elders sit down with him and say, "My dear brother, let's be cautious here. This girl, we don't know her. We have some concerns. The Scriptures say don't be unequally yoked together . . ." "But Pastor, you don't understand. I've been praying for years about this. And, oh, it was a miracle. God dropped her in my lap." You can see in their eyes they're already gone. But it has blessed my heart that at the same time I was trying to get counsel to some of these, others said, "Pastor, I don't trust myself yet. Since God saved me, I don't think I'm going to date for a while." Oh, I love to hear that. I've watched the Devil provide things, that in themselves are perfectly legitimate, as a primary means to choke off the Word. He has designs on your soul. One of the three prototypical temptations of Christ is that He would have all the kingdoms of this world if He would bow down and worship the Devil. All His seed know that temptation. And you will know that temptation to some degree for the rest of your life on this earth. He will be holding carrots out to you. Often they are legitimate carrots with good vitamins in them. But you better beware. I tell you, the Devil has designs on you. He tempts you to long for wealth and for the things you can get with money. But the Lord answers it and says, "What shall it profit, if you gain the whole world and lose your soul?" He asks that question that keeps ringing into our conscience's heart over and over in order to keep us clear that the assumption is that even if you gain it all, you gain nothing if in the gaining of that you lose your soul. Don't think the Devil doesn't know that. Don't think that your prosperity is not your route to hell. It often is. Beware lest when you prosper you forget God. Do you see the point? The Devil is out there to tempt you to long for wealth and to do things illegitimately to get it. Every tax-subsidized lottery ad in my State is motivated by the Devil to destroy a soul. "Oh, Pastor, it's just a dollar." It never is just a dollar. I've never met a man yet that spent just one dollar on lottery. We go to the grocery store and stand in line behind them — $50 worth of lottery tickets! Do you know why? The State has gone broke by violating biblical principles, and now she's tempting her people to go broke in order to save the State. Neither one ever makes it out of the pit, and the Devil is behind it. I don't think it's accidental that it's a State that has largely drunk up of the darkness of Rome — who gamble in the basement of their worship centers and promote it with drunken priests. I don't think it's accidental that the very government itself has not one twinge of conscience and no thought that the Devil is carrying them to hell with his allurements to get rich quick. The Devil seeks to make us worry about our wealth and the cares of this world. You see, when you get a lot, you worry all the more about how you're going to keep the other guys from getting it. Didn't the Lord say, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth corrupts and thieves break through to steal"? You have all these worries now. "Have we got the right kind of locks on the doors? Do you think we need a security system now, honey?" There's a bondage to people that have lots and lots of things. Every time you leave the house after you've bought your new thing, you wonder "Did you get the door locked?" Lock the door. Use whatever means, but let's not spend our life savings trying to keep our life savings. Isn't that what the Bible is talking about? The cares of this world. There's more to it than just trying to get them. Often we die trying to keep them. "What will I do with my wealth? I'll store it so that I can tell my soul, ‘Now you can rest.’ I trust in my stored up wealth. I've got security dogs. I've got infra red lights." We've got a culture filled with that mentality. Some of you have nothing, and you're worried about losing it. You see what's happened? You've already imbibed the spirit of the Israelites in the wilderness. "If I don't get it in my hands and in my mouth now, I'm leaving and going back to Egypt. God is not real unless I get my belly filled — on my terms." That's what tempting God means. The Devil is behind that thing. He seeks to make us worry about our wealth, to worry about what we have and what we wish we had. Don't worry! Take no thought about it. Not even the basics, much less the extras. Do you see what's connected here? When you worry about wealth, you reveal that you don't believe God. You don't believe God who promised to provide your needs. And when you don't believe God, does that not affect your soul? And is that not what the Devil wants you to do? Second, do not underestimate your own vulnerabilities to earthly allure. The Devil is active, but it ain't the Devil's fault that you blow it and fall prey to the lusts. Your heart is prone to forget God. The Lord spoke to a freshly redeemed, miraculously delivered people and said, "Don't forget." Beware lest you forget because it is your proneness to do so. Some of us got it settled, and then we forgot it again. Then we had to get it settled again. And then we forgot it again. There are things that don't tempt you now, but five years from now will. There are things that may have been real bothers for you five years ago that right now are not real troubles. But you are prone to them. Don't ever get that notion that you stand. "Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall." Don't underestimate your proneness to forget God and to swallow the allurements of the world. I've had men say, "Pastor, one thing I don't have a problem with is covetousness." You probably will one day then. Pride goes before destruction. You may not today have a problem with it. It may be a humbly accurate statement, but beware lest you ever get to a place you gradually move. You notice thorns are not dropped down out of the sky to choke off the Word. They tend to grow rather slowly. It's when you've neglected your garden a while that you go out and find that things are choked off by the weeds. You don't get them weeded this morning and tomorrow morning have your tomatoes gasping for air. It takes a couple or three weeks. Don't underestimate your tendency to grab after the allurement of the world. The Devil is continually testing and parting to find a weak place in your armor, and you are prone to let him in. Agur prayed in Proverbs 30: "Lord give me neither poverty nor riches." Why did he pray that? He understood the dangerous proneness of his heart. He didn't trust himself. Be careful that you don't say, "Lord, if we could get my mom and dad's inheritance, our problems would be solved." Don't even think that. First of all it's dishonoring to your parents. It's greedy. It's murderous. It's wicked. But don't think also that's it's going to solve anything. It won't. It didn't help them when they had it. It's not going help you if you get it. That's not the solution. Be content with such things as you have. Be thankful. That's the solution. How do you be thankful when you don't have enough? Well, you see, you've already incriminated yourself. You do have enough. Who told you you don't have enough? The Lord never told you that. That's a lie. Watch your heart. I want to drive this point home with one more text. You remember David at the threshing floor of Araunah when he was offered Araunah's provisions to make a sacrifice. He said, "God forbid that I should give anything to the Lord that didn't cost me anything." Nobody around David would have thought a thing about him accepting that gracious offer. There was no rule that said you shouldn't do that. Nothing but David's conscience wouldn't let him. He was regulated by something that most men would have never considered, and he knew the danger to his own heart of setting a precedent of unsacrificial service to God. Remember Abraham coming back from the slaughter of the kings, and they tried to give him the spoil? He said, "No, no." Why? Nobody would have blamed him. He deserved it. He'd earned it. He said, "I don't want you to say you gave me my wealth." What was bugging his conscience? "My whole life is here for the glory of God, and I don't want anybody to ever think that they gave me what I got. I want them to know God did it. I'm sorry, I won't take any. Take care of the basic provisions of those that did the fighting for me; but for me, no, no. Nobody is ever going to say you guys made Abraham rich. They're going to say Jehovah did." Nobody would have thought anything about it had he taken it. He had to be regulated by a conscience that was tender beyond what most eyes can see. And you do, too. You're going to have to stop thinking, "Who's going to know? Who would care? They are thieves anyway" when an extra quarter is dropped out of the Coke machine that doesn't belong to you, but to the vendor. The next time you're tempted to shortcut the tax man, you're going to have to stop thinking "They're wasting it. They stole it from me; we're overtaxed." In New York I'm safe talking about over-taxation. I'm not saying that resenting my government. I'm recognizing their immorality, but I'm going to pay my taxes and pay them gladly. I'm going to let the Lord worry about how they spend them. I'll do whatever I can do to influence them to do it right. Do you see what you're tempted to do to justify theft? The little theft? Don't underestimate your heart's tendency to do that. Once you start on that path, my dear friend, it's hard ever to get off of it. Once you've gotten by with it and made a little extra money, it's like a narcotic. I know some men who, as a way of buying God off when they've prospered in wickedness, bring extra offerings to the church and float it past peoples' noses. Watch your heart. Third, we must not fail to cultivate a ready grasp of biblical principles. That's the reason I gave the hand-outs, just to give you a smattering of suggested passages that deal with this subject (and it is just a smattering), for you to follow through and read them at your leisure. You need so to comprehend the Scriptures that you have a ready conscience about every little decision regarding your money. That's what David had. That's what Abraham had. That's what men of faith have. They've cultivated a ready grasp of biblical principle. There's not a dime in your pocket or bank that is not regulated by the Scripture. You have no right to say, "This money is mine. I've already tithed." No! It all is God's, and it's all regulated by the Scripture. Do not burden your conscience by sneaking around about it. Cultivate a grasp of biblical principle so that when somebody challenges you (and they will), and when you begin to grow dim from the things you've heard in preaching like this, and when the great new opportunity arises to buy that or a couple of those, you'll be able to say, "No, I've got my Bible verses." One of my greatest fears in preaching on this subject is that you'll go home kind of moved by my ability, but you won't have any anchor in God's Word to stick you with it when the testing comes. So I would appreciate your prayers that we can solidify in your mind that these things are from the heart of God. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." I stop there and continue tomorrow in the cultivation of the concept of this being a matter of the heart. I do trust that God will have laid a foundation for us to understand the seriousness of it. If nothing else than to note that the way we approach the littlest and the greatest of our earthly resources, directly affects the way we're going to approach eternity. May God give us grace to comprehend it and to cultivate a ready grasp of what the Bible says about it, so that we may do what the Scriptures say and save ourselves and others who watch us. Join me in prayer. Our Father, do help us as we proceed. We do thank you that you have given us a measure of help already. We do pray, O Lord, that it would grasp our hearts. We, even in the process preaching it, feel our tendency not to take it seriously. O God, have mercy on us who over and over again prove to be dull of hearing. O God, open our hearts and save us from this untoward generation. Let us not be like them, but let us be lights among a crooked and perverse generation and reprove the unfruitful works of darkness. And may our money be a shining testimony to the grace and the power of our God, both in our lack of it and in our abundance of it. May, in both ways, we give glory to you and radiate the truths of Christ. Hear our plea. Receive our thanks. Answer our prayers. We ask them in Jesus' name, Amen. |