A Biblical Guide to Wealth - Pt 2 - Honoring God with Your Finances

I'd like you to pause for just a moment and think about the blessings and the gifts that have come your way in life so far. Think about them for a minute. Blessings and gifts. You probably don't have the ability to remember them all. You can't count all your blessings or all the gifts that people have given you or all the wonderful things that have come. But if you ponder them and hopefully there's too many to remember, I'd like you to select a favorite. Which one in your life was a favorite blessing or gift? Think about that one for just a moment. One very special one. Finally, as you're thinking about that gift, how do you feel about it? How do you feel about it? I see some pleasant expressions out there. A gift that somebody gave you or a real blessing that came your way, something that was that impactful. We feel good about, don't we? It's encouraging to us. Maybe we like to go look at that thing or that individual or think about that blessing and how it's changed our life. We tend to smile. We're grateful for it. The point here is gifts and blessings are intended to be positive, encouraging, reassuring things. That's what their purpose is. When you think about the recipient of a gift, that gift often comes to them gift-wrapped.

You know, it's intended to perk the person up. Sometimes there's a card slapped on there and you open up the card and what does it say? Well, I think you're pretty special or words along that line. Or you're doing well or I hope this gift will enhance your life. Or maybe that gift was an individual that God gave you as a friend or as a maid. And that was intended with a celebration and a beautiful celebration of some kind to send you on your way. It's an encouraging thing.

There are accolades about you. That's why you're receiving a gift because somebody likes you or you've done something. And so there's a friendship involved in that. Now, I'd like you to turn with me to John chapter 3 and verse 16. Here's the best gift you'll ever receive. John chapter 3 and verse 16 is the verse that's often quoted, but let's look at the particulars of this verse. For God so loved the world. He loved them. He wanted to enhance them. He wanted to bless them. He wanted to help something for their lives and their future. And he was expressing love and confidence. He loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. He gave everything in the Godhead he could.

That whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. I mean, how's that for the future? When we think about Jesus Christ and his gift to us, along with God the Father's, this is intended to be a really big, happy, wonderful blessing that God with a smile on his face, with loving, gives to those who repent and receive baptism and the forgiveness of sin and then the Holy Spirit. That's a gift that God has for a relationship because then Jesus says, you are my friends. It's about friendship. It's about relationships.

Passover is a wonderful thing that God did for you and me. Sometimes we don't look at it through that lens. We look at it through an opposite lens that's a little depressing. Oh, no, Passover is coming. Oh, no, I'm a sinner. Oh, God must not like me. Oh, I better look at myself. Oh, I better do this. I better crawl through the door to the Passover service. I better hope that God will forgive my sin somehow at Passover. I'm not sure. Will it come with the foot washing or does forgiveness come through the wine? I don't know. Maybe it was the bread. The Bible doesn't say, but somehow I've come here feeling like, you know, a scoundrel and missing the whole point. We're there to celebrate the gift that God gave us and appreciate the fact that Jesus said, do this in remembrance of me, not of you. You're not sinners. Don't you forget when you were baptized or forgive you of your sins. Don't you forget I told you every day to repent and ask for forgiveness of your sins.

Aren't you examining yourself all year long? Here's your gift. Let's celebrate this. Let's honor God at Passover. Let's come in clean and let's come in right in God's eyes.

Imperfect, sure. Represented by the foot washing. We still have some cleanup to do, but that's not why we're there. We're there to remember this wonderful gift. Do you know how special you are in God's eyes, walking into the Passover service? Do you know how many people on earth will attend the Passover and participate as baptized members of the body of Christ? If we just take as many as you can think of in the churches of God, it would come up to right about one in 250,000 people on earth today.

Only one in every 250,000 people will be at Passover. That's how special you are to God in His eyes. I like to go to Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 3 and look at this blessing that God has given us. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 3, in return for this great gift and return for this wonderful love and blessing that God has and sending us on our way.

I mean, it's more than just a Passover service, isn't it? It's really a bit of a marriage proposal, isn't it? We are betrothed to Christ through His sacrifice in our baptism. We have more than an engagement, we have a betrothal. We're called the bride of Christ in Revelation chapter 19 about verse 7, who is making herself ready. This is a very, very exciting thing for the family of God.

And in verse 3 of Ephesians 1, our response is, bless be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Sometimes we just see ourselves in our little chambra, our little home or little environment. We feel small and we're imperfect and we wonder kind of why God would even call us when the neighbors are so good and so many great people in the world.

And here we are clunking along. But, hey, He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. It shows you, a long time ago, whenever that was, specifically. That's special. That we should be wholly and without blame before Him in love. Now, that's our part. We need to be working at that, but we are. God's pleased with that. You need a little tune-up.

In April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December, January, February, March, and even a little bit in April before Passover, we work on that all year round. We're not like those Corinthians who were just violating God's commandments in 1 Corinthians and violating Him in 2 Corinthians. And Paul says, examine yourselves whether you guys are even in the faith, because I'm going to come and deal with you if you don't repent. That's not us. We are daily moment by moment repenters and being forgiven every day as we do that. And we are holy and without blame before Him in love.

Now, every moment, as long as we are repenting, as long as we are being cleansed, you know, it says in Revelation 19, verse 7-8, because the bride has made herself ready. That's you. You are making yourself ready. She's clothed in what? Fine linen, which is the righteous acts of the saints. You're already clothed in fine linen. Now, that's the righteous acts you're doing. That's what that represents. It's not He's going to give you that as some kind of a gift. You're making yourself ready now, and we need to be diligent about that and ready then to come to that wedding ceremony, spiritually speaking.

Of course, we'll all be cleaned up and perfected when we're made spirit beings, but this is what He says here. We should be holy and without blame before Him in love. We should always work on this, and as we approach Passover, it's a good time to be reminded of this daily moment-by-moment work, but we're doing it, so keep up the good work.

And, it says, having predestined us to sonship as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, to the Father. You are sons and daughters of God. Notice it. According to the good pleasure of His will. This is good. God loves you. He is sending these gifts. He is embellishing your life now. He's embellishing your future, and it's to His good pleasure of His will. And so, the greatest gift that you and I have should be really appreciated, and we should feel appreciated by God, and all that He and Jesus Christ have and are putting into our calling.

Remember, you're just a small part of the world. Everything from God is positive affirmation from antiquity, you were chosen before the foundation of the world, to eternity. You're the firstfruits bride of Christ for eternity on His throne.

That's how God feels. That's a wonderful time. Now, let's put this in perspective a little bit.

We have eight billion people in the world right now. I mentioned you're one of a quarter million people out there. Maybe a quarter million people, if you work this out, if there's 20,000 baptized people that will attend Passover this year, that is the percentage of the world population is 0.0004 percent. That's how unique you are. That's your percentage point, as for the global population, roughly speaking. Every church member has 249,999 other human beings on the planet.

That aren't in the church at this point in time. I like to visualize that. Those are big numbers. Here's some visualizing. We live on a property and we have tall trees, lots of oak trees, some hickory trees, elm trees. The mature trees, mature in that hardwood category, along with some elms, if they're a big elm tree, have an average of 250,000 leaves on them, interestingly enough. 250,000 leaves. Now, we look out the window at these trees and in the spring right now they're popping out with leaves. It's a wonderful time. You know, humans were born. We're all born. You and the 250,000 other in your group were all born, right? But only one of those. Only one of those is a baptized member. Now, as this tree grows, there's a lot of leaves up there. You look around, look at all these other human beings around here. Okay, so how do we let those others influence us? Well, I'm just a leaf like you. You guys have other opinions and once in a while a leaf decides to leave the tree for whatever reason. But, you know, sort of all together. And then comes autumn. Autumn is a real interesting event because we call it fall because the leaves start falling. First, a few leaves fall. You're still on the tree, but a few leaves start falling and then it kind of changed colors and more fall and then all of a sudden the freeze hits. Why does that change things? All of a sudden they start a lot more falling and there'll be a wind, and then no leaves fall and for some reason we'll look out our window and like, well, hardly any wind today, just a little breeze. And next thing you know, 50 leaves at a time will fall off that tree. Why didn't you fall off yesterday in the wind? I don't know, but there's 50 today. And my wife grinds them up with our mower, mulch his arm five times a year going around and these leaves just, they just keep coming. Eventually, the snow comes and lands on those leaves. It gives a little bit of weight and lots of those leaves come off and you think, oh, we're about done. Then it rains, it warms up and rains a little bit and that really gives some more and a lot more come off. Now you can say it's done, except, you know, you go around and you mulch all those leaves one more time and there's more leaves and they're blowing on the porch again. Where are those come from? Well, there's still some leaves up there. Then you get freezing rain. Now, that's when the ice coats the leaves. They get really heavy and, you know, you're pretty much done then, pretty much. You go through January and February and March. You get to the middle of March and you get a hundred kilometer an hour wind blows through yesterday.

Guess what's out there today? One leaf. One leaf on each tree. You can come to my house and I'll show them to you. There's a leaf way up there. Survived everything. It's still on that tree.

That is how you and I are. And in preparation for the Passover, we should realize we need to endure. We need to stick on that tree. We need to be there through any and everything and ignore what all the other leaves are thinking and doing. We need to appreciate this tree and our unique spot in it. This is the time to be strong in the Lord and some of that shrink comes through being thankful for these gifts. Not just being materialistic like the rest of the world and blowing off God and even the religious people are just changing religion and they're getting rid of the Bible or coming up with other thoughts. They're off the tree. But this is the time to do this in remembrance of me.

Put Jesus this. He is the head of the body. He is our husband. He is our Lord. He is the one who gave himself. And we need to be thankful for this gift as we anticipate in preparation for celebrating that gift as the first feast of the annual festivals. It's coming up in about a month.

Celebrating properly the first feast of the year and being there and walking in proudly in the sense that I am really committed here and I am not going to be weak and flimsy and floaty, kind of like society. I'm going to be strong in the Lord. I'm going to stand up. So you and I are receiving wonderful blessings, wonderful benefits from living God's way.

And as long as we're tapped to that vine, as long as we're tapped to that tree, we are connected with God. How can we show honor in return for this great calling, this wonderful relationship, this one and a quarter of a million opportunity that you and I have?

Let's delve into God's word and see. This is part two of honoring God with our wealth.

Part two of a biblical guide to wealth, honoring God with our wealth.

See, we have a blessing that is unique to humanity at this time. And humanity will say, all the other leaves will say, well, if you look in the New Testament, I don't say anything about keeping the feast days. We don't keep those. I don't say anything about, I don't know, clear and unclean meats necessarily. We don't do that. Keeping the Sabbath isn't commanded. Well, I won't do that. You can just start going down the list and you can just get rid of everything.

But when we look at the blessings of God's way of life, we realize that's why we're on the tree.

They don't get it. They never will. They'll always defend falling off the tree.

So, if we focus on God's word, let's delve in and see what he says.

In part one, we examine the Bible's teaching about wealth and riches. God is the one that is allowing us. He gives us lives. He gives us parents. He gives us teachers. He gives us opportunities to learn skill sets. He then blesses those opportunities with various careers. He blesses obedient children. And we end up with having increased from our endeavors, that increase, the profit that we make. David, in Psalm 16, talks about how everything comes from God. Every aspect of life comes from God, including the future.

And God is the source of all its good. Let's go to John chapter 10 and verse 10.

We'll see that Jesus himself, this one that we celebrate constantly, we pray in his name every time. And the one that we certainly look forward to when we attend the Passover to honoring.

He says in John chapter 10 verse 10, breaking into the verse, I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. So his purpose, he didn't come to convict us. He didn't come to say, you're a whole bunch of sinners.

No, he says, I'm coming that you may have life and have it more abundantly. And I'm going to give everything I can to enhance your life.

Verse 11, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.

So good things come from the good shepherd who wants to give us good lives. All of this is good.

When you look up the term good in the scriptures, good in its roots, it appears 300 times in the Bible. When you look up joy and you look up gladness and its various derivatives, that's another 300, 600 times good, joy, and gladness. God is about good. He is the source of things that are good. And God relives our gifts from our good God and his Son Jesus Christ.

We have to think more positively about that. We're not here to somehow be under a thumb or under a gun or always being told that you're not good enough. We're here to be enhanced. We're here to to receive goodness and become goodness like God is, always putting out anything from our life that is not good and right. While Godly Abram was living in Canaan, you know, he had to move about. He was called out of where Haran, where he and his family had been. He was down in Canaan and surrounding city-states were all at war around him. It's kind of like probably any age. There's always warfare going along. So he was down there in Genesis chapter 14, which we're going to go to next, describes some of that warfare among the city-states. And locally, right around him and around Lot, we read now in verse 11 of Genesis 14, they took all the goods, these other city-state rulers who had formed a massive army, multiple armies, came and took all the goods of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, all their provisions and went their way. Verse 12, they also took Lot, Abraham's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom and all of his goods, and they departed.

Okay, so that's a bad thing. And here Abraham is just surrounded with all of this fighting and conquest. But Abraham went after those concrete armies. He only had his own family and his own servants, and he armed his private servants and said, let's go get them. Let's go get that stuff back. That's not right. And so in verse 15, it says, Abraham and his servants attacked them and pursued them as far as Haba, which is north of Damascus. Now, from Jerusalem, Haba is about a six-days journey. It's about 140 miles north of Jerusalem, just to Damascus, or maybe as far as Haba. This man is dedicated to go that far and recover everything.

In verse 16, so Abraham brought back all the goods and brought back his brother's son, Lot, and his goods, as well as the women and the people. Now, it's interesting here to know how this happened. How do you do that? How do you and your little family servants go out and conquer five city-state rulers and their armies? Well, in verse 20, Melchizedek, who is Jesus Christ in the New Testament, he speaks to Abram and says this, "...blessed be the God Most High who has delivered your enemies into your hand." That's how you did it. It's kind of like your life and mine. Remember all those gifts and blessings that you were given? How did you get those? How did those come to you?

I know many of us can walk back through our lives and say, isn't it interesting that this happened and that happened? This person? I should have never met my spouse, but somehow, God worked it out where we did meet. I should have never had this opportunity, that opportunity, but should have never been called in the church, but you know, through a funny set of circumstances that nobody could have ever seen. I think if you look at your life, as I can look at mine, I'm here for that very reason as well. This comes from God. The Lord Most High has delivered your enemies into your hand. And here's Abraham's response. He gave him a tithe of all. That's an interesting response because nothing Abraham got was his. Abraham didn't lose anything. He didn't give him a prophet of anything.

He is simply recognizing here, I've brought all of these people and all of their goods back, and Melchizedek has said, you know what, it's the Lord God Most High who delivered this into your hand, and therefore his response is, give God who restored all of this to you a tenth of it.

Why give that tithe? Well, everything that you and I have actually comes from God, his blessings, his gift, like every prophet that we can obtain, whether you're a farmer, whether you're in some business. Where do the seeds come from? Where does the ground come from? Where does the rain come from?

Where do microchip silicon come from? You know, where does all that stuff come from? Where does the ability, the opportunities, where are the metals? Where are the plastics come from?

Where is the ability to create manufacturing? The ability to use electronics or create? It all comes from God. You don't believe it. Read Nebuchadnezzar's experience, where God just pulls the spirit and man, and he's nothing but kind of cattle-like for seven years. It all comes from God. And from God's created material, we can have increase and profit from human effort. The ECG's Fundamental Beliefs booklet says this under the section of tithing. We believe in tithing as a way of honoring God with our substance and as a means of serving Him in preaching the gospel, the care of the church, attending the festivals, and helping the needy.

When we have the proper response to the greatest gift that God gives us, God is pleased. You'll recall that Jesus healed, I believe it was eight or ten people of leprosy, and only one returned to thank Him. And Jesus noted that. He was God. He created the world. Why should He care about being thanked? But He said, where are the others? And we are told to pray to God and make requests with thanksgiving. With thanksgiving. Our motivation, then, is to be thankful to God, who is the creator and the owner of every element in the material universe, including yourself. On the way over here, my wife and I were on a familiar theme that I can't get out of my mind, and that is how complex the human body is and how all the systems work together. And she was talking about just one of those parts that has such an important component. And your head just swims like, how could that even be there without God designing that particular function of that little particular organ to make this part of our body's function? And without it, we couldn't. It's like, wow!

We just take our bodies for granted, and yet, even there, God has given us everything.

Let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 8 in verse 17. Deuteronomy chapter 8 in verse 17. If you're like me, I'll do something. I'll think, hey, I did that well. And then I'll stop for a moment and think, I was kind of proud. Proud as saying that. A little pride there, but let me think, how did I do that?

What tool did I use? Did I make the tool? Nope. Do I know how to make that tool? Nope. What did that tool use? Did I make that thing that the tool used? No, you had to buy that thing that fit on the tool or in the tool. And what about that thing that we're using the tool on? Did I make that? Nope. And you just keep going down the line, you know. What did I do? I don't know, there's probably an instruction manual that told you how to do it, in fact. That's how little I knew about it, honestly. But it makes you feel good. Oh, look what I did. General Remedy 817, you say in your heart, my power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth. Sometimes if we have some stuff, we say, look, look, I'm doing pretty good. Look at this, you know.

My hand, my power, my might have gained me this wealth. Verse 18, yet you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth.

Why? That he may establish his covenant.

Remember the other 249,999 people on your tree that that covenant has not yet been established with.

God is working with you, and he's giving you blessings and things that he may establish his covenant. When given a gift, what is a proper godly response? A thank you, a thank you, maybe a thank you card, a thank you call, a thank you hug, letting the individual know, hey, what you did, you just don't understand how much it meant to me. It was wonderful to be able to spend time with Mary's mother when she was living with us and to tell her how wonderful the gift of her daughter at our wedding was and has been for my life and how much it meant to me, how much it means to me. I've told her that several times. You don't just sort of take somebody's daughter and, yeah, thanks, goodbye, see you later, never talk to you again. I mean, how would God feel about that if we didn't thank and were thankful to Him?

After God gifted something to Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, he responded like his grandfather did, Abraham, when he gave a tithe. Let's look at this in Genesis chapter 28 and verse 13. Genesis chapter 28 and verse 13.

He had had a vision and a dream here. God had gifted something to him, and this is this is what it says here, Genesis 28 13.

Verse 15.

That is almost the words of the New Covenant, that I'm going to give you these things, and I am with you, I will keep you, I will bring you to this land, the spiritual kingdom of God. I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you. Jesus said, I will never leave you or forsake you. And how did Jacob respond? Verse 22.

So the practice of tithing is written into God's law. The land that was given to Israel provided 11 tribes with increase, with increase off the land that was titheable. In Leviticus 27 verse 30, I'll just read it to you, Leviticus 27 verse 30.

God says, and all the tithe of the land, whether the seed of the land or of the fruit tree, is the Lord. It is holy to the Lord. Where were they to give their tithes?

In Numbers chapter 18 and verse 24, they couldn't give it to God Himself, but they gave it to His priesthood. Numbers 18 verse 24, for the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer up as a heave offering to the Lord, I, the Lord, have given to the Levites as an inheritance. Therefore I have said to them, among the children of Israel, they shall have no inheritance. So it went to the Levites. Now the Levites were devoted to the religious service. They had to carry out the temple service. They had to live among the 12 tribes in towns that were specific for them, and they had to give advice and do the priestly duties. Not priestly duties, but they had to do the Levitical duties. The Levites, in turn, had to tithe this well, because they were receiving from the 11 tribes. They tithed this well. Let's notice this in Numbers chapter 18 and verse 26. Numbers 18-26.

Thus you, the Levites, shall also offer a heave offering to the Lord from all your tithes which you receive from the children of Israel, and you shall give the Lord's heave offering from it to Aaron the priest. So that went to the priests. So as time passed, this was God's intent. It began that way, but as time passed, you know the story. People became negligent. People began to just obey God. Following the Jews returned from Babylon back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, the second temple, and the restoration of that system under Ezra and Nehemiah. We now come to God correcting the nation because they are not doing that. The people are not tithing to the Levites. The Levites are not tithing to the priesthood. In Amalekai chapter 3 and verse 8, within that context here, God is speaking to the priesthood and he says in Amalekai chapter 3 and verse 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. So that is what God instituted and said should happen. Failure to tithe, God said, was tantamount to robbing him. For that reason, he says, you're cursed with a curse. But then he changes that around and says, put all the tithes in my storehouse where they should be and I will open the windows of heaven and you will be blessed with more than you can more. There will not be enough room for you to receive it for the words he said.

Jesus himself told the scribes and the Pharisees, if you recall, woe to you scribes and Pharisees.

You tithe on mint and anise, little tiny amounts. You tithe on that. But you don't do mercy justice. You don't do truth and mercy and justice. That you don't do. And then what did he say?

Do the truth and the mercy and the justice and the weightier matters of the law, I call them, and don't leave the others undone. Now there's tithe. Tithe on all your increase, some of it's bigger, some of it's smaller. So Jesus reinforced tithing in the New Testament. He plainly confirmed that tithing should be practiced even though it might be small. Just as tithes and offerings were given to the tribe of Levi for the service and the priesthood to the service of God, the New Covenant Church has a priesthood, a change in the Melchizedek priesthood to Jesus Christ and the ministry, the leaders that he has placed as, we don't call ourselves priests, but those that he said in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 11, he gave some himself to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, and for the teaching and the work of God. So let's go now to 1 Corinthians chapter 9 and verse 11. Remember that leaf up on the tree. Everybody else has said, oh, tithing's not commanded in the New Testament, and so they're off the tree. They're not doing that. But you remember that leaf on the tree is still there, and what do we find? Well, if you dig into that tree a little bit, you dig into the Word of God, you dig into the mind of Christ, here we have the Apostle Paul talking about tithing to the ministry. 1 Corinthians chapter 9 and verse 11. If we, referring to the ministry, have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things? Verse 12. If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more? Nevertheless, we have not used this right, because he's talking to the Corinthians, and they were a bunch of Gentiles that did not really grasp God's law well, and they did not apply it well. So he didn't want to come in and burden them when they were not grounded in the faith to begin with. He says, we have not used this right, but we endure all things lest we hinder the gospel or the teachings of Christ. Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar? So you have the Levites, the Levitical tithe, and also those priests serving at the altar.

Verse 14. Even so, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel. So when we properly provide for our families, we properly manage the wealth that God has given us in life as good stewards of the resources. We are also to be a giving and caring people. We are to be loving God with our heart, soul, and might, and we are to reflect our appreciation with Him as He is directed. He wants us to be generous individuals, generous to Him, generous to others with the blessings that He has given to us. And so, contributing our tithes to the work of God in proclaiming His truth, for caring for the needs of the members, for the annual Holy Days, helping needy ones as we encounter them. This is all part of the biblical guide for using wealth. And through tithes and offerings, we honor God.

We show Him honor. We do His work. And God has provided a perfect financial system.

And for those little leaves, one on the tree that you'll see here and there, their lives work well when we do it God's way. You can't explain it to anybody else. It's a miracle that that leaf is still on that tree. But here we are, and God is personally thankful and happy for us, and we reciprocate by being very grateful and thankful to Him.

So in conclusion, God wants us to include Him in the thankful sharing of our wealth.

He enables us to develop that wealth. I'd like to conclude by reading Proverbs 3 and verse 9. Proverbs 3 and verse 9 Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruits of all your increase.

If you'd like more on this topic of the biblical guide to wealth, I would encourage you to read two of our booklets, Managing Your Finances is one of them, and also What Does the Bible Teach About Tithing?