What Would You Do with 2.1 Million Dollars?

Well, brethren, what would you do with $2.1 million? What would you do with $2.1 million? Would you go on vacation, donate to charity, buy a new house, buy a new car? You probably at least considered the answer to this once or twice, because when it comes to Americans, we dream big when it comes to money. Everyone wants to live the good life, wants to have a nice house, nice car, take those vacations, travel, not have to worry about work, be set for life. You only need look at the recent mad dash for tickets in the $640 million Powerball jackpot at the end of March for proof. I saw one picture of this corner lotto store somewhere down in the desert that had people lined up all the way around the store, all the way down the block, and it looked as though it went for for almost a half a mile. People just lined up to buy lottery tickets. You know, I have a lot of co-workers that do the all of them buy into it. We're a bunch of teachers, so a lot of us buy into, you know, this this big ticket buy and everything else, and they were just stymied that I wasn't really interested in being a part of it this go-around. They all bought tickets at the local corner store in hopes of beating the unbelievable odds. One in 176 million odds of winning. And inevitably, the reason is, well, someone has to win. Why not me? The goal for them is to become richer than their wildest dreams and to become set for life. Though, on the other hand, we've also all heard stories of these individuals who have won it all, only to then turn around and lose it all. One such example is the story of John Whittaker Jr., who hit a 113.4 million dollar jackpot in 2002. 114 million dollars. Over the next four years, it managed to destroy his family. He lost it all, and he ended up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt with a completely torn apart family, destitute, bankrupt, and distrusting of anyone close to him, because he couldn't tell whether they wanted to be near him for his money or whether they wanted to be near him because of who he was. But you know, even with these examples, we always tell ourselves, but 12.1 million dollars! It would fix everything, wouldn't it? I would never have to worry about money again. I could be safe. I could be secure. I wouldn't have to worry. I could be at peace. The problem is, money doesn't fix problems. It magnifies them. Surveys completed by Citibank and many others list money issues, quote-unquote, as the cause of the majority of divorce in the United States, and in those couples who managed to remain married, the lack of communication between husband and wife about where that money's going each month still causes a significant amount of tension. I find this fascinating to a certain extent. I find this very interesting, because money itself is amoral. It doesn't have... it's not good or bad. It's a piece of paper that has a guaranteed governmental value. The money itself isn't the issue. Rather, it's lack of communication, certain behaviors in individuals that cause marriage trouble. And, you know, the problems aren't noticed when times are good, but when times get tough and you throw the money into there, you've got a perfect storm. The problems then are magnified. Let's turn over real quick to 1st Timothy 6 verse 10. We'll take a look at a scripture that's often quoted, often misquoted. While you're turning there, I'll be getting my Bible from my chair and turning there myself.

But 1st Timothy 6 verse 10.

And we will see a scripture that deals with money and the pursuit of money.

1st Timothy 6 and verse 10. We'll actually read through through verse 11. Or, I'm sorry, let's pick it up in verse 6, actually. 1st Timothy 6 verse 6 says, Now godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. You know, you've all heard the phrase, you can't take it with you. There was actually a far side cartoon that was a guy, and he had just trailer upon trailer upon trailer of things behind him with the hearse, you know, towing the hearse, and he's trying to take it with him.

But in having food and clothing with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and to snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. You know, this very specifically tells us that money in and of itself, again, that doesn't say that money is evil, it says the love of money, the avariciousness, that fondness of silver, that covetousness of money is dangerous.

And the truth is, the heart of the person with the money dictates where then how that money will be used, whether it'll be used for good purposes, whether it'll be used for evil purposes. Because a giving person will use the blessings they've been given to help others, whereas a greedy person will hoard their money with a clenched fist. So again, I ask, what would you do with 2.1 million dollars?

That's not an abstract number. I didn't choose it out of thin air. It's certainly not coincidental. It just so happens that 2.1 million dollars is the average lifetime earnings of an American with a college degree. In a lifetime, each and every person in the United States with a standard four-year college degree will see 2.1 million greenbacks flow through their hands. Some a little more, some a little less. And ultimately, what do we have to show for it? When Shannon and I got married in 2001, she brought in a little bit of debt from her truck.

She had bought a truck while she was going to school, and I brought in quite a bit of debt in student loans. We married, we quickly fell into the trap that newly people, or newly married people, fall into. We needed furniture. We needed silverware. We needed things to make our small apartment feel a little bit more home-like. Really what we needed and what we thought we needed, we needed stuff. Because everybody has stuff, and we need stuff. So we took out a couple of credit cards, and as things came up, we put them on the card.

Without much of a thought at all to figure out how we were going to take care of that. We just knew at the time, well, this is what it seemed like you're supposed to do. After all, this is what everybody else is doing. This is normal, right? And we justified it away with things like, everybody has debt. Debt's a tool. We need this item. And as time went on, the debt piled up slowly, but surely. I then graduated from school in 2003 with my bachelor's degree, started grad school. Well, I didn't have cash to pay for grad school, so I took out a loan to cover my master's with the justification of, I can't get work without a master's.

So, signed on the dotted line, took out the money, went right back to school. Then in 2005, we took the big plunge that all married couples just have to take, whether they're ready or not. Your friends go, wait, you've been married for three days, why don't you have a house? But we bought a house in 2005. And when all was said and done, Shannon and I were staring down the barrel of a little over $180,000 in debt with student loans, credit cards, auto loans, and our house, making a little over $40,000 a year. Six months after I graduated, the student loan payments came due, and a year later, we had Aiden, which put the squeeze on a little bit.

Thankfully, we were blissfully ignorant of how much trouble we were really in, because it didn't cause a lot of undue stress on the marriage, because we had no idea what kind of trouble we were in. We really had no clue. So, blissful ignorance is a good thing, and the blessings of God are just incredible things. But, you know, we didn't realize how bad off we were, because we weren't going to lose the house.

We still had food on the table. And with me working, we had enough money to cover all the minimum payments, but we weren't making any headway on anything. We weren't getting anywhere. And ultimately, we kind of both realized that, really, we were one job loss away from complete and total bankruptcy. Now, I don't know anything about money. I didn't understand investing. I talked to financial guys, these guys that are experts, and they told me what I should do.

And I said, okay, fine. I signed the bottom of the page. I got life insurance. I got mortgages. I got auto loans. I consolidated credit cards. The list goes on. I signed my name without understanding time and time and time again, and I paid the stupid tax.

In fact, I've come to realize, actually, in looking back, that I've paid just about every stupid tax out there. Fast forward to the fall of this year. This past summer, in researching some information on a sermon I gave, actually here in Bend a little while back, on the stock market crash and where our trust needs to lie, I came across a gentleman named Dave Ramsey.

It was in an online article about how he felt he could fix the problems in the country by fixing the problems in people's lives individually. I didn't know anything about this guy. I'd never heard of him at that point in time, but I was amazed, because here was a financial guy who wasn't advocating, you know, cutting your grandmother's purse and getting ahead. I mean, this was a financial guy who really was teaching biblical principles of handling money, preparing for things, saving, not going into debt.

Tithing! I was shocked to hear that from a quote-unquote secular source. You know, hear that outside of somebody in the churches of God that have advocated tithing for years. That was something that I just didn't expect. Now, while I found it interesting, at first it didn't take.

A month or so later, my brother-in-law came across Dave's book, The Total Money Makeover, packed in some of his belongings and told me I should read it. I can be pretty thick sometimes. The first thump, I didn't get the point. But the second one usually registers, so I said, yeah, maybe we probably should read this. Shannon got to it first, burned through it in no time, and was already hatching plans of what we were going to do next.

I read it, and he was right. It was good. It was really good. It made sense, and more than that, he backed it up with Scripture. It wasn't just his ideas.

It was backed up with Scripture. After I read it, I realized I was looking at the concept of money all wrong. I don't have money. God has money. He graciously provides me with material blessings in return for the job that I perform. Ultimately, over my lifetime, 2.1 million according to statistics. But he expects that I'm going to do what he has commanded me to do with that money. That I'm going to tithe it, I'm going to offer it to him, and I'm going to take care of myself, my family, and others as the need arises.

I also realized after reading that book that I was doing a pretty terrible job of what he required me to do. What God required me to do, I was doing a pretty terrible job of it. Let's flip over to Proverbs 21 verse 20, and we'll see there are expectations that are placed upon us. There are certain expectations that are placed upon us in Proverbs 21, and we'll pick it up in verse 20. A good portion of the Proverbs are financial Proverbs. It's really incredible how much wisdom with regards to money is recorded in these scriptures.

But Proverbs 21, 20, we see an expectation to make sure that we are prepared accordingly, to make absolutely certain that we have enough put away to be able to take care of ourselves. Proverbs 21 in verse 20 says, And there is desirable treasure and oil in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man squanders it. Other translations. The old King James talks about how a foolish man devours all that he has. Rather than save it, and rather than use it as it's needed, it devours all that he has. We were pretty foolish, and we were definitely swallowing up everything that we had.

By the time I paid tithes, my debts, my bills, there wasn't anything left to help other people. If an unintended expense came up, they went on a credit card, just making the whole problem worse. We were drowning, one big old gulp of water at a time. We realized at that point we did have a problem, and that it needed to be fixed, and that we needed to accept our role in the process of fixing it.

Learn what it takes to do things right, and more importantly to me, I wanted to find a way to do it the way that God would have me do it. There are so many get rich quick schemes out there. Just do this, and you'll become a millionaire, and everything will be fine. Other scam kind of methods out there to get your financial status set up. What endeared me to this program is it centered on one primary concept which is found in Proverbs 22.

Let's pop over to Proverbs 22, just across the page there. Proverbs 22 in verse 7, this is the single concept that the entire program is based upon, that the rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. Servant is sometimes, in other translations, even a stronger word, which is slave to the lender. Borrowing money makes you a slave to the person who gave you that money, because you're signing up for somebody else's cash, and that requires a verbal or a written agreement to then pay that money back.

Once that contract is made, you're on the hook. You're not getting off until you've satisfied your end of the bargain. You truly are enslaved. We know from Scripture that no man can serve two masters, and ultimately the wording of Proverbs 22.7 indicates that borrowing money, while not specifically forbidden, is strongly discouraged. Strongly discouraged. We can actually see in numerous other places God's feeling on the subject. Let's go over to Ezekiel 18.

Ezekiel 18. I'm going to pick it up in verse five to begin with. Ezekiel 18 and verse five actually goes as far as saying that charging someone else's interest is an abomination in God's eyes. Ezekiel 18 verse five starts with, but if a man is just and does what is lawful and right, if he has not eaten on the mountains, if he hasn't gone up and worshiped the idols in the mountains, not lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, nor defiled his neighbor's wife, nor approached a woman during her impurity, if he has not oppressed anyone but has restored to the debtor his pledge, has robbed no one by violence, but has given his bread to the hungry, covered the naked with clothing, if he has not exacted usury. Usury is an Old English word for interest. In other words, if he hasn't charged somebody interest on the money that they've given, nor taken any increase, nor made any money off of giving someone else money, but has withdrawn his hand from iniquity and executed true judgment between man and man, if he has walked in my statutes and kept my judgments faithfully, he is just. He shall surely live, says the Lord God.

Those individuals that don't charge interest or have taken an increase on a loan, you know, God tells them that they're just and that they will live. But those who have, those that have committed an abomination, goes on further down in verse 13. If he has exacted usury or has taken increase, shall he then live? He shall not live. If he's done any of these abominations, he shall surely die. His blood shall be upon him. He's guilty in that case, not just. And the reason that it is, is that they're not being done in the attitude and in the Spirit of God.

We'll look at that here in just a second. Psalms 15 expounds on this just a little bit further. Psalms 15, actually just go ahead and jot this one down. We won't turn there for sake of time. But it does say that the man who doesn't put out his money to usury, so someone who doesn't seek out a loan with interest, that that person will never be moved. That he will dwell on the Holy Hill in the tabernacle of God. Okay, and so not out there looking for these kind of situations that have put us into a situation where we're to someone else. You know, God disliked the concept of indebtedness so much that he designed an entire system that allowed property and indentured servants to be returned to their original owners and to their families.

He instituted landsabaths in the Jubilee back in the Old Testament. Every seventh year marked a sabbatical year in Israel, where the land was to lay fallow and not be worked. It was a landsabath. And in that year, those of the Hebrews that were indentured were released of their service. And, interestingly enough, Deuteronomy 15, 12 shows us that the Master was commanded to bless them exceedingly when they left.

Let's go over and take a look at that real quick. Deuteronomy 15, verse 12, says the law concerning bond servants in my Bible. Deuteronomy 15, verse 12, If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you shall let them go free from you. And when you send him away free from you, you shall not let him go away empty-handed.

You shall supply him liberally from your flock, from your threshing floor, and from your winepress. From what the Lord has blessed you with, you shall give to him. Because you shall remember, verse 15, that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you. Therefore, I command you this thing today. God set up a system in ancient Israel where indebtedness resolved itself after a seven-year period. Someone could work for six years and work off their debt, and then at the end of that sixth year, that seventh year, they were released of it.

Now, in addition to that, the 49th year, you go seven sevens essentially to number 49. The year after that is your 50, and that year was the Jubilee. And it was a shofar that was sounded during the Day of Atonement. Those, again, that had been indentured to the lender were released of their obligations. Those who owed interest and held debt were released of that.

All were given liberty, and all property was returned to its original owners. It was a celebration in Israel to kind of reset things so that people didn't get themselves into situations where they're paying a debt for their entire life. This was what God intended. This was the system that God intended for mankind to utilize. Instead, today, we have payday lending. We have paycheck advances, reverse mortgages, adjustable rate mortgages, interest rates that exceed 27% on credit cards, but they don't go up to that until you've maxed it out.

As soon as you max it, boom, you go from 10% to 27 all of a sudden. People live paycheck to paycheck, hold multiple credit cards, bankruptcies. The list just goes on and on and on. It's clear the current financial system is not of God. We are operating in a financial system that Satan has designed. The marketing out there tells us to buy it now. Don't think it through. Don't waste your time thinking.

Just go get it. Put it on the card. You don't have any money in your pocket anyway. Put it on the card. And so we impulse buy rather than saving for what we're after.

We spend what we don't have for things we don't need. And as a whole, Americans have managed to rack up, at last calculation, a whopping 2.5 trillion dollars of consumer debt that is not including mortgages. That's credit cards, auto loans, etc. Consumer debt. 2.5 trillion. That's an incredible, incredible number. And what we're really looking at in this whole entire process is we're looking at give versus get.

Those of you that have been in the church for a long time, you've heard that phrase before. You know, Mr. Armstrong used to talk about this all the time. The way of give versus the way of get. The way and nature of God versus the way and nature of Satan. You know, Shannon and I were living in that system, and we were drowning in that system. You know, shortly after we read the Total Money Makeover book, we kind of decided that enough was enough, and it was time to get serious. We realized that at the end of the month, you know, we had a lot more month than money.

You know what I mean? Money's running out, and you're looking at your budget going, boy, there's no way we're going to make it through here. And the incredible piece was we seem to always make it through. We'll talk about that in a little bit. But we signed up for a three-week course called Financial Peace University, a local church in Salem where we worked through this process that helped us get control of our finances.

But more importantly, it got control of the behaviors that led us to this point in the first place. Remember, we said earlier, it isn't the money that's the problem. It's the person holding on to that money that's the issue. And in the past 13 weeks, I gotta admit, my entire outlook on money has changed.

God places His trust in us. We are stewards of His resources, His blessings. And I came to the conclusion in looking at this that I was doing a pretty awful job at being a steward and in taking care of what God had entrusted to me. What it really kind of felt like was God had deposited this money into me as a bank. And what I did was I took that deposit and I wouldn't spend it on stuff that God wouldn't want me to spend it on. I'd go buy toys. Or I'd go buy this. Or I'd go buy that. And when it was all said and done, there wasn't any money left at the end to do the kind of things that God would intend us to do with that money.

I didn't act like a steward because I really didn't understand and have a reverence for whose money it really is. And that, for me, has made all the difference in how I look at things. Webster's online dictionary defines a steward as one who is employed in a large household or state to manage domestic concerns, such as the supervision of servants, the collection of rents, and the keeping of accounts. Now, when it comes to our modern day vernacular, we don't use the word steward at all hardly anymore.

You know, a steward is someone... it's the male version of a stewardess on a plane is what we really use the word steward for. But that idea is so far removed from us nowadays, we just... we don't seem to understand the concept. It's one of those church words. Really, you only hear it in church. You know, the word steward... you really only hear it in church. But if you take a look at the word and how the word developed, it originally kind of started...

at least the word steward in medieval England. It is an old English word and a word that was in very much use at the time and very much understood when the King James was written in 1611. It was something that the people at that time would have absolutely understood what that word meant. In those days when a single lord owned a large realm of property, could have many different villages and cities, numerous castles, the lord was in and out of those cities quite a bit.

And so in each location he would appoint a steward. And that steward was almost as good as the lord himself in that case. Okay? In that case, that person was just about as much of a decision maker as the master that had put him in charge of those assets. Now he's not the owner. He's not the owner. He was not the lord himself. He was not the earl of whatever or the duke of whatever. He was simply entrusted to take charge and take care of what that lord or master had.

You know, if we look at that concept today, really what a steward is is it's like the manager of a company. The person in charge of the overall day-to-day operations of a company. Does that person own the company? No. They don't. However, they've been hired and they are directly responsible for the day-to-day operations of that company. They work for the owner. They work with the owner. But they're not the owner.

They're a steward. And so are we. But what exactly are we a steward of? Let's take a look at Psalms 24. Psalms 24, verse 1, rather. 24 verse 1 in Psalms.

Let's find out what we have been given stewardship over.

Psalm 24 verse 1.

In Psalms 24 verse 1, it says in Psalm of David, it says, The earth is the Lord's and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein.

So the reality of it is that everything that is on this planet belongs to God. The entire fullness. All of it. Everything! That means my car. It's not really my car. It's God's car. God has entrusted me with the blessings that he's given me to be able to afford it. And he expects that I'm going to use it for whatever I need to use it for. Get back and forth to work. Go to and from church. But he also expects that I'm going to use that to go out and serve other congregations. And the car that we've got, it's an incredible story. I won't go into it now, but the vehicle that we have was absolutely a blessing. It was incredible how that came about. Ask me about it after services. But we've been given those blessings to be able to afford it. The house that we have is provided for us by God. Giving us the ability to afford it. The money that we have over at the, left over at the end of the month, and believe it or not, after 13 weeks of this program, now there is some left over at the end of the month. It's incredible. That's not really mine to go out and just spend frivolously either. God expects me to take care of my obligations with that money, because I am a steward of the resources that God has given to me. Let's turn to Luke 12. I don't know if this has just really been on my mind lately or what. I think I found myself in the last three messages coming back to Luke 12 in different ways. But Luke 12, we're going to pick it up in verse 42. We're going to see again that God desires faithful and wise stewards of his resources. Luke 12 verse 42. We're going to pick it up in. It says, And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.

You can imagine in those steward examples of medieval times, you know, the steward is in charge of making sure the day-to-day operations of that town are running. That the people over here are doing what they need to do. That they've got these supplies and resources. The farms are getting worked, and all of this stuff is being coordinated. Imagine how angry the master would be when they come home and that steward is just sitting around. Or we see in the next example here, verse 43, Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.

Truly I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has. In verse 45, we see the opposite of that. But if that servant says in his heart, my master is delaying his coming. In other words, I'm just going to slack off. I'm going to relax a little bit. It's really not that big of a deal. He's not going to be here today.

Maybe he'll show up tomorrow. I'll work tomorrow. Begins to beat the male and female servants to eat and drink and be drunk. Verse 46, The master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him into and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. Now, obviously, we realize this has, you know, millennial application here. Christ's ultimate return here.

We do need to be about our Father's business all the time, doing those work and do or doing that work. But verse 47, And that servant who knew his master's will and did not prepare himself or do according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know yet committed things deserving of stripes shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given from him much will be required, and to whom much has been committed of him they will ask the more. You know, we have been given an incredible responsibility with what God has given to us.

And God gives us all kinds of things. Gives us, you know, the knowledge that we have, the blessings that he gives to us, the time that we have to do things with. But God is expecting individuals who are going to be doing what he expects them to do when he comes back. And if we become unwise, if we become unfaithful, we ultimately run the risk of being cut off.

You know, we see this similar theme in numerous parables, numerous passages regarding talents, servants, ultimately the master returning to find them either faithful or not. But these are all examples of stewardship and the master entrusting his servants to take care of the resources while he's away. God blesses us and then expects us to follow through with our end of the bargain.

He also expects that we'll give and take care of others with the blessings that we've received as we see need. That that part of our calling is to take care of others, to serve others, and help as much as we're able. That was the other thing about Dave Ramsey that I appreciated. He advocated doing all these things to get out of debt, to set yourself up comfortably for retirement, for your kids to be able to go to school. And he advocates investing in real estate to build wealth, but not for the sake of building wealth. That's what I appreciated.

All these other guys are out there saying, yeah, you'll be rich beyond your wildest dreams. Think of all these huge vacations you can take and all these things you can do. And what Dave Ramsey is saying, in many cases, is that you're building this wealth to do what God would have you do with it, to help other people. Because realistically, when you're scraping every single cent together to pay your own bills, when you're working like crazy to make ends meet, you don't have time to serve. You don't have the money to be able to do these things as often as you could, if all of your obligations were taken care of.

And you know, we often hear the word wealth, and we kind of... our hackles go up and we go, whoa, whoa, whoa, yeah, but the Scripture tells us not to be wealthy, that, you know, it's difficult for a wealthy man to enter the kingdom, and there is definitely danger in obtaining wealth.

Definitely danger. If your focus is only to obtain wealth for wealth's sake, I would wholeheartedly agree. At that point, you're treading some very, very thin ice. But if you're taking care of your obligations, getting your retirement set up, sending your kids to college, and paying off your house so that the money that you're bringing in now can be used, and can be given, and can be used to help others, that money you make in the long run can be used for much more altruistic purposes. Giving and serving is extremely important. James 1, 27.

James 1, verse 27, James 1, verse 27, says, pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit orphan and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. There are a couple of primary points here. Part of a pure and undefiled religion is to keep ourselves unspotted, and we know that. We know that we're to keep ourselves unblemished and sinless, but in addition, we're supposed to visit and take care of people that aren't able to take care of themselves, or have difficulty taking care of themselves. Widows, orphans, individuals that are having trouble at times. In today's day and age, a lot of that trouble comes financially. It's just hard to make ends meet on social security. It's hard to make ends meet when you've lost a spouse. My mom's running into that right now. My dad passed away three years ago, and she is absolutely drowning. Absolutely drowning. We're doing what we can to take care of her and help her out. She's actually doing the little program thing now and just making incredible gains. It's something that can be taken care of, but we've got to be able to do that. In those visits, as we see needs, we should be in a place ourselves to be able to help out when need be. There's nothing worse than feeling like, oh, there's really nothing I can... I really want to help so bad, but there's nothing that I can really do other than come and serve with my time and give of my time and of my energy. It's hard to be in that place if our own financial house isn't in order. Giving is important, but what does God require that we give? Obviously, we tithe 20% of our income. We take a first and a second and some years the third, and we do come before God several times a year. We take up an offering, so we have offerings to give, and we do that to give to help support the work. All of these things are quote-unquote required. We don't think of them as required. You know, these are things that we want to do, and we want to have the right attitude when we give. But ultimately, why does God want us to give? Have you ever asked yourself that? Why is it that we tithe? What's the reason for tithing? I remember at one point in time thinking, well, it's because He needs my money to do the work. And then I got to thinking about it. I am talking about the creator of the entire universe and everything that is in it. He doesn't need quote-unquote my money to do the work. There must be something else inherent in giving that I'm missing. The earth and the fullness within it is God's. I am required to tithe, I'm required to give offerings, and I'm required to be a cheerful giver. In giving, we learn very, very important lessons. That word cheerful, actually, in the Greek is the word hilarios, which is where we get the root word for hilarious. And so it's kind of interesting, you know, think about the way that we give, you know, during the offering and things. We're to give hilariously, to a certain extent, with so much cheer and joy at that giving. Laughter, cheerfulness. I mean, you don't want to break out laughing in the middle of the offering, but I mean, it should be a joyful thing to be giving. That's the kind of heart that God desires when we give. But that still doesn't answer why God requires that we give, and why God has us give. It simply tells us the attitude involved in the process. Let's go over to Genesis 1, 26.

In Genesis 1 and verse 26, and we'll take a look at why God has us give.

Genesis 1, verse 26, it says, Then God said, Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him male and female. He created them, and then God blessed them. And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. God has us give because God Himself is a giver. God Himself is a giver. His nature and His Spirit is that of a giver. And so for us to become more God-like, and for us to become more Christ-like, we also too have to be givers. We have to realize what that means and what that what that does. Man was created in the image of God in His likeness. The character traits and that nature were there in the beginning. So in other words, what they had, Adam and Eve had the way of give from the beginning. We know the rest of the story. We know that Satan managed to deceive Adam and Eve. They transgressed, and the way of get entered their lives. Notice too, in this scripture, God established mankind as stewards over the earth's resources from the beginning. We were given dominion over the fish, the birds, the cattle, the earth, over everything on it. God entrusted it to us. And of course, as we mentioned before, we really haven't done a great job in taking care of what we've been given. We've managed to, our desire to just get, get, get all of that greed that we as humans have. It's never enough. We've led to over harvest in a lot of different things, destruction, all kinds of all kinds of terrible problems that have come from our overall greed. But the point is, God desired for a way of give from the beginning. He desired that we would live a life that reflected His nature. And even after Satan deceived Adam and Eve, the requirement of giving was still there. We see the example of Cain and Abel. Ultimately, why did God reject Cain's offering? It was because of the attitude that he brought with it. He didn't come before God with the Spirit of God in him. This concept of being willing to give to God the best of what he had. He brought something subpar in hopes that it was just enough, and that he could just get away with this little bit here. And God ultimately rejected it. It wasn't God's nature. He didn't come with a giving attitude and a giving spirit. He showed up with the way of get in his heart. And God rejected his offering. He did it just to satisfy his obligations and to go through the motions. You know, God is a giver. And really, there is one scripture we have to look at that proves that without a shadow of a doubt. Let's go to John 3 16.

John 3 16 proves this point without a shadow of a doubt that God is a giver.

This is probably one of the most popular scriptures in the entire Bible. You've seen it at every Super Bowl, every hockey game, every baseball game. It's everywhere. But John 3 and verse 16, you know it by heart, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Those of you with children, let that sink in for a minute. Think about what that means.

This is one of those scriptures that I didn't fully understand until I had kids. I had no idea what this meant until I had kids. The concept of giving up that only child that you have in order to reconcile the lot of us who need that reconciliation. To bridge the gap that sin has created between us and God through the blood of his only child. What an incredible gift. One that we are not worthy of but we're given anyway. God is a giver and the gifts that he gives us are incredible gifts and they're given to us in love. You know, we have a commission to become more like Christ and more like God and while we recognize that for the most part this won't happen in this lifetime, we're striving to get closer and closer every time. Every way possible. You know, Christ helped the poor. He helped those in need. I mean, he was you read through the New Testament and they were accusing Christ. I can't believe you're having dinner with these people. What are you doing associating with these people? What you leave these people alone? You're just discrediting yourself. You know, it's incredible the associations that Christ made. We're to be striving to be more Christ-like.

And a lot of times that begins with our own brethren. You know, God blesses those who take on the attitude and who give willfully and cheerfully. Let's go to Malachi 3.

Malachi 3.

Zachariah Malachi. Malachi 3. And we'll pick up verse 8. Malachi 3 and verse 8. And the simple headline in my Bible is, do not rob God. Very simply, very straightforward. It says, will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say, in what way have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings.

And you are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed me, even this whole nation. And so we have a situation there where where Israel wasn't doing their part of the bargain, it wasn't keeping things up. And God tells him, hey, fix it. Fix it. You're robbing me. Verse 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.

I will bless you so much you won't even be able to store it all when you do what you're supposed to do. You know, even in those exceptionally difficult months, when Shannon and I sat down and looked at our budget and went, it ain't gonna work. You know, we're 400-500 bucks short. You know, we used the phrase earlier, more months than money. We had like two months more than the money we had. You know, we could have dipped into our tithes. We didn't. Thanks to God's tremendous blessings, it worked out.

It worked out. It always seemed like when something happened, and we're just like in this dire strait, all of a sudden something comes through. You know, we randomly get checks in the mail. Where did this money come from? Who is this company? Why are they refunding me 30 bucks? Or 40 bucks? Or in a couple cases, 100 or 200 dollars? Where's this coming from? Our car broke down.

My friend goes, I don't like my truck anymore. You take it. Signs the title over and hands it over right then and there. Free truck! It's been kind of a headache ever since, but it runs! And it gets from point A to point B.

You know, we got incredible blessings out of our garden. We had one year, we had a bumper crop of zucchini. And a lot of people like every year is a bumper crop of zucchini. But when I say bumper crop, I mean bumper crop! We had so much zucchini, we didn't know what to do with it. And, you know, I'm not a huge fan of zucchini, but it's a blessing nonetheless. We've got all this... I mean, you could put it in bread and stuff.

It's palatable, at least, that way. But there are incredible, incredible blessings that are heaped out upon us because God is diligent and He blesses those who are His. And yet, as you all very, very well know, we all experience trial. We experience times where medical issues or car accidents or something else gives us a bit of difficulty. Knocks us back a few steps. It bloodies our nose a little bit. But it's not necessarily because we're doing anything wrong. I don't want to insinuate that. I'm not saying that because people experience trials that they're doing something wrong.

You know, the Tower of Siloam example, it didn't fall on people who are wicked. Sometimes things just happen. God provides us with opportunities to grow in our character. And sometimes growing in character requires very, very painful pruning. Sometimes it requires complete refinement by fire. And God wants us to trust in Him to take care of our problems. But He also expects us to do our part. You know, back in the old days, again, we used to have a saying at the feast, trust in God but lock your car.

You know, we don't run around with our house and our cars unlocked in today's day and age and just expect that God's going to take care of it. He expects us to do our due diligence. We have certain expectations placed upon us, and Scripture indicates in a lot of places we prepare accordingly. Likewise, you can't just run out and run up a bunch of credit cards and say, okay, God, get me out of this mess.

God expects that we're going to do our due diligence. We're expected to lay up the food in the oil to prepare for difficult times. Just like they did in Egypt. They stored up for seven years of famine. They knew it was coming. They prepared for it. Emergencies happen. Things happen. We have to be responsible and prepare for those things and pray like crazy. Pray like crazy and trust in God. You know, we always have to recognize that life isn't always roses, but you know as our financial condition becomes better and better and better, some of these just earth-shattering trials suddenly become just inconveniences.

The washer goes out and you go, oh, I got a few hundred bucks. Let's go get a new washer. You know, before it's just, what am I going to do? Well, you know, you get to the situation where God has blessed you enough now that you've prepared and you're ready and you can thank God for those blessings and that preparation. So back to the question that we began with. What would you do with 2.1 million dollars? Money over your lifetime that you've worked incredibly hard for, toiled over, put your blood, sweat, and tears into, sacrificed for.

Do we hold it with an open palm or do we hold it with a closed fist? You know what's amazing? Even a dog knows what this sign means. You do this to a dog and they're going to come up and sniff your hand. You do this to a dog and what are they going to do? They're going to run off. It's like a universal sign. Are we going to hold that money with an open palm or are we going to hold it with a closed fist?

Because you know what's interesting? That closed fist, yeah, you hang on to your money, but you're also not getting any money back. You can't put more money in a closed fist. But if you have an open hand and you're a giver, that money can come and it can go. Those of you that have given in the past, you know, it's amazing the blessings that God heaps out upon us. It's just incredible. I'm not advocating here that you give everything away. I am not saying give it all away.

We know that we're to give as we're able. If you've got an addiction to stuff and can't seem to scrape up enough money for an offering, it's possible the priorities are a little unbalanced. I've run into this before. I remember one feast many, many, many, many years ago, kind of while I was still figuring the church thing out.

I spent 50 to 60 dollars of my feast money on a brand new video game. So excited about it. So excited about it. Ridiculous. But the next day in services, I was looking at my money that I had in my pocket for my offering. I had like five bucks. I spent 60 dollars on something completely frivolous and gave God five bucks.

That's unbalanced. And that's not okay. It's not okay. I didn't get it. At the time, I was completely and totally out of balance. And that led to what I described earlier, not understanding how all this stuff works. What I am advocating is becoming good stewards of what God has given us with the express purpose to take care of our obligations, to get ourselves out of debt and stay out of debt.

Be smart about our financial decisions so that we have the ability to take care of not just ourselves, but the people that we know are hurting and the people that we know need things. In our lifetimes, we will have 2.1 million dollars flow through our fingertips. On average, 2.1 million dollars. Not one of those dollars, which are ours, quote unquote. It's God's money. He's richly blessed each and every one of us, and He's looking for good stewards. He's looking for individuals who can take care of the assets that they've been given and use it to produce more. Individuals who can help others, serve others, give of their time and energy and live a religion that is pure and undefiled.

Can you imagine what it would be like to write a 10,000 dollar check to someone who desperately needs it with no expectations of repayment at all? Freely giving 10 grand to someone. Can you imagine what that would be like? The joy in your heart at being able to do that? Not sitting there going, oh what have I done? But this is awesome. It's not going to hurt me at all. Here, how incredible would that be to be able to give that kind of blessing to someone from the blessings that you've been given? What the Dave Ramsey program often says is, he says, you know, you spend the first half of your life building up wealth and the last half of it looking for ways to give it all away.

That would be an incredible way to do things. To live like no one else, so later you can give like no one else. You know, many feel like hitting the lottery is the key to financial peace. That suddenly striking it rich without having to put in any work at all will make a difference in their life. That it's the key to fixing all of their problems. When in reality that money does nothing more than magnify their character flaws. You have to go through the process of changing the behaviors. We just came out of the days of 11 bread and that's what that's all about.

Getting in there and looking at those places in our life that need fixing and just focusing intensely on those things for the next year and knocking them out. Changing the behavior, fixing those flaws so that when the money is there it can be used as God intended it to be used. Brethren, that is the true measure of financial peace. When your assets and your finances are used to build character. To trust in God to bless you abundantly and then share that blessing with others. To use those assets to build good godly character. Laying up treasure in a place when moth cannot devour and rust cannot destroy.