From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Are you living in light of eternity? Are you managing God's resources well? Do you think that when you die, you're going to hear, as it relates to your financial life, the Lord say, "Well done, my good and faithful slave. You were faithful. You honored me, and you gave."

Are you going to hear that, or are you going to be one who buried your talent in the ground? You have nothing to show for your years as a believer, and all the resources God gave you, you just spent them on yourself.

Larry Nobles: When you consider all of your worldly assets, whether you have a lot or whether you have little, not only does it all belong to God, but he's put you in charge of those resources for a limited period of time. So here's the big question. How are you doing with the money management of the Lord's resources with which he's entrusted you?

How are you managing God's money? This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve, who today concludes his new series that we began airing the first part of the month called God and Money: What the Bible Says About Managing Money. Today's message is entitled "Managing God's Money." You can find out more about how to get this series and also this particular message when you go to fromhisheart.org. Right now, open your Bible to the book of Proverbs, chapter 3. Here again is Pastor Jeff.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Proverbs has lots to say about money, but I've zeroed in on Proverbs 3:5-10, a very familiar passage of Scripture in the Bible. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him." In all your ways, consider him, consult him, put him first. In all your ways acknowledge him, and what will he do? He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones.

"Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce, so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine." Okay, so if I'm a money manager and God has entrusted the wealth that I have to me, how are we to go about it in a way that would be pleasing to the Lord so that we can hear at the end of life, "Well done, my good and faithful slave. You were faithful in a few things, the way you conducted your life on the earth and the way you used the resources, the treasure, talents, and time that I gave you. You used that well. I'm going to put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master."

So three priorities when it comes to money. Number one, our first priority is to honor the Lord from our wealth. Verses 9 and 10: "Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce, so that your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine." The tithe is the Lord's. The first tenth of our income belongs to God.

Now it all belongs to God, we have said, but the tithe is the Lord's, and so you don't even look at that as something I have to manage. I put that in the "this is God's" bucket. You don't have to think about it. You don't have to agonize about it. You just know that is the Lord's, and we bring that to him. Remember this: those who honor God are honored by God. The goal is to grow in this thing called giving.

So the first priority is to honor him from our wealth. Second priority is to pay what we owe. Pay what we owe. Romans chapter 13, verses 7 and 8 in the Contemporary English Version, says this: "Pay all that you owe, whether it is taxes and fees or respect and honor. Let love be your only debt. If you love others, you have done all that the law demands."

So you have your gross pay and your net pay. You tithe off your gross because God gets the first. Then you have what is left. Well, we have bills to pay. I don't know a person who doesn't have bills to pay, so we have to pay those. Now, it's a terrible witness for a Christian to not pay his bills, to not pay her bills. The Bible talks about that. A man who does not provide for his own is worse than an unbeliever. That's a terrible witness.

So some things that we need to do. Prayerfully develop a plan regarding money management. Secondly, prayerfully consider your expenditures. What are you spending money on? Proverbs 3:6 says, "In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." In all your ways, consider what does the Lord want me to do here?

Then prayerfully and vigorously work on getting out of debt. There's good debt and bad debt. Good debt would be on an appreciable item, like buying a house. Well, that's debt, and you don't want to buy a house that you can't afford. You always want to live under your means, not right at the tip of your means, because then if there's any hiccup, you're in serious trouble. You want to have some margin in there. A business loan can be good debt if it's going toward your business and you can turn that into a profit.

Bad debt is the thing that eats us up. Bad debt are like cars because a car is a depreciating item. Credit cards: big bad debt because they want you. The average American has $15,000 in bad debt. $15,000 in bad debt! When you start getting the credit card debt to ramp up and you're starting to find yourself charging more and more things, eventually you get to the place where now the bill that used to be $10 is now several hundred dollars. Maybe it's $500 or $1,000, and so much of that is interest. It gets you in this vicious cycle.

Dave Ramsey says you've got to get out of debt. Then prayerfully consider your job career situation. This is something you have to sit down and say, "Okay, where are you now? Where do you want to be? How are you going to get there, and how are you going to monitor progress?" Those are great questions to ask yourself.

"Well, I'm working this job I don't like." Well, why do you want to keep doing that? Where does that go from here? "Well, I don't want to be here." Well, where are you now? Where do you want to be? "Well, I want to be over here." How are you going to get there? Maybe you have to go to school. Maybe you have to take a step back to take three steps forward.

It's important to really look at what you're doing and to see, "Okay, I have a lifestyle that doesn't match up with my job." You have to look at things objectively and say, "Okay, Lord, I want to acknowledge you. This is not honoring you if I have these debts and I'm not able to pay these debts. So show me how to get out from under this."

Priority number three is to start saving. Our third priority is to start saving. So we have tithes and offerings, honor the Lord from our wealth, that's off the top, and then pay what we owe, and then start saving. Dave Ramsey says the first thing you need to do when you look at your finances and you're hurting financially is, right off the top, save $1,000. Very first thing: honor God, you save $1,000.

He said he used to say attack your debt first, but then something would happen and the person had a transmission go out or they had a brake job or something that would cost several hundred dollars and they didn't have any money. So then they're like, "Well, this getting rid of debt is not helping me, and now I have to go more into debt." So he said the very first thing I started telling people was start saving $1,000. Work toward getting a nest egg.

Then he said from there, you can do these other things. But people say, "Well, how much do I save?" Well, I like the principle in the book of Genesis. When Joseph interpreted the dream of Pharaoh, he heard the dream and then he said, "This is what the dream means. There are seven years of plenty that are coming to Egypt, followed by seven years of famine."

In Genesis 41, beginning in verse 33, it says, "Now let Pharaoh look for a man discerning and wise and set him over the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh take action to appoint overseers in charge of the land, and let them exact a fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt in the seven years of abundance." They were going to save 20%.

Then he says, "Let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming and store up the grain for food in the cities under Pharaoh's authority, and let them guard it. Let the food become as a reserve for the land for the seven years of famine which will occur in the land of Egypt, so that the land will not perish during the famine." Pharaoh, you've got to build up reserves. Now these first seven years are going to be massive crops. It's just going to be let the good times roll, but we've got to take 20% of that and save it for a rainy day because the rainy day is coming.

That's good advice for you and me. When we start saving, we have to start building that rainy day fund. A lot of those financial guys will say you need to have three to six months saved up so when the rainy day comes, you're not wiped out. So you start building on those savings.

Larry Nobles: Pastor Jeff will return in just a moment with more from this message, "Managing God's Money," on From His Heart. Scripture shows clearly that how we handle God's money is a powerful indicator of our relationship with Jesus and how we prioritize that relationship through how we give. Today's message, called "Managing God's Money, Part Two," is the last in the new series, God and Money: What the Bible Says About Managing Money.

In this series, Pastor Jeff unpacks what the Bible teaches about finances, stewardship, and the heart behind our giving, challenging you and me to consider who is really on the throne of our lives and inviting us into the blessings that flow from putting God first in our finances. This series is our gift of thanks to you for your support to From His Heart this month of any amount, from which Pastor Jeff receives zero income.

You can receive the God and Money series on a USB flash drive, CDs, DVDs, or MP3 download when you make your gift today by calling 866-40-BIBLE. That's 866-402-4253. Or go online to fromhisheart.org. Thank you for joining with us to share these messages around the world each and every day, teaching the world how much God should be at the center of all of our lives, including our money. You can make your gift of support to From His Heart this month when you call 866-40-BIBLE or go to fromhisheart.org. When you do, request the new series God and Money: What the Bible Says About Managing Money. Now let's conclude the series and today's message, "Managing God's Money."

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Now I love what Randy Alcorn—he's done a lot of work and he's written some great books on money and managing God's possessions and things like that—I read a book of his in the last couple of weeks and it's kind of the guidebook to money management from the Scripture. He said what he did with his kids, and I think this is a great thing. If my kids were little, I would do this with them, no doubt.

He said we got three jars for our kids. One was tithes and offerings, one was labeled spending, and one was labeled saving. He said we gave our kids chores to do, and they got paid every week from doing their chores. So then we'd sit down with them and say, "Okay, so you have this first jar. The tithe is the Lord's, and so just for illustration's sake, say they had $10, ten one-dollar bills." He'd say, "Kids, now that first dollar goes in this tithes and offerings jar, the giving jar, because that belongs to God.

"Now you have to put at least that much in there. You can put more, but at least that much goes in there and that never comes out." Then he said, "Then you have the two jars, spending and saving. You're free to do whatever you want with spending and saving." But he said, "Now when you put money into the saving jar, just know that it doesn't come out of there unless there's some big type of thing that came up. It's not just, 'I want to go to Chuck E. Cheese, so I'm taking my savings.' It's not just an everyday expense. It's something that you've been planning for or something out of the ordinary."

He said, "So once it goes in the saving jar, it never comes out. But you can take from the saving jar and put it in the tithes and offerings jar. And from spending, you can put it in the tithes and offerings jar." But he taught his kids through those three jars, and he said more than any other teaching I gave my kids, they remember that one, just the three jars, because it taught them about money management.

Then he said another thing to do that's kind of cool to do. Tell your kids, show them how much money you bring home in a month. Get your paycheck, your gross pay, get it in cash, show them. We'll go back to our $60,000 a year, $5,000 illustration. He said show them how you do it. Let them see with real money, with real dollars.

"Okay, so in mom and dad's jar, this is tithes and offerings. This is $500 at least that goes in there. And then our expenses: we have house, we have electricity, we have this, we have that. That goes in the expenses jar, and this is what goes in the savings jar." He says that it helps kids to see about money and how things cost because kids don't have a good concept of that.

I told you as a little kid, I just thought if you had a credit card, you're good to go. They don't ever ask you for anything; you just put it down there. Some people get to be adults, and they still think like that. But if you let things just go, you can wreck and ruin your life financially. So start building a rainy day fund and then keep eternity in mind.

Very, very important: think about eternity. You see, the Bible says that our citizenship is in heaven, from which we eagerly wait for a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're strangers and aliens on this earth. The song says, "This world is not my home, I'm just a passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue."

And so you keep that in mind. If we were going to go to Europe for two weeks, you wouldn't take all the money that you have here in America and change it into euros for your two-week trip to Europe. That would be dumb. You're only going to be there for two weeks. So you figure out, "Okay, how much do I need in the two weeks to buy food and lodging and souvenirs?" I'm just exchanging that amount of money. The rest of it stays here in my home.

Our citizenship is in heaven, and we have all that reversed. We spend so much time with the money here on earth that we're not thinking about our eternal home. The Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 6, "Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.

"Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share." We need to teach our kids how to be generous and ready to share. "Storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed." Hey, we don't trust in the uncertainty of riches. We know that riches can go away. We know that the stock market can crash, just like it did in 1929, and people started to commit suicide because all their hope was in their money.

Our hope, we don't fix our hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. You have resources? God says enjoy that and use it for the kingdom. Don't hoard it like the foolish farmer who built bigger barns and just said, "I have many goods laid up for many years. Soul, take your ease, eat, drink, be merry." And the Lord says, "You fool! This very night your soul is required of you, and now who will own what you have prepared?"

So we need to be thinking in terms of, "Hey, I may not be living long." We need to be thinking about what comes next. Now, if all we're doing is thinking about the time on earth and we're not thinking about heaven and we're not storing up for the future, we are super foolish because you have an opportunity in this life to impact all of eternity. But you have to do it now.

I like what the little poem says: "Do your giving while you're living so you're knowing where it's going." You know, sometimes we think, "Well, I'm just leaving it all to my kids." Well, what are they going to do with it? You don't know what they're going to do with it. I had a lady that contacted me some years ago, and she was in her 90s. And she said, "I have two sons. Neither one of them are walking with the Lord. I don't want to leave my money to them."

I said, "Do they know that?" She said, "No, I haven't told them." I said, "Well, I'm not telling them." But she said, "I want to give to your ministry." And I said that would be great, but she wanted to put it in her will. I remember talking to an attorney friend of mine and I said, "What about that?" And they said, "Those things get contested because they're going to think you coerced this woman to do that."

So do your giving while you're living so you're knowing where it's going. She should have done that. She ended up dying, and all the money went to her sons. Listen, we talk about putting in our will so much of our money, if we have resources, so much of it going to our children and maybe so much of it going to the church or going to this ministry or that ministry. That's good and fine, but Jesus always commended those who gave in life.

What would it have been like if Zacchaeus, when he gets saved, he said, "Lord, look, when I die, half my possessions I'll give to the poor"? That wouldn't have been the same impact as when he gets saved and he said, "Lord, half my possessions I give to the poor, and if I've defrauded anyone of anything, I'll pay him back four times as much."

How about the widow's mite? She put in those two small copper coins, and Jesus commented she gave more than all the rest because she gave all she had to live on. What would it have been like if she had said, "Well, Lord, in my will, I'm giving my two copper coins"? It's not the same.

So you have an opportunity here and now in life while you're breathing to make a difference for all eternity. Are you living in light of eternity? Are you managing God's resources well? Do you think that when you die, you're going to hear, as it relates to your financial life, the Lord say, "Well done, my good and faithful slave. You were faithful with the resources that I entrusted to you. You were faithful. You honored me, and you gave.

"And you didn't just give the minimum. You gave above, far above, and you were a generous, cheerful giver because you knew that that blessed my heart." Are you going to hear that, or are you going to be one who leaves it all behind because we all leave it all behind? You buried your talent in the ground. You have nothing to show for your years as a believer, and all the resources God gave you, you just spent them on yourself.

When we give, and I can be guilty of this, when we give to our kids because we love our kids, if you have a lot of resources that you give to your kids, that can wreck your kids. A lot of money can be not a blessing; it can be a curse if you're not careful because lots of times kids can't handle that. You see these athletes that sign these huge contracts and they're 20, 21, 22. Now with NIL, you got guys like the Manning kid at UT. I think he's getting six million dollars next season.

Good night! That's a lot of money for a young guy. I don't know anything about Arch Manning as far as his spiritual condition—I think he's got good people watching out for him—but that's a lot for us when we're at that age to handle that. A lot of people can't handle that, and it ruins their lives.

Randy Alcorn said in his book, this was so interesting. It was a study that was done on lottery winners. And it said after—it was either six months or a year—after someone won the lottery, their satisfaction level was on par with the person who was a quadriplegic in a wheelchair. Shocking! But he said that doesn't make you happy, and their misery index can go up because now everybody and his dog is wanting after them to see if they can get some money.

The prayer in Proverbs is, "Lord, give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is my portion, lest I be full and deny thee and say, 'Who is the Lord?' or lest I be in want and steal and profane the name of my God." God, you give me what you want me to have, and I will be faithful with it to bless others and to be a conduit of what you give to me. So as we close out, are you a faithful manager of God's money?

Larry Nobles: You've been listening to From His Heart and the message "Managing God's Money" from Pastor Jeff's new three-lesson series God and Money: What the Bible Says About Managing Money. Now, we began this series last Monday, and we hope that the teaching has helped you prioritize God's design for your money as you continue to grow closer to him.

The series also contains two other messages called "The Love of Money" and "When You Forfeit a Blessing." This series is available on a USB flash drive, CDs, video DVD, or an MP3 digital download. You pick when you support the worldwide outreach of From His Heart this month with a gift of any amount. To do that, call 866-40-BIBLE. That's 866-402-4253. Or go online to fromhisheart.org. Request the series God and Money: What the Bible Says About Managing Money when you make your gift.

Time's up for today. I'm Larry Nobles. Thank you for listening, and we trust that you'll join us next time when Pastor Jeff presents a series that will provide real peace in troubled times. It's called "Got Trouble?". Join Pastor Jeff Schreve next time as he speaks truth, love, and hope to a lost and a hurting world. Remember that no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Find out more at fromhisheart.org.