From His Heart

Jeff Schreve: One of the things that is very obvious that we require of money managers when we're going to turn over a lump sum of money for them to manage is that that person be honest and faithful and trustworthy and work for our best interests.

So, a big question: How are you doing in your money management of the Lord's resources that He's entrusted to you? Whether you have a lot or whether you have a little, it still belongs to God and He has put you in charge of those resources.

Guest (Male): The Bible makes it very clear that everything belongs to God. Everything. And we are to be wise in our stewardship of His resources. So, how are we to understand and manage our finances in a way that pleases the Lord?

You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. And today, he begins the last message in his new series, God and Money: What the Bible Says About Managing Money. In this particular lesson we're about to hear, we'll learn three priorities as it relates to the management of God's money and how important it is to be faithful with what the Lord has entrusted to you and me.

Now, if you missed the previous two lessons we aired this week from this series, you can listen to them again online at fromhisheart.org. Just click the Listen link when you go there. You can also request the entire unedited lessons in the God and Money series on a USB flash drive, CDs, DVDs, or MP3 digital download. Just go to fromhisheart.org. Now, open your Bible to Proverbs chapter 3 as we learn how to manage God's money.

Jeff Schreve: One of the things that is very obvious that we require of money managers when we're going to turn over a lump sum of money for them to manage is that that person be honest and faithful and trustworthy and work for our best interests. The Bible makes it clear that everything belongs to God.

Psalm 24:1 says, "The earth is the Lord's and all it contains, the world and those who dwell in it." Everything belongs to God. The prophet Haggai, in chapter 2:8, said, "All the silver, all the gold belong to God." Everything is God's. So, whatever wealth you have is really not yours. It's God's. You're just the money manager. You're the steward of it.

1 Corinthians chapter 4:2 says, "Now, a person who is put in charge as a manager must be faithful." It's required in stewards that a man be found faithful, that a man be found trustworthy. We want to be, as the scripture says, a manager who is wise and prudent and faithful and pleasing to the Lord.

So, a big question: How are you doing in your money management, in your stewardship of the Lord's resources that He's entrusted to you? Whether you have a lot or whether you have a little, it still belongs to God and He has put you in charge of those resources.

The book of Proverbs gives us great insight into this matter of money management. Proverbs has lots to say about money, but I've zeroed in on Proverbs 3:5-10, very familiar passages 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."

If I'm a money manager and God has entrusted the wealth that I have to me, and this idea of a self-made man—there is no such thing. We work hard, we get paid, but it's all coming from the Lord who gave you the ability to work hard. It all belongs to God and we're the managers of it.

So, the big question: 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 and 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."

Three priorities when it comes to money. Number one, our first priority is to honor the Lord from our wealth. That is hands down the first thing we are supposed to do as good and faithful stewards of God's resources. Verses 9 and 10: "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."

As we talked last week from Malachi chapter 3, 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. So, you don't even look at that as something I have to manage. I put that in the "This is God's" bucket.

When the money comes in, I just know that the tithe is the Lord's, so that is untouchable; that goes to Him. When you get really technical, according to Malachi 3, the prophet asks the question, "Will a man rob God? But you are robbing Me." But you say, "How have we robbed Thee?" "In tithes and offerings. You're cursed with a curse, the whole nation of you, because you're robbing Me."

Then He says, "Bring the whole tithe, the whole tenth, into the storehouse." Now, the temple had a storehouse. It had areas where they could store grain. "Bring the whole tenth into the storehouse and test Me now in this," says the Lord of hosts, "if I will not open up for you the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing until it overflows."

So, they were to bring the full tenth to the Lord to the storehouse, to the temple. It didn't count if you said, "Well, I gave some to my neighbor and I gave some to this person who is hurting, so now I only have 5%." No, bring the whole tithe to the storehouse in the temple and God says, "That belongs to Me."

You bring it; you don't give it because you give an offering—that's above the tithe—but you bring the tithe because the tithe is the Lord's. So, right off the top, you just know if you make $5,000 a month, it's real easy. You have a job that pays you $60,000 a year, and you make $5,000 a month, $500 is the Lord's.

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. Now, above that is an offering, and that's a freewill offering and that's as the Lord prospers, as the Lord leads you. But the first part is to honor the Lord from your wealth.

Remember this: those who honor God are honored by God. As we take God's word seriously and we say, "Okay, well He's telling me to honor Him from my wealth," what if I do that? What if I say, "Okay Lord, I'm going to be one of those Christians that takes You at Your word. I'm going to be one of those Christians," as Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, "he who hears my words and acts upon them, let me tell you who he's like. He's like the wise man who built his house on the rock."

I want to be that kind of a person, that kind of a Christian. I hear what the Lord says and I put it into practice in my life. I'm not a forgetful hearer, but I'm an effectual doer. Well, the Lord says, "You do that, you start honoring Me from your wealth, and I will honor you."

1 Samuel chapter 2, verse 30, the scripture says, "For those who honor Me, I will honor, and those who despise Me will be lightly esteemed." The first time I ran into that verse where it just made so much sense to me was watching the movie Chariots of Fire.

In the movie Chariots of Fire, the story about Eric Liddell, who was the runner in the 1924 Olympics—he was the guy that his main event was the 100-meter dash. He found out when he got to the Olympics that that race was going to be run on Sunday. He said, "I can't do that." He had a personal conviction that he wasn't going to run on the Lord's day, so he said, "I can't race then."

They said, "Well, that's your event. You have to race then." He said, "Well, put me in another event." So, they put him in the 400-meter. That wasn't his event; that wasn't his best thing. But right before he got to run in the final event on the 400-meter, one of the trainers on their team handed him a little slip of paper and it had 1 Samuel 2:30. It said, "The good book says the one who honors Me, him will I honor."

Eric Liddell ran that race and he set the world record in an event that he didn't ever train for because God does what He says. If you honor God, He honors you. If you dishonor God, if you rob God as we said last week, how can you expect to be blessed if you're robbing God?

I've known a lot of people over the years, Christians who seem to constantly have money problems. You think, "You make pretty good. I know how much you make, or I'm pretty close in the ballpark there. You make pretty good, but you never seem to have any money."

I remember one particular guy. I was just thinking, "This doesn't make sense to me." Then I found out, "Oh, you are robbing God." Because you're robbing God, God is not honoring you and He's not blessing you in the area of finances. If you start obeying Him, guess what? He's going to start blessing you.

Guest (Male): You surely know that money has a way of gripping our hearts like nothing else can. But what if you could break free from financial worry, materialism, and the constant pressure to have more? What if God's way with money could actually bring us genuine joy, peace, and purpose?

You're listening to the message Managing God's Money, Part 1, from Pastor Jeff's brand-new series, God and Money: What the Bible Says About Managing Money. In this series, we're discovering what scripture teaches about handling finances, the incredible freedom that comes when we put God first, and the unexpected blessings of biblical generosity. These truths have transformed countless lives, helping people find true contentment and experience God's provision in powerful ways.

This series is our thanks to you for your gift to From His Heart this month of any amount, and you will really be blessed by it. Real truth in a world full of confusion and need. Would you request your copy today? Call 866-40-BIBLE or go online to fromhisheart.org. Again, the series is God and Money. Remember, life is short, but eternity is long, and your support is an investment that will keep paying dividends until Christ returns. So, thank you for your ongoing partnership to help share the financial freedom found in trusting God completely. Now, let's return to Part 1 of the lesson Managing Your Money.

Jeff Schreve: I had a sweet note that was given to me just this past week. It was anonymous. It was from a lady that heard the message on Sunday and she said, she became a Christian when she got married. Her husband was a believer. She was Catholic and it was all in her head; it wasn't really in her heart. All of a sudden, she comes to know Christ and she has a desire to give.

She said, "My husband passed away when he was 49 years old. I was 49 years old." She said, "I immediately started to give and to tithe. I did that all the way through raising four girls. I was tithing and I was giving." She said, "I never went broke. I always had enough. God blessed me." She said, "I had a house and then some rental houses. Now I'm 83 years old, and I don't regret for a minute that I put God first in my finances."

The Lord provides and He honors those who honor Him. The goal in giving in this first priority to honor Him from our wealth is to grow in giving. So, the tithe is the Lord's, 10%. That's just right off the top, boom, that's God's. I don't mess with that, I don't think about it; it just goes into this "This is God's" bucket.

But the rest? What do I do with that? Obviously, we're going to talk about some of those things. You have expenses and you have debts that you're paying off and things like that. But the goal is not 10%, "That's the mountaintop of giving. Once I give the tithe, then I'm free to do with whatever I want with the 90% because the 10% is God's, the 90% is mine." No, it all belongs to God. The 10% just shows that you're recognizing it all belongs to God.

The goal is to grow in this thing called giving. When I was a young guy, I'm naturally just frugal in the way I'm wired. My good friend Mike Lurge said, "Schreve, if you were an insect, you'd be a chinch bug. You just don't like to part with money."

So, it was a big deal to start to tithe and then start to grow in this. I would look at it like, okay, so here we are, and Debbie and I with a young family, things are tight. When Debbie and I first got married, she was teaching school and I was selling for waste management. She and I both made the same amount of money, about $25,000 a year each.

Then Debbie gets pregnant a few months after we get married and we have Jill. We had said before we got married, "Hey, when we have kids, you're going to stay home and take care of the kids." That's what I wanted for her to raise the kids and be there with them, and she wanted that. So, we did that.

The school district, those bums, they wouldn't pay her anymore. They said, "You're not working, so you don't get paid." So, all of a sudden our income got cut by 50%. It was tight. We still wanted to honor the Lord and I would look at, okay, how do we go from 10% to 11%? How can we go from 11% to 12%? How can we go to 13%, 14%, 15%?

You always want to think about growing in giving because you can't out-give God. "Give and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will pour into your lap." That's why He says, "Test Me now in this if I will not open up for you the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing until there's no more room, pour out a blessing until it just overflows in your life."

That's why He says in verse 10, "So that your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine." I heard about a pastor who said that the goal of his life is to get to the point where he is, in tithes and offerings, giving 50% of his income to the Lord's work. Now, that is a good goal.

So, the first priority: 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."

We immediately take that $5,000 a month and we make $60,000 a year that we use for an illustration, so $500 goes into "This is God's." Then you have, obviously, you didn't get paid $5,000, right? Because you have taxes and insurance and all that other stuff that gets taken out. 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, terrible witness.

So, some things that we need to do. Prayerfully develop a plan regarding money management. How am I going to spend the money? Lord, how do you want me to do this? Debbie and I, when we got married and when, especially when Jill came along and we knew that we were losing 50% of our income, we had to sit down and come up with a budget. How are we going to do this?

As my friend Avon Williamson likes to say, it's a lot easier to manage up than to manage down. It's a lot easier to manage money when you have a lot of money versus manage money when there's not much money because then it's like, okay, we have to start cutting things to the bone.

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? Involve Him in this because, Lord, this is Your money, so how do you want me to spend it?

We have a house payment. Okay, now hopefully you consulted with the Lord before you bought that house because that's a big purchase. We have this and we have cars and we have this expense and that expense and the other expense. So, you consult with the Lord on your expenses and you ask yourself some questions.

When I buy this, is this a need or is this a want? Can I afford this, whatever this might be? Is there an alternative to this? You say, "I need a car." Well, if you need a car, there are lots of cars. "I need a car" doesn't mean I need to get a BMW. "I need a car" may be that you get a Chevy. You get something different; you get a car that's reliable, but it's not as expensive as another one.

Prayerfully consider your expenditures, and then prayerfully and vigorously work on getting out of debt. Debt is a killer. Dave Ramsey has lots to say about debt. Now, there is good debt and there is bad debt. You know, one of the guys I ran across that probably has more personal debt than anyone in this room, all of us combined in this room multiplied by a hundred or a thousand or maybe even more than that, Elon Musk.

Elon Musk has personal debt, has a personal debt according to Grok 3, which is his AI—which figured that they would know—of $3.5 billion. I think we'd all agree that if you're carrying a debt service of $3.5 billion personally, that's a lot. But then you look at how much money he's supposedly worth, $300 billion, and that's not that much.

So, you look and you see: Okay, how much debt do I have? 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 things that eat us up. Bad debt are like cars because cars are a depreciating item. Credit cards, big bad debt, because credit cards, they want you.

When you're a kid starting out and you get your first credit card, you're all excited; you feel like you're just big man on campus. "I've got a credit card! They're wanting me, these companies are wanting me! They're coming after me because they want me so much to have their credit card!" Then when you use the credit card, you get a bill and they're only asking you to pay ten bucks.

I had a hundred-dollar bill on my credit card; they only needed me to pay $10! This is a great deal! I remember when I was a little kid going to the store with my mom and you'd get the bill and she'd put her credit card out there. I was like, "Man, that thing is magic! You don't have to have money; you just have that thing and then you don't have to pay for it!" That's how the mind of a kid works. Well, you do have to pay for it, and they want you to pay the minimum so they can have you as a customer for life where you're an indentured servant.

The Bible says that the borrower becomes the lender's slave. Average in America, people have $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 and more things, eventually you get to the point where now the bill that used to be $10, now it's several hundred dollars, maybe it's $500 or $1,000, and so much of that is interest and gets you in this vicious cycle.

Guest (Male): You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve today and Part 1 of the lesson Managing God's Money. This entire lesson is also the third in Pastor Jeff's new series, God and Money: What the Bible Says About Managing Money. Because of the restraints of time, we're going to have to pause right there for today, but next time, after a brief review, Pastor Jeff will begin describing how you're to be prayerful about managing your finances and how to find contentment as God provides.

If you haven't done that, you may be missing a blessing, a real blessing. Don't miss the conclusion to this lesson Managing God's Money on Monday. Remember, From His Heart is the listener-supported broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Schreve, speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world, and we look forward to you joining us again next time right here on From His Heart.