God and Our Money

When you consider your finances, what comes to mind? What you have or don’t have? Whom you owe or what to buy? Do you feel stress, or are you at peace? God’s Word offers much wisdom for our financial decisions. In this message, Dr. Stanley covers common concerns, discussing what God thinks, says, and promises regarding personal finances—and what we can expect if we are obedient to His principles. Discover the path to generosity and provision as you learn how to trust Him with this important area of life. For more messages from Charles Stanley, including this week’s broadcast, go to www.intouch.org/watch

Dear Lord,
Today…….I am asking all my prayer warriors to say a prayer that may help others. So many people are hurting right now. Many are struggling with finances and need jobs. Some are facing foreclosure and don’t even know how they are going to make it from week to week.. Many are lonely. . Many are heartbroken. . Many are facing sickness and health is fading. . Some are dealing with difficult family members. Many have lost HOPE.. Tonight, let us put our prayers and faith together decree and declare breakthrough over our families. Financial miracles WILL take place. Jobs WILL be found. Our Bodies WILL be made whole & sickness WILL flee. Marriages and relationships WILL be restored. Family members WILL find Jesus. Heartbreaks WILL be healed. JOY WILL be restored and HOPE WILL be found. In Jesus Name. Amen!!!!!! Keep God First…….

When you think about your finances, do you have a good feeling or a bad feeling?
I didn’t hear, I didn’t hear that answer but I heard a roar, a good feeling or a bad feeling.
Well, when you think about your money, for example, do you think about how much you have, how much you’d like to have, how much you don’t have what you spend it on?
What do you think about it? Do you give it in a spiritual thought?
Has that ever dawned on you?
For example, maybe you need to give or maybe you need to give more or would you say that you have a pretty good excuse not to give any because you don’t go to church?
That’s not the only place you can give.
And so when people think about their finances, usually they think about how much they need and what can they do to increase their income?
I understand that that’s sort of natural normal. There’s nothing wrong with questioning that or wondering why.
Maybe you don’t feel like you’ve been treated right, you don’t make enough on your job, whatever it might be.
So, what I want us to do is to find out what God thinks.
It’s not what man thinks, it’s what God thinks.
Secondly, what God says, what he promises that is God keeps his promise. So I wanna know what He promises.
I wanna know what I can expect if I’m obedient to God.
If I’m not obedient to him, I can expect not to be blessed.
So I want you to turn to one of my favorite passages in the third chapter of the Proverbs.
Turn there for a moment if you will.
And I want us to begin reading in um this uh fifth verse, this is an awesome passage of scripture.
And we’ll just read from five down to um uh verse 10.
So listen to this trust in the Lord with all your heart, do not lean on your own understanding in all your ways.
Acknowledge Him in every aspect of your life and he will make your path straight.
Do not be wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
If you will, it’ll be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones.
Then he says, honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce.
So your barns will be filled with plenty and your vat or your barrels will overflow with new wine.
What an awesome promise of God.
So when I listen to that passage, I think, well, according to that, I shouldn’t be worried about finances if I do exactly what God says, do I have to decide if I believe that he keeps his word and doesn’t, is God telling the truth or is he not?
Yes, he’s telling the truth. And often times we’re in financial problems because we’ve simply disobeyed God.
He’s not gonna challenge us to do something that’s not for our best benefit.
So I want to think for just a moment when you think about your finances, consider the basic teachings of scripture.
They’re very basic. And the very first one is this, listen to the 50th psalm.
And the second verse 12 verse, listen for the world is mine and all it contains that settles the issue to some degree that everything that exists.
God controls it. He is, listen, the world is mine and all it contains.
Now, there are a lot of people who think it’s theirs.
They think this is my money, this is mine to do with what I choose.
That’s not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that God is the one who owns it all.
And He’s given us the privilege of being caretakers of it, managers of it, stewards of it but not owners.
There’s a difference to recognize that what you have belongs to God. It came from God.
You said, well, I worked 40 hours or 50 hours last week.
What you could have been sick and couldn’t work.
You could have been without a job, but he is the source of all that we have.
And so when you look at that passage and you ask yourself the question, uh, what do I own?
I’m a steward, I’m a manager. I’m a caretaker, but I don’t own anything. He can take anything.
You and I have away in a split second.
So we’re caretakers, we’re managers and we’re either good managers, good stewards or we are not.
And so when I think about whether we’re good or not, I think about a passage of scripture in the 12th chapter of Luke.
If you look there for a moment, which is a good example for us to see what happens.
Watch this when you think you’re the owner, when you forget that you and I are trustees that God is the one who owns it all.
He’s the one who is the source of it all. When I forget that idea and I think it’s mine.
Listen to what happens in the 16th verse of the 12th chapter of Luke.
He told them a parable saying the land of a rich man was very productive and he began reasoning to himself.
That’s always dangerous saying what watch this, what shall I do since I have no place to store my crops.
He’s got a problem already. He’s owner, he thinks, then he said this is what I will do.
I will tear down my barns and build larger ones and there I will store all my grain and my goods, me myself and I, and I will say to my soul.
So you have many goods laid up for many, many years to come, take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.
Looks pretty good, doesn’t it?
But God said to him, you fool this very night, your soul is required of you.
And now who will own what you have prepared?
So is the man or woman who stores up treasure for themselves and not reach to a God.
It’s one thing to recognize that I’m a steward. I’m a keeper.
It’s something else to think that I’m a big time owner that I own it all.
How fast can you lose it? One heart beat and you’ve lost it.
I think about people who boast of how wealthy they are. A millionaire, billionaire, trillionaire, whatever it might be.
And their goal in life is always to out to somebody else.
They forget one heartbeat, it’s all over and without Christ, what a waste.
And so when you stand before Him, you cannot boast of God. Look what I’ve done.
Rather, it’s going to be what an awesome failure you’ve been because you see you judging yourself by the world’s standard.
What I have, what I can do, who I am, how I look and so forth by God’s standard, is the condition of the heart.
Are you surrendered to the Lord God or are you selfishly living your life for yourself?
So you can boast of all that you have, that’s what he was doing.
So you have to ask yourself the question, you’re a manager or are you an owner?
And so when you consider the basic teachings of scripture about, given the first one, is this, the question is, are we a of our income?
He says in better turn because I wanna show you something.
Uh Look, look in the third chapter for a moment and uh you’ve heard this many, many times and people have preached on it and you’ve listened to it, some of you listened to it uh unhappily and um some of you, you listen to it happily, but listen to this passage of scripture.
He says, will a man rob God yet you’re robbing me.
But you say, how have we robbed you in tithes and offerings?
You’re cursed with a curse for you are robbing me the whole nation of you.
Then he says, bring the whole tide 10% into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house.
Given us a reason. Test me.
God says, you can put me to the test and says, the Lord of host.
If I’ll not open for you, the windows of heaven pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.
One of the purposes for His blessing us is to prove himself to us.
Then he says, I will rebuke the devourer for you. So you’ll not.
So he’ll not destroy the fruits of the ground.
Now, when your vine in the field cast its grapes says the Lord of Host, all the nations will call you blessed for.
You should be a delights. Some land says the Lord of Host. Now, what’s he saying?
He said, look on the source of everything.
My requirement is that you give 1/10 of your income back to me for three reasons.
Primarily, first of all, to provide for the work of the Lord.
Secondly, to provide for the needs of others. And thirdly to prove his faithfulness.
In other words, one of the reasons God requires us to give is He wants to prove to us his faithfulness that if I give He’s gonna give back, if I give, he’s gonna give more.
That is he wants to prove to us that he is everything he says is somebody says, well, now I don’t need to give the proof that well, let me ask you a question.
Are you in more than likely anybody that questions? That’s not a toddler.
Well, I give to God, well, how much do you give? Well, I give enough.
Well, if it’s enough, well, I can tell you what enough is enough.
Starts with 1/10 and somebody says, well, in this day and time, God does not expect me to give 1/10 of my income to him.
Well, let’s look back and to see what his reasons are to provide for the work of the Lord.
You wanna get the gospel out. Secondly, he says to provide for the needs of others.
You wanna keep everything for yourself. And thirdly, he says to prove his faithfulness.
One of the reasons God requires a buzz and asks a buzz to give to him is he wants to prove himself.
So for example, what else could he do to prove himself?
And this reaches the heart of a lot of people, their money that was I worked 40 hours or 50 or 60 or 20 or whatever it might be.
And this is mine. No, it’s not mine.
God provided it for you and to prove himself to you, give him 1/10 and watch what He does.
It isn’t that God can’t operate without us, that he’s given us this awesome privilege of working with God so that He can prove himself to us that He’s who He says He is.
Now he says with a tie their income. And secondly, we have to give cheerfully.
And second Corinthians chapter nine, look that for a moment, second Corinthian chapter nine.
And uh look if you will and uh these verses beginning in verse six, now this I say He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.
He who sows bountifully will reap bountifully. Now listen to that watch this.
This is, this is how simple this is.
I either believe God or I don’t believe this is not the words of a preacher.
This is the word of God. If I so bountifully, I’m gonna read bountifully watch this.
Each one must do just as He’s purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver.
This is what He promises and God is able to make all grace to you.
So that always having all sufficiency in everything you may have an abundance for every good deed.
So God doesn’t put pressure on people to give. He says, here’s the opportunity.
Here’s the, in other words, here’s what God says. This is the way I operate.
God says that the way I operate is that I want you to have all your needs met.
And I’ve chosen to do this, I’ve chosen that as you count your dimes 10 of them, you take one and give it to me.
You have nine. Somebody says, but, but nine and 10 are not the same, not with you, but with the sovereign omnipotent God.
He can take a little bit and multiply it far beyond anything we imagine.
You said, well, I don’t know whether I believe that or not.
Well, I’ll tell you when you believe it, when you try it.
One thing for certain, when you obey God, God is going to honor your giving, you say, well, I don’t know whether it’ll work or not.
Well, God is simply saying, you don’t have to wonder but just try me imagine trying God.
I love that idea. Try God.
He’s not gonna ever come up short and we’re not gonna ever come up needing anything because that’s who he is.
He’s a God of grace and love and mercy.
If I should ask you, if you believe that God is a God of goodness and love and mercy, you’d say yes, I said, well, if you believe he’s dead, would you give him 1/10 of what you have?
It’s just 1/10. Think about what he said.
I’m gonna bless you thus so and so all I want you to do is to set aside 1/10 of it, one penny out of every 10, just line them up one penny out of every 10 and see what I do over here because of what you’ve done.
God is a God who keeps his word.
And when I think about the simplicity of that promise and what he’s willing to do if we’re willing to trust him.
So I want you to turn to this very important passage.
It, it’s, it’s go back to the, the last book in the old Test me and go back two books as the quickest way to find that guy.
I want you to listen to this awesome passage of scripture which should be a warning to you about not giving to God.
Listen to what he says verse five.
Now, therefore, thus says, the Lord of hosts can watch this, consider your ways, you have sown much, but you harvest little, you eat, but there is not enough to satisfy you, you drink, but there’s not enough to become drunk.
You put on clothing but no one is warm enough and he who earns earns wages to put into a purse with holes.
Now, is that not an awesome passive scripture or not?
You know what he says in one sentence, no matter which it is not gonna work.
No, listen, people can gain millions and millions in their income just as miserable.
When they lie on the bed at night, you, you can’t buy a bed anywhere that takes away the burdens of the day.
You can’t, you can’t have a room that’s so absolutely beautiful and peaceful and everything is just right and relieve you of guilt.
God says that you and I are managers. We are caretakers.
We are people who are responsible for every aspect of our life and money is an area in which we’re responsible.
God is the gift of every good and perfect gift.
And listen, who gives you the strength to get up in the morning and get to work?
Who gave your house to live in? Who gave you a car to drive?
Who’s giving you good health? Who’s the source of every blessing you have? That’s right.
Listen, giving to God is not just appreciation, it’s obedience, it isn’t just being good and being kind and being thoughtful and being sort of generous.
It’s either obedience or disobedience and either I believe what he says or I don’t.
So think about this is God omniscient.
Knowing all, let’s, let’s say it like a minute, omniscient knowing all omnipotent having all power.
Well, why don’t you give to him?
That is if he’s all of that, can you trust him with 10% of what you have?
I’m just saying, are you practicing a principle?
And many of you do not even go to church or many of you do and you may listen to whatever it might be in morning and not even on Sunday.
But what about your money? What are you doing about your money and your relationship to God?
It is, it is an opportunity to obey God and watch him work.
God is always at work in people’s hearts who will obey Him.
If you ignore Him, God’s not gonna force himself upon you.
God gives some people great abilities and talents and skills and reasoning and business and so forth.
Make lots and lots of money and what are they doing? They’re strutting about what they’ve done.
Well, I wanna go back to according to you got a hole in your pocket but, and you don’t even know it’s there.
You can lose quicker than you made it by far.
And people spend their whole life making money accomplishing more, achieving more, putting away more and one heart beat.
It’s all over one heartbeat, it’s all over.
Imagine spending 60 70 years doing your best to become a multi multimillionaire.
Go to bed at night and wake up facing God. I don’t think so.
So would you say that you are a spender or would you say you’re a, a good caretaker of what God has given you?
The reason people get in trouble financially is real simple, disobeying God and is a good example.
When you got all that money, there’s a hole in your pocket.
Have you ever felt like there was a hole in your pocket?
Somebody says, I felt like it was a hole in my whole finances. You can lose it.
You can lose it quicker than you can have it. Amen. Ok.
So consider God’s plan for a given to them and if you just jot them down for your sake and then I will read the scripture that is God’s motivation for blessing us and causing us.
The tide is love. First chronicles 29 12, both riches and honor come from you and you rule over all and your hand is power and might and it lies in your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone for all things come from you.
You write that in your bible underline the scripture, both riches and honor come from you. You rule over all.
The second is not only his motivation, but here’s his plan.
We read a while ago, bring the whole tit into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house.
Test me, put me to the test.
Now says the Lord of host, if I’ll not open for you, the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.
Get that last part. He’s not saying I’m just gonna bless you up to the rim.
I’m gonna bless you till it overflows. Now, my best example of this and I love it.
And that’s Oatmeal and Raisin brand. I like them both.
And the other day, I bought a large carton of raisin brand and it had two bags of raisin brand in it.
50% air, 50% raisin brand. So, so I bought AAA big container oatmeal right up to the tip top.
And the truth is we don’t like opening a bag and at 50% air.
Thank God that’s not the way he works. Then look at this because that’s his plan.
His promise, listen, his promise. He says Proverbs 3 10, your barns will be filled with plenty and your vets or barrels will overflow with new wine.
And so that’s what they were concerned about most, what to eat, what to drink. That’s his promise.
Then what about his protection of, of whatever we have?
Listen to what he says, he says in 3 11, I will rebuke the devour for you so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes before they’re ripe.
What he’s saying is this and remember this is the agricultural life he’s talking about. What about today?
What he’s simply saying is I’m gonna protect what you do have you say?
Well, how would God do that? It depends on the situation. God knows how to protect us.
He would protect you, for example, in decisions that you make you getting ready to buy a house, new house.
And so you and your wife look at it or your husband and, and uh, you got the Children there and they all, you all just love it and it’s big and beautiful.
Then you go home and you look at your income and you think, well, it stretches a little bit and then deep down inside, you know, it’s more than you can afford.
So you say, well, what we’ll do, we’ll just pray about it if you pray about it.
God is not gonna lead you into debt.
Now, watch this, owning a house and having a mortgage isn’t necessarily a debt if you can pay the mortgage.
But if you’re buying something you can’t afford and what happens, you sleep in a bed that you’re never comfortable in because of how much money you owe.
You sit at the table and you can’t enjoy the meals because you’re in debt and you, you can, where the fine is closed.
But if you’re in debt, you don’t, you can’t enjoy them.
Other words, God wants to protect us in what we have.
And if we honor him, listen to him and you get ready to buy something, for example.
And you have this little reservation. Mm mm mm mm. I don’t know how God uses. You don’t you?
But it’s just like I just, that’s not a me then you better drop it right there.
And here’s what we say. Sometimes we say, well, you know what?
I, I know it’s, nobody’s perfect and God understands that he does not understand disobedience. He just doesn’t.
And if God tells you not to do something or you have a strong feeling and remember you have the Holy Spirit living within you, that’s his gift.
And what does He do? He warns us about things and he encourages us and he gives us direction and guidance and leadership.
And so God wants you to have a place to live.
He may not want you at this time in your life to have a house that has all these particular means to it.
But He wants you to have something you can rest in, enjoy in decorate in or what and, and have fun in it.
He doesn’t want you living in a house that you’re afraid financially, it’s just gonna collapse on you.
And many people have lost their houses because they didn’t listen to God.
They bought something they couldn’t afford, they didn’t do it because God led them because he warned them against it.
So watch this when it comes to God’s protection of us and his watch cat, he protects us in every facet of our life.
Your son or daughter wants to go to a very, very, very expensive college and there may be one in your city that’s really just as good when it comes to the education.
Do you want them to go to one of these colleges?
So you can say my son goes so and so my daughter, she attends so and so or do you want your kid to get a good education?
Love God walk in his ways and follow your example and your leadership of a good steward.
So we have to be, we have to be honest with God about things. Now watch this.
You have the Holy Spirit within you to warn you against doing something that is not good that and watch this.
There’s some things that are not right and wrong but that not right and wrong doesn’t mean that what is not necessarily wrong is not right for you at this time in your life.
It may be ok a little later, but not now.
So if you’re obedient, watch this, if you’re obedient, you have ears to listen and a heart to be sensitive to what God is saying to you.
Because what he’s trying to do is to protect you.
Nobody wants to go to bed at night with debt hanging over them and they wake up, hanging over them, they go to work, hanging over them and what happens?
They have no joy, no peace, no happiness. And so what happens? Watch this.
You disobey God in one area, you’re gonna disobey God in another. You obey God or you get in trouble.
It may start with money. It may end up with immorality.
The devil knows how to use every tool he’s got, it’s getting awfully quiet in here because you know it’s the truth.
Hey man, what about his generosity?
Look, if you will in Luke chapter six verse 38 give and it will be given to you.
That is whatever you give, they will pour into your lap. A good measure. How much is that?
When they pour it in, it’s be pressed down, shaken together.
Running over four by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you in return and look at that.
You know, it doesn’t get as simple as this.
Look at this, he says by your standard of measure, it’ll be measured to you in return.
So if I give God $1 out of 10, I’m gonna get blessed.
It’s just that simple. I’ve been telling them since my first job. I made $4.
I, I, I, I, I would have felt guilty if I gave God 25 or 50 cents.
I gave him a dollar. I was grateful. I’ve never just tied in my life.
I’m not saying I’m an example. I’m just saying this. I know it works.
We forget who we’re talking about.
We’re not talking about what I’m gonna do for you. We’re talking about what he’s gonna do for you.
God is going to keep his word because that’s who he is. He’s the God of truth.
That’s one thing to tell the truth. The second thing is, does he have the power to do it?
Yes, he has, he has infinite power to work in your life to do his will to get his will done.
So, is he generous? Yes, he is, gives us more than we expect more than deserve more than we ask for.
Then of course, his sufficiency, listen to what he says in Second Corinthians 9 68 we read it.
Now this I say He who sows sparingly chinch.
You know, that’s a little bit will also reap sparingly.
He who sows bountifully even a lot will re bountifully. God loves a chi giver.
Is that what he says? God loves a cheerful giver? Now, watch this.
God is able to make all grace abound to you that always having all sufficiency in everything.
You may have an abundance for every good deed. You know what God is saying? I’m gonna bless you.
If you just trust me, it’s just that simple and it all boils down to one thing.
Do I believe the word of God or do I not?
I’ve given you a few illustrations. But what I’ve given you is what I got.
We just been caught in scripture all morning.
Do you believe Him or not think about your finances, nobody’s business but yours think about where you are financially, what you owe.
It’s not wrong to owe somebody as long as you’re able to pay them back and you owe them for a good reason.
Can you pay them back? Sometimes people can’t help certain things that happen.
But when it comes to giving to God, I believe that giving to God, it covers every single aspect of our life because He is a God of goodness and love and mercy and kindness.
And we’ve seen that in all these verses. And I wanna give one more verse.
Look at, look at Luke uh Luke chapter 18 for a moment.
And I want you to look at what Peter is asking Jesus about.
And um it just follows what we are saying.
They’re having this conversation in 28 verse of, of uh Luke 18.
Listen, what he says, Peter said, speaking to Jesus. He said, behold, we’ve left our homes and followed you.
Peter is just where he is at this moment in his life. He’s saying, Lord left my fishing business.
I was doing good, left my house, left my family, left everything for you.
He may have been having a pity party.
I’m not sure what he was having, but listen to what he said and he said to them truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house, family, brothers, parents, Children for the sake of the kingdom who will not receive many times as much at this time and the age to come eternal life.
Now, I want you to think about this. What about your Children?
Uh, some of you have small Children and, um, you talked some things about them.
You should talk to your Children about your finances.
You should teach them very early in life to tie their income.
And the way you do that is stack up, stack up 10 pennies.
I put one over here and they have nine. And you say, well, son, which one do you want?
He’ll sell, I’ll take the nine.
You should talk about tithing your income to your Children because they’re gonna spend all you’ve got unless you teach them how to deal with their money.
And that’s true. Isn’t that true? It is true.
And so what you do, you teach them to tie their income, what you do is you’re teaching them to respect the truth of God’s word to respect you on you and you are teaching them to practice as they follow you and follow you a lead.
That’s a tit. And when they learn that very early in life, they’re gonna do it all their life while because they’re gonna be blessed.
And I think about it in my own life, I could give you lots of illustrations.
You heard this before. I’ll tell you again when I finished high school and I want to go to college I didn’t have any money.
I finally had $75.75 dollars to go to college. No way.
One night in one conversation with a pastor, my whole college for four years was paid for, with all meals included and everything.
You know what God did. God honored what I started giving to him when I gave him $1 out of every four.
Now, I wanna say to parents and grandparents, that’s why you should teach your Children the time because you don’t know when they’re gonna need it.
You don’t want them coming back for, to you for something that y’all would provide.
So you just heard the truth this morning and nobody here has an excuse and nobody listening has an excuse for not knowing what to do and that is your income.
If it’s your local church or wherever you get blessed, you do what God tells you to do and watch God work in your life.
It may be a revolution that takes place in your life about not only you giving but everything else that you’re doing.
Father, how grateful we are that we never have to in any way. Apologize for your word.
We have really don’t have to defend it but just proclaim it and watch you work it.
We love you. We praise you. We thank you. We could never thank you enough.
And father, I pray for the person who is unsaved and they are seated here are watching and listening and probably not very interested in money, but to realize perhaps to give an account to you, one of these days they can’t pay their way in.
But it’s a matter of asking you to forgive them, of their sins, surrendering their life to you and by faith, trusting you to forgive them on the basis of Christ’s death at Calvary, shedding of his blood payment for their sin.
What an awesome God you are.
Let your grace, dear father, let your grace rest upon every person who is trusting you as their savior, believing you for their life in Jesus name.
Amen.