Rick Warren - God's Promises About Giving—Part Three

Welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Today we continue on

a journey through a powerful series called God's Amazing Promises.

In the upcoming lessons, you'll discover some of the most

profound promises that God has made to you. These promises

are not mere words. They are keys to a renewed life,

inner peace, and a hopeful future. But before we get started,

we want to let you know that very generous friends

of the ministry are offering a one hundred thousand dollars

matching grant. That means every dollar you give right now

to help Daily Hope share the hope of Jesus around

the world will be matched up to one hundred thousand dollars,

making your gift go twice as far. You can find

out more by going to Pastorick dot com or by

texting the word Hope to eight hundred, six hundred five

thousand and four. Right now, here's Pastor Rick Warren with

the final part of a message called God's Promises about giving.

You see, you can give by reason or you can

give by revelation. When you give by reason, you look

at your bank account and go what kind of afford

to give? Anybody can give by reason. You don't even

have to be a believer. You don't have to be

a Christian. Takes no faith to give by reason. This

is how much I got, This is what I can

afford to give, but to give by revelations. Go, God,

how much do you want to give through me? How

much do you want to give through This is a

test of faith, And many, many times, time after time,

I've now done this literally hundreds of times where we

would pray and I would pray, and God would give

us a number to give that is so astronomical. We

thought we don't have that to give. I remember in

one of the early building programs of Saddle Backed Church,

we committed to give an amount that was equal to

my entire salary for three years, and I thought, how

are we going to live for three years without my salary?

But that's what we God Cole's get. And in a

miraculous way, God took care of that need and met mind.

He said, He's done it so many times. I do

it without thinking. Now I know that God keeps his

promises about giving. And so when Kay and I got married,

we started tithing. Tithe means ten percent. We started giving

ten percent to God At the end of the first year,

we raised our giving to eleven percent. At the end

of our second year, we raised our giving to twelve percent.

At the end of our third year, we raised our

giving three percent, so we were now given fifteen percent.

Now why did we do this? I mean, we didn't

tell anybody about it for nearly thirty years, so we

weren't clearly, weren't showing off. We weren't trying to impress

God or to impress anybody. We didn't tell anybody about

it for years and years and years. But every time

I give, it breaks the grip of materialism in my life.

Every time I give, my heart goes bigger. Every time

I give, I become more like Jesus, and I want

to be that way. So every year we would increase

our giving to the Lord. And there were times when

the cupboard was bare and the year was real tight

and tough, but we'd still raise our giving like a

quarter of a percent because we always wanted to give

more the last year and another years when we had,

like you know, I wrote a book or got a

salary raise or something like that, we would raise our

giving four five percent and tell finally, now, for many years.

For the last at least fifteen years, K and I

have given away ninety one percent and live on nine percent.

And you know, people often ask me, why do you

think God chose you to write a book, Purpose Driven

Life that has now sold in all of its editions

over fifty million copies. And one of the things I

know is because He knew what I'd do with the money.

He knew we wouldn't spend it on ourselves. I had

a nearly thirty year track record of giving when we

didn't have the money, when the cupboard was bear, when

I was driving a car that I bought for five

hundred dollars over in leisure World instead of buying a

new car so we could give more, and the times

that we said we didn't buy that TV because we

wanted to give more. And God knew that I had

a track record that he could trust me with all

that money. Now, let me give you one more that

promises that God has made, and it is this. God

promises that my giving is stored up in heaven. This

is a big, big thing. God promises that when I give,

I'm not actually giving it away, that God is actually

storing it up in heaven.

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back in just a moment with the rest of today's lesson.

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Now back to More from God's Word with Pastor Rick Warren.

For the last at least fifteen years, K and I

have given away ninety one percent and live on nine percent.

And you know, people often ask me, why do you

think God chose you to write a book, Purpose Driven

Life that has now sold in all of its editions

over fifty million copies. And one of the things I

know is because he knew what I'd do with the money.

He knew we wouldn't spend it on ourselves. I had

a nearly thirty year track record of giving when we

didn't have the money, when the cupboard was bear, when

I was driving a car that I bought for five

hundred dollars over in leisure world instead of buying a

new car so we could give more, and the times

that we said we didn't buy that TV because we

wanted to give more. And God knew that I had

a track record that he could trust me with all

that money. Now, let me give you one more that

promises that God has made, and it is this. God

promises that my giving is stored up in heaven. This

is a big, big thing. God promises that when I give,

I'm not actually giving it a way that God is

actually storing it up in heaven. Let me show you

some verses about this. One Timothy, chapter six, verse eighteen

and nineteen says this, use your money to do good.

Use your money to do good, and give generously, always

being ready to share with others whatever God has given you. Okay,

can you do that? That's the premise of the promise.

Always be ready to give generously, Always be ready to

share with others whatever God's given you. Here's the promise.

By doing this, you will be storing up real treasure

for yourselves. Let's talking about in heaven. It is the

only safe investment for eternity. Now, I want you to

circle two words for yourselves. It says you'll be storing

up real treasure for yourself. God says that when you

give to God or you give to somebody need, you're

storing up treasure for yourself. And there's nothing wrong with that.

And where are you storing up for yourself in heaven?

Circle that treasure for yourself? Treasure results. What is that? Well,

we know that God has set up a bank account

for you in heaven, and he says you can store

up treasure for yourself in that bank account. How do

you do that by giving it away? Now? How do

we know that God has a bank account for you

in heaven Because Jesus mentioned it five times, five times.

Anytime God mentions something five times, he said, I want

you to get the message. Jesus uses the phrase store

up treasure in heaven five times. I want to suggest

to you that more important than your retirement account on

earth is you need to start thinking about your eternal

bank account in heaven, because that one's got to last

trillions and trillions of years whereas your you know, your

retirement account, maybe just a few years. He said, well, Rick,

how do I fund that eternal investment? How do I

store up treasure in heaven? Well, you can't take it

with you, but you can send it on ahead through giving.

And Jesus tells us this way Luke, Chapter sixteen, Verse nine,

Jesus says, use your worldly wealth, your worldly resources, to

benefit others and make friends. He's talking about eternal friends,

make friends in heaven. In this way, your generosity stores

up a reward for you in heaven. And wait a minute,

let's look at that verse again. Go back and look

at that. It says, use your worldly resources to benefit others.

Got that part, and use it to make eternal no friends.

What does that mean? It means when you invest in

people who are going there? That when if you use

money to help people come to Christ, if you use

money to be converted, if you use funds to help

like Daily Hope or any of our outreaches, you're actually

making an investment in eternity. Any money that you give away,

you're actually investing in eternity. And he says, when you

invest in other people, when you help people come to Christ,

they're gonna go to heaven. And when you get to heaven,

can you imagine a bunch of people coming up to

you and say, thank you. I'm here because of you.

I'm here because you gave to support Daily Hope radio

program or any other ministry or outreach that's doing a

good job. God says. People will say to you, I'm

your friend for eternity, thank you for caring for me.

As I said, you can't take it with you, but

you can send it on ahead. Now let's review these

nine promises of God. The premise is this, if I

put God first in my money first by tithing ten

percent back to him, the first ten percent goes back

to God, and I start learning to be generous with

my money with others and investing it in good things

and helping people come to Christ, help people grow, then

I can count on God to do these nine things.

God promises that if I learn to be generous, good

things will happen to me, and he'll bless me. Number two,

my children will be blessed. I don't just get blessed,

they do next Genuary. He will bless my work and

my business. He will make it profitable. Number four, I

will be happier. God says, it's a promise. You will

be happier and you learn to be generous. Number five,

My influence will increase, your world grows larger and larger.

Number six. I will end up with more you can't

outgive God. Number seven, God will meet all my needs.

Number eight. God will multiply whatever I give to him

like the seed. And number nine, my giving is actually

being stored up in heaven as a bank account in

treasure in heaven for me to use when I get there. So,

really it just comes down to this, do I believe

these promises? Really, it just comes down to do I

really trust God to keep his promises? You see, you

only actually believe the part of the Bible you actually do.

And so if you say, well I believe the Bible,

but God's given you all these promises and you're not

tithing or you're not being generous, you don't really believe

the promises of God. Now why would you believe God

and trust him enough to save you, but you wouldn't

believe him trust him enough for all the other things

he's promised. That didn't make sense? You say, okay, well,

if I really want to trust God, what's my starting point. Well,

my starting point is said pithing. God says over and

over again that if I make ten dollars right off

the top, the first dollar goes back to him. It's

called pithing. Tithing means a tenth it's not one percent,

it's not five percent. Tithing means ten percent. You're not

tithing the first part of your income back to God.

That's where you need to start with generosity, because you're not.

You can't be generous if you're robbing from God. You

know that at least ten times in scripture, God says,

the first part of everything you make belongs to me.

The tithe is mine. It's holy to me. And God says,

you're not to use my part of the income I

give you on yourself. You can use the other ninety percent.

But he says, if you use my part on yourself,

you're cheating me. God gets really specific about this in

the Book of Malachi, and he actually starts negative and

then and he goes positive. He starts actually with a

rebuke of his people for not trusting him and for

not tithing, and then he challenges us with a promise

of reward. Let's wrap it up with this verse. Malachi

three eight to twelve says this, This is God talking.

Is it right to rob God? Pretty important question, God says,

is it right to rob me? Yet you are robbing me,

says the Lord. But you ask how are we robbing you?

And God answers By not returning your tithes and offerings,

He says, you're using my money on yourself. Bring your

whole tithe, that's the whole ten percent into my storehouse.

Notice where he brings it. It's an act of worship,

given as an act of worship at the house of worship.

Bring your tithe my store. Giving to a charity is

not tithing. Giving to your sister in need is not tithing.

Bring your tie in my storehouse. It's undesignated giving. He

said that there may be food in my house. Now

notes he says, test me in this. I call this

the Pepsi challenge verse. This is the only place in

the Bible where God says you can prove he exists.

He says, test me in this, and see if I

will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour

out so much blessing that there's not enough room for

you to store it. That's like press down fully measured,

running over into your lap. See if I won't throw

open the floodgates of heaven, here's the reward. The rebuke

was you're not tithing. The reward is test me, try

it you like it. See if you throw open the

floodgates of heaven, pour out so much blessing that there

will not be enough room for you to store it.

And then he says, Then God says, I will prevent

the pest from devouring your crops. Did you know that

any money you don't give back to God in tithe,

God allows other things to take their pests in your life.

And it can be everything from the refrigerator breaking down

to the car needing repairs, and on and on. God

allows that. He says, you're not going to spend my money,

You're gonna have to give it away. Now. Why is

tithing so important to your spiritual growth? Well because, first place,

it unlocks all these promises we've looked at. Deuteronomy fourteen

twenty three on the screen says this. The purpose of

tithing is to teach you to always put God first

in your lives. If you're not tithing, God is not

first in your life, show me your calendar, show me

your money, and I'll show you what's first in your life. Well,

he says, we give the first part of our income

on the first day of the week. Another thing is

the tithing draws us closer to God. Jesus said, your

heart will be wherever your train is. All right, let's

bow our heads for prayer. God. I know this is

a scary time for some people because they just have

never trusted you and your promises. So help them realize

that the same God who died for them, and the

same God who loves them and saves them and it's

going to keep his promise to take him to heaven,

is the same God who says, I'll do these nine

things if you'll learn to be like me, if you'll

learn to be as generous as I am. Now you pray,

Say God, I want these promises in my life, Say God.

I want good things to happen to me. I want

my children to be blessed. I want my work or

business to be blessed. I want to be happier. Lord,

I want my influenced increase, and I want to end

up with more than I've got. And Lord, I want

to trust you to meet all my needs. And I

want to believe that you will multiply what I give you.

And I want to trust that whatever I give in

tithes and offerings and in charity, that my giving is

being stored up in heaven. So today I commit or

recommit to giving the first ten percent back to you.

I'm going to trust your promises. I'm going to believe

your word, and I know that it's pleasing to you. Lord.

I can't do this on my own, so I need

you to keep your promises. I'm going to test you.

I'm going to accept your challenge to see if you

won't bless me in return, and then I'll be a

blessing that I can't even handle. Lord, I look forward

to this in faith and in confidence and an expectation.

If you've never invited Jesus into your heart, Jesus is

the answer to all of our promises. Say Jesus Christ,

come into my heart and life and fill me with

your love. I want to follow you the rest of

my life. We humbly pray this prayer together in your name. Amen.

Hi everybody, this is Rick and I hope you enjoyed

today's broadcast you know, if you just prayed that prayer

for the very first time, or you just recommitted your

life to Jesus again today, would you let me know

about it. There's something real about sharing your commitment. So

write me Rick at pastor Rick dot com and say, Rick,

I prayed that prayer of commitment, I gave my life

to Christ. And I'll send you some material that will

help you on your journey with Jesus, and I'll also

pray for you. God bless you.

Thank you so much for listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope.

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generous friends have given a one hundred thousand dollars matching

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dollar you give to help Daily Hope share the transforming

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matched up to one hundred thousand dollars. Here's Rick to

tell you more.

Did you know that today there's still almost three thousand

groups of people around the world that have no Bible,

no believer in Christ, and no body of Christ, no church.

Over three thousand of those small tribes. One of the

reasons I started Daily Hope was to help bring this

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a Bible, a believer, and a body of Christ in

these last three thousand tribes. I call it the final Frontier.

These people not only need to hear about the love

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be discipled in their faith. Now, I admit this is

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share we have a generous couple who's offered a one

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Thank you for your prayers, Thank you for your support.

You make it possible.

Now in order to help get God's word out to

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doubled up to one hundred thousand dollars. This matching grant

is only available until midnight on December thirty first, so

please contact us today. You can give right now by

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six hundred five thousand and four. We'll say thanks by

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hundred five thousand and four, and thanks so much for

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