His Dollars His Design

I think that's all the preliminaries. Let me read Proverbs

chapter three. I'm gonna read verses nine and ten. Honor

the Lord with your wealth, that says, and with the

first fruits of all your produce, then your barns will

be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting

with wine. Honor the Lord with your wealth this morning,

and I'm gonna see if I can do this. We're

gonna be on the whiteboard a lot today. I know

everybody loves the whiteboard. It's gonna be very teachy today.

Some things are more preachy and some things are more teachy.

All right, there's gonna be more teachy today. Usually we

start at the beginning of a book of the Bible

and we just work passage by passage through that book

and we take the next book. But every once in

a while we'll take a topic, and that is what's

happening today. And usually when we take a topic, I

handle it very systematically. It's just kind of one of

my quirks. It's just the way I am. So it's

going to be very systematic today and very white boardy.

And as you noted from our passage that we've just

read we're going to be talking about your money. Probably

no topic about which there are more varied feelings than money.

Lots of people are attracted to it. Some people are

afraid of it, some people don't want to talk about it,

some people can't stop talking about it. Some people have

jobs where all they do is deal with it, and

other people have jobs that don't deal with it at

all except for every two weeks and then get a paycheck.

Very different feelings about money. But what we're concerned about

today is how God feels about your money. Honor the

Lord with your wealth is what this proverb says, Well,

how do I do that? How do I honor the

Lord with my wealth? Another way of asking that question

could be what is God's design for handling your money? Question? Mark?

What is God's design for handling your money? That's what

we're going to explore today, and we're going to do

it with this simple organizing principle. We'll start with God's

design your money, and then we'll get to talking about

handling God's design and then your money? What what?

What?

What's the concept there? And then what do we do

how about handling it? Okay, Ready to get started Okay,

let's talk about God's design. Does he even have one?

Does God have a design for how we handle our money?

And when I say a design, I don't mean a

sea grit formula or some rigid recipe. What I mean is,

does God have principles and an overarching principle maybe when

it comes to the idea of what we do with

our money? Does He have intentions and priorities? Does He

have instructions for us or is it just like here

you go, go get them? Well, some would say that

as Christ taught in his earthly ministry, that he taught

about the topic of money more than anything else. And

in some ways that's true. I mean, the topic of

Christ's teaching was the Kingdom of God, knowing God, loving God,

and having a heart that belongs to God. But as

as he did that is that was his broad topic.

The specific topic of money is what he taught more

than I taught about more than anything in order to

get at what it looks like to know God, love God,

and have a heart that belongs to God. The way

we handle our money is fruit of our participation in

the Kingdom of God. It's a big deal. It's a

spiritual matter. It's a heart matter. I think if you

look at how Christ interacts with Zachias, if you look

how he interacts with the rich young ruler, or with

the widow who gave two small coins, if you listen

to his parable about the rich fool, or his parable

about the talents, I think you can't come away with

any other conclusion but that Christ has a design for

people's money. If you're familiar with the Scriptures, you probably

know that there are dozens of verses that speak to

things related to money, wealth, generosity, greediness, debt, giving, financial justice,

and preparedness. Let's play a game. Raise your hand and

keep it up. If you think there are more than

two dozen verses in the Bible about such things, raise

your hand and keep it up. If you think there

are more than that, keep it up. Okay, we're gonna

keep going. And if you taught the stewardship class that

we did last semester, you can't play. Raise your hand

and keep it up if you think there are more

than four dozen verses in the Bible about such things,

more than five dozen, more than seventy verses about more

than one hundred, more than two hundred two fifty. Keep

your hand up. If you think there are more than

three hundred verses about money and stuff, keep your hand up.

If you think there are more than five hundred verses,

keep your hand up. If you think there are more

than a thousand, you can keep your hands. You can't

drop your hands. It depends on how you count them.

But there's a guy named Howard Dayton who's he founded

Crown Financial, a firm that helps people understand money from

a Christian perspective. He counted them. He counted two thousand

and three hundred verses over two thousand and three hundred

verses about money, wealth, giving, debt, generosity, stinginess, planning, saving, investing.

Do you think God has a design? Right now, we're

getting somewhere because we can turn a corner. If He

has a design, then his people are subject to it.

Right If we say we follow Christ, we are God's people,

then we are subject to his design, his instructions, his

principles for how we handle our money, and not just

subject to them as if we're begrudgingly going along with

something that God has for us that's not good for us.

I mean, did you read this verse, then your barns

will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be

bursting with wine. It's worth embracing God's principles. Now I'm

not talking about some prosperity theology. This is a proverb.

It's a broad principle. But you can tell from the

angle of this proverb that what God has for you

isn't misery. That's not his plan. His plan with his principles,

is not your misery. If you are his people, then

the way that you consider his designs is to embrace

them with joyful allegiance. And you might be here this

morning and you might say, well, that's great for you people,

but I'm not one of you people. I'm here because

I'm curious, and you know what, We're thrilled you're here.

We're really glad. We have people who are not Christ

followers that come here every Sunday and we are thrilled

that you are here. And I want to talk to

you also about God's design for your money, because here's

the thing. God is God of everyone, whether you acknowledge

him or not. And God's designs are for everyone, whether

you acknowledge him or not. It's like the Christian and

the Agnostic who went skydiving, and just before the jump,

the Christian puts on his parachute, and the Agnostics like,

why the parachute. I thought you were a man of belief.

He says, yes, I believe that God designed gravity. Why

are you not wearing a parachute? He's like, well, I

don't know. Maybe there's no God, maybe there's no gravity.

In other words, God's designs apply to everyone. And so

if you're here this morning and you are like, you know,

I don't know if I am following this Christ or

that I am interested in his principles. Let me just

tell you my desire for you is not that you

would just learn about his principles for money. My desire

is that you would learn of him, that you would

come to know him, love him, and that your heart

would belong to him. But because I can tell you this,

everything that He has for you is for your joy

most of all him. Does God have a design? Yes

he does. And if he has a design, and we

do well to embrace it, and we do well as

a church to teach it. If there are two thousand,

three hundred verses in the Bible about God's design for

our money, then a church that teaches the Bible should

teach about God's design for our money. I'm thrilled that

we had a stewardship class a semester or so ago

that was taught by the Dugases and the Flukes and

the Ashers. I was just looking over the curriculum last

week in preparation for this message. Thrilled that we did that.

But I tell you what, if you go on our website,

we've got discipleship information about counseling, We've got discipleship information

about divorce and remarriage, about biblical sexuality. There is hardly

anything on our website regarding discipleship. When it comes to

stewardship in money. Let me just say that's a discipleship miss.

This is part of rectifying that we can't operate as

a church and as a congregation without a robust understanding

of what God's will is for all of our life,

and all of our life includes in big ways, our money.

God has a design. Well, if God has a design,

what is it? What is his design for your money?

Let's read from First Chronicles twenty nine again. When I

say design, I don't mean secret formula or rigid recipe.

I mean what is the overarching principle and set of

principles that God has for us when it comes to

handling our money. And this principle I want us to

draw from First Chronicles twenty nine, verses ten through seventeen.

I'll read them aloud, and I want you to consider

this question. Who is emphasized as owner? Who is emphasized

as owner? First Chronicles twenty nine to ten. Therefore, David

blessed the Lord and the presence of all the assembly.

And David said, blessed are you, o Lord, the God

of Israel, our father, forever and ever. Yours, O Lord,

is the greatness and the power, and the glory and

the victory and the majesty sounds like the song we

just sang. For all that is in the heavens and

in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord,

You are exalted as head above all. Both riches and

honor come from you. You rule overall. In your hand are

power and might, And in your hand it is to

make great and to give strength to all. And now

we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.

But who am I and what is my people? That

we should be able thus to offer willingly, for all

things come from you, and of your own we have

given you. For we are strangers before you, and so

journys as all our fathers were. Our days on the

earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding, O, Lord,

our God. All this abundance that we have provided for

building you a house for your holy name comes from

your hand and is all your own. I know, my God,

that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness.

In the uprightness of my heart, I have freely offered

all these things, And now I have seen your people

who are present here, offering freely and joyously to you.

What is the overarching biblical principle when it comes to

handling your money? We might describe it this.

Way, your money.

Is it really yours? I mean, what does verse eleven

say it all belongs to God? What is verse twelve

and the end of verse fourteen say it all comes

from What does the verse fifteen say? How long is

it going to stay in your possession? Well? Not forever?

I mean, you know the old preacher joke you've never

seen a U haul on the back of a hearse. Yeah,

I know it's that old, But it's true. Now I

think it's still okay to call it yours. Like if

you are an employee at a company and you have

an office and the boss says, hey, let's go meet

in your office. You don't say that office is not mine,

belongs to the company. You're possibly like, you are weird,

but you are right. It has been given to you

to steward for our purposes. Let's go meet in your office.

But you're right, it's not really yours. One day you

may go back to that office and visit again after

you're employed somewhere else, and guess who will be in

your office. Not you, someone else will be in there.

And someday, if you could look down from heaven at

the house that you live in now, someone else will

be living in it, as if it's theirs. You are

here is the basic biblical design. You are steward. Everything

you own, you're not quite the owner of. You're the director.

You're the steward. You're the manager. And a steward, to define,

is one intrusted with resources to be used according to

another's intentions and priorities. You're a steward. I'm a steward.

You have been entrusted with many good things. They came

from Him, they belong to him. They will not always

be in your hands. And while they are in your hands,

God's design is for you to use them according to

His intentions and according to his priorities. That's his design.

You are a steward that begs the question, what are

his intentions and priorities? If we get down to the

nitty gritty, Well, there's twenty three hundred verses in the

Bible about this, but I think that even before this

morning is over, we can frame out some of the

nitty gritty some of his intentions and his priorities for

our stewardship, Our handling are handling of our money. I

say that with a little bit of confidence because fortunately,

for our simplifying purposes, there are really only three things

you can do with money. You can give, save, with that,

I'm including investing, and spend. I put them in that

order because I think there's some sense to that order.

For instance, in the Bible, giving as always always considered

a first fruits activity. That we attend to giving first

with our income, that's a biblical principle. Saving, well, those

who specialize in saving and investing will tell you that

if you don't set your intentions to save and invest

before you start intending to spend, then you'll never do

much saving or investing sense to that order. But I'm

gonna talk about him in reverse order. Let's do this

his intentions and priorities regarding giving, saving, spending. Also, to simplify,

I'm not gonna talk about giving at all today. We'll

talk about that some other Sunday. Spending we can call

that the perspective of present you oops present you. Saving.

We can call that the perspective of future you and

forgiving the perspective of beyond you. What are God's intentions

and priorities when it comes to you're spending this present

you stuff? What's the nitty gritty Well, I think we

can frame it out this way. God's intentions and priorities

for your spending include your needs and enjoyments, praise the Lord,

needs and enjoyments. Consider Ecclesiastes five eighteen and nineteen and

one Timothy five eight. Some of these passages that I

list up here, I'm gonna read out loud word for word.

Others I'm gonna pair for his for sake of time,

I'm gonna read this one from Ecclesiastes five. It's a

great place to start. Some of you already know it.

Ecclesiastes five eighteen. Behold, what I have seen to be

good and fitting is to eat and drink and find

enjoyment in all the toil with which one toil is

under the sun, in the few days of his life

that God has given him, For this is his lot. Amen.

Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions

and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot

and red joice in his toil. This is the gift

of God. God intends you to enjoy his gifts. He

intends you to enjoy what He's given you, and in fact,

what he's given you, he has also given you the

power to enjoy it. The teacher goes on later and

Ecclesiastes to talk about those who have received things and

they don't even have the power to enjoy them. That

is a miserable place to be. God intends for you

to enjoy what He's given you, and he also intends

for you to use those things to meet your needs

and the needs of those in your care. Look at

first Timothy for Timothy five five eight reads this way.

If anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially

for members of his household, he's denied the faith and

is worse than an unbeliever. Okay, so this enjoyment and

provision is not centered solely and completely on you. You

have a circle of care. What are God's intentions and

priorities when it comes to the nitty gritty of your

spending to enjoy and to meet needs in your circle

of care that includes your household and your family. You

are responsible for them. You're not responsible for them in

every way and in every sense of the word. But

provision from God through you to your circle of care

is a part of His intentions and priorities for your money.

We could put it this way. There's little parentheses here,

odds gifts for y'all. Right, y'all, you have a circle

of care, and with that circle of care, God intends

to meet needs and for you to find enjoyment. But

that's not all. Another part of the nitty gritty of

God's intentions and priorities for what He's given you is contentment.

Contentment so important for Timothy six six through ten, I'll

read this one as well Godliness with contentment is great gain.

For we brought nothing into this world, and we can

take nothing out of this world world. But if we

have food and clothing, with these we will be content.

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation,

into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that

plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of

money is a root of all kinds of evils. It's

through this craving that some have wandered away from the

faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. Contentment. Godliness with

contentment is great gain. We can put it this way.

Know what worth wanting, Know what's worth wanting, and what's

worth wanting is not just more and more and more.

It's okay to have a desire for this thing or

that thing, or a promotion or a raise. That's fine.

But if your desire is to have things more than

to be content with things and to grow in godliness,

you don't know what's worth wanting. God's intentions and his

priorities for his people. Contentment pursue godliness. Pursue contentment with

what you have what He's given. You don't pursue wealth.

Don't pursue possessions, work hard, invest, achieve. Don't let that

be your pursuit or what do the scripture say? You

fall into a snare many senseless and harmful desires. Discontent

is a trap. Discontent is a trap. It is endless

contentment that's worth something that's worth wanting. Lastly, on this

side we would add in our framework of the nitty

gritty of God's intentions and priorities for us discipline, consider

Proverbs six six through eight, Chapter thirteen, verse eleven. I'll

flip there and read it word for word for us.

Proverbs sixty six go to the ant, oh sluggard, consider

her ways and be wise, without having any chief officer

or ruler. She prepares her bread in summer and gathers

her food in harvest. In chapter thirteen, puts things this

way thirteen eleven. Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, But whoever

gathers little by little will increase it. Plan like the ant,

be prepared like the ant, and gather little by the little.

We could put it this way, planned preparedness with I

can't help it. Pennies, I know you could say dollars.

You could say pennies. The idea is little by little.

The idea is little by little, looking after the small things.

He who is faithful in small things will be faithful

in large things. That's the idea. And for most of us,

if we are going to plan with discipline, if we

are going to prepare with discipline, if we're going to

take care of the small things with discipline in our

financial life, that's going to mean a written budget. Dude,

someone whistle, Yeah, I know. Look, the word budget is

nowhere in the Bible. Okay. I am not saying if

you don't have a rich, written and budget, you are

unbiblical and ungodly. I'm not saying that. I am not

saying that. What I am saying is that if we

are going to execute on God's intentions and priorities for

us in the Bible, if we are going to plan

with discipline and prepare with discipline, if we're going to

take care of things little by little, then for most

of us, faithfulness is going to look like a written budget.

It is very difficult to have discipline about our decisions

if we can't see all our decisions at once. If

we're taking all of our financial decisions one at a

time instead of having a dashboard where we can see

how one decision affects the other decisions. Then it's very

difficult to be disciplined. And and today there it is

easier than ever to have that kind of discipline and

have that kind of that ability, I mean all kinds

of apps. You know, as I was looking at the

stewardship class that these couples helped teach that there were

several different options that they were available to easily budget

and exercise godly biblical discipline about our finances. I'm going

to work with the staff. When we send out an

email next week, we'll include some links for some resources

like that, because for many of us, for many of us,

every one of us can grow in biblical stewardship. Nobody

is done growing in biblical stewardship. But I can also

say this for many of us, the next growth step

probably is the discipline that it takes to have a

written budget, which is probably the case. Needs and enjoyments, contentment,

and discipline. These are a part of the nitty gritty

intentions and priorities that God has for us in handling

our money. Now, what about on the saving side again,

not even talking about giving this week, We'll find another

Sunday to do that. Believe me, I'll get to it.

But on saving, and with that I include investing God's

intentions and priorities for us as we steward. Include planning

includes planning. Consider Proverbs twenty one twenty Ecclesiastes eleven six.

I'll paraphrase these just for sake of time. You can

jot them down in your notes. Proverbs twenty one twenty

says this, in the wise man's house there is precious

wine and oil, but the fool consumes all that he has.

The wise man's house, there's precious wine and oil, but

the fool consumes all that he has. He doesn't plan

for the future. He doesn't save for a later that

Ecclesiastes passage says this in the morning, in the morning,

sow your seed, and in the evening, don't withhold your hand.

That is, don't stop planting, because you don't know what

will do well, whether this or that or both will

be good. In other words, what the teacher is saying

in Ecclesiastes is don't stop investing. Or we could put

it this way, save some seed for sewing. If you

were a farmer and you were growing corn, it wouldn't

make sense for you to eat it all up. You

wouldn't have anything to plant. The same thing is true

of the income that we receive money wise. God's intent

and priorities for us is that we would save some

seed for sewing. You a foolish man consumes all that

he has. The teacher in Ecclesiastes says, hey, don't stop investing.

You don't know what's going to do. Well. Now that said,

here's another part of God's intentions for us, is that

we would plan and would save. We would invest without presumption,

without presumption. Consider Luke twelve fifteen through twenty one. I'll

turn there and read that for us, word for word

reads this way. Jesus speaking, he says to them, take

care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for

one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.

And he told them a parable saying, the land of

a rich man produced plentifully. And he thought to himself,

what shall I do, for I have nowhere to store

my crops. And he said, I'll do this. I will

tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there

I will store all my grain and my goods, and

I will say to my soul, soul, I just think

that's funny. It's a funny way to talk to yourself, soul.

You have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink,

be merry. But God said to him fool this night,

your soul is required of you, and the things you've prepared,

who's will they be? So is the one who lays

up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God

plan but without presumption. Don't be driven by fear, have

wise foresight, fight war wise foresight. Don't build and store

and hoard foolishly. Prepare wisely. Trust God not wealth, because

in the end it's not yours anyway, and it won't

stay yours. Use what you've been given to make eternal impact.

Use what you've been given with your very temporary earthly

possessions to form eternal relationships who you'd be a fool

not to. As I mentioned, and are giving time this morning.

Everything we own, all our possessions are like tokens that

we can't do anything with. Once we leave this establishment,

we would be wise to use them for all kinds

of eternal purposes. I want to close this way. Why

should anyone care? I mean, why should anyone really care?

Why should any way really be motivated for us to

handle our money according to God's designs? I mean, you

might be here and going. I get it. Everything's from God.

It all belongs to him. I am a mist I'm

fading fast. I'm supposed to steward these things according to

his principles. But supposed to just doesn't go very far

with me. You know how long that lasts. You should

do this, If that's all you've got is you should.

I don't think you're gonna take many faithful steps. But

it goes way deeper than just you should. Because the

God who designed how to handle money is the same

God who designed you. He knows what will bring you

joy more than you do. Right. You think you know

what will bring you joy. I know how that is.

I think I know what will bring me joy, and

I turn out to be wrong really fast. If I'm lucky,

I find out fast I was wrong. If I'm unlucky, unfortunately,

it may take me a long time to find out

that I was completely wrong about what would bring me joy.

But God actually knows. God designed all things, and he

knows what will bring you joy. Not just in an isolated,

individualized sense. God knows what will bring you joy in

the sense that ripples out into your family, and into

your church and into your community. God knows what will

bring you joy, not just in a momentary sense, but

in a kind of sense that stacks up right through

the years, and through the decades and through eternity. He

knows what will bring you joy. You can trust his designs.

If you remember the parable of the talents. It was

the lazy, self protective steward. The results of his stewardship

was weeping and gnashing of teeth. But to the stewards

who operate according to his intentions and priorities, what were

the results? Enter into the joy of your master. He

knows what will bring you joy. And if you're a Christian,

then part of you already knows. This. Part of you

already knows that Christ said, like in John ten, I

have come that you would have life, and that you

would have it abundantly. I'm the good shepherd. I lay

my life down for the sheep. This is the same

shepherd who laid his life down so that for your

joy you would have life abundantly. For your joy, he

has given you and joined you to a people for

your joy. He has given you forgiveness for your joy.

He has given you grace for your joy. He's put

into your hands all of these good things, and for

your joy, He now shepherds you towards the kind of

stewardship that you will have life in. This isn't just

about what you're supposed to do. This is about where

joy is to be found. Joy is found in Him

and his ways for many of us. For many of us,

that means pursuing contentment. We've been pursuing things. We've been

pursuing more. We've we've lost sight. We don't know what's

worth wanting. And for your joy, the Shepherd is moving

you towards stewarding your possessions and your attitude towards your possessions.

He's steward He's shepherding you towards a stewardship of contentment.

Believe me, believe the authority of Scripture. It's for your joy.

For many of us, the next step of faithfulness is discipline,

preparing and plan with the little things that may be

a written budget, and that may be something that you

have resisted. I promise you. I promise you. His intentions

and his priorities are for your joy, and if that

includes a discipline that you've been resisting, I would just

encourage you. Do you think you know your joy better

than he does. For many of us, that maybe involving

some planning, saving some seed for sowing in ways that

we've never done it before. We've been foolish or desperate

and felt like there's nothing that we can set aside.

Let me just encourage you. His priorities and his intentions

for us is that we would set some aside, all

the while looking up, setting aside, but looking up, not

trusting wealth, trusting him. Listen, if he has a design

for your handling of your money for your joy, you

can rest assured that he has a design for his

handling of you for your joy. Would you stand with

me and pray all over this place? Look, God, would

you continue to teach us your ways? Learn As we

look at your word, we consider all of the ways

in which you've instructed your people to walk for our joy,

for our good. We want to walk in them, and

we want to walk in them. We want to walk

in those ways you know, in faith, not begrudgingly, not skeptically.

But Lord, we read in Malachi how you say, hey, look,

test me in this. When it comes to this matter,

I just encourage you to just test me, walk in

my ways and see what happens. Lord, we want to

step out and walk in your ways and see what happens.

Would you draw us towards contentment? Would you draw us

towards discipline? Would you help us to set things aside

as we ought and look up as we ought? And

we ask for all of these things in Jesus' name. Amen,

let's sing