Rick Warren - 8 Habits to Practice Daily That Lead to God’s Financial Blessing

You have no idea how God wants to bless you

if you'll just do it his way. You have no

idea what God might want to do in your life.

But you gotta decide, am I gonna trust God or

me with my finances? Am I gonna do it my

way or am I gonna do it God's way? Do

I want my blessing or do I want God's blessing?

You may not realize this, Jesus spoke more about money

than he did either heaven or hell. Half of all

of his parables mention money. A third of all of

his parables, his stories, deal with investments. And Jesus commends

wise investors and criticizes foolish investors. Why? Because life is

a test and life is a trust. God has made

some incredible promises of financial blessing in the word of God,

but they all have premises. Now, before we look at

the promises of God, I want to make something very

clear right here at the start. God does not want

everybody in the world to be a millionaire. God doesn't

want everybody in the world to be enormously rich. The

Bible doesn't teach that. Not only does the Bible not

teach that, Jesus taught the exact opposite. So before we

look at the promises of God for financial blessing, I

want you to look at two statements of Jesus. First,

Luke chapter 12, verse 15, Jesus said,' Watch out, be

Luke 12:15

on your guard against all kinds of greed.' A man's

life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.

In other words, life is not about acquisition. It's not

about he who dies with the most toys. The guy

who spends his life getting the most toys has wasted

his life. Jesus said, you're not going to take any

of it with you. I did not put you on

earth just to pile up stuff. The greatest things in

life are not things. Your value and your valuables are

not the same. Your net worth and your self-worth are

not the same. It's not about getting. A man's life

does not consist in what he acquires. So you never

want to let the things that money can buy keep

you or rob you of the things that money can't buy.

Now look at the second passage. Luke 16, Jesus said this.

I tell you, use worldly wealth. Circle the word use.

Money is to be used. You don't love it. You

don't serve it. You don't idolize it. You use it.

Money is to be used. I tell you, use worldly

wealth to gain friends for yourselves, eternal friends for yourself,

so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed

into eternal dwellings. Now, I don't have time to go

into this in detail, but we've talked about it before.

What this verse is simply saying is you should use

some of your money to help reach people for Christ

so that when you get to heaven, there are people

there who go, hey, I'm here because of you. I'm

your friend forever because you helped build a church building.

You helped finance a program. You helped reach me for Christ.

You bought a Bible. You shared a book. You used

some of your money to spread the good news. And

as a result, I'm in heaven. I'm your friend forever.

That's all he's talking about here. Then Jesus gives four

tests about money management. He says this, Whoever can be

trusted with very little can also be trusted with much.

God looks to see if you can handle what he

gives you little, then he gives you more. And whoever's

dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.

Then he says, second test, if you haven't been trustworthy

in handling worldly wealth, what does that mean? Trustworthy in

handling worldly wealth. He's talking about money management. He said,

if you don't manage your money well, If you're in

debt all the time, you're behind on your payments, you're

not saving, you're not tithing, you're not doing all the

different things that God tells you to do, you're not

investing wisely. He said, if you're not managing your money well,

he says, if you haven't been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth,

who will trust you the true riches? He's saying money

is a test and God is determining what he's going

to bless you with in heaven for eternity based on

how you do what he gives you here. And then

he says, number three, if you've not been trustworthy with

somebody else's property, who's going to give you your own?

And I've told you this before. You don't really own

anything on this planet. It's all on loan. God owns

it and he loans it. And he loans it to

you for about 80 years. It wasn't yours before you

were born. It's not going to be yours after you die.

He's going to loan it to somebody else. You don't

really own it. You're not taking it with you. It's

just all on loan. And God says, I'm testing you

while you're on earth to see if you are faithful

with what I loaned you, who's going to give you

your own property in eternity if I can't trust you

with what's mine here on earth? And then he says,

number four, no one can serve two masters. You cannot

serve both God and money. Now circle the word served.

He didn't say you should not serve. He says you

cannot serve. Money should never be served. Money should never

be loved. Money should be used. Now these passages teach

us two very important truths. Would you write these down?

Number one, money is a tool and a test. Money

is a tool. It's a tool to be used and

it is a test. What does it test? God uses

money to test your gratitude. God uses money to test

your faith. God uses money to test your priorities. God

uses money to test your values. God uses money to

test how responsible and mature you are. God uses money

to test your character. It is a very important test.

And the second thing God says here is that managing

money is a spiritual discipline. Managing money is a spiritual discipline.

It is far more important than you realize. You may think, oh,

I just need to manage my money so I'm not

in debt. Or, oh, I just need to manage my

money so I can live a more comfortable lifestyle. Now,

there's nothing wrong with that, either of those things. But

money management is far more important than that. The Bible

says it is the spiritual discipline that God uses. He says,

if you're not faithful with worldly wealth, who's gonna trust

you with the true riches of the universe and the

true riches in heaven? Now, there is so much that

the Bible has to say about financial money management, literally

hundreds and hundreds of verses. Now, most of these verses

are from the book of the Proverbs of Solomon. Now

why is that important? Because Proverbs of Solomon was written

by King Solomon who was the wisest man who ever

lived and the wealthiest man who ever lived. So we're

not giving you advice from Rick Warren today. This is

advice from the wisest and wealthiest man who ever lived

and he's in the Bible and God says this is

true stuff. Now what we're gonna do is we're gonna

look at eight habits. for financial blessing. God says, I

have these promises for you. If you do this, then

I will bless you in this way. And you got

to do all of them. All eight are important. These

eight financial habits. You're going to have to learn these

skills if you want God's financial blessing on your life.

Now let's get right into it. Number one, the first

habit for financial blessing is I must trust God as

my source and supply. I must trust God as my

source and supply. Now what does that mean? It means

your source of your income is not your job. The

source of your income is God. Now he may use

a job or anything else, but that's just the tool.

When I turn on a faucet, I don't really think

the faucet is the source of the water. I know

that that water's coming from Northern California. The faucet just

happens to get it to me. It's not the supplier.

It's just the channel. Your job is not your supplier.

It's your channel. And if one faucet gets turned off,

God can turn another one on just as easily because

he's the supplier. Does that make sense? Now, not only

is God the supplier of your financial blessing and the

source of it, he is the security, the source of

your securities. You see, if you're going to have security,

you must put it in something that can never be

taken from you. You can lose your money. You can

lose your savings. You can lose your job. You can

lose your house. You can lose the people you love.

The only thing that can never, ever be taken from

you is the unconditional love of God. So I suggest

you put your security not in how much you got

in the bank, but how much love God loves you with.

Because anything else can be taken from you. And if

you don't, how do you know when something other than

God is your security? Real simple, you worry. Worry is

the warning light that you are trusting something other than

God for your security and your supply. Now look at

these verses, Romans 11, 36. Everything comes from God. Everything

exists by his power. And everything is intended for for

his glory God owns it but God loans it to

you while you're here on earth now the next verse

says Proverbs 16 3 commit your work to the Lord

and then your plans will what Circle the word succeed.

God says, I want you to succeed in your work,

but you gotta commit it to me. You gotta trust

me as the source and supply. Whatever you want God

to bless, you put him first in. You want God

to bless your marriage, put him first in your marriage.

You want God to bless your work, put him first

in your work. If you want God to bless your time,

you put him first in your time. If you want

God to bless your health, you put him first in

your health. You trust God as your source and supply.

Number two. Second habit you must develop, I must do

my work as an act of worship. If I want

God's financial blessing on my life, I must do my work,

whatever I'm doing, as an act of worship. And no

matter what you do, you may sweep the streets of

It's more than just a job. You're doing it as

if you're working for the Lord, no matter what you do.

Every act of work can be an act of worship. Now,

some of you, your heart isn't in your work. You're

not doing it with enthusiasm. You can barely get along.

Then you're in the wrong job because life is too

short to spend it doing work your heart isn't in.

There's a lot more. In fact, it's a sin. The

Bible says, whatever you do, work at it with all

your heart. If you can't do what you do with

all your heart, you need to change jobs. Because it

needs to be an act of worship. Now, what kind

of work does God bless? He blesses all kinds of

work as long as it's done five ways. You might

write these down. It's these next five verses. First, God

blesses planning. Proverbs 21, five. Good planning... And hard work

leads to prosperity. But hasty shortcuts lead to what? Poverty.

God blesses planning. That's the first thing he does. God

blesses planning. He wants you to plan your work and

he wants you to work your plan. Number two, God

blesses initiative. He not only wants you to plan your work,

he wants you to take the initiative. God never blesses laziness.

The Bible says in Proverbs 10, 4, lazy hands make

a man poor, but diligent hands will bring what? Wealth. Now,

what is he saying? He's saying, stop waiting for your

ship to come in. Swim out to it. You got

to take the initiative. Stop waiting for something to happen.

You take the initiative. He says you need to make

a plan and then you need to take the initiative.

That's what God blesses in wealth creation. Number three, God

blesses integrity. God blesses integrity. If you want God to

bless your finances, you must be honest. That means you

pay your taxes and you don't cheat people. God never

blesses dishonest gain in any way. Proverbs 16, 11, the

Lord demands fairness in every business deal. So he's not

going to bless it if it's unfair. He sets the standard.

God says, I want you to plan your work. I

want you to take the initiative. I want you to

have integrity and do it with honesty. Number four, God

blesses focus. He says you need to stay focused. Don't

just keep moving around from project to project, jumping around

from job to job, from idea to idea, from opportunity

to opportunity. Get an idea and stick with it. Stay focused.

You don't get distracted by pipe dreams, everything that comes along.

Proverbs 12, 11, hard work brings prosperity. Only fools waste

time chasing fantasies. And then number five, God blesses persistence.

In other words, when you get a job, you keep

at it. You don't give up the first time you

have a failure. You don't give up the first time

the stock goes down. You don't give up the first

time somebody looks at you crossways and criticizes you for

what you're doing. You are persistent. The Bible says wealth

from get-rich-quick schemes quickly disappears, but wealth from hard work grows.

You ever heard the phrase easy come, easy go? Well,

that's where it comes from. It comes from this verse.

It's from the Bible. Money that is made quickly and

easily is gone quickly and easily. Okay, number three, third

habit you're going to have to develop. Keep good records.

If you want God's financial blessing on your life in

the next 10 years, like I want it to be

for you, If you want to get out of debt,

you want to be financially free, you're going to have

to keep good records. This is a principle of accounting.

That means you write it down. You got to keep

track of your finances. You say, oh, Rick, I hate

to do that. Yeah, well, you say, I don't have

time to do it. Do you have time to worry?

If you wrote everything down, you'd have a whole lot

less to worry about. Now notice this verse, Proverbs 27,

23 and 24. Riches can disappear fast. Everybody agree with

that part? Yeah, okay. Riches can disappear fast, so watch

your business interests closely. Know the state of your flocks

and herds. Now, why do you say flocks and herds?

Because when the Bible was written, this passage here, all

wealth was tied up in your livestock. You could easily

tell who was rich in Bible days. If you had

a lot of cows, a lot of sheep, or a

lot of goats, you were wealthy. If you had no animals,

you were poor. There were no banks. There were no stocks.

There were no businesses per se. Everybody's wealth was tied

up in the animals that they had. So he says,

when he says, know your flocks, he's saying, watch your

business interest. Today, instead of saying, know your flocks, God

would say, know your stocks. In other words, you need

to know where they're going. Now he says, riches can

disappear fast. People say money talks. It does not. It

just walks away quietly. And you end up with more,

you know, more of the month left over at the

end of the money. You go, where is all this going?

Anytime you say, well, I just don't know where it goes.

It means you're already in trouble because easy credit plus

ignorance equals disaster. You must keep good records. You've got

to write it down and you got to know what

you owe. You got to know what you earn. You

got to know what you own and you got to

know where it's going. And if you don't, as I said,

easy credit plus being in the dark equals disaster. It's

a warning. If you don't know where it's going, you

are already headed in deep trouble. You got to keep

good records. First Corinthians 16.2. On the first day of

every week, that's Sunday when you go to worship, put

aside some of what you have earned during the week

and use it for the offering. Now, the amount depends

on how much the Lord has helped you to earn.

It's in a proportional giving. Now, this verse is primarily

about planning your tithing, but that's not why I put

it in there. I put it in there because I

want you to circle the phrase, put aside. Put aside.

You can't set aside some for the offering or you

can't set aside some for savings or you can't set

aside some for vacation unless you're keeping good records, right?

You can't put aside anything if you don't know what

you've got and where it's going. You must keep good records.

Habit number four. If you want God's blessing on your finances,

give the first 10% back to God. Give the first

10% back to God. Now, I don't have to spend

time on this because this is tithing. Most of you

know this principle and most of you are tithers in

this church. Tithing means the first 10% I give back

to God. Tithe means 10 or 10%. Proverbs 3, 9

and 10 says this. Honor the Lord by giving him

the leftovers of all your income. Oh, that's not what

it says. What's it say? First part, circle that, first part.

That means right off the top, right off the top.

And he will fill your barns to overflow. You say, Rick,

why did God say give him back 10%? Why 10%?

I don't know. I really don't know. It's one of

the questions on my, I've got a list of things

I'm going to ask God when we get to heaven.

One of them is, I mean, he could have said 5%.

He could have said 20%. He could have said two.

He could have said 90. Why he said 10? I

don't know. The point is God doesn't need my money.

He just wants what it represents, my life. And the

most sensitive nerve in my body goes from the heart

to the wallet. Now, Look at the next verse. The

purpose of tithing is to teach you to always put

God first in your lives. That's what it's there for.

And tithing does three things. It's a statement of gratitude. God,

I wouldn't have anything if it weren't for you. It's

a statement of purpose. God, you're first in my life,

so I'll give you the first part of my money

on the first day of the week. And it's a

statement of faith. God, I believe you'll keep your promises

that if I put you first, you'll take care of

all my needs. So it's gratitude, it's priority, and it's faith.

Now in Malachi 3.10, God says this, bring to my storehouse,

that's the temple, it's where you worship, bring to my

storehouse a full tenth of what you earn. 2% is

not a tithe, 8% is not a tithe, 10% is

a tithe. Bring a full tenth of what you earn.

Test me in this, says the Lord, and see if

I will open a window of blessing for you and

pour out all the blessings you need. There are more

promises in the Bible about tithing than anything else. Now,

number five, this one's just as important as tithing. I

must save and invest for the future. You must save

and invest if you want God's blessing on your life.

You can't just tithe. You can't just keep good records.

You can't just honor God. You must save and invest

for the future. Now, the Bible calls savings God's IQ test.

It really tells how smart you are, whether you're saving

or not. In Proverbs 21, 20, the wise man saves

for the future. That's wise. It shows you're smart. But

the foolish spends whatever he gets. Now, let me give

you a question that will help you increase your savings ability.

You just ask this question. Do I really need this?

You just ask yourself that question. You start to buy something.

Could I put this money in the bank and save it?

Or do I really need this? You see, when you save,

you're getting your money to work for you. The problem

is most people are poor or never get out of

debt because they're working for their money instead of getting

their money to work for them. When you save, every

time you save, every time you invest, you're getting your

money to work for you. Money should work for you,

not you for money. Does that make sense? The Bible

says that savings and investing is a mark of wisdom.

When you save, you're making money work for you. Now

notice this next verse, Proverbs 13, 11. Money that comes

easily disappears quickly, but money that is gathered little by

little will grow. In other words, it's going to compound,

like with interest. Circle little by little. The reason why

most people don't save, number one is they spend it all,

and number two is they don't think it's gonna matter

that much. It says money saved little by little will grow.

It's not, listen, it's not how much you save, it's

the consistency that matters. Doing it every single week. A

lot of people say, well, I can't put a whole

lot in. Well, what can you put in? Start saving

every week, and the consistency, little by little, it will grow.

Now notice this next verse. If you just keep on

doing it a little bit at a time, it'll all

add up. Proverbs 24, 27 says, develop your business first

before building your house. This is one of the many

financial principles that Solomon gives in the book of Proverbs.

Develop your business first before building your house. What's he

saying there? He's saying when you get some income, instead

of going out and spending on a luxury or buying

a new painting or painting the house or doing something

that doesn't really grow your wealth, he says, you need

to reinvest it. And you put it back into your business,

or you put it back into some kind of investment.

So it's growing and the money's working for you instead

of you just spending it on some luxury. All of

a sudden, you're making money with your money. God says,

that's wise. Now the Bible says, that you need to

develop your business before you build your house. In other words,

put it back into investment rather than saying, oh, let's

just go buy a bigger house. Now, the number five,

number six, the six things you need to do, and

by the way, these are in order, is you set

up a repayment plan. You set up a repayment plan

to get yourself out of debt. God wants you debt-free

so he can tell you what to do with your life.

Some of you, if God told you to do something,

he had a great opportunity for you, you couldn't, you're

in such financial bondage, you couldn't move if you had to.

And here's what the Bible says, Proverbs 3, 27. Don't

withhold repayment of your debts. And the Bible says in

Romans 13, 8, let no debt remain outstanding. What does

an outstanding debt mean? It means you're only paying the minimum.

If you're only paying the minimum on your card, you're

not paying your card off every month, you are letting

a debt remain outstanding. That's wrong. Not only is it wrong,

instead of your money working for you, you're working for

your money and you're doing an exact opposite. Now, remember,

I said these are in order. Keep good records, give

the first 10% back to God, save and invest for

the future, then set up a repayment plan. You say,

wait a minute, Rick, are you telling me to save

and to tithe before I pay my debts? That's exactly

what I'm telling you to do. You say, why? Because

you need God's help getting out of debt. Somebody asked

John D. Rockefeller, who was the wealthiest man of his day,

he was the Bill Gates of his day, the Warren

Buffett of his day, How did you get so wealthy?

He called it the 10-10-80 plan. He said, you tie 10%,

first 10% to God, second 10%, you pay yourself in savings,

and then live on 80%. You say, I can't live

on 80%. Then you are living beyond your means. You

can live on anything if you want to. You are

living beyond your means. You need to pay God first.

You need to pay yourself second. And then you set

up a repayment plan for your debts. And God will

help you with those things. If you wait till you're

out of debt, you're never going to start saving. And

you're never going to tithe because your earnings will always

be exceeded by your yearnings. Now, you need to set

up a repayment plan. Number seven, if you want God's

blessing on your finances, you must budget your spending. You

must budget You're spending. Now, what is a budget? A

budget is simply a plan. It is planned spending. That's

all it is. A budget is telling your money where

you want it to go rather than wondering where it went.

You say, I want this to go here. I want

this to go to college. I want this to go

to my kids. This is the savings. I want this

to go to Lord. I want this to go to food.

A budget is telling your money where you want it

to go where you control it instead of it controls you.

And the Bible says you need to have a plan.

Proverbs 21 five, plan carefully. That's talking about a budget

and you will have plenty. If you act too quickly,

you will never have enough. Now circle the phrase, act

too quickly. What's he talking about there? He says, if

you act too quickly, you're always going to be in debt.

You're never going to have enough money. You're always going

to be behind schedule. What does it mean if you

act too quickly? The Bible there is talking about what

advertisers and marketers and merchandisers call impulse buying. Have you

ever gone into a store and bought something you didn't

plan on buying? But you looked at it and you

saw it and you go, whoa, how did I ever

live without that? And you buy stuff not based on reason,

not based on rationality. You buy it purely on emotion.

And have you noticed it's geared right at the most

visible spots? Oh, let's take some of those things. Those

look great. That is impulse buying. You need a budget

you're spending. Now there's one more, number eight. And all

of these are important. I must enjoy what I have.

Bible says this in 1 Timothy 6, 18. Tell them

to use their money to do good. They should be

rich in good works. and should give generously to those

in need, always being ready to share with others whatever

God has given them. You know, I was interviewed recently

on a radio, and somebody said, why do you think

God let you write Purpose Driven Life, best-selling book in

American history? Because it brought in a lot of money.

I said, you know why? Because God knew what I'd

do with the money. He knew in advance. I had

already had 35 years of faithfulness. He had trusted me

in little things so he could trust me in bigger things.

Can God trust you? Have you proven by your past,

do your finances right now prove that you know how

to manage money according to the biblical way? Now, what

we're talking about here, friends, if you want God's blessing,

is you're gonna have to do the exact opposite of

our culture. Now you got to do all eight of

these habits. I know some people who tithe, but they're

not satisfied with what they've got. And I know some

people who are, you know, trying to repay debts, but

they're not saving anything. You've got to do it all.

Now I know debt is a big problem. And many

of you, and I pray for you, those of you

who are in debt, I pray for you and I

hurt for you. The Bible says this on the screen.

Jesus said, don't worry. It just says it. Don't, don't worry.

Your heavenly father already knows what you need and he

will give it to you. That's the promise. Here's the premise.

If you give him first place in your life and

you live as he wants you to. Now I want

to pray for you. Let's bow our heads. Heavenly Father,

I thank you that you want to bless our health.

You want to bless our families. I thank you that

you want to bless our jobs and our finances. These

are not areas that you're uninterested in. I pray for

all who are here today in debt, who are worried

about their finances. I pray for all who are out

of work right now. Lord, give them a job. I

pray that many today will say, I'm going to take

that step of faith. I'm going to stop pretending. I'm

going to follow God's financial plan. And I pray this

in your name. Amen.