Where Your Treasure Is: A Biblical Stewardship Plan

Aug 02, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: Your Credit Card Statement Diagnoses Your Heart

The places we spend money reveal what we truly value. Just as blood tests expose hidden health conditions, financial records uncover spiritual priorities. Jesus said our treasure and hearts are inseparable – what we fund, we worship. This isn’t about budgets but diagnostics. Every transaction tells a story: frantic self-reliance or quiet trust? Impulse or intentionality? The receipts don’t lie. [29:04]

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21, ESV)

Reflection: What single expense from last month would you feel embarrassed to explain to Jesus? How might realigning this spending heal your spiritual heart?

Day 2: Mowing Lawns and Matching Dollars

Work becomes worship when done with open hands. The pastor’s father transformed a $10 lawn-mowing payment into a lifelong lesson: productivity fuels generosity. God designed work not as punishment but partnership – our skills meeting others’ needs. True provision comes when we steward paychecks as seed, not spoils. The call isn’t to exhaustion but consecration. [44:14]

“If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10-11, ESV)

Reflection: When has work felt like a gift rather than a grind? How could viewing your job as worship change tomorrow’s tasks?

Day 3: The Ten-Dollar Bill That Bought Freedom

Financial peace begins when percentages trump pennies. Splitting a teenager’s first earnings into giving, saving, and living created patterns that outlasted cars and college tuitions. The 10-10-80 plan isn’t math – it’s manna management. This rhythm turns paydays into prayer days, bank accounts into altars. God multiplies what we measure. [46:23]

“Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce.” (Proverbs 3:9, ESV)

Reflection: Which percentage (giving, saving, or debt) needs immediate attention in your budget? What one calculation could start your healing today?

Day 4: Snowballing Debt Into Confidence

Debt reduction works like wound care – treat the smallest injury first to build healing momentum. The “snowball method” isn’t financial theory but spiritual warfare: every paid-off balance weakens anxiety’s grip. As obligations shrink, hope expands. Freedom comes not from windfalls but consistent plodding – $20 here, $50 there, until the avalanche of God’s provision buries shame. [49:04]

“Owe no one anything, except to love each other.” (Romans 13:8, ESV)

Reflection: Which small debt’s elimination would most energize your journey? How might celebrating that first victory fuel future progress?

Day 5: God Doesn’t Need Your Money – He’s Raising His Kids

Chores weren’t about clean houses but responsible children. Similarly, tithing trains us in trust, not fundraising. The Father who owns cattle on a thousand hills delights not in donations but disciples. Every giving decision is a parenting moment – God whispering, “Watch how I multiply what you release.” Stewardship is soulcraft. [54:54]

“Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Corinthians 9:7, ESV)

Reflection: What childhood lesson best prepared you for adult responsibilities? How is God parenting you through current financial choices?

Sermon Summary

A hard twenty months of stroke, brain surgery, hospital chairs, caregiving, and stage four cancer becomes a picture of something even deeper. A blood pressure reading can reveal a danger in the body, and a blood test can expose cancer in the blood. Matthew 6:21 says money can do the same thing for the heart: “wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Misplaced treasure is the symptom of a bad heart.

Money is not treated as a side issue. Money tells the truth. A credit card statement, a checking account, Venmo, or Zelle can say a whole lot about the real person. God’s Word first says able-bodied people ought to make their own money. Second Thessalonians does not say that people who cannot work should not eat. It says that people who will not work should not expect everybody else to carry them. Work was God’s gift before the curse ever brought weeds into the garden.

A God honoring plan for money starts with giving, then saving, then debt reduction, and only after that lifestyle. The problem is that most people have the order reversed. Lifestyle gets picked first, debt piles up, saving disappears, and giving becomes whatever is left over, if anything is left over at all. Luke 14 says a person building a tower sits down and calculates the cost. Freedom is not lost by having a plan; freedom has already been lost when money has no plan.

Giving is not God trying to get somebody’s cookies. The cookies were never theirs in the first place. Everything comes from a gracious, generous God, including breath, hands, feet, and the ability to work. Second Corinthians 9 says treasure can become seed, and God supplies seed to the sower and bread for food.

The generosity ladder calls followers of Christ to move from giving nothing, to giving something, to significant percentage giving, to threshold giving at the first 10 percent, and then to Spirit led sacrificial giving. The point is not financing a ministry. The point is learning to trust God and letting generosity change the heart.

Saving matters too. The ten ten eighty plan gives the first 10 percent to eternity, saves the second 10 percent for the future, and learns to live on 80 percent. Debt reduction then attacks the smallest debt first and rolls payments forward like a snowball. Lifestyle comes last, because God is not raising money. God is raising His kids.

Key Takeaways

1. Misplaced treasure diagnoses heart trouble. Matthew 6:21 makes money a diagnostic tool, not just a financial matter. Treasure does not merely follow the heart; treasure reveals where the heart has already settled. A person’s accounts can expose loves, fears, habits, and loyalties that polite words can hide. [29:04]
2. Work is a gift, not curse. Work existed before the weeds, before the frustration, and before the sweat became bitter. Second Thessalonians refuses laziness, but it does not shame the sick, the disabled, or the person honestly looking for work. Productive labor becomes one way God provides resources for self-care, neighbor-care, and kingdom investment. [30:29]
3. A plan protects financial freedom. A budget does not steal freedom; a lack of a budget hands freedom to everybody else who has plans for that money. Luke 14 treats planning as ordinary wisdom, the kind that counts the cost before the tower starts going up. Money needs orders, because unassigned dollars disappear and then leave behind regret. [31:53]
4. Giving climbs by obedient steps. The generosity ladder honors real growth instead of pretending every follower of Christ starts in the same place. Giving something can break the grip of selfishness, percentage giving can train intentionality, and threshold giving can change the giver. Spirit led sacrificial giving then turns money into an adventure of listening, helping, and investing beyond lifestyle. [36:05]
5. God raises kids, not money. The chores in a family are not the reason children exist; the chores train children into responsible adults. In the same way, giving is not about God needing funds or trying to grab somebody’s cookies. God uses money, work, saving, and generosity to form hearts that are no longer wrapped around themselves.

## [54:12]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[25:47] - A Hard Twenty Months
[28:25] - A Worse Condition Than Cancer
[29:04] - Money Reveals the Heart
[29:58] - Work as God’s Gift
[31:53] - Make a Plan for Money
[33:01] - Give, Save, Reduce Debt, Then Lifestyle
[34:13] - Treasure Becomes Seed
[36:05] - The Generosity Ladder
[40:20] - Threshold Giving and the Tithe
[41:53] - Spirit Led Sacrificial Giving
[43:30] - The Ten Ten Eighty Plan
[48:19] - Debt Reduction and Snowball Payments
[49:38] - Lifestyle Comes Last
[54:12] - God Raises His Kids

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Matthew 6:21
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” [28:55]

2 Thessalonians 3:10
“For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” [30:04]

Luke 14:28
“For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?” [31:59]

2 Corinthians 9:7-10
“Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written, 'He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.' He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.” [33:37]

Observation questions

In Matthew 6:21, what two things are directly connected, and how does misplaced treasure show up in everyday financial habits? [29:04]
In 2 Thessalonians 3:10, what important difference is made between someone who cannot work and someone who is not willing to work? [30:15]
According to Luke 14:28, what does a wise builder do before starting a tower, and how is that same kind of planning applied to money? [32:19]
What four parts were given for a God-honoring plan for money, and what part usually gets put first when people reverse the order? [32:50]

Interpretation questions

If treasure reveals the heart, what does that suggest about the spiritual meaning of a bank statement, spending history, or debt pattern? [29:07]
If work was given before the curse, how might that change the way a person thinks about work, even when work feels frustrating or tiring? [30:49]
If giving is meant to be decided in the heart and done cheerfully, what is the difference between giving out of worship and giving out of pressure, guilt, or emotion? [33:40]
If God supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, what does that teach about the purpose of money beyond personal comfort and lifestyle? [34:02]

Application questions

Money tells the truth about the heart. If this group looked honestly at recent spending, what patterns would reveal trust in God, and what patterns might reveal fear, comfort-seeking, or selfishness? [29:07]
A budget does not remove freedom; it helps recover it. What keeps a person from sitting down and making a real plan for money, and what would be one simple first step this week? [32:30]
Giving grows by steps. Where is each person most honestly on the generosity ladder right now—giving nothing, something, a percentage, threshold giving, or Spirit-led sacrificial giving—and what would one next step of obedience look like? [42:48]
The order matters: give, save, reduce debt, then lifestyle. Which part of that order is easiest to ignore, and what practical change would help put lifestyle back in its proper place? [49:20]
Saving for the future is an act of wisdom. What would it look like for a household to begin living by a ten-ten-eighty kind of plan, even if it has to start small? [46:19]
Debt often reflects wanting things before being ready to pay for them. If debt is present, what would it look like to begin attacking the smallest debt first and keep rolling those payments forward? [48:29]
God is not after cookies that already belong to Him; He is forming His children. How does seeing everything as coming from God change the way a person thinks about income, possessions, and generosity? [54:43]

Sermon Clips

41s

#EverythingFromGod

“``You think God wants your cookies, don't you? And what you need to understand today is they're not your cookies. Everything we have comes from God, a gracious, generous God. The breath that you're breathing right now, the hands that you have, the feet so that you can walk to work, everything you have comes from God. And all God's asking is that you steward it well. That you invest some of it in others that they can hear the good news of Jesus Christ so that they can have their basic needs met. That's all that God is asking.”

49s

#HeartNotWallet

“A lot of times we think that God's in the business of raising money. God's not in the business of raising money. God doesn't need your money. He's not trying to raise money by asking you to give. He's trying to raise his kids. And he knows that when you and I are productive and we take care of ourselves and we manage our money well and we help others with our investments as we give to the church and beyond, that we become the kind of people who have a heart that's not self centered. Guys, it's about you. It's about you. It's not about your pocketbook. It's not about your money. It's about you.”

41s

#WorkIsAGift

“You see, God, when he put the first man in the garden, he said, I'm gonna give you work as a gift. That wasn't a part of the curse. The curse was weeds in the garden. But the gift was work. And every single person who's here today, God has given you a unique ability. And if you can find that unique ability, it's really not what most people consider work, it's a gift. And you can be productive and people will pay you money to do it and you can then have resources to invest in God's kingdom and invest in people around you.”

60s

#TenTenEighty

“And that was one of the best lessons my dad ever taught me. He was basically teaching me, get this, the ten ten eighty plan. That the first 10% goes to invest in eternity in the lives of other people and people hearing the good news of Jesus Christ. And the second 10 is to save so that you don't ever have to use somebody else's money and pay for it to buy something. And Steve, you can live on 80%. And I found you can live on 80%. And I realize some of you are not on that ten ten eighty plan. Some of you are on the zero one hundred and forty three plan. How's that working by the way? You got stress, you can't sleep at night, there's arguments in your home. Guys, God's plan is better than our plan.”

35s

#PlanYourMoney

“In other words, if you're gonna start a tower, figure out what it's gonna cost. If you're gonna declare war, make sure that you can win. In the same way, when it comes to our money, we've got to have a plan. Now some of you are thinking right now, all that'll take away my freedom if I have a plan for my money. No, you've already lost your freedom if you don't have a plan for your money. If you don't have a plan for your money, there are other people who do have a plan for your money. I guarantee you. And if you don't tell your money where to go, you will wonder where it went.”

46s

#GiveSaveThenLive

“You gotta have a plan. Now in that plan, a biblical plan, a God honoring plan, it has four parts to it. First of all, to give. Second of all, to save. Third, to handle debt reduction, and then and only then to determine your lifestyle. Now here's our problem, friends. We've got it reversed. We decide what car we're gonna drive, where we're gonna live, the clothes that we buy, the movies and entertainment that we go to, and then we say, I don't have any money left over to give. I don't have any money left over to save. I've got debt up to the ceiling. It's because we got it reversed. The sequence is important.”

52s

#ThresholdGiving

“Here's the other reason I call it threshold giving. It is when you cross that threshold, you really start to give like the Bible has commanded us to give. When you cross that threshold of 10%, you're giving enough that it actually changes you, which is the point of the whole thing that you would be changed. Because every time you give the first fruits and you give that much money, what happens is you give away a little bit of your selfishness. And here's what I found that people who take that threshold step up the generosity ladder is all of sudden they start not having problems in their air other areas of finances because they're being intentional rather than being emotional about all their spending.”

73s

#SpiritLedGiving

“Now some of you are already on the threshold step and I wanna challenge even you today. I wanna challenge you to take that final step up the generosity ladder. It's called spirit led sacrificial giving. Now this is where the fun starts. After you give the first 10% to your home church, then you begin to pray about where I give additional gifts elsewhere. In other words, draw a line and say enough is enough for my financial standard of living. I wanna raise my eternal standard of living. I don't need another car. I don't need a third vacation. My house is fine just like it is, we'll just keep fixing it up. But if I make any more money above that, I'm gonna give to a missionary, I'm gonna give to some students who are going on mission. I'm gonna give that building program at my church. I'm gonna help a neighbor who's lost their job or a sick relative. And guys, that's where we listen to the spirit of God because we're already given that regular gift to our church and it's fun. It's an adventure. And we begin to really impact our world.”

38s

#WorkToProvide

“Well, that's pretty harsh, isn't it? If you don't work, you shouldn't eat. Now now quickly, it doesn't say if you can't work, you shouldn't eat. There are people, because of no fault of their own, who can't work because of their health situation or because they're in a season where they don't have a job and they're looking for a job. Not talking about those people. It's talking about those of us who are able-bodied that we ought to make our own money so that we can take care of ourselves and not be a burden on someone else and make enough money that we can take care of the folks who can't work. Doesn't that make sense?”

45s

#MoveUpTheGivingLadder

“Now here's my question for you today, where are you on that ladder? Some of you if you were honest, you're giving nothing. You're a pretty selfish person. Some of you are giving something, but it's all emotional and it comes and goes and it's not that much. Some of you have started giving significant gifts. You pulled out your calculator and you're working toward threshold. And some of you have been giving threshold giving all of your life because you were raised in a Christian home, but it's a duty. There's no real joy in it. You haven't gone beyond it, And you need to move to spirit led sacrificial giving.”

54s

#StartGivingToday

“You know, we didn't come here today just to hear a talk and say, oh, that's a nice talk. That was a funny story. No. No. No. No. No. It's about our lives being changed. And I'm excited today because I think some of you have heard the voice of God. You've heard the scripture and you're gonna change today. You're gonna move from nothing to something. Is that you? Some of you are gonna move from something emotional giving here and there, tipping God to significant. You're gonna start pulling your calculator out and figuring out how God has blessed you, and you're gonna give him a percentage of all your blessings. And some of you are gonna cross the threshold today and start giving God the first 10% of everything that he graciously gives to you.”

51s

#FollowersGive

“And we can get real practical today, guys. Every single person in this room, you're somewhere on the giving ladder. You wonder what that ladder was for, didn't you? Everybody is somewhere on this giving ladder. Now some of you haven't even got on the ladder yet. You give nothing. I I mean, you maybe gave a gift ten years ago, but on a regular basis, you give nothing. And here's what I wanna challenge you to do today if you're a follower of Jesus Christ. By the way, if you're not a follower of Jesus Christ, this message is not for you. It's not. We don't want your money. We don't need your money. But if you're a follower of Jesus Christ and you have given him your heart, he wants you to move up this ladder of generosity.”

40s

#DeclutterToGive

“Your clothes, here's what I wanna encourage you to do. I wanna encourage you to go to your closet sometime before school starts and and and throw away or give away rather, give away to charity all the things you haven't worn in a year. And what you're gonna find out, you got clothes in your closet that you bought on an impulse that still have tags on them, but you can't see them for all the stuff that's in there. I've got some regrets in my life about how I spend my money and most of them are in my closet. Okay? I've never regretted one penny that I've invested in the kingdom of heaven.”

59s

#AvoidCreditTrap

“See, most of the people in this room have got about $14,000 in credit card debt that they're paying anywhere from 13 to 22% interest to use somebody else's money to buy something they shouldn't have bought and can't afford. There are people in this room right now who right now are still paying for a meal you ate three years ago. Guys, can can I use the word stupid in church? That's stupid. It is. It doesn't make any sense to even if you're selfish follow me here, track with me here. If you go by the $10.10 80 plan because you're not paying for somebody else's money to have something before you can afford it, you're gonna end up in at the end of life with more stuff than the people who didn't do it God's way. If you really want stuff, that's a dumb way to try to get it.”

60s

#DebtSnowball

“Are you living by the ten ten eighty plan? So there's giving, there's savings, then there's debt reduction. And debt reduction is pretty simple. If you've got debt right now, you probably have got several debts. You've got debts or credit card, you got a car loan, you you got these other debts, maybe you borrowed some money from a relative. Take the very smallest one. Pay the minimum on all the others, but take the very smallest one and try to put all the resources you can into paying off that smallest debt. And then once you pay it off, take the money that you were putting on that smallest debt and move all that money up to overpay on that next smallest debt. It's called the snowball effect. And you get a bigger and bigger amount that you can apply to your debts until finally you find yourself debt free. And then you're spending only out of your savings to buy things when you can afford them, not when you want them.”

52s

#UnderstandTithe

“of your income. Now some of you are already doing that. You didn't think of it as a percentage, but you give $200 a month and maybe that's one and a half percent or 2% of your income. But I wanna challenge you to go the next step up, which I call threshold giving. Now, threshold giving is 10%, the first 10% of whatever you make. Whatever your 10% of whatever income or gift that you receive. Now why why do I call it threshold giving? I call it threshold because the bible calls it tithing. I don't like to call it tithing because people have twisted the meaning of the word tithe. When that plate comes by and you throw a $5 in and you tip God. People say, well, gave my tithe. No, you didn't. The word tithe means 10%.”

58s

#ActYourWage

“You know, Dave Ramsey says we all should have an emergency fund so that if the refrigerator goes out or if we blow out a tire in our car, we don't have to charge it. We don't have to put it on a credit card and pay somebody else for their money. But but but the emergency fund should be used for emergency. Christmas is not an emergency. Christmas comes every year. And if you're saving if you if you have in your monthly budget seasonal, you're putting aside $200 a month or $300 a month for Christmas so that when Christmas comes, you can just pay cash for it. T stands for transportation, and you may have to drive a beater for a while to live within your means to act your wage. I remember when I was in college, I used to park my car on a hill so that I could pop the clutch so it would start. Guys, that's called life. It's okay. You will survive.”

32s

#StartSmallGive

“And so I wanna challenge you, if you're a follower of Christ and you're currently giving nothing outside of your own selfishness today, just take a baby step. Just take this first step. Just start giving something. $5 a week, $20. I I don't care what it is. You and God get together and ask him, what's the first step? See, think this first step is a gateway drug to real giving. Okay?”

39s

#FirstFruits

“And what you're doing, Steve, is you're acknowledging that you couldn't have mowed that lawn if God had not provided hands and feet, breadth and lungs. And guys, that made all the sense in the world to me that I would take the very first part of that very first money I'd ever made and I would give it to God and thank him. That just made all of sense. And I'm thinking to myself, he only wants one out of the 10? This is a pretty good deal. You know, could have done $50.50, guys, but he didn't, he just asked for one out of 10.”

44s

#BudgetByCategories

“And you can if you've got $3,000 after you've given, after you've saved, and after you've reduced debt, maybe you've got $3,000 left. You gotta take that $3,000 and you gotta put it in living, insurance, food, entertainment, seasonal transport, your clothes, legal and taxes, and everything else. And when the money runs out in those categories, you can borrow from those categories, but when the money runs out, you stop. That is your lifestyle. Our problem is we start with lifestyle and we wonder why we can't save. We start with lifestyle and wonder why we can't pay off our debts. We start with lifestyle and we and we wonder why we have to rob from God every month. It's at the end.”

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