Trusting God with Our Finances: A Journey of Faith

1. "But the truth is, we don't give away trust that freely anymore. A lot of us have trust issues. Some of you have walked in the church today and you don't know if you can trust me. Most of you will not fill out a connect card, although this is your first day. Because you don't know if you can trust our church yet. You don't know if you can trust me yet. You've come here today in hopes that maybe you would discover that we could be trust. But we don't trust people right away when you meet someone for the first time. Do you trust that person right away? No, they have to grow. Your trust has to grow. Trust is built over time. It's built over relationship." [08:23] (35 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "He asks us to trust him in all aspects. In every aspect of our life. The good aspects. The bad aspects. The known aspects. The hidden aspects. But he calls us to trust him with every area in our lives. And here's the truth. For those of you who know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. You have the faith, the trust, and the assurance to believe that Jesus Christ came from heaven. 100% man. 100% God. That he lived on earth. That he carried our shame. That he died on the cross. That he bled. That his blood forgives us of our sins. That he was resurrected after he died on the third day. So that we can have life and life forevermore. You trust that. You can take that idea to the bank. It's easy for you." [09:02] (46 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "We have this misinformed theology that makes us think that just because we are a Christian, just because we are children of God, we will never have tough times. We will never go through financial difficulty. We will never go through financial hardship. And because we have this misconceived theology, any time we go through a season of lack, we associate that with God not being with us. So I can't trust God in my finances. But then we negate the entire Old Testament in where the Israelites are sent on a journey. But before they start, they start in a season of not enough when they didn't have enough brick and material to make brick to a season of just enough when God would appear to them and provide manna daily to a season of more than enough in the promised land." [10:10] (47 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "In order to honor God with your money, which is what Proverbs declares, you must learn to trust God with your money. Now that word honor, I want to focus on that because in the original language, the definition is this, to be heavy, weighty, and burdensome. So God understands something. Honoring him with your finances is not going to be easy. It comes with a weight. It's almost a burden. It is heavy. He understands that what he is asking you to do, asking me to do is not easy. He even utilizes language that would declare, that it comes with a weight, that it is a hard thing to do. But he calls us to honor him with our wealth." [11:41] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "The blessings of wealth are conditional. They're conditional. What's the condition? Listen to this. Honor the Lord your God with your wealth and the best part of everything with your produce. Then he will fill your barns with grain and your vats will overflow with good wine. I mean, the guy who wrote Proverbs probably lived in Bakersfield. This is like a lot of farm talk. But listen. It's a conditional promise, meaning that if you do what he's asking you to do, then you get to receive what's on the latter end of that scripture. So he's saying, look, man, if you honor me with your wealth, if you trust me with your finances, if you give me the first fruits of your labor, if you take care of the house of God to that extent, then I will give you increase. Then I will give you more. Then I will give you more provision." [14:15] (46 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "Wealth is not for you just to keep to yourself. It's given to be a blessing. It's given to be a blessing. Remember what we talked about last week? We said your stewardship, everything that you have is not yours. It's God and he's the one that gives it to you. But he gives it to you to be a blessing. I briefly went over this scripture. But there's a scripture in the text in the gospel that says, Freely you have received, therefore freely you give. Now this is talking within the context of salvation. Freely you have received the message of Jesus. Now freely you go and give that message out. But when you kind of take that into our context, he's saying I've given something to you. Now I want you to go and give to others. That's how the kingdom works." [15:45] (43 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "As followers of Jesus, we're called to the principle of tithing. We're called to the principle of tithing. What is tithing? What does the word tithe mean? It's a tenth. A tenth or ten percent. God calls us to tithe. He's calling ten percent of our income. Some of you are like, whoa, that's a lot. But I've always said this. Man, if you can't live off a ninety, then you can't live off of a hundred. The beauty is, is that God gives you everything. And out of everything he gives you, he says, all I'm asking you is for ten percent. You keep the rest of it. You do what you want to do, boo boo. You want to get that Louie? Get that Louie. You want to get them dunks? Get that dunks. You want to buy that boat? Buy that boat. But with this ten percent, I'm calling you to bring it back to the house of God." [21:08] (41 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "God doesn't need our money, but he chooses to invite us into his kingdom work through tithing. This is the beauty. God invites us. He doesn't need your money. He doesn't need us. But he chooses to partner with creation. And he invites us into his kingdom work. And he says, hey, come be a part of this. Hey, come be a part of what we're doing. Isn't there something? Isn't there something beautiful when you sow a financial seed into the place that's a house of worship and you see God moving every Sunday and you see 13, 15, 20 people saying yes to Jesus and you see people at the altar and you see children worshiping and singing. That should give you a sense of excitement and encouragement to say, man, I had a part in that because I'm giving to that." [33:36] (47 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "When you sow sparingly, you will reap sparingly. When you sow generously, you're going to reap generously. Verse seven. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give. Not reluctantly or under compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will be blessed. In every good work. The definition of the word abundantly is to be in abundance, to provide in abundance, to have more than enough. Excessive, cause to be more, have greater advantage. The word abound is to be over and above. When you take the definition of those two words and you actually plug it into verses eight, this is how it reads. And God is able to bless you. How? In abundance. Provide in abundance. Give you more than enough. In excessiveness. Cause you to be more and have greater advantage. Why? So that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will be over and above in every good work." [34:43] (67 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "If you are alive in this room and you have air in your lungs, and if you are breathing, you are blessed. I rather, I'm blessed to be a blessing. It's better to give than it is to receive. Do you know that only 20% Americans, 20% of American Christians have a church tithe? Only 20, that means the other 80% get to come into church, enjoy the benefits and the fruit of a garden that they did not tend to, on the behalf of someone else's 20% that they give to the church. So if there is almost 370 people in this room, that would say 20% of that who call themselves Christians and come to this church would give. And so my question is, who's robbing who? When the scripture says you rob the house of God, you're also robbing yourself of your blessing. There is something that happens in you when you begin to give and you begin to live to that capacity. And you begin to say, God, use me. You've blessed me so that I'm going to be a blessing. But greater than that, I'm going to walk in obedience to what you're calling me to do." [27:59] (63 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)