BY Argie Simonis
There are people who don't make a lot of money and are bad stewarts of their finances, and there are people who make a lot of money who are also bad stewarts.
In this message we will not look at how much money one makes, but how we understand the words "ownership" and "stewardship".
We will see how God advises us to be good stewards of all that He gives us and we will see how the Ten Commandments that the Lord gave to Moses find application in the proper management of our finances.
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1. PUT GOD FIRST IN YOUR LIFE.
"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." (Ex. 20:3)
Let's look at a well-known story from the Scriptures. The story of the prophet Elijah, who during a great famine that lasted 3 and a half years, was commanded by God to go to a widow:
"And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying," (1Kings 17:8)
"Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee." (1Kings 17:9)
"So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink." (1Kings 17:10)
"And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand." (1Kings 17:11)
"And she said, As the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die." (1Kings 17:12)
"And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son." (1Kings 17:13)
"For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD sendeth rain upon the earth." (1Kings 17:14)
There was a supernatural provision when this woman put God FIRST. Consider this too: Why did God in the midst of this great famine send Elijah to this poor widow and not to some rich man?
~~ Many believe that God sent Elijah to the widow so that she could provide him with food. Actualy, the exact opposite is true. God sent Elijah to her, so that God would provide for her! ~~
Many believe that God asks us to tithe to meet the needs of the church. And yet, in reality God wants us to tithe so that He covers our own needs.
God doesn't need our money. We see the widow who has one last meal left and her son is sick and dies a few months later and Elijah resurrects him.
The Lord not only provided for her needs in food and money, but He knew that her son would die and He took care of that too!
~~ When you put the Lord FIRST in your life, He will not only take care of your finances, but your entire family. ~~
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2. DON'T WORSHIP MATERIAL THINGS.
"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:" (Ex. 20:4)
Anything you put above God is an idol. And I ask you: Have you ever put any material thing above God?
Have you ever bought something that you regretted buying? The reason I am asking is this:
In this message we will examine what good stewardship is. This means that before we buy something we first pray, and we don't spend money without first asking the owner of that money if we can spend it.
If you think the money you have is yours, see what Paul says:
"For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?" (1Cor. 4:7)
Yes, money is the wages of our work, but don't forget that God is the One who gives us strength and health to work, He gave us a job to work, and we live in a country where we are getting paid for our work. In Greece I understand that things are difficult, but let's not forget that there are countries in the world that are in a much worse position than us. I will tell you some typical samples of ANNUAL incomes by country, starting with the richest:
- Monaco: 186,000 €
- Switzerland: 95,000 €
- Australia: 61,000 €
- Germany: 54,000 €
- Italy: 38,000 €
- Poland: 19,000 €
- Russia: 13,000 €
- Ukraine: 4,500 €
- India: 2,400 €
- Pakistan: 1500 €
- Sudan: 760 €
- Somalia: 600 €
- Afghanistan: 380 €
So a material thing can become an idol in our life.
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3. DO NOT USE THE LORD'S NAME SELFISHLY.
"Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." (Ex. 20:7)
What does vanity mean?
Vanity is "the emptiness, the worthlessness, the temporary, the long-term uselessness of the thing, of life, of existence, that leads nowhere."
When you think of a vain person, what comes to your mind? A proud, arrogant and self-centered person. Certainly we should not use profanity when we speak, but what this verse really means is not to use the Lord's name selfishly.
"Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." (James 4:3)
This verse brings balance to many passages in the Scriptures that promise answers to our prayers.
If our prayers are selfish, they will not be answered. God is not our genie who is bound to fulfill our every wish.
Just as good parents who love their children would not give them anything that would harm them, so God will not give us things that will harm us. We must ask according to God's will:
"And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:" (1John 5:14)
"And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him." (1John 5:15)
It is good to pray to God for our needs. Jesus himself taught this,
"Give us this day our daily bread." (Μatt. 6:11)
It is good to pray to God for the dreams and desires we have in our lives, because many of them are not ours, but His desires:
"Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart." (Ps. 37:4)
But we must be careful, because it is very easy to cross the boundary line that separates good desire from lust, just as it is very easy to cross the boundary line that separates a real need from selfishness and self-promotion.
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4. BE A GOOD STEWART.
"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy." (Ex. 20:8)
"Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:" (Ex. 20:9)
"But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:" (Ex. 20:10)
If you're wondering what this has to do with management, I'll explain:
The Lord is telling us here that we must manage our time and energies properly. To work six days a week and rest one day. In other words, what the Lord is telling us here is that He can do more in six days than we could do in seven. And if you want to see what God can do in six days, read the first chapter of Genesis.
When we tithe, it means that we believe that God can do more with the 90% that we are left with, than what we can do with the 100% if we did not tithe.
Good management means:
- Spend wisely,
- Save wisely,
and
- give generously.
If you do not apply these three principles, then you are not properly stewarding what God gives you.
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5. TEACH YOUR CHILDREN.
Teach your children about the Kingdom of God. What does the Lord say about money, ownership and stewardship.
"Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee." (Ex. 20:12)
Why does God ask children to honor their parents? Because from their parents they will learn about God. Your children learn about God and money first from you. The way you talk about money, the way you handle it, where you give, how you give, do you give to the church? Do you give alms?
If all your kids hear you say is
- We need more money,
- With more money we will solve our problems,
Do you know what actualy happens? You teach your children to serve money. Remember what Jesus said:
"No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." (Luke 16:13)
You may be unintentionally teaching your children to despise God. That is what Jesus is saying here.
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6. PLAN YOUR FINANCES.
"Thou shalt not kill." (Ex. 20:13)
If you don't plan your finances, you're killing yourself, and you also want to die. Lack of planning is a guaranteed recipe for failure. This is what we call the budget, which is essentially a financial plan. Every country is actualy obliged to make a state budget every year.
~~ What financial planning achieves is that it enables you to make decisions about your finances without the involvement of emotions. ~~
Just as we learn to talk, behave, drive and work, so we can learn about managing our finances.
AND there are tools for this (on the internet you can find many things, as long as you look in the right place), but we can also ask for help from people who know more about this subject.
Never hesitate to ask for help!
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7. STAY WITHIN YOUR POSSIBILITIES.
This has to do with the seventh commandment:
"Thou shalt not commit adultery." (Ex. 20:14)
When you commit adultery, you live outside the boundaries of God's provision for your life. The exact same thing happens when you live beyond what your finances allow. There are two main reasons why some people do this.
1. THEY ARE NOT CONTENT,
They are not satisfied with what they have.
When you live like this and buy things you can't afford, do you know what you're actualy doing? You tell God right to His face that you are neither satisfied with Him, nor with what He provides for you.
"Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." (Phil. 4:11)
"I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need." (Phil. 4:12)
This letter was written from prison. It was not the physical things (gifts and money) that the Philippians had sent to Paul that blessed him. Their love behind their gifts was what touched Paul's heart.
Notice also that Paul, the man who wrote the one third of the New Testament, LEARNED to be content.
It's not something that came by itself. Children don't read instinctively - they MUST be taught - so we MUST be taught to be content with what we have.
---- CONTENTMENT: The completeness about all the necessary, the lack of need for external help.
~~ Contentment is a choice we make and it's something we can learn. One way to learn is to be grateful for what we have and stop dwelling on what we don't have. ~~
The apostle Paul was in prison in Rome facing possible execution, but he was content. The good news here is that even if you haven't gotten to that point yet, (not to be executed, but to be content with what you have) you can get there, because you can be taught.
Contentment does not depend on what we have, if it is little or much, but on God.
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The second reason that people live beyond their finances is:
2. THEY DO NOT COUNT.
"For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?" (Luke 14:28)
For some of you I'm sure math wasn't your favorite subject at school, but whether we like it or not, math is essential. This way we can see our income and expenses and do the counting. But how can we do that if we don't know math?
We either should learn it, or be friends with people who know math.
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So we learn to be content, and our children learn too by watching us.
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8. DON'T BUY NOW AND PAY LATER.
"Thou shalt not steal." (Ex. 20:15)
It's stealing to spend money you don't have.
"For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?" (Rom. 8:24)
"But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it." (Rom. 8:25)
God has created us with the need and ability to envision and hope for our future. To set goals, to pursue them, and when we patiently achieve our goal, this wonderful feeling of fulfillment comes with joy and satisfaction. And that's because you had to work and wait until you achieved it.
But today, usually when we want something we take a plastic card and go and buy it. And that's when we realize we don't have that joy I described before.
Of course God wants us to enjoy new things, a nice TV for example, but He does not want to see us suffer when for months we will have to pay the installments we put on this TV while we could not afford it.
Depression is one of the biggest modern plagues. The most widely accepted concept of depression is a person who has lost hope. Statistically, the highest rates of depression are seen in societies with the highest debts.
Everything God tells us in His word is for our good. The Lord wants us to have vision and hope in our lives, which when fulfilled will bring us joy and satisfaction.
Don't get in debt to buy something right now. Wait a bit and pay it with money you have and not with money you don't have.
Know that the Lord will supernaturally provide when we begin to do things His way.
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9. BE A GOOD WITNESS.
"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour." (Ex. 20:16)
God asks us to bear a TRUE testimony about Him, even to our neighbor.
If you talk to your neighbor about God and your neighbour wonders why you have a brand new and expensive car but your house looks like a ruin, that is not a good testimony.
~~ The way we manage our finances can be a good or a bad testimony for the Lord. ~~
Even if you had setbacks in the past, even if your business did not go well and you struggled with your finances, what makes your testimony strong is not the money, but the way you went through that trial. We always encounter difficulties and problems in life. Did you keep hoping and trusting in the Lord?
Your neighbor knows you are a believer, he sees your life and one of the things he watches is how you manage your finances.
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10. BE CONTENT.
"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's." (Ex. 20:17)
It is not bad to desire things, but here this desire has the meaning of greed and covetousness. When we are content, and as I said before, this is something we learn, then we don't fall into the trap of coveting the things of our neighbor.
"Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:" (Col. 3:5)
Watch that Paul calls covetousness idolatry! Whatever you desire with passion and greed, becomes an idol in your life.
And indeed when you desire what your neighbor has, you are actualy making your neighbor God. You know why; Because you won't buy a new car when God tells you to, but when your neighbor tells you to.
Your neighbor gets new curtains, you will get new curtains. He'll get new furniture, you'll get new furniture too.
You actualy stop doing what God tells you to do and you start doing what your neighbor tells you. And he doesn't even have to tell you with words; he is just showing you.
So when you desire what your neighbor has, then what you desire becomes an idol in your life and your neighbor becomes a god.
~~ Ask God to give you wisdom and not allow others to spend the money God has entrusted to you. ~~
The Lord blesses us to be a blessing to others.
"And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:" (Gen. 12:2)
The Lord always blesses good stewardship and supernaturally provides for those who steward well what He entrusts to them.
Amen!
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