How to Obtain Financial Freedom

Adrian Rogers was a motivator, an encourager, and a leader of the faith. He was also passionate about presenting scriptural application to everyday life circumstances, and you'll hear that in today's message.

Now, let's join Adrian Rogers. I want to tell you something today. What I have to say to you today is intensely practical and for your welfare, because I'm going to tell you today from the Word of God how to obtain financial freedom, how to obtain financial freedom. Many of God's people are in bondage financially, and it is not God's plan for them.

God wants them to be financially free, and God tells us in His Word how we can obtain financial freedom. Now, when I talk to you about finances, I can tell you at least three who are really interested in your finances. First of all, you're interested in your finances.

If you tell me you're not, I'm going to tell you that you're probably not telling the truth. But I'll tell you who else is interested in your money. God is interested in your money, and He's very interested.

Now, pay attention. God is not interested in your money because He's trying to get it for Himself. Hey, folks, God doesn't need it.

I want you to learn this. God does not need it. He said in the Psalms, He said, if I were hungry, would I ask you, do you think you're going to help pour God out? God doesn't need your money, but God does want to bless you, and God knows that the consecration that doesn't reach the pocketbook doesn't reach the heart. God knows that, and the scripture that I'm going to read to you in a moment is going to tell God's formula for opening the windows of heaven and pouring out a blessing upon you.

Now, if you're smart, dear friend, you're going to pull up the shade and unlock the window. God wants to bless you, and that's the reason the Bible has so much to say about finances. Did you know of the 38 parables that the Lord Jesus Christ gave, 16 of them dealt with our relationship to things, our material goods, what we would call stewardship?

Did you know that? Did you know there are about 500 verses on faith and about 500 verses on prayer, but about 2,000 verses on stewardship and our relationship to our physical, material things? God is interested not because he's trying to get something from you, but primarily because he wants to bless you, and I'll tell you who else is interested. Not only are you interested, and not only is God interested, but the devil is interested because the devil doesn't want you to hear what I'm about to say to you. The devil wants to keep you in financial bondage.

If he can keep you in bondage of any kind, he has you right where he wants you. I want you to pay attention to God's word, what he has to say here when the Bible tells us how to obtain financial freedom. Now look in verse seven. Here's what God says to those people so long ago, but what he says to us today.

Even from the days of your fathers, you are gone away from mine ordinances and have not kept them. Return unto me and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, wherein shall we return? Now this was an insolent answer they gave to God.

It was a silly question. How shall we return? Do you see their self-righteousness there? Well, God is about to pull the rug out from underneath their self-righteousness in verse eight. Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee?

God's answer, in tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse. Now friend, if you're going to be cursed with anything, you don't want to be cursed with a curse. You are cursed with a curse for you have robbed me, even this whole nation. Now friend, it'd be better to rob a bank than rob God. I heard about a man who was pulling a hold up and he wrote a note and gave it to the teller and said, put all your money in this bag. This is a hold up. She scribbled a note, sent it back to him, said, straighten your tie.

They're taking your picture. Now, God knows if you're robbing him. And he says here, you are cursed with a curse because you have robbed me, even this whole nation. And then he says, bring ye all the tithe into the storehouse that there may be meat in my house and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts. If I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground.

Neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts and all nations shall call you blessed for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts. Now, God wants to deliver you from financial bondage. Financial bondage is being cursed with a curse. Let me give you 11 marks of financial bondage.

Let's just see if you are in financial bondage today. First of all, have you ever found yourself charging daily expenditures? I'm talking about the daily things that you need, gasoline, food, groceries, charging those things because you don't have the money to pay for them. Do you put off paying a bill that is due till next month? Do you ever borrow money to pay fixed expenses like taxes and insurance? Are you aware of how much money you owe? Do you have creditors calling you and hounding you for overdue bills? Do you have to take from your savings sometimes just to pay your current bills? Do you make new loans to pay off old loans?

Take all your little loans and put them in one great big back breaking loan. Do you and your wife ever argue about money? I think in some wedding ceremonies, we ought to say till debt do us part.

Do you and your wife, you and your husband ever argue about this? Hey, let me ask you a question. Have you ever thought about being dishonest in money?

Maybe cheating on your taxes, cutting a corner in a business deal or whatever? My friend, you're in financial bondage. Are you a tither? If not, you're in financial bondage. But I want to say that it is not just simply the poor who are in financial bondage. I suppose the worst kind of financial bondage is to be rich and still be in financial bondage. When you try to find your satisfaction in money and you have money and you're still not satisfied, you're in bondage.

You know, the Bible says, He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver. I'll tell you another way you can be rich and still be in bondage. When your money increases your worries, the more you get, the more you worry. You know, the Bible says in Proverbs 15 verse 6, In the house of the righteous there's much treasure, but in the revenue of the wicked there's trouble. There's some people who can sleep better than the wealthy people can sleep because the wealthy man is always worrying about his money. He spends the first half of his life trying to get everything he can from everybody else and the last half of his life trying to keep everybody else from getting it back.

He's miserable in both halves of his life. You're in financial bondage if you have a desire to get rich quick. You know, we tell young people, Make all the money you can just so you make it honestly.

Hey, that's bad advice. A man who's making all the money he can is going to be making money when he ought to be praying, soul winning, witnessing or going fishing. He's in bondage.

He's in bondage. The Bible says in Proverbs 23 verse 4, Labor not to be rich. Feel sorry for the man whose goal is to be rich. You ought to labor to be godly.

The Bible says in Matthew chapter 6 verse 33, Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. If wealth is what motivates you, I hate to tell you this, but you're in financial bondage. You're in financial bondage if you don't have treasure in heaven. The Bible says riches make themselves wings.

You know, somebody said money talks, it says goodbye. And that's true. Listen, I thought about a man that Jesus told about in the 12th chapter of Luke who said, soul, take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry for you have much goods laid up for many years. And Jesus said, oh, you fool.

This night shall your soul be required of you. And then who shall those things be? You call it your house, your car. Those things, listen, 50 years from now, most of us, somebody else will hold possession too. Isn't that true? I mean, friend, we just have them for a little while and we're stewards.

There are too many people who are in financial bondage. A man was seen driving down the highway in a red Ferrari. On the back of that Ferrari was a bumper sticker and this is what it said. He who has the most toys when he dies wins. That's wrong, friend, because you see, if you want to know really how wealthy you are, you add up everything you have that money can't buy and death can't take away and then you're going to know how wealthy you are or put it another way, are the things you're living for worth Christ dying for?

Think about it. It's not wrong to have possessions. As a matter of fact, God wants you to have possessions. God gives you possessions to make you a steward over them, but you can be financially in bondage as a poor person. You can be financially in bondage as a wealthy person. Somebody has described a modern American as a person who drives a bank-financed car over a bond-financed highway on gasoline he's just bought with a credit card on his way to open a charge account at a department store so he can fill his savings and loan-financed home with installment purchased furniture.

Now, friend, it's about time we stop buying things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like. It's about time we learn what God had to say about how to make money, how to use money, how to spend money, how to save money, and how to give money. God wants to open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing on you.

Yes, a spiritual blessing and yes, a financial blessing. And here in the passage that I've read to you from the book of Malachi, there are three steps to financial freedom. Number one, there must be a personal return to God. Look in verse seven. Even from the days of your fathers you're gone away from my ordinances and have not kept them. Return unto me and I will return unto you saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, wherein shall we return?

The point of return has to be at the point of departure. And so God answers this. Wherein shall we return? He says, will a man rob God?

Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee in tithes and offerings? We must return to God in this matter of stewardship.

Again, I want to tell you, I cannot say it enough. God is not out to impoverish you. God is out to enrich you. God is not trying to get from you. God is trying to give to you, but he has to do it his way. Psalm 50 verse 12, if I were hungry, I would not tell thee for the world is mine and the fullness thereof God says.

You're not going to help pour God out. God loves you for yourself. The Bible says that it's not your money, it's you that he wants. 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 5, the Bible says of those people who gave such great gifts that first of all, they first gave themselves to the Lord. 2 Corinthians 12 verse 14, God says, I seek not yours, but you. It is you that God wants. Tithing is not God's way to raise money.

He owns everything. Tithing is God's way to grow Christians. I heard about a farmer who was a corn farmer and he had two boys and while the other boys were off fishing and hunting and running around, this farmer's sons were working in the corn fields. Somebody said to that farmer, why do you work those boys so diligently? You don't need all that corn. He said, I'm not raising corn, I'm raising boys.

You think about it. God is not just simply raising money. What God is doing, God is growing Christians.

My dear friend, one of the greatest signs that you're getting right with God is that you trust God with your finances. I want to say this, you listen, you can sing all you want about how you love Jesus and all of that. You can have crocodile tears in your eyes, but the consecration that doesn't reach your purse has not reached your heart. I saw a bumper sticker the other day and I really liked it. It says, tithe if you love Jesus, anybody can blow their horn.

You think about it. God wants your heart. That's the reason he asked us to give because where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The Lord knows what he's up to. He just wants you to put him first.

That's the reason he says in Matthew chapter six, verse 33, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. Two boys were talking. One of them had just milked the cow and come back into the house and the other one said, how much did she give? He said, she didn't give anything.

Said, I had to take every drop from her. And you know, listen, friend, God does not want that kind of gift. I want to say it with all of my heart. What is not liberally and cheerfully and willingly given, God neither needs nor wants. He doesn't need it.

He doesn't want it. If it is not liberally, cheerfully given and God says, you want to return to me? You just stop robbing me. You just stop stealing from me. The point of return is always the point of departure. Do you know what's coming soon?

April the 15th. You know what that is? Yeah. And you know what you're going to do? Well, you're going to sit down. You're going to figure it all out.

You're going to total it up and refigure it and try and figure it out. Do you know why? Because if you don't, Caesar's going to come after you. The Bible says, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and render to God the things that are God's. Now, the tithe is the Lord's, the Bible says. Why is it that some will pay their income tax but they don't tithe? Why is that? I'll tell you why. Why do they render to Caesar that which is Caesar's but they don't give to God that which is God's?

You want me to tell you very frankly? They fear Caesar more than they fear God. That's right. They just fear Caesar more than they fear God. Somehow they say, well, it's all right to rob God but it's not all right to rob Caesar. I want to tell you very plainly and very frankly, you will never know financial freedom in my estimation no matter how wealthy you are if you don't tithe. If you don't tithe, you'll never know financial freedom. That is not the last step to financial freedom but dear friend, you'll never go around that one. Start with the tithe. Return to God.

There must be a personal return and that personal return secondly will show up in a material release, a material release. You're going to begin to release those things that are in your hand and that's the second step to financial freedom. Look at it in verse 10. Bring you all the tithe into the storehouse that there may be meat in my house. There has to be that personal and material release. Now, that verse tells us several things.

First of all, what are we to bring? There is a definite proportion. The Bible calls it the tithe. Now, if you're not familiar with Bible language, tithe means tenth.

Jacob said in Genesis 28 verse 22, of all that thou givest me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee. There are some people who say, well, you know pastor, tithing is legalistic. That's the reason I don't tithe. Tithing was for Jews in the Old Testament. Tithing was for Jews under the law, but I'm a Christian.

I don't live in the Old Testament times. I live in New Testament times and tithing is legalistic and we are free from the law. Tithing is not a part of God's Old Testament ceremonial law alone. It is a part of God's eternal law and tithing was taught and practiced 400 years before the Mosaic law.

Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek. Jacob tithed years before the Old Testament law. Tithing was taught before the Old Testament law. Tithing was taught during the Old Testament law. Tithing is taught after the Old Testament law. The Old Testament and the New Testament teach tithing. In Matthew chapter 23 and verse 23, put this in your margin there.

Jesus is talking to the scribes and the Pharisees. He said, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and the coming and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith. These ought you to have done, pay tithe and not leave the other judgment, mercy and faith undone. You see, there's no competition between tithing and judgment, mercy and faith. They're all a part of what our Lord wants us to do. Did you know that the Bible teaches clearly that we're to give our tithes to Jesus Christ? Did you know that?

Let me show you something very interesting here. Turn to Hebrews chapter five. Now, I put a bookmark in Malachi and then turn to Hebrews chapter five and read with me verses five and six. So Christ glorified not himself to be made a high priest. That is, Jesus did not just set himself up to be a high priest, but he that said unto him, thou art my son, today have I begotten thee. That is, Jesus was not a high priest by his own decision, but by God the Father. God the Father said, thou art a priest. But he that said unto him, thou art my son, today have I begotten thee, as he saith also in another place, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Those two verses tell us that Christ is a high priest. Now, he's not a high priest after the order of Aaron, but a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Well, you say, pastor, that's just so much religious lingo to me. I don't even know who Melchizedek was.

I'm not even real sure I know who Aaron was. And Christ is what? He's a high priest after the order of Melchizedek?

Yes. All right, now just keep that in your mind. Christ is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Just forget for a moment who Melchizedek is. And just get it in your mind that Christ is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Got that?

All right, now let's move on. Look in chapter 7. Let's find out who Melchizedek is. Hebrews 7, 7. All right, for this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him. One day Abraham, now this was centuries before the law, had gone out to a battle and he had overcome some kings and when he came back he met Melchizedek. Melchizedek was a priest of the most high God and Melchizedek blessed Abraham. Now what did Abraham do?

To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, that is Abraham tithe to him. First being by interpretation king of righteousness. Now that's one thing Melchizedek was, a king of righteousness. And after that also king of Salem.

Do you know what the word Salem means? It means peace, which is king of peace. Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continually. Who is Melchizedek? He is, he's a priest of the most high God. Whoever Melchizedek is, he has a name which means, number one, king of righteousness.

And not only does his name mean king of righteousness, but it also means king of peace. And not only that, but as you search the Bible, you can't ever find out where he began or where he ended. It doesn't have any earthly father or mother. He is without beginning of days or end of days. He just appears and he's like he's lived for all eternity. He's a mysterious king. No beginning, no ending, no father, no mother, king of peace, king of righteousness, priest of the most high God forever.

Who does he sound like to you? Well, look in verse four. Now consider how great this man was unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils.

Who was this? Friend, it was Jesus. Abraham met Jesus and gave him a tithe.

You say, do you believe it was literally Jesus? I personally believe it was literally Jesus who appeared in a pre-incarnate form called king of peace and king of righteousness and met Abraham. He said, Abraham saw my day and was glad. Abraham saw my day and was glad.

But whether or not it was literally Jesus or somebody who prefigured Jesus, the point is still the same. The writer of Hebrews says, consider how great a man this was to whom Abraham gave the tithe of all. And I want to remind you that Abraham existed before the Mosaic law was ever heard of. Don't you tell me that you don't want a tithe because it's legalistic. Anybody who would let a Jew do more under law than he would do under grace is a disgrace to grace. Jesus never revised the law downward. Jesus never said, in the Old Testament said, don't steal, but I'll tell you, you can steal a little bit. It's all right.

No. Jesus said, except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. You shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. Let me tell you this about the law. Romans chapter three, verse 31. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid. Yea, we establish the law, even if tithing just a part of the law.

Do you think we're going to do less under grace? Why do you feed your children? Because the law says you have to feed your children?

No, you love them. That's why we feed our children, why we raised our children, clothed them, housed them, fed them, educated them, because we love them. Now, the law says, however, you have to take care of your children.

That's not why I do it. But suppose there's a father or mother, somebody who says, well, I'm not going to feed my child. Then the law takes over.

Child neglect is a crime, right? You see, what I'm trying to say is, you can't just simply say, well, I'm just going to be a law unto myself. The law is there.

If you don't want to live up here, you see. If you don't live by grace, you'll be judged by law. You cannot, my dear friend, just simply say that I'm not going to do what God wants me to do. We don't make void the law, we establish the law. Now tithing was taught before the law, during the law. Tithing, Abraham commenced it, Jacob continued it, Malachi commanded it, Jesus commended it. Who are you to cancel it?

Who are you? Listen, dear friend, there is a principle that we are to give. And so there must be a definite proportion.

And then not only a definite proportion, but there's a definite place. Bring all the tithe into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house. Now there, he talked about the temple. And in the temple, there was a depository called the storehouse. And they brought the tithe to the storehouse. They didn't just spend the tithe for whatever they wanted, to whomever they wanted.

They didn't use that to take care of some sick aunt or uncle or to send kids through school. No, they brought the tithe to the storehouse. Now, the storehouse was in the temple. The church, wherever she meets today is the temple of God.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3, know you not that you are the temple of God. That's the reason he went on to say in 1 Corinthians 16 too, upon the first day of the week. What day is that? Sunday, right? Sunday is not the weekend. It's the first day of the week, not the weekend.

All right, now listen. Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you, every one of you on Sunday lay by him in store. You see the word in store? In store, 1 Corinthians 16, too. Bring you all the tithe into the storehouse, Malachi 3, 10. 1 Corinthians 16, too.

Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store. Now, that word in store is in the Greek, the same word that you'll find in the Hebrew in Malachi 3, 10. As a matter of fact, when they put the Hebrew scriptures into Greek, they went over here and got 1 Corinthians 16, too, and took the word that's translated in store and translated it here, storehouse. Same word, same word.

Greek store, Hebrew storehouse. Upon the first day of the week, you bring, you bring God's tithe to God's house that God's work will be done God's way. That's the way to do it.

You're not going to do it any better than that. That is the way that God says that there be no gatherings when I come. Paul said, we're not going to need any emergency offerings. Everything is going to be taken care of if God's people will just do what I've told them to do. Friend, we'd have enough to build buildings, send missionaries, expand our program, reach this city and reach this world for Christ if God's people would only get themselves in a place where God could bless them.

I mean, just so God could bless them. You don't give because there's a need. You give because it's right. But when you give because it's right, you do meet a need. You see, look, there's a proper purpose that there may be meat in my house, says the Lord.

That's the definite purpose, the definite purpose that there may be meat in my house. That is there will be enough to do what needs to be done. I was reading the other day where a statistician said, somebody had figured it out. He said, in the average church, if every member were on welfare and they all tithed, the income of that church would more than double.

That's pathetic, isn't it? If everybody were on welfare and they all tithed, the income of that church would double. Now the purpose is God says that there may be meat in my house. Now, I don't mean to say that if you tithe that you're going to be wealthy.

I'll talk about that in a moment. I don't mean to say if you tithe, that's all you need to do. I am simply saying, friend, that is the starting place. You want to return to God? If you don't return to God with your material goods, you haven't really returned. That's what God says here. Now there has to be a personal return.

There has to be a material release. And then my dear friend, there will be a spiritual renewal. That's when revival begins in your heart and in your life.

Continue to read. Bring you all the tithe into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house and prove me now here with set the Lord of hosts. If I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sake and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground. Neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field set the Lord of hosts and all nations shall call you blessed.

Now let me very quickly just run down this. First of all, he's going to renew our faith. He's going to renew our faith. He says, here's what I'm going to do. He says, you can prove me, put me to the test.

If I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that's a spiritual blessing. You'll say, listen, God really does live. He really is real. He does keep his word.

I have put him to the test. When Joyce and I got married after our wedding and so forth, we had about 50 or $60. I can't remember how much, maybe just a little more.

Seems to me like it was less than a hundred. We took our honeymoon on that. We didn't have anything, but we had each other and we had Jesus. We started out, I was just a young boy, our first year in college. We went to school seven years. I worked my way through school in all manner of jobs, packing fruit, selling automobiles, doing construction work, working as a butcher, working in a department store, selling shoes, selling clothes, doing all of these things to work my way through school. But friend, when I got out of school, I was out of debt. My wife didn't work. I thought she ought to stay home.

She did. Joyce and I didn't tithe. We gave beyond the tithe. We wanted to give more than the tithe. And I can tell you that through these years, we've tithed. And friend, through these years, we've proven this verse to be true. And God has enabled us to give away amounts of money that I thought we would never be able to give away. God has enabled us to do that.

Why? Because He, dear friend, has proven to us that it is true. Prove me, prove me, God says. Put me to the test.

See whether or not it's true. Only place I know of in the Bible where He challenges us to prove Him. Number one, He will renew our faith. Number two, He'll rebuke our foes. Look, if you will, in verse 11. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sake. He'll not destroy the fruits of your ground. Neither shall your vine cast a fruit before the time in the field.

We all have foes. Now, if you're a farmer, it might be the boll weevil, the drought, or whatever. But He's not just simply talking about that. He's talking to the doctor, the lawyer, the mechanic, the physician.

It doesn't make any difference. What God is saying is your clothes will wear better, your cars will drive better, you'll be healthier. Now, I'm not saying, listen, I'm not saying if you're tired you're going to be a millionaire.

Most of us have about all God can trust us with. And not everybody's going to have the same amount of money whether you're tired or whether you don't. Some are more gifted, some inherent more. Some are just in a position where they get more and then others, right? But what I am saying is this, and I believe this with all my heart, you'll always do more with nine-tenths and God as a partner than you do with ten-tenths by yourself.

That's it. Always more with nine-tenths and God as a partner. Now, some people, I don't care whether they're tired or not, they're not going to be wealthy because that's just their situation, that's their giftedness and others. But I tell you, whoever you are, you'll always do more with God as a partner. You know, sometimes people when you talk about tithing, they say, well, pastor, you don't expect that little widow to tithe her pension, do you?

Sure. You say, you hard-hearted man. I'd be hard-hearted if I didn't teach her to tithe. I want her to be blessed. I mean, if there's anybody that needs to depend upon God, it's that kind of a person.

You're not smarter than God. Don't you know that God knows what that little lady needs? You say you're trying to get it for that church, do I need it?

No, no. God doesn't need it. God doesn't have to have it. God wants to bless us, but God wants us to get in the place of blessing where God says, prove me. I'll renew your faith.

I'll rebuke your foes. And then God says, I'll restore your fruitfulness. Your fruit's not going to fall to the ground ahead of time. I'll make you fruitful. Not just fruitful, dear friend, in farming, but fruitful in all that we do. It's time we began to trust the Lord. Don't get so wrapped up in these material things.

Friend, you're going to leave them before long. Some years ago, I went to Italy and I went to Naples, Italy, and out from Naples, Italy, there is a place called Pompeii. And there's a great mountain there, a volcano called Vesuvius. And you can visit Pompeii and you can see the ruins of Pompeii and another city right by it that they're just excavating, Herculaneum.

What a thing to go through. You can see the splendor and the lavishness in which those people live because that volcanic ash just kind of fell in and filled in everything and it's soft enough they can scrape it back and they see the houses and the tile and all of that just like it was, some of the bodies of the people there. In Pompeii, there's a man, the skeleton of a man, his hand is clasping some gold coins. In his other hand is a bag, his bag of gold. And evidently, when the volcano started and the ashes started to fall, this man went back for his bag of gold and he's reaching out.

The gold has spilled on the floor and he's reaching out for that gold when the gas and the fumes have overcome him. And there he's embalmed for all time just grasping that gold. Reminds me of what Jesus said when he said, what should it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul?

Or what should a man give in exchange for his soul? Friend, the wisest thing, the best thing that anybody can do is to give his heart to Jesus Christ. God doesn't need you.

You need God. God's not trying to get your money. God is trying to bless you.

He wants to open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing. There's only one reason that anybody wouldn't tithe. They just don't believe it.

Anybody who believes that will do it. I wonder how many today would say, Brother Rogers, if I died this moment, I know that I know I'd go to heaven, not because of anything that I have done, not because of anything that I've given, but because Jesus Christ is my personal Lord and Savior. He has saved me.

And to the praise of his name, I give you this testimony. Yes, I know that I know I'd go straight to heaven. I want to say this, that giving your money won't get you to heaven. Joining a church won't get you to heaven.

Being baptized won't get you to heaven. There's only one thing that will save you, one and one alone, and that's to put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who died upon the cross to pay for your sins. You can be saved this very moment if you'll open your heart and say, Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. Forgive my sin and save me. If you say it and really mean it, I promise he'll save you. Father, I pray that many in this building today will be saved by trusting Christ. In his name, amen. If you would like to learn more about how you can know Jesus or deepen your relationship with him, simply click the Discover Jesus link on our website, lwf.org. For a copy of this message or additional resources, visit our online store at lwf.org or call 1-800-274-5683. Thank you.