Money Matters, Part 1 (cont'd)

So the Bible is clear. God loves generosity from a worshipful heart. And tithing as a pattern clearly shows us that that's the baseline, that's the beginning of this generosity from a worshipful heart.

And it increases from there. If you think tithing will stretch your wallet, wait until you see what comes next. Hello and welcome to this Monday edition of Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd. Today we have a word of encouragement for you. When you obey God in the area of giving, He not only blesses you every single time, He blesses you beyond what you gave. Today's message is coming right up.

Stay with us here. But remember, you can always listen to or download the podcast at pastorpaul.net, at Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get yours. Now, here's Pastor Paul with today's Destined for Victory message, Money Matters. My mama made me a tither before God ever did. When I was a little boy getting a dollar allowance for doing my chores, she would give it to us in change. Three quarters, two dimes, one nickel. And she looked at one of the dimes and said, that belongs to God. Take it to Sunday school with you and give it to God.

And then the 90 cents, He will bless you. Taught that as a child. I used to give and our church, they would take the money in a certain room and it had kind of a covering on the windows and it was a little crack. And I remember one day looking through there as a little boy and the trustees were in there, you know, counting the money because I wanted to see the angels come down and do the pick up. Honestly, that's what I thought was happening as a little boy.

I mean, I'm talking about six years old, whatever it is. And I remember looking, I would say, ooh, we're going to see some angel. Because I wanted to see the pick up angels roll in. Thank you very much. How y'all doing? Y'all good? Y'all good?

All right. That's what I'm looking for. That's how real it was to me. They said that belongs to God. Belongs to God. And He said, you're cursing yourself. And then in Matthew 23, 23, Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees and He says, woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites.

Why do you call them hypocrites? He said you give a tenth of your spices, mint, dill, all the stuff you have, but you have neglected the more important matters of the law, justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former.

He said you do both. Jesus, even while rebuking the Pharisees, He rebuked them for not being just and merciful and faithful and taking good care of people and honoring God in certain ways. He said, it's not that your tithing was wrong. Your tithing is right. He said, it's just that you don't neglect the other stuff while you're tithing.

So the Bible is clear. God loves generosity from a worshipful heart. And tithing as a pattern clearly shows us that that's the baseline. That's the beginning of this generosity from a worshipful heart. And it increases from there.

That's the beginning. When Jesus mentioned giving, other than here in Matthew 23, 23, He didn't mention it as tithing. He mentioned it as giving so generously above the tithe that there would have been no point in mentioning the tithe.

For instance, Jesus in the temple is watching people give. Can you imagine the emails I would get? If I told them, put up all those other baskets, have one basket where everybody gives, put it right here by me. And at offering time while I'm greeting you all, hey, how you doing? I'm watching what you put in. Hey, bless you. Hey, I haven't seen you in a while.

Hey. Can you imagine the anger I would face if I'm standing here watching people give, evaluating what they're giving? I wouldn't think to do that, but Jesus did.

You know why Jesus did it in the temple that day? Because He does it every time you give. He's watching you every time you give. He won't let me watch you because He knows that you all aren't mature enough to have that happen. I'm sorry, Pastor Paul, you just go on and put the baskets out and let them give or not give, but tell them I'm watching.

I'm watching. And He said, this widow outgave all of you. Why? Because the wealthy people, He said they're giving more in amount, but they're giving less in sacrifice. Because they're giving in a way that really doesn't hit them. If you're giving and you don't feel it, you're not worshiping yet. You don't feel it, you're not worshiping yet. He said this woman gave and she felt it.

It's what she had to live on. Which, by the way, is why you can't say, well, that must be for the wealthy people in the church. If you all knew how little money I had, you wouldn't talk to me about giving.

I beg to differ. I'd talk to you probably more about giving. Because there comes a time when you have to realize God excuses no one from the principle. The principle is everyone has His resources and a call to give generously out of that. Generosity for a poor person looks different on paper, looks different on their giving statement, but in heaven, Jesus said that person gave more.

They gave more because they gave out of what they needed and they gave generously out of what they needed. Preach on, Pastor Paul. Now, when you move into the early church and the letters, so some folks say, see, you still don't see tithe in there.

Well, let's look at what you see. In the early church, Acts chapter 2, they gave sacrificially as they were beginning to come into the kingdom of God. Then in Acts chapter 4, you even see them selling property to finance the work of the kingdom of God. Imagine selling houses and land to support the kingdom of God.

When's the last time a pastor got up here and said, I need all of y'all. Sell a house, sell some property, sell it and bring it all. I'm not talking about the tithe out of that.

Sell that property and bring it all. That's what they did in Acts chapter 4. In fact, they brought it and they put it at the apostle's feet and said, this is for the kingdom. Use it as the Lord needs us to use it.

Properties. It was so important a move of God that the next chapter, Acts chapter 5, there was a couple that wanted to appear to be generous, but when they sold that land and got that check, they said, if y'all think all this going there to Peter, you got nothing coming. So they took some of it, held it back for themselves, took the rest and brought it at the apostle's feet, but God saw it. So the Lord sends Peter. Peter asked Ananias, did y'all give everything?

Here's where the problem was. And I said, yeah, yeah, yeah, we gave everything just like everybody else was doing. Peter said to Ananias, why have you thought it a good thing to lie to God? He said, it was yours to do with what you wanted. God wasn't making you do it.

He was giving you the invitation to join the other saints in this particular project of selling properties and giving the proceeds entirely to the work of the Lord. You didn't have to join in. You chose to join in, but you did it falsely. You did it trying to lie. That's what God hated. God said, you haven't lied to men.

You've lied to me. And Ananias dropped dead on the spot. His wife came in a little while after that.

Read Acts chapter 5 and you get a chance. Wife came in. I always picture her with Macy's Nordstrom bags. It's just the way I picture her in my mind. Has she come in with the bags? And Peter asked her the same question, giving her a chance.

She didn't know her husband dead. Giving her a chance to be truthful. All God wants you to do is be truthful. He can work with you from there even if you're wrong but truthful. Anybody ever been wrong but truthful? God, I'm wrong, but I'm not going to try to pretend like it's not what it is. This is it. Now, Lord, help me to get right.

He can work with you. She'd have stayed alive but she come in with that same old, ah, no, we gave it all. Hide in the bags. Yeah, yeah, we gave it all. Peter said the same brothers coming back from burying your husband are looking for you.

She dropped dead too. The issue wasn't that they chose not to be generous. The issue was that they chose not to be generous and lied about it. And it insulted God. So when you look at the early church, don't say, oh, titans no big deal.

Well, try selling your house and believe in God for where you're going to stay from here. But right now I'm going to sow into the kingdom. We'll be right back with more of today's Destined for Victory message from Pastor Paul Shepherd, Senior Pastor at Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. If you enjoy Destined for Victory, we know you'll love watching some of Pastor Paul's best video clips. Subscribe at YouTube or find out more and get links to all of his social media at PastorPaul.net. PastorPaul.net.

You know, when you give generously from your lack, God returns everything you gave and then some. That's not his prediction. That's his promise. Stay with us after today's message when Pastor Paul joins me in the studio.

But right now, let's join him for the second half of this message. Money matters. Just one more example from the church. Second Corinthians. Some people try to use a verse in Second Corinthians chapter nine that says each one should decide what they want to give in their heart and give it not grudgingly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver. And people say, hey, see, there you go.

That's the standard. They ignore everything else in the Bible. And they grab a verse that says, decide in your heart what you want to give and give it because God loves a cheerful giver. Look at the context.

Never look at a text without a context. Second Corinthians nine, he ends up, among other things, saying, decide in your heart what you're going to give. The context begins in Chapter eight, where Paul spends a good deal of time trying to make the Corinthians jealous, envious.

He says, look at the Macedonian churches. They, out of their extreme poverty, have given extremely generously and they couldn't wait to do it. He said, now, if they can do that in extreme poverty, you all should sure be coming through with some major funds to support the work that I've been talking to you about. The context is he's talking about generosity. And in Chapter nine, in the same chapter where you see decide what you want to give in your heart, he says he who sows generously will reap generously. Don't ignore that just to make the point to try to prove that you can ignore Genesis, the revelation where you're exhorted to be generous and find one scripture that you want to make out to mean you don't have to be. That's not being true to the scriptures and it's cursing your own life. In other words, brothers and sisters, the Bible throughout teaches that it is important to God that we sow generously.

In light of all of this, here's a statement I want to stun you with. You are not a generous giver if you give less than a tithe. You know what generous is? Generous is how much you give the IRS when you get paid. You say, well, I didn't give it, they took it. I realized that, I realized the system was that unless you're self-employed, you didn't have the option to give it because if you're employed by a corporation, they take it.

So the fact that you get yours jacked before you get your check is really not the issue. The issue is you made it, they took it. And look at what they took, they didn't take a tithe.

This is going to hurt but let it hurt good. I'm trying to show you what generous is because I'm trying to get a blessing into your life. And you're lying to yourself saying I'm generous and you're not even giving God 10% of all that he's put in your hands. But the government is taking, depending on what your income is, anywhere, what's the lowest income rate? 17, 20 maybe?

I don't know, I haven't looked it up. Even if you're low income and they don't take a lot, they're taking more than a tithe, I promise you that. And most of us are not being taken, 15, 17, 20%, most of us are up into 23, 27, 33. Some of us 40 plus percent of what we earn, Sam didn't go to that job, you went to that job. Sam didn't provide for that, you did it but Sam comes along and says thank you very much.

And Sam has taken a generous portion. You know what generous is? What you give to your landlord. The average renter of an apartment or house is giving at least 20% of his or her income to the place they stay. At least, I said, at least a double tithe to your landlord.

20%, many of y'all renting are paying 25%, 30%, some of you renting are one third of your income 33%, some of you renting at 40 or more percent and you don't even own the house. That's generous. You know what generous is homeowners? Generous is what you send Bank of America, Wells Fargo, whoever it is and you send it faithfully. You don't have a worshipful heart when you're doing it.

But you do it because you want to stay there. No future in fronting, fussing, the average homeowner in America is giving at least a third of their income to their mortgage and most of us homeowners are giving more than a third of our income. It is not uncommon now to see people giving 40, 45, 50%.

I've heard of a few people who more than half of what they earn pays their mortgage. That's generous. So if we want to meet God at the point of generosity and he's saying just start with 10, look at what he's not saying. He's not saying give me, you better not give that mortgage place more than you give me.

Isn't God good that he doesn't say that to us? Start with a tithe. God said I'm not trying to jack you, I'm the one who gave it to you. I gave you the strength to earn the money. I gave you the wisdom to earn the money. I gave you the ability to get up and go to work. Some of you all worked so long I gave you the ability to sit at home and get in the mail. Your retirement and I'm blessing you to see it.

He's keeping you alive in this season of your life. He's not saying give me 40%, give me 45%, give me 33%. God's saying start with 10% to honor me and watch how I will bless you with the 90%. So let me wrap it up by saying here's the challenge. Calculate the percentage of your income you're currently giving and see what it is.

Calculate it. It's easy to just tell yourself stuff that's not true if you don't prove it to yourself. I've heard people say over the years I'm a tither. Yeah, how much you make? You know why? Because I will know if you answer that question because you know the next question is going to be, so how much do you give to the Lord? Don't tell me you give.

Let me just throw some examples. $24,000 a year. That's what I made when I first came to California in 1989 and got the culture shock of how much I was going to have to pay rent. Talk about rent. When I just went through that rent thing, when I first got here, $5 short of 50% of my income went to a lady I didn't even know, my landlord.

I'm not preaching what I haven't done. $9.95 was my rent, $2,000 a month was my pay. The devil said, I know you're not going to try to tithe now.

That lady just took half your money. And you got a wife and two little kids that's just getting rent, go to school. And you're out here living in California and all this crazy expenses out here, you can't afford to tithe. And I could not afford not to. Gave the Lord his $200 every month. Said, let's see how you pay bills this month. See, if you tell me you're making $24,000 a year, then you're giving God $200 a month. However you give it, you give once a month or break it up into. But at the end of the year, when you get your statement from the church, it ought to reflect 10% of what you actually earned. If you're earning $52,000 a year, your tithe is $5,200 a year. Why?

Tithing is wonderful. You move the decimal one space to the left. How seamless is that? To the left, to the left. I'm going to make up a Beyonce song.

Let's see, let's make it up right now. To the left, to the left. Move the decimal one to the left. All that God has done for you and all the things he brought you through. Tell me I'm not a songwriter.

Come on, let's all die. To the left, to the left. Move the decimal one to the left. All that God has done for you and all the things he brought you through. That's tithing. God's not jacking you for rent-sized money, mortgage-sized money. He's saying it's all mine.

I could make you give that. He's saying move the decimal to the left and see what I'll do as you make that your lifestyle. Thanks so much for being here for today's message, Money Matters. Pastor Paul joins me now from his studio in California. Pastor, we're dealing with a sensitive subject today, but why is it that money is such a touchy subject for us?

What are you hoping people will take away from this series? Well, my hope is that they will understand a critical piece of information that Jesus gave us in Matthew 6. He said, where your treasure is, that's where your heart is. And since he said it quite matter-of-factly, we need to say, okay, the Lord knows that there is a direct connection between our priorities, our values, and our money.

And my job in this particular time of preaching is to share principles that will help us know here's the way God wants us to view and use the resource of money. Very often we call it our money. But the more I look at the Bible, I say, no, the Bible never calls it mine.

He calls it my master's. And I'm the servant that has to take care of something that belongs to my master. And so as I get my check every other week, I remind myself that this isn't mine. It is a resource God has entrusted to me, and he's going to hold me to account for how I use it.

I don't mind telling you, Wayne, that, and you know, people can do it the way it works for them. For me, I have a separate checking account where my tithes and my offering above my tithes go in automatically. That's a good idea. I never see it because the way my direct deposits are set up, my tithes and my offerings go into an account, I never even look at. Because if I started looking at it, I might think, oh, man, I got some money in here.

And so I can't do that. That's God's money. And every time I got to give to the kingdom of God, whether it's our local church, I'm a legacy builder for Destined for Victory, and I give to other ministries as well, and I do it right out of that account because that's not mine. That's God's money. And I think we've got to learn how to use the resource in a way that he is pleased with.

Yeah. So many times we fantasize what would happen if we had all the money we needed instead of putting that effort into stewarding what God has given to us. I mean, that's what he wants us to have, so let's make the most of it. The thing I love about God is he just asks me to be generous.

He doesn't say I want it all. He says I want you to be generous as you support the kingdom of God. We are giving what we cannot keep in order to gain what we cannot lose. When we give to the kingdom, we're giving to something that has eternal value, and God is pleased because of that. When you think about it, God doesn't need anything from us. He wants something for us.

As we honor him with our tithes and offerings, he's faithful to bless us beyond all we can ask or think. Keep in mind that as you are able to be generous today with your gift, we'd love to send you Pastor Paul's booklet, Built on a Solid Foundation. Again, it's called Built on a Solid Foundation, and it's our gift to you this month by request for your generous gift to Destin for Victory. Call us at 855-339-5500 or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. You can also mail your gift to Destin for Victory, post office box 1767, Fremont, California 94538.

Again, our address is Destin for Victory, post office box 1767, Fremont, California 94538. It is profoundly important that we understand God's will as it relates to sowing generously. So much of what God wants to do in your life is going to hinge on how you obey Him in the matter of sowing generously. That's next time in Pastor Paul Shepherd's message, Money Matters. Until then remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.