Money Matters, Part 2

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. Here's something every believer in Christ should remember. God doesn't ask you to give because He needs anything. He asks you to give because He wants to give back, to bless you exceedingly, abundantly, beyond all you can ask or think. Hello and welcome to this Thursday edition of Destin for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd, Senior Pastor at Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California.

Thanks so much for joining us. You know, it's easy to be skeptical when a church asks for money, but the truth is, the church isn't asking, God is. Today's message is straight ahead, but remember, you can stop by pastorpaul.net anytime to hear recent Destin for Victory messages on demand. That's pastorpaul.net.

You can also subscribe to the podcast at Google Podcast, iHeart, or wherever you get yours. Now, here's Pastor Paul with today's Destin for Victory message, Money Matters. And so we launched in the first message of the series, we talked about the fact that money matters.

And I'm going to continue that in this message. Money matters. It matters to God what we do with His resources. So I want to say as we continue moving through this series, if you will open your heart to God, this isn't just Pastor Paul telling you what he thinks about what you ought to do with money, time, and abilities. This is God speaking to us through His Word.

And if we will obey God, we will get blessings associated with that obedience. Now, in the opening message, we established that money matters to God, that we're stewards of what belongs to Him, and that as excellent stewards of our money, there are four things we should do. The first is to sow generously. And I spent the entire message covering that one aspect of money management, to sow generously.

If you miss that message, you will want to get it on CD. 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. Then, I want to cover three more in this message. Not only must we sow generously, but we should shrink debt systematically, save regularly, and spend wisely.

So let's just get to the first one. Shrink debt systematically. I won't ask you to raise your hand, but I want you to own it in your heart if you have consumer debt. I'm not talking about the mortgage or on the home you are buying if you are a homeowner buying a property that you live in and it's not fully paid for. I'm not considering that consumer debt because that's actually an appreciating asset. You're getting the benefit of it by living in it and it should be as the economy continues to improve and I pray that that will continue to happen. It is an appreciating asset.

So let's put that aside. Not including the home you're buying and living in, there are those of us who have consumer debt, credit card debt, unpaid various types of loans. Again, not a mortgage. This is debt that if we want to honor God with His resources of finances we want to get rid of that debt.

I'm going to prove it from the Word. It matters to God, not only that you sow generously, it matters to God that you shrink debt systematically. Four points I want to make in this business of shrinking debt.

Here's the first. In a very real sense, debt is a form of slavery and God wants us to be free. Jot that down if you're making notes. Debt is a form of slavery and God wants us to be free. Proverbs 22 says, the rich rule over the poor and the borrower is servant to the lender.

Now I want you to think about it. If you owe somebody money, if you owe some company money, if you owe some school money, if you owe anybody money, in a very real sense you are enslaved because you're not free to do with your money, the money that comes into your hands what you want. Some of it is already committed to somebody else. That's a form of slavery. The Bible here says the rich rule over the poor, the borrower is servant to the lender. You're not free to just do whatever you want without consequence. I realize some of y'all before you came to a Bible teaching church you said, oh, forget about it. If I had it I'd give it to them and I don't have it so they'll just be all right. And now that you're in a Bible teaching church seeking to please God you realize that God is not honored by that. You can't do that. If you didn't realize that before this message that's why this one's coming to you.

God is not honored by that. He wants you to live up to the obligation you made. And so you can't just blow off your student loans. You can't just blow off that credit card and say, oh, well, my credit's not great anyway so forget about it. You can't just stop answering the phone when they try to call you. Why are you going through all those changes in the first place? Because you're a slave running from your master.

Slave running from your master. Back in the old days sometimes some companies would send somebody to your house. They don't do that anymore now.

They tired of getting folks shot. But back in the old days I know I used to be a debt collector for a little period of time. I worked for a finance company and I worked mainly in the office calling people and reminding them that we hadn't received a payment. Of course they hadn't forgotten. And I did.

And this was back in the early days and the late 70s, what have you. And I remember there's one time where the manager of my branch tried to get me to go out to somebody's house to collect money. I called the man. I said, listen, my manager really wants to get a payment here and so he wants me to come out and collect it.

What time would be good for me to come? He said, you're not coming to my house. I said, well, sir, it's not me personally.

This is nothing personal. But you owe the company money and so they'd like to get a payment. And he said, you're not coming to my house. He said, I promise you if you let your manager send you to my house, I promise this happened. The man said to me, if you come on my porch, I will blow you into the street. He said, my shotgun is right by my door and I will blow you.

I said, sir, not only won't I be on your porch, not only don't you have to worry about me on your porch, you will never see my face. Because these people don't pay me enough money to put my life. I was single at the time. I said, I want to get married one day. I want to have children one day.

I want to live a long, prosperous life. Sir, you won't see me. I hung up and told my manager. He promised to blow me into the street if I come to his house.

So if you are really interested in that payment, here is his address. You go right on. I promise you that's what I did. Wasn't going to happen.

My mama raised no fool. Stay with us. The second half of Pastor Paul Shepherd's message is coming right up. But first, we want to thank all of you who support Destined for Victory with your prayers and financial support gifts that help Pastor Paul share the gospel of Jesus Christ with a growing audience.

As we begin to recover from the pandemic, there are those that face some tough challenges. So your support can be more helpful than ever. Please prayerfully consider making a generous gift to Destined for Victory today. You can give online safely from our website, pastorpaul.net, or give us a call at 855-339-5500.

Again, the number is 855-339-5500. Proverbs 22 verse 7 says, the borrower becomes the lender slave. God wants to deliver you from slavery today. Here's Pastor Paul with the rest of today's message, Money Matters.

But if you're running from debt collectors, if you are refusing to make payments, you are a runaway slave. And God says that is not my plan for your life. This is about pleasing God.

This is not about doing what you think. This is about pleasing God. Stewardship means we want to give a good answer to the owner. And so in a very real sense, debt is a form of slavery. I need you to get that. If you're carrying a balance on your credit card, I need you to get that. Renew your mind because the plan is, Lord, help me to take this down to zero and then help me to never again create new debt, consumer debt, unnecessary debt.

That is God's plan. He wants you out of slavery. If you're carrying credit card balances, if you have unpaid loans, you are a slave. You're just like Israel living in Egypt. You are a slave.

You got a pharaoh that you have to answer to. Second point under shrinking debt systematically is this. Only one debt should be outstanding and that's the debt of love. When you get where you're going in the will of God where money management is concerned, you ought to owe no one anything except love.

That's the plan. Now we got to get there first in terms of getting rid of all consumer debt. Then eventually let's believe God to get rid of our mortgages. Amen. I said let's believe God for that. We're not there yet. But let's believe God for that. But you don't even start on that road until you get rid of your slave masters. You ought to have one debt. Here's what Romans 13 verses seven and eight says.

I'm proving all of this by the word. Give everyone what you owe him. If you owe taxes, pay taxes.

Pause right there. You shouldn't be a Christian tax dodger. Why? Because the word just told you you shouldn't.

If you owe them, well see there's the problem. See I believe. I heard you.

I heard you when I made the statement. Pastor, that's where you don't understand. I believe I don't owe it.

If you owe taxes, pay taxes. I'm not going to fool with you. I'm going to let the Holy Spirit re-preach this to you about three in the morning because you're sitting there fighting it now. Fine.

He'll wake you up. If you owe revenue, then revenue. You have a business, somebody worked for you and you didn't pay them, you owe them what you hired them for. Well they didn't do the job right. Then don't hire them for the next job but pay them for this one.

This is tight but it's right. Not honoring God. I don't like the way you, that didn't come out the way I wanted so uh-uh. Not honoring God, pay him and then don't give him a good reference on Yelp.

Trying to help you now. You don't have to act like you like the job and you didn't. I go to a hotel and I don't like the way they did something.

I wouldn't mind writing a little review. Now you have all these websites where folks are trying to figure out whether to go there so you can help them out. Say they put me in a raggedy room, they were rude to me. Go on and speak the truth but pay as you go. If you owe taxes, pay taxes.

Revenue, pay revenue. If you owe respect, then respect. If honor, then honor. What's the Bible telling us to do?

Don't owe anybody anything you haven't paid. You owe honor. Let me pause long enough to remind you in this world of such political hatred, this does not honor God. I can't stand the idea of people proclaiming to be Bible thumping Christians and hating folk in another party.

You can't honor God that way. You can dislike their policies but you have to give honor and respect to whom it is due. Doesn't matter and that's for both parties. Doesn't matter whoever's in the White House, that's your president.

That ain't my president, yes it is. According to the word. And you owe him honor and you owe him respect.

This message hits both sides. Sooner or later, your person you want will be in the office. Then you'll be hollering amen when I make a point like this. But when somebody you don't like is in the office and I make this point, you say mmm. It's a reflection on you, not them.

You need to pray. You need to go somewhere and get some maturity because at the end of the day, we're called to worship God through obedience and he said if you owe somebody respect or honor, then you give it to them. Then verse eight of Romans 13 says let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another for he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law. So God only wants you to have one outstanding debt, one that never gets fully paid and that's the debt of love. All the rest of them ought to get paid off. So you receive the truth and then you can receive God's provision so you can live the truth. Don't fight truth.

Say amen to it. Third point under this shrinking debt. It is unwise to cosign for someone else's financial obligations.

Ooh, I got some help there. It is unwise to cosign for someone else's financial obligations. Proverbs 11 15. He who puts up surety for another will surely suffer but whoever refuses to strike hands in pledge is safe.

What do you want to do? Be safe or suffer? If you want to be safe, the word says here don't cosign.

Then you'll live in safety. It says if you cosign, you will suffer. Now Proverbs is a book written by the man of wisdom, Solomon, and it is full of what we in theological circles call truisms. These are the general rules by which God wants us to live. It's not that there aren't exceptions to them but they are truisms.

Generally speaking, this is what is true. That's what the Bible is telling us. One time I helped my son and it really got him through and he paid me all my money back and took me on a cruise. That's fine. That's great.

Glad for your son. Doesn't mean Proverbs 11 15 isn't true for most people most of the time. And Solomon, who was the wisest man besides Jesus who walked the face of the earth, said if you want to live in safety, don't cosign. But they really are in need. God shall supply their every need if they trust him and obey him. You might need but you don't need me. You need God. You need help.

And he is our helper. So it's just warning you, you're going to suffer if you do it. God's not saying don't ever do it.

He's just saying if you do it, plan on some suffering. And you know as well as I do that when you take on somebody else's financial obligation, in some cases, not all, hear me clearly so I don't get a bunch of dumb emails. In some cases, the reason they need your help in the first place is because they've been irresponsible. Oh, I'm glad I got that much help.

No, not all cases. Sometimes a person is new to credit and what have you, you come along, there's better ways to do that even. That's another message. There's better ways to do that. But you know as well as I do, some of the folk who need you to cosign is because their credit score is woeful and that is their doing.

So now you take your strength to bolster their weakness and once that crisis has gone away, they go back to living in weakness and now your strength is compromised. This is good. This is good.

Get mad if you want to. Huh, tripping. Fine. Fine. But I'm on a safe trip.

You're on a suffering trip. That's all I'm saying. So it's unwise.

The Bible said it's unwise to do that. And you know how it is. Have you ever lent somebody money and before too long, they were treating you funny?

I'm still trying to figure out how that works. You came to me in desperation. You came to me, oh, if you could just, oh my goodness.

And when I help you, oh wow, thank you so much. And the next thing I know when you're supposed to be giving me back, because you had laid out the terms upon which you were going, all right, don't worry about it. As soon as I file for my return, as soon as the check come, you going to have your money. You filed, check came, and next thing I know, you got a new suit.

And I have no money. What's the matter with this picture? You got the nerve to be grinning in the suit. Something about when people owe you money, their mouth gets bigger, they grin harder. I guess they trying to do a Jedi mind trick on you and make you think everything is wonderful between us.

I don't owe you any money. What's the matter with you? And so they just grin.

How you doing? They give you these big hugs. I'm not telling you what I think, I'm telling you what has happened to me time and time again before I got the revelation that I was supposed to stop lending raggedy people money. You say, but pastor, aren't we supposed to be, I've often heard you talk about how generous God has made you beyond what you give to the kingdom. I've often heard you talk, but that's true. I'm a giver to a fault.

Ask my wife. I'm a giver to a fault. She too joins me. We love people. We have helped so many folks, but we got the revelation one day. The way to help people, if you really believe that they're worthy of your financial support, don't make them alone, make them a gift. Because you will bless your relationship with them and you'll keep it intact.

If you make them alone, chances are they're going to end up an enemy. Because now I feel made a fool of. Now I got to pray when I see you. I'm telling y'all, if you take this word, it'll bless your life.

I promise you it will. Honoring God with our tithes and offerings isn't always easy. It takes faith, sometimes more faith than we think possible. But here's God's promise to you today from Malachi 3 10. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts. If I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. If you're struggling in your faith today, if you need prayer about your finances for any reason, the Destined for Victory ministry team would be happy to pray for you.

Be as specific or as general as you like, and we'll join you in prayer. Visit pastorpaul.net, click contact us and let us know what's on your heart. While you're there, be sure to ask for Pastor Paul's monthly letter of encouragement, yours at no cost or obligation.

And here's something else for you. A booklet from Pastor Paul Shepherd called Built on a Solid Foundation. You know, God never told us we would avoid life storms, but he did promise us that we could withstand them. Pastor Paul wrote this booklet to help you discover the blessings that come when you build your life on the solid foundation of God's word. That's Built on a Solid Foundation, our gift to you today by request for your generous gift to Destined for Victory. Call 855-339-5500 or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. You can also mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538.

Again, our address is Destined for Victory, Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538. Determine to get out of debt. Do what you have to do. Sell what you have to sell. Unload what you have to unload. And you keep doing that and let it snowball until eventually you are out of consumer debt. It may be too late for you to avoid consumer debt, but there is a plan to get you out of it and a plan that comes your way tomorrow 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.