Today, I'm Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. If there's one area people are struggling with right now, it's money. What does God say about money? I mean, I'm not talking about the giving side, I'm talking about. Just money in general.
How do you handle it? How do you work your money in such a way where your life works? That's today. Want to know what truly matters to you?
Well, just check your bank statement. For the Bible-believing Christian, we know this is important. After all, Jesus taught more about money than heaven and hell combined. because our finances reveal everything.
Well, today on Living on the Edge, Chippinggram poses penetrating questions that most Christians avoid. In this study, he exposes how wealth deceives even sincere believers, and he reveals practical ways to teach those you love to manage money as God's stewards, discovering freedom, joy, and eternal impact along the way. I'm pleased to report that our audience is already displaying giving hearts because we're receiving a generous outpouring to the December match. Remember, every dollar you give will be matched dollar for dollar until December 31st. We'll give more details later on so that you can double your gift as well.
But right now, let's continue Chip's message called Teach them to Manage Their Wealth Wisely. My money reveals my priorities. My money reveals my values. My money reveals where my heart is. Imagine, if you will, your wallet or your 401k or your black credit card that you own or your purse.
Imagine a chain connected to that into your heart. And wherever that money goes, that's the real reflection of my heart. Let me give you a picture and then I'm going to give you practical ways to pass this on. The two pictures are: one, if you ever want to read about a man, one of my most favorite characters. Is Nehemiah in the Old Testament and Barnabas in the New.
And the story of Nehemiah, very briefly, is: he's the right-hand man to the most powerful man in the world. Basically, Nehemiah has the hottest chariot, the greatest clothes, the most money, the best food. He is. a person of great influence and affluence. He's filthy rich.
And he lives in a palace. and doesn't feel guilty about it. He's got a Rolex under. God deposited that in Nehemiah. for a window of opportunity.
And he wasn't a prophet, and he wasn't a pastor. And if you studied all of God's agenda for his people, You would find out that man was the linchpin between all of God's. prophecy going in the tubes and Israel being restored. He sent Ezra back, it didn't work. He sent Zerubbabel back to rebuild.
It wasn't until Nehemiah, the business guy. The guy with position, the guy with power, the guy with leadership gift who could mobilize everyone to turn everything around. Stewardship isn't feeling guilty for having money and position and power and brains. Stewardship is understanding it's not yours. All you get is a verse that's hard to live with.
To them, much given. Much is required. And so, when you make a lot of money and say, I tithe, God is not impressed, nor is anyone else. I mean, how hard is it to tide when you six figures or seven figures or beyond? Most generous people in the world right now are the poor.
And when things go down, the people who stopped giving first by all the research is us rich. And Nehemiah, he's this model. of what it looks like to be godly and to be wealthy and to be generous. In fact, he decided, no personal expenses for me. Barnabas is another one, very wealthy man.
He owned property on Cyprus. He was the key. We would have never heard of the Apostle Paul if it wasn't for Barnabas. Barnabas was the one that had the courage to say, Hey, he's legit, guys. I mean, he really is a Christian.
I know he's been killing all the Christians, but I've seen him, I've met him, he's legit. And he introduces Paul. And then, when Christianity launches into the Gentile world, they say, Barnabas is a leader in the church. Barnabas, we want you to go down there and disciple those new Gentiles. And the text says in Acts, so he went down.
To Paul's hometown, gets Paul and says, Hey, let's partner on this thing. The first missionary journey, read the text. It's not Paul and Barnabas, it's Barnabas and Paul. Until you keep reading, and there's Paul and Barnabas. He was a wealthy man who had leadership gift, who God used, it's a stewardship.
It's a stewardship. God has given you what he wants you to have, and he wants you to manage your money as a steward. Biggest lesson I learned all this, and it's a picture, and it'll help the rest play out. I was a young pastor. And I was 28 years old, had no idea what I was doing.
I'd been through the parachurch, so I knew how to make disciples, and I was learning how to teach. And after a couple years, the chairman of our board, he owned a CPA firm in downtown. Dallas. And he said, you know something, we're out in a rural area, you're connected to all these hurting people, and I have a heart for the poor, and I have a heart for people with needs. You have opportunity, I have money.
He said, I want you to come down and let's eat lunch together.
So I end up in this high-rise, beautiful place, really nervous, going up to the something, something floor. We have a great lunch and then he pulls out a little brown checkbook and he puts it and he says, Chip, this is for you. I said, what is it? He says, I'd like you to be my money manager. He said, Well, what do you mean?
He said, Well, you're a pastor, you know, where the church is at, there's a lot of hurting people and poor people, runaway teens, all kinds of struggles. I've put $5,000 in that account. And it says Pastor's Discretionary Fund.
Now here's what I want you to do. Once a quarter, or at least three times a year, I'm going to bring you here and we're going to have lunch together. But I want you to take this and I want you to stick it in your back pocket. And I want you to just think, John Saville is in my back pocket. But Chip Ingram has the eyes, and Chip Ingram is meeting the people.
So every day, I want you to get up. And as you get up, you might see someone that has a need, or someone needs a bus ticket, or someone's electricity needs to be put on. And I just want you to pray. And whatever you think God would have you do with this money, in my name, will you take care of it? I mean he's chairman of the board, yes.
I'm thinking, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm thinking, this may not be a good deal. I'm going to mess up.
So, anyway, I take it, and I'm real nervous.
So, I lost my keys. like 5,000 times. until I was 29. And then it took me 29 years and I decided right when I stand in the door, my keys, my wallet, and everything in one little pile.
Okay? It's this amazing thing that I learned. And then I started putting that checkbook with it.
So every day, everywhere I went, John, John, John, what would John want to do?
So this lady, they're turning off her thing, and I qualified it, and it was a real need. And I write a check and I pay her electricity. And then there's this kid who's running away from home from Oklahoma, and he's been on drugs, and I know I'm not going to give him money, so I buy him a ticket for the bus, and I do some counseling with him, and I get a Bible on his hands. And so then, you know, four months later, John says, Chip, let's have lunch. And so John is very quiet, introvert, but with a gift of evangelism.
So he says, Tell me what happened. And so I said, well, here's your checkbook. And so there were about four entries, and I've written four checks. Tell me about this one. I tell him a story.
And I mean, this is an exclusive restaurant, top. You know, level, real, you know, I'm very intimidated. And so I tell him the story: praise the Lord. I'm going, oh, John, oh man, dude, you are killing me. I mean, this is not, you know, you know, tell me another story.
So I would tell him these stories, and he would say, praise the Lord in very loud words. And so we did this. And we did this for like Seven years. And then I would give it away, and then I would get, then I would notice I'd get my bank slip, and oh, I guess someone put another $5,000 in. No matter how much I gave away, and as I told stories, the money just kept.
As I gave, it kept being put in.
Now here's there's a number of lessons here. One, John and I became really close friends. I brought unbelievable joy to his heart. I got to help people in ways I never dreamed I'd get to. In fact, it got from this burden to.
You know, it's kind of, here's my keys, here's my wallet. John, wonder what we're going to do today, baby. You know, I mean, just kind of, ooh, ooh, you know, you know, you just wonder who you're going to bless. I felt like Santa Claus sometimes, you know.
Now, I knew I was going to give an account for it. And I'm not real detail or in it, so I'm keeping his checkbook better than mine. Why? Because I'm going to go talk to him, right? And I can't, it can't, first of nothing can bounce, but the other is I actually need to add it upright.
Why? Because it's his money, not mine. I'm his steward. I brought joy to his heart. Our hearts connected because I managed his resources, and I wasn't asking who do I think I should help.
I was asking I wonder, I mean, I... You know, I'm not stupid. If I got to really praise the Lord and that was a really great one, I'm giving more money to that stuff. And if it's, oh, that's nice, Chip, I'm not going to give as much money to that stuff, right? Because it's His money.
You are God's money manager. And one of the most powerful, important gifts that you will pass on to those you love the most. Those first in your home, kids? Those you disciple. Later grandkids for some of you.
fellow church members is to help them. manage their wealth. wisely.
Now I want to shift gears and say How? What would that look like specifically? Uh now, there's You know, Dave Ramsey, Crown Ministry, lots of people that go in depth on these areas and can give you 10 times what I'm going to give you. I'm going to give you the mountain peak summary of what I think you need to pass on, and then there's tons of great resources to get you there. How are you managing your wealth currently?
If God gave you a report card, On how you're presently managing your wealth in light of what you have heard from His Word, would you get an A, a B, a C, a D, or an F? Because you can't pass on. what you don't have in you. You can't ask those people you're helping. to do what we're going to talk about if it's not true of you.
And even if you never talk to them about it, if you actually do it, they'll catch tons of it from you.
So where are you at? We'll hear more from Chip Ingram's message in just a moment. First, we're inviting you to multiply your year-end donation through an exciting match that's active right now. Because of the match, your donation will be matched dollar for dollar in the month of December. And when you support this match, you're not funding yesterday's methods.
You're investing in a discipleship strategy that actually reaches the smartphone generation right where they are. Will you give to the next generation? Double the impact of your gift at livingonthege.org. from his series called Leaving a Legacy That Lasts Forever. Again, our Bible teacher, Chip Ingram.
What I know is since in the quote born-again evangelical community the average believer gives 2.5% of their income to the Lord's work. Uh That saying to God, I don't really believe your word. I don't trust you for the future. I think it's my money, and I'm going to do with my money what I think. And what I think God would say if He could speak through Dr.
Phil.
So how's that working for you? Yeah. I mean, people are upside down, there's huge debt, they live above their means. See, when you give God the first portion, as we'll talk about in a minute, it just causes a domino effect of, wow, what are we going to do with the rest and how do we do it? And there is a correlation of God blessing.
Okay, there's been some real misteaching and some bad teaching and some heretical teaching about sort of how money and God and those things go together. There is no give-to-get mentality. Uh but I will tell you this, when your priorities are in line, And God can find what I think some people wisely have called a stream. Instead of a dam, Then he will keep placing resources in people whose hearts are tender to spread it and give it to the places that he wants it. You who water others will yourself be watered according to Scripture.
And when our finances aren't in order, you know, read Habakkuk chapter 1, the first 10 verses. He'll put a hole in your purse. He'll blow. On your business deals. I mean, until God uses money to align our hearts with Him, and when our priorities are out of whack, I will tell you.
Keep w you know, you keep working harder, but it seems to come to nothing, he says. He will allow your financial situation to get you to a point of dependency where you say, you know something, I better get this aligned correctly. And then there's just very often the correlation as you do that. He chooses to bless in that area as well as others.
Well, personal application.
Now, let's talk about how to help those to pass it on. One, Help them recognize the three purposes of money are giving, saving, and spending. And if there's, you know, I don't know if you ever memorize Scripture, and if you don't, I encourage you to. But if there's ever a little passage singular, if you could only pass one passage on money, I would memorize 1 Timothy 6, 17. Through nineteen And it says, encourage those that are rich in this present world not to be conceited or fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches.
They're uncertain, aren't they? And so it's a protection. God's not down on money. Encourage those that are rich in this present world, that's us, not to fix your hope on the uncertainty of riches. Oh, we're going to do this when this happens, but on God who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.
So there's three things you do with money. You can give it. You can save it, you can spend it. If you grew up in my home, there were three jars. on your dresser.
And on one jar, it said giving. Another said spending, another said saving. And since yes, there's proportional giving and we'll learn all about that later, but you get 10 dimes. One dime goes into the giving jar. One dime goes into the saving jar.
And eight of them go into the spending jar. And you can dream and think and pray about what you want to do to spend with that. And remember that all 10 of those dimes are God's, right? Because we give it to that one first. And by the way, you need to be smart, so make sure you save.
Americans don't save and Americans don't give, and I think I don't even need to talk about where we're at financially as a country. We've modeled it from the home through the federal government, and we're in a mess. You can't violate God's principles with a lot of pain.
So that's a big one. Second, encourage them to commit to honor God. With the first fruits of every paycheck to remind them that it's God's money. and not their own. Proverbs chapter uh 3, verses 9 and 10.
It says, honor the Lord with your first fruits. Give God the very first portion. And then the promise is then your barns will be Filled with plenty, and your vats where they would create kind of the wine and a picture of overflow will be overflowing. And so you want to teach them early on. And not so much the rule, the rigidity.
This is not like, okay, you got to pay your bills. Bill, bill, bill, bill, God, 10%. You know, no, no, no, no. You want to teach him the heart behind it. and your love for God.
And I think when they get older, you want to teach them how do you give over and above that? How do you become a generous person? You know the word Miserable comes from a root word. Do you know what the root word is? Miser.
I mean, I've done a lot of work. We did a series on the genius of generosity. I did a lot of work and research on just generous people. Forget Christians, just generous people. Generous people live longer.
Generous people are happier. Generous people have better relationships. Generous people are liked by other people. Generous people have an emotional. altitude that's better than the rest of us.
The most generous being in the entire universe is God. He gave his son.
So, you want to be generous. You want to be winsomely generous. Miserly people, stingy people, the Scrooges of the world, don't have as many friends. They're always worried about someone taking their stuff. They have higher levels of anxiety.
They're not very happy campers. And they try and control everything. Giving breaks the power of greed, and all of us in our flesh are greedy people. We all are.
So, giving is a tool given by God, not to take something from us, but to help us remember: look, hey, Chip, it's not your checkbook. It's not your money. That's John's. spend John's money or give John's money in a way that makes John happy. And by the way, you know, I didn't tell you this, but there was a time we were in a little small church and They had the gift of not paying me much at all.
In fact, I worked part-time in seminary and made more money than when I pastored the church. And there was a time where we really had a need. And John was asking me some questions at what of our lunch. And I forget, it was a washer, a dryer, you know, some big thing that for us was like astronomical. And he was praising the Lord, everything.
And then he asked me about me. And I told him, he goes, Give me that checkbook.
So he takes his checkbook, he writes out a check to me. He goes, Hey, you're the guy, sign this one, it's in your name. See, the whole deal is God doesn't want, he's not trying to get your stuff. He loves you. He's for you.
But he he wants to free you. And so pass on, encourage him to honor God with the first fruits. Three, make time with God. their number one priority.
so they know how to invest their time, talent, and treasure. that's entrusted to them. I've had seminary professors, I got to learn three years of Greek and two years of Hebrew, and I've had business guys who know so much more that have taken me under their wing. The greatest gift God has ever given me in all my life that's paid the biggest dividends was from a bricklayer with a high school education who met me on Tuesday mornings when I was a Christian about three or four months old. I didn't want to get up.
I didn't want to go to church. And sometimes I pretended I was asleep. And he would knock on the door. And I just got, I'm just not getting up. But the next Tuesday.
He'd knock on the door. And I was a reluctant learner, and I will tell you what that man did is that he would open the Bible and we would go into the little kitchenette on the floor and we would read the Bible together and he taught me to meet with God. He taught me no Bible, no breakfast. Not legalistically, but Chip, feed your soul before you feed your mouth. Chip, do you understand this is the living and abiding word of God?
Chip, do you understand the wisdom of God has been deposited here? You can know what to do in any situation. Chip, do you understand? David said, If his word had not been my delight, he would have perished in his affliction. Chip, this is your anchor.
God will speak to you. The God who made everything there is, there is power. It's a living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. It pierces as far as the division of soul and spirit. And it cuts through the division right down to the core of who you are.
It will reveal things to you. It'll show you how to do marriage, how to parent, how to live. Chip, this is the most important thing: it is your life. And a little habit got started a couple days a week, and then finally I'd do it four or five days a week. And then, after about four or five years, it became not just drudgery and duty, but.
Gosh, God's speaking to me more often and I didn't like to get up. I was a night owl. And years later, I remember just saying, God, this is... You just wake me up whenever. And I stopped watching the 11 o'clock news.
And God started waking me up earlier and earlier. And not, I didn't ever felt like if I missed my time, I didn't think God was mad at me. I just knew that I made a great cup of coffee and I got into a habit for about 25 years of meeting with God, getting out a journal, sharing my concerns, asking Him my biggest questions, reading His Word, asking Him for wisdom, sitting quietly and hearing answers. Mark 1:35 says, After recording the busiest day of Jesus' life, he was pressed, there were demands. I mean, some of you right now, and it's like this is overwhelming, and there's money issues and wisdom issues, and what am I going to do here?
And I've got this one son, and some of my kids are already grown, or I don't have any kids, and I'm trying to help this guy, or I'm in this women's group, and these three ladies are coming to my mind, and I'm not sure what to do with all of this. Stop. And the greatest thing you can do. is say, God, I want your discernment in your wisdom, and I'm going to meet with you first. And it says, after this demanding day of teaching and preaching and healing and casting out demons and everybody wanting a piece of Jesus, I mean, I mean, I think he felt like, I think his emotions were: if he were today, he opened up his computer and there were 500 emails, and then he looked at his PDA, and there's 150 phone calls, and there's people knocking at the door, and the people closest to him said, By the way, by the way, by the way, we think you ought to do this.
I think that's the emotion he felt. And it says a great while before dawn he went to a lonely place. To get alone with his father. And pray.
Sometimes we're asking people to solve stuff or a book to solve stuff. God wants to solve it. And if you will do that and model that, that's what you want to pass on. You want to pass that on to those you love the most. Life's message is: your life is a sacred stewardship.
It's sacred. There is a creator who owns everything. And you are a creature. He is the master. And we are the servant.
This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. He's been showing us how to teach our families about managing wealth with wisdom. And his teaching comes from the series called Leaving a Legacy That Lasts Forever, How to Give Your Kids and Grandkids What Money Can't Buy. Please stay with us because Chip has an important word about the next generation coming up in just a moment.
Well, Living on the Edge is celebrating 30 years of God's faithfulness, and what started as one man's ministry on radio has blossomed into a full-blown movement of God. Last year alone, this daily program has been listened to more than 100 million times. It's staggering to see what God has done through His people. And today, our heart longs to reach the next generation with the timeless wisdom of the Bible, providing those young men and women with honest answers to tough questions. Chip?
Picture this: it's 2 a.m. and a mom can't sleep. Her daughter has just come home from her first semester at college. and over dinner earlier in the day she just casually mentioned that she's deconstructing her faith. The mom's mind is racing as she looks at the digital clock.
Where did I go wrong? What do I say? How can I help her without pushing her away?
Well, I want you to know Living on the Edges heard that story from a lot of people, and we've become a lifeline for parents and grandparents in that exact situation. We're providing moms and dads with tools and language and a biblical framework to help meaningful conversations with their kids about doubt and faith and truth. We did a series where we interview people like Rebecca McLaughlin or Sean McDowell or we have teaching and resources about how to actually start conversations when your kids start down that path without pushing them away. Your gift to this match doesn't just reach the next generation directly. It equips parents to become spiritual leaders with their kids that are in desperate need.
Would you help us reach the next generation by equipping moms and dads who can literally talk to their kids in a way that makes sense, that's biblical, that's winsome, that's kind, and doesn't compromise the truth? You can respond to CHIP right now by giving online at livingonthege.org or call this number, 888-333-6003. Our collective gifts to Living on the Edge will accelerate the launch of critical new initiatives to reach a skeptical generation with the truth of the gospel. Together, let's make an impact by giving generously to the match that's active right now. Double the size and impact of your donation.
To send your support in the mail, address your envelope to LivingOnthege, P.O. Box 3007, Atlanta, Georgia, 30024. You can also call 888-333-6003 or visit us online at livingonthege.org. How do we instill wisdom in our kids and grandkids? I'm Dave Druy, inviting you to hear Chip Ingram provide a biblical answer tomorrow on Living on the Edge.
