Faithful in Stewardship | Part 1

From the Love Refining studios in Memphis, Tennessee, I'm Byron Tyler, here with Kerry Vaughn, the CEO of Love Refining.

Kerry, today Adrian Rogers starts Part 1 in a message, Faithful in Stewardship. Stewardship, right? What do we do with what God has given us? Hey, we can't out-give God, and God gives the increase, right? So we just keep on giving. We do, and Stewardship is our relationship with money, how we obtain, save, invest, spend, give away our wealth.

And I think that's the key, right? We give away because we know that God will use it in a mighty way for His kingdom. And some people say, you know, the church is always asking me for my money, you know, but Adrian Rogers says God is not raising money. God is growing Christians.

It's much deeper. God wants us to know and grow in the grace and knowledge and love Him more. Right, and tithing is not God's way to punish you or to impoverish you.

It's God's way to enrich you. Well Kerry, the month of May, something special was happening here at Love the Gospel Away, and I think the best way to do that is we want our people to give personally. We want them to give as a way of life, and we want them to tell their circle of influence, 50 people telling 50 people telling 50 people to give to love worth finding so that we can reach the world for Christ.

Well, it wasn't often that Adrian Rogers talked about Stewardship, but when he did, he didn't make any apologies for it either. I will not promise you that I will be the best preacher in the world. There are other people who can preach the gospel better than I, but there's no one who can preach a better gospel than I can, and I will promise you this, that what you give will be used with integrity. It will be used prayerfully and carefully for one purpose, and that is the glory of Jesus Christ and the spread of the gospel if we know our heart.

And so, would you do this? Would you pray, sincerely pray, and ask God what He would have you to do, not what He wants others to do. Just ask Him what He wants you to do, and then whatever He lays on your heart, then do it, and we'll rejoice one day at the feet of Jesus.

I love you, and God bless you. Dr. Rogers was one of the few men of God who could bring the gospel to every level of understanding, from the youngest child to the oldest adult. What's best about his preaching is that he keeps the focus on Jesus. We want to teach the gospel, we want to disciple them, and we want to teach others to do the same. With today's message now on Faithful in Stewardship, Part 1, here's Adrian Rogers.

Be finding Malachi chapter 3, if you would, that's the last book in the Old Testament, talking about factors of faithfulness, and today, how to obtain financial freedom through stewardship, how to obtain financial freedom. You know, I watch the ads now. As a matter of fact, about the only thing worth watching on television anymore are the ads. Some of them are really wonderful, and I like the cornflakes ad. Taste them again for the first time. Now, many of us were raised on cornflakes, and what they're trying to say is, you need to discover cornflakes again.

You remember that? How many of you have seen that ad? Taste them, yeah, see?

Madison Avenue knows how to do it. Taste them again for, is it cornflakes? Is that one of your cornflakes? He knows everything. He knows cornflakes.

Taste them again for the first time. Now, the Scripture that I'm going to bring to you today is one that you've heard. If you've gone to church at any time, you've heard the Scripture that I'm going to share with you. And many of you are just going to kind of mentally check yourself out because you say, oh, I know that.

Oh, I've heard that. I want you to hear it again like you've never heard it before. Hear it again for the first time as one of the most incredible promises in the Word of God. And so listen as we read here beginning in verse 7. Even from the days of your fathers, ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me.

Would you underscore that? Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, all right, Lord, wherein shall we return?

God answers an honest question. Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee?

God answers in tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me even this whole nation. Hey, would you like to have a curse lifted off of you?

Well, pay attention. Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me even this whole nation. Now, here's the command and the promise. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now. That is, put me to the test. God has thrown a challenge in your lap.

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, that 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 a 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, we're gonna talk today about stewardship, and stewardship is really how we obtain money, how we save money, how we invest money, how we spend money, and how we give money.

And when I do that, I want to say that there are at least three that are very interested in what I have to say today. Number one, God is interested. Do you know God, over and over and over in the Bible, talks about stewardship? Now, why does God talk about stewardship?

Come up here close, and I want to tell you something. God does not need your money, okay? God is God.

He owns everything. God is not interested in what you have. God is interested in who you are, and God wants you. And God wants to bless you.

God wants to give to you. And over and over again in the Bible, we see God dealing with a matter of our finances, our resources. Of the 38 parables that Jesus taught, 16 of them deal with stewardship. As a matter of fact, about one out of every ten verses in the New Testament deal with this matter of stewardship. You take the verses in the New Testament that deal with faith. There are about 500 of them.

Take the verses in the New Testament that deal with prayer. There are about 500 of them. Take the verses that deal with stewardship.

There are over 2,000 of them. God is interested in our stewardship, how we acquire and use our money. As a matter of fact, one of the great tests of your spirituality and how much you love God and how much you believe the Word of God is stewardship.

Now, I'll tell you someone else who's interested in your stewardship. Not only is God, but Satan is very interested because Satan knows if he can defeat you in this way, if he can keep you in bondage, if he can keep you under a curse, he has you right where he wants you. I'm talking today about freedom. God has come to set you free. Many of you will see me today as trying to put you into some kind of a straitjacket.

I'm trying to do just the opposite, to set you free and not from my ideas, but from the Word of God. Now, what if you are cursed with a curse? What if you are in bondage? As a matter of fact, some economists have given us about 11 ways that we can know whether or not we're in financial bondage. You want to take the test? All right, listen. Just check these off mentally.

Now, don't look where your neighbor can see it, but just mentally. Do you charge daily expenditures because you don't have enough money to pay for them? Number two, do you put off paying a bill when it is due?

Number three, do you borrow from fixed expenses or borrow to pay fixed expenses like taxes and insurance? Does your debt requirement, the money that you owe, long term exceed 20% of your income? Next, are you unaware of how much you owe? Next, do you have creditors, people calling you about past due bills? Next, do you borrow from savings to pay current bills?

Next, are you making new loans to pay off old ones? Next, do you and your wife or you and your husband ever argue about money? Next, theirs was a perfect marriage but for one feminine flaw.

He was quick on the deposit, but she was faster on the draw. Do you ever argue about this? Next, do you ever even think about being dishonest with money?

And here's the final one. Do you have difficulty bringing your tithe into God's house on God's day? So many Americans today are up to here in debt and somebody has described the average American as a person who drives a bank financed car over a bond financed highway with gasoline that he bought with a credit card. He's on his way to open a charge account at a department store so he can fill his house that he owes the savings and loan for with installment purchased furniture. That's an American for you. We're buying things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like.

That's Americans for you. We're in financial bondage, so many of us. You say, well, I'm not in financial bondage. I've got plenty. I've got it salted away. I've got it stacked in a bank account somewhere.

Man, if you could just see what I've got. You may have plenty and be in financial bondage. Rich people are in financial bondage when they try to find satisfaction in their money and can't do it. The Bible says, he that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver. Someone asked J.D. Rockefeller how much was enough.

He said, just a little more. You're in financial bondage if your money increases your worries. Proverbs 15 verse 6, in the house of the righteous is much treasure, but in the revenues of the wicked is trouble. You're in financial bondage when you're a slave to your money. When your chief aim in life is to make money, you labor to be rich, then you're in difficulty because Proverbs 23 verse 4 says, labor not to be rich.

I can tell you this. If your goal in life is to be rich, you are a miserable person. The Bible says, labor not to be rich. Cease from mine own wisdom. Now, the Bible never condemns riches. The Bible says, it's the Lord thy God that giveth thee power to get gain.

The Bible is not against that, but when that is your goal, you are a miserable person because when you make it your goal to get money, money is going to get you. Have you ever seen, in the old time, I can remember when I was a little boy, they used to have a thing called fly paper. I don't know whether they still sell that or not.

You know about corn flakes. They still sell fly paper. It was a thing of sticky paper. It came in a, you stuck it on the ceiling somewhere and it just kind of swirled down like that and it had something that flies really light, just an aroma that would attract flies, but it was real sticky and the fly would light on it and he couldn't get loose.

And you know how a fly would buzz around that thing and he'd be saying, my paper, my paper, my paper, but then he'd light on it and the paper would say, my fly, my fly, my fly. That's the way these people are going to get rich. First of all, they want to get the money and then the money gets them. You are in financial bondage if you have plenty in the bank but no treasure in heaven.

Proverbs 23 verse 5, Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings. They fly away as an eagle toward heaven. Money talks. It says goodbye.

It flies away. Now, suppose you have plenty in the bank, but you don't know God. Suppose you have plenty in the bank and you're a miserly person and a miserable person.

You have to feel sorry for a person like that. Jesus told about a man who had plenty in his barns and he died. He said he had much goods laid up for many years and God said, you fool, this night your soul will be required of thee. Then who shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. Now, God is interested in your finances.

Satan is interested in your finances because he wants to keep you in bondage. I'll tell you who else is interested. You are. Now, don't tell me you're not. You are.

I'm not talking today about how many angels can dance around on the head of a pen. I'm talking to you about something very vital because it takes money and finances to live and it's a part of our normal life and God knows it. Okay? Now, how are you going to obtain financial freedom? Well, look in the Bible, right out of the Bible, I'm going to give you three principles and I want you to see them. First of all, you must personally return to God. Look again in verse 7. Even from the days of your fathers, ye are gone away from mine ordinances, that is my laws, 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, look up again and let me tell you this. God doesn't want your money. God wants you.

Did you hear that? He is saying to you, return unto me, return unto me. God loves us for ourselves. God wants our fellowship. God does not need our money and the gift without the giver is bare. What you do not joyfully, lovingly, freely give, God neither needs nor wants.

Got it? You're not doing God a wild favor. I mean, listen, God says in Psalm 50 verse 12, if I were hungry, I would not tell thee, for the world is mine and the fullness thereof. You're not about to bail God out of bankruptcy. God loves us for ourselves. He says, return to me.

In Corinthians 12 and verse 14, the apostle Paul says, for I seek not yours, but you. You know what the devil does? I said, the devil's interested in your finances. The devil has some guy who's not saved and he just engineers that man to come about twice a year when Adrian preaches on tithing. And he'll get up and he'll go out and he'll begin to grouse and complain and say, money, money, money.

That's all they ever talk about down there. That is a lie. And he knows it.

And they say, well, he's just interested in my money. That is a lie. God loves you. I seek not yours, but you. That's what the apostle Paul says. God is saying, return unto me. Before you give your money, you've got to give yourself.

2 Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 5, they first gave their own selves to the Lord. I've often used the story of a farmer who made his boys work in the corn fields a little harder than the other boys had to work and sometimes the other boys would be playing baseball or down in the old swimming hole and these boys would be out there in the corn fields. Someone said to the farmer, said, you're working those boys too hard.

Why don't you lighten up? You don't need all that corn. He said, Mister, I'm not raising corn.

I'm raising boys. You see, God is not raising money. God is growing Christians. God wants us to grow in the grace and knowledge and to love him. So first of all, there must be a personal return and many of us say, well, Lord, if you want me to return, where shall I return?

Well, God says, I'm glad you've asked. They say in verse 7, wherein shall we return? Well, God says, well, a man robbed God, yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? And God's answer, in tithes and offerings. One of the greatest signs that you have returned to God is not the songs you sing, it's in your finances when you stop robbing God. The repentance that does not reach the pocketbook has really not reached the heart. You see, why are many people in financial bondage? And why are many people away from God? Because they've tried to put things first and God second. It never works that way.

It never works that way. One of the greatest promises in the New Testament is Matthew chapter 6 and verse 33. It says, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And what?

All these things will be added to you. We say, well, I'll seek things first and then if I have time, I'll seek God. But that's backward.

That's backward. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. Return unto me, come to God. Return unto me. Now, God wants you, not yours, and no gift and no tithing can please God if it does not come from a loving and a surrendered heart.

And the point of return is always the point of departure. And for many, it's been in the matter of stewardship. When we fail in stewardship, we rob God. But not only do we rob God, we rob the church. Not only do we rob the church, we rob missions. Not only do we rob missions, we rob the needy. But look up here and let me tell you something. When you tithe, you rob you.

Did that get in? You rob you. Tithing is not God's way to impoverish you. It's God's way to enrich you. Why don't we just return to God and do it God's way? You know what Jesus said? Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's.

April 15th, right? And Caesar says, fill out that form. How much did you make? How much you got left? Send it. Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's. Now most of you are going to be very careful to do that. Also the Bible says render to God the things that are God's.

I want to ask you a question. Do you fear Caesar more than you fear God? I mean, are you more careful with Caesar than you are with God? You see, we don't really give the tithe. We return it. It's already the Lord's.

Put this in your margin. Leviticus chapter 27 and verse 30, all the tithe of the land, whether it be of the seed of the land or the fruit of the tree, it is the Lord's. It is holy unto the Lord. It'd be better to rob a bank in my estimation than to rob God. Tithing is God's way to bless.

Look up here. There's always a blessing when we give it, always a curse when we steal it, always a blessing when we give it, always a curse when we steal it. Well, a man robbed God. When he robs God, he robs himself.

So here's the first point. I want the Holy Spirit to rivet it in your heart. There must be a personal return to the Lord. Again, God is not seeking your money.

He is seeking you. And coming up tomorrow, we'll hear part two of this important message. Maybe today you have questions about who Jesus is or what He means to you. Go to our Discover Jesus page at lwf.org slash radio.

You'll find resources and materials there that can answer questions you might have about your faith. Again, click Discover Jesus at lwf.org slash radio. Well, thanks for studying God's Word with us today. As you continue your day, take these words with you from Adrian Rogers. One of the greatest signs that you have returned to God is not the songs you sing. It's in your finances when you've stopped robbing God. The repentance that does not reach the pocketbook has really not reached the heart. Join us for the powerful conclusion of faithful in stewardship tomorrow right here on Love Worth Finding.