You've heard that actions speak louder than words. Jesus shared a similar truth when he said, Where your treasure is, your heart will be also. Today, on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah considers how treasuring God shows in our actions and in our financial giving. From the series Investing for Eternity, Here's David to introduce the conclusion of his message, putting God first in our lives.
And remember, we are studying the book of Deuteronomy chapter 26 and Nehemiah chapter 10 with many other references along the way. Here's a story from the Old Testament that sets the line for us as we look forward: putting God first in our lives. When you put God first, it's easy to do all of the other things that you read about in the scripture. But if you don't do that, you're struggling all the time. You're bumbling and fumbling along the way because you haven't made the first step, which is to put God first.
We're talking about that today, and we'll get to that in just a moment. But first, let me remind you that every year we take a tour in the month of July to the beautiful place called Alaska. This year, our tour dates are the 12th through the 19th, and people are already registering for this event. It will be a great event, a wonderful time, aboard a beautiful new ship that we haven't been on before. And you will be delighted to be with us for this wonderful occasion.
You can get more information about it at davidjeremiah.org. I hope you will do that. And then make your plans to join us for this incredible trip. Right now, I want you to open your Bible with me to the Old Testament, and we're going to talk about putting God first in our lives. Here's part two.
The record is in 1 Kings, and it has to do with the prophet Elijah. This prophet was told that his life wasn't worth anything, and Elijah got afraid and he lost his courage and he ran and he got into depression. God had to really deal with him. But God didn't forget him. God took care of him.
first of all by the brook Cherith. And then When the brook dried up and Elijah didn't know what to do again, God spoke to him and said, I have some instruction for you. Here's how I'm going to take care of you now. For we read in 1 Kings chapter 17 and verse 8 these words. Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah saying, Go to Zarephith.
which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there And I have commanded a widow to provide for you.
Now, I say to you that none of that makes any sense in the human realm. If you and I had planned this out, we wouldn't have suggested that route. In fact, one of the writers that I read Said this, he said, the prophets' national instincts would be against going into a Gentile area. His religious instincts would lead him to abhor a hotbed of Baal worship, and his manly instincts would cause him to shrink from being a burden upon a poor widow. But that's exactly what God told him to do.
You go to Zarephoth. And I will care for you there. through a widow.
Now, if you think our story is illogical up to this point, just hang on because it gets worse. Elijah arrives as we read in the scripture at this place and read what happens.
So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and he said, please bring me a little water and a cup. That I may drink. And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.
So she said, As the Lord your God lives, I don't have any bread, only a handful of flour in a bin and a little oil in a jar, and I'm gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die. I wonder what was going through Elijah's mind about this time. Did I get God's instructions right? This is how He's going to care for me? But watch what he did.
And Elijah said to her, Do not fear. Go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake first and bring it to me. And afterward, make some for yourself and your son.
Now, the person who's wondering is the widow. I mean, she is really wondering what is going on. She's just explained to this man that she has got nothing left, that her flour barrel is dry, that she's just got a little tiny bit of oil left in her jar of oil, and she's going to make one last meal for her and her son, and then their history. And Elijah says, well, fine, but just make me a cake first.
Okay. I know that's the way some of you feel about giving to God. You've got all these bills and all these responsibilities and all this, and somebody stands up and says, put God first, and you're saying that is the most illogical thing I have ever heard in my life. But if you read this story carefully, you will learn some things that will encourage you because they certainly have encouraged me. For many of us, we already know that when we put God first in giving Him the first 10% of what He entrusts to us, He always is there for us to meet our needs.
And for us, that's just an encouraging review. But for some of you who are seekers and maybe you're new to this ministry and you've never trusted God in this realm in your life, You're saying there is no way, Pastor Jeremiah, this could ever work. It's too illogical. Watch carefully. I've written down four things that we can learn about putting God first from this story.
Number one. When we tithe and put God first, We possess our possessions.
Now, I want you to read the story carefully and watch that when Elijah met the widow of Zarephath, she was fast in the clutches of a handful of meal and a little tiny bit of oil. That's all she had. We sympathize with her. In fact, we identify with her. This is a lone woman against a famined land.
She has nothing. For weeks, this poor lady has been watching every day as the flour level goes down in her barrel of flour. And now she's at the dead end. There isn't anything left. Anyone who reads this story is touched by the pathos of this woman who is now at the end of herself with no resources available to her at all.
Our heart goes out to her. We identify with her. But so did the prophet's heart go out to her. And you see, the difference is he knew something which she did not know. He knew that the way to have what you have and have it to the fullest is to always put God First.
That's why he said. Make me a little cake first. Trust God by putting Him first and watch what He does. When we first see this woman in the story, she is clutching everything she has. At the end of the story, she is releasing it all to God.
There are many of you Who don't understand that the way to have what you have. Is to give it back to God. That's the only way you can ever possess your possessions. If you clutch them to yourselves, the only thing you will ever have is what you can hold in your hands. But if you give it back to God with open hands, He is obligated not only to bless you.
But what we've been reminded of many times over is that when you open your hand to God, He can take what He wants, but can also put back what you need. the principle of the open hand.
So, when we tithe, we put God first and we possess our possessions. Notice, secondly, When we tithe and put God first, we prepare for the future.
Now, before this woman gave the first cake to Elijah, What was she doing? She was preparing to die. I mean, she said, this is it, this is our last meal, and then we're just going to quietly fade off into the sunset. How bleak was the outlook of the future for this woman. She left the future in the hands of God, and she gave what she could to God.
And God took care of her, as we shall see. I know some of you say, I can't afford to tithe. If I didn't have to worry about this and I didn't have to worry about that, and if we didn't have this and that, then we could do it. But the fact is that the acquisition of more goods does not diminish fear, but it multiplies it.
Some of you say if we just get to the next level, we're going to be okay. The problem is, the more you have, the more you hold on to it. If you haven't given it back to God, when you have this, when you have a little bit more, it gets harder and harder to put God first. Jesus in the New Testament talked a great deal about money. And I've always been intrigued by why he did that.
In fact, I thought if Jesus were the pastor of a local assembly in today's evangelical world, he wouldn't last very long. Because he talked about money more than he talked about heaven, more than he talked about hell, more than he talked about a lot of spiritual priorities. Every time you turn around, Jesus is saying something about money. And I rather think I understand that now better than I ever have before. I think it's because Jesus understood the human mind as no one ever understood the human mind.
I believe it's because he knew how prone we are to reason that if we just get a few more of those great, big, beautiful dollars, then we can relax and enjoy life, then we'll be more generous, and then we'll put God first. And Jesus knew it didn't work that way. He knew that when we dance too long before the golden calf, Before we know it, we're powerless to do anything else. He knew that this would be a growing problem in each individual life, which did not put the Heavenly Father first.
So he talked about it continually. And every time you see Jesus talking about important things, sooner or later he'll get to this subject because he knew that where a man's treasure is, there his heart was. And he knew that if we didn't put him first in this very practical area, then it was just lip service to talk about putting him first in any other way. I'm reminded of a story that I read some time ago about a woman. Who had one treasure in her life?
It was her silver that had been given to her on her wedding day. And when she and her husband were married, that was her treasure and for twenty years she worried so much about that silver. In fact, She would nudge her husband at night, saying, John, get up. I think somebody's downstairs and they're going to get my silver.
Well, on one of those rare nights, When John decided to obey his wife, He went downstairs and he actually found a burglar downstairs. And he introduced himself to the man. And suggested I want you to come upstairs and meet my wife. She's been looking for you for 20 years. You know?
I know a lot of people like that. You know, what they have is so important to them, they just clutch to it all the time. and they can't think of anything else. And so all they do is worry about the future. Worry about this investment, that investment, because they haven't put God first.
I want to tell you something. When you put God first and give him what is rightfully his, you can quit worrying about the future. God is obligated to take care of you. He will never be in debt to somebody who puts him first. in this regard.
When you put God first, And tithe, you prepare for the future. Notice the third principle: when you tithe and put God first, you place faith. oversight. You know, the Bible says that as Christians, we're to walk by faith and not by sight. I never met anybody who started to tithe because It just looked like a good thing to do, an investing thing to do, a right thing to do, it made sense to do it in the human realm.
You will never do that. The only way you will ever do that is if you respond to what God has said in His book and you say, God said it, I believe it, and that settles it. And you do it.
Now that's what this woman had to do. I want you to notice as you look at the text, That the only thing Elijah said to her was, Bring me a little cake first. That's all the word she had. She could have reasoned, well, let me see if I have enough for myself and my son first, and then I'll respond. She could have said, Let me see how things go first, and let me see if I can do that for you, Elijah.
But the Bible says, and you look at it in the text, she went and she did according to the word. of the Lord. She understood that Elijah was speaking to her from God, and she did what God told her to do. Not because it made sense, because it's the most illogical thing you ever saw in your life. Not because she'd reasoned it all out and figured it out how it was going to work, but God said it, and she did it.
And that's how she got involved in God's wonderful plan of economy for her.
Someone said that Elijah gave this woman just one, thus saith the Lord. And it changed her entire life, did it not? It changed her whole life. She was a dead woman in a couple of weeks, maybe. But one, thus saith the Lord, changed her whole life.
Do you know that in our Bible there are 31,173 verses of Scripture? She had one promise. And she listened. And God Honored. His word.
She gave all of her strength on one verse from God. And God honored his word. Let me just say to you: if you're trying to figure out when is the right time to begin to tithe based upon where you are and thinking things through in your family economy, you will never do it. Here is the truth. This is what God has said we should do.
And this is how we respond. By faith. When we put God first in our lives and tithe, We pass through the realm of sight and reason, and we begin to operate on the principles of faith. And finally, When we put God first and tithe, We put him to work in our behalf. I want you to read verse 14.
For thus says the Lord God of Israel, The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth. That's what God said.
So verse 15 says, She went away and did according to the word of Elijah, and she and he and her household ate for many days, and the bin of flour was not used up, and the jar of oil did not run dry, according to the word of the Lord which he spoke. By Elijah. Do you see the relationship? God spoke. She responded.
And the fulfillment of the promise was sure. God did exactly what He said He was going to do. It's not hard for me to imagine. the joy in the household of this lady. as every day she went to the pantry to look in the barrel, And every day there was just enough to sustain the three of them for one more day.
Just 24 hours worth of flour and oil, and the next day she went back and it was replenished again. And then, because she had also allowed the prophet to stay in her home, she had the added blessing of this man who was a man of God praying for her and her family.
So that was an added resource that she got. And by faith, this widow put God first, and God blessed her and met every one of her needs. That's what God has promised to do for any of us who will put Him first in our lives.
Now you see, Elijah's great contribution to this woman is what I'm praying my contribution can be to all of us as a congregation today. Here's what Elijah did for her. Listen carefully. He called her to lift her eyes above the little flower barrel. And look at the amazing wealth that her Father in heaven had available to her.
All she had was what she could see and clutched in her own hands. But Elijah came into her life and he said, Put God first, make me a little cake first. And let me explore with you the incredible resources of a God. who can make your barrel Never ever run dry.
Some of us who have been Experiencing this with the Lord over the years of tithing and first fruits giving. could give testimony after testimony of how God has done that. It's so illogical, and yet it's so incredible. To see God work in our lives just when we have an unexpected need that we never anticipated. But we've put God first and here come resources we didn't even know about that God just brings into our life because He cares and He's never going to be in debt to any of His people who put Him first.
I love what the book of Matthew says, where Jesus is talking about how we shouldn't worry about what we're going to wear and what we're going to eat. Do you remember what he said? He said, here's the principle: seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all of these things will be added unto you. Put first things first, he said. Get God in the right position on your priority list.
Make Him number one every time He allows you to go out with the energy He supplies to you. You're able to earn a living for your family. Don't give him the leftovers. Don't wait until everything else is exhausted, but the first thing you do, you sit down and you say, I'm going to make a little cake for him first. and put him in number one position in my life.
I want to ask you to really come to grips with this concept in your life. Make a new covenant with God. Begin to put Him first. It isn't really honest. For us to say, God is number one in my life.
and then ignore this part of our walk with Him. You know, one of the things that God has taught me is this. If we say that we are really dependent upon God and we don't pray, We are not telling the truth. Prayer is the evidence Of our dependence upon God. Do you understand what I'm saying?
If you say, I'm really dependent on God, I'm really trusting in God, but you never talk to Him, you're not dependent on God, you're dependent on yourself. In the same way, To say that we're putting God first in our lives. And somebody says, to any of us here today who claim to be Christians, is God first in your life? Oh, yes, God's number one. To say that He's number one and not to give Him the first fruits of our increase is not to be honest with ourselves.
It's to play a game that's not a healthy game. Because then, when we get in a situation where we really are trusting in God to meet our need and we haven't been faithful, we're going to be wondering whether or not that need's going to be met. This woman had a promise from God. She followed through. She took the orders as they were given to her, and she put God first, and God met every need in her life.
She was a wealthy Woman. Because she put God First. I remember a story from some years back about a woman. who lived in West Palm Beach, Florida. who died at the age of seventy one, all alone in her apartment.
The coroner's report on this woman was quite tragic because it said the cause of death was malnutrition. When she died, she had wasted away to fifty pounds. And when investigators found her, they said the place where she lived was a veritable pig pen. That it was the most unbelievable mess you had ever seen in your life. In fact, one seasoned inspector declared he'd never seen a residence in greater disarray.
than the apartment where this woman died. When they did some investigation into her life, they found out that she had begged food at her neighbor's back door. She had gotten what clothes she had from the Salvation Army. And from all outward appearances, she was a penniless recluse. A pitiful and forgotten widow, But when they were digging through her apartment.
Among the jumble of her unclean, disheveled belongings, they found two keys. Mm-hmm. Which led the officials to safe deposit boxes at two different local banks. What they found was absolutely incredible. The first deposit box contained 700 ATT stock certificates.
Plus hundreds of other valuable certificates and bonds and solid financial securities, not to mention a stack of cash amounting to nearly $200,000. The second box had no certificates, only more currency and lots of it. In fact, $600,000 in currency. in that deposit box. Adding up the net worth of both of those deposit boxes, they found that the woman had in her possession well over $1 million.
Charles Osgood reporting on CBS Radio. Announced that the estate would probably fall into the hands of a distant niece or nephew, neither of whom dreamed the woman had a thin dime to her name. She was a millionaire. who died a stark victim of starvation. in a humble home.
all by herself. And I dare say to you, That's what that woman lived out in her life. was where the widow of Zarepheth was, in the spiritual realm. She was about ready. to cash in.
She was about ready to die, and Elijah walked into her life and brought her a message from God and said, Make me a little cake first. And God transformed her life, and she began to realize the wealth that she really had when she put her trust. in the Almighty God. I believe in my heart that there are a lot of God's people who, in the spiritual realm and in many ways, the financial realm as well. Are living way, way below the level God wants them to live.
Because they haven't put their trust in God's word. Thus saith the Lord, should be enough for any of us. to take him at his word and begin to do what he's called us to do. And my prayer for us is that we will be an obedient people. That whether it's logical or illogical, when we read it in the Word of God, we're going to say, That's what God says, and by the grace of God, that's what I'm going to do.
And I'm going to start now because there's never going to be a better time than to go and do right now what God's called me to do. May He speak to our hearts during these days that we would do just that. Make me. A little cake. First.
Yeah, amen. Hey, we want to let you know that When you commit yourself to tithing as a believer, You tithe first to your church. You give 10% to the church you attend, not to us. We don't want your tithe. If God enables you to give more and you want to help us, we're grateful for that.
But we do not take the place of the church in your life. You should be faithful to your church and give your tithe there. And then, as God blesses you and you want to help us over and above all of that, that's how we survive. And we've been that way for all these years. God has always honored that because that's His hierarchy of giving, which we know very clearly from the Bible.
And we thank you for all that you do, for your generosity and for your consistency, your faithfulness. It's been a joy to be a part of watching that and seeing how God grows his word across the world through the faithfulness of his people. Don't forget to ask for your copy of what God promises you, a resource for this month when you send your gift. today and we'll send the book to you right away. Thanks for listening.
Yeah. Our message today originated from Shadow Mountain Community Church and Dr. David Jeremiah, the senior pastor. Reach out and tell us how this ministry helps you grow by writing to us at TurningPoint, PO Box 3838, San Diego, California, 92163. Visiting our website at davidjeremiah.org/slash radio.
or calling 800-947-1993. Ask for your copy of David's new book, What God Promises You, 7 Truths That Will Change the Way You Live. It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also view over 1200 of Dr. Jeremiah's sermons on any screen, anytime you like.
On our Turning Point Plus streaming service for a monthly gift of any amount, visit turningpointplus.org for details. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue the series Investing for Eternity on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.
