After years of hard work, careful budgeting, and financial discipline, you've managed to accumulate some wealth. Does the Bible really tell you to give it away? Today, on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah explains how giving of your wealth helps you gain what's truly valuable in life. Listen as David shares the conclusion of his message, power up your wealth.
Proverbs about prosperity. And you know, the Bible says it's more blessed to give. than to receive. And um Unless you try that, you won't know it's true. It is a wonderful blessing to give.
And God enables you to do that, you should do it with all your heart and find the joy in it that is there for you to know. We're talking about using your resources in a godly way, as we learn from the book of Proverbs, these principles of wealth and prosperity. And if you don't have a copy of the study guide for this series, this is one of the benefits of getting the study guide because it has all this information written out and organized for you, and you don't have to worry about missing it because we move so fast through some of this material. Lesson number nine in the study guide is Proverbs About Prosperity. The front page is the outline.
The next two or three pages is a summary of the lesson, and then there are three or four pages of places for you to go in the Bible. to grow in your understanding of this important subject. If you've never gotten a study guide from Turning Point, you'll be amazed to see how easily they are used for small group studies because they just take you to the Bible. It's not about how you feel about something, it's about what God says about it, and you get a chance to organize your thoughts as a group around the truth of God's Word. These study guides are wonderful for small groups, and I encourage you to go to our website, find out more about it, and take advantage of the work that we've done to help you as you facilitate your study and lead your people in the Word of God.
Here now is part two of Power up your wealth. Proverbs about prosperity. So far nothing's been too convicting, right? But hang on, all right. Number two, the book of Proverbs tells us how to govern our money.
And I just want to say one thing here because there's just one principle here that's really important for us to get a hold of, and we'll come back to it at the end of the message. And that is when we get our money. Are not to put our trust in it. Proverbs 11, 28 says, He who trusts in his riches will fall. but the righteous will flourish like foliage.
You see, there's not anything wrong with getting riches. There's an awful lot wrong with putting your trust in them. If you began to trust your riches, you will start to distrust God. And one of the reasons that we have so much in the Word of God warning us against greed is because God loves us so much, He does not want anything to come between Himself and us. And when prosperity becomes our hope and our trust, when our Almighty bank book becomes our source of strength, Then we have pushed God aside and we've moved Him out of the center place of our life.
And when we begin to trust in riches that God has provided for us instead of the one who provided them. We are in deep trouble. The old adage is: don't trust the gift. Trust the giver. Amen.
Trust the one who provided it for you.
Now The majority of the proverbs that have to do with wealth and riches and prosperity. have to do with how we give it away. That's an interesting thing. And so, I want to talk with you thirdly about Proverbs, about how we give away our money. You say, once you get it, why would you want to talk about giving it away?
Because the only way you can ever keep it is to give it away. The only way you can ever get anything that's worthy in your life is to give away what you already have. If God has given you friends, You yourself must give that friendship away. Whatever you have in your life, you have to give it away so that it can come back to enrich you even more. And the book of Proverbs tells us.
Many, many things about how we're to handle the money God gives us and how we're to discharge it. If we are collecting and hoarding in a miserly way, counting all that we have, instead of being aware of the fact that God has given us this stewardship. then we'll never be happy no matter how much we have. In fact, I've learned in my life one of the best ways to guard against greed is to give something away that you really don't want to give away down in your heart. You give it away sacrificially, and God blesses you for it.
Now watch what the Bible says about the purpose of giving. Why do we give? Why do we give away what we have? We do it, first of all, to honor Almighty God. Proverbs 3:9 says, Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruit of all your increase.
Now, once again, I want you to follow me as I read an extended passage from the book of Deuteronomy because I want you to see that this is a truth that goes way back to the very beginning: that God wants us to honor Him with what we have. You say, how do you do that? You make it available for God's use. You bring it to Him. You give it back to Him.
Turn back in your Bibles now, Deuteronomy chapter 26. And while this is an Old Testament offering law, the principle here is so very clear in its incredible passage of Scripture, just like the other one in Deuteronomy chapter 28. And the reason I love to read to you from Deuteronomy is because most of you don't normally turn there to read in your own reading every day. It's kind of like second on your list next to Leviticus. How many of you know that when the Lord was tempted in the wilderness by the enemy?
And he said, It is written, remember that? Satan came and tempted him, and the Lord said, It is written. Do you know what he quoted when he said, It is written? All of the quotations are from the book of Deuteronomy.
So if the Lord Jesus thought Deuteronomy is pretty good, we should think it's pretty good too, shouldn't we?
Now, let me just read to you Deuteronomy chapter 26. Remember, what we're talking about here is that one of the reasons we give is to honor God. Listen to this. And it shall be when you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you possess it and dwell in it, that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground which you shall bring from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and put it in a basket. and go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to make his name abide.
And you shall go to the one who is priest in those days and say to him, I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the country which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us. Then the priest shall take the basket out of your hand and set it down before the altar of your God. And you shall answer and say, Before the Lord your God, My father was Assyrian, about to perish, and he went down to Egypt, and he dwelt there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. But the Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, laid hard bondage on us. Then we cried out to the Lord, God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labor and our oppression.
So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders. And He brought us to this place, and He has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land which you, O Lord God, have given me. Then you shall set it before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in every good thing which the Lord your God has given to you and to your house, you and the Levite and the stranger who is among you. And when you have finished laying aside all the tithe of your increase of the third year and the year of tithing, and have given it to the Levite and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow so that they may eat within your gates and be filled, then you shall say before the Lord your God, I have removed the holy tithe from my house, and have given them to the Levite and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow according to all your commandments which you have commanded me.
I have not transgressed your commandments nor have I forgotten them. And look down at the last verse. Look down from your holy habitation from heaven. and bless your people, Israel, and the land which you have given us. Just as you swore to your fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.
What is this all about? Here's an Israelite who realizes where he was. What happened to him? Where he ended up in Egypt, and how God brought him out of Egypt and gave him the good land. And now he's in the good land and he's enjoying the blessing of Almighty God, which came as a gift from God.
And he takes the first of that produce that comes out of that good land and he puts it in a basket and he brings it to the Lord and he lays it before the altar and he says, Lord, this is my way of honoring you for what you have done for me.
Now, some of you say, Well, I didn't grow up in Syria and I haven't been in Egypt, but tell you what, we all came out of Egypt, didn't we? Because Egypt in the Old Testament is a symbol of sin. We've come out of Egypt. We've been saved out of the darkness. And God has given us a good life in Jesus Christ our Lord.
And if the Old Testament people could bring in honoring the Lord a basket and set it before the Lord and his altar, men and women, we as God's people in this generation ought to be bringing three or four baskets to set before the Lord. Amen? That's what God has done for us. We ought to be blessing God and honoring God. That's the reason we give, to honor the Lord.
Not because some preacher told you to, not because it's something the church needs, but because of what God has done. That's the first reason. But if you keep reading in the book of Proverbs, you'll discover. That we not only give to honor the Lord, we give to help others. In the Old Testament, the people were taught to care for those who were in need.
Proverbs 28:27 says, He who gives to the poor will not lack. But he who hides his eyes will have many curses. Proverbs 22, 9 says, He who has a generous eye will be blessed. For he gives of his bread to the poor. When we give to the ministries of the church, we're giving to missions and to children and to the outreach and give to those who are in need.
We're always to be generous as God's people. When He blesses us, it's so that we can be a blessing to others. I cannot find any place in the Word of God where it says God blesses people primarily so that they can hoard their riches. God blesses us to be a blessing. And the more He blesses you, and the more you're a blessing to someone else, the more He will bless you.
The more he sees that you are willing to follow his mandates and do with what he's entrusted to you, the more he will entrust to you. Because the whole purpose behind God's blessing is so that we can pass that blessing on to others. When God gives us a great Inheritance. There's a tremendous amount of pressure to come before Almighty God and say, Lord God, this is a tremendous responsibility. What now do you want me to do as a channel of your grace with this which you've entrusted to my care?
God gives us so that we might give. But the book of Proverbs also reminds us that when we follow this pattern, And this is not meant to be a stewardship sermon, although it may sound like it. When we follow this pattern, We get in on God's provisions. Because the same passages that tell us what we're supposed to do in channeling that which God has entrusted to us remind us that that is the sure key to blessing.
Now, I know that sometimes we're a little bashful about talking about giving and God responding because there's so much nonsense in the world today in this. Get rich stuff that you hear on television, and some preachers who talk about how you sow a seed so God can give you back all that you need, and it's all based on greed. There is no such teaching in the Word of God about wealth based on greed. The Word of God teaches that we're to give to honor the Lord, but then it promises us that in doing so, we will have our needs met too. And just because some people use that in the wrong way, we shouldn't let it rob us of the great truth that when we give, God is always faithful to us in supplying our needs.
Now the book of Proverbs teaches that. Proverbs teaches us In Proverbs 3, 9, and 10. That when we honor the Lord with our possessions and the firstfruits of all of our increase, Our barns will be filled with plenty, and our vats will overflow with new wine. That's the book of Proverbs. And here's a little more.
Metaphorical approach to it from Proverbs 11:24. Listen to this: there is one who scatters and increases more. And there is one who withholds more than is right and it leads to poverty. Did you get that? The proverb says there's someone who takes what he has and he gives it away and he has more.
And there's someone else who takes what he has and hoards it, and he becomes poor. The principles of the economy of God almost stand on the head of the things which we've learned in our own personal economy: that you keep what you have. The Bible says that when you scatter it, it increases. Listen again to the book of Proverbs, Proverbs 13:7. There is one who makes himself rich, yet has nothing.
And there is one who makes himself poor and has great riches. You say that's double talk. That doesn't make any sense. Oh, yes, it makes a lot of sense in the economy of God. That when you take what God gives you and you give it away, you open the door for God to give back to you more than you could ever have given.
We have talked about this often when we teach stewardship: that when you have an open hand, that means God can take from your hand whatever he wants. But he can also put back into your hand whatever he wants. When you take what God has given you and you close your hand around it, you may be able to hold on to what you have, but God can't get anything else in there, you see. And all you have is what you have, and you become poor in relationship to those who scatter what they have in the manner of giving. Luke 6:38 says, Give and it shall be given to you.
Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.
Now that's in the Word of God. I didn't say that, and that is not some prosperity gospel teacher saying that. That's the Lord Jesus. If you have a red-letter edition of the Bible, that's in red. Jesus said that.
Jesus said, Give, and it shall be given to you. He has promised that He will bless us when we take that which He's entrusted to us. and we make it available to the kingdom's work for whatever he chooses. And the New Testament says that when we do it sparingly, We get a sparing result. And when we do it with abundance and bountifully, we get a bountiful result.
So God teaches us. That he wants to supply our needs. And Philippians chapter 4, verse 19, which is connected to a passage on giving, says, My God shall supply all your need. According to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Listen carefully, it doesn't say, My God shall supply all your greed.
It says, My God shall supply all your need. I've never met anyone. Who faithfully took the principles of God with regard to the giving of our monies? and followed them. And came back and said, That was the worst decision I ever made.
God has totally forgotten me, my life is impoverished. But I have met hundreds of people who've said that was the most important decision I made apart from my salvation to put God first. in finances and in my life. I ran across a bit of poetry reminding us of the provision of God, and it struck a chord in my heart. Listen carefully.
Though troubles assail and dangers affright, Though friends shall all fail, and foes all unite, Yet one thing secures us, whatever betide, the scripture assures us, the Lord. will provide. When I come to that phrase in the rest of these, you say that word with me, will you? The birds without barn or storehouse are fed. From them let us learn to trust for our bread.
His saints, what is fitting, shall not be denied, so long as it's written, the Lord will provide. We may, like the ships by tempest, be tossed on perilous deeps, but cannot be lost. Though Satan enrages the wind and the tide, the promise engages. The Lord will provide. His call we obey, like Abram of old, not knowing our way, but faith makes us bold.
And though we are strangers, we have a good guide, and trust in all dangers, the Lord will provide. When Satan appears to stop up our path and fills us with fears, we triumph by faith. He cannot take from us, though oft he has tried, this heart-cheering promise the Lord will provide. He tells us we're weak, our hope is in vain. The good that we seek we will never obtain.
But when such suggestions our spirits have plied, this answers all questions. The Lord will provide. No strength of our own or goodness we claim. Yet since we have known the Savior's great name, in this our strong tower for safety we hide, the Lord is our power, the Lord will provide. When life sinks apace and death is in view, This word of his grace shall comfort us through.
No fearing or doubting, with Christ on our side, we hope to die shouting, the Lord will provide. How many of you know the Lord will provide? Amen. And when you read the Word of God, whether it's in the book of Proverbs or in the book of Deuteronomy or in the book of 1 Corinthians or any of the books of the Bible, sooner or later you get to this principle. And it's not something you make up, it's something you find there.
And it's a wonderful principle that you should never lose sight of.
Now, let me tell you what may be the most important verses in Proverbs about wealth. Are and where they are, and how you should use these.
Somebody say, Well, you know, Pastor, I don't know. What should I do now? Should I try to do better? Absolutely. Should you work hard?
Sure. Should you try to move forward? Yes. But here's a prayer for you to pray. It's Proverbs chapter 30, verses 7 through 9.
Two things I request of you: deprive me not before I die. Remove falsehood and lies far from me. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food allotted to me, lest I be full and deny you and say, Who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.
Here's a prayer, isn't it? Lord. Give me enough.
So that I have enough. Don't give me so much. That I forget where it came from. You know, everybody has a capacity, isn't that true?
Some people have a capacity for great stewardship. And if God has given you the capacity, you are to be honored, and you have a great responsibility, and God has put that responsibility in your hands. Discharge it with joy.
Some people don't have a great capacity.
Some know in your own heart. If God should trust me with a great deal of money, I'm not sure I would be faithful with it as I am with what I have now. You should never pray for more than you can be faithful for. And God is always faithful. And you know what He likes to do?
He likes to grow up His stewards. The Bible says if we're faithful over a few things, He will make us ruler over many.
So as we prove our stewardship at one level, we can graduate to the next. I want to quit this discussion with a story. By Eugene Peterson in Run with the Horses, he writes about seeing a family of birds. teaching the young to fly. Three young swallows were perched on a dead branch that stretched out over a lake.
And the one adult swallow got alongside the chicks and started shoving them out toward the end of the branch. Pushing, pushing, pushing, and at the end. One of the birds fell off.
Somewhere between the branch and the water, four feet below, the wings started working, and the fledgling was off on his own. And then the second one was at the end of the branch. And the third was not to be bullied. At the last possible moment, his grip on the branch loosened just enough so that he swung downward, then tightened again, bulldog tenacious. And the parent bird was without any sentiment.
He pecked at the desperately clinging talons until it was more painful for the poor chick to hang on than risk the insecurities of flying. The grip was released and the inexperienced wings began pumping. And the mature swallow knew what the chick did not. that it would fly. That there was no danger in making it do what it was perfectly designed to do.
Birds have feet. and birds can walk. Birds have talons. and they can grasp a branch securely. They can walk and they can cling.
But flying is their characteristic action. And not until they fly are they living at their best. gracefully and beautifully. And giving is what we do best. It is the air into which we were born.
It is the action that was designed into us before our very birth.
Some of us try desperately to hold on to ourselves, to live for ourselves, and we look so bedraggled and pathetic doing it, hanging on to the dead branch of a bank account for dear life. Afraid to risk ourselves on the untried wings of giving. We don't think we can live generously because we've never tried. But the sooner we start, the better, for we are going to have to give up our lives finally, and the longer we wait, the less time we have for the soaring and the swooping life of grace. And I tell you that when a person knows What it's like to be at the end of the branch and let go.
And into the gracious arms of the Lord, who helps us and supports us and provides for us because we've learned how to give, even beyond that. which makes sense to us. Then we've really learned what life is all about. How many of you know that the great gift? Was God giving His gift to us?
How do we know how to give? For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And because he has shown us.
Now, let me ask you a question: was that an easy gift? Oh, it was the most costly gift he could have given. Was it sacrificial? Absolutely. Was there anything that he left ungiven when he gave his son?
No, he gave us it all. And he is our standard. Because he is given to us, we have been enriched.
Now what shall we do? Let us prove in our own stewardship that we have learned God's basic lesson. That whatever you give, God multiplies it back to you in ways you cannot even imagine. And the book of Proverbs teaches. this wonderful lesson.
And I want to tell you something. I am a testimony to that fact. I learned this lesson early on in my Christian life and began to practice it and have been doing so every time, ever since we got married. We've never walked away from that. We've asked God to help us grow in our ability to do it.
And we are testimonies to the fact that God never allows his children to out give him. He is always ahead of us, making a way and showing us the joy of being gracious and generous in that which he's entrusted to us. By the way, friends, we don't own any of this. We're just stewards. We manage this for the Lord.
And when he sees we're good managers, he gives us more to manage. And that's just the way it works. And I hope you've discovered that. When we get together next time, we're going to talk about powering up your future. Proverbs for planning.
Another interesting subject in the book of Proverbs. We hope you'll join us next time right here in this good station. I'm David Jeremiah. Thanks for listening. Today's message originated from Shadow Mountain Community Church and senior pastor Dr.
David Jeremiah. Drop us a note to let us know how God is using this ministry in your life. Right to Turning Point, PO Box 3838, San Diego, California, 92163. Visiting our website at davidjeremiah.org/slash radio. That's davidjeremiah.org slash radio or by calling 800-947-1993.
Ask for your copy of David's new book, God's Heart for Israel. It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also download the free Turning Point mobile app for your smartphone or tablet. or search in your app store for Turning Point Ministries to access our content. Visit davidjeremiah.org slash radio for details.
This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we conclude Powerful Principles from Proverbs on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah. I'm going to use a bottle of the same method.
