Hey, did you all get your SKITTLES? Don’t you just love candy? Where else can you go to church and get a free bag of candy Skittles? Not to mention all of the coffee and cookies you can eat…ha
We are in the middle of a three-week series titled, “Built to Last.” This is a three-week series to help us get our priorities straight. Its what really matters in our lives…last week we started off on Fathers Day talking about Committing to your Family and how they have to be our Priority for our time. This week we will be talking about committing to our Finances and next week will be about Compassion, Committing to Others.
- I am sure all of us as parents have had this happen to us at least one time with your children, or if you haven’t yet you probably will. I think I’ve gone through it with each of my kids.
You know the scenario. I take my kids to the Mariners game and my son says, dad can I buy something to eat. So I give him 5 bucks and he comes back with a bag of Skittles. So I say, hey, can I have some Skittles? And he gives me this funny face and says nah. So I’m like come on give a couple of Skittles and he’s like no these are mine go get your own Skittles.
By this time I’m like going crazy. There are some things he just doesn’t know or isn’t thinking about…
1. I bought those Skittles for him in the first place and technically, they’re still mine…
2. I am big enough and strong enough; I could take the whole bag of skittles from him if I wanted to…
3. If I wanted to, I could reign down more Skittles on him than he could ever handle or hope to have…
When our children act like this we have to realize they just don’t see the whole picture. So I am going to take today’s talk on committing your finances and relate it to how we would teach our children about Skittles. So each of you make the application as it fits in your life and with your finances. The 1st thing we need to realize
1. Realize all Skittles are the Lords.
Psalm 50:10 For all the animals of the forest are mine, and I own the cattle on a thousand hills.
That’s funny because not only does God own the cattle on 1000 hills; he owns the thousands of hills that the cattle are on.
Psalms 24:1 The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him
There is not anything that was made or that exist that God does not own.
Leviticus 25:23 — “The land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.”
Haggai 2:8 — “ ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the Lord Almighty.”
Even we are Gods possessions…
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 — “You are not your own; you were bought at a price.”
And not only does He own us and our possessions, God is the one that gives us the wisdom and ability to earn every penny or every dollar that we earn.
Deut 8:18 — “Remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth.”
We really need to realize that all that we have and all that we will ever have is because God either gives it to us, or God allows us to have it. There is nothing we can do or own without God. We also need to realize…
2. Your Skittles are the key to your heart.
There is no doubt in my mind that Jesus Christ was the greatest teacher that ever lived. More books have been written about him and about his teaching and the short time that he lived on this earth than any other person who has ever lived.
And if you study the various topics that Jesus talked about…Jesus Christ the greatest teacher ever, devoted more of his teaching on finances than on any other subject with the exception of the kingdom of God.
And if you think about it, why would Jesus Christ, the greatest teacher ever, spend so much time talking about Skittles…?
Was it because He needed so much finances? Hardly, for all intensive purposes Jesus was homeless as He traveled from town to town, teaching people the good news.
Was it because He had a huge ministry to support? I would think not, as He had 12 disciples who lived the same as he did with nothing but the shirts on their back going from town to town introducing Jesus Christ.
Was it because he was speaking to such RICH people that had so much that they had a problem with materialism? If you read the New Testament you will find with just a few exceptions most of the people Jesus spoke to were peasants living closer to poverty than riches by far.
I believe the one reason that Jesus Christ; the greatest teacher ever talked so much about finances was because “our finances have the unique ability to reveal the actual condition of the human heart.”
Jesus said in Matthew 6:21; Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be.
I believe that Jesus used dozens of examples and stories about people’s possessions and finances because Jesus knew that; “our finances are the number one rivals to God, for the human heart.”
The bible says, talking about finances…nobody can serve two masters, they will love the one and despise the other…nobody can serve God and money…
The real issue with our hearts is, who is going to be number one…? You see we need to…
3. Learn to give your skittles away.
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, said, “Get all you can, save all you can, give all you can.” We say, “Get all you can, can all you get, and sit on the lid.”
Acts 20:35 — “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
When I was young, my mom taught me a great bible lesson without ever knowing it…in between our monthly shopping trips to the grocery store…(with eight kids I the family, you can imagine how big those monthly shopping trips were) occasionally between shopping trips we would run out of an important ingredient for cooking. Usually it was either sugar or flour. When that happened my mother would send me (probably because I was the youngest) to the neighbors to borrow some flour from them.
I remember on more than one occasion, that when we had gone shopping and it was time to return the flour we borrowed from the neighbor, I would watch as my mom filled the original container we had borrowed the flour in…she would overfill the container on purpose and then she would press the flour down with her hand to really pack it in (you could see her hand print in the flour) and then just to make sure it was full, she would pour even more flour on top…
Luke 6:38 If you give, you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full measure, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, and running over. Whatever measure you use in giving--large or small--it will be used to measure what is given back to you."
I can think of very few subjects short of salvation itself, which I would rather teach you, than the subject of giving. To me this subject that I learned at a very young age has been perhaps the single greatest lesson that has benefited my family and I so very much.
If you can learn this lesson, you will see that your finances will not be a problem anymore…you will not have to worry about how you are going to pay the bills. Because it is one of the few promises that God makes that will bring a guaranteed return while you are still on this earth.
I have seen God take the little that I have offered to him and use it and he has constantly returned it to me
I want to quickly go through three key points on giving…
A. Percentage giving
Percentage giving is really what the bible calls tithing…
Malachi 3:10a Bring all the tithes into the storehouse
A tithe is 10%. Throughout the entire Old Testament the bible commanded that they give their tithe or 10% of all that they made back to God through the local synagogue or church, as we know it today.
To some people that seems like allot, to give 10% of all that you make back to God. But when we look at it in life, wouldn’t we love to only pay 10% of our earnings in taxes…that barely covered my state tax when I worked in Oregon.
Or when we tip at a restaurant or when we get our hair cut, 10% is considered a small tip. Maybe we should call it tipping instead of tithing…
I don’t want to spend allot of time talking about the tithe because I think the New Testament opens up an even broader perspective about giving. That is, we don’t give because we have to…(we actually are not under the law that says we have to tithe) we give because we want to.
We are called on to give freely and cheerfully, according to how God has prospered us. And for the most part, we are very prosperous. Much more prosperous than in the Old Testament days where they tithed
A Pastor one time was chatting with a few of the people of his church. While he was chatting he said, if I had a million dollars I think I would give it to missionary’s in other country’s…wouldn’t you guys…and they all said yes…Pastor if we had a million dollars we would give it to missionary’s in other country’s also.
The Pastor said, what about if you had $100k what would you do with it? And they all said Pastor if we had $100k we would give it to missionary’s in other country’s. The Pastor asked again, what if you had $10k what would you do with it? And they all agreed once more if they had $10k they would still give it all to missionaries in other countries.
Finally the Pastor asked, what if you had $1000…and one of the men cut him off and said; Pastor now that’s not fair to ask…you know we all have a $1000.
You see its not just the percentage giving that’s important it is also…
B. Priority giving
Priority giving is when you make giving the first thing you do with your finances…that means before you pay your other bills and even before you pay your taxes, you make God the first priority…
1 Cor. 16:2 On every Lord’s Day, each of you should put aside some amount of money in relation to what you have earned and save it for this offering. Don’t wait until I get there and then try to collect it all at once.
As I said earlier, if you can learn this, it will transform your life and your finances.
Unreserved commitment results in unrestrained blessing. When you hold nothing back from God he holds nothing back from you. If we do not withhold from God our material blessings, he will not withhold from us his spiritual blessings and material blessings in our lives.
Putting God first means we are trusting him to take care of us, and who do you trust more God or yourself?
Well hold on to your skittles we’re not finished yet…We have percentage giving (where we commit to God a certain percent or tithe of what we make. Then we had Priority giving where we make God the first priority with our money and not just give him what’s left. And then we have…
C. Progressive giving
Progressive giving is when we take our giving to another level. Its where we say to God, all that I have is yours and I fully trust you to take care of me no matter what happens in life and I am going to give above and beyond the percentage giving in the Old Testament…some people would say, that’s reckless giving…
C.S. Lewis, English author and scholar said; “I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare.“
Malachi 3:10-11 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do," says the LORD Almighty,
"I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Let me prove it to you! 11Your crops will be abundant, for I will guard them from insects and disease. Your grapes will not shrivel before they are ripe," says the LORD Almighty.
Wow, now that’s a promise…really it’s more of a challenge…
This is where what I like to call my “Enlightened Self Interest” kicks in…By enlightened self interest I mean that I take this verse to mean literally what it says it means and it “enlightens my self interest to apply it literally.
What this verse clearly teaches is what I alluded to at the beginning of this talk when I said I could reign down more skittles on my son than he could ever dream of…and in this verse God says “TRY IT”! or “TASTE THE RAINBOW”
You do your part…that means cough up the Skittles and watch me; I will open the windows and pour blessings so big you can’t make room enough to handle it…He goes on to say “let me prove it to you”
He says you will be amazed how well things will go for you, how long those tires will last and far your finances go beyond what they used to go. Its like you keep eating those Skittles and there’s still more left.
So now that we have learned to give some Skittles away we need to learn to…
4. Save some skittles for later.
This point is really a more practical point than a strong scripture point. Not that the bible doesn’t teach the principle
Proverbs 13:11 …he who gathers money little by little makes it grow.
Proverbs 21:20 The wise have wealth and luxury, but fools spend whatever they get.
When I say this is practical, I mean it is a lesson more of common sense or business sense I speak of… We all need to get to where we can give 1st, save 2nd and spend the rest.
How many of you have ever heard of the…
10 – 10 – 80 rule?
The 10,10, 80 rule is, to give your 1st 10% back to God, Save 10% for the future and live off of the 80% left over. Now I don’t have a scripture that teaches to save 10% but I can tell you any financial planner will tell you that is a minimum starting point in life.
I know there are many of you today who would say; we are so in to debt or we barely make it now, if I did this today by the end of the month they would foreclose on our house or take our car away.
I don’t expect that this is something you can do at the drop of a hat, and it is definitely not something you can learn to do without sacrificing some of the privileges that you are used to…however, it is something that will definitely be in you and your families best interest for your finances now and in the future.
I want more than anything for you to learn these principles so your finances don’t hold you back from what God wants to do in your life. Realize God never asks you to do something that he wont give you the power to do. You have to trust him. God wants you to
5. Enjoy the skittles you have.
John 10:10 …I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
2 Cor 8:7 Since you excel in so many ways--you have so much faith, such gifted speakers, such knowledge, such enthusiasm, and such love for us, now I want you to excel also in this gracious ministry of giving.
