Priority One Series

So, once again, the principle is this: give to God first whenever you get paid. Now, let me show you how this works in my world. I have used the same system to keep our family budget for almost forty years. I use pencil and paper...I’ve used the same green four-column ledger books for decades. I buy them at Office Depot for a couple of bucks. Now, you might use your computer and accounting software. But I’m about as low-tech as you can get. (Photo) You’ll see on the screens an image of my monthly budget categories. These are the same budget categories I use every month.

But notice what’s on top….do you see? (Photo with highlight) I put giving back to God on the top because it’s my first financial priority. It’s the first thing I allocate money to every pay period. Before I spend money on anything else I give back to God. This is called first-fruits giving. It’s simple. It’s biblical. And if you do this over the long haul you will discover that it will lead to less stress and more freedom in your financial world.

Now you may be thinking…how can this be true? Am I just making this up? Of course not! What I am sharing with you is exactly what Jesus teaches in Matthew 6. Would you turn there in your Bible or on your mobile device? Now, the entire passage is teaching us how to stop worrying about finances and possessions. What’s another word for worry? Stress, right! Worry and stress are close cousins. And what did I just say a few minutes ago? I said there’s got to be a better way to handle money than most of us have been doing. Because what most of have been doing with our finances has done nothing but give us stress, sleepless night and arguments.

That’s why I want us to listen to what Jesus has to say about this. Because, at one level, this whole passage is about first-fruits giving! Jesus is saying that if we put him first, if we make giving back to God our first priority, then he will take care of us—and we won’t have to worry!

So what can you do to begin to get rid of stress and worry with your finances? The first step…and the only one we’re going to consider today is this—put God first. Give to God first whenever you get paid. Let’s read Matthew 6:23-34…

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”