- Principles for Biblical stewardship.
When it comes to money, the Bible talks a lot about money.
In fact, Jesus talked different parables about finances.
When Bible talks about finances, it talks about our attitude
and then it talks about the principles of managing our finances
in a way that glorifies God.
Money is very important to us as Christians
because money is a competition for our heart.
The Bible says you can't serve God and Mormon.
It doesn't say you can't serve God and the devil.
Mormon is money, it's the love of money.
It's deceitfulness of riches.
And the competition for your heart is finances.
But one of the biggest reasons why we all need to learn
to steward our finances properly is because of this verse;
it's very very important. Listen to me
I know some of you may be like, "Oh, this is not super spiritual.
You know, I just want to learn about casting out of demons,
healing the sick, and fasting, hearing the voice of God,
visions and dreams, and all of that."
But listen very carefully because the key
to your spiritual growth is this verse, Luke 16:11
"Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous Mormon
who will commit to your trust the true riches?"
What if how you handle your finances has a lot to do
with how much God can trust you with true spiritual riches?
We all want spiritual riches. We all want spiritual wealth.
We want to grow rich toward God.
We want to grow wealthy in the Kingdom of God.
In things that are not measured by dollars and stocks
and possessions, in spiritual things.
But Jesus says that God is looking at how we are handling
God is not looking at how much money we have.
He's looking at how we are handling the money we do have.
What is our attitude? What is our behavior?
And God says, when He looks at that and He sees that
that you're faithful not if you are successful
but if you are faithful with the unrighteous Mormon
He will entrust you with true riches.
So, few things I want you to keep in mind.
Four attitudes that the Scripture teaches us
that's supposed to be behind the scenes
behind how we manage our finances.
Because see, I can tell what we should do with our finances
and I will do that in a second, but it's the attitude
it's the mindset you have towards money that matters.
It matters way more than what you are going to do with finances.
It's the attitude behind our financial behavior that matters
as much as the actual financial decisions we make.
The first attitude is to be content and not covetous.
In 1 Timothy 6:6-10 it talks about
Christians living to be content.
As Christians, we shouldn't covet what other people have.
We should be content.
Content doesn't mean that we don't want more.
Content doesn't mean that we don't want to work.
Content doesn't mean that we're not striving for excellence.
Content simply means that we are not driven by those desires.
That we are happy with food, with clothing
and the fact that we know God.
The second attitude that should rule our financial life
and that is we should trust in God, not in riches.
Philippians 4:19.
We should trust in God, not in our riches.
What makes a difference between a Christian and a non-Christian
is that a non-Christian is somebody who trusts in their wealth.
They trust in their money. They love their money.
And that's what makes money evil. Not the money itself,
it's the fact that they make it into an idol.
For a Christian, we trust in God who richly supplies
not in riches.
The third attitude that's supposed to dominate our life
concerning finances is we have to be generous, not stingy.
So many Christians fight over, "Should we tithe
should we not tithe?" I think it's a secondary question.
What we do agree on is that we all as Christians
should be generous.
What generous looks to you and me probably would be different.
At different seasons of your life, generosity will be different
yet one thing is certain; generosity reflects the heart of God.
Instead of clinging to our finances,
instead of constantly hoarding,
instead of constantly being stingy,
instead of being greedy, Christ wants us to be like Him
be generous and be givers to the poor, to the needy,
to our own family, to His cause and to His purpose
and to what He wants us to give to on this earth.
The fourth attitude that we should maintain in our finances
is we should walk in faith, not in fear.
Fear and worry can cripple your financial life more than
any pandemic, recession or you know, market crush.
So many people are trapped in the fear of what could happen
and worry is what could possibly happen.
Like there is no threat yet on their finances
but worry creates these imaginary problems.
When talking about finances, Jesus addressed that.
He says, "Do not worry about your next meal."
He's not saying be reckless He's not saying be irresponsible
He's just saying don't let worry dictate your financial behavior.
Don't let fear drive your decisions.
Let faith drive your decisions.
So our attitude is we live by faith not by fear.
We trust in God, not in riches.
We live in contentment, not trying covet.
And we live developing the muscle of generosity instead of
being greedy or stingy.
Now, let's dive into practically how to manage our finances.
Again, it's very important that you learn to manage your finances
because if you don't manage your finances well
God cannot entrust you with true spiritual riches.
So many people are trying to improve their prayer life,
their fasting life, their this life and that life
but one area they constantly ignore and they think
"It doesn't matter how I manage my finances.
I maxed out my credit cards. I always buy things I don't need
with money I don't have to impress people I don't even like."
You know, I'm constantly coveting, I'm greedy, I'm stingy.
I don't trust God with finances. I'm panicking all the time.
You know, clinging to every dollar
and fighting with my wife and with my husband
about money all the time
It doesn't matter. That doesn't matter."
My friend, it does.
God looks at that to decide if you can be entrusted
with true riches.
So, practically. Now some of these stuff is not in the Bible
what I'm going to share with you but it's just common sense wisdom.
The first one is give 10% of your income to a local church.
Now, I know preachers say that and a lot of you are like,
"Oh my God, New Testament doesn't talk about tithing."
Well, it kind of does.
Jesus did mention that we shouldn't forsake the heavier
things of the law without forsaking the lighter things of the law.
But let's just say that there is no mention about that
except in that one verse.
In the New Testament, we see that we should live
extravagantly generous.
We should purpose in our heart to be generous.
And so, I encourage people, give to God first
and make it a percentage thing.
Like, some people do it spontaneous but it's best
when you make your percentage. Whether it's 10%, 20%, 5%;
whatever it is, that you make it a percentage
and you give to God.
Do you have to give? No, you get to give.
What giving does to me is it reminds me
I'm not the owner, I'm a steward.
It reminds me God owns it all and He entrusted this to me.
Does God need my money? No, but I need God
and I need to be constantly reminded since money
is a competition for my heart, that money is not my master.
I manage money, I'm not mastered by money.
You can't say that money is not your master if you don't give
that's is. So no matter how you try to excuse and justify it
if you are not generous with your finances,
and the best way to start is with your paycheck.
When you get paid, you take a portion and you give it to God.
You honor Him with your finances.
Trust me, 90% blessed by God is way better
than 100% not blessed by Him.
Do you have to do that? No, you get to do that.
So that's the first principle.
The second principle is save from 10%-20% of your income
for upcoming expenses, emergencies,
large purchases, and other things.
When you save, the Bible says,
"In the house of a wise man there is choice silver."
Meaning this wise man didn't eat everything up.
He saved something.
The Scripture talks about a prodigal son who went and spent
all that he had. See, when you spend everything that you have
and that's been your lifestyle.
Now sometimes there are seasons where expenses come up
and different things happen, but if it's been your lifestyle
you always spend everything you make, let me ask you a question.
How different are you from the prodigal son?
Now you may say, "I'm not spending it on prostitutes and harlots."
Well, he didn't just spend it on them
he just spend all of it.
Don't spend everything that you make.
Save money for the rainy day. Save money for emergencies.
Save money for large purchases so you don't have
to buy them on credit so you can buy them with cash.
Number three is budget the rest of 70%-80%
depending on how much you are saving.
When it comes to budgeting, few things to keep in mind.
God wants us to curb our spending.
Curb our spending means we have to curb our appetites.
Curb our spending meaning we shouldn't spend all the money
that we have.
And a lot of times what happens is that we have this faith
dreams, and we start to spend on the level of our dreams
instead of spending on the level of our income.
And then we get influenced by somebody else who has those things
nice things; newer, nicer, shinier, cooler
and we begin to go into this shopping spree
and we begin to buy things we don't need.
Buy things out of greed, buy things out of our season
out of our time and find yourself
in a very very deep hole financially.
Curb your appetites.
Lust is one of those things, it never has enough.
Greed is one of those things it's never enough.
There's always going to be something new.
There's always going to be another ad
There's always going to be something that is going to
fight for your attention and is going to say,
"Buy me, buy me. And if you buy me you are going to be happier.
"You are going to be prettier and you are going to fit in.
And your life is going to be so much better."
The devil is a liar. Those sales and discounts,
listen, sometimes those things are demonic distractions for you
to take you out of your place of your budget.
And so, really ask yourself, "Do I really need those things?"
Look through your expenses. Look through your subscriptions.
Look through your cable subscription.
Sports subscriptions, magazine subscriptions and so many things
and ask yourself, "Do I need that? Is that really necessary?"
Begin to curb your spending.
Use wisdom in investing.
So the next tip is use wisdom in investing.
The Bible talks about investing. In Ecclesiastes 11:2 it says
that give a portion to seven or even to eight
for you know not what disaster may come on the earth.
So we see that with the king who gave talents to his servants.
One servant saved it, and the rest of the servants invested.
The one who saved it was called wicked and lazy.
The one who invested was called faithful and good.
And so, God wants you to invest.
And in fact, Jesus talked about investing in the New Testament
by saying we should invest not only in the stock market
and real estate but we should invest into the Kingdom of God.
He saw giving as an investment.
He wasn't trying to get a get-rich scheme going.
He wasn't trying to say if you give $1 you'll get a $100 back.
He was just saying in the light of eternity
whatever you give there is going to come back to you.
You know, it leaves your hand but it never leaves your life
because it's going to stay in your heavenly account
and it will collect dividends. It will collect interest.
And so, investments is good.
And as Christians, the moment you have a little bit
of extra finances, don't seek to upgrade your living.
That's one of the mistakes that people make.
Is the moment they have a little bit more, they get a raise
they get a bonus and they right away say,
"What new thing can I buy?" Now, I understand
there's nothing wrong with buying new things and upgrading.
There's nothing wrong with that.
But if that is your lifestyle, if that is how you grew up
constantly upgrading when you have an opportunity
to invest into something, to have money make money for you;
and instead of you constantly working,
you can have something else working on the side
on your behalf, that could bring resources to you.
It's a biblical principle.
And so, I'm not a professional investor, I invest into things
I encourage you to invest.
I encourage to open your mind, read books about it.
Listen to seminars. I'm not talking about some of these schemes
that are going around of people talking about investments
who only make about talking investments
and actually don't invest into anything, and stuff.
But be wise concerning investment.
Don't invest money you don't have
and don't invest in things you don't understand.
And don't invest to get rich quickly
because you'll get poor quickly.
God tells us to be patient and to invest for long-term.
Avoid borrowing.
Scripture clearly states that he who is a borrower is a slave
to the one who he borrows.
And so, unless it's buying a house,
everything else, we should avoid borrowing.
Avoid using credit cards if you can't pay them off
before the end of the month.
I know some people are like, "Oh, but I get the points."
Yeah, but you also spend hundreds and thousands of dollars
in interest, you know.
"Oh yeah, but my FICO score."
You know, if you are going to be living in debt all of your life
you are a slave regardless of your FICO score.
I'm not against credit cards. I use them all the time
but I pay them off literally within the same month
so I don't pay any interest to the companies
that I use the credit cards from.
And so, avoid being a slave to the company
to American Express, the visa, or to anything else
that you constantly have everything on payment.
And God forbid, the next thing you lose your job
you lose everything else and then you become very broken.
Not because the devil attacked you, it's because didn't
structure your finances in a way that honored God
and obeyed His principles.
And the last truth, the principle to financially be faithful
in unrighteous Mormon is be diligent and hardworking.
Now, we live in a day today, where people are--
everybody wants to quit work and nobody wants to work
and people just want to go pursue their dreams.
I'm not against that. I'm all for seek your passion
pursue your passion. But anything that requires you
not to work and just chill, Netflix and chill is not Scriptural.
Bible is very clear that God created us to work.
Work is not a curse. It didn't come after the curse.
Work was something that God created for Adam before he fell into sin.
In fact, we probably are going to work in heaven.
We are going to create, we are going to manage
We are going to do something. So work is good
and you should work as long as you physically can.
You might not be able to have 9-5 for the rest of your life
but you still should work.
Even if you retire, you should never retire from work.
You should work. You should do something that you enjoy.
Move, create, write, help, volunteer, serve
you know, you should be engaged because when you work
you glorify God. When you work you utilize your potential.
You are more like God. You create things.
You make things happen, and that's a good thing.
And people who don't work, the Bible says, they shouldn't eat.
And so, unless you are physically not able to work
where you are handicapped, you have a disability
but if you are a young person or young adult
and you are able to work, go to work.
"Oh, they are not hiring."
Listen, go do something for free. Volunteer.
Go, rake somebody's leaves. Go, mow somebody's lawn.
Go pick up garbage. Do something.
Don't sit at home, eat chitos and watch Netflix and say,
"Nobody's hiring." Do not do that.
Don't play a victim. Go and work.
Do any kind of work.
"Oh, but they are not treating me well.
Oh, but they are not paying enough."
Shut up! Don't do that. Go and work.
Every disciple that Jesus called into ministry,
they were doing something.
They were fishing, cleaning nets, even Matthew the tax collector
he was ripping people off and he was working.
Work. Work is a good thing.
I'm not talking about workaholism, I'm talking about working
staying busy working for God, building a career
and so many other things.
So may God give you wisdom to be faithful in unrighteous Mormon
to manage your finances
to master your attitudes
to master the finances and to manage the finances
in a manner that glorifies Him
and sets you up for your new level in true riches for God.
Is there something you know about finances
that you've experienced? Could you share it with us?
Drop that in the comments below.
What did you learn from this video?
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