9 Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:
10 So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.
Introduction
Open your Bibles to the book of Proverbs. The book of Proverbs is almost right square in the middle of the Bible. If you come out in the book of Psalms, turn right and it will be the next book you come to. If you come out in Isaiah, you turn left and it will be the book just preceding it. I will be reading several verses from the book of Proverbs. I want you to mark your Bibles and if you have them open it will help you to do that.
We had more than 2,000 in Sunday school again today and that is the sixth Sunday in a row. We are grateful for that kind of growth and Bible study. There is nothing we do in our church that is more important than to meet in Sunday school and study the Bible. If you are not in a class, get in one. Get to know these people at Green Acres. You’ll love them. And they will like you and Sunday school will be the best part of being a part of this church.
We had a good service at 8:30. Had two or three who joined then. Had a good service at 9:45 and had 11 who joined then. We are anticipating that people will come to receive Christ as Savior in this service and others will transfer their membership and be a part of us. And we are so glad that you are here. If you are looking for a church home, you have found it. You will be wasting your time to go anywhere else. You might as well just join today, get it all over with and be a part of us. And at the end of the service I’m going to give an invitation and you can come and join with us.
I want to share with you today what I believe to be seven secrets to financial management. Let’s just suppose by some stretch of the imagination that you have financial problems and you need some help. It’s not the kind of help that a loan would fix. Most people think that if they are having financial problems, all they need to do is to get a loan and that solves their problems. Sometimes that complicates the problem. The problem started at the beginning because of poor management. What you need is a financial counsel and advice so that you can learn to manage your money better and not just solve your problem but keep it from becoming a problem in the future.
Where would you go for that kind of counsel? Would you go to a close friend who has been a success in business? Or would you go to a lawyer or to your banker? Where would you go? Do you know that it’s possible for you to go to one of the wealthiest and the wisest man who ever lived on the earth? His name is Solomon, King of Israel, son of David.
Solomon was the king of one of the greatest nations that existed on the face of the earth in his time. He led that nation in an era of international commerce that was unprecedented. They had not known that kind of prosperity and success before nor have they known it since. But it came to pass under Solomon. He personally administered one of the greatest building construction projects in the history of the world, the building of King Solomon’s temple. On that job they employed 153,000 laborers—that’s a pretty good work crew. And the job cost an unprecedented amount of money and he personally supervised that. He had to have some knowledge of finance and some knowledge of how to organize and get things done.
In addition to that, King Solomon wrote several books and those books encompass almost every field of knowledge—science and psychology, business, family and marriage relationships, how to rear children, how to deal with moral problems, as well as his advice concerning finances. In his day heads of state from all over the world traveled thousands of miles just do sit down and talk with him and to get his advice and counsel concerning the great issues of life. Fortunately for us King Solomon under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote down much of that advice. And though we cannot go and sit down with him personally, we can read the book of Proverbs that contains much of his wisdom and we can learn what this man had to say about almost every aspect of life.
People read the book of Proverbs to gain wisdom in many areas, but seldom do they ever read it to get sound financial advice. But if you will read it afresh and anew sometime this week or maybe read a chapter a day for the entire month and mark those verses that talk about money, about finances in particular, you will find the answer to the questions and the problems that plague us today.
I want to share with you the seven secrets of financial management that come from Solomon. The first bit of advice is found in chapter 3, verses 9 and 10. Here is what Solomon says as he begins his advice to us concerning money management.
1. Honor God with your money.
Here is the way he says it: “Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.” Solomon begins by saying the first step to money management is to put God first in your life.
I am persuaded that money management is not basically a matter of dollars and cents. That is to say that your problems could not be solved just by giving you more dollars or more cents—at least the money kind of cents. The problem is basically a matter of priorities. It is a matter of discipline and perspective. And until you get money and all financial matters in the right perspective, until you establish the right priorities and can discipline yourself to give first place and first importance to those things that deserve to be first in your life, you will never ever manage your affairs well.
What deserves to be first? What ought to be the most prominent in our lives? Solomon says that God deserves to be first. If you want to have a program of good money management, then you need to begin by giving God first place in your life. Notice what he has to say: “Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase.” It is an admonition that we see to it that our financial ways honor God. God is not to have the leftovers in life. God is to have the first fruits of our lives. And in the Jewish economy, the first fruits represented the very best that they had. The first fruits to grow in the fields represent the best. And they were to take their very best, the first and not the last, and offer that to God as an acknowledgement of the fact that God owned Israel. That God was their Master. That he was their Lord, and they were stewards of all that they possessed. And so the very fact that they brought the first fruits of their increase to God was an acknowledgement of his Lordship and their stewardship. It was an expression of their gratitude and thanksgiving to God for all that he had done.
I am convinced that if we will lay the right foundation and give God first place in our lives and use our financial resources to honor God and to glorify God, we will be on the way to good financial management.
You say, well, preacher, how much does a person have to give in order to honor God? In the Old Testament the minimum for giving was the tithe. I am persuaded that tithing ought to be the floor and not the ceiling of Christian giving. That is to say, that’s the place where we begin. But it most certainly is not the place where we end.
We are to give as God has prospered us and God has prospered many people so that they can give much more beyond the beginning point of the tithe. But however you do it, and wherever you start, I want you to know that the first step in good money management is to get your priorities right. God comes first. You are to honor him with the first fruits, the beginning, the best that you have to offer to him.
2. Work hard at all that you do.
Solomon says in Proverbs 10:4, “He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.” That word slack is contrasted with the word diligent. And he is saying to us that the man who is lazy will never have any money. But the man who is diligent, the man who works hard, will prosper.
It is a principle that is not only stated here, it is a principle that is found throughout Proverbs and scattered throughout the whole Bible—that God expects us to work hard at whatever we have to do. As we work hard, God blesses us and prospers us in that hard work.
We live in a world where due to circumstances beyond some people’s control, they are poor and they do not want to be poor. They would like for it to be different, but they simply are not able to lift themselves out of poverty. But, in fact, most of the poverty in the world today is not due to circumstances beyond our control—it is due to the sheer laziness of people. Somebody has said that the haves and the have-nots can usually be traced back to the dids and the did-nots. And many the people who have, have because they did. And many of the people who have not, do not have because they did not. That’s not double talk, that’s just saying that God chooses to prosper those who work hard.
The preacher Jessie Jackson, who often admonishes and encourages people to lift themselves out of poverty and into a stronger position in society, said, “Both sweat and tears are wet and salty, but they produce far different results. Tears will get you sympathy and sweat will get you profit.” That’s exactly what the writer of the book of Proverbs says. If you will work hard, God will prosper you and good stewardship involves not only giving of money, it involves the earning of money.
And I want you to understand this: God expects you to work hard at whatever you have to do. There are people today who seem to think that work is a curse. They believe that it was brought upon us as a result of sins. But I want you to know that in the Garden of Eden the Lord commanded Adam to till the garden before sin ever entered into the world.
And we must come to the place where we recognize once again that work is not a curse. It is honorable and essential to any productive, prosperous society, to any productive and prosperous nation. We must recognize that hard work is a part God’s plan for our lives and we cannot manage that which we do not have. And we will not have it unless we work. So honor God with what you have. Work hard at whatever you do.
3. Avoid get-rich-quick schemes.
This is the third secret. “Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished; but he that gathereth thy labor shall increase” (Proverbs 13:11). The word vanity literally means “empty.” And so, the writer is saying that the man who gets something without putting anything into it will soon lose what he got. But the man who labors for that he has will become rich. It is the old proverb, “Easy come, easy go.” The man who is involved in a get-rich-quick scheme might gain a lot in a hurry but he usually loses it just as fast. Better is the man who works for and labors for what he has, who recognizes the value of it. In fact the value of money can be learned only as you find out how hard it is to earn it and how easy it is to spend it. And somewhere in between those two you determine how much money is worth.
Watch out for get-rich-quick schemes. They are rooted in greed and can literally destroy a person. Many people’s lives have been destroyed out of greed, out of the desire to get something for nothing. That is one of the reasons why I am and have always been opposed to gambling. Gambling is rooted in greed. It is built on the idea that you can get something for nothing. You can get rich quick. You can just put a little in and get a whole lot out. It is almost never true but it is built upon the greedy premise of getting something for nothing. That’s why I am opposed to it.
I haven’t had much to do with gambling in a long time. My last experience was in 1970 when I was in Reno, Nevada. I had gone there on a mission trip. Our church was thinking about supporting the First Southern Baptist Church in Reno. They wanted me to go and visit the church for two or three days and to see how it was prospering and to preach there.
When I arrived one of the good deacons in that church was there to show me the sights. Naturally if you are going to Reno you need to see the casinos because that’s about all Reno is. The first night we went down to the casinos and I was absolutely amazed by things I saw. But from the very beginning that deacon said, “Now I want you to put some money in one of these slot machines. You can’t come to Reno without gambling.” And I said to him, “No way. I’m not going to put money in one of those machines. I don’t believe in gambling and I’m not going to support this industry.” I just walked around and observed what other people were doing.
We went back the second night and saw the same sights. He kept trying to get me to put some money in the slot machine. I wouldn’t do it. Went back the third night. This was the last night I was going to be there and he said, “You can’t leave Reno without doing some gambling.” I said, “There is no way I am going to put any money in one of those slot machines.” And so after awhile I looked around and he was gone. In a few minutes he came back and handed me a roll of nickels and he said, “Now you don’t have anything invested.”
Well, since I had nothing invested … Would you believe that I hit the jackpot? And the worst part of it was when I went back home I couldn’t tell everybody. This is the first time I’ve told it in 12 years! I gave him his $5 back, I put that change in my pocket and I may be the only man who ever left Reno a winner. That won’t happen very often. Still, there is no real profit in a get-rich-quick scheme.
And the Bible warns us about getting into those kind of ventures and you better be careful if you are interested in managing your finances. The best way is to work hard, put your whole self into what you have to do, and to do it in the right way and God will prosper you.
4. Be honest in all your dealings.
The principle here is be honest and fair and just in all of your dealings.
“He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house; but he that hateth gifts shall live” (Proverbs 15:27). He is saying not to let your greed cause you to be dishonest to the point that you do things that are wrong. Like taking a bribe from somebody else. If your desire for material possessions is too great it will cause you to compromise your principles and take bribes or do other dishonest things. Be honest and fair in everything that you are doing.
Good stewardship involves not only how you give but the way that you get. And Solomon is saying to us that we cannot gain our money the wrong way and then turn around and give it in the right way. If it doesn’t come in right, it can’t go out right. So good stewardship involves not only the outgo but also the income. God wants us to be honest, fair, and just in all of our dealings.
5. Don’t let money rob you of peace.
“Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than an house full of sacrifices with strife” (Proverbs 17:1).
A dry morsel has reference to a piece of crusty bread. It is dry and hard and brittle, not very good. The word is used here in a figurative way of the most frugal kind of meal. Solomon says that it is better to sit down to a piece of dry crusty bread and quietness, peace, tranquility, and happiness than to be in house that is full of sacrifices.
That word sacrifice suggests a lavish meal. You see Jews in those days did not eat much meat. In fact, about the only time they ate meat was when they made an animal sacrifice. And they would give a part of that sacrifice to God, sometimes just the blood, and they kept the rest of the meat for themselves. So they would have barbeque or they would have a cookout or they would do something when they made a sacrifice. And the idea is that the home during the sacrificial season was much like a festive occasion—like Thanksgiving or Christmas would be in your home. It was a time when you pull out all of the stops and cook the best meal and spread the table out. He is contrasting for us the best kind of meal and the worst kind of meal. Better to sit down with a piece of dry crusty bread with peace and contentment in your heart than to sit down at the finest meal while there is discontent and unrest and anxiety in your heart. Solomon is telling us not to let wealth and success rob us of peace and happiness.
Do you know that there are many people who believe that peace and happiness come with wealth? That real security comes with this kind of success? But the opposite is most often true. Rather than bringing peace and tranquility and happiness, wealth and success can bring anxiety and frustration. It is as simple as this: the more you’ve got, the more you have to lose. If you don’t have anything, you don’t have anything to lose. And so you don’t have nearly as many anxieties and worries. There is greater peace in your heart if you don’t have very much.
That is not to deter us from working hard and from doing our best. But don’t be misguided into thinking that just because you have things that you will be happy, that you will have peace and that your problems will be solved. It is not necessarily so.
Sometime ago somebody gave me a little advertisement that a businessman put in the paper identifying “Ten Things That Money Will Not Buy”:
Money will buy a bed—it won’t buy sleep.
Money will buy books but it won’t buy brains.
Money will buy finery but it won’t buy beauty.
Money will buy food but it won’t give you an appetite.
Money will buy medicine but it won’t give you happiness.
Money will buy luxury but it won’t give you culture.
Money will buy amusement but not pleasure.
Money will buy you a house but not a home.
Money will buy a crucifix but not a Savior.
Money will buy a church pew but it won’t get you to heaven.
Down at the bottom it said, “You can receive salvation as a gift from God, for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ the Lord.”
Listen, there are a lot of things money won’t buy and one of them is peace and happiness. And don’t be under the illusion that if you had more you’d be happier—you may be miserable. In fact, I could almost guarantee you that you would be the same way that you are right now. Don’t be under an illusion. Keep things in the right perspective.
6. Use your wealth to help the poor.
“He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will he pay him again” (Proverbs 19:17).
You know that the poor have always been the special object of God’s affection. You read this Bible from beginning to end and those who are poor because of circumstances beyond their control—not those who are lazy, not those who are wasteful, but people who are poor because of circumstances beyond their control—God has always been on their side.
God is a special defense for them—widows, orphans, little children, poor the world over—God is concerned about them and he tells us that we are to share out of our abundance with them in their need. Notice how he says it in this passage of scripture: “He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will he pay him again.” When I give something to the poor it is as if I am making a loan to God. And God always pays me back in some way or another, with interest. It is amazing, but it is a true principle from God’s word. So it means that sharing what I have with others is not just charity, it is also smart financing. For God has promised that we’ve entered into a business deal and he will guarantee the note. God will pay me back.
That is very close to what Jesus had to say in Matthew 25. He is talking about giving food to the hungry and water to the thirsty and clothing to the naked, and visiting people who are sick, being a friend to strangers and going to help people who are in jail. As he talked about ministering to people with all kinds of needs and giving to those needs, he said, “Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me” (Matthew 25:40).
How can I give something to God? How can I minister to God? How can I help God? There is one way. That is to do something for somebody else in need. And when I do something for somebody else in need, it is the same as giving to God himself or lending to God himself. I have entered into a partnership, a business relationship where God is the silent partner. He is going to honor his word and he promises to repay.
Whatever God has given to you, don’t just hoard it up and keep it for yourself. Learn to share it. Make a loan to God by giving it to somebody else and trust that God will take care of your needs and will pay you back.
Pat Neff, who was at one time governor of our state and then president of Baylor University, said in all of his life he had heard people, preachers in particular, say, “Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven.” But nobody ever told him how. Until one day he figured it out for himself. If you want to lay up for yourself treasures in heaven, then you must invest in the only thing that is going to heaven. And land is not going to heaven, houses aren’t going to heaven, cars aren’t going to heaven, and cattle aren’t going to heaven—only people are going there. Let me tell you, if you want to make a heavenly investment, if you want to get into business with God, then you start giving to people in need. God will bless you. You will find out that the management of the rest is a whole lot easier. It goes a lot further.
7. Live within your income.
“The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender” (Proverbs 22:7).
Underscore in your Bible, “the borrower is servant to the lender.” You know it is so possible to live beyond your means that you become a slave to your creditors and you are no longer free to make financial decisions on your own, to spend money as you please or as God dictates because it is already due to somebody else. We need to learn to live within our income.
We need to learn that individually. We need to learn that as a church. We need to learn that as a nation. We cannot forever and eternally go on spending more than we make—due day is bound to come someday. There has to be a day of reclaiming. Wisdom and scripture agree—live within your income. That means that you may have to put off buying something. You may have to stitch up and paint up and fix up and delay for a while. But better it is to have the financial security and independence to have enough money to give as God may ask of you than to have everything committed and even more than that.
I am persuaded that the worst place on earth to live is just beyond your means. There are an awful lot of people who do that. And it takes discipline and the setting of those priorities, but you can and ought to live within your means.
Charlie Shedd gave us some good counsel about finances. He was talking to a young married couple and he said, “You ought to save 10%, give 10%, and spend the rest with thanksgiving and joy.”
And you know that our world and your life and our nation would be vastly better off if we would just practice that little admonition. Save 10%, learn to save. Give 10%, give it generously and be thrilled that you can give. And the rest that you have, spend it with thanksgiving and joy in your heart. That’s what God wants us to do.
The book of Proverbs closes with a prayer. That prayer is found in Proverbs 30:7-9. It is a prayer that probably ought to come from the lips of every believer. The writer says, “Lord, there are two things that I’d like for you to do for me before I die. Number one, take away from me vanity, pride, arrogance. And second, I want you to give to me neither poverty nor riches. I’m not going to ask you to make me rich but I don’t want you to make me poor either. Feed me with the food convenient for me. Lord, give me this day my daily bread. Meet my needs. I am not going to ask you for too much and I don’t want too little—just give me what I need.”
And then he tells us why: “Lest if I have too much I become full and deny thee and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’” You know the danger of prosperity is that we shall forget God. We’ve got so much, so why do we have to pray? Why do we have any faith? We’ve got all we need. Who is the Lord anyhow? That’s the danger.
And he said, “Keep me from poverty, lest by not having enough I will go out and steal and disgrace your name.” The prayer of every one of us ought to be, “Lord, just give me today my daily bread and make me grateful for that. If more comes, I’ll be more grateful. If more comes, l will share in a greater abundance. But if I can just have enough, I will be satisfied.”
If we can approach life and our possessions with that attitude, we’ll be able to manage life and our possessions in the way God wants us to. The most important thing to remember when you talk about giving is that God is the greatest giver of all. He so loved the world he gave his Son. In fact, Jesus was rich, but he became poor that we through his poverty might be made rich. And when we bow before him, we receive all the riches and the inheritance of heaven itself.
Take Christ as your Savior today. And then begin to live your life by God’s principles, by God’s Word. It will bring more joy and happiness to you than anything else you can do.