transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:01] Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, April 22nd. Money is extremely important, so we need God's perspective on it. Listen closely to discover how he uses finances to get your attention and develop spiritual maturity.

Speaker 2:
[00:19] According to the Scriptures, what strong desire which motivates millions of people every day, if attained, will bring about the following consequences. It will tempt people to fall into sin. They will be tempted to fall into a trap. They will probably be mastered by some foolish desires. They will engage in harmful desires. They will eat away at their character. It could plunge them into moral ruin. It could ultimately destroy them. It would cause them to wander from their faith. And it could cause many griefs to pierce their soul. What kind of desire would cause all of that to happen? In fact, it's the desire that motivates millions of people. You know what it is? The desire to get rich. The desire to get rich. First Timothy, chapter six, verses nine and ten list all of those things which he says are dangerous for those whose desire in life is to get rich. Now, there's nothing wrong with being wealthy because there's some very, very godly people who are wealthy, very, very generous people who are wealthy. And there's nothing in the Bible that says that God takes great pleasure in poverty or keeping people poor. The problem is the issue of balance. And that is, it's one thing to be wealthy and trust God. It's one something else to be wealthy and the wealth be your God. So we're talking about the fact that when wealth is out of control, when it is out of sync with God's Word and His way, then there are going to be problems. And so what we're saying in this passage is simply this, that here are eight dangers for those whose driving desire in life is to get rich. Well, what does all of this have to do with the grace of God? Well, the Bible says we're saved by grace, we're to live by grace. In fact, if that's true, that there's not a single area of our life in which grace is not to have an overwhelming effect. And that is true in our finances as well as in every single area of our life. So the title of this message is, The Grace of God in Our Finances. And I want you to turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 8. And in this chapter, there are two chapters here that Paul spends almost the entire chapters dealing with this matter of giving to the poor who were in Jerusalem, they're in Judea, who had gone to going difficulty and hardship. And in this passage of Scripture in 2 Corinthians, he lays out some principles for us, but he also explains to us, what it means to be graced by God in our giving. Listen, beginning in verse 6. Now, This I say, He who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully. Let each one do just as he's purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed. As it is written in the Psalms, He scattered abroad, He gave to the poor, His righteousness abides forever. Now he who supplies seed to the sowing bread for the food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God. Now, one thing that's very evident in this passage here is this, that it is God's desire to bless, to grace His children financially. Look at these verses. First of all, He gives us the pattern in verse six about sowing and reaping. Secondly, He says He loves a cheerful giver. Well, how are we going to give? In order to give, we have to have something to give. Who gives us what we have to give? God gives us what we have to give. So if God wants me to be a cheerful giver, God must provide something for me to give. So He's certainly for that, and He desires to do that. He says in verse eight that He's able to make all grace abound to us, always, all sufficiency, everything for an abundance, for every good deed. So not only here, but go back, if you will, to Proverbs chapter three for a moment. In the Proverbs chapter three, notice what He says here. And if a farmer back in those days were to read this, I mean, he'd be jumping up and down with joy. But what is true of farmers is true in every single occupation, in every work. Listen to what He says in Proverbs three, verse nine. Honor the Lord from your wealth, and from the first of all your produce, you say, but I'm not wealthy. Well, wealth is whatever you have. So when we talk about wealth, we're just talking about whatever God has given us. He says, honor the Lord from your wealth, from the first of all your produce, so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine. Which is His way of saying God desires to grace His children, to grace those who are willing to abide by His principles. And so, what He's saying in this passage is, first of all, God desires to do it. Secondly, He's able, look at what He says. He says in this particular passage, in verse eight, God is able to make what? Listen to this now, He's able to make all grace, that means all favor. No limitations on the favor of God. God is able to make all grace, look at this, abound. That means just overflowing, abound to you. Then look at these words, always, not sometimes, having all sufficiency, not a little bit. In everything, not some things, you may have an abundance, not some, an abundance for every good deed. God and His omnipotence can take your financial situation no matter what it is. And if you will abide by His principle, God will grace favor you financially. He says, He's able to make what? All grace abound to us financially. Now when we put His principle to work, which we're going to talk about in just a moment, we put it to work, He says several things are going to happen. Verse eight, He says, we're going to have sufficiency. We're going to have enough. He says, not only that, you're going to have enough to give away. That's what He means when He says in this particular verse, you may have an abundance for every good deed, that is the good deeds of giving and helping people in need. You're going to have enough to give away. He says, not only that, He says, all the other areas of your life are going to be enriched. Look at this, if you will, in verse eleven. You will be enriched in everything for all your liberality. He says, God isn't going to limit His blessing just to financial blessings. He's going to also enrich you in other ways. He desires, He's able, He says, and when you abide by the principle, here's what I'm going to do. Now, what's man's part? Well, man's part's very simple, and what He says here is that there's two parts to man's part, man's actions and man's attitude. Now, what is man's action here? Well, let's look, if you will, at this sixth verse. Now, this I say, He who sows sparingly shall reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully. Now, listen to me carefully. I don't know how God could have made this any simpler. If you want to reap bountifully, you've got to sow the same way. And so the whole idea of sowing and reaping is man's part. You see, God says, now, here's my part. God says, I want to grace you financially. I'm able to do it. And if you'll allow me, here's what I'll do. But if you don't allow me, I can't. Now, listen very carefully to this. Here is the big problem. People do not understand. If you think that you're going to be able to give God stingily, drop a dollar to an offering plate somewhere once a week, or you'll give only when you come to church, or never give to anybody, never help anybody, if you think you're going to be able to do that, and you're going to get on your knees, and you say, now, I have only Father in Jesus' name. I just want to ask you to bless me financially. God, you know I have needs in my family, and I have needs here and there. I'm here to tell you, you're wasting your time. Now, let me tell you why you're wasting your time. Because what you're asking God to do is to do something He can't do. You say, well, God can do everything. No, He can't. God can't violate His own nature. He can't violate His own principles. Now, look at this. If I give sparingly, chinchily, and then I ask God to bless me bountifully, I'm asking God to violate His own principle. Now, if He violated His principle by blessing me bountifully for my stingy giving, then He's not adhering to His own principles. And if He doesn't adhere to this principle, how do I know that He's going to adhere to another one I need? God can't violate His own principle. And the reason people get in financial problems, the reason they don't have enough is because they violate the principle. Then they want to cry out to God, Oh, God, I want you to bless me financially. And God is saying, Hey, I want to, I want to, I'd like to, I'm able to, I can't. Why can't you, God? Because you violate my principle. Well, do it anyway. I can't do that. I can't violate my own principles. So God cannot violate His principle. He couldn't have made it any simpler. The problem is their unbelief. Now listen to what he says. He says, Let each one do just as he's purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or in a compulsion, for God loves cheerful givers. He loves, listen, if he loves cheerful givers, he's just itching to grace those givers. What we have to get over is unbelief or thinking, well, is this going to apply to my particular circumstance? So man's part is to practice the principle, and secondly, man's part is to have the right attitude. And what's the right attitude? He says the right attitude here is to be a cheerful giver. Because you see, grace doesn't just involve my receiving from God. Grace also involves my giving for God. It's two ways. That's the way God operates. That's the way God intends for people's needs to be met, that to be met. Listen, how many of you have ever received anything in a package that came straight from heaven? Anybody? No. You may have received many things. They all came through somebody. God blessed you through somebody. It may have been a job, or it may have been something financially or some gift, but it came through somebody. And what he's saying is this is the way God operates. He operates through somebody. And so he says, sowing, reaping, joyfully, cheerfully, giving. And what happens? God in turn blesses us. But ask yourself the question, how do you see your giving? And how do you see God operating in your life? All right, now look at this. First of all, God's plan is that He would grace us financially. It's His desire to do it. He's able to do it. Man's part, practice the principle and have the right attitude. That is, one who is a cheerful giver. Now that's the first part. But secondly, what is God's purpose in gracing us financially? That is, what does God really have in mind when He financially blesses someone? What does He have in mind? Well, it certainly isn't simply to make us prosperous. But two things are going to happen, He says in this passage, when you and I begin to practice the principle and allow God to grace us financially. He says, first of all, He said, our needs are going to be met. That's what He says here in this verse. He said, having all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything. First thing that's going to happen is that our needs are going to be met. Now listen, if your needs aren't being met, I ask you a question. Are you practicing the principle of sowing and reaping? Are you giving and trusting God to multiply that? Now here's the problem, why don't you have to watch this? Here's the way most people operate. They say, God, here's my reservoir. Oh, heavenly Father, you know I have needs. And so they pray for God to fill their reservoir before the bills come in. Under pressure, living like this. Here's my reservoir, God. I want you to bless it. And sometimes you look at that and it's about an inch deep and about a foot wide and you think, God, I don't have all my needs. You know what God's trying to get us to do? You have to watch this. What God wants us to do is to take this reservoir and change it. He wants us to turn it up like a channel. So a reservoir may be an inch deep. A channel can be a thousand miles long. What God wants to do, He wants to grace our finances. But listen, as long as I have the reservoir attitude, God, this is for me and I need to be prosperous and I need to build up my security. And Lord, you know how much I need and God, my needs, me, myself and I and my family and all the things that I want to do and my goals and my purposes in life. You know what God's waiting for? He's waiting for you to turn that little reservoir about an inch deep into something big enough for him to run a whole load through. And as long as I see it as mine, I limit what God's going to do. You see, he says in all of those verses, what did he talk about? He talked about us being a channel. He talked about us giving. He talked about other people being blessed through us, other people being ministered through us. And that is we turn our reservoir into a channel through which God can bless other people. Now, he says he loves cheerful givers. Why? Because that's what he is. God is a cheerful giver. Everything you and I have came from him. And listen, we don't have what we have because we deserve it. We have what we have by the grace of God. And he doesn't give us anything to reservoir. He gives us everything to channel. Your understanding, your knowledge of the Word of God, the experiences that God has given you in your life, all the rich things that God has put into your life. Listen, if it's there, it's going to get stagnant. You know what happens after a while, it gets so molded, it's so slimy, nobody wants it. God wants you to turn everything into a channel so that he can bless other people. Here's what God says. God says, you want to be graced? Be generous. You want to be blessed? Be generous. You want me to pour it into your life? Become a channel. As long as you're reservoir, there's a limitation. When you become a channel, I am going to pour out the blessing on you. It's a choice we make. Listen, there is absolutely no excuse for anyone hearing the principle and knowing that it comes from God's Word. If you don't apply it, you cannot complain to God. It is simply a principle we live by in every other area of our life. And I want to say this again. He can't violate his own principle, and his principle is not reservoir, but channel. Look at these verses. He says, God loves the cheerful giver, having abundance for every good need. He scattered abroad. He gave to the poor. Multiply your seed for sowing. Enrich you in everything for your generosity, for your liberality. You see, the key word there is generosity. Now, how am I going to know when I am really giving in the Spirit of grace and it's grace giving? Well, if you took the eighth chapter of this same book, 2 Corinthians chapter eight, if you took the eighth chapter and you outlined it, this is what you would find. So I want to give you five statements here that really is an outline of chapter eight, but it's all about, listen, it's all about how you can know when you are really giving grace giving. That is, I mean, this is just a favor of God. This is just the Spirit of generosity. Listen to this, number one, we're going to give in spite of our circumstances. That's the first sign that it's grace giving. I'm not checking to see how much I have and how much I'm going to have left, and be sure that I'm going to be able to do all the things I want to do, but Lord, in spite of my circumstances, I'm going to give. That's when the grace of God really begins to work in a person's heart financially, and the flow begins. I give first of all in spite of my circumstances. Secondly, I'm going to give enthusiastically. I'm going to be excited about it. And he says, God loves a cheerful giver. We're talking about being excited about something. And you think about, here's somebody in need or the work of the minister or something, and you have the privilege of being a part of that. He says, not grudgingly, not under compulsion, but he said cheerfully, joyfully, enthusiastically. Now, here's the reason that I can get enthusiastic about giving to God. Here's the reason, not for what I'm going to see accomplished, but you know the thing that so motivates me personally and serves my own heart and the thing that makes me, even those times when I think, now, Lord, can I give so and so? Just trust me. Here's the thing that makes it exciting to me. The thing that makes it exciting to me is, I'm going to find out what God's going to do. All right? The enthusiastically. Thirdly, to give as Jesus gave. To give as Jesus gave, sacrificially. And that's how I'll know when I'm giving with grace giving. I'm going to give in spite of my circumstances. I'm going to give enthusiastically, and I'm going to be willing to give sacrificially. And the fourth thing is, I'm going to give it willingly, generously, cheerfully. I want to do it. And fifthly, I'm going to do it by faith. God, I can't see my way clear at this, but I'm going to do it anyway, because that's what you said do. My friend, there are no exceptions. You just have to decide, do I want God to grace my finances? Do I not? It's just that simple. Now, I just simply ask you a question. You want God's best? You want God to grace you financially? You want to be debt free? You want the best God has to offer? You want to be a blessing to lots of folks? You want to be a channel, and you'll never be able to measure how far that channel goes? You want to bring glory to God and exalt the Son of God? You want to be more like Jesus? You want to have more enthusiasm and excitement in your life? You want to have more joy in your life, more cheerfulness? You want to enjoy, listen, you enjoy the spirit of generosity. That's something you enjoy. Well, friend, all of that is yours for one decision. Lord God, by faith, I will.

Speaker 1:
[19:14] Thank you for listening to The Grace of God and Our Finances. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our online 24-7 station. And if you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.