TEXT: Proverbs 3:9-10

SUBJECT: Honor God with Your Money

In the next month or two, I hope to finish our long, Sunday morning study of Luke’s Gospel. When that’s over, I plan to begin a shorter series on a topic of great importance: God’s money, which is another way of saying, your money.

Our Lord once said, By your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned. This doesn’t deny justification by faith alone, but it simply means that a man’s daily conversation will prove him justified—or not. He’s not saved by his words, of course, but what comes out of his mouth exposes him for what he really is. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Bad men say good things now and then and good men say bad things too, but overall, your words match your life. For good or bad.

The principle applies to our money as well: what we do with our money and how we think about it say a great deal about our discipleship—or the lack thereof.

Next week, four church-going people will be audited by the IRS. Listen to their cases carefully and tell me if the agents will have reason to think they are disciples of Christ.

• Mike Miser is a tax attorney who made $250,000 last year. Knowing the laws inside and out, he paid no taxes and put away $210,000. He gave $200 to his church, $50 to charity, and deducted nothing for entertainment expenses-because he never had anyone over. He paid his bills on-time, met all of his obligations, and prides himself on his contentment and frugality.

If you were the agent examining his records, would you take Mike Miser for a disciple of Christ?

• Calvin Covet is a teacher who made $45,000 last year. He struggled financially, leaving many bills unpaid, and is nine months behind in his rent. As the agents pored over his records, they found Fry’s Electronics over and over again. He bought a $3000 big-screen TV, a $600 radio/cassette/ CD player for his car, a $300 screen for his computer, and on miscellaneous items, he spent another $1,100. Unlike his friend, Mike Miser, Calvin gave a fair amount to the church and to charity and spent quite a bit on hospitality.

• Norman Nobudget is a carpenter who made $60,000 last year. Unlike Mike Miser, he saved nothing and Calvin Covet, he bought no big-ticket items. But he also didn’t pay his bills on time and gave nothing to the church or to charity. Because he didn’t pay his taxes on time, the IRS called him in for an interview. The agent looked at his mortgage (it was low), at his car (an old junker), and at his medical expenses (which were zero). The agent was stumped: why can’t Norman Nobudget pay his taxes? He makes a decent living and lives modestly. Norman, what do you spend your money on? I don’t know. Huh, how often do you eat out? Once-in-a-while—and it’s always fast food. Can you be more specific? Just how often is "once-in-a-while"? Oh, probably two or three times a week (maybe four)....

Norman Nobudget doesn’t know it, but he has more $4,000 a year for fast food and designer coffee, but nothing for the church, missions, and the poor. Does the agent think he’s a disciple?

• Lois Lovegod is a bank teller who made $30,000 last year. It’s hard to get by on that, but she works at it—and works hard. She boards with a family and eats a lot of eggs and noodles. She doesn’t buy sodas, rent videos, or pin her hopes to lottery tickets. She gave $3000 to the church last year, $500 to charity, and when someone needs a meal or a ride, she’s first to line to help. Lois is 58 years old and has always lived this way. Yet, if you look at her, she’s not skinny with hunger or wearing rags. She doesn’t live in a tent, she pays her bills, and she has $2000 in the bank.

Sam Cynical is an unsaved auditor—and even though he can’t find anything on Lois, he knows she a crook! Nobody can pay his bills on what she makes! He takes the file to his boss, Bob Believer and says, What do you think she’s up to, Bob? Bob looks over her case and says, Discipleship.

Mike Miser, Calvin Covet, and Norman Nobudget are as different as they can be, except for one thing: they don’t honor the Lord with their possessions. To them, discipleship is pretty much limited to an hour at church on Sunday, twenty minutes a day in Bible reading, and a short list of dos and don’ts. But Lois Lovegod is a true disciple of Christ—and you can tell by what she does with her money. Not just a tithe of it, but all of it. We’ve all sung

But, unlike most of us, Lois Lovegod means it.

My four characters are made up, of course, and exaggerated for effect. But which one do you most resemble? Are you like Mike Miser—squirreling away every spare cent, and giving little or nothing away? Or, are you more like Calvin Covet—buying things you can’t afford? Or, is it Norm Nobudget—good hearted, but empty-headed? Or, are you most like Lois Lovegod?—a disciple of Christ with your money?

In short, do you honor the Lord with your possessions—or not?

Under the Old Covenant, the obedient Israelite gave something like 30% of his income to the Lord. The tithes came to about 23% and the offerings were on top of that. How many of us give one-tenth of what the Israelite did?

But this sermon is not about tithing or giving: it’s about discipleship. Not just giving ten percent off the top to God, but about making all of your money decisions under the lordship of Christ!

Our text is a lot easier to open up than it is to obey. It’s made up of two parts: (a) the command in v.9, and (b) the promise in v.10.

I know very well where Proverbs is in the History of Redemption and what Solomon had in mind when he told his people to honor the Lord where their possessions. But I also know that all Scripture—including the parts that are expired with the Mosaic Law—are good for us too. If understood in light of the cross, the resurrection and the Day of Pentecost.

Our duty is to Honor the Lord with our possessions. The honor Solomon had in mind was made up of the tithes and offerings of Israel. He meant the firstfruits of the land, the firstborn livestock, along with sacrifices offered at Passover, at the birth of a baby, and when a man came in contact with a dead body. Each year a shekel was brought by every Jew for his atonement. The list is not complete, but you get the idea.

These details expired with the Old Covenant. The Lord’s People today do not pay taxes to God and if we offered an animal sacrifice to Him, it would be an abomination.

But can this mean we no longer need to Honor the Lord with our possessions? The New Testament commands us to support elders in the church, to help needy saints, and to promote missions (cf. Galatians 6:6, I Timothy 6:18, and II Corinthians 11:8). These are not the only ways honoring the Lord—of course not—but they are particular ways that honor Him—and He has said so Himself!

The One we’re to honor is THE LORD. If you’re looking at a King James Bible, you’ll notice the letters for "the Lord" are all capital. This means it is translated from the Hebrew word, YHWH

or Jehovah.

This is not a fussy little point to fill time. The other word for Lord means something like King or Master. But this words stands for something more than God as our Ruler. It stands for the God of the Covenant—the Lord who adopted Israel, and changing the figure of speech, married her. Thus, it’s not some pagan deity they were trying to buy off with their offerings, but the Lord who loved them, rescued them from slavery and made them a free people in a land flowing with milk and honey.

He’s done all this for us, too. The Church Fathers are not Iraneus, Polycarp, Origin, and so on, but rather, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. What the Lord did for them, He did for us too—for we are their heirs and enjoy the blessings that came through them.

But He’s done far more for us than He did for Israel. In Jeremiah 31, God promises to implement a New Covenant, related to the Old one, but much better. It results in the forgiveness of sin, in new hearts, and in a deep knowledge of God. Israel—as a nation—didn’t have these things, but we do. Thus, if they had reason to honor the Lord with their possessions, we have more.

One last thing here: what they were to give the Lord was not the leftovers, but the firstfruits. Not the worst they had, but the best—not after buying everything they wanted, but before.

In the Church, this has often led to legalism, but it doesn’t need to. Surely the Lord is more important than the other things we spend our money on. So, why do we put Him last?

This is the duty: honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the firstfruits of all your increase.

The promise follows: So your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine.

The promise is very much connected to the Old Covenant. If you read Deuteronomy 28, for example, you’ll find that God blessed obedience with material things—good crops, fertile wives, robust health, success in war, and so on. Rebellion brought down curses on the fields, wombs, health, wars, and the like.

This is what Solomon has in mind. The Covenant he was thinking of is no more. Today, riches are not the reward of obedience. But this doesn’t mean the promise is nullified. Some of the details are, but not the promise itself. Near the end of Ephesians, Paul quotes the Fifth Commandment and promises believing children a blessing if they honor their parents. The blessing is not the same—they weren’t in the land of Israel. But there was a still a blessing (of some kind) attached to it.

I can’t put too fine of a point on this—but the fact remains that people who honor the Lord with their possessions receive many blessings those who don’t, do not.

The primary blessings are spiritual: they have a good conscience, they’re not eaten up with regrets, they set a good example, and they help people who need it. In these things—at least—It is more blessed to give than to receive.

Often—though not always—material blessings follow honoring the Lord with your possessions. The man who wants to honor the Lord with his money won’t be nearly as covetous or stupid as the man who doesn’t care if he honors the Lord or not. And, being wise and content is likely to pay off in dollars and cents.

But, whether it does or not, it’s the right thing to do. It’s part of our discipleship. In short: Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do the things I command?

Under the Old Covenant, the Jews had a system in place for honoring the Lord with their money. The Law stipulated when to give, to whom, and how much. Do you know why it was all set out for them? It’s because they were unsaved. If the unsaved are to support the cause of God in the world, they’ve got to be taxed! And that’s what the Law did—it taxed the Israelites and levied fines on them when they didn’t pay up!

The death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, however, along with the outpouring of the Spirit, have changed all this. Though many use a system for themselves, no one has the right to impose it on other people. The New Testament does not tell you how much to give, to whom, and when to give it.

It leaves it up to your conscience—but "your conscience" doesn’t mean your whim or whatever you feel like. It means what you think is right under the Lordship of Christ and in light of what He has done for you.