Biblical Financial Responsibilty

Alright, well good morning, and I also greet you in the name of Jesus. It is good to be here, and one other announcement I'll just make real quick. Next Sunday is Mother's Day.

So I wonder if you all could just come and be prepared to ask this question. What would I be thankful for about my own mother? Whether she's still with us, whether she's going to be here or not, we might give priority to those who do have their mothers here. Also, we'll probably give with the... I'll probably do it this way.

It'll probably be something like this. If you're a man or a boy, we'd like you to share. If you're a girl or a woman, you're invited to share.

We might not make that mandatory, but come thinking about that question. What am I grateful for about the mother that God gave me? And we're not talking about a long sermon. We're talking, you know, 15 seconds, 30 seconds, maybe a minute at the very most.

What would you say you're thankful for? So think about that, and we'll make it a little bit of a Mother's Day service, a little bit of a Thanksgiving service, and we'll see how it goes. So just come prepared for that, and some way to honor our mothers. And that's not going to necessarily take up the entire sermon time, but it might.

You know, it depends on how many people decide to share. All right, but we are talking this morning about a godly view of finances. As you know, I was back in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania for a week of Bible school, and I gave five different messages on this, a godly view of finances.

Last time I preached, I shared the first of those messages, in which I gave basically my own testimony, how God had led me personally through this, how I gave out those little cards, if you remember, right, the compound interest cards. And you can look at that, and you can make retirement plans, and using compound interest, how much do you have to put away to get up to $100,000, or times it by 10 to get to a million, or whatever you chose to do there. But anyway, and then how I got excited about that, how God started to lay in my heart some verses that I'd never seen before.

And yeah, so that was last time I preached. This morning then, I would like to go forward in this and do the next one. And let me just back up just a little bit and say that when we talk about this biblical financial responsibility, godly view of finances, I have a desire for you.

And the desire is, I had the desire for the youth as well, back in Pennsylvania. And my desire was that grace would be upon your life. Jeremy's been preaching about this subject of grace.

Do you have grace in your life? Some are married here this morning. Is there grace upon your marriage? Some of you have relationships. Probably all of us have some kind of relationships.

Is there grace on those relationships? And most of us handle finances in some way. Let me just ask, are you experiencing the grace of God on your finances? And so, I have some handouts that I would like to... Well, let me just say before I give the handouts here, why the handouts? This morning, we are going to move forward in the issue of a godly view of finances. And last time I gave my testimony, this morning I especially would like to look into what the Bible actually says.

And so, we're going to be looking at quite a few verses of this entire five message series that we're going through. Probably this morning, we're going to be looking at more verses than any of the other messages. That's probably true.

It's going to be heavily based on Scripture. Now, that's a little bit of a challenge to keep people's attention when we're looking at verse after verse after verse. I'm going to ask for your help.

We're going to divide into two groups here. And we're going to call it Team West and Team East. So, I think you guys are to the West.

You guys are Team W for West. You guys over here are Team E for East. And so, just keep that in mind.

If I call on you to read some verses in unison, that's who it is. Team W, Team E. Team West, Team East. Okay.

But first, we need to pass these out. So, Stephen and Joshua, would you pass these out to everyone? And as they're passing out, let me just see a raise of hands. How many people know how to read this morning? Raise your hand if you can read.

Okay. I think there's enough that everybody who can read can have one of those. And hopefully, you have something to write with.

If not, I have some extra. Where do I put those now? Down here. I think maybe in the back are there some writing utensils.

And here's a few more. I'll put these right here on the front bench if anybody wants to help. Right there.

Right there if anybody wants to help themselves to a pencil. Because there are blanks to fill out here. And so, if you could fill those out, that would be great.

There's those. Maybe if you guys could hand out the pencils, too, if there are people that need them. There you go.

And some of those are mechanical pencils. Some of those are pens. Hopefully, either one will work for you.

So, as you're looking at these passages. Now, this paper, I think, is double-sided. And one side says, Old Testament Principles of Financial Responsibility.

The other side says, Living for the Future. I want you to turn to the side that says, Old Testament Principles of Financial Responsibility. That's the side we're going to be starting with here.

And I'd like you to go ahead and fill those out. So, whether it's getting one of the pencils up front here or getting one from the back or borrowing one from your neighbor, let's try to fill these out as we go. But the first thing I want to do is ask a question about the Bible.

We have the Bible here. What's the group of people that's mentioned the most often here in the Bible? Well, it's the Jews. You know, we have people before Abraham.

You know, they're in Genesis. But they're where was it? Genesis 11, 12, 13, somewhere in there. Abraham comes on the scene.

And from then on, it's the children of Abraham that we're talking to, that we're talking about. These Jews, the Jews, the Israelites, the Hebrews, they had some principles that guided them through life. After Abraham was on the scene, roughly 2,000 years later, was it? 1,500 to 2,000 years after Abraham, along comes Jesus.

And Jesus gave some commands about finances. But He was building on the Old Testament principles. And so, we're going to go back to the Old Testament principles and find out what those are.

There's another group of people that we need to talk about. And those are the non-Jews. And we could call them different things.

But I'm going to use a biblical term from the book of Titus. And the term is Cretans. If you look up Titus 1, verse 12, it talks about these Cretans or Cretans, depends on which translation you use.

But the Cretans did not have the foundation that the Jews had. Everybody get a pencil? Everybody settled? Okay. We got what we need to go forward here.

The Cretans were not Jews, and they didn't have the values that the Jews had. The Cretans hadn't been taught the things that we're going to go through here. It says in Titus 1, verse 12, that the Cretans were always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons, or slow bellies, I think it says in the King James.

And so as we go through these principles from the Old Testament that the Jews had as their guiding light, their guiding principles, mostly from the book of Proverbs, but all through the Old Testament, this was encouraged. They were set apart from the countries around them. The Jews had principles that the people around them did not have.

And so let's find out what those are. And then we'll contrast that with the people around them, like the Cretans, or like you could say the Gentiles. So we're going to start here in this page that you have, and we're going to start over here with Team W. So I'll read the reference, and then all together let's read the verse.

And then see if you can tell me what you think goes in the blank. All right? Are you ready? Team West, Team W, Psalm 24, verse 1. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. All right? Let's say that again.

The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. So we're talking about principles of financial responsibility. This is responsibility in what? What do you think goes in the blank? Anybody want to guess? You can get it wrong.

That's okay. We can guess as many times as we need to, or I'll just tell you, but go ahead and give it a try. What God owns.

Okay, that's close. The earth. Keep going.

Stewardship is what I'm looking for. So everybody write in the blank stewardship. All right? Responsibility in stewardship.

What is stewardship? Stewardship is an acknowledgment of who owns it. And it's true. God owns it.

Since God owns it, we're just stewards. It's not ours. Okay? Let's go now to point number two.

Responsibility in something blank. And let's read all together. This is now Team East, Proverbs 12, 24.

All right? Very good. So what do you think goes in number two? Responsibility in? You can guess. Work.

Very good. Work or working. Okay, responsibility in working.

Being diligent. So if we're going to be responsible in working, see, these again are things that the Old Testament Jews were taught. The Cretans didn't do very good at that.

They were lazy, it says in Titus. But the Jews were taught responsibility in working. Now, in the New Testament, it affirms this as well.

2 Thessalonians 3.10. If any would not work, neither should he eat. You know, my own background, I was raised to, you know, taught how to work. Taught to work even if I didn't want to work.

And, you know, the discipline of, you know, getting up and getting to work. One of the first jobs I had was working on the assembly line. And we started at 7 o'clock.

And, you know, the people who weren't very popular on that assembly line were those that showed up at 7.05. They weren't very happy. The rest of the people weren't happy because it held up the entire line. If you got there at 6.55, now that was great.

But 7.05 wasn't great. And, you know, the ability to work, the value of work, the discipline of showing up on time every morning, not just once or twice, but every morning. We knew who the slothful were.

And, you know, work sometimes is minimized. And I think in America, we live in a country that there's a diminishing emphasis put on work. You know, it used to be, I think, a 60-hour week was common.

And then 50-hour, now 40-hour is probably more the normal. And I suppose they're even talking about lowering that. So the value of work is being minimized.

But I just want to say, learn to work, learn to value work. Let me give you a beatitude. You know what a beatitude is? It's what it says, blessed are so-and-so.

Well, here's a new beatitude. It's not in the Bible, but it's the principles there. Blessed are those who learn to work at a young age.

Here's another beatitude. Blessed is the person who learns to like to work. You know, it's one thing to learn to work, and you should.

Even if you don't like it, do it anyway. But if you can learn to like to work, that's even better. You know, there's something beautiful about, see, we've got a volleyball game planned here.

It's good to see us as a church playing together. It's good to see youth playing together. It's good to see them enjoying their time together.

But you know what I think is even more beautiful is when they are working together. You know, people are buying plane tickets, fly down to Georgia to help on a hurricane cleanup, carrying chainsaws, getting hot and dirty and sweaty. And at the end of the day, they come back to the base, and wow, we had fun.

We enjoyed it. And that's a beautiful thing. So learn to like to work.

Number three, responsibility in, and we're back to Team W. I'll read the reference. We've got actually two references here. So Proverbs 28, 27.

Thank you. And Proverbs 19, 17. All right.

What do you think goes in the blank there? Responsibility in? Giving. Very good. Responsibility in giving.

All right. And there's, again, this is all through the Bible. Here's another reference in Malachi.

It's talking about this thing of a tithe. What's a tithe? Tithe. Tithe is giving 10%, typically.

And it says, bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open to you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. Does it feel maybe sometimes like our finances are cursed? Is it possibly that they're cursed because we're not giving, because we're not doing what God has said? We're not maybe giving that 10% at a bare minimum that God has said? Well, Malachi says, prove me now. God says in Malachi, prove me now.

I would encourage you. If you haven't, I encourage the young people. I'm encouraging all of us.

If you're not a giver, start with the 10%. And treat it as that. That's money.

That's not even my money. You get your paycheck, 10%. That's the Lord's.

And if you want a place to start, I would encourage you with that. All right. Let's go on to number four.

Back to team E. Responsibility and controlling. Let's see. There's again two verses.

So go ahead and read Proverbs 21.20. And then Proverbs 21.17. All right. So what is that? Controlling our what? Spending. Very good.

Responsibility and controlling our spending. A person who can't control his spending, well, the Bible says, he shall come to poverty. Proverbs 23.21 is another one.

The drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty. And that's what the problem was with those cretins we read about. And Titus, they were gluttons, it says.

They were spending more than what they were earning. And it was causing some major problems. And so Paul tells Titus, rebuke them.

Get them to acknowledge some of these principles. Let's go on to number five. Back to Team W. Responsibility in something.

Go ahead and read Proverbs 11.1. So what's the answer? Responsibility in blank and integrity. Honesty. Very good.

Responsibility in honesty and integrity. And we should be known as honest people. We pay our bills when they're due.

We pay our creditors. If you're running a business, your creditors, your suppliers. What about government entities? They deserve to be paid.

Or maybe they don't deserve it, but they should be paid whether they deserve it or not. Because we need to be honest. All right.

And the next one is related to this. Number six. Back to Team E. Go ahead and read Proverbs 22.7. All right.

What are we talking about there? Responsibility with what? Borrowed money, debt. Okay, debt is what I was thinking. That's shorter anyway.

So go ahead and write debt in that blank. And, you know, all through the Old Testament, it talks about debt. And in general, it's a negative thing.

In general, it's something to be avoided. Now, there's debates. People say, is it strictly forbidden or not? I don't know if I'm going to get into that debate.

I don't know that I necessarily could say that it's strictly forbidden to ever go into debt. But I will say that people who try to avoid it completely generally have less stress in their lives. It was regarded as a curse generally in the Old Testament.

When God blessed His people, He told them, you're going to lend, but you're not going to borrow. But I'd like to talk about a different issue right now. Suppose you're making a decision about whether I go into debt or not.

I think it'd be really prudent to pay attention to what the Bible says about debt. But let's change the subject a little bit. What if we're already in debt? What if we already have debts that we've already agreed to? I don't have that option anymore of deciding to go into debt or not because I'm already in debt.

What does it say here? What does this verse say? It says the borrower is a servant. Well, what does the New Testament tell us to do? Be a good servant if you're a servant. So be faithful with the debt that you have.

If you've agreed to make monthly payments, make those monthly payments and be faithful. Do that every month. Work hard if that's what it takes so you have enough money to make those payments.

Now, what if you get to the end of the month and you've done everything you know how to do and you just still can't make that payment? Does that mean you're just, well, I just can't. The money's not in my checking account, so sorry, I'm not going to pay that guy. There's still something you can do.

If you're in debt, you can at least make a phone call. You can at least call your creditor and say, look, I'm sorry. I tried to earn the money.

I don't have it, but I haven't forgotten about you. That's the least you can do, and that's part of being faithful. So number six is responsibility with debt.

Number seven, responsibility in, and we are back over here with Team W, I believe. Go ahead and read Proverbs 21.5. All right, what do you think goes in there? Number seven, responsibility in. Somebody say something? All right, anybody.

Anybody want to guess? What did you say? Lending? No. Keep guessing, though. Time? Closer.

What else? Planning. There we go. Responsibility in planning.

We have a responsibility to plan. If you know that bills are coming due, if you've agreed to have power coming into your house, you know a utility bill is coming. If you're a business owner and you have employees, you've agreed that you're going to make payroll every so often.

If you have equipment, you're going to have probably some repairs on that equipment. If you have rent, insurance, utilities, if you're earning money, you're probably going to have to pay taxes. At some point.

You should be planning to do that. You have a responsibility. We have a responsibility to plan, to make sure we can meet those bills when they're due.

And again, look at it that the money is not really yours. If I have agreed to pay a power bill, and when the end of the month comes and the money's in the checking, well, should I pay it or should I not? Maybe I should go give it to somebody else. No, it's not your money.

It's the insurance company's money. It's the power bill's company, the power company's money. It's the government's money if it's income taxes.

It's not really yours. So, number seven, responsibility, making plans. Plan to pay your bills when they're due.

Let's go back, let's go to number eight. And we're back to Team East. Responsibility in keeping something.

Go ahead and read Proverbs 27, 23. Okay, what do you think goes in there? Responsibility in keeping? Animals. I'm sorry? Animals.

Well, I've got a few of them. I don't know. What else? Records.

Records, there you go. Responsibility in keeping records. We have a responsibility in keeping at least some records.

Now, if you have a checking account, you should at least know how much is in there, because if you're going to write checks, don't write checks if there's no money in the account. So keep good enough records for that. If you have a business, you're required to keep records so you can file your income tax at some point.

And there's various other reasons to keep records. But we, if we're going to be good stewards, we have a responsibility at some level of keeping records. All right, number nine.

Back over here to Team W. Responsibility in receiving what? Proverbs 11, 14. Go ahead and read that. All right, what's the answer? Receiving wisdom.

Hey, I like that. But what did you say, counsel? I think that's what I heard, and that's the correct, that's what I had. I know sometimes you're trying to read my mind here, but receiving counsel.

So receiving counsel. Be careful where you get your counsel, but don't neglect it. Get your counsel from the Lord.

Get your counsel from others. Get your counsel maybe from your spouse, if you have a spouse. And be, you know, again, use wisdom.

I know there was, I saw a documentary, I think it was a video of a banker. No, it was a reporter. I'm sorry, it was a reporter interviewing a banker.

And the banker had a bank in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. And they had, you know, people they loaned money to, but they primarily loaned money to the Amish people. And he said something that probably no other banker in America could say.

He says, I've never had a loan go bad when he's loaning to the Amish people. Can you imagine a banker saying that out here or anywhere? Never having a loan go bad. You see, the Amish people, they're that close community.

They, you know, they've got their dad and their uncle and their church people. They're holding them accountable. And, you know, before they go borrow money, they've got people they need to talk to and say, does this really make sense whether I'm going to borrow this money or not? And that's the power of having counsel as opposed to just winging it and doing things on your own.

So responsibility and receiving counsel. And finally, number 10. Responsibility in, and then a blank, living for the future.

So go ahead and read. I think we're back over here to Team E, Proverbs 13.11. Okay. And then I'll read it also here.

It says in the NIV, he who gathers money little by little makes it grow. And so what do you think goes in that blank there? What is responsibility in what? Savings. What's another word for savings? Did somebody say investing? Okay.

Investing is what I had. So responsibility in investing. Now what is investing? Well, it's living for the future.

It's not living for the moment. It's living for the future, just like Joseph was living for the future when he knew he was going to have seven good years, and then there's going to be seven bad years. And so Joseph said, now is my opportunity to live for the future.

And so he set up those storehouses, and they put grain away because the future was coming, and the future looked pretty bleak according to the dreams that Pharaoh had had. And so there's a lot of people out here marketing these get-rich-quick schemes, and they've got all these ways that people can – and so many people have been taken by these things. Instead of just simple prudence, they've got all these ideas of how to get rich, and you can do it overnight, and if you invest in this thing, it's going to – and people just – they have all these victims, a whole chain of victims of these get-rich-quick schemes.

But Proverbs says, instead of getting rich quick, Proverbs says, get rich slow by he who gathers money little by little makes it grow. So investing. Now, remember, these are Jews now.

They've grown up with these principles. These Jews that had Proverbs, they re-read every one of these, and they said, we're going to be responsible. The Cretans, they did none of that.

The Cretans, you know, they're – first of all, they don't acknowledge that God is the owner. They're evil. And secondly, they don't know how to work.

They're lazy. The Cretans, they – you know, they're not going to give any of their money. They're not going to tithe.

They don't even – why tithe? I mean, they hardly work enough to make ends meet themselves, and so they're just going to, you know, work as much as they – just to barely get by, and they're probably going to be borrowing money and not repaying it, and they're probably going to be – they're not going to be particularly honest in their dealings. That's the Cretans. The Jews weren't that way.

They were careful. When it came to debt, they were very careful not to get into debt if they could avoid it. But if they couldn't avoid it, then they were very careful to pay it.

And they'd make plans, and they'd keep records, and they'd receive counsel. And so you have these two different groups of people, the Jews and the Cretans, and now Jesus comes along, and he comes along and starts giving some counsel now. So we're moving now from the Old Testament to the New Testament, and, you know, as we move here, we're going to notice that so many of these things are the same.

Like, for instance, the thing about work. Well, the New Testament also says the same thing. It says if you don't work, you shouldn't eat.

It says if you've been stealing, then stop stealing, but work so that you can give. It says to rebuke the lazy people sharply. It says work with your hands and walk honestly so you don't lack.

I was grateful myself to be raised in more of a Jewish culture than a Cretan culture, a culture that taught me, a family that taught me how to work, and so forth. But a lot of people around us, if you look at society out there, it's far more Cretan than it should be, people that aren't honoring these biblical principles. So let's turn the page now.

Go ahead and turn the page over. Well, actually, before you do, look down there at number 10, and the responsibility in investing. Jesus, as far as I can tell, as we move from the Old Testament to the New Testament, Jesus basically supports, I believe, all 10 of these principles that we looked at on the Old Testament side of the page.

Now, He did give some guidance on number 10. He looked at number 10, responsibility in investing, living for the future, and Jesus said, Yes, I want my people to invest. I want them to live for the future.

But now we're going to turn the page, and we're going to look at two different paths about how this can be done, two different ways you can live for the future. And so go ahead and turn the page over, and we're going to look at the two paths that Jesus laid out. Remember, Cretans aren't going to choose either one of these two paths.

The Jews are going to pick one of these two paths. If you've got these other 10 principles in mind, you're going to pick one of these two paths. Cretans, neither one.

They don't care. They're not living for the future at all. But the Jews are, and then Jesus gives some guidance on it.

So if we could, again, Team W, could you go ahead and turn to Matthew 6, and Team East, could you go ahead and turn to Luke 6? So Matthew 6, Team W, Luke 6, the guys over here, these people. So Matthew 6, verse 19, could you, once you have that open, and I hope enough of you, I think King James is probably the majority text that we have, if you could go ahead and read that. What does everybody have? How many have King James Version Bibles with you? Okay, how many have something else? ESV, very well, okay.

I guess some of you have phones you can pick. So let's go ahead and read it in the King James. Go ahead and read Matthew 6, 19.

So what's the answer there? Treasures on earth. So this is path number one. Now let's go ahead and move over to path number two.

And same group, can you please read verse 20? Matthew 6, 20. Go ahead, read the whole thing. Or is that it? Go ahead and read the entire verse, Matthew 6, 20.

Go ahead and start over. Okay, very good. So that is treasures in, what's the answer? Heaven.

Okay, so now we have two paths laid out for us. Treasures on earth, treasures in heaven. Both of these are living for the future.

One is living for a future on earth, one is living for a future in heaven. Actually, you could say in one sense, both of them are living for, the treasures in heaven is a future both on earth and in heaven. But it says lay up treasures in heaven.

So what is laying up treasures on earth? And what is laying up treasures in heaven? Well, if you were, if we could take the time to turn to Matthew 6, or I'm sorry, Matthew chapter 19, Jesus talking to the rich young ruler. He said that treasures in heaven is gained by giving. And so let's move back up to the top of the page.

And you can put under path number two, there's a blank there at the very top. Go ahead and put the word giving there. Okay, path number two is giving.

And the first blank just below it is treasures in heaven. Now, path number one also needs a title. So go ahead and put over there, put the word hoarding, H-O-A-R-D-I-N-G, hoarding.

Treasures on earth, treasures in heaven. And so we have these two paths. Again, both of them are living for the future.

Neither one of them have any interest to a person who's a Cretan. But for someone who's a Jew, they're both, they're all, they're concerned about the future. So treasures on earth, treasures in heaven.

Jesus says which one to choose here. So now let's go on to Luke chapter 6. Now, those of you, I think it's team E. Could you go ahead and read Luke 6, verse 24? Okay, what goes in the blank there? The condition. You who are rich.

And Jesus says woe or cursed, I guess. Then go ahead and read the path number two. You who are, go ahead, Luke 6 20.

All right. So you who are what? Poor. All right.

So if you think about it and go back to the other side of your page, you know, there's a side to it which you could say those Cretans might have fit in this category of being poor. But you think Jesus was saying that? You think Jesus was saying, you know what, you're poor because you're lazy. Wow, blessed are you.

I don't think Jesus was saying that. Jesus was saying you're poor because you don't know how to manage debt. Wow, good job.

No, he wasn't saying that. What was he saying when he said blessed are you who are poor? Well, you know, I can think of several things, you know, but if a person is poor because they chose to be a giver, Jesus said blessed are you. Now, there's a side to it you could say, you know, Jesus might have been saying something like this.

What if you're a refugee? A war has come in and driven you out of your country. Well, you're poor, not by your own choices. There's a side to it.

Now, maybe Jesus was saying blessed are you who are poor because of this kingdom that I'm instituting, it's going to look out for you in a way that the old kingdoms didn't, in the way that countries of this world don't. That could be part of it. But I think especially Jesus was talking about those who have chosen this path.

You are rich, you are poor. The blessed, the woe, the cursed. All right.

All right. If you could, Team W turn to James 5. Team East turn to 2 Corinthians 9. All right. So, James chapter 5. So, we're skipping down.

We're skipping the parables just for a moment and we're going down to the result. So, we've looked at the two paths. We've looked at the investment.

We've looked at the condition. And now we're skipping the parables just for a moment and we're going down to the result. All right.

And maybe I'll just go ahead and read this. James 5, 1 to 5 and then Team W, if you could tell me what goes in the blank. James 5, verses 1 through 5. Go to now you rich men.

Weep and howl for the miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered and the rest of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat at your flesh as it were fire.

Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold the hire of the labors who have raped down your fields which is of you kept back by fraud. Crieth.

And the cries of them that have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton. Ye have nourished your hearts as in the day of slaughter.

What do you think goes in the blank there? Weep and howl. Okay. Go ahead and write that down.

And then those of you on the other side, if you could turn to 2 Corinthians and let's read this one. Tell us what fits into this one. This is the other path now.

What's the result? 2 Corinthians 9 starting with verse 6. It says, but this I say, he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly. And he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver.

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work. As it is written, he is dispersed abroad. He has given to the poor.

His righteousness remaineth forever. Now he that ministereth seed to the sower, both minister bread for your food and multiply your seed sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness. God loves a cheerful, what goes in the blank? Giver.

Okay. So those are the results. Let's take just a little bit of time and go back to the parable now.

And see the parables that Jesus told, he gave us quite a number of parables. And parables are, you could call them fiction. They're not true stories by and large.

But they're all designed to give us a lesson. And it would be possible to take the lessons that God has given us and get them wrong and say, you know, there's a parable about a king going off to war. Therefore, it must be okay for me to go to war.

Would that be an accurate interpretation of that parable? We say, well, no, that wouldn't be accurate. That's not what Jesus was saying by that parable. So we got to be careful with the parables, but they have some very incredibly important lessons.

So first of all, let's talk about this thing of stewardship for just a moment. And we got to ask the question, what are we supposed to be stewards of? What have we been talking about here for the last while? We've been talking about a godly view of finances. So one of the things we're supposed to be stewards of is finances, okay? What else are we supposed to be stewards of? Can anybody think of anything? Time.

What else? Abilities. Very good. What else? Resources.

Talents. Okay. A whole bunch of things.

Let's get specific. I got one other thing I want to put up here. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 4. Let's all turn to this one.

1 Corinthians chapter 4 says this. In verse 2, and I'm going to ask a question. What's it specifically talking about here? You listed some very good things that we're supposed to be stewards of.

It says in 1 Corinthians 4 verse 2, Moreover it's required in stewards that a man be found faithful. All right. Now the question is, what is this specifically talking about? So let's back up a verse and find out what this is talking about.

Let a man so account of us as of the ministries of Christ, as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. So what are we supposed to be stewards of in this case? Mysteries of God. Mysteries of God.

So let's abbreviate this. Mysteries of God. Okay.

So now we have both of these things, and do we all agree that we need to be stewards of both of these two things? As well as many other things, time and talents and resources and all that. But for sure, we need to be good stewards of our money. We also need to be good stewards of the mysteries of God.

All agree with that? Okay. So now as we go through the parables of Jesus, we need to be able to put them into one of these categories. Maybe there's others, but at least we need to be able to put them into one of these categories if we're going to correctly understand the parable.

So let's just do one parable. Let's turn to Luke chapter 19. Go ahead and turn to that too.

I told you there'd be a lot of turning today, so that's what we're doing. So Luke chapter 19, and let's look at a parable that Jesus gave. We call it the parable of talents or the parable of pounds.

And so we're going to try to figure out which category this parable needs to go in. Is this parable telling us to be a good steward of our money, or is it telling us to be a good steward of the mysteries of God? So the parable of the talents starts in Luke 19, verse 11. It says, And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, because they thought the kingdom of God should immediately appear.

He said, Therefore, a certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for him a kingdom and to return. And he called his servants and delivered them ten pounds and said to them, Occupy till I come. But his citizens hated him and sent a message after him saying, We will not have this man reign over us.

And then it goes on and says, Here it is. He hands them all a talent or a pound. And then after he came back, you remember the story? He says, I want everybody to show up and bring that back to me.

And one guy had used that to gain more. One guy had just buried it and he got in trouble. And so what's he talking about here? Which category does this go into? Is this a lesson on finances? Is this a lesson on how we're supposed to deal with the mysteries of God? Well, first of all, who got the money in this parable? It wasn't the citizens.

They didn't get any. It was only the servants that got money. That might be a clue as to which one of these categories it fits into.

All right. Secondly, it's supposed to grow while they have it, and ultimately it will be returned to the master. Another clue, which one of these two categories it's going to go into.

All right. Then we have quotes from the early Christians, like Origen. He made a quote about this parable and said that God was saying that those who have received the ten talents are those who have been entrusted with dispensing of the word which has been committed to them.

So Origen says this parable is talking about the mysteries of the kingdom of God, or you could say it's the kingdom of God. That's what Origen says. So, again, he's probably looking at some of these clues, saying which category this parable goes into, the talents or the pounds.

Finally, there's one more clue that I think is very powerful. Go all the way down to verse 26. It says, But this I say to you, that everyone, unto everyone that hath shall be given, and from him which hath not, even that he hath, shall be taken away from him.

And if you go back to Matthew 13.12, if you want to look that up, you can. But there's where it tells us what that is, because there's a parallel verse, a linking verse, and if you look at that verse we just read, verse 26, it's almost exactly the same as Matthew 13, where it says in verse 12, For whoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance, but whoever has not, from him shall be taken away, even that he hath. Back up one verse.

It is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. Remember, the citizens didn't get any, the servants did. What is it? The mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

So, we could put this particular parable, the parable of the talents, let's put it over here in this category. That's what Jesus is wanting us to be a good steward of. A mystery, the stewards of the mysteries of God.

But now we've got two other parables. So, I would like team W to look up Luke chapter 18, sorry, Luke chapter 12. And team E, I'd like you to look up Luke chapter 16.

And we've got two parables here. So, maybe for time, I'll just read Luke chapter 12. And we've got two questions to answer.

We've got, first of all, which of these two categories does it go into? All right. So, Luke chapter 12, starting with verse 15. And he said unto them, Take heed and beware of covetousness.

For a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of things which he possesseth. And he spoke a parable to them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do? Because I have no room wherewith to bestow my fruits.

And he said, This will I do. I will pull down my barn and build greater, and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years.

Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then who shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

So, which side does this one go in? So is he that layeth up what? Treasure, wealth. So he's definitely talking about the one on the left. So we can know that Luke 12 is talking about the left category.

It's talking about our money. It's giving us a lesson on what to do or what not to do. But what's the answer? It's the parable of the rich.

And I think we're over here. What's the answer? The rich what? The parable of the rich. There's two words you could put in the blank.

Both of them start with F. All right. We usually call it the parable of the rich fool. So go ahead and write that in the blank.

The parable of the rich fool. He took the path one. Path of hoarding.

And so that's what happened. Let's go ahead and now Luke chapter 16. And this is the story.

I'll just tell it to you real quick. Luke 16 verses 1 to 12. Jesus, first of all, does anybody over here know what the parable, the title is usually called? The parable of the unjust what? Steward.

Okay. The parable of the unjust steward. Basically, there was a man who was managing the finances of another man.

And he found out his time was coming up. He was going to be fired. He was going to be let go.

But he was still there for two more weeks. What did he do in those two weeks? Now, I don't know how long it was exactly. He just knew the time was coming up.

What did he do with his master's money? He gave it away. He gave it to this person. You know, take your bill, sit down, knock off some money.

He gave it to that person. And through doing that, he was giving away. And then Jesus said he was doing right.

And in that case also, it gives some verses. In both of these two parables, it says very clearly they belong over here. So we got that one, the parable of the steward, the parable of the rich fool.

And then we have some examples. I think we're filled out down to the example of an individual. So over here, Team W, you could look up Luke 18 if you want to.

But do you know the answer? The rich young what? The rich young ruler. Does anybody know what Luke 19 is? The story of Zacchaeus. Okay.

Again, we have two different answers, two different examples. One followed the path of hoarding, keeping for himself. One followed the path of giving.

Zacchaeus, the half of my goods I give to the poor. Let's turn then to, if you could over here, W, turn to Revelation 3. And Team E, turn to Revelation 2. We not only have individuals, we have whole churches that followed one of these two paths. So, Revelation 3, Jesus talks to the church in Laodicea.

Sorry, I gave you the answer there. But yes, church number one is the church in Laodicea. Revelation 3, 14 to 20, and it says, you guys, he says to the church in Laodicea, I know your works, you're neither cold nor hot, I'm going to spew you out of my mouth because you say I'm rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing.

They took the path on the left. What happens if you take the path on the right then? What church is that? Revelation 2, Team E. Smyrna, the church at Smyrna. Listen to what it says about them.

It says to the angel of the church at Smyrna, I know your works, your poverty, but you are really rich. I know the blasphemy of them that say they're Satans, they're Jews, but they're not, and goes in and gives them a blessing. They took the path on the right.

And then finally, just who knows the answer? Matthew 25, verse 41. If you take the path of hoarding and not giving, what's the destiny? Everlasting what? Fire. And Matthew 25, verse 34, inherit the kingdom.

That's right. Inherit the kingdom. I was hungered and you gave me no meat.

Or I was hungry and you did give me food. And one says everlasting fire, one says inherit the kingdom. And so anyway, I want to thank you.

We're out of time here. So thank you for filling those out. You can take those with you.

You can do whatever you want with those papers. They're yours. I guess I'll try to pick up the extra in the back.

The one interesting thing that happened back at Bible school, we didn't have time to do it here this morning, but I had all the students, I said, we took a break about halfway through. It was an hour long altogether instead of 45 minutes like we typically have here. And I just had all the students, I said, you know, we're going to do a little spelling bee.

And so I told them, you know, shut your Bibles, turn off your phones, and we're going to give you one verse from the Bible to spell. And so, I'm sorry, one word from the Bible. And so they got their pencils all ready and got their eyes turned away.

And I said, okay, the word is Zacchaeus. So everybody writes the word down Zacchaeus. And we see how many got it.

Out of 62 students, four of them got it right. So think about that. We had four people who could spell Zacchaeus right and the rest did not.

So anyway, think about that. It was kind of fun. By the way, I'll just show you how to spell it real quick.

Actually, how many have written it down? You've written it down already? Okay, so everybody knows the answer. It's too late. But here's what happened.

I had them all stand up. I wrote that down. Everybody stayed standing because they got that letter right.

Everybody stayed standing. Most were still standing. The fourth letter, that's where most people sat down.

Zacchaeus. A-E, sorry, I think it's E-U-S. You can check me.

I think I might have it in my head by now. Okay, I think we're done. Thank you for your attention.