Today we are going to do a topical message. This means we are going to take a topic and let the scriptures speak to it. We are going to talk about finances, a popular subject, and I’m going to give you three principles by which to live. The Bible gives us many principles but even more methods of carrying them out. All we have to remember is, “Methods are many, Principles are few, Methods always change, Principles never do”. And God’s words are the Principles. So today we are going to talk about the topic on how to become a 10X Financially Sound Christian.

Finances play a very major part in today’s economy because there is a major “recession”. Now some of you probably wonder what the difference is between “recession” and “depression”. In the twenties we had a “depression”, but presently we are in a recession. So what is the difference? Well the answer I give is pretty simple; you are in a recession when your neighbor loses a job. You are in a depression when you lose yours.

Recession has affected us all but it probably has helped us to put more focus on what the Bible says about money. The Bible has more scriptures regarding money than on faith and prayer, did you know that? On the topic of Faith, there are 500 verses and on the subject of Prayer there are 500 verses but there are 2300 verses on how we think about and use money. Jesus talks more about how we deal with or use money, even one half of the parables teach a lot about money. Why? Because there is a fundamental connection on how we live our spiritual lives and how we use money. It connects…In fact in Luke 16 it says:

“He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous in much. Therefore, if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you?” (Luke 16:10-11)

You see God will judge us on the way we think and use money to see if we qualify to manage the true riches. It is not just about money, in fact money is more like our “boot camp” for life because what we learn about stewarding money is going to transfer into life itself. It is often said that you can tell the quality of a person’s spiritual life by three things: their checkbook, their calendar and how clean the interior of their car is. It is clearly true that how we spend our time (the calendar) and our money (the checkbook) will reveal who we truly are. Oh, about the interior of the car? I just made that up…after all this is my sermon…so I can throw in anything I want to throw in…

Well, here we go; we are going to talk about the STP of our finances or the financial heart of God’s people. Have you heard about the STP for race cars? Do you know what STP stands for? It stands for Scientifically Treated Petroleum. It is an additive for oil because they found out that oil will break down faster when the oil heats up and doesn’t lubricate as it should, so they add STP to help prevent the rapid breakdown of the oil even when the heats builds up.

We are going to talk about the STP of a Christian because the heat will really build up due to the recession. This is when you will have more bills than income, or because of a financial setback or a physical setback or your car breaks down and you don’t have the finances or when you realize you have your children’s college education coming up. The heat will start to build up and you start to break down. So we will talk about the STP of a Christian. These are just three simple principles, not methods, because “Methods are many, Principles are few, Methods always change, Principles never do”. The Bible is filled with great eternal principles. Now if you are between the ages of 20-30 I want you to really listen closely because these principles are like foundations upon which your future is going to be built. You see, in our old ages, if we are doing well it is probably because of the good decisions we made at ages 20 to 30, but on the other hand, if we are living stressfully it is because we are living through the consequences of bad decisions. So it is best to grab onto these simple principles and make them foundations for our future.

The first principles is “S” which refers to “Stewardship”. Now then stewardship of a 10X Christian is not only about money but refers to what we already have. As we read in Luke 16, God judges us on how we would work with abundance by how we work with the little we have. You see we can’t expect God to give us a Mercedes if we don’t take care of our simple Toyota. You see stewardship is like our boot camp to help us to learn how we should treat what little we have before He will trust us with the greater things He has in store for us. Like we read in Genesis Chapter 2:

“And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.”

(Gen. 2:15 KJV)

That means even from the beginning of time God required us to keep things clean, to maintain, to care for it, to improve upon it and to steward it. So I ask you, how are you doing with YOUR garden? This could mean you car, your marriage, your house, your clothes, your body, your hair, your office and/or your room. You see, we have to learn to steward what little we have first.

I recall a time we had a homeless brother who attended church and he hadn’t taken a bath for a long period of time. He kept making excuses not to take a bath because he was homeless. Everyone would back away from him. Finally I told him of the many possibilities on where to clean up because God didn’t want him to live like this. After all, how can we represent God if we ourselves are unkempt or for that matter if we are too extravagant? People will look at us and judge God by our own appearances, because we are here to represent God to the world. But we tend to make excuses for not stewarding ourselves better.

There’s a funny story in reference to this and it goes like this. It is a story about a first generation man from Bombay India and his 2^nd generation son. One day the son is running out of the house to play with his friends. The father asks the boy, "Did you clean your room and make your bed? You can’t go outside until you make your bed”. The boy responded to the dad, “WHY? Why should I make up my bed when in just a few hours I’m going to mess it up all over again?” And the wise Indian father simply replied “Why do you wipe your bottom?”

 That was the best argument I heard as to why we should steward ourselves better in what little we already have. We have to steward ourselves better in a way to glorify God. It doesn’t mean we have to be picture perfect it simply means that we need to clean ourselves up, our life and environment to show God that we can steward what little we have so that He may allow us to steward the greater things. That’s why John the Baptist preached “I must decrease so that He will increase”. So that people will look at us not to see us, but to see Him. That’s why it says here in 1 Corinthians:

“For you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.” (1 Cor. 6:20)

It’s like if you are up for a high paying job and they tell you that you need to dress a certain way, groom yourself a certain way, look a certain way and if you do, then you will get this job and earn the pay from it. Well, it’s the same way when we steward ourselves in ways to reflect God, because we are here on earth to represent Him. The people here need to see Jesus.

The second principle is “T” for Tithing. Tithing is equivalent to a tenth of what we make. Not the second or the third tenth but the very FIRST tenth of what we make. The first portion of what we make. In Biblical days, as we see in the book of Ruth, we see that as a landowner is harvesting his fields he makes sure that a portion of the trimmings of his harvest is left so the poor could glean the fields and be fed. Or if the farmer had fruits he would leave the first fruits to be given to the priests as a tithing. So in this way, these rich landowners would feed the poor and help spread the gospel. In the agrarian age, one tenth of the land was kept and known as God’s acre because it was from that portion of land that they would reap and dedicate to God. Then as we move into the industrial age we don’t have an abundance of fruits or grain but we make a salary or earn wages. So in our tithing we give the first 10^th of our pay and put it towards the work of God to help the poor and spread the gospel. Why does the Bible say we need to tithe? Well here it is:

“The purpose of tithing is to teach you to put God first place in your life.” (Deut. 14:23 LB)

Here is the principle to tithing, that whatever you want God to bless “Put Him First”. If you want Him to bless your marriage put Him first. If you want Him to bless your relationships put Him first. If you want Him to bless your finances put Him first. Put Him first in whatever you want Him to bless or protect. As we read in Malachi:

“‘Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. Then I will rebuke the devourer for you…’ says the Lord of hosts.”(Mal. 3:10-11)

One of the best things I did in my young life was when I rearranged everything in my life so that it would glorify God. When I first moved to Hilo I only lived with $500/month and I had two children. Well, I found ways to better provide like singing at weddings I performed or writing songs for publishers. We do what we need to do because God says to do it. I discovered ways to fix up our lopsided houses or rebuild an engine because I couldn’t afford the repairs. And I remember too that when I received my first check God told me to give it all to Him. But I protested, “I need this”, but God said to give it so I did and I realize now that it was something I had to do. It was like my burnt offering. When I made that decision to tithe and honor God first it changed the way I saw my life, my work ethic, and even how I saved. It taught me to be honest and committed. You see how that would transfer to a marriage? And now I find God gave it back in other ways and more abundantly because I chose to honor God. As it says in Malachi that when we bring it all to Him he will rebuke whatever the devil wants to devour and He will provide in abundance, if we faithfully give to and honor God. And God is faithful, you can never out give God because what you spoon in God will shovel more in. Remember faith is living in advance what you’re going through and experiencing or understanding it in reverse.

His Word is faithful. As it says in Malachi “test Me on this and see if I will not open the windows of Heaven and poor out for you a blessing you cannot sustain.” Go ahead, test Him, I did and I am an example to God’s faithfulness.

So now the last letter is “P” which stands for Planning. In the Bible we read:

“For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him.” (Luke 14:28-29)

God is saying you must set goals and plans for your life. Like in sports for instance, you never have a game without a goal in mind. In baseball you don’t just tell them to hit the ball and just run all over the place or tell the outfield team to just throw the ball anywhere, you know that someone will want to throw it to a base to stop the runner. Or in a race you don’t just sound the gun and tell them to just run all over the place, or in basketball you don’t just tell them to dribble and just throw the ball anywhere…NO… you set goals.

Like even with this church I have goals already set to age 70 because I want to leave the right legacy to this family and to our young leaders for the future of this church. I planned everything out, not that plans will never have to be altered but because as scripture says:

“The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.” (Prov. 21:5)

So it says here it is diligent to plan. It is important to have goals and to write them down. If you don’t have time to write down your goals when are you going to find time to accomplish them? An article written about the Harvard MBA program finds that a mere 3% make 10xs more than the other 97%. The reason is because 84% had no goals at all and the other 13% had goals but didn’t write them down. Only 3% had goals and wrote them down. The staggering results were that the 13% who had goals but didn’t write them down made 2% more than those 84% who didn’t have goals but more staggering is that the 3% that did have goals and wrote them down made 10xs more than the other 97%. See, the principle is planning. So God says to go ahead and dream, make those goals but be willing to do all that He tells you to do and to go ahead and test Him. He will bless you if you do all that He tells you to do. Rearrange your life to honor Him and years down the road you will see the abundance that God has in store for you.

In other words, it is about stewardship – not only regarding money - but about every little thing you have; it’s about Tithing, putting God first and being diligent in your giving. When He sees your faithfulness in giving He will provide abundantly more. And lastly it’s about Planning to work as He wants you to work. You must visualize and write down those goals and plans because as it says in scripture:

“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:36-37)

Study Suggestions

What things in your life do you need to steward better?

What does it mean to you to “put God First” in your life?

What kind of goals can you set and write down so that God may bless them and protect them?

How can you expect to receive from God all that He has for you? What steps do you need to take?