Financial Faithfulness

July 12, 2018 Save Article

Luke 16:1-13
(RA-2441, Program: 2818, Air date: 07.15.18)

INTRODUCTION (Luke 16:1-13)
1. What we do with our finances is an index of our faithfulness to God.
2. Money is only a test of our faith.
3. Money itself is not evil. God made the gold and the silver.
  1. Psalm 24:1
4. We should not love money.
  1. 1 Timothy 6:10
5. Money is a wonderful servant but a terrible master.
6. The point of this parable is this: Take what God has put into our hands, win souls to Jesus, and when we die they’ll welcome us into Heaven.
7. How to tell if we love money:
  1. The trust test
    1. Proverbs 11:4, 28
      1. Are we putting our trust, or faith, in money or in God?
  2. The priority test
    1. Are our goals financial, or are they spiritual?
    2. We should never try to make as much money as we can because that means we will be trying to make money when we should be doing other things.
      1. Matthew 6:33
  3. The stewardship test
    1. Is there anything in our possession that we would not gladly part with if God asked for it?
8. The admiration test
9. Would we rather spend more time reading news and business articles than the Bible?
10. Are we more impressed with the lives of the rich and famous or with the godly?
LEARN HOW TO SECURE MONEY (Luke 16:1-2)
1. Stewardship is that area of life where men and women make money, and God makes men and women.
2. God wants us to prosper.
  1. Psalm 35:27
  2. Deuteronomy 8:18
3. We need to learn how to make money.
  1. Don’t make money at the expense of life and health.
    1. Psalm 127:2
  2. Don’t make money at the expense of character.
    1. No unfair business practices.
    2. Don’t get in the business of gambling, pornography or alcohol.
      1. Habakkuk 2:15
  3. Don’t make money at the expense of higher values.
    1. Are we only concerned with leaving our children a large financial inheritance?
    2. We need to leave true riches to our children.
      1. We need to show them how to love God.
      2. We need to show them how to love their spouses.
      3. We need to show them a good work ethic.
      4. We need to show them integrity.
LEARN HOW TO SAVE MONEY (Luke 16:8)
1. The Bible teaches us to save money but not to hoard it.
  1. Proverbs 6:6-8
  2. Proverbs 21:20
  3. James 5:1-3
2. The Bible is not against making money.
3. Keep making money, and then use that money for the glory of God and spread of the Gospel around the world.
LEARN HOW TO SPEND MONEY (Luke 16:8)
1. Things to beware of when spending money:
  1. Beware of credit buying.
    1. Designate everything to debt retirement except for the absolute necessities.
    2. Sell all the items we don’t need.
    3. Pay ourselves.
      1. Mow our own lawns.
      2. Eat out less.
  2. Beware of impulse buying.
    1. Proverbs 13:4
    2. 1 Timothy 6:8
      1. Budgets allow us to tell our money to go where we want it to go rather than our money telling us what to do.
  3. Beware of ego buying.
    1. We need to stop spending money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like.
    2. All ego buying does is feed our pride.
LEARN HOW TO SHARE MONEY (Luke 16:9)
1. We need to tithe.
  1. Proverbs 3:9
2. Tithing shows our faith in God.
  1. Malachi 3:10
    1. If we truly believe this verse, we will tithe.
CONCLUSION
1. Giving money and being rich doesn’t get us into Heaven.
  1. Luke 16:19-23
  2. Mark 8:36-37
2. We need to learn to be faithful with our money so that God can trust us with true riches.
  1. Luke 16:10
3. Do you know Jesus personally? If not, you can pray to Him today by asking Him to come into your life.
4. Call upon Jesus today. Repent (turn) from your sins, and turn to Jesus. Ask Him to forgive you of your sins, and acknowledge Him as Lord of your life.
  1. Romans 3:23
  2. Romans 10:9-10
  3. Romans 10:13
  4. Acts 16:31