Latest / Time with God with John North / Give Your Finances To God Pt. 4

Transcript

Give Your Finances To God Pt. 4 · Time with God with John North

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Good morning. I'm John North, and every weekday morning I
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: share with you something out of God's word because God
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: wants to speak to you personally. There's not just truth
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: in here for sort of everybody. It's not general truth.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: It's not like an encyclopaedia of spiritual truth.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: God's Holy Spirit is at work in your life, and
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: He wants to take what God has put in the
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Bible and make it specific to you. And don't be
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: surprised if today God says something specifically to you, because
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: that's how He works. Each weekday morning we listen to God.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: What do you have to say to me personally today?
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: And all this week we've been talking about this topic
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: of
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: These things that are so precious to us, and we
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: need to give them to God.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: And our finances is one of those, and we've been
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: talking all this week about putting God at the centre
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: of our financial life, in addition to the other aspects
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: of our lives.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: And one of the realities we need to recognise is
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: that our willingness to give our finances to God is
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: an expression of our heart's spiritual condition. Let me read
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: you a few verses out of 2 Corinthians chapter 9
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: in the Bible, starting in verse 6. It says, the
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: point is this.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: And whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: must give as he has decided in his heart.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Not reluctantly or under compulsion
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: For God loves a cheerful giver.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: And God is able to make all grace abound to
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: you so that having all sufficiency in all things at
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: all times, you may abound in every good work.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: Well, one of the things that's so clear in this
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: passage is that if you are part of a religious
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: group that is legalistic about you giving money and forces
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: you to give and to report, uh, what you've got
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: or what you've earned and giving this much or that much,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: that is not a reflection of what God wants in
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: your life. Each one must give as he has decided
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: It is not from God if people are treating you
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: like that in whatever religious group you are part of.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: For God loves a cheerful giver.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: But what that does say, it tells us be careful
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: of groups that are like that, but it also tells
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: us that your desire to give is a reflection of
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: what's going on in your heart's relationship with God.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Are you hesitant to give, do you want to keep
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: it all for yourself, and you don't want to give
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: away your money to others or to God? Well, that
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: reflects an unhealthiness in your inner life, right?
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Do you love to give and to give to God
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: because you know everything you have has come from Him
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: and because your heart beats with the same things that
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: his heart beats about people coming to know Jesus Christ,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: being freed from so much junk in their lives.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Uh, uh, the passion that God has for the poor
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: and for the needy, and for the people who are
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: being unjustly treated, for those who are in slavery and, uh, um,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: abused in different ways. These are the things that are
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: the passions on God's heart. He wants to bring
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: His kingdom into the world, which only happens as people
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: encounter Jesus Christ. If you're investing your money in these
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: things that matter so much to God, that reflects that
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: your heart is beating with God's heart. A healthiness in
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: your spiritual life and your relationship to God. Your giving reflects,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: number one, your values, right? Because everything we do.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Every choice we make, it's just an expression of our values.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: If you only spend your money on yourself and the
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: things you want, well, that tells what you value the
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: most in life, right?
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: If you look for ways to give your money to
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: God and to the things that matter to God, that
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: also reflects your values. The second thing your money expresses
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: is your love for God. Who's first in your life,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: yourself or God?
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: Well, how you spend your money is one of the
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: things that expresses that, so I just encourage you.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: Give freely of your heart.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: To God, give freely of your finances to God. Put
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Him first in your life. I'm John North.