Honor God With Your Finances

Pastor Miles

We are called to honor God with our entire life.

1. You honor God by acknowledging that everything belongs to Him.

Therefore David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: "Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name. "But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you. For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding. O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own. (1 Chronicles 29:10-16 ESV)

The first step in honoring God in our lives is to acknowledge that everything belongs to Him.
God is the manager and we are His stewards to manage His gifts wisely.
We need to sign over the deed of our possessions to Him, to acknowledge that He is the true owner of all that we have.

2. You honor God by giving Him the first fruits of what we have.

Honor the Lord with your wealth
and with the firstfruits of all your produce; (Proverbs 3:9 ESV)

As soon as the command was spread abroad, the people of Israel gave in abundance the firstfruits of grain, wine, oil, honey, and of all the produce of the field. And they brought in abundantly the tithe of everything. And the people of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah also brought in the tithe of cattle and sheep, and the tithe of the dedicated things that had been dedicated to the Lord their God, and laid them in heaps. (2 Chronicles 31:5, 6 ESV)

The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God. (Exodus 34:26a ESV)

"You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year. And before the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose, to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. (Deuteronomy 14:22, 23 ESV)

Tithing reminds us that all we have belongs to Him. We do it first so that we don't use it up before we give it to Him.

3. You honor Him by having an open hand to the needy.

"If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, 'The seventh year, the year of release is near,' and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin. You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, 'You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.' (Deuteronomy 15:7-11 ESV)

Giving to the needy often means going beyond our regular tithe.