Honor God With Your Wealth
HONOR GOD Sermon Series
Week 3: Honor God With Your Wealth
In today’s world it seems that most people honor wealth and its pursuit more than anything else. They believe life will be better with it. Those who do not have it want it; those who do want more of it. People value wealth so much that they allow it to redefine their life’s value.
The Bible says, “Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine” (Proverbs 3:9-10, ESV). “Honor” means “to prize or value highly; to regard with great respect.” To honor God is to value him above all things. Jesus said to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33, ESV).
You see, God has no issue with us possessing things. He takes issue when those “things” possess us! God has created “things” for man to use for His purpose, not the other way around. They were meant to be external, with God alone dwelling in the shrines of our hearts. Alden W. Tozer wrote about these “things” in his book, The Pursuit of God,
“But sin has introduced complications and has made those very gifts of God a potential source of ruin to the soul. Our woes began when God was forced out of His central shrine and “things” were allowed to enter. Within the human heart “things” have taken over. Men have now by nature no peace within their hearts, for God is crowned there no longer…”
Here are a few words of Jesus Christ to put this in proper perspective:
“For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?” (Luke 9:25, ESV)
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” (Mark 8:34-35, ESV)
To honor God with our wealth is all about honoring Him in our hearts above all things. This becomes more and more a reality in our lives when we come to understand that…
1. Honoring God is an issue of STEWARDSHIP.
Worship comes from the old English word, “worthship”, which means, among other things, “to give honor to the honorable.” In other words, the greater the value or worth of something, the greater the honor it should be given. Who has the greatest value in the universe but God? Therefore only God is to be honored greatly far above all. God deserves our all. This is the essence of worship, to wholly give oneself to God. Honoring God with our wealth, therefore, is but one aspect of our whole worship of God.
2. Honoring God is an issue of STEWARDSHIP.
We honor God with our wealth because he owns everything. Even our ability to make wealth is a gift from him (Deuteronomy 8:18)! We cannot just do whatever we want with things we do not own. We take care of the things God entrusts to us in life – our gifts, talents, relationships, destinies, and resources. Our wealth is to be used for God’s glory, not ours! When we are faithful to honor God in the little things, he entrusts even more to us!
3. Honoring God is an issue of GENEROSITY.
God is a generous God, as seen in him giving his best – his one and only Son – so that we won’t have to die in our sins. Jesus, the Son of God, honored the Father by giving himself totally to his purpose of redeeming mankind, and he also gave his best to man by giving his life by dying on the cross for our redemption. A follower of Christ, therefore, is to live generously because he has received generous grace from God! When he lives generously to be a blessing to others, he reflects who God is, thereby honoring Him!