The God Factor
— NATIONAL DEBT: CLIMBING TO OVER 37 TRILLION DOLLARS
— PROJECTED INTEREST: 925 BILLION 2025 AND 1.1 TRILLION 2026
— 18.4% OF OUR TAXES SERVING INTEREST ON NATIONAL DEBT
— 29% OF OUR NATIONAL DEBT OWED TO OTHER NATIONS
DEUTERONOMY 28:43-44 NKJV
“The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him, he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.”
TOTAL CONSUMER DEBT: 18.36 TRILLION
— Average American spends 11.3% of income to service interest on personal debt
— Student loan debt: 1.23 trillion dollars
— Credit card debt: 1.16 trillion dollars (average interest 22%)
UNITED STATES makes up 5% of world’s population, consumes 25% of worlds goods.
41 million people 2024 Food Stamps
PSALM 37:23-25 NLT
“The Lord directs the steps for the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will NEVER FALL, for the Lord HOLDS THEM BY THE HAND. Once I was young, and now I am old. Yet I have never seen the Godly abandoned or their children begging for bread.”
PSALM 37:18-19 NLT
“Day by day the Lord takes care of the innocent, and they will receive an inheritance that lasts forever. They will not be disgraced in HARD TIMES, even in FAMINE they will have MORE THAN ENOUGH.”
Today we are casting off FEAR and putting on FAITH
HOW TO NAVIGATE DIFFICULT FINANCIAL TIMES
1. UNDERSTAND THERE IS A CURSE ON THE EARTH
GENESIS 3:17-19 NLT
“Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, THE GROUND IS CURSED because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.”
HAGGAI 1:6 NLT
“You have planted much but harvest little. You eat but are not satisfied. You drink but are still thirsty. You put on clothes but cannot keep warm. Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes!”
HOW TO NAVIGATE DIFFICULT FINANCIAL TIMES
1. UNDERSTAND THERE IS A CURSE ON THE EARTH
2. GOD SET IN MOTION THE PRINCIPLE OF FIRST TO REDEEM US FROM THE CURSE
GENESIS 4:1-5 NKJV
“Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, ‘I have acquired a man from the Lord.’ Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.”
LEVITICUS 27:30 NKJV
“And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s. IT IS HOLY TO THE LORD.”
Did the TITHE lose its HOLINESS under the new covenant?
DEUTERONOMY 8:11-14 NKJV
“Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, lest—when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage…”
DEUTERONOMY 8:18 NKJV
“And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you POWER TO GET WEALTH, that He might establish HIS COVENANT which He swore to your fathers as it is this day.”
THE UNDERLYING REASON WHY GOD WANTS US TO PROSPER IS NOT SO WE WILL BUILD OUR KINGDOM ON THE EARTH, BUT RATHER SO WE CAN ESTABLISH HIS COVENANT TO REDEEM PEOPLE FROM THEIR SINS….
MALACHI 3:6-12 NKJV
“’For I am the Lord, I do not change; therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob. Yet from the days of your fathers you have gone away from My ordinances and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,’ says the Lord of hosts. But you said, ‘In what way shall we return?’”
GOD IS VERY CLEAR WITH THE ISRAELITES
— HE TELLS THEM HOW MUCH TO GIVE (TITHE 10%)
— HE TELLS THEM WHERE TO GIVE IT (HOUSE OF GOD)
— HE TELLS THEM WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN THEY OBEY (LIVE UNDER OPEN HEAVEN)
MALACHI 3:18 NLT
“Then you will again see the difference between the righteousness and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”
HOW TO NAVIGATE DIFFICULT FINANCIAL TIMES
1. UNDERSTAND THERE IS A CURSE ON THE EARTH
2. GOD SET IN MOTION THE PRINCIPLE OF FIRST TO REDEEM US FROM THE CURSE
3. UNDER THE NEW COVENANT GIVING SHIFTS TO A HIGHER PURPOSE
TITHING AND GIVING HAD NOW SHIFTED TO ADVANCING THE ETERNAL PURPOSES OF GOD THROUGH JESUS.
SHIFTED FROM GIVING BY THE LAW TO NOW GIVING BY LOVE.
ACTS 2:44-45 NKJV
“Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all, as anyone had need.”
MATTHEW 6:19-21 NLT
“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. WHEREVER YOUR TREASURE IS, THERE THE DESIRES OF YOUR HEART WILL ALSO BE.”
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IN THIS CHURCH IS EVERYONE STARTED TITHING FAITHFULLY AND GIVING SACRIFICIALLY?
Maybe you made a decision to follow Jesus today, or maybe you’re curious what life with Him is all about. Wherever you are on your journey, we invite you to share with us so we can help you discover your next step.
