Series: Wisdom That Works
Message: Wisdom for Life at the Extreme
Preacher: J. Murdock
Reflection: Mark Witas
Live Wonder: Zan Long
Live Adventure: Jessyka Dooley
Live Beyond: J. Murdock
Live Purpose: Emily Ellis
Editor: Becky De Oliveira
Refresh: Begin with prayer. Ask for the Holy Spirit to open your heart to new understanding and for God’s character to be revealed.
Read: Proverbs 3:9-12 in the New Living Translation (NLT). Note 1–3 insights or questions.
Reflect: “Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of your crop” (Proverbs 3:9).
Yesterday I wrote about a stingy relative of mine who was blessed with the spiritual gift of making and managing money. Today I’d like to give an example of how to use wealth to bless and grow the Kingdom.
I have a friend who is the richest person I’ve ever met. Just before I left the district where I was pastoring and where he lives, he said, “Mark, I just closed on a deal and I don’t know what to do with all this extra money.”
I’m no financial advisor, but I asked (maybe impolitely), “Oh? How much money did this deal put in your pocket?”
“Just north of $260 million.”
It took a second for me to catch my breath.
He continued, “I don’t know what to do with all of it. My kids are all wealthy, my grandkids are taken care of—it’s a real problem.”
Let me tell you more about this person. He has spent his life mentoring others on how to make lots of money for themselves. He’s the only rich person I know who has far more friends than enemies. In fact, I don’t know that he has any enemies.
One Christmas I accompanied him as he went from charitable organization to charitable organization, giving each of them a Christmas gift of $10,000. Boy Scouts, Rotary Club, Salvation Army, you name it. We went to dozens of these organizations. He never asks for a thank you. Refuses to have anything named after himself. He just loves to give. He’s built schools, conference offices, and churches.
Each day he comes into his office dressed in a suit that he bought sometime in the 1970s, reads the financials and does what he does best. Makes money.
One day I asked him why he comes to work each day. “Why don’t you just go live on a beach or on a yacht or something?”
His answer? “Why would I do that? I’d hate that. I like being here interacting with the people and watching my money do good things for the people in this community.”
Another time I referenced “his money.” He stopped me. “Oh Mark, this isn’t my money. It’s all God’s money. He’s just asked me to manage it for Him.”
This is the attitude a believer must take—whether they’ve got millions or merely hundreds in the bank.
Recalibrate: Who is the most generous person you know? What do you think motivates them?
Respond: Pray these words: “Lord, thank you for people who give out of love and a desire to make your world better. Help me to learn from this kind of generosity.”
Research: Read Generosity Makes You Happier by Maria Cohut, PhD.
Remember: ““The Lord corrects those He loves, just as a father corrects the child that He likes” (Proverbs 3:12, ICB).
Mark Witas is the lead pastor at Sunnyside Adventist Church in Portland, Oregon.
Make something with your little one. It could be a batch of cookies, a drawing, or a mud pie in the backyard. While you are busy making, talk about who you are going to give your creation to. I bet your little one chooses to give their creation to someone they love. This is what God did with us. Can we do the same thing? Can we give of our best, whatever that is, to the one we love? Whom do you love?
Where do you get your fruit? Probably a grocery store that has lots of options, including the nicest and best-looking fruits. What do you think the Bible means by “first fruits?” Since we don’t grow our own fruits, we might think it means the first apple we pick off the shelf at the store. When the Bible talks about first fruits though, it is referring to trusting God. When you grow your own food, there are a lot of things that can help you grow more food or less. If it gets too cold too soon some of your plants might die, or if you get enough rain and sun, you might get more fruit than you would during a drought. You just never know. By giving God the first fruits you are saying that you trust Him no matter how many fruits come later. Do you ever struggle to trust God?
In Proverbs 3:9, Solomon instructs us to honor the Lord with, “the first fruits of all your produce.” Now, I’m going out on a limb and I’ll guess that not all of you reading this are living on a farm as we speak. As a matter of fact, most of you may not even have a clue of what a “first fruit” is!
Imagine you are waking up on a farm before the sun is even up. The first thing you do after shaking off the sleep in your eyes is to get dressed so you can head out to the orchard to check on the trees. Day in and day out you’ve done what you can to make sure they are healthy—that the roots have been protected from the cold, the leaves haven’t been eaten by pests, and the limbs have been pruned to make way for the blossoms to flower. If all goes according to plan, these trees will soon give up the fruit you’ve worked so hard to cultivate.If you’ve done your job, you can begin to make some money from all the work you put into caring for these trees. This is crucial because it costs a lot to buy seeds and tractors and land and water and the labor to tend to the orchard. Without these fruits, you’re going to continue to be behind financially when you desperately need to pay off your bills.
But today is the day to harvest as the fruit has arrived on the trees and is ready to pick!
Before you send these fruits off to market, you read today’s Scripture and find that God has left you instructions. He says that in order to honor God, who brought you through all the days when you were stressed about money and time and resources, you are supposed to bring your “first fruits” to Him.
Yikes.
God says we are to bring our best to Him because we are so grateful for the opportunity He has given to us to even have such a bountiful harvest! It’s a response to wanting God to experience the best our labor has to offer which causes us to run to Him with our very best in order to share it!
So if you’re looking for a way to practice honor, start by figuring out what you do best, what takes all your time, and causes you to put in your best work. Then when you get back the results, share them with God.
When I first read Verse 9 on honoring God with our possessions, I was taken aback for a bit. What does it mean to honor God with our possessions? Does it mean all our mugs have to have John 3:16 plastered on them in beautiful lettering? I think honoring God with our possessions goes much deeper than that. Let me explain.
There are many things that I struggle with: I drink way too much coffee, I usually eat dessert first, and I spend too much money. If you were to look at my Bank of America account, you would see that there are many withdrawals from places like the Patisserie, Taqueria, and Starbucks. Do my purchases honor God? Not really. Are there ways that I can make the effort to spend money in a way that glorifies God? Yes, yes there are!
Now I am not advocating for living a lifestyle completely void of shopping, going on coffee dates, or treating oneself to Taco Bell every once in a while. But what I am saying is that there are ways that you and I can be intentional about spending money in a way that honors God. One way is to find an organization that you are passionate about and donate maybe $10 to it. Another way is to find companies that give back to the community when you donate to them, or to buy a McDonald’s meal or gift card for a homeless person. This week, try to find one way that you can honor God with your money!
Zan Long is GRC director for faith development for ages 0-17. She lives in Sydney, Australia, and serves at her local church in nearby Kellyville.
Jessyka Dooley is assistant youth director for the Rocky Mountain Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in Denver, Colorado.
J. Murdock is associate pastor at Boulder Adventist Church in Boulder, Colorado, where he focuses on youth and young adult ministry.
Emily Ellis is a senior studying theology at Walla Walla University in College Place, Washington.