Are You a Good Investment for God’s Money?
November 10, 2025
Turn your Bibles, if you would, tonight, to First Chronicles, chapter number 29. We’re going to be turning a little bit in our Bibles more than usual on a Sunday night, so be ready for that.
And by the way, praise the Lord for Brother Bill. Johan Jr. is preaching at Sunny Hills Baptist Church this morning, and tonight they’re looking for a pastor or whatnot, and he’s just filling the pulpit. Looks like they found one, but haven’t called him yet.
But that’s awesome. I like it; Brother Bill’s out preaching. And praise the Lord for that. What a wonderful, wonderful thing. And we’re happy for him today doing that. That’s great.
First Chronicles in God’s Word. And for just a little bit, we’re going to talk about finances. And we’ll get in there. We’ll get one section tonight about tithing, but I really just trying to get down to some other things about finances.
I would love it if your finances were where God could bless and can bless you. And finances, by the way, and I say this often, but money is not the root of all evil; the love of it is. And finance is a great, great tool, and you can use it for the kingdom of God in a great way. So just some principles about financing.
I’ve got a lot to cover, and I was sitting there thinking maybe I’ll divide it into two nights. I wasn’t planning on doing that, but we may just stop at a point. If God says stop, we’ll just stop and get the rest next Sunday night. We’ll see how it goes. But we’re starting off in First Chronicles chapter number 29 in God’s word. And we’re going to be in verse, just one verse here in this passage, verse number 12. First Chronicles chapter 29 and verse number 12 in God’s word.
Tonight, would you please stand if you would for the reading of God’s word to show some respect? How many got a nap this afternoon? Come on, man. This is a spiritual church. Look at that. I like that. I like that. And if you didn’t, now is not the time to get that nap. All right, it’s not it.
But look, just a couple principles here about finances. Look in verse number 12, 1 Chronicles 29:12. Both riches, do you notice that? You don’t know that wealth here, finances, both riches, First Chronicles 29:12, both riches and honor come of thee.
So the money you have, where did they come from? The Lord. You said, “Well, these hands worked hard to get that money.” Who gave you the hands?
Who gave you the country you were born into? God did. Riches and honor come of thee. And thou reignest over all. And in thy hand is power and might. And in thy hand it is to make great and to give strength unto all.
How to have God’s blessings on your finances. Number one, number one: realize every dime you have, it’s from God. Every dime you have. Riches and honor are from the Lord. Every good and every perfect gift is where? It’s from above. Yeah, from the Lord.
So when you get that, if you get that, that everything I have is from the Lord, then it changes from, you know, my money and all this to, “Am I a good steward of what God’s giving?” It’s a frame of mind. It’s a thought process. And when you realize God has blessed you—by the way, there are people in a third world country that work ten times harder than any person in this room, from sun up to sundown, and they live in a cardboard shack.
And you didn’t do anything to deserve to be born in America. God just blessed you. I’m saying everything you have is from God. You said, “Well, I worked hard to get that to the degree to make this kind of money.” Who gave you the brains, friend? You could have been born from a mom or a dad that was on drugs and be a drug baby. You could be like I am a little bit. No, I’m joking about that. No pun on my mom, I’m talking about me in my brain, amen, you know.
But when you realize every dime we have is from the Lord, then it becomes a matter: Am I a good steward of what God’s given me? You know, God is a wise investor. We’ll talk if we have time tonight or next Sunday night. We’ll talk about investing a little bit. Just investing. We’ll talk about it a little bit.
God is the wisest investor there ever has been. And the money he’s giving you, have you been wise? Have you been a good steward of that money? Is the money he’s given you a wise investment in God’s part? Now think about it. The key you find is getting God’s blessing.
By the way, this is for young people. Ethan down front here, he works at Hardee’s. He gets paid $27 a year? No. But he started as financial. And we all are. And you want God’s blessing on your finance. How do you do that? Are you a good investment? Are you a good steward of what God’s giving you?
You see, usually, usually it’s not a matter of how much we got coming in; it’s a matter of what we’re doing with what we’ve got. To understand the parables, you take care of the little, and God says, “I’ll give you more.” You’re not good with what he’s giving you, and God says, “No, you’re not a wise investment.” So, am I a good steward of what God has? Am I a good investment for the Lord financially? Am I or not? What do I do with what he’s given me? It’s amazing.
Look over—I hope I can find this. Look over at Ecclesiastes. I think it is chapter number five. We’ll look and see. The pastor’s going to put himself on the spot, and we’ll see what happened with this thing here. But it is. Praise the Lord, I got it right. Please, Ecclesiastes 5. Look at this. Look at this verse number 11. It’s amazing. Sometimes, “I got to make more money, got to make more money.” Friend, if you’re not wiser with your money, it doesn’t matter how much you make.
Look at Ecclesiastes 5:11. Look what he says. Ecclesiastes 5, and look at verse number 11. Look what God says about how much money you got coming in. Ecclesiastes 5, in verse 11: He said, “When goods increase, they increase that eat them.” That’s funds. He got a raise from $27 an hour to $37. Ethan says, “I wish, man, both of those.” But when goods increase, what does the Bible say they increase that eat them? Can I put it this way? It doesn’t matter how much you make; it’s a matter of what you do with what you make, because the more you make, the more there will be to take what you make. That’s what you make. That’s what you’re saying.
“When goods increase, they increase that eat them.” And what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes? Don’t have in your mind, “I got to make more, I got to make more.” No, I got to be wise with what I have. More often than not, people that are in debt, it’s not a matter of their income; it’s a matter of their outgo. Come on now.
But am I a wise steward of what God has? Because it’s from the Lord. Could God look down and say, “You know, I’ve given, I’ve given them that. I’ve given Ethan all that money there”? You know, and God can say, “Ethan’s a wise investment. He’s good with this money. He’s being a wise steward of what I’ve given him.”
When I get that right there, well, that just changes it. That’s the beginning of it: getting God’s blessing. You’ll find number one: realize everything you have is from the Lord.
You said, “Well, no, it’s from, you know, this company I work for.” Friend, that’s the middleman, but that company would be gone, boom, like that. It’s from the Lord. That’s just a middleman. And too often throughout history, that’s been learned the hard way. But, um, everything you have is from the Lord.
Number two, number two. This is going to be the evil. Well, I know you’re going to get to it. Well, we might as well get to it then. Amen. You know, look from Proverbs chapter number three. We’re quickly in Proverbs 3, and look in verse number nine. Proverbs 3 and verse number nine. Y’all get quiet when we preach on finance. Why is it all quiet tonight? What’s going on there? You know, I’m teasing. By the way, you’re wonderful. Our church is wonderful givers. I’m so thankful for that. That’s a great, great sign. Building funds up and missionaries. I’m so thankful. Our people give so much to faith promise gives amazing, and we want to keep that. You said, “Well, we need to scout back for us for the building program.” No, God gives the givers. I mean, we want to keep giving to missions; he’ll take care of us.
But look at this, look at this principle here. I’m not down on you tonight, and I just felt like God’s been wanting us to cover finances. And if we can get through a couple of these things, I’d like to get some things that I think God would like to cover for us tonight. Proverbs 3, verse number nine. You all there tonight? Amen? What does the Bible say? “Honor the Lord with thy substance.” There’s so much of wealth, your things, your finances, your, your, your things that you have. “Honor the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of all thine increase.”
Oh, no, not, “Well, if I have enough left over.” Oh, no. First fruits. And with the first fruits of all thine increase. It was a good day when we decided we’re going to tithe off of everything. Any kind of increase. Now, I’m not saying you have to do it, but if we give a gift card, we tithe off of it. Any kind of increase. And when we started really just anything, any kind of increase we’re going to tithe, God began to bless more. That’s just not true.
“Honor the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of all thine increase. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.” Why? Not something I had, you know, 20 years ago. God says, “I can, I just keep the supply coming.”
He’s able to look over, if you will, in Malachi. Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi chapter number three. And he talks very specifically about tithing over here. By the way, tithing was before the law, during the law, and even in the New Testament. Jesus teaches tithing in Matthew 23:23. We won’t look at it, but I want you to see this over Malachi 3 and look in verse number 8 of God’s word. He says, “Will a man rob God?” Notice it doesn’t say steal from God. Nobody says there’s a difference.
Stealing is if someone—I hope this is not happening—but stealing is while we’re at church, everybody knows we’re going to go to church, and so they’re breaking into their home right now. Miss Tammy says, “I’m going home, man,” you know. And they’re stealing all our stuff; that’s stealing. Actually, our dog, they better not go into the back door; she’ll get them, you know.
But that’s stealing. But if we’re there tonight and they come in and they put a gun up to our head and say, “Hey, give me all your money. Give me all your money.” And where’s that stash up? Where we got, you know? That’s robbing. There’s a difference between stealing and robbing. And robbing is when you’re there, you’re mugging someone, you’ve got a gun on their head; you’re robbing. That’s robbing. And God says, “Will a man rob God?”
You’re like, “How in the world can we do that?” Well, he tells us how you can do that. What does he say here? “Yet ye have robbed me.” Wow. “But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.” By the way, offerings don’t start after the tithes. Watch what he says. “Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.” He’s talking to the nation of Israel.
“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be”—notice, by the way, he doesn’t say offerings right now, just talking about the tithes—“that there may be meat in mine house. And prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes.” Wow. “And he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.” I like that: “rebuke the devourer.”
I believe this, man. I’ve had batteries and tires that last way longer than they should because God’s rebuking the devourer. That boy tithes, and I want no devourer taking everything, you know, and he rebukes a devourer. And he said, “I’ll open up a window of heaven and pour out a blessing.” I’m saying, friend, by paper it doesn’t make sense, but by faith in my God, God’s paper, or God’s word, it makes sense. I promise you, you’ll do much better financially living off of 90% giving God his 10% than you’ll do off of 100% by not giving God his 10%. God’s going to get his 10%; might as well go ahead and get some rewards out of it instead of God doing it in some other way. He’s going to get it, though.
It’s like that tithe is a rent for living in his house, in his world, his universe he created. Tithing. Sometimes—not very often—but I’ll hear someone, they’re not tithing. I don’t know who gives what in their church; no one does. But every once in a while, someone just tells me, and I cringe sometimes when people are not tithing, not because of our church finance—praise the Lord, our church finances are doing good—but for them, I think, “Oh, my goodness.”
It’d be so much better off for them if they tithed. I’ll take care of them. God’s word is true. He can handle it. He says, “Prove me.” That’s pretty bold to God. God can handle it.
I got to take a trip with two of our men a little couple weeks ago, and we got talking a little bit about tithing on the way up. We had about a three-hour trip out and a three-hour trip back, and both men said it’s amazing; when we started tithing, man, God’s just taking care of the finances. Before that, we’re always struggling, you know. I’m telling you, God’s word is always true. It’s always true.
I’ve told this story before. It was such a good story to tell along this line, but John Rice, back in the day, he was preaching a revival in West Texas. And it was back just years and years ago. It was one of those daytime meetings, you ever have a brush arbor meeting? And they would cut a bunch of limbs and whatnot and make a shelter for the preacher to preach under it. Anybody here ever been in a brush arbor meeting? Anybody miss seeing it? My mom?
Brother Goforth used to preach underneath them. No, I’m joking with it. I’m teasing with it. But they used to call them brush arbor meetings, and they were having some morning services. In one morning service, Brother Rice preached on God demands first place in everything. And he finished, and an old country preacher said, “Can I say a few words?”
And Brother Rice knew him. He said, “Yes, sir, sure.” His name was Brother Kaikendahl. He had 13 kids. How many would like to pay bills for 15 people under one roof? Wow, can you imagine that? 15 people: 13 kids and mom and dad.
And Brother Kaikendahl said, he said, years ago we had a businessman, H. Z. Duke, come through. And he was a businessman. He owned 32 stores back in the day, kind of like a Family Dollar or Dollar General, you know. You know you’re in the country when you see a Dollar General store, I mean, just everywhere you go. But 32 stores he owned. But he was a preacher also. And he had come through, and he had preached on tithes and offerings.
Brother Kaikendahl was a preacher. He was back in the day when the preachers would travel a little bit, had a little route. And he was taking this businessman preacher to the different places, and he was kind of—he was his chauffeur. He was Ubering him, you know what I mean? And he was an Uber driver. And as they were going from place to place, Brother Kaikendahl—I mean, H. Z. Duke—said to Brother Kaikendahl, he said, “Do you believe in tithing?”
He said, “Oh, yeah, I believe in that. I preach on it sometimes.” And the businessman said, “Good, good. I like that.” He said, “Do you practice tithing?” “Oh, you know, some things are easy preaching but hard living,” you know. And he said, “Boy, he just, you know, when they’re counting that’s falling, something’s going on,” you know. And he said, “Mr. Duke, Brother Duke, I got 13 kids, 15 mouths to feed.”
And he’s like, “I—” He only— He said, “I only make $125 a month. There’s no way. He said, there’s just no way I can tithe.” I mean, to feed 15 mouths on $125 a month. Okay, money went a little bit further back in there, but still, $125, not a week, not a day, a month. And he said, “Well, there’s just—there’s just no way I can do that. I mean, just impossible.”
And the businessman preacher said, “Would you like to tithe?” He said, “Oh, I’d love to. Nothing more I’d like to do than to tithe. It’s been wanting to do it for years, and it’s been on my mind.” And the businessman, he said, “I tell you what, would you tithe every month, beginning the month? Just take $12.50 and set it aside, beginning of the month, pay that.” And he said, “I’ll tell you what, I’ll make a deal with you. If you ever miss that, if you ever—they’re just running short at the end of the month, you need—you got a doctor bill or whatnot—you let me know. He said, ‘I’ll take care of it.’ He said, 'You tithe, and he said, ‘Whatever you need, you’re short, I’ll take care of it.’ He said, ‘Look, I own 32 stores. I’m good for it.’”
“Now, I’m telling you, I’m giving you my handshake. If you tithe, whatever you’re short, whatever you need, I’ll take care of it.” And boy, Brother Kaikendahl said, “Boy, that’s great. I’ve been wanting that.” He shook—I’m so excited about that. And he said, “I’ll do it. I’ll do it.”
And he said, “You know, it’s a strange thing.” He said, “During that—it was for a year. He said that during that year, my children—I didn’t have to take them to the doctor one time.” 13 kids. He said, “I would go preach revivals. I preached revivals all over the place, and you know how it was back in the day: they fed the preacher with chickens.” I mean, I’m not talking about fried chicken; I’m talking about chickens with feathers on them, you know.
And he said, “Underneath the seat would be a crate of chickens.” He said, “During that year, he said, one of my neighbors, he said, ‘I got extra hay this year; just been a good crop,’ and he brought some hay over.” And he said, “I went and preached to a revival meeting somewhere, and preached somewhere else, and they gave us some canned fruit.” And someone else, they just seemed like they were always, always giving us more than usual. He said, “You know, it’s amazing; at the end of the year, I began to think, I haven’t had to call H. Z. Duke one time.” I mean, I mean, I had—he’d have been good for it—but the Lord said, “So you trusted his word, but you wouldn’t trust my word?”
And John Rice said Brother Kaikendahl was given the testimony. He just started crying. And he said, “All these years now, we’ve been tithing, and God’s taken care of the needs of these 15 members that he said he’s got us every time.” Friends, if you want the Lord’s blessings, realize God’s giving you every dime you have, be a good steward of it. And then number two: tithe. Tithe. That’s just God’s plan.
Now let’s get a little bit more, and we’ll see how long God wants us to go to that. Look over in Proverbs chapter number 27. Proverbs chapter number 27, if you would please. Proverbs 27. You’re going to say, “He’s done with the tithing part.” Amen, now, you know. And you can breathe easy. All right? We’re going to go back to it. No, we won’t go back to it. Proverbs 27.
And we’re just kind of going through, how do you have God’s blessings on your finance? Be a good steward. What does it give you? Number two, tithe. Number three: Let’s look at this here, Proverbs 27. And would you look down in verse number 23? If you’re there, Proverbs 27:23, would you say amen? Good deal. Look at this here. Look what he says. He says, “Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds.”
I got a funny story. I wasn’t planning to tell, but I got to tell it. We… we went to Bible college. Oh, uh, the church was about, oh, 45 minutes to an hour, according to what part of Chicago you were in, but from Chicago. We would—everybody ran Sunday morning buses. And then Sunday night, we would just bring in teenagers on the bus and then dropping the kids off after Sunday night church. Only the men were allowed to go, of course, up into Chicago, whatnot. Every once in a while, maybe every once in a year or a semester for a special reason, Brother Howells, whatever, would allow the ladies to go. We called that the night bus.
And once you drop off the kids, the teenagers, and then you head back over to the college. Now, it was over an hour to the college, an hour and a half. And we would have night bus preaching. And that’s when all the preacher boys would preach at each other. And not a lot of Bible preaching where there’s a whole lot of preaching going on those night buses. I’m talking about you just—you’re going to get preached on on that bus. I mean, you look the wrong way, and you can be just part of it, you know.
But one of those nights, maybe once you hear, the ladies got to ride the night bus, and our leader of our group allowed the girls to call which preacher and what he is to preach on. And one of those guys wasn’t dating anybody. And James Mastro—my wife would know who that is—and they called on James Mastro to preach on, I think, why you should date or dating. And he pulled this verse out of the hat. It was a good one right there. That’s the verse that uses this text verse: “Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks and look well to thy herds.”
He said, “How are you going to know about the flocks if you’re not dating them?” Amen? He preached the whole message on that verse right there about why you should date. It was maybe five minutes, or we could preach each. But that’s the verse right there. Amen. That gives new meaning to God’s word right there, for sure. Now, you know. And anyway, you’re like, “What in the world?” You know? All right, it’s a joke, but it’s a true joke; that’s a true funny story. But that’s what he preached to them.
But he says now, “Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks and look well to thy herds.” Watch this for riches. He’s talking about your finances. By the way, their flocks and their herds—that was their income. That was their business. They said, “You know where you stand financially.” By the way, don’t make this mistake: because your finances are bad, don’t say, “Well, I ain’t going to look at them because they’re bad.” It’ll always get worse like that. You always know where you are. Even if it’s bad, it’s better to know how bad it is.
Amen. You are quiet tonight. Come on now. He said, “Hey, be thou diligent to know the state of the flocks and look well to the herds, for riches are not forever, nor doth the crown endure to every generation.” You better know what’s going on. “The grass appeareth, and the tender grass showeth itself, and the herbs of the mountains are gathered.” Watch this: “The lambs are for thy clothing.” Notice he has a plan, if you will, a budget. A plan. The lambs are for that clothing. That’s how we’re going to get our clothes. They didn’t have Walmart back then. They didn’t have Ross Dress for Less. They didn’t have T.J. Maxx. They didn’t have Dillard’s and all that other, you know. They didn’t—what’s the thing where you order from China and they get it and you get it real cheap? E-Moo? Yeah, they didn’t have E-Moo back in the day. They didn’t have all that stuff. They didn’t have that stuff. And so they had a plan.
Is there another one? How you provide for it? Temu. Excuse me. And I’ve actually bought two things on Temu. Turned out, two air conditioners, heaters. Oh, not E-Moo. Temu. I should know better. Amen. Let’s keep reading here. Let’s get back to the Word of God. He had a plan. “The lambs are for thy clothing, and the goats are the price of the field.” That’s going to pay for the field we bought for paying for the mortgage, land investment. “And thou shalt have goats’ milk enough for thy food.” He knows how to provide for groceries. Yeah, you’ve got a plan. “For the food of the household and for the maintenance for thy maidens.” Now here’s your third thing: Have a plan for your finance. How are you going to provide for your family? Now you’re going to provide for yourself. Have a plan. That’s the plan right there. You said, “Well, I’m going to work, pay bills.” Yeah, that’s good, but have a plan. How are you going to do all that? How are you going to spend it? By the way, even if you don’t have a budget, I don’t know where your money is going to. Get a plan. Get a plan.
He had a plan there. Now let’s go over to Proverbs chapter 6, and we may end it at this. We’ll pick it up next week. Look at from Proverbs chapter 6. Proverbs 6, if you would please. Just a little bit more underneath this thing of having a plan, how to provide for yourself and your family. Proverbs chapter 6 in God’s word. Underneath that, we showed how he said he had a plan how he’s going to pay for the mortgage and how he’s going to pay for clothes because he didn’t have E-Moo back then, or Temu, and all the rest of that. I’m joking with you there. He didn’t have all that. You know, he had a plan. And let’s look at this thing here. All right, Proverbs 6, verse number one. You all there tonight? Amen. A little different tonight, but we’ll be all right. We’re using the Word of God for the most part. Amen.
Look at this verse number one. He says, “My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger.” If you made a business deal, actually, for your friend, you’re kind of like a co-signer. You understand what a co-signer is? Someone wants to get a loan, and they don’t have good enough credit to get a loan, so you’re a co-signer to boost their credit. But you’ve signed onto the deal. You put your name on the line. You’ve shaken. That’s how they made business deals back then; you shook hands. And so you’re a co-signer on the note. By the way, be so careful about that because you don’t have control over that.
But he says, you did it. He says, “My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand to a stranger with a stranger, thou art snared with the words of that mouth. Thou art taken with the word, words of the mouth.” I mean, the deal went south; it’s a snare. You’re taken. I, Brother David McCororor, was a co-signer for me. I wanted to buy a Lamborghini, and I didn’t have enough money, and he’s got good credit. He works at the post office, and Ms. Kim’s got a rich uncle that passed, and they’re really millionaires, billionaires, you know, ten times over. And so he co-signed for me, and I’m a sorry bum, don’t pay my bills, and he’s snared. He’s taken. Not just whoever, whatever. What happens? What here? “Do this now, my son: deliver thyself.”
And complain because it’s all your friend’s fault? No, he said, look, you’re in a bad deal. “Do this now, my son, deliver thyself as a roe coming to the hand of thy friend.” Go humble thyself and make sure thy friend.
“Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids. Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter.” It’s kind of like, you ever see a deer? We don’t do it much in Tennessee, but down South, Georgia, whatnot, they’ll have dogs that run deer. Deer can run very fast, but not very long. And man, those dogs are running those deers, and they run fast, but they get tired pretty quick. And even they’re just panting, you know, but they’ll keep running. He says, “I want you to work just this hard to get out of that debt.” That’s what you’re saying. He said, “Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler. Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.” We’ll get to that here just a minute.
But can I just put it this way? He says, “Hey, pay your bills. Pay your bills.” He said, even if it’s a bad business deal, you sign your name, you said you’re going to pay it, pay your bills. Amen. Pay your bills when it’s hard to pay your bills. Pay your bills. Don’t blame it out with everybody else because you got in a bad business deal. Pay your bills. If you got to lose sleep, lose sleep, but pay your bills. That’s what it said. Pay your bills. That’s what you’re talking about.
When it comes to finance, this friend, no, don’t blame you. You get a bad deal, don’t blame everybody else. Just hold up and say, “I’m going to work extra hard. I’ll lose sleep, and I’m going to pay my bills.”
By the way, if you can’t pay your bills, there’s been times we’ve had medical bills and other bills. There’s been times we’ve had medical bills. You know what way it is. You go to the hospital or the doctor, and you get a bill from the hospital, and you get a bill from the doctor, and you get a bill from the anesthesiologist, and you get a bill from the person that greeted you at the front door, and you got a bill from the nurse that walked you out in the wheelchair, and you got a $100 bill for that aspirin they gave in the hospital. And that doctor came in and sneezed as he walked by; you got a bill for that. And you get all these bills.
And I’ve had to call them, say, “Hey, I can’t pay all that. And I won’t pay it all right now, but I’ll give you”—by the way, you know, it wasn’t like you got one; I got all these bills. “And so I’ll give you $25 a month, but I’m an honest man. I’ll pay my bills.” And I’ve had some of them say, “Well, we’re going to have to put you up for review.” And I said, “Well, you can’t get blood out of a turnip, but I’ll pay my bills.” And by the way, it took a lot, but we paid our bills.
Let’s just talk about it in Proverbs 6. There’s been times, and it’s embarrassing to talk about it, but it’s the truth. In another place, when we just had finance—or just seemed like God was testing it—if I touched it, if it was gold, it turned to mud, and I couldn’t pay rent. And Mr. Hart was our landlord.
And when we couldn’t pay rent, I didn’t say, “Well, I’ll see if Mr. Hart comes around or not.” I went to Mr. Hart, knocked on his door. He didn’t have to open the door; I could crawl underneath the door. I was about just tall at that moment. And he opened the door. He said, “Who’s there?” And I said, “I’m down here,” you know. And I said, “Mr. Hart, would you have a heart?” you know?
And I said, “I’m sorry, Mr. Hart, I know I’m supposed to pay by this amount. It’s about this time, but I can’t pay it right now. And I’ll pay you—I’ll pay you by next week or whatever it was by this—and I’ll pay you then.” And I said, “I apologize.” And he was very—he had a heart. Mr. Hart had a heart. And I’ll be honest with you, we had to do that a time or two. And there was one time when that second time when I said I’d pay here, and that time came and I couldn’t pay.
And I said, “Well, you know, he knows I’ve already been seen.” No, no, I went back, and I knocked again. I said, “Mr. Hart, I had old rib”—I said, “I’d pay it today, and I’m sorry, I can’t pay it, but I will pay it.” You say, “Was that edifying?” No, it was humbling, humiliating. But I had said I’d pay that rent.
Proverbs 6 says, “Hey, if you make a bad deal, no matter what, it might be somebody else’s fault, but he said, pay your bills.” And if you can’t, go to them and, hey, make that thing right. You don’t hear much like that nowadays. But, friend, if you want God’s blessing…
There’s been a time or two that there’s been some bills that we’ve kind of inherited. And we could say, “Well, that’s so-and-so’s bill. That’s not our bill.” And maybe that’s justifiable. But we decided, “You know, we’re just going to go ahead and pay it.” And not pleasant. We didn’t have a lot of money then, but we said, “We’re not going to weasel out of this because we can,” you know, kind of buy inheritance type of thing. We’ve got a bill there, and we paid it. And all these years later, I’m glad we paid it.
Now, friend, that’s a little bit not heard of an early in time, but that’s called integrity. It’s called right by God. And it’s called getting God’s blessing on your finances. Pay your bills. Pay your bills.
We’re going to close it out for tonight. We’ve got more to cover. We’re going to talk about this thing of finances next Sunday night. We’ll talk more about it and just investing and becoming debt-free and all those things. But, friend, you want God’s blessing on your finances. You want that. Don’t think about, “My money.” Think about, “God’s giving me this. Am I a good steward? Am I handling wisely what God’s given me?” If you’re a good investment, God’s—he’s got a whole lot to give. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He even owns the hills they live on. And God says, “Well, they’re a good investment of my finances.” God may give you more. And then tithe. You don’t want to be cursed; you want the blessings of God. And then have a plan. We’ll talk more about the plan. Have a plan for your finances. And work at that thing. Have a plan for it.
I don’t think it was this last week, the week before. We’ve processed somewhat the loan for the church to build the building and whatnot, but we had not closed on it until a couple weeks ago. And the bank said, “Well, as we’re getting into it more and more, the bank said, ‘Well, we have to have one person, and that we run their Social Security number, and we find out their credit score and all these things.’” And so, and they said, “Well, you’re the pastor, whatnot, and to the church constitution bylaws and all that, the deacons had to sign.” They said, “We’ve got to have one person by our bank. We’ve got to have one person.” Anyway, they ran my Social Security number, and they checked up on my finances.
And now what if that had said, “Well, this guy, he owes—excuse me—he owes I mean, everybody, half the people in Rutherford County, he owes them.” You know, the church loan would have been out the window. And I’m not saying it’s your credit to me. I’m just saying, here’s what I’m trying to get at: You said, “Well, they had to check, and they’re kind of dug into it.” That can be oh, good or bad.
But you know, God’s always checking, if you will, your credit score. And if my finances are a mess, he knows that. And he knows if I’m honest or not. And it’s not like what, you know, everyone’s—it’s all the time. God, and I’m saying, you don’t want finances at all. God, I don’t want you to look at my finances. He knows your finances. And you want to be right. Not rich, and not wealthy, but right, where God can bless your finances. Because he’s always running your Social Security number, if you will.
In fact, he knows—he knows, believe it or not, without a Social Security number, you don’t have to have a digital ID, and God knows. So we want to make sure our finances are something God can bless like we’d like to. If you’re not—little flock—it is your Father’s good pleasure, good pleasure to bless you. I miss quoting a little bit.
But he wants to bless your finances, but they’ve got to be right. And we just do right, God can bless your finances. He can take care of that. Just being right with God is being blessed.
Original File: 2025-11-10 - Pastor Paul Chisgar ＂Are you a good investment for Gods money？＂ - Sunday PM 11⧸9⧸2025