The Righteous Give Without Sparing

I am reading through the book of Proverbs again, and today a short little phrase jumped out at me that is right in line with what we have been talking about lately in church regarding generosity. The phrase is found in the last part of Proverbs 21:26: "The righteous give without sparing."

It is sad but true that some of the stingiest people I know are Christians, but it’s not supposed to be that way. As we discussed yesterday, Christians are supposed to EXCEL in the grace of giving. And I have also found that many Christians are stingy in ways that some would call “prudent,” but that really demonstrate stinginess and even dishonesty. Here’s a few examples:

• Misuse of the Boss’s Time: This would include things like loafing or not making the best use of your time while you are on the clock. This is called stealing. The generous person gives to his/her employer without sparing.

• Stingy with Tips at Restaurants: This is a pet-peeve of mine. My younger brother used to be a waiter at Red Lobster, and he said the no one wanted to work the Sunday afternoon shift because they all knew that the after-church crowd were the worst tippers! I hate that! The after-church crowd should be excel everyone else in their generous tips.

• Abuse of Coupons, Deals, and Contracts: Have you ever seen one of those coupons that says, “One per family?” In other words, you can’t clip two of the same coupon and get in on the deal twice. But the way a lot of families get around this is to use the coupons on different days. Joyce Meyer said that she used to get around those kinds of deals by having her daughter go to one checkout line while she was in another. And then one day when she was cheating the grocery store on a chicken coupon, God said to her, “I hope you enjoy your chicken, because you are sacrificing My blessing and favor for the sake of that chicken.” This same standard would also apply to how you do your taxes, resisting the temptation to download music without paying for it, downloading software that you haven't paid for, etc. There are several areas where Christians forfeit God’s favor and blessing for the sake of a few bucks because at heart they are really stingy (greedy). You could be tithing and giving well enough, but these are areas where you could be short-circuiting the blessing process from your tithing.

• Being constant a constant taker: This simply means that you are always looking for freebies. There’s certainly nothing wrong with taking advantage of a freebie when it is being offered, but all too often people are known by their “vulture” mentality. In other words, they are always quickly on the scene whenever there is a freebie being offered, but they are strangely absent whenever there are opportunities to give. I know people who truly love God, but they are takers and not givers. They will not miss any opportunity to sponge off someone else because there is constant scarcity in their lives because they have never excelled in the grace of giving. They do not realize that they could break the cycle of scarcity by being generous on every occasion and reversing the sowing and reaping process that is currently working against them.

• The “Little Foxes.” The scriptures say that it is the little foxes that spoil the vine. Sometimes your financial breakthrough can be blocked by seemingly the most insignificant things. For example, one thing that God has brought to my attention recently is an extension cord. That’s right. I have an extension cord in my possession that doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to the hotel where our church is currently meeting, and it got packed away by accident along with my other cords. One evening we needed an extension cord for something, and I grabbed that one and have been using it. I have had every intention of returning it, but it seems like such a small thing that I haven’t yet taken the time. But guess what? While that’s only about a ten dollar cord and the hotel would never notice that it’s missing, that ten dollar cord can block my blessings because it doesn’t belong to me. Likewise, YOU must be sensitive to similar areas where you have been lax about seemingly insignificant things. Take care of them NOW! Your future blessings could depend on it.


These are just a few areas where people often do not realize that they are takers and not givers. The bottom line is that we need to learn to be generous on EVERY occasion, and begin to develop the mentality of liberal giving and generosity. I know it’s difficult to turn loose of that poverty mentality, which makes you feel as if you have to pinch every penny until the buffalo squeals. Some people call that prudent, but God calls it stingy.

I am not against saving and budgeting and being wise with your money. But that can be taken to an unbiblical extreme. When your saving and budgeting takes precedence over generosity, it has just become a god to you, and God is not obligated to bless your idolatry.

There is a money makeover program out there that teaches wise spending and budgeting. For the most part I totally agree with the concepts taught in this program. Where I tend to disagree with it is how it teaches people to be subservient to money by pinching every penny with maniacal madness, and taking on a second job so that you can get out of debt faster. Generosity is nowhere to be found in this program, and so there is a subtle undercurrent of idolatry being taught.

Again, I am very much for saving and budgeting and being financially prudent, but God didn’t say that He would make you rich in every way by you clutching every dollar for dear life. He said he would make you rich in every way THROUGH YOUR GENEROSITY so that you can continue to be generous on every occasion (see 2 Corinthians 9:6-11).

So in closing, I just want to challenge you. If you are not yet experiencing abundance in your finances, then perhaps you need to do a gut check. Are there areas where you are being stingy, or perhaps even dishonest? If the Biblical Laws of prosperity are not working for you yet, it’s not God’s fault. You are blowing it somewhere, and you need to find out where so that you can remove that barrier and proceed to prosper. So many people limp along just hoping that at some point something is going to be different, but they don’t change anything. Maybe you are a giver, but you have not seen the kind of breakthrough that you have hoped for. Well, then there’s something somewhere that is blocking your blessings, and chances are it is something you can change that you are currently not doing right. When you find out what it is and repent, the dam will break and the blessings will begin to flow.

Preaching the Covenant

This past Sunday my older brother, Gary, visited Blessed Life Fellowship. Gary is 55, and has lived most of his life avoiding church and disliking most of what he has seen from Christianity American-style. His impression of Christianity all his life has been that God was a tight-fisted tyrant who only wanted to judge him and condemn him for his sins. And Gary ran from that god, as anyone would.

Recently I had the opportunity to speak with Gary at length about what God is really like, that God wants to bless him and give him hope and a good future (Jeremiah 29:11). Apparently he had never heard anything like that! And it excited him. Like many people, if there's anything Gary needs right now it's hope. Because of circumstances in his life that were brought about both by his own bad choices and also because of things outside his control, Gary has lived without much peace or fulfillment in his life for many years now. He was ready to hear about hope.

So he decided he would come to church to hear more. In the context of my sermon, I taught more on the covenant and how we get to exchange ourselves for all that God has to offer. And then over lunch I asked him if he was ready to walk in covenant with God, and he instantly answered yes.

It's amazing how easy evangelism can be sometimes when we teach people about the benefits of covenant.

Some may say that this is an illegitimate way to evangelize because it causes people to approach God for selfish reasons. But I must ask, how does anyone come to Christ? Don't we call come for selfish reasons? We want to avoid hell and go to heaven -- that's the bottom line. Why is it any more selfish to come to God in order to receive the benefits that He is already offering?

The fact is, when I cornered Gary about counting the cost and let him know that following Christ often means persecution and self-denial, he was still on board. Why? Well, here's his little brother who he's known all his life explaining to him how God has radically changed my life. And he knows that first hand. He's been there and watched me through the years when I was, in his words, "a sorry S.O.B." And I was. But he has also seen a dramatic transformation take place before his eyes, and has stood by and watched as God caused my life to blossom, flourish, and prosper more than any of our other five siblings. He knew that only God could bring this about. And he wanted to be a part of it.

One of the reasons it's so important for you and me to walk in covenant with God and learn how to tap into His covenant blessings is because of the other lives that it effects. People are looking for hope, and sometimes it's hard to find it in the world these days. God wants to bless you in order to establish His covenant in the earth (Deut. 8:18), which partly means that He is going to use you to make HImself look good in the earth.

So you enjoying the covenant blessings of God will help people find God and enter the Kingdom! And that's exactly what it's done for my brother, Gary. Praise God!

You are Who You Believe You Are

As a follow-up to this past Sunday's teaching, I feel it is important to stop and meditate on the truth of Psalm 23:7. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." (KJV)

Did you know that your life is where it is right now because of your mindset, what you believe about yourself? Some people have trouble getting to the next level in their lives, careers, finances, etc, because even though they might believe in and embrace the Biblical principles of prosperity, they still can't see themselves with abundance and operating in leadership positions. That stifles their potential, because a person can never go higher in life than where his/her expectations will take him/her.

What are you being held back by? Perhaps it would be a good exercise to stop and contemplate that for a few minutes. What mental barriers prevent you from being all that God created you to be, doing all that God created you to do, and having all that God created you to have? If you can answer that, then you have taken a very important first step in beginning the process of busting down that self-imposed barrier just like the Germans busted down the Berlin Wall so many years ago.

Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, has the God-given ability within them to succeed and live an extraordinary life. Why is it, then, that so many people don't? It's because of their belief, primarily, and because of their tenacity (or lack therof) secondly. Successful people believe in themselves and in their destinies, and they don't give up when things look like they are not going their way. They tenaciously go after their dream like a parent will tenaciously go after a child in a burning building. There is nothing that can stop them.

I encourage you to discover your self-imposed barriers and smash through those walls that have been holding you back. And then go after your destiny with tenacity.