Thank you for listening to this message from
Lifehouse Church. Good morning. If you're new
with us here this morning, welcome. It is so
good to have you in worship, and you've done
that through song, and it's good to have you
now for the Word. And I want to do this. I know
they talked about the picnic, but if you came
this morning and you're like, well, I didn't
really make plans to go to the picnic, can I
tell you, change your plans. You'll love it.
Please come out to the picnic. There's tons of
food. There's so much food we don't know what
to do with it all. So please come help eat. But
the great thing that happens at the picnic is
fellowship. We get a chance to just sit down
and talk with one another in a super casual setting
and spend time. And that doesn't always happen
on a Sunday morning. Sometimes things go quick.
Hopefully it's happening in life groups. But
just if you can, if you can possibly get there,
please come out. We'd love to spend time with
you this morning. All right? Well, many people
in the congregation know this, but I grew up
in a small town in Western PA. I'm not going
to say the town. It's a little town, but how
many of you live in a little town? Sometimes
you attend a little church. Yeah, all right.
I went to church, a smaller church setting, and
I remember something, actually many things specifically,
that happen in a small church that don't happen
when a church gets a little larger. And one of
those things, by virtue of size, is we used to
have something back in the 80s and the 90s called
testimony service. Anybody remember that? When
everybody, like not just one person got up and
testified because it was a small church. Everybody
testified, right? You get up and you stand in
a circle. And we still actually do this here
on Revive Night. At the end of every Revive,
which is a worship night that happens here on
Sunday nights, once a quarter. At the end of
the Revive, the last 10, 15 minutes, we just
stop all the music. We've stopped the worship
and praying. And we come together and just hand
the mic around and testify. And what the idea
is to hear what God's done, right? to hear how
God's worked something out in somebody's life
and to give glory to God. And I remember that
in a small town and in a small church, and I
always loved the testimony service because sometimes
it got wild, okay? How many know you can't control
what somebody's going to say? You hand them a
microphone, that's a dangerous thing. All right.
And they would hand people the microphone and
church was live and uncensored. So, you know,
you just never knew what was going to come out
of somebody's mouth. And most of the time it
was something really great. And somebody would
testify. We'd be like, yeah, man, you know what
God's done in somebody's life. But then you would
get that person who kind of missed the whole
idea of testifying and giving glory to God. And
they would get up and they'd be something like
this. I got to say, the devil's been on me all
week. Right? You know, he's been on my back all
week. And they'll start to do a story about the
devil's in my car. Their car broke down, right?
The devil's been in my car. The devil's been
in my lawnmower, right? The devil was in my toaster.
I heard it all, right? The devil's been in my
bank account, which meant they spent too much
money, right? And they didn't have enough for
the week. The devil was in the sound system.
At the church, I meant there was feedback in
the mic, right? The devil was in the sound. They
would start down that road and you're like, you're
kind of missing the point here, right? And ultimately
somebody would go, the devil's been on my back
all week. And then somebody would speak up and
say, well, you need to quit giving them a place
to sit. You know, so it's like, amen, amen. You
know, all that kind of stuff was going on. And
I remember that as a kid, you know, somebody
quoted scripture like God, you know, he who's
greater, God's greater in me than he that's in
the world. And you would hear people just kind
of cheering each other on and sometimes even
kind of correcting each other along the way.
But the reality is this, right? That the devil
really can attack. A lot of things. He can attack
our money and possessions, the things that are
in our bucket. He can attack relationships. He
can attack all these different things. John 10
.10 tells us that, right? The thief does not
come except to steal, kill, and destroy. That's
what the Word of God says. And Jesus said, I've
come to give you may have life, and you might
have it more abundantly. We know that. We know
1 John 4 is true as well, right? It says, you
are of God, little children, and have overcome
them. That's talking about Satan and the work
and the evil that he does, right? Because he
who is in you is greater than he that's in the
world. We know this. And Satan does. come against,
he does attack, and sometimes even in the area
of our money and possessions, he comes against
us. And the reality is that overcoming Satan's
work in our life many times is as simple as this.
It's as simple, not all the time, but most of
the times as simple as doing God's will. Doing
his will, right? God's will with my buckets.
God's will be done in my relationship. God's
will be done in my emotional and my mental bucket.
We all have those buckets. And even in the money
and possession buckets, even in the bucket where
God puts money and possessions for us to manage,
right? And a lot of times we mystify the will
of God. We make it this mysterious thing that's
super hard to grab a hold of. We act like somehow
it's hidden in this spiritual fog. And if we
pray just right, if we just do the right motions,
right, in a religious manner, we'll somehow be
able to grope our way through the fog and grab
a hold of God's will and everything's going to
work out. And it seems like this exhausting.
Difficult practice. But the reality is that knowing
God's will, even in our money and possessions,
is two things. It's knowing his word, right?
The word of God. What does God's word have to
say about the matter? And then hearing the Holy
Spirit. It's a two -step process. If you want
to find God's will for your life, know the word
of God. Know what God spelled out in scripture
and what he has to say about whatever it is that
you're... Seeking them about, even in money possessions,
right? And then hearing the Holy Spirit. Because
here's what happens. His word will give you what
to do. His word will speak what you should do
to hear God's will. And the Holy Spirit will
give you the where, when, and how to do it. That's
why he put the Holy Spirit active in your life.
So when it comes to our money and possessions
in the bucket, right, that God's given us, we've
got to ask the question, what is God's will for
me in spending money? What's God's will in saving
money? How much should I give? How much should
I save? Should I save, right? We start asking
those questions. What's the Bible have to say
about? How much money should I have in the bucket?
And how much shouldn't I? How many possessions
should I have in the bucket? How much shouldn't
I, right? Should I have a lot? Should I have
a little? Should I save it all? Should I give
some of it away or all of it away? What's the
word of God have to say? What's it look like?
So we've got to ask this question and we got
to go to the word of God. So this morning, what
I'm going to do is I'm going to take you to one
of the wisdom books in scripture, Proverbs chapter
six. If you've got your Bibles, you can turn
there. If you've got your notebooks, go ahead
and get them out. If you don't have a notebook,
we sell them right outside. All right. At the
connection station, you can get yourself a life
house notebook. We encourage you taking notes,
but I want you this morning to go to Proverbs
chapter six and we'll start with verse six. And
it says this. Now we're looking for God's word,
right? Tell us what to do. It says this, go to
the ant, you sluggard, consider her ways and
be wise, which having no captain, overseer or
ruler provides her supplies in the summer and
gathers her food in the harvest. How long will
you slumber, oh sluggard? When will you rise
from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall
your poverty come on you like a prowler and your
need like an armed man. I wanna take you this
morning on a slice of money and possessions,
and we're gonna talk about saving money. Saving
money. What's God's will when it comes to saving
money? And I'm here this morning to tell you
that you're gonna learn from a bug, okay? You're
gonna learn from an insect. Turn to somebody
right now, tell them we're gonna learn from a
bug today. We're gonna learn from a bug, all
right? Declare it, all right? Shake your neighbor,
wake him up. All right, we're gonna learn from
a bug this morning. We really are. What's God's
will, you know, with money and possessions, one
in my bucket, about saving? And I can tell you
this for certainty. It is God's will for us to
save money. It is God's will for us to save money.
Go to the aunt. You sluggard. I'm not calling
you sluggard, by the way. He was talking to somebody
else. All right, go to the aunt, consider her
ways, and be wise. It is not an ungodly thing
to save money. It is actually biblical to have
a savings account. It is biblical to set money
aside. Now, as I talk about that, the Word of
God makes some very clear distinctions in this.
It's biblical to save money. It is not biblical
to hoard money. There's a difference between
the two, right? The Word of God tells us we can
save money, but we don't want to hoard money.
And Jesus actually lays this out very clearly
in Luke 12, verse 16. He says this, he tells
a story, a parable. Then he spoke a parable to
them saying, the ground of a certain rich man
yielded plentiful, right? It was yielding a lot
of fruit. And he thought within himself saying,
what shall I do since I have no room to store
my crops? So he said, I will do this. I will
pull down my barns and build greater and there
I will store all my crops and my goods. Then
I will say to my soul, soul, you have many goods
laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat.
drink and be merry. But God said to him, fool,
fool, this night your soul will be required of
you. Then whose will those things be which you
have provided? So is he who lays up treasure
for himself and is not rich toward God. If my
purpose for saving money is to pack that money
away solely for me, myself and I, You're in dangerous
territory. You're hoarding it up for yourself,
right? And that's a sinful approach with saving
up money. Making as much as I can, stuffing it
in the can, and then sitting on the can so I
can dip out of the can later on, right? That's
all about me. And I'm out of God's will for money
and possessions when I do that. When I slip from
saving over into hoarding, I'm out of God's will.
for my possessions and for the money that God
places in my bucket. An ant stores up, an ant
saves up, right? An ant goes out and collects
and brings back something for two reasons, two
reasons. An ant knows, first of all, that winter
is coming and there's gonna be no food to be
found. That's what an ant knows, right? And then
secondly, the ant knows that the entire colony
needs to eat. during that season. If you look
to the end, we save for winter and we save to
sustain ourselves and others, right? We save
for the winter and we save to sustain ourselves
and others. Can I tell you that there will be
a winter season in your life? There will be.
Turn to somebody, look at them, tell them there's
going to be winter. It's going to be winter.
I know it's hot today, right? It's beautiful
today. But this is going to be winter. You're
going to have a season in your life where winter
is going to come. And it's not going to be a
time of plenty. There's going to be a time in
life that comes, and it could be something like
a sickness that comes upon you, or it could be
an injury that comes upon you, and you may not
be able to go out and work. You might not be
able to functionally go out and make money and
bring it in and pay for those basic needs that
you need in life, right? Food, clothing, and
shelter, and those kinds of things. You're going
to hit winter. There's going to be a season come.
You live long enough, you're going to hit a winter
season. You might blow your knee out. I did that.
When I was younger and I was working, I blew
my right knee out and I had to go get surgery.
And the job I was in at that time, I had to have
my knee. I had to have it actually at 100 % because
of some of the physical things that I was doing
in my job. And I was off for a couple months
just recovering and recuperating. And for some
reason, nobody wanted to pay me just to heal
up. I didn't understand. They didn't want to
do it, right? It wasn't a job -related injury.
There was no workers' comp involved. It was none
of that. I just, I was off work. It was winter.
There was no money coming in, right? You might
get laid off from your job. The company you're
working for may sell or condense or collapse,
and you might hit a season where it's going to
be winter. And you may have to stop working to
take care of a family member that's in a difficult
place. Winter will come. You live in central
Pennsylvania. Winter will come, right? The leaves
will fall. We're just about ready to head into
that season. The leaves will fall. Nothing's
gonna bear fruit in that season. And there'll
be a season where nothing is growing on the trees.
Nothing, there will be nothing to eat. And if
you're not in a winter right now, you could probably
look at the person beside you. They might be
in a winter right now. And you may get there
at some point. They need another aunt to provide
sometimes, you know, not just spiritually and
praying for somebody, but sometimes provisionally.
It's God's will to save for winter and it's God's
will to save and share up with others. It really
is. And not only is it God's will for us to save,
right? Get ready for winter and to help others,
but it's God's will for us to save wisely. Wisely.
Wisely. Amen? Say wisely. Say it to yourself.
The book of Ecclesiastes was written by King
Solomon. He was the third king of Israel, and
he was King David's son. And you've got to understand
something about Solomon. Solomon was given unusual
wisdom, actually divine wisdom. The word of God,
and I'm going to read it for you just so you
understand and hear right from God's word. Solomon's
wisdom was beyond conventional wisdom. His wisdom
was beyond what's normal. His wisdom was beyond
what is regular. And it actually came from God
himself. If you've got your Bibles, you can turn
to 1 Kings 3, verse 4. If not, they're going
to put it up on the screen. But it says this.
Now, the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice. He
was talking about Solomon. For that was the great
high place. Solomon offered a thousand burnt
offering on that altar. At Gibeon, the Lord appeared
to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said,
ask what shall I give you? How many know that's
a good dream? God appears to you in a dream and
says, ask whatever you want, and I'll give it
to you. How many would like that dream tonight?
I'm the only one? Come on, be honest, all right?
And Solomon said, you have shown great mercy
to your servant David, my father, because he
walked before you in truth and righteousness
and in uprightness of heart with you. You have
continued this great kindness for him and you
have given him a son to sit on his throne as
it is this day. Now, O Lord my God, you have
made your servant king instead of my father David,
but I am a little child. I do not know how to
go out or come in. And your servant is in the
midst of your people whom you have chosen, a
great people, two numbers to be numbered or counted.
Therefore, give to your servant. an understanding
heart. Solomon's asking God to give him an understanding
heart. He's becoming king of all of Israel. To
judge your people that I may discern between
good and evil. For who is able to judge this
great people of yours? The speech pleased the
Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. And God
said to him, because you have asked this thing
and you have not asked for long life for yourself,
you have not asked riches for yourself, you have
not asked the life of your enemies, but you have
asked for yourself. understanding to discern
justice behold I have done according to your
words see I have given you a wise and understanding
heart so that there has not been anyone like
you before you nor shall there be any like you
arise after you and I have also given you what
you have not asked for both riches and honor
so that there shall be not be anyone like you
among the kings all your days So if you walk
in my ways to keep my statutes and my commandments
as your father David walked, then I will lengthen
your days. God promises him exceptional wisdom.
Wisdom that would not be compared. And God holds
true to this promise. Solomon is so wise that
kings and queens from other nations would travel
long distances just to sit in his presence and
listen to what he has to say. Wouldn't that be
amazing, right? Sometimes you can't get people
to come across the street to listen to what you're
going to have to say. He had people travel, wise
people, people of influence would come. He had
wealth beyond measure. Solomon was so wealthy
that he would make probably some of the most,
you know, think of whoever, Bezos or Gates, some
of these people who are so wealthy. Now, he'd
probably make them look like paupers. He was
that wealthy. He was, God blessed him. He didn't
have buckets of money. He had vats of money,
right? He had truckloads of money, but he begins
to give advice on what we should do. Now, how
many know that's a guy to listen to? I did all
that just to say, he's a guy you should probably
listen to. He's a guy you should probably read
about what he has to say when it comes to saving
money and maybe take up a little bit what he's
talking about. So in Ecclesiastes 11 .1, he starts
to give some advice. about financial matters.
He starts to talk about what we should do. And
he says this, cast your bread upon the waters
for you will find it after many days. Give a
serving to seven and also to eight for you do
not know what evil will be on the earth. If the
clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves
upon the earth. And if a tree falls to the south
or to the north in a place where it falls, there
it shall lie. He who observes the wind will not
sow and he who regards the clouds will not reap.
As you do not know what is the way of the wind
or how the bones grow in the womb of her who
is with child. So you do not know the works of
God who makes everything. In the morning sow
your seed and in the evening do not withhold
your hand. For you do not know what will prosper,
either this or that, or whether both alike will
be good. Solomon gives some wisdom and he gives
some guidance on saving and investing. And the
first thing that he says is, cast your bread
upon waters for you will find it after many days.
Do you know what he was saying? Do you know what
the wisdom is that he was talking about here?
He was saying, make long -term investments that
will pay dividends in the future. So when you're
gonna save, when you're gonna put money aside,
he's saying, make long -term investments. You
put it in something that's gonna yield return
later on. right? Do not stick it in your piggy
bank that you can peel off. How many of you got
a piggy bank? You can just peel that bottom off
and shake that thing out and get that money right
back out again. That's not what he's talking
about. He's talking about putting it in the piggy
bank and glue the plug shut. Put it in something
that's going to yield interest. Put it in something
that's going to be long -term. And long -term
is not just put it in the bank. You can get an
interest checking account, put it in there, and
then next month you can draw it right back out.
That's not what he's talking about. He's talking
about something that's going to be years, maybe
even decades down the line. And Solomon's saying,
put it in there. And he reiterates this in verse
3. He says, if the clouds are full of rain, they
empty themselves upon the earth. He's actually
giving investment. advice here. Money advice.
And he's saying it will come to maturity in due
time. Just be patient. If you're going to save,
think long term. If you're going to save, think
long term. And you should save. A cloud when
it rains, right? Water droplets, that's after,
what happens up in a cloud is there's water droplets
and ice crystals that are in that cloud. And
as the water evaporates on the earth and it condensates
up in that cloud, it will stay in that cloud
because of the updraft in the clouds and the
wind, it will stay up there till enough of it
accumulates together and then gravity will take
over and it will fall to the earth. And Solomon's
saying, just put it away. Let it accumulate.
Let it grow. Let it get bigger. Some of you young
couples in here, you need to hear me in this.
Just take a little bit. Set it aside. Just take
a small portion. Because over time, that grows.
And it turns into a much bigger thing. And it
will drop back to you, right? That's his point.
It takes time for water droplets to engage, enlarge,
and for them to fall. It takes time for seeds.
You put a seed in the ground. I mean, you don't
plant a seed in the spring and you just stand
there and just wait, right? 10 minutes later,
whoop, there it goes. All right, you got a pepper
plant. There it is, tomato plant. That doesn't
work that way. It takes time. It takes time.
Come on, this is good advice. I should be charging
you for this, all right? I'll say it again. Winter's
gonna come. It's going to come to you. Others
around you are going to need help. They're going
to need sustenance in the winter. And if you're
saving, if you're putting away, you're going
to get at a time in the future where you're able
to not only sustain yourself, but bless others.
Solomon's second savings advice. You still with
me? Say amen. Amen. All right. Make long -term
investments that will pay dividends. That's the
first one. Spread your money out into several
different types of investments to protect your
assets from calamity that you cannot foresee.
All right? He speaks that in verse 2. He says,
give a servant to seven and also to eight, for
you do not know what evil will be on the earth.
My parents used to use a phrase. They used to
say, don't put all your eggs in one what? Yeah,
right? They'd say, don't put all your eggs in
one basket. Do you know why they say that? Because
you might drop the basket. And if all your eggs
are in there, they're all ruined. Make sure you're
investing in multiple different things. Solomon
says saving in different kinds of things, seven
or eight different things. You might be in stocks.
You might be in real estate. You might be in
bonds. You might be in precious metal. There's
a host of places that you can put investment
and save, right? He's saying save. Make sure
you're investing in seven or eight different
streams. Because you just don't know what's going
to fail. And if you put it all in one, if you
put it all in real estate and the market goes
in the toilet and you got to sell then, you've
lost it all. He says, this is good stuff, by
the way, with savings, right? You know, I know
people who don't trust the banks. They don't
trust financial advisors, Christian financial
advisors. They don't trust anybody. They're kind
of stuff it in the mattress kind of people, right?
They get all the cash and they stuff it in the
mattress and they don't tell anybody. And then
they get some more cash and they stuff it in
the mattress because they don't trust anybody.
And they don't put it in seven or eight. They
just keep sticking it in the mattress. Well,
that's all wonderful while you're laying on the
mattress. But what if the house burns down? All
right. What if you're sticking it in the floorboards,
under the floorboards and you're sticking that.
of cash in there and a mouse finds it and says,
you know what? That looks like some good nesting
material if I ever saw it, right? And chews it
up, makes himself a nice little nest with all
that. You know, the word of God saying just,
you know, when you're saving, look for those
seven or eight strings. Don't put it all in one
basket. You don't know what's going to fail and
what's going to do well. This is wisdom from
Solomon. This is from the word of God. He gives
his serving to seven or eight because you don't
know what evil is going to befall one of them.
You don't know. Spread it out. Last one. Last
one I'm going to give you today. If you wait
for the perfect conditions to save, you'll never
start to save. Now, I like this one, right? He
says, he who observes the wind will not sow,
and he who regards the clouds will not reap.
If you just stand watching for the right time,
the perfect time, if you're a farmer and all
you do is stare at the cloud every day, You get
up and you stare at the cloud and you're like,
there's a cloud. I don't think I can do it today.
It's going to rain. I just got to wait, right?
I don't know. This might not be the day. You
know, this isn't the perfect conditions to do
this. And I'll tell you, with finances and money
and possessions and what God gives us, this falls
true with giving to God, right? This happens
all the time with people that are going to, you
know, we'll talk to them about tithing and giving
God the first and first fruits and giving the
best. I preached on that last two weeks, you
know, and giving God the first fruits. And they're
like, well, when conditions are just right. No,
you plant. You don't worry about what the conditions
look like. You plant, you do that. And it's the
same thing with saving. If you wait till you
got enough extra money to put some money in savings,
you'll. never do it. How many know there's always
something to buy? There's always something to
pay for? Your kid is always going to break something
in the house. It's going to happen. They're going
to do it, right? There's going to be something
that falls apart. Your kid's going to need sporting
equipment of some kind. Whatever it is, there's
always something. And if you wait for the conditions
to be just right, you will stand paralyzed. You
will never give and give God the first and the
best. Right? And you will not save. You will
say, someday I'm going to do it, and someday
I'll have it. Come on, some of the people that
are over 50 years of age, how many know in a
blink of an eye, you're over 50? Amen? Raise
your hand. Come on, testify. Amen. Thank you.
You're in the club with me. All right? It's the
wisdom that Solomon gets if the worship team
would come and make their way up. It's the wisdom.
Prayer team's going to be coming as well. Listen
to what Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 11, five.
Listen to what he says. As you do not know what
is the way of the wind or how the bones grow
in the womb of her who is with child, so you
do not know the works of God who makes everything.
In the morning, sow your seed and in the evening,
do not withhold your hand for you do not know
which will prosper either this or that or whether
both alike will be good. That's what the Word
of God says. What's his advice? Entrust it, right?
You don't know. If we do things according to
the will of God, the Word of God, right? The
Word of God says to do this, and we do it, and
then we ask the Holy Spirit when, where, and
how. That's what we do. We walk in obedience,
and then we ask the Holy Spirit to give us the
when, where, and how, and with who. You don't
know what God's going to do. You don't know how
something's gonna flourish or God's mysteriously
gonna touch, just like you don't know where the
wind comes from and where it goes. God's hand
will be upon it and it will mysteriously do this
amazing thing, this amazing work. It'll grow.
You don't know, just like we don't understand
how a child's bones form. I don't know if you've
ever been in with a woman who's pregnant and
they're doing an ultrasound. It is incredible
to see them. going over and you see this image
come up on the screen and you can see the bones
grow of a child. We don't understand that fully,
but I know God does it. And here's the thing,
if you get God involved in your money and possessions,
you do it his way and not your way, you start
walking in that, you start being obedient in
that, I'm telling you, there's amazing, mysterious,
miraculous things that can happen. I could take
you in this congregation. I could pull people
out right now, hand them the mic, and they would
tell you the stories of what God has done. Incredible
stories. Amazing what God's done. He wants you
to be obedient. He wants you to walk in what
he says so that his hand can be upon it. He's
the one who blesses it. Jesus, when he was on
the hillside and there wasn't enough food to
feed 4 ,000 or 5 ,000, he said, just take what
you got and put it in my hand. And he blessed
it and he broke it. And 4 ,000 and 5 ,000 people
ate till they were full and there was plenty
left over. It's gonna be like the church picnic
today. Come on. It's true. I'm gonna ask you
to stand. So here's what I'm asking you. And
I'm going to challenge your belief this morning.
Because it doesn't really matter what you think
necessarily if you don't believe it. You can
think a lot of things. I think about a lot of
things. And a lot of it's stuff I just don't
necessarily believe. I'm just mulling it over
in my head. What really matters is what you believe.
What really matters is what you have faith in.
Because whatever you believe is what you act
on. You don't believe on what you think. You
believe on what you act or what you, you move
on what you believe, not what you think. Yeah.
I could talk all day about that. People, people
think a lot of things. Amen. They like to get
on the keyboard and talk all about what they
think. That's a far cry from what you believe.
So what do you believe? Do you believe that if
you obey God in what he says with money and finances,
with giving and saving, right? If you believe
what he says and what Solomon speaks and the
wisdom that's in God's word, if you believe that,
do you also believe that if I'm obedient to that,
God's miraculous hand will be upon that and things
will happen that you can never dream of? Amen?
Do you believe that? Because you will only act
in what you believe. You can think this is a
good idea. You can think, well, that was a great
message and you're going to leave today and go
to lunch and come to the picnic and eat food
and you'll forget all about it. As a matter of
fact, I'm pretty happy if anybody remembers my
message by lunchtime. So I consider that a complete
success. What do you believe? What do you believe?
personally affected by our ministry and you would
like to partner with us as we love God, love
people every day, visit our website at