Perhaps the title of this article has you laughing and whispering to yourself, "Well, that shows you what he knows. I’ve had a financial problem for years!" The title is actually part of a quote by Duane Sheriff. The longer quote reads,

"People at large do not have a financial problem; they have a stewardship, discipline and faithfulness problem."

Duane’s comment appears in the book, The Storehouse Principle: A Revolutionary God Idea for Creating Extraordinary Financial Stability by AL Jandl and Van Crouch (p.160). The premise of the book is based upon Deuteronomy 28:8: "The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." (KJV)

When God led the Israelites into the promised land he blessed them with homes, fertile farm fields and fruit trees. All of their material needs would be met. But God looked for faithfulness and obedience from the Israelites. One area where their trust would be tested would be in the rest God demanded for the land. Every seven years the land was to lie fallow. Nothing could be planted. Just as the people and animals received rest every seven days, the land would receive rest every seven years.

What would people eat during that year of rest when the land would not produce food? The food grown in the sixth year would be eaten then and the extra food that God provided would be saved in a storehouse to eat during the seventh year and then into the eighth year when the people planted crops and waited for the harvest. The crops grown in year six would actually provide food for part of three years.

Would the people trust God to NOT plant their crops and allow the land to lie at rest? Would they obey God? That was a great test! At lest three spiritual attitudes would be necessary for the people to obey. They would need to be faithful. They would need to trust God and obey him whether it made sense to them or not! Secondly, they would need stewardship, meaning, they would need to manage their resources (food) responsibly. They would need to save food from year six to carry them through year seven and into year eight! Finally, they would need to practice discipline. No matter how tempted they might be to skimp on what they set aside or to dip into their reserves of food, they had to resist and practice restraint! Enough food had to be set aside to span three years, and strict faith, stewardship and discipline had to be exercised!

Drawing on this principle, authors Jandl and Crouch say the principle of God blessing the "storehouse" still applies to us today. We may not store food in our storehouse, but money. Money from every check we receive should be stored up and not touched. No matter how pressing our wants or needs (or even bills!), money must be set aside. When we practice restraint in our spending and save, we build a storehouse for the future which God promises to bless. If we don’t save, there is no storehouse for God to increase for us.

Saving in ancient Israel or today requires the same spiritual attitudes of faithfulness, stewardship and discipline. If we lack these virtues, we will spend everything we make and then pull out credit cards. Our financial world will spiral out of control. We will feel stressed, burdened and angry. We may think we need to make more money. But as one man who practiced the "storehouse principle" says in the book,"People at large do not have a financial problem; they have a stewardship, discipline and faithfulness problem." Often our financial problems are not that we don’t make enough money, but that we are not thankful for what we do have and we don’t exercise faith, stewardship and discipline. The heart of our financial woes is a heart that is not obeying God for our spiritual and material security.

Warren Baldwin

ULYSSES CHURCH OF CHRIST WEEKLY NEWSLETTER JUNE 3, 2007 THOSE SERVING US TODAY

SONG SERVICE: John Turner

OPENING PRAYER: Karl Baker

LORD’S TABLE: Gene Pflughoft, Keith Steele

SCRIPTURE READING: Brian French, Mark 9:33-37

SERMONS: AM: The Covenant Community (Jerry Palmer); PM: Wes Baldwin

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Karl Baker

CLOSING PRAYER: Ken Kistler

POWERPOINT: Tracy Caffey

BACKROOM/AISLE: Rick Trejo