Dear Christian friends:

All of us agree that we should honor God: Honor Him by speaking praise prayers and holy hymns. Honor Him by going to Church. Honor Him by a good clean life. Nobody in the Church will argue against that.

But if the pastor says Honor God with your money, many become flustered and displeased and don't want to hear about honoring God with their money. They think the pastor should be quiet about that and let people be free to do little or nothing about that.
But the Bible says much about money, and so we should also preach about it. Here in our text Solomon tells us to:

I. Why should we honor the Lord with our money? Because He is our Lord. Solomon here calls Him "the Lord." God is the Landlord over the whole world. The Bible says: "The earth is the Lord's, the world and all that live on it are His." And again through His prophet He says: "The silver is mine, and the gold is saith the Lord of hosts." Haggai 2:8 "The cattle upon a thousand hills are all Mine."

When I talk to my neighbor I can say, "This is my house." But when I think of God and talk to Him I can't say that. But I must say, "This is Your house, God. All that I have is not really mine but Yours." All I have here on earth is Gods. And so we say in the First Article: "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. I believe that God has made me and all creatures etc." "The eyes of all wait upon thee, O Lord, etc...." So God is My Lord I should pay Him the rent. If you don't pay your rent you act as if you have no Lord. And your Lord will call the police. So if we refuse to honor God with our money we act as if He is not our Lord and invite His punishment. This is the big sin of man. He refuses to honor God as Lord. And often we Christians still do that wicked thing.

But remember God is our Lord also because of Jesus: God did not forsake us in our stubborn sins, but sent His Son to die on the cross for us to pay for our sin and rebellion. He also gave the Holy Spirit through His Word to warn us about our sin and to invite us to sorrow and then faith in Jesus for our forgiveness. Paul says, "Ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods." 1 Corinthians 6:20

So we should honor the Lord with our money. By that we impress upon ourselves and others that God is our Lord and we are his servants or managers. (stewards)

II. We should honor the Lord with our money. How much should we give to the Lord from our earnings? Solomon says here "honor Him with the first fruits of all of all thine increase." Many church members are glad to give God a little, 1 or 2% of their income. But few are glad to give Him 5 or 10%. We give him our last fruits. We buy food, cars monthly payments, house payments, T.V., clothes even sports etc. first and what's left we give to God. That is not honoring God. That is mocking Him. God doesn't want our last fruits; He wants our first fruits. Honor the Lord with your money and with the first fruits of all your increase.

Many of us need to change our ways and spending habits and put God first not last.

III. But you argue, "I can't do that. If I do that I will not have enough for myself. I can't pledge 5 or 10% of my income. I don't know what will happen. May get sick or may lose my job then what? Well, first we must be careful and trust in God to provide our food and jobs. If we worry about the future and refuse to give to God we show little or no faith in our mighty God. He knows how to provide a job and food for us. And here in our text He promises extra blessings if we honor Him with our first fruits. He says in verse 10, "Then shall your barns be filled with plenty and your presses shall burst out with wine." Solomon says your store houses or barns will be full and you will even have plenty good wine, if you trust God and honor Him as Lord with your first fruits.

But if we doubt God and His promise or pledge here and keep back all for ourself, then He can keep back His blessings from us He can give us sickness and war; high taxes to destroy our money. God knows how to fix us if we try to cheat Him. He also knows how to bless us and protect us if we do right and honor Him with our money, our first fruits.

We can see that happening even today. In 1959 the average church member gave only $69.00 for God and the average income per person in the U.S. is $3,000 for husband and wife $6,000. On average $69.00 is only 1% of our income in America.

Many give God last fruits. Now God is not blessing us. We have much trouble with Russia, cold war. Taxes to build planes and rockets are high. Food prices continue to go up. Inflation. Americans are cheating God. Church members are not honoring Him with their first fruits. So God is giving us plenty of trouble. By this trouble He wants us to wake up and be sorry and seek His forgiveness. Change our bad spending habits. Honor Him in all things also with our substance money. Here He promises to bless us. Let us promise to honor Him.

Amen.