Episode 4: Money in Your Marriage Part 4 of 4 - How We Give It
/Money in your marriage Part 4 of 4: Money - How we give it
Episode 004
January 28, 2019
Introduction
Who we are
Subscribe...it’s free!
4th and final part of our Money in your Marriage series (all of it has been info for singles too)
Discussion
How we give our money
Giving to our church
Giving to our family
Giving to our friends
Giving to those in need
1. Giving to the Church (We’ll come back to this one)
2. Giving to your family
Proverbs 13:22 A good person leaves an inheritance for their children’s children, but a sinner’s wealth is stored up for the righteous.
Gifts
Birthdays
Holidays
Special Occasions
Legacy
College
Inheritance
3. Giving to your friends
1 John 3:17 But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?
Gifts
Assistance
Wanna be in a position to GIVE and not loan. Lending creates hardships for the family/friend in need-they are already short of monies. Tension in the relationship.
Be ok with saying no if you aren’t able to give -your relationship is more important.
Can be a sacrifice
Spouses should not loan each other money… ONENESS. If one of you is “short”, you both are “short”-Allowance helps.
4. Giving to those in need
Charity
Matthew 6:2-3 "Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 3 "But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”. The ultimate sacrifice can show the love of Christ to others
Our closets are full of items we promised we were going to wear 15lbs ago. Someone could be using those gently used items.
Homeless in America- According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development's Annual Homeless Assessment Report, as of 2017 there were around 554,000 homeless people in the United States on a given night, or 0.17% of the population.
Share personal story-I try to go through my items 2x a year and donate to the city’s recycling program. If I come across something I’m no longer using I set it out on trash day.
School supplies for kids in need
5. Giving to your church
Tithe
Proverbs 3:9-10 Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops; 10 then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.
The tithe is God’s standard for giving. Not debatable.
Net vs gross
Old testament vs New testament
Read His Word for yourself
It is commanded, not optional!
Some people have the spiritual gift of charity and tithing is easy, natural, even supernatural.
Most of us don’t. We don’t get a pass because it’s not our gift.
This act of worship has unique promises.
Malachi 3:8-13
You find the promises…”See won’t I open up the windows of heaven…” is just the beginning!
Gifts/ Offerings
The tithe isn’t all of the giving that you can do at your church.
Give gifts to Pastors or leaders who have made a difference in your life or the lives of your family.
To help your church with special ministry initiatives.
Ministries that have impacted you or your family-Family Life
ACTION ITEMS
If you had a conversation about money this month that you wouldn’t have normally had go celebrate. You just started a new thing in your marriage and it will take it to new heights.
Pray for our podcast-we are praying for you.
Don’t forget to subscribe.
FEB-Join us in our next episode as we talk about “making date night spicey”
RESOURCES
Budget - Excel spreadsheet
Our Spending Plan (Budget) spreadsheet
Dave Ramsey - Total Money Makeover
The Total Money Makeover on Amazon
Money and Marriage God’s Way
Money and Marriage God's Way on Amazon
Follow Josh and Bre on Instagram (just click the links below)
NEXT EPISODE
Next we begin our discussion on Romance In Your Marriage.
Transcript
[00:13] Welcome to Sam and Erica's Marriage podcast. Here we will talk about practical ways to have an even better marriage and ways to handle the challenges that are sure to come. Regardless of where you are in your marriage, your age, or how long you have been married. This podcast is for you. We will discuss difficult topics from dealing with past hurts and unforgiveness to making date night spicy. Even if you're single, you probably want a better marriage than the marriages you've seen. Join us weekly as we discuss ways to make marriages better. We invite you to sit back, relax and enjoy the show.
[00:59] Welcome again to Sam and Erica's Marriage Podcast episode four, that's right, no zeros now. No zeros. You said no zeros. That's right cause we are like seasoned veterans now, right? Like we got this name right or not. It is episode four, we do, and episode four is our fourth and final installment in our series on money and marriage. We're going to be talking in this episode about how we give money. Before we get to the episode we do just want to take care of a little housekeeping. We've had lots of questions after our first three episodes about subscribe. What does it mean to subscribe? When you click the subscribe button, subscribe just loads the very next episode. Every time we drop an episode, if you've clicked subscribe, that episode is automatically uploaded into your player. It will never cost you anything. It's not like a magazine subscription or any kind of paid service.
[01:56] Subscribe simply means, and this is only when it applies to podcasting, subscribe just means that you'll get the next episode automatically. That's all subscribe does. So if you're listening to us on a platform that has a subscribe button, feel free to go ahead and click that subscribe button. The episodes come out every Monday, so on that platform expect to receive notification that the podcast is available. Awesome. Also, before we get started we want to just tell a quick story. We've gotten some great feedback, some great testimonies, but one in particular we wanted to share and that one was done by two friends of ours, Josh and Bre. Josh and Bre did an incredible review for our podcast. They actually shot a video, they did, and they posted it on their Instagram. It is the coolest thing. So we actually have their Instagrams in our show notes so you can follow em.
[02:53] They're great follows and you'll be able to see that review. Trust me, it is priceless cool stuff. We have also been getting some information wondering if the podcast is for singles and it is of course it's called Sam and Erica's Marriage Podcast because we're married, and the majority, they are going to be some topics that are specifically for married couples but this series is about finance. So you know, we've gotten testimonies from single women who are listening, single men who are listening and are getting good information. So we will be putting out information that's for a singles as well. Yeah, and even on most of the married topics, there are some people that are single but they're looking to get married. So these are things that they, they may want to know about, kind of getting a peak into what they're getting into.
[03:42] Or we have people that were formerly married and they just wanted to hear kind of what another person's perspective on marriage is. So we believe that it's something here for everyone. The things that specifically apply to married folk. Like when we start talking about romance and sex and making date nice spicy, we're going to let you know that those things are for the married folk y'all. Married folk only. Aright! So this, in this episode we're going to be talking about giving again. Giving is a super important part about how we handle money. As much as we do other things with money, we give money. And in this episode we kind of looked at money in four categories. We looked at how we give to our church, we looked at how we give to our family, how we give to our friends, and how we give to those in need.
[04:32] So we kind of broke giving out into those four categories. The the first being how we give to our church. How we give to our church is like uh, in some circles is a hot button item. So we're going to do that one last. We're going to skip that one, do that one at the end and we're going to move on to how we give to our family. As we were putting together this episode, uh, the scripture that came to my mind was Proverbs 13:22, and it reads, "a good person leaves an inheritance for their children's children, but a sinners wealth is stored up for the righteous". And to me that really just speaks to the principle that to, be a godly giver, that you have to be both intentional and very generous, like to give something to your children's children.
[05:25] That means that it has to be enough that it would be some left over after it got through your children. So it would have to take a pretty generous gift to be not only to your children, but also to your children's children. And of course you'd have to do that intentionally. So I think those are two principles that we look at, that we see in scripture when we look at giving to our family. When you talk about giving to our family, we actually came up with a couple of different categories. We came up with giving gifts, birthday gifts, we came up with holiday gifts, special occasion gifts. And another thing that giving does is it also teaches our children to give to one another and to give to those in need. So it's, it's a small word but it means a lot and it does a lot when you talk about the impact that it can have on other people.
[06:21] That is a great point Babe. I think when our children see us give good gifts that is one of the things that, and we've seen that in our household, like we talked about in previous episodes, how crazy bananas it is for Christmas. And it's crazy. It is crazy. But one of the things that I noticed as soon as our children were old enough or they had their own money, I mean there were earning their own money. It was, it almost looked a little abnormal how excited they would get about being able to give good gifts. Like that was the thing that excited them. And I think that only came from us in our attempts being an example in trying to give good gifts, like we just want it to be a givers of good gifts and it didn't always mean expensive gifts, but but of good gifts.
[07:17] So we broke this out into three categories. Like Erica said, birthdays. It is one of those kind of under the radar things, how many birthday gifts we could give in a year. Like just the family members. Like it's not just your children, but it's your parents, it's your siblings, it's your spouse's, siblings. It's those cousins that are really close and their children and all the people that you invite to your kid's birthday parties. All those family members, when their kids have birthdays, you have to show up with presents too. So we give lots of gifts for birthdays and I think that it's just an opportunity to share some of our blessings with our family to demonstrate generosity. We also adding to that, we give gifts and these are things that we don't even think about. We give them to our coworkers, we sure do, you know when we go around and collect money to put in the card or to collect money for the cake or for the gift that's giving, you know, we are making a sacrifice to bless someone else and that really is what giving is.
[08:22] It is just really an act of blessing someone else. That's exactly what it is. We also give gifts at holidays. That's another big one, you know, okay, you've given those birthday gifts, but Christmas we give gifts. That's one of those things that it kind of goes under the radar, but when you really think about how often do I give gifts? If you were to total them up, you would, you'd kind of be surprised. A special occasion gifts, you know, we give gifts when our children graduate from school or someone celebrating a special achievement, house warming. They're just so many times throughout the year that we're taking our money, converting it into something else and giving it away. Uh, most of us wouldn't, we don't consider ourselves generous givers, but most people when you really look at it, you give a lot more of your money away than
[09:20] You think, uh, we looked at another big category and that was, we call that legacy giving to our family. And the legacy gifts are more like your college fund for your children. We don't think of a college funding as a gift, but it certainly is because like when we put our kids through school, we didn't get anything back. That's right. We got like two tee shirts from each like $50,000 for a hat. Like we don't get anything out of that. That's solely for their benefit. And we don't ask for anything in return. So that's a gift. It is. When you put your children through college, that's a gift. Uh, we also think we thought about inheritance in the light of it being a gift. You know, that's something, again, you don't get anything out of it if you wanted, if you were selfish, you would spend all of your money and die with zero. But to leave an inheritance is giving a gift. And a lot of, for a lot of us, our inheritance will be the biggest gift that we ever leave. So we give a lot more than we think. We also give to our friends. Giving to friends is another one of those kinda hidden areas. Like we give away a lot of our money to our friends and that's a good thing, like we really should. Uh, we looked at another scripture, John 3: 17, 1 John 3:17 it reads, "but whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him. How does the love of God abide in him?" Like that in my mind is the premise behind how we ought to give to our friends. You know, if God has blessed us and, you know, we have an opportunity to be a blessing to someone else, someone that we know that scripture says his brother, someone close to us, then as believers that's something that we ought to be, not just able to do but ready to do. You know, be ready to give good gifts and we give those gifts. We give gifts but we also give them assistance and I think that's the second part of what that verse is talking about it's talking about when they're in need, when they have a lack, when they have lack in an area. We want to make sure um, and this is something that we think about, we talk about
[11:54] all the time you and I. That when you talk about giving gifts or giving, uh, to your friends in need, let's see, how can I say this in a way that's gentle. You want to be in a position to give and not really loan to your family or friend because we know a lot of times loaning money can put a damper on a relationship. It can also cause the family to go further into financial debt because in the beginning they don't, you know, you loan or you give somebody $150 they are already $150 short. So to continue to ask them for that $150 would just push them further in the hole. That's true. Then the other thing is, you know, as far as the relationship, if they don't pay you back, you don't really want that in between, you know, it's your cousin, right?
[12:45] You don't want to be looking at your cousin funny at the family reunion because they didn't give you that $150 or you see a picture of them on social media in Cozumel or uh, you know, the Dominican Republic and they, where is my $150. I can't go on vacation because I don't have my money, cause you got my 150, so you want to make sure that, you know, that's just something that you want to keep in mind. And then, you know, the other part is be okay with saying no, look, I love you. You're my cousin, you're my friend. I don't really have it to give to you right now. You know, I would love to give it to you and not need it back. But unfortunately I don't have it right now and be perfectly okay. Your love and our relationship is much more important than this $150, that is a beautiful point.
[13:33] I hate to make this like the, we did this in our house show, but we actually, this is something that we did and we talked with our children about this. When these opportunities came up that we would tell them that we don't lend money, that we give it to people when we can. And if we can't then we don't. And it was for those same reasons, Babe everything you said is so true. And I think we learned it the hard way. You know, we gave some money to a family member and then we see the family member with some new stuff and we're like, how'd you get that new stuff with my $200? You know you should be raggedy until I get my $200. Nothing new for you until I get my $200. But, and the sad part about that is that's how we feel. I mean, we really do feel that that person is indebted to us until we are given back what we believe is rightfully ours. And that's not the way that we're supposed to feel. We're talking about we are helping someone. So we really shouldn't have that burden on them when we're really trying to help someone in need. And when we did it, when we learned from that mistake and did it the other way, we got a chance to experience that liberation. You know, we had it to give, we gave it, sometimes we've given it
[14:52] and gotten it back. Sometimes we've given it and didn't get it back, but our expectation wasn't to get it back. Because if we couldn't afford to give it, then we just say, you know, we love you, but we can't afford to give you that. And it keeps the relationship intact. You know, it's so tragic when you hear people, uh, that have damaged relationships over a few dollars, you know, $100, $500 lifelong relationships destroyed over a hundred dollar debt. And it was just something we didn't want for ourselves and we didn't want that for our children. And that's why we talk to them about that very thing.
[15:34] We don't even let our children borrow money from one another. No. You know, that's, I mean, they're adults now and what they do of course is up to them. But that's something that we definitely discouraged. Yeah. Another thing that that is though is, you know, it's difficult, especially the first few times, you know, you got this cash and you're just going to let it go. It takes a certain mindset for that. That's where the spending plan can kind of come into play. Or even your allowance, you know, if you have your allowance, I have my allowance and I, if my family member or friend needs something and they're special to me, then I have to be willing to say, okay, am I gonna sacrifice my allowance to give it to this family member or a friend if they are in need? And if I do that, then you know, that's definitely up to me.
[16:21] And then, and then there's the hot button, like your, your pet peeve. Spouses. Yes. Spouses should not, in my opinion, and I agree with you, let me thrown it that out there. Spouses, I don't believe that it's a good idea for spouses to borrow money from one another. Uh, Sam talks about this all the time about oneness. If one of you are short or if one of you is short, then the both of you are short. That's right.. Because we're one flesh, right? Yeah. Yeah. You, it's, it's impossible for one person to have more money than the other. Again, that's where those allowances come in. You want to definitely make sure that your equal and you want to, you know, be responsible. Be Smart in how you spend your money.
[17:07] Yeah. And if you just happen to go and buy crazy stuff with your allowance, if though you just couldn't wait to get that new putter and the first day, you get your allowance, you go straight to Dick's Sporting Goods and get that putter, guess what? It's gone. That's right grown up. You're out until your next allowance because you got what you want. Don't be going trying to spend your wife's allowance put on your big boy pants. All right, so then, then there's giving to those in need. And I think this is probably the, uh, this is our greatest opportunity to be more like Christ. You know, this is a, a very biblical thing when we start talking about charity and of course Matthew 6 verses 2-3 talk about "therefore, when you when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may have their glory from men.
[18:08] Assuredly I say to you, they have their reward, but when you do charitable deeds, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing". You know something about those, uh, those red letters. You know, when Jesus is talking that gets your attention. And Jesus is just telling us that when we're doing this with the wrong motives, that there's no heavenly reward for that. You know, you, you're not doing this because you want to help somebody. You're doing it because you want to look good. That's who they, that's how he's talking about those hypocrites. That they are given something and they're doing a charitable deed, but their heart is in the wrong place. Right. And that's like the opposite of how Jesus wants us to give. The other thing I love about that verse is that it, it says when you give, when you do charitable deeds, it's not if you do one or or maybe sometime you might, Jesus just says this as if it's a part of our everyday life. It's something that we're going to be doing all the time. And I think that that's a mindset that us as believers, we have to adapt to. You know, we have to have that mindset, that mind that is in Christ has to be in us, that we have to be givers as well.
[19:26] One of the things that I like about this particular set of scripture is that there are three things that Jesus specifically talks about when we give, when we fast and when we pray. And that really, you know, just to piggy back off what you said, that really means that these are behaviors that we are expected to exhibit. We have no way out. It's not an option. These are things that we are expected to do. Jesus is saying these things right. You know, we don't have a choice. This is what we do. It's how we ought to live, it's how we ought to live. A scripture that comes to my mind when we talk about charitable giving is John, of course John 3: 16 "for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life".
[20:12] To me that really speaks about the ultimate sacrifice. You know, that is a, a sacrifice. And when you talk about giving, a lot of times giving really does involve a sacrifice. I talked earlier about, you know, the allowance and, and that thing. But the other part about that scripture is it really tells us that we are to give good gifts. You know, the best gifts. You know, it's a heart thing when we're giving to charitable organizations, you know, we're not going to really, we're going to give the gently used things. We're not going to really give the a baby clothes with the SIMILAC stains all over them, you know, because that's something that we wouldn't want to receive. You know, we you want to give the gently use, you want to give and if not, we know in small children the majority of the stuff is probably new
[21:03] Any way. You know when we go through our closets, we want to give that handbag that we haven't used in five years or you know, those jeans that we were going to wear when we lost the 15 pounds 25 pounds ago. Leave my pounds alone. We want to make sure that we, you know, that we're, that it, that it's a heart thing, that our heart is in the right place. That just because we're giving away something doesn't mean that we have to give our worst, we should really be giving our best. I agree. Another thing that I came across when we were preparing this was I did a little research and found out that on any given night as of 2017 it's 554,000 homeless people in the United States on any given night. That's .17% of the population. That's a lot of people. That's a lot of people. Can you imagine how many lives we can change if it was just one person at a time
[22:01] Uh, you know, giving blankets, giving gloves, giving something to make that person warm or even, you know, opening up homeless shelters. It's a lot of things that we can do in this country to, to decrease that number by a significant amount. It's one of those things, one of those areas that we often, you know, unfortunately we often, uh, like the, like the Good Samaritan. Oftentimes we're like those other guys, you know, we see those people, but we don't really engage them. You know we kinda keep it moving. You know, our lives, we can keep our lives moving, but these are those people that are in need the most, you know, and, and there are a lot of ways that we can contribute. You know, everyone can't take in a person, right? Everyone can't, you know, provide a home or employment or the medical or whatever kind of assistant that person needs.
[22:55] But there are other ways to help. Uh, one of the ways that we've helped is to partner with organizations that are actually doing the work. Like you don't have to figure out how to help a homeless person. Right? There are people that have been doing this thing for years. They're excellent at it. And man, would it change, would it make things so much easier for them if you could donate an amount of money regularly? Or if you could go down there on a day off and just see if they could use an able body for a few hours. Like those kinds of things for those kinds of organizations are game changers, you know, so there's always something we can do with those kind of with, to help out those people that are, that are really, really in need. Another area that is near and dear to my heart is school supplies for children.
[23:50] I am a believer in kids need to have as many school supplies as they possibly can in order to have a successful school year. You know, I know when we think about school supplies, we really don't think that it's that important, but it really is. You know, kids need to have as much as they can to be able to be successful. So what I like to do is I like to gather up school supplies in the beginning of the school year. I have so much, I have so much fun buying school supplies and you know, giving them to kids. And one of my girlfriends is actually a teacher. She works at a charter school in Cleveland and uh, they are, they have a lot of lack. They, she's an art teacher and they need a lot of things and the parents, unfortunately, they just can't afford them.
[24:39] And then we know, we hear stories all the time about parents or I'm sorry, teachers having to buy school supplies using their own monies. So this is something that is near and dear to my heart so, and its a way we can really make a contribution to our own community. Right, right. You know we can really do that kind of biblical giving, that kind of helping the least of these, you know, Jesus talks about that, you know, when you, when you've helped the least of these then then you helped me. And we have those kinds of opportunities all around us. We just have to, to take hold of them to really up our giving. And we also, we don't really think that, you know, we make a difference because we're just one person, but we really do. It really just takes one person to start moving and then that person will ignite a family.
[25:32] It'll ignite a community and before you know it, the issue has been eradicated. So you know it can be done and it can start with us. Right. It can start with us. That brings us to our final or first depending on how you look at it. Right, right, right. Which was giving to your church and you can't talk about giving to your church without talking about the tithe. I'm going to stay quiet on this one. I think I'm on my own on this one, but that's okay. We can move quickly. Let's start with the scripture. Proverbs 3:9-10, "honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all of your crops. Then your barns will be filled to overflowing and your vats will brim over with new wine". That's that first fruits promise. That's the first fruits of your increase. We hear all kinds of things about the tithe things that I had, just to be completely honest. These are like ways where people try to justify not giving the tithe, you know, things like, you know, am I supposed to tithe off the net or off the gross or, uh, another good one is like,
[26:44] you know, I'm a New Testament Christian and you know, that, that tithing for the Old Testament. You know, I don't, I'm not under the law, I'm under grace. You know, you hear about those things. So, uh, because I'm not anyone's pastor, I'll just say it this way. The Bible is really clear about what the tithe is, it's really clear about, uh, if we ought to in the new testament continue to give the tithe. So I challenge people to have some of those kind of questions to see what God has to say about the tithe, to see what God has to say about the net or the gross to see what God has to say about, does He say anything about the tie than the New Testament? If we look at New Testament giving, I think we'll have our answer like this isn't complicated. You don't have to be a theologian to answer these tithe questions.
[27:41] They're really clear in scripture. Another thing that we land on with the tithe and giving to your church, given a tithe to your church, is that it's not optional. It's commanded and you're going to find that when you start looking in your Bible to try to figure out if you are supposed to tithe, you new testament believer, you are supposed to tithe and it's not optional. I've heard people say, well, you know, I give a, I give 10% of my time. Oh yes, I have heard that too, tithe with my talent. Yeah. No bro being in the choir is not the tithe. Okay. And another really big thing that I have to share, because this is part of my testimony too, is that tithing has always been a challenge for me. Like it's never been like, it's a challenge. It's something that I have to consider, it's something that I have to uh, be prayerful about.
[28:37] Uh, for a lot of my own reasons. But a lot of it has to do with I feel obligated to the house, my household, and to make those financial choices and, and those things kind of creep up sometimes when, as I'm getting closer to actually putting it in the spending plan or taking it out of the bank. But a realization that I came to along the way was though, it's difficult for me. It, I don't get a pass. Like some people have the gift of charity. That's a spiritual gift. Some people have it, they just can't give up. My wife, Erica, is just a giver by nature. She loves giving, she's not married to a giver. I'm not a giver, but I don't get a pass. I still have to be obedient. And in that obedience I've learned that it's worship and I understand how you can struggle with it and still be cheerful because there is that moment when you have committed to be obedient to what God's Word says about
[29:41] giving the tithe into your church. Bringing it into the store house as it's said in Malachi and and it is a glorious moment because you are being obedient to God's Word. I think that's really good that you share that Babe because it's a lot of people who have problems in that area. I mean tithing is one of those things. It's interesting that it was listed first on your list, but then we talk about it at the end because it's just that sensitive. I don't know if it's a man woman thing, but I do hear a lot that it's an issue with men. Men don't really want to give their money to the church. I think another thing too is that husbands and wives, this is a conversation that they probably should sit down and have together to make the decision on how they're going to do it.
[30:31] I hear a lot about wives tithe, but their husbands really don't, or they don't tithe the 10%. But then as far as you really saying that you have an issue with that or you know, and you struggle with it, that's really good because there are a lot of people who do struggle with that and feel guilty because they are not a cheerful giver and believe that, you know, they're not tithing right or that their heart is not in the right place. So I think that's really good. That was really brave of you to share that and I appreciate that. Yeah. And not to get bogged down in this, but one of the things that happens when I share that with people, especially men, you know, and I'll share that with men, it's amazing how many people go yeah, me too, man. Me Too.
[31:14] You know? And I think that we have to share that and encourage each other. We don't say, you know, yeah, it's hard for us, so let's just not do it. No, we encourage each other. Right? We help each other. Right. We, we walk with each other in this spiritual discipline that is given of the tithe and I mentioned Malachi 3 and just really quickly, we always stop with that. You know, "see won't I open up the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that your barns won't be able to contain" and that's a beautiful thing. But if you go down a little bit further, you see some other promises in that section of Malachi 3, like verses eight through 13, where God says that he will rebuke the devourer for your sake. Like that's man stuff one on one right there. Like if there's no other reason to tie the fact that God will rebuke the devourer for your sake is a powerful promise from God. He also says that you're a vine will bear fruit in its season. Like he won't let your, the things that you invest in, he won't let them fail. He won't let them fail. That's, those are promises from God when we commit to the tithe, when we bring the entire tithe, uh, so tithing is crystal clear in scripture it"s something that believers have to do, but don't take my word
[32:40] for it, check out, check out the Bible. Uh, we, but we also give gifts to our church. We also give offerings to our church. Uh, the tithe isn't the, isn't all we give. A lot of times, you know, we give gifts to our Bible study leaders or Officers in our church or Pastors. There's just a lot of ways that you can give. We also give gifts to families in need in our church and you know, children in our church or smaller little groups or organizations in our church. And those are all opportunities to give offerings because that's really what an offering is. A is just another way of giving a gift. We also give, like when we have special ministry, uh, initiatives, you know, we hear a lot about building funds and stuff like that in churches,
[33:34] The building, yeah something about that kind of makes us feel a little different. For some reason we kind of automatically object to the building fund, but you know, when you really think about it, the church needs operational assistance sometimes. Yeah. And so, you know, there are things that need to be done and families are being blessed by the ministry. And so, you know, we want to pray about it and discuss it with one another but just be a little bit more generous in the giving as far as the building fund is concerned. And of course, you know, you have your own personal opinion on what it is or what they're doing with the money, but just, you know, that's something that we should really just think about it. Yeah.
[34:21] One of the things that, uh, had a lot to do with our selection of where we worship is if we thought, and we, we went to a church where we thought they weren't doing the right things with the money we did and we left immediately and they weren't. And then we later found out that they weren't like really bad jail. Right. Like jail. No names, but I think that we owe it to our family and to God as stewards of his money to be shrewd. If we see something that doesn't look right, then we need to investigate. And if we're in a place where that money isn't being used the way it should be, then we're probably not in the right place. We need to find a church that's really walking out the principles found in scripture. If we're not in that place, then we're probably not in the right place. We need to be somewhere where we can participate in this giving because giving is important.
[35:17] Another area we want to think about is, you know, ministries that have impacted your family. Uh, not necessarily where you worship, but you know, other ministries. We have partner with a ministry, we've been with them for about a year now and it's really because it had an impact on our lives personally. And so we decided, hey, if it really blessed us less help them to bless others. And that's another way that, uh, that you can give outside of your own church. That is giving actually that's money. That's money we're done with money is money four parts of money. We really appreciate you guys listening to this series on money. Money was not what we wanted to talk about right out of the gate. No, but we're glad we did. And it sounds like from a lot of the feedback that we've gotten that you guys were glad that we did too. So before we wrap this up, we've got a couple of things that we just want to ask, uh, you guys to do.
[36:18] The first one is that if you've had conversations about money this month that you wouldn't have had normally, that you should go and celebrate and go celebrate and you can either, I keep saying smoothie. I guess that's our date night we're Fasting right now you can go on, go on a date to rent a movie, do something different simply because, you have started on a new journey in your life. This is something that you haven't done before and I'm pretty sure even if you only had one five minute conversation out of all four podcasts, you did something different and something different. Your family, your marriage, your life will be blessed as a result of it. Yes, I agree. The second thing we ask is that like we ask and every after every episode, we ask that you pray for us and pray for this podcast when we get a chance to share some of the ridiculous things that God has done in these few weeks that we put out this podcast, you guys won't believe us.
[37:15] Like we have had some experiences that have come out of nowhere, uh, in these past few weeks. But, uh, we know that only happens because we have people out there that are praying for us and we want you to partner with us in prayer. Pray for us in our marriage because if we're like fighting, it's really hard. It'd be hard to do this podcast. So we want you guys to pray for our marriage, but to also pray for this podcast. Pray that, that we continue to put out something that people want to hear, the word of God, that we would be lifting him up, uh, and that it's successful. And we also want to remind you to subscribe. We talked about what subscribing means. So today, right now, look down at your phone and hit that subscribe button. The next thing, the final thing is next month is February, February, February is the love month. So we will be talking about making date night spicy. And I don't know if you can tell, but I'm really excited about this because this money thing has really been good and it has blessed a lot of people, don't get me wrong, but I'm really excited to move on to something else. Something Fun,
[38:36] something fun because we wanted to do fun in the beginning. That's right. I'm ready for making date night spicy. So tune in on Monday, first episode, first episode series on Romance Series on romance. Thanks again. Thanks again. God bless. God bless.