Welcome to the For the Gospel Podcast, where we provide sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Kosti Hinn. And whether you're listening to this on your favorite podcast platform or watching on our YouTube channel, I'm really thankful that you've joined me today for this episode where I'm going to be answering your questions from our series we just went through on money, financial planning, saving, investing, all of it, and of course giving. Now, the entire premise of the series was that Christians should be the best money managers because God, our God, is the best financial advisor. And so you have sent in questions. I'm ready to answer. Let's do it. The first one is this Can you provide wisdom on giving versus how much to save and invest? Okay, really good question. I would say the 80 10 10 principle is a good place to start as a baseline. And that's where I would say you're living off of 80, you're giving 10, and you're saving and investing 10. I certainly would consider giving as much more or as equal to what you're saving and investing. If you're not really giving much to the Lord's work, but you're a big saver and a big investor. That's something to think through. There shouldn't be a massive difference where your giving is sparing, but you know, you're just you're just killing the game in your savings and investing, unless you're in a season where maybe you're purchasing a home or your retirement contributions are being caught up on. But why 80, 10, 10 is a great baseline is you can always go up from there. When you're living on 80, you're giving 10 and you're saving and investing 10. Maybe you end up starting there or you adjust to, you know, 70, 10, 10, 10, where you live off 70 because your income is stronger than it used to be. You give 10%, you save 10%, and you invest 10% separately. That might be a great baseline for people if it makes sense. You might have some debt that you're trying to go after. And so you slice that up, however, works best for your life. But here's the deal: you got to start somewhere. And so when you're asking a question about giving versus saving and investing, well, I think if at the very least your baseline is clear, you'll have a plan for giving, you'll have a plan for saving and investing, and you can mix and match. Let's say you were abundantly blessed. You might be able to live off 50 and then give and save and invest with the other 50, split up. I mean, that's probably a really fun problem that people would love to have as Christians, where you're using and giving the Lord's money wisely, but seasons matter. Some questions that you could ask. Am I paying off major debt? Am I unemployed? Am I experiencing really heavy surpluses? Well, if you are, then 80, 10, 10 is too little. You could live off less because you're making so much more. You can give more and invest and save more. Maybe you're struggling financially. Those numbers need to adjust. Or you're saving for a home, a wedding, a vehicle, college, or again, you're after 50 years old, catching up on retirement contributions. None of this is grieving the Lord because you've maxed out your contributions and you're using wisdom because you're past the age of 50 and you didn't necessarily do much retirement planning before that. There's gonna be a lot of factors, but a baseline will give you a structure to work from that point. Number two, is it right for a single woman to be supported financially by her parents during and after college? Well, yes, generally speaking, but this would depend on her situation. If she's able to work, she's single, then, you know, why not go to work? Why not do some work? If she lives at home, then this young single woman is in a great spot. She's not married, she's saving money, she's being protected by her father and her mother still, enjoying friendship with them. And now as an adult, she maybe using her paychecks to give, to save, to invest in the future, and that's going to be a benefit to her and her future husband one day. That's great. You're using your singless well if it's possible. But for other women, maybe they don't have that kind of uh luxury or safety net, and they are working, they're in school, they're putting their self through college. Uh, my wife actually put herself through college, took out student loans and worked at a restaurant and had to kind of just figure it out. That's good too. And you don't always get quote unquote family financial support. But what is not biblical and not wise is a young single woman who's in college age range. She's able to work, could do more, and she's and she's just a freeloader on dad and mom's money, and she's extending her adolescence into adulthood. By the way, boys sometimes do the same thing. I think a lot of young adults today have a good head on their shoulders. They're working, but there's those in situations where it's not healthy, and a young man or a young woman has been spoon-fed by their parents, and what ends up happening inevitably is they lack discipline and they lack responsibility, and they've had everything done for them or handed to them, and that's just not the way life works. And so if a young woman is single and she's being supported by her family during college, there's nothing wrong with that. That's not sin. Others have to pay for college or take out their own loans. That's more common. So just be grateful, whatever your situation, be a hard worker, get after it. And remember that if someone is sitting around doing nothing or being spoon-fed as an adult, unless there's a unique situation, maybe some special needs, maybe they have been through a really hard season, maybe they were engaged and they thought everything was going to go this certain way, and then it's not, and they live at home for a while. There's a lot of different military people who are single and then they get deployed or they come back. There's nothing wrong with living at home, but are you getting after it or are you delaying adulting? I think is an important question. Number three, how to be a good steward if an unbelieving spouse, especially the husband, does not align with financial conviction. So good question. First, make sure you're operating with honesty and transparency. It would go against your witness, as a Christian, married to an unbeliever, to do things behind his back if it was your husband, even in the name of giving to God's work. I think that Colossians 4, 5 to 6 is helpful here. Paul says, conduct yourself with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person. Now that passage applies to evangelism, but you could think about this when talking to your unbelieving spouse about money management. Be gracious, be reasonable, be charitable. Don't lie and do things behind his back. That's, you know, a little bit of the Robin Hood principle. You're you're you're you're a thief, you're robbing the rich to give to the poor, it's still theft. You can't lie and manipulate him in order to even obey God. An unbeliever doesn't have the Holy Spirit in them, but think about this financially. Most don't want to be broke and sunk by debt and bad money management. And the question really centers on how to be a good steward of finances if you're married to an unbeliever. Well, even pagans want to properly leverage their money. So I would appeal to that logic. And if you're a woman, I'd seek to win my husband over, like 1 Peter 3 describes, through respectful behavior, not by being malicious, vindictive, by lying, or doing things behind his back. Number four, are we still called to give if we're climbing out of debt? Absolutely. God's command to give doesn't change because we got into debt spending what we don't have. If this is consumer debt, and overspending does not then negate your obedience to God in this area. You can't say, you know, God's just calling me to pay off my debts and so I don't have to give. Well, your obedience to the Lord in this area should not and is not supposed to suffer. God's work doesn't suffer because we were disobedient and we were a bad steward. You might adjust your giving. There may be some changes, but I do wonder how honest we are with ourselves when we say, you know, I'm adjusting my giving to get out of debt. Meanwhile, are we adjusting our spending on sports, shoes, designer clothes, eating out, hitting that like buy now button on Amazon for things really fast we don't need? Uh, maybe we don't always adjust in those areas, but you know, we've got to adjust our giving. So, yes, we give even when getting out of debt, because the Bible doesn't say to stop. Next question, number five, is gambling a sin? What about sports betting? It's a really good question. So, based on what the Bible teaches about stewardship, addictions, and things that master us, like what Paul speaks to in 1 Corinthians 6.12. He says, All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. Let's talk about mastery. One can absolutely say gambling and sports betting can be sin, but, and I have to say this, it's logic. We need to reason here, and I got more for you. It doesn't mean it's always sin because you've got to define gambling and discern more of the context around types of gambling or what people would define as gambling. Here's what I mean. Some people would call the stock market gambling. Whereas sitting at slots in Vegas is considered just throwing money away until or unless you hit a jackpot. And then what? Did God do that since he's sovereign? What about buying a little scratch and win ticket and you hit it big and then you tithe? You know, Pastor, I'm going to tithe on the money if I win the lottery. What is that? Is that sin? I think that gambling and sports betting, you could add in lottery ticket buying, all could be considered throwing money away. It also could be considered a Christian liberty issue. I would call it unwise and perhaps unnecessary in many cases. But if someone puts 20 bucks on the Dodgers winning the World Series or an underdog horse at the Kentucky Derby for a fun activity, is that any different than putting five bucks in the machine at the bowling alley with the claw to try to win a stuffed animal for your kid? And when you don't get the stuffed animal, did you just gamble and throw the money away in the machine? Well, then you sinned if all gambling and all forms of uh risk in that regard are. We've got to be careful. And then what if there are specific odds more predictable than your morning commute and you've got an 80% win rating on all of your baseball bets? Well, what if you give on your winnings? There's some questions that we should ask there. Are statistical analysts who are providing very, very good data points, creating a scenario where it's actually very likely that you can be up and win. Well, is that sin? It can be dicey to just blanket all sports betting and gambling is sin. And I don't tell you that because I do it and I need to excuse it. Here's the deal I'll give you my personal conviction. I don't do it, nor would I. I won't. And I'm not a fan because I think it can be a snare, an addiction, and that money can be better stewarded and invested into a high yield savings, real estate, or kingdom work if you're looking for something to do with money. But for people that say, well, Costi, I just once in a while uh love to kind of like a game, maybe bet on some baseball. Or, hey, every once in a while I this, that, or the other, I just buy a lottery ticket for fun and we scratch it off and see what we got. It's kind of like uh, you know, a little toy where you crack open the egg and you find out what's inside. Did I win anything? Well, that's why I would say motive, your disciplines, your greed, and your habits have a really big play here in whether or not we're gonna call it sin. Also, your financial standing. I'll say this it's very likely based on how many people are in consumer debt, like bad debt, that they should probably not be betting on sports and the money could be better spent elsewhere or attacking your credit card debt. My friend over at gotquestions.org has got a great article on this. It talks about sovereignty, stewardship, and society, and it makes the case for high caution in what is a Christian liberty issue. And so I'd encourage you to check it out. If you go over to gotquestions.org, really good website. Buddy over there, I've been on his podcast before, really, really good work. And you were to type in sports betting or is gambling a sin, you'll get that article. Really good stuff to think through. Great question. Number six, we use 10% as a baseline for our giving. And to be honest, that doesn't feel very sacrificial. Well, thanks for your honesty. Uh, we've always built it into our budget and it's totally doable. But we started giving to ministries above and beyond our baseline, local church giving, and that's where it feels more sacrificial because of the amounts stretching our giving into higher percentages. Is that an okay approach? This is a really good and honest and vulnerable question. So thanks for sending that in. First of all, I think 10% baseline is a great mindset. Unless someone is in a very difficult season, most people, you got to hear what I'm saying, not what I'm not saying. Most people can give 10% and be fine. We're usually just undisciplined with our spending, so we make excuses for our low giving. It's if it's doable, great. If sacrifice comes through supporting further works, that's fine. You that's what you're doing. So you're asking that question. I'm not saying that that's wrong. But I would also say there may be seasons where your church is doing an initiative for the poor or outreach for orphans or missions work or church planting. And if giving to your church is always easy, well, sacrifice may be great in supporting some new initiative. It's also prudent if your giving is easy to assess your giving. Could you give more? Consider it. How's the Lord increased your income? Increase your giving. Whatever the case, we see in the book of Philippians through the Philippian church, the kind of givers that were excited and gave sacrificially. And then you see in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, where Paul begins these two chapters on giving and money and the heart and generosity, that the Macedonians were giving out of their poverty. They were sacrificing with generosity, with an eager heart. And so we've got to ask ourselves look, if the poor in the word of God were eager to give sacrificially and generously, and I'm not poor, and this is kind of easy, am I giving as good as I could, or as much as I could, or as sacrificially as I could? Am I giving my best in a way that honors the Lord? Does the church get our best? And does the budget feel our kingdom work? And when we get to heaven, will we have been found faithful as a steward focused on eternity? I think all those are questions you can use to help you assess your home and those convictions. Question number seven: there have been times that the giving comes out for our church, and we are like, man, really could have used that for XYZ. So it's not giving that feels joyful. These are I love the honesty in these questions. In the end, we're always thankful that we gave, but I feel like I get into this crazy spiral of I don't really want to give, but I should. Now I feel bad that I don't want to give, and I'm not doing it joyfully, so I feel like I'm sinning. And now I feel sad about not feeling joyful about giving. So I'm just going to do it because I know I should. Oh man, that's good. I don't think there is a person listening who hasn't gone through something of that sort. You know, they continue in my head, I can justify that as obedience, but I don't want to justify it. What if it's secret sin? I want to give to our church, I want to give to ministries, but I struggle sometimes with the thought. We could have used that for something else. Is that my sin nature? Okay, here's the deal. 2 Corinthians 9 7 says, Each one must do just as he or she, they have that's not a pronoun. I'm just saying they, as in people, together, couples, slow down, have purposed in their heart, not grudgingly, not under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. So the question begs, should I not give if I'm not cheerful? No, that's not the case. Just like we don't stop obeying commands because we've got a little attitude issue or we're struggling with some joy, we don't stop giving just because we've got an attitude issue or we're struggling with some joy. So what do we do? We go back to the first love mentality of our affection for God, driving our obedience to God. Yes, it's your sin nature, and all of us are tempted with the thought if I didn't give, I could have so much more. What I could do with that, that's to be human. Temptation creeping into our mind about being selfish. It's normal. Every year, Christians everywhere look at their spreadsheets or accounts and probably think the same thing. Wow, we gave pretty good this year. Imagine if we invested that money. What if we renovated the house? I could have bought a new car, I could have done an extra vacation. Man, I could have done more hunting. I could have this, could have that, could have that. I think it comes down to knowing who you are and knowing why you're here and knowing what your priorities are, and then living with those convictions and saying, this is a commitment. We've set our course. We're giving and living for eternity. And so when that attitude creeps in, we face it with Scripture, the way Jesus did when he was tested in the wilderness, and we don't stop obeying God just because we don't feel like it. We go back, though, to the true heart of obedience, the affection for the Lord and saying, you know, yeah, this is sacrifice. That is hard. Yeah, I could do other things with that. I think that's another thing. Admit it. We totally could do other things with that money, and guess what? We put it towards the Lord's work, and that's an investment that will always pay dividends that this world, Satan, heaven, hell, nothing will stop. God will use our giving. Number eight, how to navigate investment funds that might include companies with unbiblical values. This, I would say, is a Christian liberty issue. I've thought about it a ton. It's like staying at a hotel or eating at a restaurant or getting coffee at certain coffee shops. All of that can be putting money in the pockets of pagans, but your beautiful memories at the hotel, eating food under the glory of God, having great coffee under the glory of God, all of that can be redeemed. I think it can fall under that category. At the same time, investing in Apple, though they have unbiblical values, has made numerous Christians very wealthy. And they used the funds purely for eternal things, like, and these are eternal things, providing for your family, which is attached to biblical principles, provision, healthy homes, creating memories, discipleship, pouring into your family, and giving. So if somebody invested in a company like Apple, which does not have a Christian agenda or biblical values, and then used all of that money even to support Kingdom Work, what did they do? Is that sin? Is that wrong? I think it's a liberty issue, and you got to know what you're doing and why. To be clear, I know people and talk with financial friends and advisors who have strong investment portfolios primarily with ethical companies. That's awesome. I also know people who are very faithful Christians who have strong investment portfolios with unbiblical or left-leaning companies. It's really hard to argue that this is a sin issue, to be honest. Someone could argue, hey, the wealth of the wicked is stored up for the righteous. I'm investing in these companies. They have the wrong kind of agenda. They aren't believers, but every dollar I make off it, I'm putting towards kingdom use. I really believe it's important, though, for you to land on and then live with your convictions and don't go against your conscience. That's what scripture teaches. If you've got a sensitive conscience to this, hey, no problem. Go with that. It's important to be faithful in that area. Number nine, should we be giving from our tax return? Okay, uh, I would say this: not if you've already been giving faithfully on that money based on a percentage. If you set a percentage, for example, you might say, we're gonna give 10% to the Lord from our gross income this year, you know, give to Caesar what is Caesar's off the full amount, and give to God what is God's off the full amount. No problem. Then because you wrote things off, you made wise moves, you operated by tax codes, you gave generously, you don't owe, you get money back. Well, technically it's money you already gave on. So some people would say you're fine. Or some would say, well, that's money that has now been added to your earnings because you overpaid the government, so to speak, which is what getting money back really is all about. So some would say, hey, that's increase. You've increased, therefore, give on it. I would say, as a general rule of thumb, your giving should be reflecting a heart that says, Lord, as you increase us, we will continue to give faithfully. Some build it in though. They know there's gonna be a little money coming back. They've got a little extra hustle throughout the year. Maybe they know they're gonna get a bonus or some dividends, and just ahead of time, they set their giving higher than the normal percentage because they say, hey, I don't even want to think about it. We're gonna just give generously. And then everything they get from bonuses or everything they get from taxes, they just keep, but they're already out giving a baseline percentage. Remember, the Bible doesn't say you have to give 10% or else. And so it's what did you purpose in your heart? If you purpose to give a certain amount on your gross income, stick to it. And then if you purpose to give a certain percentage of everything you get beyond that, then do it and stick to it. And if you decide I want to give on my tax return or I want to give all of my tax return, I didn't even need it. Okay, great, do that. Or if you say, no. We're giving on a percentage of this, this, this, this, this, and the tax return is just money we've already given on. No problem. The key is you do what you've purposed in your heart and you guard your heart from motives like selfishness, greed, or lying to yourself and moving the goalposts. Because once you see the money, you say, Well, maybe I don't want to give on that. Don't be selfish and don't be legalistic. Okay. Two important things to remember. Both a slippery slope. Number 10, what's a biblical view on taxes? Well, in Mark 12, 17, Jesus says, Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, give to God's what is God's. So basically, taxes, you would say, according to the Bible, and not just that text, but look in the Old Testament, taxes are a part of life. From the theocratic law of God and the theocracy, God overseeing all things. It is a government that really is God's government. And you have the Mosaic law and offerings that finance the nation of Israel. All of that was like a sort of taxation system. We talked about that in the tithing episode, if you remember, to taxes now that are commanded by our government because they fund the nation. There's also tax laws and tax codes and things that the government allows us to take advantage of. And so Christians are to obey God, obey the law of the land, use wisdom and take full advantage of the freedoms we've been given, and then don't lie, cheat, or steal. Pay what you owe, write off what you can, and vote in a way that reflects biblical convictions about government that does what's best for the people. You say, you sound like a capitalist, Costi. Well, yeah, I'm pretty into capitalism, and I think it's biblical for people to work, to earn, and to have the freedoms to do what we do. I think that people should not be punished for doing that. And I think that we should obey the law of the land. And so I would say that that's a biblical idea as well. If our government, by the grace of God, allows for certain things to be written off, write them off. But don't do things that are unethical. Don't take, you know, these people who took PPP money and then went and bought a bunch of personal stuff and did what they wanted with it, and that's lying. If you're a Christian and you do that, you should repent and pay the money back. Just be honest. You're probably you might go to jail or have to pay it all back. Um, a lot of false teachers did that. But if you're a person who's on disability for real, okay, the government has an allowance for that. But don't lie about an insurance claim and try to get extra money. In the same way, there are certain things that the tax code allows you to do. Do it. If you're savvy with real estate, God bless you. Make it happen. But don't lie and don't cheat and don't steal. You are sinning in order to keep more money, and then you say, but I'm going to give some of it to the church. Well, again, one sin doesn't negate another, or something of righteous motive doesn't negate sin. Number 11, what is first fruits giving? Good question. It's an important one. A lot of prosperity gospel preachers will tell people you need to give a first fruits offering to start the year, and then God will bless your harvest all year long. It's a great way to snag an extra million bucks at the start of January. Unfortunately, it's not truth. First fruits is in a simple statement, biblically, by way of principle, under the new covenant teaching of tithing or giving, it's giving God your best and your first from what you've got. In other words, his work is your priority. It's Matthew 633. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added. His work's a priority. You don't give after you shopped for you, and after you spent your paycheck, and after you paid your bills, and you bought some stocks, and then you're like, oh, oops, we need to give something to the church. You know, let's throw 10 bucks in. First fruits is a principle of priority. The best thing I can do to answer this question is not to give you more of my wisdom, but to recommend you listen to a sermon by John MacArthur. It's from 1975. Yes, 1975. Vintage J Mac, I would say. You go to GTY.org and you look up God's Plan for Giving Part One. The sermon was preached on February 9th, 1975, and it will cover first fruits in more time than I have here. And it is just some awesome teaching. It's gold, if you will. The real kind of gold. Number 12, advice on how churches should manage their money. All right. I got a lot of thoughts here because I have had really good advisors by the grace of God. This isn't all of my wisdom. It's acquired or stolen wisdom from so many of our leaders at our church. We've got two CPAs involved in our finance team at church. We've got an elder, a deacon that are CPA extraordinaires, CFO types. And then we use a third-party bookkeeper, accounting firm for both of the ministries I lead. The church, which is my first and beloved priority in ministry, and then for the gospel, which we use as a media resource ministry to provide sound doctrine for everyday people. We've got board members at FTG involved in finance, and we've got people who review budgets and PLs and balance sheets and expenses, all that. We say it this way in our ministry, and this is part of my advice on how churches should manage money. Our ministries need to play by the rules. Therefore, churches should be filing the appropriate documents. Ministries as well. If you're a nonprofit, you need to fix issues that you find. If we find something that's not proper, fix it. That's all you do. You don't need to hide it. We don't need to be embarrassed. You're going to make a mistake. If you made a mistake on receipts, if you have a tax snafu, whatever that is, fix the issues you find. Also, consider hiring an outside firm if needed to ensure that you're handling God's money the right way, from payroll taxes to a children's ministry budget to the whole church budget. Bring in firms, bring in fresh eyes, use wisdom, make sure you're doing the right thing. Now, I understand that in some cases where a church or a ministry is smaller in scale, you hire a bookkeeper in-house, everything's done internally. I get that, and I know some people will push back and argue that. This is my pushback. Since day one, when for the gospel had a very small budget, and the church was a plant with barely much budget as well. We used a third-party accounting firm and a third-party bookkeeper. And so I'm not speaking from some ivory tower, and I've never known a day of struggle or anything small in my life, and our elders and all of us just, you know, magically woke up one day and everything was huge and this. Please, no. We from the beginning wanted to do things a certain way, and we wanted to ensure that we're not in the back room handling it and that if something got missed, it could be fixed. Accountability matters. How should churches handle funds? How should they handle budgeting? I'll give you a few more thoughts. At Shepherd's House, we use a salary setting team who decides on pastoral compensation, ensuring that we are told what we're going to be paid versus, you know, us setting our own salaries. Even though we're elder led, we do congregational reporting every year at the all-member meeting. We show the church the budget. We talk income expenses. We talk projections for the year. And we also tell our church why we've made certain decisions. What's in the building fund? What's in the missions fund? Are we using CDs for building funds to be safely held? Are there interest-bearing accounts? Basically, my thoughts or my advice since you asked of churches managing finances is that the elders lead, the members are informed that checks and balances exist and then questions can be answered. Will there always be people who shoot the dust to make us dance or nothing's ever good enough? Or you show them everything and explain it, and they still say, Yeah, but how do we know what you're really up to? Yeah, because their past church was full of shenanigans, maybe some false teachers or disqualified ones. And so now they're going through some trust issues. That's normal. We want to shepherd that. But you got to be able to say, when I look in the mirror, when I put my head down on the pillow and we look eye to eye with the men in the room, are we doing things the right way and by the rules to the best of our ability? So help us God. Yes. And last but not least, churches and ministries need to remember budgets and money exist to fuel the ministry forward. When we're doing things the right way, it's so we can run full speed in the right direction. And so maybe you're a person that's in church leadership and you're kind of nervous to impose some systems or to get other people involved or to bring in a third party. Look, don't be afraid to tighten up your systems and fix them because when the engine is firing like it should, hey, it's time to do ministry and you can run with freedom because you're accountable and you're responsible in the way you do things. All right, that's the QA episode. That's the money series. Next episode, I'm starting a series on marriage that I hope will encourage you. We're gonna talk husbands, wives, foundation for marriage, all of it. And I pray that it is an encouragement this season for your marriage. Thanks for listening, for watching, and for supporting. I'll be back next Monday with another episode. Keep on living for the gospel.