Biblical Wisdom for Managing Money Faithfully

Money does more than pay bills. It reveals what we value, whom we trust, and whether we see ourselves as owners or stewards. In a world filled with quick-profit promises and endless financial advice, Scripture offers wisdom that has endured for thousands of years.

Pastor Chris Teien shares biblical financial wisdom from Proverbs and the New Testament. Because everything belongs to God, believers are called to manage every resource for His glory. That means acquiring money honestly through diligent work, managing it generously and carefully, using debt cautiously, and treasuring God above every possession. Financial faithfulness is not a path to salvation or a guarantee of wealth. It is an expression of worship and trust in Christ, whose righteousness alone delivers us from eternal death.

In this Message:

1. Acquire Honestly

Good planning, hard work, integrity, and growing skill normally lead toward provision, while laziness, empty talk, dishonest gain, and hasty shortcuts lead toward loss. Biblical wisdom also recognizes that injustice can keep diligent people from enjoying the fruit of their work, calling those with means to notice and help. (Proverbs 21:5; 10:4; 12:11; 14:23; 22:29; 13:23; 16:8; 20:14)

2. Manage Generously

God gives resources to be stewarded, not hoarded. Honor Him first, give cheerfully, care for people in need, save patiently, know the condition of what you own, and avoid consuming everything you receive. Debt may sometimes be necessary, but it should be approached cautiously because the borrower becomes servant to the lender. (Proverbs 3:9; 11:24; 6:6; 21:20; 27:23; 28:27; 22:7; 22:26-27; Matthew 6:33; 2 Corinthians 9:6-11)

3. Treasure God Unreservedly

Wealth has limited value and can never secure eternity. A godly reputation, contentment, and dependence on God are better than riches that produce dishonesty or turmoil. At death every earthly asset stays behind, but through Christ believers receive the lasting riches of grace and righteousness. (Proverbs 30:7-9; 15:16; 22:1; 11:4; 2 Corinthians 8:9)

Takeaway

Review your finances as a steward before God. Ask whether your income is earned honestly, whether your spending reflects wise planning, whether your giving is cheerful and generous, whether your debt is limiting your freedom, and whether your heart treasures Christ above money. Choose one concrete act of faithfulness, then carry it out with prayer and integrity.

Illustrations

• The $20-a-Day Difference: Spending $20 more than you earn each day produces roughly $7,000 of debt in a year, while saving $20 each day produces roughly $7,000 in savings. Small daily choices accumulate into significant consequences.
• A Retiree Who Keeps Learning: Ken continues learning technology after retirement and uses those skills to serve the church through video and audio ministry. His example shows that faithful people can keep developing useful skills in every season of life.
• A Channel of God’s Blessing: A businessman viewed his ability to earn money as a channel through which God could bless others. He enjoyed God’s provision, but he also gave quietly and generously whenever serious needs arose.

Key Quotes

• “God entrusts us with resources so we will faithfully manage them for His glory.”
• “Work faithfully, spend carefully, save patiently, borrow cautiously, pay what you owe, and avoid shortcuts.”
• “Money cannot deliver us from death. Jesus’ righteousness is what delivers us and makes us truly rich.”

Search Topics

biblical financial wisdom, Christian money management, Proverbs about money, biblical stewardship principles, how Christians should handle money, generosity and giving, Christian teaching on debt, hard work in Proverbs, saving money biblically, contentment and wealth, putting God first in finances, true riches in Christ

Full Episode & Transcript:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2285086/episodes/19654668

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Helping you apply God's Word and follow Jesus in everyday life. Learn more at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.church  Find episode transcripts at Well.faith 

Transcript

Chris T 0:16

We're talking about time-proven financial wisdom. Everybody's looking for good financial wisdom. So Dave Ramsey gets a lot of listeners on that radio program in the books that he sells. Crown Financial Ministries, not Crown College, Crown Financial Ministries, has a radio program and they also have a bunch of resources to help you with Christian financial information. There's a lot of people on YouTube trying to sell things. There's a lot of people trying to get you to give in to get rich quick schemes or load up on cryptocurrency and all sorts of investment advice out there. All sorts of investment advice. What the next big hot stock tips are and everything. And so there's advice like that. So Proverbs, Proverbs was written 3,000 years ago. And so Solomon didn't know about all these things about stock tips or online banking or all of the different things that we have now in investment accounts and all of these things. But Jesus said in Matthew 6, 21, wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will be also. Money is very revealing. So Larry Briquette, he used to be a Christian financial expert before he went to go be with Jesus, but he would say, Show me your checkbook. Remember what those were. Some people don't even know what checkbooks are now. Show me your checkbook, and I can determine where you're at spiritually. And so it's a huge thing what you do with your finances, with the finances that you have. Somebody said they're great at managing money. They just need more money to manage. And so maybe that's a common theme with everybody else, too. But you remember that the earth, Psalm 24, 1 says the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it. So everything ultimately belongs to God. So our income, our possessions, our opportunities, the things that we have, the things that we think we own, we don't really own because eventually someday we'll die and we'll leave it all here and we'll go to be with Jesus. Hopefully, we'll go to be with Jesus if we've received Jesus as our Lord and Savior. But on the bottom of your note sheet, the key idea here is God entrusts us with the re with resources, so we will faithfully manage them for his glory. Resources managed for his glory. So acquire honestly. Acquire money, acquire possessions, acquire the stuff that you have honestly. So yesterday was a car show, and you got to see all the great looking, wonderful cars, some old, some new, newer. And so acquire those honestly and then you can enjoy them. So rip somebody off and it'll be disappointing. But there's all sorts of money advice, and some you hear and you wish you would have done it. So looking back now, if I had kept some of the old cars I thought were junk back in the late 80s, they'd be worth a ton of money now. I had a 1970 International Scout. Those things are worth so much money now, it wasn't worth that much money then. And how would I keep it from rusting? We don't live in Texas. But the general idea is that putting money away and allowing it to collect interest is a wise thing to do. Especially if you can figure out a secure way to put money in the bank and collect interest. But to acquire money honestly. So Proverbs 21, 5 says, good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty. So this is something that we need to teach our kids. This is something that we should instill in our young people is that by working, by doing what's right in the right way, most likely you are going to earn money, which could lead to prosperity. So in Proverbs, it's not a guarantee 100% that it's always 100% going to work out that way. But in general, good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty when you don't think about what you're doing with your finances, when you don't have a financial plan, when you don't have a financial clue, it can lead to poverty. I'm sure that you realize that if you spend $20 more a day than you make, that you'll be $7,000 in debt at the end of the year. So that's $365 times $20. If you could save $20 a day, if that were possible, by the end of the year, you'd have $7,000 in the bank. That'd be pretty good. Now, when you go to the grocery store, I know that's not helpful because I was looking for something to grill the other day, and we just keep passing it by. You know, it's like, well, yeah, I'm not paying $40 for two pieces of meat. So we're not celebrating our anniversary or it's just a day. So yeah, no, we're not gonna have that. But things have gotten to be so expensive. And when you think about planning and hard work leading to prosperity, it is always tough because you're trying to figure out, okay, what exactly is prosperity? And it always seems to be a little more than you have right now. But to think about what do you have? Did you have enough to eat? Did you have a roof over your head? Were you able to have clean water today? Those types of things. Many people in the world don't have that. But good planning and hard work to teach the young people to earn their money honestly, to give generously, to help them to know not to spend everything they receive, to teach them to save and invest for the future, and that money is a tool that God gives us and also an indicator of our faith in God and how we put God first. Trimper Longman, a Bible scholar, who helped oversee the translating of Proverbs in the New Living Translation, went through all of the Proverbs on money and in his book, How to Read Proverbs, he had a special chapter, chapter 10, how to study themes in Proverbs, Money Matters. And so he grouped the Proverbs about money in seven different categories, and I think it's worth mentioning. Number one, God blesses the righteous with wealth. Number two, foolish behavior leads to poverty. Three, the wealth of fools will not last. Four, poverty is the result of injustice and oppression. Five, those with money must be generous. Six, wisdom is better than wealth. And seven, wealth has limited value. So he took all the proverbs about money and he put them in different categories and then gave them those headings, and those help you to understand the book of Proverbs and Money. I don't have time to go through every proverb about money, though once I get going, it might seem like I'm trying. So, but all right, lazy people are soon poor, hard workers get rich. A wise youth harvests in the summer, but one who sleeps during harvest is a disgrace. So, this idea that you need to do the work, you need to do the important things. Lazy people don't do the work, they don't get things done. Now, if you're in a situation where someone's always telling you what to do, maybe you get certain things done. But if you're in a situation where you're free to do whatever you want, then what kind of person are you? Are you the lazy person or are you the motivated person? Do you wake up in the morning and say, oh man, what do I have to do today? Or do you wake up in the morning with a list and say, all right, this is what I have to do today? And you work your list and you work your plan and you're strategizing and you're trying to get it done. Those are the people that when they're doing the right thing the right way, often have a higher income and enjoy more wealth. A wise youth harvests in the summer. Now, here it seems, you know, like, oh, it's summertime, just lay back, do nothing. Proverbs 12, 11. A hard worker has plenty of food, but a person who chases fantasies has no sense. So there are people that they talk a lot about what they're gonna do, and they have a lot of good ideas, but they never really do anything. And it doesn't lead to any any reward. There's no result for what they do. So a hard worker has plenty of food. There are so many young people, so many people chasing fantasies, but that's like, well, what do you what do you want to be, Yassi's kids? What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be a YouTube influencer. It's like, okay. And YouTube's like, well, let's make it a little harder now. So I think they doubled the amount of viewer hours you actually need to have to start getting any kind of check for that. So I want to be a professional athlete. It's like, well, maybe your chances are very slim. What else are you gonna do? So I love the Christian, like Sports Spectrum magazine and the Christian athletes, some Christian athletes that I've heard of or know relatives of, have said very clearly that his dream was always to be a pitcher in the major leagues, but after that, he wants to work with a DNR. Or he is a professional basketball player right now, but if he gets hurt or someday when he retires, he plans on pursuing law. And he actually got a degree while he was in school to help go down that path. Those types of things. What's your plan A? What's your plan B? Maybe in our own lives too, it's always good to have plan A and plan B. But a hard worker has plenty of food. Someone who chases fantasies has no sense. Proverbs 14, 23 says the same thing. Work brings profit, but mere talk leads to poverty. Usually money just doesn't show up if you don't do anything. Bible makes it clear that if a man doesn't work, he shouldn't eat. That a man should provide for his family, or he's worse than an unbeliever. But work brings profit, but mere talk leads to poverty. Proverbs 22, 29 says, Do you see someone skilled in their work? They will serve before kings, they will not serve before officials of low rank. So think about that for a second. So this is saying that someone who has gotten skilled in their work will be noticed. They will be hired by people of high esteem back then, before kings, because they're so good at what they do. A master craftsman who can do amazing things with wood or stone or metal or whatever it is, they have a great skill and they're very valuable and they are rewarded for it. And so I think what this proverb says to us is what would it take for us to become somebody with great skill? I know some of you are retired, but you could still learn new things and learn new skills. So Ken over here has always amazed me because he's retired, but he's always learning new technology stuff. So he helps oversee the video and audio stuff. And for a lot of people who just check out on technology, he's the other way around, and he's just a blessing to us. So he's skilled in that computers and stuff. But what about us? What can we do to increase our skills? What can we do to become better? And what is the plan for that? It can be a simple thing. Like for me, I listened to at least one educational audio to improve my skills. So something about church leadership or church growth or whatever. Actually, this month, I think it was yeah, this month or the beginning of this month, I re-listened to former member Ken Davis's book on communication. So when I was in preaching class 30 years ago, we had to read that book. And so I decided I was gonna go through it again. And so it's good. Actually, I think I do some of the things in the book, and some of the things I could probably do better on. But nonetheless, skilled in your work. What can you do to become more skilled in your work? Pray about that. Become the best that you can be with the time that you have so that God can reward you and you can make a better impact in your life. Don't be stuck in a job. Pray about it. I know that there's not a lot of choices sometimes, but if you hate your job, you hate going to work, don't just accept that as your lot in life. Pray about it. Pray to find your way into a new skill. Maybe you need education, maybe you need training, maybe you need to find some company that will invest in you. But increase those skills. Become skilled in your work, become so valuable that you get rewarded for it and you just feel the rewards of it. It's such a wonderful thing when you love going to work. Such a wonderful thing when you love what it is you do. I serve Jesus, I love doing it. I get excited about going to work. Proverbs 10 4, lazy people are soon poor. Hard workers get rich. There's not a guarantee 100% that just because you're a hard worker that you're gonna get rich, but overall, you're gonna do a lot better than the lazy person. So think about that, pray about that, and move forward and that. Proverbs 13, 23 says, A poor person's farm may produce much food, but injustice sweeps it all away. So here we have somebody who is doing the right things, and he's got the farm and he's making the food and he's producing stuff, but he's not finding his way ahead. He's not experiencing the profit that you would expect. So many reasons for that. Injustice, employers withholding fair wages, unsafe working condition, high interest predatory loans, housing or land discrimination, dishonest business practices, corrupt governments, unequal access to education, health care, and resources, or powerful people exploiting workers who have little ability to defend themselves. There's lots of different ways that people can take your hard work and keep the profits for themselves. I'm pretty sure that my friend, when he started to work for this medical company, knew what he was getting into. But so he has some brilliant ideas. He comes up with medical ideas, they get patented. You'd think that would carry him forward to the profits for the rest of his life. But instead, he's like, Nope, I don't get anything. All I get is my paycheck. Everything I create goes to the company that I work for. And so kind of sad. But nonetheless, this can happen. And so, what can we do to either if we're in that situation, get out of that situation, what can we do to encourage people, help people? I've met a lot of different people along the way. I have met people that are multimillionaires that you would not have any clue that they had any money at all. And I met some people that acted like they were millionaires that I think they're just really far in debt. And everybody in between. So I've met people who reverse tithe. They say, well, you know, if in the Old Testament a tithe was a tenth, I'm gonna keep a tenth for myself and I'm gonna give 90% away to fund the kingdom of God, to fund churches, to fund ministries, to do stuff. And there are so many different stories about what people do and the resources that they have and the opportunities they're looking for. So maybe if you're someone of means like that, you might be able to figure out a way to help stop the injustice that keeps a person poor when they are doing the work and doing everything that you think that they should be doing to get ahead and it's not working. Maybe you can invest in their life. Proverbs 16, 8 says, better to have little with godliness than to be rich and dishonest. Better to have little with godliness, to be close to Jesus and to have enough than to be rich, and have to put on a fake facade to cheat, to lie, to be one of the people causing injustice for other people. So God sees the heart, God knows what you're doing, and it's better to have little with godliness than to be rich and dishonest. I mentioned this one before, and I had said, I wonder if it's prescriptive, like it's what we should do, or if it's descriptive about what people do and they shouldn't do. So I think obviously we've come to the conclusion it's something we shouldn't do. Proverbs 20, 14 says the buyer haggles over the price, saying it's worthless, and then brags about getting a bargain. So it's like you go to the garage sale and you find something, you're like, oh my goodness, look at this. This has got to be worth over a hundred dollars. Oh, I'm gonna buy it and then I'm gonna resell it, and so it'll be great. So, hey, how much is this? Oh, it's ten dollars. How old is it? It's probably not worth anything. Yeah, well, I'll give you five dollars for it. They're like, is that all you give me? Yeah, I'll give you five. I'll give you five dollars, and you take it off. Oh, you get to the car, you're like, oh man, this is awesome. I'm gonna put that on marketplace or eBay or whatever. And so brags about getting a bargain. Manage your money generously. So God did not just give you money and resources for you to keep everything to yourself. You'll be disappointed if you just hold on to everything for yourself. It's so much more fun and so much better to be generous. Proverbs 3 9 says, Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the best part of everything you produce, then he will fill your barns with grain and your vats will overflow with good wine. So, here again, in the New American Standard Bible, it says, Honor the Lord from your wealth, and from the first of all your produce. So the general idea then, and for farmers and for people bringing in a crop, was as they harvested the first part of it, they brought it as an offering to God. There was no guarantee that they would be able to harvest the rest or that something wouldn't happen to the rest, but they were putting God first with their resources or their finances as an act of worship. The key there was to honor the Lord. They wanted to worship the Lord, they wanted to honor the Lord. And when we have an opportunity to give to the Lord, our primary purpose, our primary reason is because we love Jesus and we know that we were bought with the price and that we should honor God with our bodies. And when we put the Lord first, as we show him, we trust him with our lives, with our finances, that he can reward us. But it's all about honoring God, giving to God. We want to see God's work flourish. We want to fund God's work. It is a good thing to put God first. Giving came first. Proverbs 11, 24. Give freely and become more wealthy. Be stingy and lose everything. The generous will prosper. Those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed. So there's quite a few verses in the Bible that echo this. But the idea of giving freely, being generous, giving back to God, caring for people in need, that God can reward you and God can bless you as you do that. So I once knew a person who was able to make a lot of money. So he was able to get on the phone and just buy stuff and sell stuff and make a lot of money. And he was a navigator, always memorizing Bible verses. The navigators is a ministry about discipleship. And he told me, he's like, Chris, I know that God is using me as a channel of his blessing. As I'm able to make money, the money flows through me, through my hands, out to others. And so, of course, I'm able to also enjoy what God blesses me with and everything. But I know that if I start to be stingy and keep it to myself, that God will cut off the fountain of blessing that he's been using and working through me. And I always thought that was such an encouragement. And so he was always a secret friend that I could call on if somebody was greatly in need and let them know and see what he wanted to do, if anything. And he was always a secret funder, so that was good. Proverbs 6, 6. Take a lesson from the ants, you lazy bones. Learn from their ways and become wise. Though they have no prince or governor or ruler to make them work, they labor hard all summer gathering food for the winter. So again, this is about self-motivation to do the right thing the right way, to be generous, to gather provision, to do the work, to work the plan. Not because someone is telling you to, not because someone oversees you and holds you accountable, but because it's the right thing to do. And you do the work and you are rewarded for it. So they labor hard all summer gathering food for the winter. But nonetheless, to be motivated, no ruler to make them work. They labor hard. We should do that. We should be self motivated. Proverbs 21 20 the wise store up choice food and olive oil, but fools gulp theirs down. That's what it says in the NIV. So basically, what it's saying is that don't spend everything you get. So the wise, as they gather stuff, they save some stuff. But fools, they consume everything. So it is really wise to not spend everything that you get. In the old days, the old timers, they'd say you should at least give 10% to God and you should save 10% and then spend the other 80% on the things that you need and the things that you want. And it's always wise if you can store up three months of income in case something happens to your job so you're able to continue on, get through those types of things. But don't spend everything you get is what that proverb is saying. Proverbs 27, 23, know the state of your flocks and put your heart into caring for your herds for riches don't last forever. I think I mentioned this last week. But so knowing how much money you have, knowing what you own, what it's worth, how much you owe, and what resources you could maybe sell something to pay it off, or to do what you can with your resources to know what you have. That is an important thing. So Matthew 6 33 says seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously, and he will give you everything that you need. So in the New Testament, Paul talks about giving, and he doesn't, the apostle Paul, Jesus said, by the way, Jesus said to the Pharisees, he didn't say don't tithe, he says, when you tithe, get your priorities right. But Paul didn't say you just give 10%. Instead, he said you should give willingly, not under compulsion. And if you look at 2 Corinthians 9, it talks about not just how you feel about giving, but it has this great promise here that says, remember this in 2 Corinthians 9, verse 6, remember this a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop, but the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. You must each decide in your heart how much to give, and don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure, for God loves a person who gives cheerfully, and God will generously provide all you need, and then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer, and then bread to eat, in the same way he will provide and increase your resources, and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. So that's a promise about giving, to be generous. And Jesus said, Seek the kingdom of God above all else, live righteously, and he'll give you everything you need. Oh, just real quick too, whoever gives to the poor will lack nothing, but those who close their eyes to poverty will be cursed. So think about that. Okay, use debt cautiously. So the Bible doesn't say thou shalt never go into debt, but it does say that just as the rich rule the poor, the borrower is servant to the lender. So you want to make sure that you can do everything possible to not go into debt. Now there's reasons to go into debt, which can be good. When you go into debt for a modest home to live in, that can be good. When you go into debt for necessary education that will lead to a bigger paycheck and help you to pay that off, that could be good. Sometimes you have to take out a loan to repair things, emergency things, but it's always good if you can get that paid off quickly. But to do everything that you can to avoid becoming a servant to the lender. It's freeing, so full of freedom when you own things and you don't have to make payments on them. And again, there are many things that are so expensive now that you just don't have the cash to pay for, and you make payments on it, it's always good when you can find lower interests and those types of things. So think about that, pray about that. And then, oh, don't agree to guarantee another person's debt or put up security for someone else. If you can't pay it, even your bed will be snatched from under you. So that was a principle a long time ago. It's still a good principle today. So, from what I understand, if I were to co-sign on a car or a vehicle for my adult child, that when I wanted to buy something, say I needed a different house or a different mortgage, and they said, Well, how much debt do you have? And I would say, Well, I have I have this debt, or I don't have any debt. And they'd be like, What about that vehicle? And it'd be like, That's not mine, that's my adult child's. And they'd be like, But you co-signed on it, so it's your debt, and therefore you don't qualify for the mortgage, or you don't qualify for that house or whatever, because you co-signed and you're responsible for this loan. Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty. So again, Proverbs is again over and over again saying, work faithfully, spend carefully, save patiently, borrow cautiously, pay what you owe, and avoid shortcuts. Those are all good. Now let's get to the last point here. Treasure God unreservedly. Treasure God unreservedly. That is the thing that is the most important. Who are you as far as God is concerned? Do you have integrity? Could you be purchased? Could you be led astray if there was enough money or enough resources? I've always loved this verse. Oh God, I beg two favors from you. Let me have them before I die. First, help me never to tell a lie. Second, give me neither poverty nor riches. Give me just enough to satisfy my needs, for if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, Who is the Lord? And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God's holy name. So living in a paycheck-to-paycheck existence, as opposed to having so much that you don't need to even think about praying or think about relying on God, because all I got so much money in the bank, I'm good. So I don't even have to think about that. Or to have so little money that you're like, I just don't think God's gonna provide. I think I'm gonna have to take a shortcut. I think I'm gonna have to steal this or scam this person or whatever. But to be right there in the middle saying, God, give me my daily needs. Lord Jesus, give us this day our daily bread. That is a good way to live. So better to have little with fear for the Lord than to have great treasure and inner turmoil in Proverbs 15, 16. So sometimes too much wealth, sometimes too many resources or possessions or loans can cause you all sorts of inner turmoil and difficulty. They will pull you away from God when you really want to have a simplicity of life where you can spend time focusing on God. Those are all good things. And Proverbs 22:1 says, choose a good reputation over great riches. Being held in high esteem is better than silver or gold. We see this when we come to the end of the people's lives and they we gather together for their memorial service for their funeral. So I don't think I've ever been to a funeral where they stood up here and they said as they're like reading the life summary, the obituary, how much money that person had in the bank. Sometimes they say they succeeded in business and whatever, but I've never seen anybody reading the bottom line saying how prosperous and rich they were. So think about that. Your reputation, they were godly, they cared for me, they were kind. I knew that I knew that person, this person that they're talking about, loved me. They were a good friend, those types of things. A good reputation is better than great riches. Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death. And it's Jesus' righteousness. So when we die, we can't take any of it with us. When we go through the door from this life to eternity, hopefully we've received Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. And our righteousness is never good enough. We could be the best, nicest, kindest people doing everything that we can ever think of right, but it's still not enough. Jesus' righteousness applied to us is what deliver us, delivers us from eternal death. Money doesn't do it, possessions doesn't do it. Every bank account, every investment, every retirement account, house, vehicle, possession, ring, jewelry, whatever, you leave it all behind. And then you go to be with Jesus. But in Jesus there is true wealth. And 2 Corinthians 8 9 says, you know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich. Rich in the things of God, rich in the faith, rich in everything that you will need for eternity. And we plead with you, if you've never received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and don't know what that means, to come ask us. Grab one of those how to find God New Testaments. We want to help you to come into a relationship with Jesus. And one other thing. If you struggle with finances or you need help with financial stuff, go to crown.org. So if you go to crown.edu, you go to Crown College. Go to crown.org and Crown Financial Ministries has a bunch of great stuff: the money map, how to get on a budget, those types of things. They've got courses that are like under $30 that could help you if you're married with your spouse, those types of things. Or ask me and I'll point you to some resources. But let's pray. The worship team can come up here. Jesus, I thank you so much that you've given us the timeless truth in your word that teaches us about finances, about wealth, about priorities, about work, about all the things that really matter in someone's life. And it's so easy to get sucked into the world system and thinking we just need to earn more, we just need to give more, and then people will value us and think we're something important. But we know that we are sufficient in you, Jesus. So Lord, I pray that you would help some of this message to stick in people's lives and that they might even be able to use some of these proverbs to encourage others or to train up their children or grandchildren. So we just thank you for everything in Jesus' name. Amen.