Reliance: How To Open Heaven's Resources (And Why It's Actually a Smart Move) | Ep. 33

Money has a way of quietly becoming the thing you rely on most — not because you're greedy, but because it's just always there, demanding your attention, shaping your decisions, waking you up in the morning.

Rahul traces why the Bible returns to money more than almost any other topic — and argues it has nothing to do with rules and everything to do with where your deepest trust actually lives. Van brings the emotional honesty: what it feels like to shift from holding on to letting go, and why generosity started to feel less like sacrifice and more like the most grounding thing they do with their finances.

The moment in this episode that quietly lands the hardest is a story about a stranger, $30,000 in unpaid school lunch debt, and what happened when somebody just decided to wipe it clean. It reframes what money is actually for in a way that's hard to shake.

If you've ever felt like there should be more to the way you're living — more meaning, more peace, more purpose in what you earn and spend — this conversation is a good place to start.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

You will live better giving 10, 20, 30% of your income. You live better living on lesser percentage of your income than you will keeping all of it. Money makes us get up in the morning and go sit in a a line of cars all along with other people doing the same thing. We we get into this rat race every single day because a lot of it's driven by money.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

There was like a school district that kids owed money from eating and they couldn't pay for the food. Then some guy anonymously paid off the $30,000. And that was the moment it hit me. It was like, oh my gosh. Like if one day we could do that. The money that you stored, like the money that you have or your wealth, yeah, it's not about you.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

We used to dream about okay, how much do we want to make a year? Now it's about how much we want to give.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Hi guys, welcome back to the Palay Place podcast, where we talk about faith, family, and finance, providing you tools, tips, and um methods on how to make it more practical in your life. Um, today we're actually gonna talk about giving um and why we give and why we think it's so important. Um and I think this is this is uh kind of crucial as a Christian because it builds reliance on the Lord, not you, not yourself, not not your job, but with the Lord.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Yeah. So what what Van is really talking about when she when she says giving, it's actually donating to a cause that God wants you to support, right? And uh now does God need our money? No, absolutely not. In the Bible, it talks about how he um had donkey, uh donkey talk. Okay, so really yeah, in the Old Testament. So, so um, if he can do that, then I'm sure he has plenty of resources. If he created Earth, I'm sure he has way more resources than we do. So there's a very particular reason why we give, and it's very biblical. But before we get into that, I wanted to talk about a few things on giving. One is there's over 2,300 verses that deal with money, possessions, and giving in the Bible. Okay. 11 out of 39 parables that Jesus spent his time on, it talks about handling resources or sowing seed or stewardship. And sowing seed really is talking about giving or donating, time, money, resources, wealth. Okay, which means that and and in the Gospel of Luke, Luke is a book in the Bible, one in every seven verses, the gospel talks about wealth or giving. So, um, so I so it's really important to understand why God does this. We talked about God doesn't need our money, so why is it that he's spending so much time talking about giving? Okay, and Van mentioned it earlier, but giving determines, or money determines where our heart is. Okay, the episode before this that we did last week, we talked about your money spent will determine your behavior, but behavior really points to your heart, like where your heart is. Is it lifestyle? Is it certain habits that you've kind of clinged on to? Or whatever it is that you're spending your time and money on will determine where your heart is, right? And where your heart is determines who your reliance is on and where your trust is. Right? And this is why God spends so much time handling money in the Bible. Because what he's really trying to say is that I, my identity as God is to be your God, is to be your provider, is to be your support system, is to be your source of everyday life. He's the author of life, okay? But if money dictates what you're gonna do, it really does, right? Money makes us get up in the morning and go sit in a line of cars all along with other people doing the same thing, right? Like, point being is we we get into this rat race every single day because a lot of it's driven by money. And his point is that if you just make me your number one reliance, right, you will live better giving 10, 20, 30 percent of your income. You'll live better living on lesser percentage of your income than you will keeping all of it.

SPEAKER_02 5:03

I love that. So that's why we give.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

So that's so that so what's the short answer? All that to say. That's why we give.

SPEAKER_02 5:14

Um it's a good practice because it's so um like money is can draw you away.

SPEAKER_00 5:24

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

Yet we also need money to live life comfortably, yeah. Right? But money can so quickly draw us away from from God. Right. And yet we so I think the the fact that we are giving and tithing, right? It's a reminder, like, Lord, this is this is me trusting in you.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

With this.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

And I I want to say this in my studies of giving, you know, money scripture says that the love of money is the root of all evil. That's literally what we're talking about. The love really determines your reliances on money. So that is evil. But stewardship of money is actually not, because stewardship of money will will really dictate, and if your stewardship comes from your source, which is God, then you will certainly do better things with money. And better things with money will create better things, right? Which is which is what God's heart is. God hearts God's heart is to not only bless us, but to bless generations to come. He's all about legacy. Yeah, that's why he started Earth, was because he wanted a legacy of human beings and creation.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

Yeah, can you um define stewardship?

SPEAKER_01 6:48

Oh, yeah, absolutely. That's a great question. So, stewardship is essentially how you actually um put to work what you have been blessed with. So I'll go back to I'll go back to um one is we didn't come to earth with anything. All right. So everything we have is from God Himself. Our ability to think, our hands and feet, all these things is what God created for us to have. It's not something that we created, we can't do much without it. So reality is these things were given to us by God. Stewardship is how we use it. Okay, okay, and a good steward will not only use it for their own benefit on how God intends for us to use it, but it's also how we use it to help others, how we use it to um live our life based on his internal purpose for us, right? So I'll give you an example. If you are a famous musician, or not a famous musician, if you're a talented musician and you don't do anything with it, you're not a very good steward of this gift that God gave you.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

It just and something just keeps coming back to my mind when it comes to this, is the money that you store, like the money that you have or your wealth. Yeah, it it's not about you.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

No, not at all.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

It's not about you at all. It's like so much bigger. It's not about you having all this money for yourself.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 8:21

It's not, yeah. It's it's about the bigger picture.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

Yeah, but that's exactly right. And you know, reality is if you look at um uber wealthy folks, they they come to a place in life where they have too much money, is what some people call it, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

And reality is what they actually plan to do. At a certain point, you figure out ways to actually bless others with your money.

SPEAKER_02 8:45

I know. One of my um I think my the the where I realize money is is so cool, is that you can bless others with it, but not well. I remember when we first came to faith and we were like, you know, learning to tithe and and give and trust in God and art like the seed, because you'll go into that later, right? I was driving and I had on just the radio if people still listen to the radio, but I had on the radio, and somebody there was a news, somebody said uh there was like a school district that had uh that that kids owed money from eating and like they couldn't pay for the food. Yeah, and then some guy anonymously paid off the thirty thousand dollars that the kids of kids lunch money that was owed to the district or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:55

And that was the moment it hit me, it was like, oh my gosh, like if one day we could do that, we can just pay off somebody who doesn't like that's right, you know, this is little kids that don't have money, yeah, and they're eating the lunch at school and then owed money, right? You know, and because their parents couldn't pay for it. Yeah, some guy just wiped it clean.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

That's amazing. And you know, uh, you get to a point in life where when you're when you're um in a relationship with God, your goals and dreams don't even you know, we used to dream about okay, how much do we want to make a year? Now it's about how much do we want to give.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

How much do we want to give?

SPEAKER_01 10:37

How much do we want to give? Because reality is utmost fulfillment comes from that.

SPEAKER_02 10:42

Because honestly, money does make a difference.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

It does. And you know, reality is, yeah. Do I want the rewards from blessing others? Sure.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

But the truth is it's way more rewarding for me to just see somebody put a smile on their face because we bless them. Right? And that's what give God gives the heart of giving actually comes from him. He first gave us an ability to have life. Okay, that's the first. Second is sin happened, we're in a fallen state. He gives us Jesus, defeats death, gets rose from the dead three days later, so that we all can do it all over again. Yeah. I mean, that he is a giver himself, right? He gives. And in the Bible it says that for those of you that want something, just pray, ask for it. Right? And will I not open the doors of heaven for you?

SPEAKER_02 11:38

Yeah, yeah. And I feel like, you know, having money, like buying what you want, feels good, right? Like it's rewarding, you work hard for it or whatever it is, but that's so limited too. But when you give and you bless others, it's unlimited.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

That's right. That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_02 11:58

Um because how many how many fancy bags can I have? Can I get?

SPEAKER_00 12:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:06

You know, or whatever, shoes or something like that. Like it's it's so limited.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

It is. And you know, we and I'll get into we'll get into a little bit of the practical aspects of how we do it, because it does not mean that you start starving yourself to give. It also does not mean that you sacrifice the things that your heart really desires, right? Because reality is uh my wife has really nice things. Right? But but um, and so do I. We we still have a very practical aspect of giving. If you have an investing heart or a heart that wants to invest, here's the awesome part about giving that I learned. It's the easiest way you can take a physical thing in this world and convert it to a spiritual token or currency that helps you invest. What do I mean by that? I take I can take an earthly dollar and sew it into God's kingdom, and now I just planted myself a spiritual tree that I can get blessed from. Right? As investors, we're constantly looking to convert every single one of our resources into an investment. How do we actually sew this? How do we sew this? How do we take this expense and make it an asset? That's our constant thinking, right? Well, giving is that literally. It's literally take, and God said giving is the least. This is the least form of faith you will show me. Meaning that if I can trust you with $10 or 10% of your income, that's what tithe really means, 10% of your income. I can bless you in a way that you can't even imagine or fathom. It's like an amazing spiritual um tokenization, if you want to call it that, but spiritual concept that you can use a physical thing in the world to make. That's good. Right? Let me read the scripture because this is important. Second Corinthians 9, chic to seven, it says that, but this I say, he who sows sparingly, so those that give without any hesitation will also reap sparingly. So you'll get sparingly. And it's is it transactional? Sometimes it is transactional, but but and those who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or out of necessity. Meaning that if you think you have to give and you're doing it because it's some sort of a rule, then don't even give. That's like that's what the scripture's saying, like just don't do it because it's not benefiting you whatsoever. Right? The utmost benefit comes from those that just do it freely. Right? Freely you have received, freely give.

SPEAKER_02 14:49

I um do you remember when Noah's uh birthday, like first birthday? I think he had like a hundred dollar bill. Yeah. Well, he he doesn't know what it is, really, yeah, at one year old, right? That's right. But he took that and he immediately out of just naturally out of there's me and there's you.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:14

And he just knew to give it to you. Yes, exactly. He just knew to give it to you, yeah, and you found a way to multiply it for him.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

That's right. Yeah. That's right. And you know, there's a lot of lot of a lot of message in that because it's like reality is my kids get their money from me. Right. So it comes from God, anyways. Like God gave us the ability to think and go to work. Like that's right. It came from him. But the moment that you turn around and you say, God, I'm gonna trust you with this percentage of my income, I bet you it melts his heart. Yeah. Because you trusted him, you trusted in an unseen God.

SPEAKER_00 15:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

That is huge, and that's what it says. It's that you give freely, you are gonna receive freely. Um, so let's get into the practical aspect of it, unless you wanted to add something.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

No.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

So, a couple of things practically what we do and how we do it is we take a percentage of our income, tithe means tenth. That's what the Bible talks about, tenth. Um, and we started with 10th, and and essentially we give we give a certain percentage of our income, and we actually have a separate account for giving. And it's connected to all our other accounts, but essentially we put all our giving money in that account, and that account funds all the things that we believe God is putting in our hearts to fund. And and first it goes to our home church, it goes to all other things, it also pays for this podcast. Um, but it it is it is um, and it goes to even charity events, like the you know, it individually goes to people. It's just wherever we think that God would want us to give and sew towards. And we take that, and that's the first percentage that comes out of every single one of our income. It goes into that giving account, and it does not get touched unless it's forgiving whatsoever. Um and then, and then um, and that's really it. Anything to add? I love what you said. Why do you give? Because it's my responsibility, which is true, which is true. Like at some point it hits you, and you're like, Yeah, I am responsible. I'm responsible to there's a charity that we give to that's local, um, and it's small, but they're doing really big things with children. And I, when I give to them, I feel like it's my responsibility.

SPEAKER_02 17:46

It is.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:49

Okay, well, um, that's it for this podcast, and we hope you enjoy it. If you have any questions about giving or reservations about giving and or want to kind of know more on why giving is such a big thing where you hear it at every Sunday service, and you know, let us know what your questions are, and we'd like to tackle them. Um, if you find this video helpful, please share and subscribe, and we'll see you at our next podcast.