Overcoming Financial Strongholds

Money Lies

All money has a spirit on it  (The Spirit of God or the spirit of mammon). 

(Luke 16:9-13 NKJV) “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own? No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (the god of money).” 

• Money will make me secure.

(Hebrews 13:5-6) Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?”

Proverbs 18:11 (ESV)

11 A rich man's wealth is his strong city,
    and like a high wall in his imagination.

Proverbs 21:20 (ESV)

 Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling,
    but a foolish man devours it.

Proverbs 11:28  (ESV)

Whoever trusts in his riches will fall,
    but the righteous will flourish like a green leaf.

• Money will make me significant.

(Luke 12:15 NLT) Then he said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.”

• Money will make me happy.

(Ecclesiastes 5:10 NLT) Those who love money will never have enough. How absurd to think that wealth brings true happiness!

(Romans 4:7-8 NCV) Happy are they whose sins are forgiven, whose wrongs are pardoned. Happy is the person whom the Lord does not consider guilty.

The more a person has. The more he or she wants.

Overcoming Financial Strongholds

(Malachi 3:6-12) “I the LORD do not change… Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty. “But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’ “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the LORD Almighty. “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty.

1. Return the first and put God first.

(Deuteronomy 14:22-23) Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year…so that you may learn to revere the LORD your God always.

1 Corinthians 16:2 (ESV)

2 On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.

2. Steward the rest.

(Proverbs 21:5) The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.

Join a financial small group.

3.Focus on true riches.

(Luke 12:16-21) And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. “And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

Chris Hodges, Church of the Highlands

Video

https://www.churchofthehighlands.com/media/message/overcoming-financial-strongholds

Discussion Group

https://www.churchofthehighlands.com/files/groups/guides/1-28-18.pdf

All scripture is from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.