Deuteronomy 26:12-15 Bible Study | Episode 941

May 19, 2025

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Deuteronomy 26:12-15  Bible Study | Episode #941

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

If you would like to revisit today’s Bible study, please visit our website at https://hopealive.buzzsprout.com/ to download the transcript. 

If this podcast ministered to you, please subscribe, and leave us a review on Apple podcasts. Reviews help us reach more people and spread the wisdom of God. 

Please follow us:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hopealivewithgod/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hopealiveministry/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LakeComChurch/ -Lake Community Church

Transcript

This is Chad Harrison and you're listening to Hope Applying God's word to your daily life.

Hi, this is Chad Harrison and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years.

I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life.

I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up his word to you and allow you to see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day,

especially today in Jesus name.

Well, good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. We are In Deuteronomy, chapter 26 and verses 12 through 15.

Deuteronomy, 26, verses 12 through 15.

Now it says when you have finished, that's how it starts.

And there's some orderliness to this.

And as we, as we talked about yesterday,

as we talked about God and, and how he,

he calls us to,

to give to him, to make Him Lord of your finances,

there's some, there's some orderliness to it. And, and,

and from a, just a practical standpoint, from a very practical point of view, I found when I'm dealing with people and, and by the way, for marriage,

the two primary reasons people get divorced, divorced are infidelity and money problems.

If you want to know the truth. That's, that's generally why people end up getting divorced,

why people have a lot of trouble and struggle in their lives.

Oftentimes it either deals with some fleshly lust, some desire of their flesh. It might be drug abuse, it might be,

it might be some kind of other addiction and,

and, or it is their inability to master their money and it makes them make really poor decisions about life in general and life in, in in particular, as far as their family is concerned.

And so when,

when I am dealing with people,

the Bible pretty much teaches, pretty, pretty strictly teaches that,

that if,

if you're not lord of your,

of your money, Lord of what God has given you,

it will be Lord of you. You can't have two masters. You can't serve God and serve money.

And that tells us that money can master us. It can be our master.

And the way you make sure money is not your master or the way you make sure you're mastering your money is first of all,

you make sure that you do the things God has told you to do as far as your money is concerned, so that he can be lord of your money and you do the things in an orderly manner so that your life might be orderly.

You know, there has to be some planning, some organizing, some putting together of your life such that you, your finances reflect the goals,

the values that you have.

And I say that because it's real, is it's, it's highly important that if you have certain goals and certain values for your life, and by the way, I think you ought to have goals for your life.

I think you ought to have goals for your marriage. I think you ought to, ought to have goals for your family.

Now, God obviously is Lord of all those things, and he gets to change those things over time and,

and during certain situations. Absolute, absolutely does.

He's the one who decides those things. But once God has given you a vision for life, a vision for your family, a vision for what's going on, you need to have goals to attain to,

and you need to have some kind of plan into some kind of organization. Now,

there's some that live on the extreme of that and they can't let God change those things. Once they're in place, they're going to just live by them no matter what.

But,

and that's negative 2. Because God needs to be lord of everything. And he gets to choose and decide the path,

even though you have planned to walk that path properly. He gets to decide the things that you can't see far out in the future.

But there has to be an orderliness to it. And when I read this passage, the rest of this passage,

verses 12 through 15, when I read them,

I look at him and I go,

God's talking about orderliness here. He's talking about being organized, having a plan, having a, having a,

dare I say, a budget,

a budget of how you're going to do things,

how you're going to handle what God has given you. Yeah, that's what he has.

When you have finished laying aside all the ties of your increase in the third year,

the year of tithing,

by the way, they tithed every third year.

So if you go strictly by the Old Testament,

some churches would really fold under if, if they only received a tithe every third year and have given it to the Levite,

the stranger, the fatherless and the widow,

so that they may eat within your gates and be filled.

So there's a reason for the tithe, and that was to make sure those who don't have anything would have plenty of food.

Then you shall lay before the Lord your God.

I have removed the holy tithe from my House.

You say that to God.

And I've also given them to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, the widow, according to all your commandments, which you have commanded me.

I've not transgressed your commandments, nor have I forgotten them. What he's saying is I'm doing things according to the way you would have me do them.

I'm doing things the way your word instructs.

I'm going to live my life in a way that mirrors the instructions of how you've told me how I should live.

I've not eaten any of it when in mourning,

nor have I removed any of it from the unclean use,

nor have I given any of it for the dead. What he's saying is I've not wasted it or used it in ways that you haven't told me to use it.

Now,

don't you hear me?

If you're going to expect God to bless your life and bless especially your finances,

you can't be using your finances for things that clearly aren't godly, clearly aren't from God. You can't do that.

And that's what he said.

Here.

I've not eaten any of it when in mourning,

meaning I haven't done when I should have been fasting. I haven't eaten it,

nor have I removed any of it, meaning I haven't stolen it. I haven't. I have taken and given less than what I should have given,

or nor have I given any of it for the dead,

which is a. Which would have been a pagan practice in the land that they were in.

I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, my God.

So what he's saying is, I've done this. I've been orderly. I've been. There's an organization to this.

I've done it the way you've told me to do it.

I've handled my finances, my money,

the way you've instructed me to live.

So I've not gambled it away.

I've not wasted it on things that have no value.

I've not used it for things that would not be according to your will or your way.

And notice he says, when you come before God and say this,

so there's an. There's an. There is a coming before God and saying,

I live this way. I've.

You. You are agreeing with God and his will. You're agreeing with God and his plan for your life.

And he says when you come to God and do that,

when you come and agree with him on how you should have done these Things and how you should live.

He says,

and I've done according to all of your commandments for me. That's the end of verse 14.

Look. Now notice now you're asking God,

look down from your holy habitation, from heaven and bless your people, Israel and the land which you have given us,

just as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Now notice he's telling them,

he's telling them, then you can come and expect from me.

And I'm using the word expect why? Because God's a God who fulfills his promises.

He says, you can come and expect that I'm going to fulfill my end of things.

If you're, if you do what is right and you live your life and you become master of your finances,

meaning you take control of them and you,

you put them where they should be.

He says, if you do that,

you can come and ask for me,

that I bless you,

and I bless you according to the promises I made, not just to you, but to those before you, your forefathers.

And that I will make the land flow with milk and honey.

I'll give you the best from my hand.

Now,

a lot of people don't want to do that.

A lot of young people don't want to do that.

A lot of older people just find themselves in a position where they just can't do it. I don't even know why. They just,

they, they spend their money willy nilly.

They waste it on things that God would definitely never have them wasted on.

They don't place it in the places that have future and hope in them.

They don't put them in places where God can really, really bless them.

And so in the end, they struggle.

They struggle because they're not blessed in their workplace. They're not blessed in their family, they're not blessed in their finances. They're not blessed in anything.

And they're believers.

But they haven't made God lord of everything. They just made God lord of Sunday and really only Sunday morning.

And they struggle. They continue to struggle, struggle, struggle. They struggle on in their life.

And I'll say this,

if that's you,

you've got to begin to walk with God and you've got to begin to take, take an account of your life and look at the things that you're doing and ask yourself, am I doing the things that God would have me do?

Am I living my life out?

Is my. Is. Does my life reflect the plan God has for me?

And if it doesn't,

then I would say to you begin to figure out how it should be and live it that way.

Because God does want to give you all his promises.

But when you're not a vessel that can hold those promises,

they're wasted on you and you and, and you're not. You're not able to hold them anyway.

So even if he gave them to you, they'd be lost.

These things do take lifestyle changes. They take an effort,

real concerted effort to do them.

And when we choose to do them,

we make ourselves available to all the promises of God. And when we choose not to,

we miss out.

As you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you, and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.