LARRY BURKETT

Includes Serving
and Stewardship

MOODY PUBLISHERS
CHICAGO

© 1991, 1998 by
MOODY BIBLE INSTITUTE
OF CHICAGO

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Compiled from material originally published by Christian Financial Concepts, Inc. Released by Moody Publishers in booklet format in 1991.

Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, and 1977 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

ISBN: 0-8024-3737-0
ISBN-13: 978-0-8024-3737-2

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About the Author

Larry Burkett was a well-known authority on business and personal finance and wrote more than seventy books, including nonfiction bestsellers like The Family Financial Workbook, Debt-Free Living, The World’s Easiest Guide to Finances, and How to Manage Your Money. His four radio programs were carried on more than 2,000 radio outlets worldwide. Larry founded Christian Financial Concepts, which later merged to become Crown Financial Ministries.

Giving and Tithing
TOO BUSY TO SERVE

Nothing interferes more with our ability to serve God than our need to earn a living. An observer from one hundred years ago would be awestruck by the “improvement” in our living standard and by the amount of leisure time our technology now provides us. Few North Americans regularly work more than a fifty-hour week; most work forty-four hours or less. In addition, we now live an average of eighteen years longer than we did one hundred years ago and have at least one-third more disposable income per family. When all of those factors are weighed, together with the fact that in America alone there are perhaps twenty million Christians, it seems clear that we ought to be getting out the message of Jesus Christ much better than we are.

The simple truth is that most Americans are too busy to serve God. We have grown complacent and comfortable in God’s blessing and have forgotten the first commandment. In the meantime, immorality and cults have grown to alarming proportions because their advocates are more zealous in their support than we are. Since God asks for obedience rather than demands it, many Christians simply ignore the very reason for their existence: to glorify God. Without exception, God has a unique and meaningful plan for every believer that does not depend on age, income, or ability.

It is also clear that God calls each ...