Stewardship Conference Day 1, PM (Bro. Wetherbee) – 2026

You ever heard the expression give til it hurts? God doesn't ever want giving to hurt. Amen. He doesn't want that. And if you'll give in the shadow of the cross, it won't hurt.

Because you'll never be able to give as much as Jesus gave. I want to do a little chorus here real quick. I'll watch the clock for you so you don't have to watch yours.

I want to talk for a minute tonight about the heart. Because that's really what life's all about. Did you know the Bible says to keep thy heart with all diligence?

For out of the heart proceed the issues of life. Lester Orloff used to say you're not what you think you are, but what you think you are. The Bible says that as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.

Did you know the Bible says out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. What you speak comes from the heart. The old farmers used to say what's down in the well is going to come up in the bucket. The Bible says that God.

Man looks on the outward but God looks on the heart. It's all about the heart. How about your heart? Is it right with God? That's the thing that counts today. Is it black by sin? Is it pure within?

Won't you ask Christ in today? People often see you as you are outside. Jesus really knows you for he sees inside. So how about your heart? Is it right with God?

That's the thing that counts today.

Now friend, how would you feel if your heart were made with a window on each side so that all could see not just outward charm but detect if inward harm? Jesus really knows you for he sees inside. So how about your heart? Is it right with God? Cause that's the thing that counts today.

That's kind of a sermon in itself, isn't it? Can you imagine if people could see what's in our heart? Kind of scary maybe, isn't it? Take your Bible and go to the book of Psalm, chapter 112.

Psalm chapter 112. I'm a little tangled up here. Brother Flanagan used to. And we used to have our church a lot.

And he'd, when he'd put on his microphone and everything tangled up, he said, well Jesus said there'd be wires and rumors of wires. Stewardship, a one track mind, living one way, not a lot of different ways.

I started telling our people not long ago and I got a lot of weird looks when I said it. But I said, I want to tell you to stop living for Jesus. And they all leaned over, said, oh, somebody called 911. Wetherby's lost it.

I said, let's just don't live for Jesus. Let's live with Jesus. He said, well, we're going to live with him in heaven. No, I'm talking about down here living with Jesus.

You say, well, isn't that the same?

Not everybody that lives for Jesus lives with Jesus because they meet him at certain times, but he's not there all the time, getting in our head to wake up with Jesus, go to bed with Jesus, walk with Jesus, live in the presence of Christ. Boy, what a difference that would make. In Psalm 112, it says, Praise ye the Lord.

You know, when you start thinking about stewardship and you realize it's about the lordship of Christ, the Lord of everything, not just the Lord of Sunday. The Lord of everything, not just the Lord of your tithe, the Lord of everything. Bringing Jesus living with Jesus in everything.

You do whatsoever you do, in word or deed, do all to the glory of God. The Bible says, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.

In all thy ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct thy path. You see, most people, even good Christian people, they. They say, well, I want to put God first. And so they look at their life as a pie.

And I'm going to give the Lord the biggest piece of the pie. Well, the Lord made the pie. He owns the pie. He wants you to share everything with him. In all thy ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths.

Bob Jones Sr. Used to say, for the Christian, nothing is secular. You let that sink in for a moment. Nothing is secular. You see, we like to divide our Christian life separate from our secular life.

Our church life is one part, but then we go to work, and that doesn't have anything to do with God. Jesus said, he's lord of everything. A lot of people say, well, this is our vacation. And that's separate from my spiritual life. No, it's not.

Stewardship is the hub of the wheel. Giving is just one spoke. Money is just a spoke in the wheel.

It's including, it's acknowledging, it's realizing, it's inviting, it's experiencing Christ in everything you do when you buy. The Bible says, whatsoever you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God.

You see, God's not against things, but he wants us to use things and love people and love him. Money is not evil, but the love of money is the root of all evil. And if God can trust us with money. He'll give us money.

But he tests us to see what we'll do with a little. And God's always watching. We talked about that this morning. But it all begins with, is He Lord of your life? Is he? I want you to think about that.

I mean, honestly, before God. Do you include the Lord? Do you look for his nod in everything you do? You say, lord, that's, I want to glorify you. I want to honor you in everything.

Everything. So important. If we had time tonight, we'd go to Psalm 23. Because that's the kind of life, really that I want to live.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures. That sounds pretty good. Instead of dead, brown pastures. He leadeth me beside still waters. Don't you like to be beside still waters?

Not a storm, but still waters. He restoreth my soul. I need that all the time. He leadeth me in paths of righteousness.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of shadow of death, I fear no evil. Thou art with me. Thy rod and staff comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me. My cup runs over, boy, that's the life.

But it all began with, the Lord is my shepherd. You take that out and everything else falls apart. You're on your own. Do you really want to be on your own? In Psalm 112, it says, Praise ye the Lord.

Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord. I know you've heard a lot of definitions, probably over the years, good ones, of the fear of the Lord.

But my own personal definition for the fear of the Lord is to never take him casual, never to take him seriously. We're living in a time where everything's casual and it's seeped into our churches and everything people do, it's casual.

Even preachers have gotten casual. Dress casual, sing casual, get involved casually. You know, when you start going down that road, it's all about you, what makes you feel comfortable.

That's why we go casual, because that's the way we feel. What's the way we want to be? You read the Old Testament. Nobody took God casually when they were right with God.

They took two weeks just to get ready to go to church, to go to the tabernacle. How'd you like that? They wouldn't go in the door. They bathed and cleaned and got their clothes laid out and.

And fasted and prayed and had devotions and time together to get ready to go to the house of God. The fear of the Lord. Never take him casual. But that's where everybody's going today. You know why? Because God's not sovereign.

In most churches, the people are sovereign.

The young preachers nowadays, in a lot of these so called seminaries, they're teaching them, find out what the people want to do and do it, and they'll give you their money. They'll come make them, Lord, make them happy. And so that's. Modern preachers just want to fit in with everybody else. What do y' all want me to do?

I'll do it. I'm glad you don't have a pastor like that. Blessed. You want blessings?

Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord and that delighteth greatly in his commandments. He doesn't endure them. Did you know the Bible says that the commandments of God are not grievous. They're not to go, oh, no, not another rule. No.

When God says thou shalt not, he's saying, I love you so much. I don't want you to hurt yourselves. They're love letters. The Ten Commandments are love letters.

When he says thou shalt, he's saying, help yourself to a blessing. He delighteth greatly in his commandments. I like verse two. It says, his seed that always in the Bible talks about his family.

His seed shall be mighty upon the earth and the generation of the upright shall be blessed. Can I make a statement here that maybe upset somebody, but it's so important, especially you men, fathers, husbands, who love your family.

If you rob God, you're robbing your.

One of the greatest things a man can do to make sure his family are protected and provided for and taken care of is to put God first in your finances. Will a man rob God? Oh, yeah. Malachi 3. They said, what do you mean? Where have we robbed you? And he said, in tithes and offerings. Yeah.

There's more than just meeting the financial needs. I understand that, but that's the best place to start.

And a lot of men pray for their family and weep and go to the altar and all that's great, but they're robbing God. God can't bless a thief. Across the country, all religions put together in one big bowl.

Only about 23% of people who say they're Christians tithe or give anything on a regular basis. I don't know if you know about your church. My church got up to about 52 or 53%.

And I would think it would probably be high in this church because you've been taught and preached to and you've grown and you understand. Billy Graham used to say if you're right with your money and you're right with your honey, you're probably going to make it.

I mean, let's face it, the devil fights our family, our homes, our marriages. He wants to tear it apart. If he can hurt you at home, he can hurt you. He'll hurt you all over.

It'll affect the way you work and the way you worship and it'll affect everything but his seed. You want your family to be blessed? Look at verse 3. Wealth and riches shall be in his house. Is that talking about money?

It might include money, but it's not all about money. Amen. Jesus. Did you know two thirds of the parables of Jesus had something had money involved in it?

That might surprise you, but you go back and take all the parables and you'll see Jesus had a lot to say about money. Because he needs your money. No, because he knew it's going to cause a lot of problems in a lot of families and marriages.

Still, the number one cause of divorce in America is financial stress and disaster and all that thing. But Jesus said, if you are not faithful and right over the. Over the unrighteous mammon. Mammon means money. Jesus said this.

If you're not faithful over the unrighteous mammon, he said, how shall I commit to you the true riches, the real stuff, the good stuff, the true riches, wealth and riches shall be in his house. And his righteousness endureth forever. Look at verse four. Unto the upright, there ariseth light in the darkness.

We're living in a dark world and it's getting darker. But the darker the night, the brighter the light. For the Christian, we can have light unto the upright.

That means the saved, those are looking up and doing the right thing. According to the Bible, not according to the world. The world says right's wrong and wrong's right now. But there ariseth light and darkness.

He is gracious and full of compassion. Righteous, a good man showeth favor and lendeth. In other words, he's not hoarding his blessings, he's sharing with others.

By the way, I'll probably hit on this tomorrow night, but this is be very important for you to understand because a lot of these preachers that are con artists say the more you give, the more you'll get and that's the end of it. But this would be worth writing down, not because I said it, but we're not to give to get. We're to give to get, to give again.

Give and it shall be given unto you, pressed down, shaken together and running over shall men give unto your bosom? The Bible says Luke 6:38. You see, we're not to be storage tanks, we're to be pipelines.

And God flows it out of heaven into our life and he watches how we handle those blessings. But we don't give to get. A lot of people think, you know, I've really got some problems. I need more money. I think I'll just get more.

Give so you can get. So you can give again. And when you give again, you can't out give God. God's going to give to you again and then you're going to get and give back.

And you back and forth. Give, get, give, get, give, get, give, give. It's just back and forth all the time. And that's the way God wants us to live. Because giving is living.

The happiest people in the world are giving people. The most miserable people are the tightwads living in fear that someone's going to get their stuff.

Remember I told you this morning, we don't have any stuff. Everything we have belongs to God. Have you learned to give? The Bible says, a good man, showeth favor and lendeth.

He will guide his affairs with discretion. Surely he shall not be moved. Remember that song we used to sing? I shall not be moved forever. The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.

Now watch this. Remember the little song I did a moment ago? How about your heart? He, the man who is blessed, who says, praise the Lord.

He shall not be afraid of evil tidings. His heart is what fixed us. Southerners talk about fixing to do something, but that's not what that word means, of repairing.

No, not at all, not at all. Fixed. His heart is fixed. In other words, it's set, it's settled, it's final. It's locked in, it's fastened, it's.

It's concentrated, it's determined, it's firm, it's hard, it's definite, it's constant. His heart is fixed. Now, that is stewardship. His heart is fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ.

I know you've heard it, but either he's Lord of all or he's not Lord at all. It's a contradiction of terms to say, well, he's lord over some things. Jesus said, why do you call me Lord and do not the things which I command you?

You know, we use that word sometimes too casually, O Lord, and we sometimes don't even think about it. But if we understand what the word Lord is. Sovereign King, seek ye first the kingdom of God. A kingdom as a king.

Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords. Seek ye first the kingdom of God in his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. He say, things? What things?

Well, he didn't list them all, but he said, take no thought of what you shall eat or drink or what you shall put on. I think he put that put on in there for the ladies. I don't meet too many men that go, oh, no, I don't know what I'm going to wear today.

My wife says, honey, you've worn that long enough. It's time to change. But he said, you don't need to worry, you don't need to fret if you'll put me first. By the way, God put you first, did he not?

That's what Romans 8:28 is all about. For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God because of that relationship. And all means all. That's all.

All means all things. The good, the bad and the ugly, they don't all feel good, they don't all look good. But they all work together for good, for saved.

Men and women, young people, boys or girls, put God first in their life. Every time I think about Seek ye first the kingdom of God, I think about that old comedy. Some of you said, man, he's old Abbott and Costello.

Who's on first? Remember that. Oh, man, that one will give you a headache after a while. But that's the question, isn't it? Who's on first in your life?

Is it you or is it God? Are you set in your ways or are you set in his ways? That's what that means. His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.

In fact, it repeats it almost again a different way. Verse 8. His heart is established. He shall not be afraid.

I mentioned this morning about Joshua as he stood there with his wife and kids in front of Israel. And he said, you all need to choose who you're going to serve.

But he said, as for me in my house, I would love if we could get a picture of them standing there and all these people out there. I. I would love to have seen the face on his wife when he said that.

I wonder if his wife would look up with a gleam and say under her breath, that's my man. He's leading us in the right direction. Can you imagine all the kids, their mouth open, go, wow, dad, we're serving the Lord, aren't we?

But what if his wife would have had a smirk on her face and rolled her eyes to go, oh, brother, here we go again. You know, it's hard. It's very, very hard in a marriage when one of the spouses wants to put God first and the other doesn't.

It's a horrible way to live. A horrible way to live. But when they're both together, they become one.

And they want the same thing out of life, to honor Jesus Christ wherever they go, whoever they're with, whatever they do, his heart is established. He shall not be afraid. 2nd Timothy 1. God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power. Amen. And of love. Amen. And that mindset.

A sound mind, thinking clearly and thinking right. I mentioned this morning, so many people live by fear. They want to wait and see.

I don't want to jump up and commit and volunteer and get involved yet. I got to wait and see. I can't afford to give right now. Maybe later. You can't afford not to give. You'll never get ahead by putting God behind. Never.

God made it that way. Look in verse nine. He hath dispersed. There you go. Give to get, to give, to get, to give again to get. I mean, just try it sometime.

Say, lord, would you increase the finances in my life so I can give more? I think the Lord would go, hmm, say that again. Probably doesn't get a lot of requests like that. I thank God so much.

Shelly and I have been married 53 years. And when we first started, even before we got married, we said, when we get married, God's coming first in our finances. And for 50.

Well, I retired three years ago, but the whole time I was. And we still give, and God's still blessing us, but we increased our giving every. Every year.

I'm not bragging, saying, man, aren't I a good Christian? No. We go as Gomer said, Shazam. And we couldn't believe it. We thought, man, every time we give, God gives back.

And so we'd give more and he'd give more, then we'd give more, and then he'd give more than that. But again, may I continually press upon you. Don't equate blessings with money. Money's not wrong.

God can bless you financially if you'll put him first. And give to get, to give. But it's not always about money. God may give you health. Some people would give every penny they have to have. Amen.

A family, sons and daughters that love God and want to serve God. Not because they have to, because they want to. Boy, what is that worth to have a church like this?

You say, oh, there are churches all up and down the road. Not like this church. They're getting fewer and far between. Churches are changing. Thank God. This church says, by the help and grace of God.

Your pastor. I know. He said it over and over again to God and to himself. We're going to stay the course. We're going to stay the course. He hath dispersed.

He hath given to the poor. His righteousness endureth forever. His horn shall be exalted with honor. And I love. Verse 10. The wicked shall see it.

When it says the wicked, it talks about unsaved people. The wicked shall see it and be what? Grieved. Isn't that something?

It's almost like David when he said, thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Cause the enemies could go, huh?

And this man, who I believe was saved and is putting the Lord first in his life, said, the wicked shall see it and be grieved. In fact, it says he shall gnash with his teeth. I mean, they're miserable and melt away. The desire of the wicked shall perish.

That's a good Stewardship. Chapter Psalm 112. Fixed. My heart is fixed. When I first saw Shelly in the choir, never talked to her. But I walked in and saw her in the choir.

Beautiful redhead. My heart was fixed. I probably shouldn't tell you this, but on our very first date, I said, I'm going to marry you. She says, no, you're not.

I'm going to be an airline stewardess and travel. No, you're not. I'm going to marry you. The rest is history. God wants us to get our heart fixed. To get it settled, or make up your mind.

Fixed on who's in charge. Fixed on what God says in His Word. That settles it. Fixed in the church. Amen. This is your church. It's the Lord's church. But he put you in this church.

Brothers and sisters together. What if every member showed up on one service? What if every member tithed on one Sunday? Everyone just tithed. No offerings.

Your preacher would have to. We'd have to call 911. He'd be out on the floor. What if every church member were just like me? What kind of church would this church be?

Fixed on your finances? Fixed on your family's welfare? Is your heart fixed? Or does it need some repair work? Fix in heaven. Fix on heaven. Do you think about heaven very much?

Most of us. I don't have time. I'm thinking about the world so much. I understand we're not to isolate ourselves. I understand that.

We're in the world, but not of the world. But you know what we need to think more about our home, where we're going to, and then to fix our heart on the clouds. Because Jesus is coming.

I used to say, any day, it's any moment, he's at the door. Is your heart fixed? Would you bow your head and close your eyes? Let's stand together, please. Everyone's standing. Can you say my heart is fixed?

My heart is locked in. It's firm, it's definite. Does your husband know that? Does your wife know that? Does your kids know? My dad's heart is fixed. He's made up his mind.

There's no more need to discuss. It's settled. Do your kids know that? Do your kids know their parents? Their heart is fixed. What about your heart?

We're going to have a verse of invitation in just a moment. The music will begin to play. If you would go ahead now. And I'm going to pray. And the altars will be open. Maybe you need a tune up.

Maybe you're not on fire as you were when you first got saved. Heavenly Father, thank you for this church and Lord, for this size church. Everybody here has burdens and trials and things that they're dealing with.

And Lord, there's nothing too hard for you. We know that. But Lord, you gave us a choice to live the way we want to live. And thank you for your counsel.

And I pray that more and more people here at Heritage Baptist Church will say, my heart is fixed. My mind is made up. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord God. Speak to every heart.

You spoke to mine tonight, right while I was in the middle of my sermon, you spoke to my heart. Thank you, Lord. Bless this invitation. In Jesus name. I have decided to follow Jesus. You know that song? Let's sing a verse of it.

And if you'd like to come, come go back to your seat. Just takes a few moments. You say, lord, I want my heart to be fixed. I want it to be settled.