Ever grimaced at the thought of paying taxes? What if we told you, there’s a way to turn that frown upside down? Kathy and I are here to flip the script on this universally dreaded task. Using our personal experiences and a fascinating tale from the Bible involving Jesus and taxes, we argue for a change of heart and a cheerful approach to this civic duty. Remember, it’s not the act of paying taxes that God considers, but our attitude towards it. Join us as we show you how this positive mindset can mirror our trust in God and our wish for a prosperous nation.
But our conversation doesn’t stop at taxes. We delve deeper into the essence of giving back to God what is His, emphasizing the interplay between two very different realms – the earthly government and God’s kingdom. We explore how our contributions to both these realms can open the pathway for divine blessings. Busting the myth that money is evil, we underline how it’s the love of money that can lead us astray. Wrapping up, we reflect on the tale of the rich man and Lazarus, highlighting the importance of balancing our earthly obligations with our spiritual ones. It’s not just an episode, it’s a journey of faith, understanding, and cultivating a fulfilling life.
Key Takeaways:
- Pay taxes with the right attitude and be thankful for the ability to pay.
- Giving to God what belongs to God is essential for receiving His blessings.
- Maintain a grateful mindset and trust in God’s provision, even in financial difficulties.
- Spiritual leaders should focus on the spirit and include God in all aspects of life.
Where To Dive In:
0:00:01 Introduction to the topic of taxes at the end of the year
0:01:09 Discussion about the trick question on paying taxes to Rome
0:02:59 Importance of having the right attitude towards paying taxes
0:04:08 Need for a positive attitude to maintain a blessed country
0:06:12 Importance of being grateful for the ability to pay taxes
0:07:10 Significance of budgeting and planning for tax payments
0:08:08 Importance of giving to God what belongs to God
0:09:53 Consequences of neglecting to give to God
0:10:23 Comparison between the expectations of the government and God
0:11:56 Choice to give to God and receive His blessings
0:11:50 Giving to God what belongs to God
0:13:12 Money is not evil, love of money is
0:14:13 Luxury is not the issue, neglecting to help others is
0:17:10 Churches need to apply spirituality to politics
0:19:27 Believing for miracles and giving beyond your limits
0:20:48 Spiritual leaders should focus on the spirit, not just politics
0:22:07 Book recommendations: “If You Only Knew” and others
0:22:54 Lesson from Jonah: Sometimes the preacher needs to be thrown overboard
0:23:20 Give to Caesar and give to God for more faith
About the host:
Steve Gray is the founding and senior pastor of Revive Church KC. He has been in the full time ministry for over 40 years and was launched into national and international recognition in the late 1990’s as the leader of the historic Smithton Outpouring, and again in 2009 when he lead the Kansas City Revival which was televised nationally on the Daystar television network. Steve is also a veteran musician, songwriter, recording artist and published author. His books include When The Kingdom Comes, Follow The Fire, and My Absurd Religion.
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Transcript:
0:00:01
Hey, don’t miss this podcast. More faith, more life. I got my wife Kathy with me, and we’re going to tell you two things you need to do to get the blessing of God. Hello, everyone, and welcome to another More Faith, More Life podcast. And today we’re going to talk about what homeowners, or would be homeowners better be ready for at the end of the year. And it hits everybody right when you spend all your money on Christmas shopping.
0:00:24
You know what it is? It so unfair for families and individuals. They want you to pay your real estate taxes by December 31. That is a huge chunk of money for a lot of people, real estate taxes.
0:00:37
And if you don’t pay them, then you can’t renew your driver’s license, you can’t renew your tags on your car, all that kind of stuff. So you’ve got to do it. But a lot of new homeowners, they get excited to buy a home, but they forget that you got to pay those taxes, too. They figure up everything and forget about that. And so that’s why I wanted to bring that up, because in the Bible, we’re having discussion about taxes. In the Bible, there’s a discussion about taxes with Jesus, and some of his opponents are trying to trick him, but they come to him and they ask, is it right to pay taxes?
0:01:09
In their case, to Caesar? To Rome? Rome collected taxes. They also said temple taxes. So they were taxed pretty much pretty hard. But anyway, is it right to pay taxes to Rome? And I’m sure it’s a clever, clever answer.
0:01:24
Was that a trick question these guys were asking Jesus?
0:01:27
Yeah. Okay. So they wanted to corner him and make him look bad in front of the people, because if he says, yes, we need to pay Rome taxes, then he looks like he’s a traitor to Israel. And if he says no, then he looks like he’s a rebellion in rebellion against Rome. So they figured there’s no way he can win on this. And so you know the story they may too that he says, well, show me a coin. And you’ve heard me speak many times on that, that these are Jewish lawmakers Pharisees leaders, and they don’t think about it. They don’t realize they’re being tricked because one of them, somebody reaches into the pocket and pulls out a coin.
0:02:11
And if you don’t realize what’s happening, you can just pass this whole story by of what’s really taking place. But anyway, he pulled it out, and on those coins was a picture of Caesar. And that’s what he says, whose pictures on it? But it’s more than his picture. It’s his picture. But it also says Caesar is God.
0:02:29
Yeah.
0:02:30
And so what kind of compromise they’re trying to see that he’s compromised? What kind of a compromised religious leader, Pharisee, maker of the law, whatever, teacher of the law would have a coin that says, God’s, not God, Caesar is God. So he says, Whose coin on it? And they said, Pictures on it. He said, Caesar. Now they’re caught because they’re compromised, they’re tricked. But then he continues on. Most people don’t realize that he already got them.
0:02:59
And then he gives his advice. And you know what it is? He said, well, since Caesar’s on the coin, you give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what belongs to God, pay those taxes. Yeah. So you got to pay your taxes. And he didn’t say, you pay them begrudgingly. He said, yeah, but you can say a few cuss words under your breath. If you don’t like it, that’s what you do. You pay what you’re supposed to pay.
0:03:30
That’s right.
0:03:30
And so I think there’s something good to have that attitude. Even though taxes are hard, they come around in April, between January and April, and then at the end of the year, these taxes we’re talking about. But I don’t think we do ourselves a favor then if we get tricked like they were trying to trick Jesus, that we’re going to go one way or the other, we’re going to pay our taxes, but we’re going to pay like a rebel or we’re going to pay like we’re angry and we want God to bless America. We want God to bless our country and we need it right now.
0:04:08
We need a God presence in our country. If we’re going to say God bless America or it’s going to be on a coin or in God we trust in ours, then we need to trust. A coin says God, we trust. You can afford you can afford if you do things God’s way, you can afford to pay that tax, god will help you. But then the reason it is because the coin says, in God we trust. So trust in God and don’t whine or complain about it because we want to have a blessed country.
0:04:42
So in other words, then we come across as a rebel even though we’re paying it because we want to get our driver’s license renewed or something, but we’re paying it. But we’ve got an attitude about it.
0:04:54
We got to have the right attitude because God, if nobody else knows God knows that attitude. And it’s a begrudging type of thing and a rebellious type of thing, actually. And God cannot bless rebellion or pushing against kicking against the goad. And so as Christians, we should be the ones doing what’s right, is that correct?
0:05:18
Yeah. I wouldn’t mind them switching the real estate taxes to a different month, but exactly. You know what? You know how I’ve been about taxes, even when we had very little, especially starting not just in a traveling ministry, but then we started a church with no money, no people, no money, nothing in a small town. But we did buy a house.
0:05:40
Yes.
0:05:40
It wasn’t, by today’s standards too high in cost, but in fact, it was really low cost back then. We got a deal, right? Yeah, we got a deal, but we still had to pay real estate taxes on it. And I remember as little as we had, the attitude, you know what? I’m not going to be angry that I have to pay taxes. I’m going to be thankful that I have the money to pay taxes. So it turns into Thanksgiving. How would we be if we didn’t have the money? But we did. We’ve always paid our taxes.
0:06:12
Well, I also thought, how would it be if we didn’t have the house?
0:06:16
Yeah, you could just give up the house and not have to pay taxes. Right. So I was always just thankful because I wanted to keep that blessing on my house. As the Bible says, you obey your authorities, you don’t rebel against those in authority, and you respect and honor those.
0:06:37
You obey and respect those in authority. And also, like you did and I did with you, we trusted God. We made a plan. We said in June, we said, hey, listen, in six months, here comes this big chunk of money due, and also here comes Christmas. So even with the very little we had, we never went without, because you used wisdom and you set guidelines, and guess what? We had a budget. Fancy that. And we budgeted in our tax money.
0:07:10
We didn’t spend. You’ve taught about eating your seed instead of planting it the right way so that it continues to provide for you. So early on, you taught me that.
0:07:23
I have known some people who don’t pay taxes, who should pay it, didn’t pay their taxes, and eventually it catches up with you. They’ll find you eventually. So that doesn’t work.
0:07:35
You don’t want that.
0:07:36
No, that doesn’t work. But what I want to now add to it is how do you first of all, we talked about the attitude, have the right attitude, but if it’s a strain and it’s difficult or you’re going to have to really pray and ask God to help you every year, you got to do it every year. So help you. How do you get the blessing of God on your life so that you can be like we were able to do? Yeah, it took our money away, but I did it with Thanksgiving because, thank the Lord, we have it or had it.
0:08:08
Yes.
0:08:08
Okay, so how do you get to that point? And that’s why I wanted to use that scripture, because first of all, it’s give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, or in our case, our money in the United States of America, our money says, In God we trust. And it’s got president’s pictures on them. Right. So it obviously doesn’t have my picture on it. So give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. Let’s give to the country where it came from. The country printed it. We worked and got it now we give back what we need to remain a citizen and to support.
0:08:41
But where do people go? Here’s where people go wrong. I would say those that don’t understand 99% go wrong here, and they don’t get the blessing of God on their lives or especially on their finances. And that’s the next lesson, because Jesus said, give to God what belongs to God.
0:09:03
Yes.
0:09:03
And that’s then people do if they have to pay taxes, then they’re not going to pay God. They’re not going to do both. And Jesus said, what do both? And most people don’t they feel pinched, financially difficult, strained, maybe not even just paying taxes, just all the time, but they don’t put it together. So, yeah, you pay your taxes, you give to those that you’re supposed to give to. It’s your house payment or you got another payment, or utility bills. If you ran up the utility bill, then you got to pay it.
0:09:38
Right?
0:09:38
Okay. So you do that. You do what’s right there with the right attitude, but then give to God what belongs to God. And almost people get into a financial pinch, and the first thing to go is giving to God what belongs to God.
0:09:53
Yeah.
0:09:54
And that’s how you keep the blessing. And it’s so in all of the lessons that I’ve heard people teach on that, they never teach it like I just did. There’s two things here. You’re supposed to do two things, and one is expected by our government, or you’ll get into big trouble, but the other is expected by God’s government. And I’m not going to say you’re going to get trouble, but you’re going to miss the blessing of God.
0:10:22
That’s right.
0:10:23
And it’s so simple. But it’s also so easy to forget God, because he’s not going to chase after you and beg you to give, or he’s not going to send an agent like the IRS will send an agent. You’ll get a phone call.
0:10:37
Well, you know, with trusting God and obedience to what Jesus said there, it takes faith and it takes a willing heart, and it takes understanding of how God’s kingdom works. The natural government, they actually will. Like you said, they’ll come after you or in your paycheck. It goes first. They take taxes out before you get your paycheck. So you get the net and they get the gross part. And so it is God’s plan.
0:11:11
Let the government, they’re going to take it from us, and we don’t fight against it, and we obey the law of the land. But God doesn’t say, I’m going to come get you now this Sunday morning, I’m coming, and I’m going to grab you by the nape of the neck and make you pay your tithes and your offerings. God says, choose life. The choice is yours. Choose the blessing. Get your husbands and wives, get in agreement on this and say, this is right, and we’ve chosen from the depths of our hearts and the love of God, and we want his kingdom and his blessings.
0:11:50
So we choose to give to God what is God’s.
0:11:56
And you can see and understand we’re talking about two kingdoms here.
0:12:00
Yes.
0:12:00
And we got to pay to both kingdoms if you want. Now, in this country, if you don’t pay your taxes and you need to call the police, well, maybe they’ll come. I don’t know. It used to be they would come. I don’t know what’s happening in cities with the police now, but a policeman will come whether you paid your taxes or not. They give you that. Right, but that’s really why we pay taxes, is so that we can be participating citizens, because we want the police to come when we call them.
0:12:31
Well, it’s the same thing in the kingdom of God. If you want to get the I wouldn’t say the police of heaven, but if you want to get heaven activity in your life, you want God helping you when you need help, then be a citizen of that kingdom, too. And of course, you become a citizen by belief in Jesus. I mean, the Bible explains it, and most people know there’s, some don’t. But most people know the way they’ve heard a sermon how to become a Christian. And you believe in Jesus, believe he was raised from the dead and believe his word and things like that. But then after that, it’s more than just a belief. There are actions that we need to take, right?
0:13:12
Yes.
0:13:12
So take action. And one of the actions is give to God, give what belongs to God. It’s so simple. But people love money, and you do know that, don’t you?
0:13:24
Yes. And you know what? I want to throw this in, that money is not evil. Money is not the root of all evil. Money is not the root. All right? Money is not the root of all evil. The love of money is the root of evil. Caring about money, loving money, elevating its importance in your life. That is what is the root of evil, because then it pushes people to not pay their tithes and their taxes. It pushes people to buy foolishly, consume, consume, consume, consume, because that love of what you think money could do for you, that is the root of evil. So guess what? It’s really the person handling the money and making the choices.
0:14:13
Can I say it? That person is the evil one, not the money at all.
0:14:19
Yeah, well, that was my sermon for the day. Well, I was talking the other day to someone about in the Bible, there’s a rich man and Lazarus, and it says that he lived a life of luxury. And a lot of them, you hear sermons on that against money or against luxury or against enjoying the things that you can afford to get. And they’ll use that sermon because at his house, there was a man who was a beggar that was there every day, and he’s sick.
0:14:55
And the rich man lived in luxury, but he did nothing to help the poor man, okay? So it’s not a sermon, it’s not a scripture on you can’t live in luxury. Let’s live as luxurious as we can. We just don’t forget God. We give to God what belongs to God. But the lesson there with Him is that it’s that he could have done something, and it would have not taken anything away from his luxurious lifestyle. So we got to be careful that we don’t preach against rich people or we don’t preach against we can’t have things because God doesn’t want us. He wants us to be more like the poor man.
0:15:37
Or that idea that still lingers is that the more holy you are, it’s because you’re more poverty stricken than anyone else. So poverty equals holiness, and that’s a real old religious thing that’s got to go.
0:15:53
Yeah. Or having things somebody says, well, you got to be careful about money. You start getting money, and it’ll ruin you. And I always answer back, Are you kidding me? They’re already ruined.
0:16:08
That’s right.
0:16:08
They’re ruined before the money. You can have no money, or you can have lots of money and still be ruined. So you got to just do things right. He didn’t help. He should have given to God what belongs to God. In this case, it’d be this guy. It’s a Jewish guy. Everybody’s Jewish in that story, and the Jews were supposed to help other Jews. And it’s not that God said, well, shame on you. You shouldn’t have had any money or you should have been poor.
0:16:35
No. It’s that you neglected to do what you could have done that would not have taken anything away from your lifestyle. And that’s where people go wrong in the church is especially today, let’s be honest about it. Churches are having to reevaluate a lot because inflation, grocery prices, that’s the number one thing I hear people say the most and all the other things going on in the country with all that, then it’s a little tighter. It’s a little harder than it used to be, right.
0:17:10
For people. Right.
0:17:11
But the question is not is it harder, but can you help God’s kingdom and do something and still pretty much maintain, pretty much maintained? This guy could have, the rich guy.
0:17:25
Could have.
0:17:27
Because it’s harder. They pull back and they stop giving to God what belongs to God. And so it’s just going to get harder and harder, because what we need then is we need, let’s just say the old fashioned word that we think about the blessing. We need to be blessed people.
0:17:44
Yes.
0:17:45
And we are blessed people. But you got to set the blessing into motion god’s way, not your way.
0:17:51
That’s right.
0:17:51
So it’s just such a simple, simple lesson. Tax time is coming for us, so we’re going to pay. Yeah, but you know what else we’re going to do? We’re going to give to God what belongs to God. There’s two responsibilities in life, and this life will work for you. That’s why I call this more faith.
0:18:07
More faith, more life.
0:18:08
It does take more faith to do what other people aren’t doing. But if you’ll do what other people aren’t doing, you’ll gain what other people aren’t gaining. Yes.
0:18:19
And as you continue doing it and you continue gaining, then you know what? Then you gain more and more and you set an example to those who can’t quite drum up the faith to do it. And people who gain because they give to God, they can become an encouragement. You could become an encouragement to your fellow church members in showing through your life and your faith and your joy in giving. God will bless you. And it can set an example for a lot of young families and beginners walking in the Lord. And you know what? It can even embarrass some of the old timers yeah.
0:19:05
Pulling back and saying, well, I can’t afford to give or I have a limited income, therefore I can’t give. What about miracles? Miracles that go beyond your limits, the limits of who you are and your actual finances? How about believing for miracles as you’re obeying?
0:19:27
Yeah. People need to be the exception to that’s.
0:19:33
Right.
0:19:33
The rules that life has set out so that we can get more life. People want more life. And right now we are in a place in our country, politically where, you know, we must in my opinion, we must begin to apply the spiritual to the political.
0:19:50
Yes.
0:19:51
And it’s not happening. And the reason it’s not happening is because the spiritual people who are in the business of the spirit, churches, religion, pastors, leaders, those people are just cruising along, not realizing that there’s a calamity. We have calamities going on.
0:20:11
Yes, we do.
0:20:12
Things happening that are going to affect us for a long time if we don’t do something. But we can’t do it on our own. And God never intended it. He intended us to include Him and get the blessing of Him. And so we need it. But in my opinion, it’s not the political leaders who are saying, oh, we don’t want to talk about that religion. It’s the spiritual leaders. And guess what? There are spiritual leaders that want to talk about politics, but there’s not spiritual leaders that want to talk about the spirit.
0:20:48
Get it? That’s the business I’m in. So I’m going to talk about the spirit and politics, but I’m going to talk about the spirit in politics, the Holy Spirit. And so that’s where it’s gone wrong. Instead, religious leaders think, well, to do the right thing today, I need to talk politics. So they talk politically. Right?
0:21:13
Yeah.
0:21:13
And then somebody pats them on the back. And I’m not saying that’s wrong to do that. That’s probably good too. But they get pat on the back. You’re doing the right thing. We need guys like you and gals like you to get involved in politics. Okay? But if that’s not your business, if you’re not a politician, but you’re a spiritual leader, you’re a pastor, evangelist, a teacher, whatever, then you need to involve yourself in the spirit. And you add the spirit to politics.
0:21:42
Yes.
0:21:42
Not just more politics. So anyway, if they want to know more about that stuff, you know what they should do? They should get my book now. It’s an e-book right now, and it’s free right now. Now they’re being printed. So if you want a hard copy later, great, but you might have to pay something for it. But right, even just today, if you’ll go to more Faith, More Life, you’ll see the QR code there, and you can download that e-book.
0:22:07
If you only knew the guide to a Clueless generation. And we’ll talk more in there. I talk more about the spirit, politics, what needs to be done. And one of my favorite stories is in there is how Jonah we know Jonah and the fish, Jonah and the whale. And he’s a preacher, and he didn’t do what God said to do, so he got on a boat and a terrible storm came, and everybody’s going to die. And I love this story because the way to save them, the way to save the ship, was to throw the preacher overboard, not the cargo. They start throwing the cargo overboard, and it didn’t work. All they had to do was throw the preacher overboard and it would work.
0:22:51
That lesson learned right there.
0:22:53
Lesson learned.
0:22:54
You better get this free download right now. And then we also have my Absurd Religion is there. Follow the fire is there? I don’t talk about that too much. That’s the journey we made from the country to the city. And then when the kingdom comes, those lessons from the Smith and Outpouring, and they’re just world lessons that people study on revival. So we’re so glad we could talk today about this. Two things, you know, the two things you need to do now? Absolutely.
0:23:20
Give to Caesar. In our case, give to the government what the government requires, but give to God what belongs to God, and you’re going to find more faith in that, and it’s going to produce more life. Till next time. Bye.
