Welcome to Affirm Foundation, presented by Princeton ministries with Dr Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife. Please enjoy.

They call it the sound barrier. And strange, terrible things happen to airplanes. As they approached that barrier, controls would freeze and an aircraft would be seemingly out of control. There were violent shock waves that would pass through an aircraft as they would approach Mach One. The sound barrier, the buffeting for a pilot, was so great that he felt that he would simply be banged about and killed in the cockpit as ever closer aircraft came to breaking the sound barrier. Now, a number of lives were lost by pilots who attempted to break through that barrier. As a matter of fact, there were many scientists who simply believed it was impossible for an aircraft to go through this sonic wall. But at the same time, scientists knew that there were crafts that were able to fly faster than the speed of sound. For example, a bullet.

And so bell aviation created what they called the X one. X standing for experimental, and won the first. And so they created an aircraft that was in the shape of a 50 calibre bullet. Now, they knew that the experiment of flying the X one was going to end in one of two ways. Either it would end in catastrophe, as so many other experimental aircraft had found themselves, or it would be the first aircraft ever to penetrate through this sound barrier. Now, there were no pilots who were willing to fly the X one, except for a test pilot who worked for Bell aviation. And he was willing, if paid $150,000, to fly for the first time in the X one.

Now, the air force, on the other hand, had a pilot who was willing to fly that aircraft, and he would try flying it for $280 a month. The flight pay of a captain in the air force. His name, Captain Chuck Yeager. Jaeger was ready and willing to put his life on the line to fly the X one through the sound barrier, or to die in the attempt. Now, the X one was placed on the bomb bay of a B 29. The plane was flown to a height of 12,000ft. Chuck Yeager, through the aid of a wooden ladder, climbed from the bomb bay of that B 29 into the tight, narrow confines of the X one. He pulled the hood down, locked all of the safety devices. He gave the word, and for the first time, the X one was released at 12,000ft.

It was so heavy that immediately it went into a partial stall, and Jaeger quickly recovered. And in that recovery, he gave full thrust to the x one. The rocket ignited, and the thrust was tremendous. As for the first time, the X one began to fly. And that first flight flew to 0.84 mach, just 1.6 mach away from breaking the speed of sound. Now, the next flights of the X one slowly came closer and closer to breaking the speed of sound. He got up to point 94 mach, and as he was certain that this would be the day that they would break through this sonic wall, suddenly all of his controls were useless, and the X one actually began to slip and tumble in space. Jaeger thought quick.

He dumped some fuel, he pulled back the accelerator and was able, in the last moments, to land that aircraft on a dry salt field and land safely. They learned something that day that at 94 mach, something had to change in the design of the aircraft, because in its present configuration, it would never penetrate the sound barrier. And so they put their best engineers to work, and they found that the problem was in the angle of attack. And so they added to the x one a horizontal stabilizer, which gave them control that they had not had before. For five years, that secret would be kept, and no one would know how you could break the speed of sound. On October 14, 1947, Chuck Yeager got into the newly configured x one.

He gave it full thrust, and as they passed 94 mach, there was total control. And he says, it was no different than flying before we had total control. If it were not for looking at his instruments, he would not have known that he had broken the sound barrier and flown faster than any man in history. And what was it like at the very moment when Jaeger broke through the sound barrier, that which everyone thought was impossible to be done? He says, it was no big deal. I sat there and I thought, do you reckon we just went through mach one? It was this easy. On the ground, there was a sonic boom. The world thought something mighty had just occurred. But for Jaeger in the cockpit, it was so easy. No big deal.

I have been a Christian for some 20 years, and if there is any lesson that I have learned, it is that the Lord, at every step of our growth and maturity, has another spiritual sound barrier that we have to go through. That growth and maturity as a Christian comes through the hearing of the principles of God’s word and then believing those principles and applying them to your life. Those who have gone on to christian maturity have been those who have seen something that causes fear, anxiety, concern, will I ever get through this? And as they approach some area of obedience, and they believe in the Lord, and the Lord gives them the grace to obey him, to follow him, that they break through some barrier and come to another level of maturity in their christian faith.

There are other people I know who, as they come to some barrier that the Lord wants them to break through, they refuse for a number of reasons to go through that barrier, and they choose to stay on this side of what the Lord has intended for them. Do you remember when the gospel of Christ was first presented to you and assuming that you didn’t know Jesus? Wasn’t there something frightening about trusting in Christ, about giving your life in obedience to him, of believing that he died on the cross for your sins, and that by faith you had to trust him? Wasn’t there a barrier in front of you? And as you looked at that decision to become a Christian, there was something frightening. And you wondered, is Christ to be taken at his word? Will he really forgive me?

Will he really come into my life and bring peace and joy? And so, in the providence of God, by his grace, you accepted the gospel and you became a Christian. And now it might be a month or a year or ten years later, and you look back on that spiritual barrier and you wonder, why was I so afraid to become a Christian? Why was I so concerned why the Lord was faithful? Perhaps you were a Christian for a period of time, and someone asked you, do you pray? And you said, prayer. Well, I say the Lord’s prayer. I pray in church. And they said, but don’t you know anything about secret prayer, the prayer at home when no one else is there, that you’re able to bow your knee and to come before the Lord at the office?

You’re able to come before the Lord in a quiet place. And at first you thought, my, I’ve never heard of such a thing. I wonder what it would be like to actually close the door of my office and to pray. And perhaps for that first time, there was a degree of trembling and concern. I wonder what the Lord will do. But there was that first day when you quietly closed the door and prayed in silence. And now you look back after many years of living with the Lord, and you wonder, why was I nervous about that first experience of secret prayer? We look back over the barriers that we have gone through and we wonder, why was I so anxious? Why was I so concerned? The Lord has been faithful. And so today you say, I know Jesus Christ. I pray.

I study my scripture. I have told other people about Jesus. And each of those, for you, was a spiritual barrier that you had to go through in order to reach the next step with the Lord. And now you look back and people say, oh, you pray. You read the scripture and you worship and you witness for Christ. And like Chuck Yeager, you might say, really no big deal. There was a time when I was concerned about it, but the Lord has been so faithful. Yeah, I pray and I witness and I share and I worship through Jesus Christ. I want to suggest that for some of you, there is in front of you a spiritual barrier that you might consider impossible to break through in our society. You might say no one could break through this spiritual barrier.

As a matter of fact, just the thought of this barrier brings trembling as you would consider obedience to the Lord. And just to mention the topic almost brings your spiritual life to a stall. As you wonder, is it possible for this craft to go through this barrier? The barrier that I’m speaking of is trusting your finances to the Lord, and more specifically, trusting to give to the Lord the tithe that is rightfully his. For some people, the tithe is the goal of their giving. And so they begin by an offering which might simply be a few dollars. And then they say, well, next year I will increase it to 1% and 2%. And for them, the goal of christian giving is to someday reach this point of tithing. But for others, tithing is seen as the beginning of giving to the Lord.

Now, some people say, now, pastor, it’s all right for you to challenge me on my prayer life. It’s all right for you to challenge me on reading the Bible. But when it comes to my giving, please keep your challenge to yourself. Well, that may make sense on the street, but when we look at the gospels, we find some amazing things. John Macarthur reminds us that 16 of the 38 parables that Jesus spoke about dealt with money. He tells us that more is said in the New Testament about money than the accumulated verses that speak about heaven and hell. That there is five times more said in the New Testament about money than the subject, for example, of prayer.

While there are some 500 verses in the Bible that talk about prayer and faith, there are over 2000 verses in the Bible that talk about how you handle your money. Obviously, I think the Bible has a great deal to say about managing your money and that there is some relationship between the way you spend your money and your belief in the Lord and your maturity in the Lord. I’d like to recommend two books that are very helpful on this subject. One was written by Ron Blue, a Christian who wrote the book master your money. The second by Larry Burkett, who has a very popular radio program as a Christian attempting to help christians to have a perspective on their finances. His book, how to manage your money.

I’d like to highlight what both of these men believe are the two most important subjects for a Christian to understand as they manage their finances. The first key is to understand that what God’s will in relation to your finances is in relation to the word stewardship. Stewardship. Stewardship is a uniquely christian word. I it is defined as one who manages another’s property, and the giving of christians is related to stewardship. How do you manage someone else’s property? Now, according to the scripture, everything that we possess in reality belongs to someone else. It all belongs to the Lord. Whether it’s your money, your time, your family, your education, your material possessions. Everything that we have ultimately belongs to the Lord. Now, if you don’t believe this, let’s take an example.

If you believe that your house is your own, that no one else owns it, you own it. That will have an influence on how you use your house and the attitude you have towards your house and whether it is open or closed. The parable of the talents taken from Matthew, chapter 25, beginning at verse 14, is the story of a rich master who gives from his own resources to three people. One receives five talents, another receives two, and the third receives one. And what is the principle? It’s very simple. That whether you received one, two or five talents, all of the talents belong to the master, that you were simply entrusted with an amount that the master had determined.

It is the Lord who owns it all, whether he gives you much or little, it is the Lord who has put into your care his possessions. It is the Lord who owns all of the things that you and I are borrowing. And the principle is very simple. A Christian sees all of their possessions in an open hand, and they look at their hand to see what the Lord has placed. And the purpose of looking is that they might in turn care properly for that which the Lord has entrusted to them. The world, on the other hand, says, your possessions, they are yours. That you are to grasp them as tightly as you can, and that you are the master. You are the owner of all of these things.

Scripture says that the possessions that the Lord gives to us are a tool which he wants to use for his purposes. He also says that the possessions, the finances that he has entrusted to you is also a test. It’s like that spiritual barrier that once we come face to face with our checkbook and have to make those hard decisions about where we will spend our money, ultimately that becomes a test of faith. And in Luke, chapter 16, verse eleven, Jesus says, if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, the money that you have received, who will commit to your care and trust the true riches in some way.

The Lord sees our commitment of our possessions to him as a way of evaluating if he will in turn trust us with greater spiritual riches, if he will trust those who are able to care for their financial things and to use them freely for the kingdom. He has promised that to those, he will give additional opportunity to be used spiritually in the building of his kingdom. We actually possess in this lifetime many things, but the scriptures say we really own nothing. You might be thinking to yourself; I own my house. Really? Go to your home this afternoon and take a shovel and dig a spade full of dirt and pick that dirt up in your hand and look at that dirt and ask the question, who owned this dirt 25 years ago? Who will own this dirt 25 years from now?

And as we simply let the dirt sift through our fingers, it stands as an awesome reminder to us that none of us owns anything. The Lord owns it all. He allows us to borrow his possessions, which he has entrusted to you and me. And he asks, what are you doing with the possessions that I’ve given to you? So that first principle, the Lord owns it all. I am the steward of what the Lord owns. The second principle, which comes as the regular principle in virtually all of the christian books that I have read on the subject of managing your money, and that is, let your tithes and offerings be the first bill that you pay, not the last.

The first, proverbs three nine says, honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all of your produce so that your barns will be filled with plenty. Larry Burkott says, our resources are like an iceberg. Only 10% of the iceberg shows, and beneath it is 90% of the iceberg. And he has a very simple principle, let the Lord have the tip of the iceberg. Give the Lord what is rightfully his. Now, I sense that some of your engines are beginning to sputter and that you are saying to yourself, well, I’m about ready to go into a spiritual stall here. How in the world am I going to begin to give to the Lord what is rightfully his? How am I going to begin to give a tithe to the Lord?

Well, as we look in the Old Testament, we find that the tithe began with Abram, who delivered a tithe to Melchizedek. It’s the first example we have of this giving of a 10th. There are some who say it is simply restricted to the Old Testament. But when we come into the New Testament, we find this remarkable statement by Jesus in Matthew 23, 24 23 when he said to the scribes and pharisees, you pay tithe of mint and anise and chum, but you have neglected the weightier matters of the law, like justice, mercy, and faith. These you ought to have done. And notice this phrase without leaving the others undone. Talking about the tithe, you ought to have been concerned about justice, mercy and faith, but you should equally continue to give to the Lord that which is rightfully his.

I can say without exception, I have never met a mature Christian who didn’t tithe. I have never met a mature Christianity who didn’t at least tithe. But I have met untold hundreds of christians who have become frustrated in their christian life for one reason or another, who have gone into a spiritual holding pattern. And so often one of the areas as you talk with them, is that they have never broken through the spiritual sound barrier of giving to the Lord his tithe. Ron Blue says, your checkbook reveals all that you really believe about stewardship. A life story could be written from a checkbook. A person who has been a Christian for even a short time can fake prayer. They can fake Bible study, they can even fake going to church. But you can’t fake what your checkbook reveals.

Do you want to continue to grow in Christ? For some of you, the spiritual barrier that is in front of you has to do with the way you handle your finances and that the Lord has promised in Malachi chapter three, a blessing for all of those who would simply bring their tithes and offerings to the Lord. Now you hear that promise, and as you hear it and approach the barrier, you begin to tremble and to wonder, is it true? Is it possible to redesign my life in such a way and to redesign my finances that I’m able to break through this barrier? Chuck Yeager, October 14, 1947 no big deal. I sat there and I thought, do you reckon we just broke the sound barrier? And it was that easy?

Christian, looking at your finances, trembling at the thought of breaking through this barrier, could it be that a year from now, you would look at the promises of the Lord and you would be able to remember the day when you broke through that barrier and that you’d be able to say, you know, it was really no big deal. I had to rearrange the configuration of my life. But, you know, I went through that barrier, and the Lord has been faithful, the Lord who has promised a blessing for all those who would bring their tithes and offerings to him. Let us pray. Our God and our father, we come before you and remember many spiritual barriers where we heard your promise and we decided by faith to trust you. And so we became a Christian. And then there was another barrier, and another.

We saw that your word is true, and for some there is still a barrier. The use of our money and father, it is my prayer that you would cause each of us to look at the way we use our money, that we would see that we are stewards, that we own nothing, that we simply are borrowing from you who will return and ask, what did we do with the talents that you trusted us with? And father, that we would be committed to give to you as the first of our fruits that which is rightfully yours, your tithes and our offerings, for we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.

Thank you for listening to affirm foundation presented by Princeton Ministries. This programming is supported by you, the listener. You may go to our website, princetonministries.org, or send your donation to Princeton Ministries Post Office box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 08543. That’s Princeton Ministries Post Office box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 08543. The Lord bless you and Dr Smith looks forward to hearing from.