Eternal Perspective
Transcript
Well, good morning again. I walked up here without a Bible and then didn't know what to do, so I'm just going to walk back down. This is important for what we do on Sundays. I need one of these. Good morning. Okay, so what we're doing, we're starting the first week of our Give Series.
Very excited about our Give Series. We'll talk more about that later. It is Christmas time. So I don't know about y'all. Most people, it's like you gear up for Christmas after Thanksgiving. So I know that my brother went to Bob Jones University, which if you're not familiar with it, imagine a Christian school and a military school.
And if they had a kid, it would be like a militant Christian school. And you're close. It's something like that. They had a rule in their handbook that you could not play Christmas music until after Thanksgiving. I think that's intense. And I also think that's a pretty good rule just for life in general.
But most people, after Thanksgiving, start gearing up for Christmas. Now, if you're in retail, it's like, oh, Halloween's coming. It's Christmas time. That's how retail works. But for most people, it is now Christmas time.
And I'm a huge fan of Christmas. I enjoy Christmas. I enjoy all the stuff that comes along with it. I like getting together and celebrating with family. I like the ridiculous decorations. I like Christmas trees.
I like real Christmas trees. I love the smell of Christmas tree. I get Christmas tree candles. And I light them. And I put them everywhere. And my wife, who is like over halfway pregnant.
She's whole pregnant. She's over halfway. I don't know the amount. Four months pregnant. Something like that. Five months pregnant.
She, apparently, it makes you smell better. Like you, you can smell. She smells good. That's not what I mean by smells better. She's good at smelling. And so the other day in our house, we had a Christmas candle going.
And she was like, are you trying to kill me? Turn, blow that out. Like apparently, I was just getting whiffs of it. And it was like crawling into her nasal cavities and trying to murder her. But I love, I love Christmas.
I love real trees. With an exception, my wife and I have a white Christmas tree. A white plastic Christmas tree that we got from the family dollar in Clinton, South Carolina. Unless you're from Clinton, then you call it Clinton. In Clinton, South Carolina, when we first got married. So we've had it for five years.
It cost us $20. It has now cost us $4 a year. So I feel like we got our money's worth. I love that tree. So it's white.
We cover it with colored lights and silver tinsel. Because we're classy. And I don't usually like fake trees. But I love my white tree. And I think the reason is it never tricks me. Like you don't walk in my house and go, oh, a Christmas tree.
Is that real? Is that a balsam? Like you don't do that. You don't walk over to that tree and smell it and see that it's plastic and get angry. You're like, that is fake and ridiculous. And I'm in the house of a redneck.
But what are you going to do? So I love my Christmas tree. I love Christmas things. I'm not one of these anti-Christmas people. I'm not going to stand up here and say that if you rearrange the letters in Santa, you can spell Satan. Like I'm not, I don't land there.
I do think, though, that in our culture, we can get swept up. And as Christians, we can celebrate Christmas in a distinctly non-Christian way. I think that is true. I think we can get caught up in all of the Christmassy, Christmassy stuff. And we can celebrate Christmas in a distinctly non-Christian way. And so one of the things that we shoot for, that we're going for every year around Christmas, and we are friends with Midtown Fellowship.
I did some stuff there. We stole this from them. But in the spirit of Christmas, they generously gave it to us. We received it. We take this series called Give, which is around this time of year, we're going to intentionally seek to reorient our hearts towards generosity, towards remembering what Christmas is actually about. And it's about the greatest gift that was ever given to humankind.
And we want to, as Christians, celebrate Christmas in a distinctly Christian way and reorient our hearts towards generosity. And so that's what we're doing in our gift series. That's what we're shooting for. That's what we'll be doing for the next three weeks. And so I just want to start us off with what we just read, what David just read up here. What we're celebrating at Christmas, and it gets drowned out.
Like we get excited about other things. What we're celebrating at Christmas is that God, the eternal God, became a human, became an infant, like had to be carried places, was dependent on other people to keep him alive. My brother has a one-year-old. She's not producing much. She's not really carrying her weight around the house. They pretty much have to follow her around everywhere to make sure she doesn't kill herself.
That's what God became an infant. And we just gloss over that. Like I get more excited that sugar cookie eggnog is a thing now. Like that comes out around Christmas. If you don't know about sugar cookie eggnog, it is amazing. I don't know why they print like the nutrition facts on the back.
I don't know why they do that. If you're drinking sugar cookie eggnog, you don't want to see that. But like a glass of that is the equivalent of like drinking a sleeve of Oreos. But it's amazing because it's eggnog that tastes like sugar cookies. And I know, I know that we've all been eating sugar cookies and thought, I wish there was a quicker way. There is.
It's called sugar cookie eggnog. You don't have to chew. You just swallow it. Now you can eat pie and drink sugar cookies. We get more excited about those kind of things. We get more excited about all the Christmassy stuff than what actually has happened at Christmas.
That God became a human with the intent on dying. Came to earth specifically to die for us. That the most miraculous, mind crushing thing happened at Christmas where God took on flesh and weakness. And we miss that. We gloss over that. And so what we're seeking to do and what we're going to do for the next three weeks is this.
Specifically knowing that Jesus is the eternal God. Creator of all things who stepped into history on our behalf. We are going to look at what he says about money and finances. So as we celebrate Christmas for the next three weeks, we're going to look at what the eternal God, when he became a human, what he had to say about possessions, about generosity, about how we view money and finances. Who's excited? Exactly.
Let me just tell you something. Can I say something? I love money. Can I say that? Can I tell the truth here? I think most people here are a fan of money.
It has intrinsic value. If you're thinking of a way to make friends, giving people money is probably a good start. Like I think that would be like, I know that would work for me. It's like, here's 20 bucks. I'd be like, I like this guy. He seems pretty alright.
Like there's just something about us that we like money. We guard money. We defend money. We defend our possessions. There's something in us that likes money. And so the eternal God becomes a human and he talks about money a lot.
He talks about possessions a lot. He does. Like he is the creator of the universe. Knows how we work. Knows how we view things. Knows where our hearts are oriented.
And the first most, the topic that he covers the most is the kingdom of God. But the topic that he covers second most is money. About 15% of everything he says is going to be on money and possessions. And the reason is, is because we don't view it correctly. It's become too big to us. It's grown too much for us.
And so what we're going to do as we walk through our gift series for the next three weeks, we're just going to look at what Jesus, who specifically came to give himself to us. Who is the ultimate authority on generosity, the ultimate authority on humility, and who is the eternal God, which makes him the ultimate authority on really everything. But in coming to earth and dying on a cross proves his love for us, his desire for good things for us, and his generosity and charity towards us. And so we just want to see what he has to say about possessions, what he has to teach us about finances. It's just a little bit of like when you're going to talk to somebody about money, you go to talk to someone who like has it and handles it well.
Like if you're working on a budget, you don't talk to the guy who's consistently getting his power turned off. That's just true. You don't go, hey man, I notice that you're always asking people for money. Can you help me set up a budget? You don't do that. You talk to somebody who seems like they mostly keep it together.
And so we're going to actually get advice on finances, the way to view finances, wealth, generosity, charity, through the ultimate authority on all of those topics. This is what we're seeking to do for the next three weeks. So I'm going to pray and then we're going to hop in. We'll be in Luke chapter 12. God, we thank you. Thank you for your grace.
We thank you for your love. We thank you for your generosity and charity towards us. And we ask that as we take this time of the year to intentionally seek to reorient our hearts towards generosity, that you would bless that, that your Holy Spirit would teach us, guide us, and point us in the right direction. Amen. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.
Okay, so Luke chapter 12, Jesus has grown up. So what we celebrate at Christmas is that Jesus came as a baby. We don't actually know when Jesus was born, but this is the time of year that we celebrate it. And so at this point, he's grown up. This is the eternal God, and he's just teaching people about a lot of different things. And so we're going to kind of jump into the middle of this story where he's teaching and see what he teaches on some of that possessions and finances.
So we'll be in Luke chapter 12. It's on page 566. If your Bible looks like this, it's on some other page, most likely, if it does not look like this. All right, so he's teaching and he's talking about a completely different subject. And then we jump into verse 13. And so it says, someone in the crowd said to him, teacher.
So he's talking about a topic. The guy raises his hand. Yes, the floor is yours. And he says, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. So basically, this guy is like, I'll go to Jesus because if Jesus tells somebody to do something, he should do it.
It's just a good general rule. I bring Jesus in. If Jesus agrees with me, I win. And so that's what he says. That's what he's going to do. So he goes and he says, I'll get Jesus to tell my brother to share with me the inheritance, which apparently is his brother's.
His brother received an inheritance. Parents passed away. Most likely his brother's an older brother went to him. So this guy doesn't have an inheritance or has a smaller inheritance and he wants his brother to share. And Jesus is always talking about being generous and sharing and stuff. So I'll go to him.
He'll say, share. This will work out really well. And so it does not. Verse 14. But he said to him, man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?
Which means like, why is this my business to hop in and play referee between you and your brother? And he said to them, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness. For one's life does not exist in the abundance of his possessions. That went poorly for that guy. So he raises his hand.
He says, tell my brother to share with me. And Jesus says, no. And hey, while we're on the topic, don't be like that guy. Like it just, it went poorly. Like Jesus immediately is like, oh no. Like I didn't see that playing out quite that way.
He says, be on guard against all covetousness. So covetousness is a word that we don't use very often. We would probably use the word greed or greedy. Although they do have different meanings. And I think Jesus specifically means covetousness. So covet is to want something that is not yours.
Specifically to want something that someone else has. So you want something that is not yours. Specifically something that is someone else's. And so he says, be on guard against all covetousness. And so what he just said was, watch out for your desire to want things that aren't yours. Specifically things that are someone else's.
So his response to that guy's brother's inheritance is, don't do that. Because that's what he was doing. He was coveting his brother's inheritance. He said, don't do that. I just want to point this out to us. Because Jesus does this all the time.
We want to talk to Jesus about something. And he changes the subject. And I think it's very rude. Although helpful. But you'll go to Jesus.
You'll want to talk to him about something. You'll want to pray about something. And immediately he'll be like, no, we're going to talk about this. You'll be like, Jesus, my boss is an idiot. And he'll be like, let's talk about your attitude at work. And you're like, I intro to the subject.
Let's not talk about that. And so I just want to help us all see this. And in this specifically what he did was he took this topic and he immediately, it says he addresses them. And so he turns it on everyone. And that's what Jesus does. He doesn't say, hey, you, look at that guy.
He says, hey, you, look at yourself. That's what he does. That's how he turns it. So as we talk about this, as we walk through talking about money and finances and covetousness today, it's really easy to think about someone else who has that problem and to not let it sit on you. It's more comfortable and very easy to do. Don't do that.
We automatically get defensive when we talk about wealth, possession, finances. We get weird when we talk about money. It feels very private to us. We get, we want to, you'll want to battle this the entire time. Don't do that. Just let it sit.
Let Jesus talk to you. Let him deal with you. It actually indicates something to our hearts. Just know that when we get defensive automatically about money, that indicates something about us in our hearts. So like if every time the chicken song came on, you know, I can't, I can't, I can never pull songs out of my head because I'm not musical at all.
But you know the chicken song where you do this or whatever. Yes, every time that came on, like if every time that came on, you like started twitching and crying. You have a problem with the chicken song that we need to deal with. Like there's something off. Like you had a bad experience. Like a chicken attacked you when you were little.
Like we need to talk about this. And there's something about us as Americans. When we start talking about finances, we immediately get like, don't do that. Realize that that indicates that there may be something a little bit off in our hearts because we're like that. And let Jesus actually speak to us this morning. So here's what he says.
Verse 15. And he said to them, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness. For one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. So he's basically going to say two things. He's going to say, we have a problem. And then I'm going to tell you why it's a problem.
So this is the issue because. That's kind of how he's going to say it. So the first issue is covetousness. That we want things that aren't ours. And what he says is be on guard. We are not on guard against covetousness.
We aren't. Because our economy runs off of it. We don't call it covetousness. We call it advertising. Like you don't go to greed 101. You go to economics 101.
Like I studied business in school. I did honors research in economics. I love how it works. And the basic system of like capitalism is this. You're going to look out for you. So that if I sell a product and it's terrible, you're not going to buy it.
I'll go out of business. Some other guy who sells a good product will show up. You'll buy that. And the amount of people buying it and the amount of cost of the product. He's going to look out for himself. You're going to look out for you.
And that's how you'll figure out what the price should be. That's how economics works. Our entire system is based off of self-interest. And our desire to want things that aren't ours. And we do this all the time. And we don't notice it.
It's very simple. I'll give you two examples. From college. Simple ones. We went to school at Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina. And there was hardly anything there.
But there is a KFC Taco Bell. Which is a beautiful restaurant. It is half KFC, half Taco Bell. Also a classy joint. That's where I got the idea for my white Christmas tree. But the thing about it was you can eat like a king at Taco Bell for like $5.
But you would go in there and see biscuits and it would mess you up. Like it was like I came in here to get four burritos that are wrapped in cheese. And now I see biscuits and I'm going to have to get biscuits. I could only get Taco Bell if I went through the drive-thru where I couldn't see biscuits. But they would show these late night like 69 cent burritos.
And we'd be watching TV at like 12 o'clock at night. And they'd be like, Taco Bell, open late. Five layer burrito, cheese, meat, beans. And we'd be like, Matt and I were roommates. And we'd be like, you want to go to Taco Bell? Yes.
What that was was coveting. We wanted the cheesy thing that we just saw on TV. And it immediately made us get in our vehicle and drive to Taco Bell. And that happened repeatedly. And the beautiful thing about Taco Bell is they can get your order wrong and you've still got the same thing. They only have five ingredients.
Just eat it. It's the same thing you ordered. So anyway, we would go to Taco Bell. That happened all the time. The other thing that happened to me in college was I had a roommate my freshman year. And he had a little like black tube television with like, I don't know, it was like a 20 inch thing, 10 inch.
It was somewhere. It was small. It was this size-ish, which is really helpful if you're listening to this on the Internet. And so we had one of those. And our dorm neighbor had a flat screen, but it was a big TV. So it was still like a tube TV, just the screen was flat.
I don't know if anybody remembers that awkward transition stage, but that was a thing. And so it was high def. And so we would go watch games in his room. We would play video games in his room. We would watch football games specifically in his room. And it was a much better TV.
And then I would walk back 10 feet to my dorm, and I would walk in, and I would hate the television that was in my dorm room. I'd be like, you are so terrible. You're the worst TV ever. My roommate moved, took his TV with him, and I went and bought the exact same TV that my dorm neighbor had. Because sometimes his door was locked, and I couldn't just walk in there and watch his television. So I got my own.
That's called covetousness. And that's what made me make that purchase. But that's normal to us. Later in life, I had that TV stay with me for years. Got invited to someone's house, and they had a flat screen television that was like skinny and wider. And I would go home and be mad at my television for how fat and stupid it was.
You couldn't tell. It was in a cabinet. But I knew it was fat behind the screen. I knew. Like it was embarrassing me. Like if someone broke in my house, they wouldn't even want to steal that.
And they couldn't unless they had a teammate because it weighed like 75 pounds. And I was ashamed and mad at my television. So I got a skinny one that's like 42 inches. And then you go to someone else's house, and they got like a 65-inch TV. And now they have the ones that like bend and like actually take you there. And like people spit on you.
And like if there's a fight, you get wet. Like it just is whatever. And immediately we go home, and we're like mad at our stuff. Like we no longer because we've begun to covet. We've begun to want something that is not ours. That's normal.
That's how advertising works. So you talk to someone about a sale. You see someone in some really snappy clothes. You ask them, hey, where did you get that? Oh, I got this at this place for $12. And if you get this, you can go get it.
Sweet. And you're there the next week. It's normal for us. You go to your friend's house. He's got Netflix. He explains how that works.
You go home. You get Netflix. Because why wouldn't you? And here's what he's saying. Be on guard against desiring things that are not yours. Have your radar up for covetousness.
And all I'm saying to us is we do not. That's not on our radar. It's not something we think about. We have community groups. We get together. We talk about sin struggles.
We pray with each other. We talk about issues that are going on. We're always on war against sin in our lives. But that one's never come up. Never been sitting around with a group of guys in my house talking about things we're struggling with. Praying with each other.
And had someone be like, guys, I just feel like I covet a lot. I just feel like I see things that I don't have. And then I want them. And then I get them. I feel like I get excited around Christmas because I know of some stuff that I feel like I need. And I want to ask.
It's not on our radar. We don't see it. And he says, be on guard against it. It just doesn't show up. And here's why, though. Here's what he's going to say.
Be on guard. Take care. Be on your guard. For one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. Okay. One's life does not exist in the abundance of his possessions.
We believe that. Ish. Like, we can say that and we would all agree we would not. Yes, true. Super smart thing to say, Jesus. Like, we feel that.
Because we watch Christmas movies and stuff. And the whole time they're freaking out about getting the perfect gift and having the perfect Christmas. And Arnold Schwarzenegger is fighting somebody so that he can get a toy. And, like, we have that. We see that. And then at the end, it's like it turns out all we needed was each other.
Like, their house burns down. And then they're just hugging in the front yard. And it's like, Dad, all I needed was you the whole time. I didn't know that, child. And then they hug and music plays. And, like, there's a dog in the background.
Single-tier Rondo. And we nod. We're like, hmm, yes. We believe that. But we don't actually.
We don't actually. That doesn't sit with us. We don't really feel that. Anna was on Facebook the other day. And she said, Ted Turner just sold or put up to sell his private island off of the coast of South Carolina. I was like, really?
And she said, yeah. And then she looks at me and goes, you want to put a bid in on it? It's like, yes. I do. But we won't get it.
There is something inside of me, though, that believes life would be enhanced by owning an island. I believe that. It feels weird to say it to all of you. Because most of the time we don't voice those things to one another. But I believe that.
And in much smaller things, I consistently believe that. And we consistently believe that. That life comes from the abundance of things. And you hear it all the time. Oh, man. Must be nice.
God, I wish I could. Oh, if only I was one of the. And whatever we follow that up with is what we think in life so that we see. Man, if I could just. If we could just have two vehicles. If my family could just have two vehicles.
Because this one vehicle thing is killing me. If my family could just have three vehicles. Because now our kids are getting older. And this is. We can't keep. If I could just make 10% more.
If I could just have that position. That title. Man, if we could just be in a bigger house. If we could just have a larger yard. Like, across the board. We're saying consistently.
The opposite of what Jesus says here. Which is that life somehow will be found. In the abundance of possessions. If I can just get this new gadget. If I can just get this iPhone. But my iPhone doesn't talk to me.
And Matt's iPhone does. And so we're riding around. And Matt will just pull his phone out. And he'll go. Siri. Call Peter.
And Siri will be like. You want pizza? And it's like. No. So it doesn't.
I don't really want Siri too much. Because she never understands what he's saying. But. We do that. We consistently think that life will be enhanced. By just having a little more.
Just by getting a little bit extra. Because there's something in us. That every time we buy something. Like if we'll be honest. We're a little creepy. Every time you buy something.
You're like. Yes. It's so beautiful. And new. This will make my soul feel warm at night. Like we really get weird about like.
And you thoroughly enjoy it. The first time you wear that new jacket. You're just walking around like. Take that. Cold weather. Not only am I not cold.
But I look really good. And the next year. You're going to. You want a new jacket. Because I've had that one for so long. And the cold weather is no longer impressed with me.
We somehow believe that possessions. Will fill us up. Will make us whole. Will give us life. And it's just not true. And we do this all the time.
And we see it across the board. That's what Pinterest has been to me. So I don't have a Pinterest account. I just use my wife's. Sometimes to look at things. Because I'm a self-respecting male.
But that's. Like I get on every once in a while. To see like do-it-yourself projects. Because like we want to like. Redo our bathroom. And there's different things.
I like to build out of pallets. And every once in a while. I'm like I wish my whole house. Was built out of pallets. Although it doesn't make any sense. I want to do that.
And like. I get on there. And like looked at bathroom remodeling things. And all it is. Is just like me coveting. And believing that somehow.
Life would be better. If our bathroom looked remodeled. Because I don't like. And it gets weird. Like you sit there. And you do this long enough.
And then you walk into your bathroom. And you're looking around. And you're like. This stupid wallpaper. This is terrible. I hate having to pee in here.
This is so lame. Like you just get mad. And all it is. Is this lie. That Jesus. Because he is eternal.
And because he is gracious. And because he is loving. Is going to step in and say. Don't. Don't believe that. Don't let your heart chase after that.
Don't feel that that is true. Kids. Love. Face paint. They do. If you're anywhere.
And there's someone who will paint a face. And there are children. There will be children. With painted faces. Because they love it. There will be little princesses.
Or like Elsa looking blue. Swirls all over little faces. There will be a little boy. With like a Spider-Man face. And you're as a parent. You let your kid get his face.
Drawn up like Spider-Man. Because it washes off. But you would not let him get. A Spider-Man tattoo. On his face. Because that stuff.
Doesn't even look good on Mike Tyson. And here's why. You have a perspective. That your child does not. You know. That having Spider-Man.
Draw on your face. Isn't going to be cool forever. When he hits middle school. That's going to be weird. He's going to get some nicknames. That he used to think were cool.
In third grade. That are no longer cool. And you have that perspective. And so you're going to say. No no. You're going to guide.
How he views that. And what he does with it. You're going to guide him through life. And Jesus is the only one. With an eternal perspective. Who's going to step in.
And try to guide us. When it comes to finances. When it comes to possessions. When it comes to how we view money. He's the only one with the perspective. To say.
Hey guys. You're thinking about that wrong. The way you believe that works. Isn't actually true. And it's out of his love. And his grace.
And his goodness. Towards us. That he does that. And so. To help prove this to people. To help explain what he's saying here.
He tells a story. To help show what he's talking about. So here's what he says. Verse. We'll start back in verse 15. And he said to them.
Take care. And be on your guard. Against all covetousness. For one's life. Does not consist. In the abundance.
Of his possessions. And he told them a parable. Saying. The land of a rich man. Produced plentifully. So this guy was already wealthy.
He has land. It does. It produces. Plentifully. It's. It's.
He's very wealthy. And that would be. They were a mostly agrarian. Agricultural economy. So that.
What it means is. Like it's. Guy. Worked in the stock market. Was very rich. And was just booming.
It was working really well for him. Um. And he thought to himself. What shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops. So he's got barns.
He's got silos. But they're full. And his. His crops do so well. That he's got to fill them up more. And he has no word to put it.
And he said. I will do this. I will tear down my barns. And build larger ones. And there. I will store all my grain.
And my goods. And I will say to my soul. Soul. You have ample goods. Laid up for many years. Relax.
Eat. Drink. Be merry. But God said to him. Fool. This night.
Your soul. Is required of you. And the things you have prepared. Whose. Will they be? Me.
So Jesus says. Be on guard. Against covetousness. Against greed. Against selfish desire. And he tells this story.
And he says. There was a rich guy. Who had. Great wealth. And he used his wealth. To make greater wealth.
And once he had accumulated. So much wealth. He said to himself. Self. Which I love that he said that. Like the guy's like soul.
And soul's like what? And he's like hey. So anyway. But he. Says to himself. Great.
Now I don't have to work anymore. Now I've made it. Now I've arrived. Now I'm set. Now I've found.
Life. And God. Says to him. Fool. Tonight your life's required of you. Here's what's very interesting about this.
And especially when we talk about this topic. He does not say. You wicked person. He does not say. You evil sinner. What he says is.
Fool. Fool. You just don't see it. You've missed it. Life doesn't come from that. So Jesus in coaching us up.
Isn't going to jump in and say. Stop coveting. Because it's super sinful. And it makes God mad at you. That's not where he takes this. Coveting is sinful.
It's in the top ten. Ten commandments. Coveting's in there. So we shouldn't. But the point that he's making here is.
You're foolish. You're not seeing it right. You don't. You haven't viewed it appropriately. Like he just failed to see. The reason he was blessed.
And why he was blessed. And what he could have done with it. He just handled it foolishly. So we look at this guy and say. Man he's done very well. He's very.
He's very smart about his money. And God looks at him and says. No he's foolish. And here's why. 20. But God said to him.
Fool. This night your soul is required of you. And the things you have prepared. Whose will they be? So is the one.
Which just means. It's the same way with everyone. So so is the one. Who lays up treasure for himself. And is not rich towards God. That's very interesting.
He calls him foolish. And says it's the same way with everyone. Who lays up treasure for themselves. But is not rich towards God. Which means two things. One.
Our treasure. Possessions. The things we're blessed with. Are not meant. To simply terminate on us. And.
There is a way. To be rich towards God. There is a way for us. To roll our money up. And to somehow. Give it to him.
To roll our possessions up. And somehow give it to him. And I'm going to steal a little bit from next week. Next week we're going to go through. The rest of what he says here. We're going to jump down to 33.
And it's going to be on the screen as well. I just want to help answer. What it means to be rich towards God. So he says. The sell your possessions. And give to the needy.
Provide yourselves with money bags. That do not grow old. With a treasure in the heavens. That does not fail. Where no thief approaches. And no moth destroys.
What he just said. Was there's a way for us. To be rich. Eternally. Eternally. And he's the only person.
Who can speak on that subject. Because he's the only eternal person. Who's ever returned. From that side of eternity. So we all go to eternity.
But none of us have ever. Been to eternity. And come back. Regardless of the books. That are out. So it was like.
When I was in middle school. And I dyed the top of my hair. Bleach white. That's correct. I looked as good. As you are imagining.
That I looked. And I had an older brother. Who's in high school. And it was so helpful for me. To have an older brother. Who's in high school.
Who would coach me up. And be like. Hey that's cool. Don't do that anymore. Before. And he would help me.
All the time. Because he was in high school. He'd been to high school. And he would tell me. Hey. Hey.
Yeah. Girls aren't going to like that. And I'd be like. Oh. Well I'd better stop. Because I like girls.
And I want them to like. The things that I'm doing. And he would. I would say a joke. And he'd say. That's not funny.
And he would help me. Because he knew. About this world. I didn't know about. Which was high school. And Jesus is the only one.
Who's come out of eternity. Stepped into history. And said. Hey. You're thinking about this. Incorrectly.
The way you think about finances. And the way that. Everyone else is going to say. Is good and smart. Is wrong. Because there's actually a way.
To be rich. Towards God. To be eternally. Wealthy. What does that look like? I don't know.
What is treasure in heaven? I have no clue. But I can tell you this. It's better. Than what we have here. What we have here.
Does not provide life. Does not fill us up. Does not make us whole. And what we get there. In eternity. For those who follow Jesus.
And have been saved. From sin. By him. There is eternal treasure. And you think. Is it selfish for me.
To be generous here. Just to get eternal things. Apparently not. Because that's what Jesus says to do. It'd be really selfish. For me to just get eternal blessings.
So I'll just spend money on myself. It's like. No. He's. It's actually good. Be eternally selfish.
And be radically generous here. That's what he says. That through giving. Away what we have. Through being generous. In another place.
He says that if you give. Even a cup of cold water. To someone who is his disciple. You will in no way. Lose your reward. So even in tiny things.
For people who are just. I'm going to bless this person. Because they're in ministry. I'm going to bless this person. Because they're a Christian. I'm going to bless this person.
Because they're part of my church family. And then here he says. Sell your possessions. Give to the needy. I'm going to bless this person. Because they need it.
He says it's actually. Sending it on the head. For eternal. Reward. Where nobody steals. Things don't get old.
Or go out of style. And you have it forever. And that's what he says. Is wise. Is it not. Foolish way to view.
Finances and money. We're going to keep talking about this. For the next two weeks. And here's what we're going to do. Matt. And Bianca.
And Raz. And Josh. Are going to come back up here. And we're going to. Sing. Here in just a minute.
As we prayerfully. Think about this. But I just want to. Help us see this a little bit. I just want to help us. Diagnose a little bit.
So he says. Don't. Be on guard. Against covetousness. And so the first question. I have is.
How do I do that? How do I start being on guard. Against that? I think. I think we have to start paying attention. To the things that we want.
That are not ours. Which would be most of the things. That we want. I mean. I like the stuff that I have. But I don't usually think about wanting it.
Think. That we need to be aware. Of the. Effect. That advertising has on us. The effect.
That certain people have on us. When we get around them. And they have things. That we don't have. But I think we also get to be.
Intentionally generous. So we get to intentionally. Try to turn our hearts. Towards the opposite of that. We get to intentionally. Start saying.
I'm going to send. Some of my treasure. On ahead. I'm going to start. Working for. Eternal things.
So I think one of the questions. We get to ask is. Does my treasure. He says. So it is with anyone.
Who's only rich. Towards themselves. Does all of my. Finances. Do all of my finances. Do all of my possessions.
Serve me. Am I the bottom line. When we look at our family's income. Does it just end with our family. Because Jesus is going to say. If that's the case.
We're foolish. If there's no. Area in our budget. Where we're being generous. Where we're giving of our possessions. If all of our treasure.
Just gets. Compiled. And piled up. And given to ourselves. We're foolish. And that we can be.
Intentionally. Generous. To try to turn this. And so here's. Here's what we're going to do. As a church family.
For our give series. So our give series. Again is. Every time. Every year. Around this time.
We're going to. We're going to pause. And we're going to try. To intentionally. Be generous. We're going to try to find.
Some need. Some area. That we can give to. That we can rally. Our church family around. To make a difference.
That we can bless. And here's what we're going to do. This year. This past Thursday. We. Went to.
The gentle pines area. North brown area. Of West Columbia. Which is just a. A lower income area. In our city.
Where there's some higher crime rates. And some. It's about 60% Hispanic. And so it's a good bit of people. That don't speak English. That live in.
Single unit housing. With just a bunch of families. In there. And so what we did. Was we just went. We got up early.
On Thursday morning. For Thanksgiving. Many of you were there. And we cooked. And peeled. A thousand potatoes.
I didn't count. But that seems right. And. Handed out. 201 meals. At first.
And then another. 60 or so later. With what was left over. After we ate. And so some other people. Just went around.
And went from house to house. And went into downtown. And so we handed out. About 270. Pre-boxed meals. Just because we wanted to.
To seek to be generous. On Thanksgiving. And I was. I was. Be proud of our church family. Because there was.
I think the mathematical term. Is a pile of people there. To serve. On Thanksgiving day. And it was just a lot of fun. To see all the people there.
That wanted to serve. And wanted to help. And I know other people have. Family and stuff. That you had to go do. And that's.
Not an indictment. Be excited. And so. But what we did. While we were handing out meals. Was we talked to people in that area.
And we asked. Can we help you for Christmas. If you have children. Usually Angel Tree. Goes around that apartment complex. They did not this year.
Angel Tree. Is the people that. Basically help. People in the area. Give Christmas gifts. And so we just ask.
As our church family. Is there a way that our church. Can help. This year. With you and your family. For Christmas.
If you have small children. We had 77 children. Sign up. So when we can. Just so we can actually look at it. So what we're shooting to do.
This year. As a church family. Is provide Christmas gifts. For 77 children. In the North Brown area. Of West Columbia.
If you are good at math. That is about the amount of people. Who are a part of our church. Which means that this just got serious. Because that's how many people signed up. And so what we're going to do.
As a church family. Is figure out a way. To reorient our hearts. Towards generosity. As a first step. Towards laying up some treasure.
In an eternal place. By just giving to those. Who need. Many of which were Hispanic. I know a little bit of Spanish. And one of the things.
We just basically said. Tell us age. Gender. Size. And if you have a small gift request. And the number one thing.
That was written down. Was zapatos. Which means shoes. The number one thing. Requested for Christmas. For the children in that area.
Was shoes. And yeah. We want to be a part of that. We want to be a part of being. Intentionally generous. Around Christmas.
Reorienting our hearts. To send treasure on ahead. Because Jesus says. That's what's wise and good. For us to do. You're not signing up for anything today.
We're going to begin praying about that. We're going to begin talking to our. Talking with your community group about that. And next week when we get together. We're going to give some specific instructions. On how we're going to go about that.
And actually let people begin. Signing up for. And saying. We'll take this many. Children. And we want to get gifts for.
So I'm going to pray. And then we're going to sing. Father we thank you. For your grace. We thank you. That in your wisdom.
And your love towards us. You didn't show up. And say it's wrong. To have nice things. It's bad. To do.
Nice stuff around your house. You're wicked and evil. What you just said was. No it's foolish. But you do bless us.
And you do give us good things. To enjoy. But you want us to know. And to intentionally reorient our hearts. Towards generosity. And God.
We ask. That your Holy Spirit. Would empower that. In us. That the gospel. Would impact us.
In such a way. To be generous. That you would change us. Because too many of us. Have normalized coveting. Too many of us.
Are okay with. The belief. The belief. The lie. That life comes from the abundance of possessions. We far too often think that's true.
So God. We ask that you would lead us to repentance. That you would lead us to change. And that ultimately. You would lead us to be generous. As you are generous.
Charitable. As you were charitable. Gracious as you're gracious. Jesus. We love you. And we praise you.
And we thank you. And God. We ask for wisdom. In our finances. In Jesus name. Amen.