Wisdom and Wealth (pt. 2) (Proverbs 10:16)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
You Good morning, my name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. It's good to see y'all this morning. We are in the book of Proverbs. Grab your Bibles and go to Proverbs chapter 10. The primary thing we like to do is walk through books of the Bible.
We are working our way through Proverbs, but we're not going verse by verse, chapter by chapter. We are taking some of the primary things that the Proverbs gives weight to and trying to grow in wisdom. As we looked at money last week, we realized that the Proverbs says a lot about money, and so we wanted to spend one week looking at kind of the mental approach to money and some of the things we needed to understand before we handled money. And then today, hopefully we get to look at some practical principles that the Proverbs give us for handling money. So we have been sold on the idea that if I just had more money, things would be better.
Life would be better. Life would be easier. Everything would be nicer. I'd be handsomer. If I just had more money, it would enhance life. And the Proverbs says, not so fast.
That actually is not true, that you getting more money might actually be bad for you and for the world. And that's what we looked at last week. We looked at Proverbs 10, verse 16. It says, the wage of the righteous leads to life, the gain of the wicked to sin. Meaning that if the righteous get money, it's good. But if the wicked get money, it's bad.
And so we just said getting money and having money and being rich cannot just necessarily be a good thing. But the Proverbs tells us that we need more than just more money. And so we spent most of our time last week on the back half of that verse. The idea that getting more money could be bad for you. And so we talked about some of the ways that we approach money potentially sinfully. But we did say at the very beginning that money is just a tool because money in the hands of the righteous is a good thing.
So in some ways, money is just a tool. We said that it tests us last week. We said that it tempts us. But there is a reality to money is just a tool. And so to help us picture this, I want to talk to you all about a movie I watched. I've watched it a couple of times.
And in the beginning of the movie, there's a character that's introduced. And I want to show you all this person. This person shows up in the movie. When he shows up, us in the audience, we're not super excited that he's here. And we're pretty sure that the thing he's holding, which is some sort of a weird hammer axe thing, is bad. We would much rather he had like a bouquet of flowers or something.
But he doesn't. He shows up with this. And so this is a bad moment in the movie. But later in the movie, this character shows up. And when he shows up, we're all very excited. But he's also holding a weird hammer axe thing.
But I've been told that people who watch this movie in the theaters, that people actually cheered when this guy showed up. And so the reality is, it's not what they're holding, it's who's holding it. And that's what the Proverbs says about money. That money on its own isn't necessarily good or bad. Who has it? Do the wicked have it?
Do the righteous have it? Because the reality is, the righteous having money leads to life. And that's true. How many scholarships have been paid for? How many meals have been offered? How many people have been clothed?
How many orphans have been cared for? How many of you in your life have had somebody show up and help pay a hospital bill or a car payment or help you replace some tires or some shoes? When the righteous have money, it leads to life. And so the Proverbs has no problem whatsoever with the righteous having money. The truth is, we should give more money to the righteous. This is what the Proverbs says.
Okay, I'm getting excited. Let's pray first and then we'll go into other things the Proverbs says. Lord, we pray that you'd help us to grow in wisdom today. But more than that, may we grow in our understanding of wisdom so that we might grow in our understanding of you and therefore growing in loving wisdom and loving Jesus. May we not leave here more filled with ourselves, but may we leave here more filled with your spirit. And by your grace, we ask for your help in that.
And towards that end, in Jesus' name, amen. Proverbs 8, 17 through 21 says this. This is, wisdom is speaking here. So in the book of Proverbs, wisdom speaks. It's personified as a lady wisdom. And so she sometimes talks and that's, so this is wisdom talking.
It says, I love those who love me and those who seek me diligently find me. Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and righteousness. So it's not just that riches and honor are bad. It says, no, wisdom says I have riches and honor. They belong to me. And I, I grant these to people who seek me.
My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold in my yield than choice silver. So wisdom does say I have riches, I have enduring wealth, but wisdom is better than gold and better than silver. And this is some of what we've been looking at is the idea that if you have wisdom, if you have righteousness, then you can have money and it's okay. But if you don't have wisdom, you don't have righteousness, then money is bad. And so wisdom says I'm better than money, but I have money. I walk in the way of righteousness in the paths of justice, granting an inheritance to those who love me and filling their treasuries.
So that one of the blessings from wisdom, one of the blessings from God is wealth. It's not necessarily an evil thing. It can be very good. It just depends on who has it. Proverbs 10, 22, the blessing of the Lord makes rich and he adds no sorrow with it. So there's a reality to money in and of itself is not bad, but we need wisdom and righteousness before we get money.
And so today though, we're going to spend most of our time just looking really practically at some of the things the Proverbs has to say about money because it has a lot to say about money. So this is the Proverbs basic wisdom. And we're going to walk through this for money. Get a job. Maybe Proverbs specifically say an honest Job, but get a job, trust God, save some and live simply so you can be generous and use your wealth for the good of others. Get a job, trust God, save some and live simply so that you can be generous and use your wealth for the good of others.
That's what we're going to walk through. So first step, get a job. Get a job. Proverbs 14, 23, in all toil, there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty. Get a job. Not an idea about a job, not some things in the works, not a few irons in the fire.
Get a job. That's what Proverbs says. And it says it repeatedly. Proverbs 28, 19 and 20, whoever works his land will have plenty of bread. So they go out and they work.
There's just nothing glamorous about it. They're working, but they have plenty of bread. But he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty. Proverbs got jokes. You can have plenty of bread or you can have plenty of poverty. It's up to you.
Are you working or not? A faithful man will abound in blessings, abound with blessings. But whoever hastens to be rich will not go unpunished. That's helpful for us because how much do we want to get rich quickly? I've recently heard that there are local moms who are making $3,000 a week from home. Haven't y'all seen these things?
How many people have told you that if you could just get into this, if we could just get in, you get into the right time. If you could just, I mean, we got cryptocurrency and we've got different stock market schemes. We've got these ideas for you could take on this and the side. And if you could just get this going, if you can get your downline going and if you can recruit three other people, it's like, now there, there's a way that some of that is just good work and people are trying to have extra jobs and work. And it's, there's a way for us to have side things going on that is us working our land.
But there's also a way that we are chasing worthless pursuits and trying to get rich quickly. And it says we won't go unpunished. That that has negative effects on us, that it harms us and that just working is good. So I want to tell you this, do not feel bad about having a job. There's some people who are like, I don't know, I just went and got to work and these other people have these other things going on and they've got this. And I don't, am I wrong to just be working?
Like, should I have thought about this more? And the Proverbs is like, no, you can keep thinking about it. You might could change careers. The best way to get a job is to already have a job, but don't feel bad about working. It's actually really good. That's what it says.
Proverbs 13, 11, wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it. The truth is, if you get a lot of money really fast, you probably have not built up the wisdom to handle a lot of money. And so it goes away very quickly. Look at professional athletes. Look at people who get big inheritances or win the lottery. Many of them go broke because they gained it quickly and they didn't know how to handle it.
But wealth gathered little by little, whoever gathers little by little will increase it. One of my favorite little YouTube videos is these two guys are, they're in a dark room. They're over this table. It's lit. One guy rolls out this map and he goes, okay, here's the plan. We get jobs at the bank.
Doesn't matter what the job is, just as long as we're in there. And you go to work, do the work, gain their trust, get them in the palm of your hand. This buddy goes, okay, yeah. And how do we get the money? It's like, that's the best part. They deposit the money in our accounts week after week, month after month.
They don't even know they're being robbed. Then 20, 30 years later, we walk out the front door like nothing's ever happened. This friend goes, man, that's a job. But that's what Proverbs is saying to you. Hey, you want to get rich? Cuts the light on?
Start working at the bank. Go there. Do your job. They'll deposit the money in your account. That's it. That's Proverbs wisdom on gathering wealth is get a job, do the job, do a good job, go to work.
20, 30 Years later, walk right out the front door. So get a job. All right. Now we got a job. Now what?
We're getting a paycheck. What do we do with that? And that's some of what we said we would look at last week is what does wisdom do when it gets a paycheck so that we might understand what ought we to do when we get a paycheck? What do we do when we get some money? Proverbs 3, 9 and 10. We'll look at a couple of places, but we'll start here.
Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your produce. Then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with wine. So this is wisdom referring to some Old Testament law on how the Israelites were taught to handle their money. So God tells them, I'm the one. I'm the one who rescued you. I'm the one who brought you out of slavery.
I'm the one who brought you into a good land. I'm the one who makes things grow. I'm the one who's provided everything you have. So when you have your first bit of your harvest, you bring that to the temple. You present it before the altar. You present it to the priest.
They actually had a whole thing they were supposed to say that this bringing in the first fruits was reciting for them, was practicing for them the reality that he is the one who redeems. He is the one who rescued them. He is the one who provides. And so they had this whole thing where they would have to say, like, my father was a wandering Armenian in the woods. And then he grew, but he went into slavery. But you rescued him out of slavery and you've brought us into a good land.
And it's this rehearsal of God's provision. That's what this idea of first fruits is. Now, there's a catch to first fruits. There are no promise of second fruits. In an agrarian society, you have no control over the weather, whether or not bugs come, whether or not enemies come, whether or not there's enough rain or too much rain, enough sun, too much sun. You have no control.
First fruits is an active participant practice in saying, I trust that you're the one who provides and I trust that you're the one who will continue to provide. And so wisdom says the first thing you do with money is give some back to the Lord, trusting that he's ultimately the one who cares for you. Now, what we are often tempted to do is to give him last fruits. Let me wait and see how it all turns out. Let me wait and see how my bills work out. Let me wait and see till the end of the month, till the end of the quarter.
And then I'll give the Lord what's left over. And what you're doing at that point is kind of looking at the Lord and saying, all right, we'll make a deal with you. You give me to the end and you make it all work out well, you'll get some off the top. But the problem is that's not faith. The only way that we can operate in giving money away and giving money back to the Lord is to actually trust him. And so that's what he calls us to.
And he says, he'll bless that. Now, this has been hijacked by prosperity preachers. Talk about seed money and, you know, prayer rags and sweatshawls and all the stuff that they'll sell you. If you, we watched one time in, in our dorm room in college, I remember Matt and I watching a guy who would, if you send in a certain amount of money, they would hand him a thing and he would pray a recession proof blessing over you. Okay. So that's not what this is saying.
It is saying that he is the one who provides and cares for us and that we're better off in trusting him than in not trusting him. And there are times where the Bible says that he will multiply our seed for sowing. Well, what that means is that when you give, he multiplies your seed for sowing, which means you give so that you can give more. That's what seed for sowing is. It keeps going out, not your seed for eating, but as a reality to the first thing that wisdom does is gives money back. Now, biblically, this would have been called a tithe, which was about 10%.
I would be happy to talk with you more about this. We don't talk a ton about the tithe because the new Testament doesn't talk a ton about the tithe. Jesus mentions it once. He says it's good, but we're in the new Testament era. We don't have a temple. We don't have priests.
We have the church that is meant to gather funds together for caring for each other, for it's okay to pay pastors. It's okay to pay missionaries. It's okay to send them. We're out to do these things. And we just say that we think the tithe is a good mental picture of where God considers what a first fruits would look like, but that we're under grace. And so that if the law meant 10% that we think those who are under grace would probably go above that.
So we just say it's a good picture for you to know, like a benchmark kind of a floor area. And then we would operate in grace. Meaning that at times, if you're under that, he's not coming to smite you, but in general, we ought to be people who believe this. Proverbs 18, 10, 11. This is one of the reasons why we have to do this. The name of the Lord is a strong tower.
The righteous man runs into it and is safe. We spent here time here last week. A rich man's wealth is his strong city, like a high wall in his imagination. And then Proverbs 28, 25 says the same thing a little more simply. It says the greedy man stirs up strife, but the one who trusts in the Lord will be enriched. The first thing we're supposed to do with the money is practice trusting the Lord.
And there is a temptation for us to trust our money more than we trust the Lord. And so that's why the Proverbs presses us here. That when we cannot give first fruits back to the Lord, some of what we're practically saying is I just don't really trust you to get me to the end and to make everything work out. And sometimes it's extremely difficult because we have things we have to pay for. We have bills, we have needs. And so we're going to him in faith saying, I trust that you'll make that work.
In Tim Keller's book on Proverbs, it's a devotional on Proverbs. He was talking about this idea and he said there was a farmer who went to his local pastor and he said, hey, my cow just gave birth to calves, gave birth to twins. There's two calves and I'm going to raise them, get them fat, sell them. I'll keep one and give one to the Lord. The pastor's like, sounds good. And then a couple of weeks later, the farmer ran into the pastor again.
He said, oh, I have bad news. I'm sorry, but the Lord's calf died. And Tim Keller says, for many of us, it's always the Lord's calf that dies. That it'll work out as long as it ends up making it to the end, but we'll wait and see. And usually everything encroaches on it. And Proverbs says that's unwise that we should first trust the Lord.
So get a job. When your paycheck comes in, trust the Lord. This means making a plan. This means intentionally doing it. For some of us, it's, you can set it up online to automatically draft out so that you don't have to fight this battle every month. You just set it up and you say, I'm walking in faith on this, but also I'm not going to sit every month and look at it and have to like, some of you need to, you need to get the cash out and look at it and pray over it and stick it in an envelope and bring it over here.
Send it to a missionary. You need to do some of that to fight your soul a little bit so that you might grow in trusting the Lord. Secondly, save some, live simply. Proverbs 13, 22. A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, but the sinner's wealth is laid up for the righteous. This is some, some of this is pointing out the principle that God has in the book of Proverbs where he thwarts the plans of the greedy and make sure that money makes it to the hands of the righteous.
That's some of what that's saying. But in general, it's also saying that it's okay to save some money that you ought to save some money. This doesn't have to be lavish, but it's okay to have some money set aside for your children and your grandchildren. I don't think it means that you're not good if you can't, but I think it means that it is a good thing to do. Proverbs 21, 17. Whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man.
He who loves wine and oil will not be rich. Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling, but a foolish man devours it. Okay. A wise man has precious treasure and oil. A foolish man loves them. A foolish person devours them.
That stung a little bit when I read it because that's how our budget works sometimes. My wife's like, where'd our money go? And I have to be like, I ate it. It went to Bojangles and Eggro Station. It went to Taco Bell. It bought steaks.
It was very delicious, but that's where our money went. I devoured it. That's the reality. Some of you, it's like, where did my money go? Well, you're sitting on it when you watch TV or you're staring at it when you watch TV or you experienced it. You threw axes and rode roller coasters and you have memories that will last a lifetime and no gas to get to work because you devoured it.
But it's okay to have some of those things that it's okay to save. That's the other thing. There's saving for wisdom's sake, for future rainy days, for issues that would come up. It's saving for future enjoyment. And it's okay to enjoy things. It's actually wrong of us for God to bless us and us to never enjoy those things.
That was actually one of the rules in the law as well, that they would gather up some of what God had given them and show up to the temple just to enjoy it in front of him. They were supposed to show up and go buy the things they enjoyed to enjoy God's good blessing. If you gave a gift to a child and they said, I love this so much, I will never touch it. No, it's okay to enjoy it. But that can't be all you do with your money.
And that tension, that idea of saving versus spending is the thing that roommates clash over. You have one roommate that gets their paycheck and they just want to save it. They've got reasons why they're saving it, but they don't want to go do anything. And their other roommate's going, please, you have a job. What's the point of having money if we can't ever go do anything? Married couples do this.
One of them is going, you're so irresponsible. We need to hide that money in our mattress. And the other one's going, I don't want to work a job if I can't ever eat bacon. If we can't ever go do anything. And the reality is both of them are right. There's wisdom and enjoyment and worship and enjoyment, not only enjoyment, not loving it more than we love the Lord.
And there's wisdom in saving and worship and saving, trusting the Lord and being saving, not only for ourselves, but for others. And also knowing that if I don't save later, I'll be a burden on my church family because something will come up and I won't be ready to handle it because I'll have already devoured all of it. There's also potential sin in enjoyment. But I actually think that Jesus isn't that enjoyable. So I have to spend all my money on things that are right in front of me.
And there can be sin in saving, which is I don't really trust him to care for me. And the only way I feel safe at night is to wrap myself in the security blanket of how many zeros I have in the bank. Proverbs 17, 18. One who lacks sense gives a pledge and puts up security in the presence of his neighbor. Proverbs 22, 7. The rich rules over the poor and the borrower is the slave of the lender.
We have been sold on the idea that credit is amazing because you can have the stuff now and pay for it later. But the reality is you've become an indentured servant. You are paying someone else with your active labor for things that you already have. Your money is already spoken for when it shows up. Proverbs 22, 26, and 27. Be not one of those who gives pledges, who put up security for debts.
If you have nothing with which to pay, why should your bed be taken from under you? We've been sold that debt is a good thing and there are some forms of investment debt, specifically in how our culture works, that I think are okay. I'm not sold that debt is just sin, but I am sold that debt is unwise and potentially very unwise. And there are some people who are so in debt that they cannot listen to the call of God. They say, I would go be a missionary, but I have so much debt. I would do these things that God's calling me to, but I have too much debt.
There's reality of we've at times over spent and over enjoyed. The average American household consumer debt is $90,000. That includes college and houses. The average credit card debt is $6,000 and it gets higher the more money you make. So it's not that these are people who couldn't pay their bills.
So they had to put it on a credit card because the more money you make, the more debt you go into, the higher the tax bracket, the higher the debt, which is a little stair step, which means I'm making more money so I can spend more money. Pastor J.R. Vassar had this quote and I thought it was extremely helpful. He says, when we lose the transcendent, all we're left with is the imminent. The transcendent is this idea that I can be drawn up into the light with the Lord, that I can see him as above me and better than me, that I can be caught up in worship. But when we lose that, all we have is what's right in front of us, what we can see, what we can taste, what we can touch.
And therefore we're left with experiences. We're left with pleasures. We're left with things that we can consume and participate in because we've begun to worship what's right in front of us. And this is one of the reasons why we outspend how much we make and we are in debt and we are unable to live simply. And those who follow Jesus ought to look different. Get a job, trust the Lord, save some and live simply.
Another thing would be to avoid debt or to pay off your debt. So you can be generous and use your wealth for the good of others. A very wise Uncle Ben, not the rice one, but the Spider-Man's uncle, told Spider-Man, with great power comes great responsibility. I think Jesus said it better. And first, Luke 12, 48, he says, everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required. And from him to whom they entrusted the much, they will demand the more.
This idea that if God entrusts us with things, there's greater accountability and requirement. And so one of the reasons that we are blessed and one of the reasons that the righteous are blessed with finances is so that they can be generous to the poor. Proverbs 14, 31, whoever oppresses a poor man insults his maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him. Whoever mocks the poor insults his maker. He who is glad at calamity will not go unpunished. There's a temptation for us to moralize money so that everyone who is rich is greedy.
Those fat cats up on Wall Street, they're evil, they're wicked. Or everyone who's poor is lazy. They're not willing to work. They're scum. They make society worse. And the proverb says, no, it's more nuanced than that.
Yeah, the proverb says there is wickedness. It says one of the ways to get rich is to be violent. It also says you can get rich through wisdom, through righteousness, through the Lord's blessing. It talks a lot about how those who are wealthy can use their wealth for wickedness and to grow in sin. It does say that poverty causes laziness. I'm sorry.
Laziness causes poverty. That you can be poor because of a lack of self-control. You can be poor because of addiction. But you can also be poor because of catastrophe, economic downturn, layoffs, storms. It also says that you can be poor through oppression. There was a way for the poor to make money, but the rich took it away from them.
But it tells us that the righteous and the wise are not running around discerning who's poor and why. They're just being generous to the poor. And it says it over and over and over again. Proverbs 21, 13. Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself cry out and not be answered. Proverbs 28, 27.
Whoever gives to the poor will not want. That means lack. We'll have everything provided for them that they need. But he who hides his eyes will get many a curse. Proverbs 19, 17. Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord and he will repay him for his deed.
11, 24. One gives freely yet grows all the richer. Another withholds what he should give and only suffers want. 12, 24. I mapped out on my whiteboard in my office every place that Proverbs talked about money. And I put them in categories.
And by far, the thing that Proverbs has the most to say about money is use it to be good to the poor. Over and over and over again. And I narrowed it down to a handful of them that I think are helpful. Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord and he will repay him for his deed. God cares for the poor, provides for the poor. And if you're generous to the poor, it's like you're lending to God.
It's like you're handing money to him and God sees it and repays. Sometimes here, sometimes eternally. Just for the record, eternally is better. Because you get it for longer. Just throwing that out there. Helping you know how time works.
One gives freely, yet grows all the richer. Another withholds what he should give and only suffers want. One of our biggest pushbacks to giving away money is that I can't afford it. And the Proverbs says, yeah, you can. You can give away freely and grow all the richer. The Lord will repay those who give away.
You can afford it. This ought to be a part of our budget. Just to give you some pictures of what the law helped them understand how much it meant. They were supposed to never glean all their fields all the way to the edges. They were always to leave the edges of their fields ungleaned. So that the poor could have something.
So that you weren't supposed to take advantage of all of your incoming wealth. Every seventh year. So you would keep your fields for six years. And on the seventh year, you weren't supposed to mess with them at all. So that the poor could use your fields and get whatever they could get from them.
So that they were told to consistently be ready to give to the poor. And then over the course of seven years, give about one-seventh of their income to the poor. Now, we pay taxes, which helps. And that's okay. But if the tax situation weren't as it were, the church would be called to provide for the poor across the board 100%.
So there are some of us who fight really hard so that our taxes are lower so that we don't have to do all these subsidies and handouts. But the reality is if we work to get those all paid down so that we don't do that in our taxes, your money should show right back up in handing it out to the poor. So I would encourage you to find something to give to. There are a lot of arguments for how you can read the book, How Helping Hurts. There are some ways that we can give that aren't helpful, that promote continued laziness and addiction. I understand that.
But there are ways to give. Don't use that as an excuse to guard your money. Use that as some wisdom to get it in the right hands in the right way. God's Helping Hands is right down the road. Our church helps support them, but you can help support them. They help pay bills and give food.
Oliver Gospel Mission across the river. They help with homelessness. His house helps men who are alcoholics get a job and get back on their feet. Compassion International. You can foster. One of the ways that we do this as a church is we help give money to Midtown Two Notch in downtown because they planted a church where the average household income is $19,000.
Not the average single income. The average household income is $19,000. And so in order for them to have a full-time pastor and somebody to be able to minister over there, they're not going to be able to pay. So we gather with some other churches to help support so they can have full-time work over there. Find something. Vet some organization and give some money to it.
All right. Y'all ready for some pie charts? I know y'all were hoping there would be some pie charts. Boom. Boom. Pie chart.
All right. So I did really even Numbers. So don't get super caught up on the Numbers. But let's say your income was $50,000. Household income $50,000. When money comes in, you're going to have to pay some taxes, but your first fruits would be right at 10%.
It's just a good starting place understanding how that would work. Then you would save some or you would pay down debt or both. So over the course of the year, you would save some money, and then you would live off the bulk of it. That's that blue section. That's paying bills, wearing clothes. At this rate, depending on how single or married or childrened up you are, depends on how thrifty you are.
And then you give some. I just put $100 a month. Like you're getting into this. You're figuring out how to do this. Depending on what you have, you would make this. But that's it.
Those are kind of the buckets of how you would put money and save and debt retirement are together. Let's say you work harder, get a promotion, marry a sugar mama, and your income goes up to $100,000. Again, just super level Numbers. What can happen is this. You'll notice the pie chart did not change. The Numbers just increased.
But the reality of what I think the Proverbs is calling us to is that as money comes in, the percentages also change. So that instead of it just being first fruits $10,000, save $10,000, live off of $77,600, and give $2,400 away, which you give more away, you doubled everything, but the percentages are the same, then it would actually start looking more like this the more money you got. That your giving would grow because your ability to live off of that amount. You were already living off a certain amount, so you learned how to live off of that. That eventually the wise might grow to the place where they've learned how to live.
Because what we've been taught in society, yeah, so then they get a raise of $15,000 over the course of a year, and that just cranks up what they give away. Trusting the Lord provides, trusting the Lord increases, trusting the Lord cares for them. The reality that our culture has taught us is that as your income grows, your lifestyle needs to grow. Your house needs to get bigger, your vacations need to get nicer, your clothes need to get nicer, that you level up continually. And the reality is if you get a big raise, yeah, I think it's perfectly fine to say, hey, thank you, Lord. We're going to use some of this for enjoyment, thanking the Lord that he provides for us.
But the reality of the way the Proverbs calls us to handle money is that the more that comes in, the more that ought to begin to go out. If you only make $40,000 a year, most of your money needs to be spent on living. It's just how it works. But if you're making $250,000 a year, you can live well inside of that and give a lot of money away. Trusting the Lord, lending to the Lord, that he blesses it, that he provides for it, and that he gives money to the righteous so that they might produce life in the world. If you are thinking, okay, I really need to figure out how to make a budget.
I know many of us are just like, this all sounds nice. I understand that Proverbs has given me some wisdom, but I need some practical help. I got three practical helps for you. Two of them are books. The Treasure Principle and Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover, I would encourage both of these books. I would encourage you to read both of them.
Because what Total Money Makeover is going to do is he gives you practical steps to save some money, to get a budget. He has budget help in there. It's very straightforward. And the Treasure Principle is going to go through – it's a fairly short book, but it's going to go through a lot of the principles that the Bible has about giving your money away. So what Dave Ramsey teaches is learn how to handle your money well now so that you can be ludicrously rich later, rolling in the dough like Scrooge McDuck.
And actually, Dave Ramsey's a good place to start if you don't have a budget. But you need Randy Alcorn to tell you, yeah, that's not super biblical, that rolling in the money thing. And so let's talk about some better ways to use it that are more eternally minded. And so I would encourage you to read both. I would also encourage you to talk with our finance team. They are called Toast.
So Treasury Oversight and Sustainability Team. They named themselves that when we first started as a church plant because they said if they didn't do their job, we were toast. We agreed. They've done their job, and we're not toast yet. But we have a toast team that would – they will set up time with you to look at your money and help you make a budget and a plan.
And the truth is you'll be a little mad at them when you leave because it's your money and your heart's all wrapped up in it. And they're going to look at your thing and go, why are you spending that much money on that? And you're going to be like, hey, why are you all up in my business? And it's like, because you invited me to help. Oh, yeah, I remember. But it's helpful.
So those would be my three encouragement. You can email finance at millcitycasey.com and set that up. You can also just talk to me afterwards, and I'll get you in contact with somebody. All right. Basil the Great, AD 39 through 379. He says this.
He was a church leader in the early church. He says, the bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry. The coat unused in your closet belongs to the one who needs it. The shoes rotting in your closet belong to the one who has no shoes. The money which you hoard up belongs to the poor. Therefore, as often as you were able to help others and refused, so often did you do them wrong.
Jesus loves the poor, and he calls on us to love the poor. So get a job. Trust the Lord. Save some and live simply so that you can be generous and use your wealth for the help of others. Now, if you're like me, the Proverbs are getting pretty annoying. They're helpful.
But I haven't been getting high marks. I haven't been reading through the Proverbs, and it's just been like a highlight reel of all my awesomeness. I keep going through this, and it's like, Ted, comment? I would have told you I was wise before this, but I'm doing some dumb things. Anger, words, which was an unfun sermon. Money.
I hadn't even enjoyed preaching these. It's like I've had to repent all week long. I'm having to have conversations with my wife about our budget. It's not... The only one I did well on was the womanhood sermon. I was...
But we're coming out of this going, oh, my goodness. I got another thing I got to work on. I got something else that I'm having problems with. I got... Huh. I want to tell you all something to make sure that we're thinking about this right.
We're Christians. Christians. I taught my son when his younger brother was first born. I had to cut the grass some, and I would need my three, four-year-old to help keep an eye on his little brother. But he's not able to do anything other than just check on him.
So I'd have the front door open. I'd be cutting the grass. I told him he can't just run up on me. So I taught him a signal. It was pretty subtle. It was this.
That's the signal. Come on the front porch and do that till I see you. I will quit cutting the grass. I'll come inside. All the signal meant was, I need you. That's it.
Stop what you're doing. I need you. The reality is every time we run into one of these situations where we're seeing what obedience looks like, what wisdom looks like, and we aren't there, all we're doing is looking at Jesus and going, this is a place I need you. This is a place where I don't actually believe that you're better. This is a place where I don't actually believe that you're more enjoyable. This is a place where I don't actually trust that you're good.
And the reason we want to get rid of these places is not so that we have more of us, not so that you can leave the Proverbs series being more puffed up in your own strength, but so that we might lay those things down and have what is actually good, Jesus. That's why we repent of sin. That's why we root it out. That's why we grow in these things. That's why when he says to you, you're handling your money wrong, and we want to hold so tightly to it, the reality is if we could just put that down, we'd get something better. Him.
And so in these moments when we're seeing these things, we're saying, Lord, I need the gospel to penetrate my heart here. I don't really believe it yet. I don't really believe that you'll satisfy. So I have to chase all these other things. That's why I'm in debt. I'm looking for other things to satisfy.
I don't really believe that you'll protect me. That's why I'm trusting in my money. I don't really believe that you'll cover upcoming expenses, and you'll know that they're coming, and that you're sovereign and you're good. And I also kind of believe that you'll lead me into some difficult situations, and I don't really believe that in those difficult situations, I'll get more of you, and they'll be better. I just don't want the difficulty. We ought not leave beat up, and we ought not leave puffed up.
We ought to leave our sin and be wrapped up in the work of Christ, that we are free, and that He is good, and that He is delightful, and that He redeems. That's why we sing to Him. That's why we praise His name. That's why we say we just want Him, because He ultimately is good. So yes, we repent of sin.
Yes, we grow in wisdom, so that we might have that which is actually better to have. So I don't know for you what it is. I don't know if firstfruits is the immediate thing that you're just like, I can't do that. I just can't. Then wave your arms at Jesus and say, I don't trust you, and I need to believe the gospel more.
I don't know if it's, I don't want to get a job. I don't want to just get any Job. Maybe you have your identity wrapped up in a job, and can I tell you, it's not going to give you a good identity. Jesus gives you a better one. Maybe it's just apathy. You don't think you have much to bring.
You don't see the good effort and work in the world, and you need to wave your hands at Jesus and say, I just don't really believe that you've created everything good, and that you've redeemed it, and that you're working in this. Maybe you can't live simply, and you need to just wave your arms and say, Jesus, I don't find you that satisfying. Please let me learn to rest and trust and enjoy you. You say there's pleasures at your right hand forevermore. Let me believe that. Maybe it's that you can't, you only want to save, and that you just fear and doubt, and security is found in money for you, that you trust in it more than the Lord.
Maybe giving money away hurts you. I want to show you off something. This is 2 Corinthians 8, 9. It says, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. Some of us are just struggling with the idea that all we really needed from Jesus was a handout. Not some good coaching.
Not some wisdom so that we could get it together. Not just, hey, just watch me for a little while, and then give me like three tips, and I got this. But Jesus, I don't have anything if you don't show up. And he who had all strength, and all power, and all glory, and all wisdom, and all riches, and all wealth, gave it up, was stripped, was beaten, was naked, bled out, was buried, and rose again, so that by his poverty we might become rich. And you are if you were in Christ. That's why we respond with money the way we're supposed to respond with it.
Because I'm already rich in Christ. Money can't give me anything that I don't already have. And I'm just practicing what I already believe, which is that Jesus, by his strength, used it for my good, so I get to use it for the good of others. And that I trust him, and that he's good, and that I can follow him in all of life. So as we walk through the Proverbs, repent!
Not so that you can be better, and present yourself to Jesus as glorious. No! He presents you as glorious through his atoning work on the cross. Repent so that you might enjoy Jesus. And for some of us today, that means money. But can I tell you, he's better.
Matt and Carson are going to come back up, and we're going to sing to Jesus because he's better. May we believe that he's better. God, we ask that you would help us to trust you, to get you, to get rid of these things so that we might have you. Lord, we thank you that you used your riches to make us rich. That you used your strength to make us strong. That you used your power to give us hope and a future.
You do not call on us to be rich, or to be powerful, or to have strength. You don't call on us to get it together and to be good, but you call on us to come to you knowing that you are good. So Lord, help us to get to work. Help us to respond with righteousness as you increase our wealth. So that we might grow in delighting in you, and sharing your life and your goodness and your grace with the world.
Lord, make the people in this church family rich in spiritual blessings. Make us rich in finances. So that we can send more missionaries. So that we can care for the poor well in Casey. Make us rich so that we can multiply life and righteousness through the way that we handle it. And Lord, by your grace, if we are not ready to handle it, keep us right where we are.
Until we learn to love you more than money. God, we thank you for your grace, and we thank you for your spirit, and may we have more of you. Get rid of everything that's in the way of that. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen.
Wisdom and Wealth (pt. 1) (Proverbs 10:16, 18:10-11)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Thank you. Thank you. We're going to be talking about money. Who's excited? Yeah. I knew y'all would be glad to be here.
The Proverbs has a lot to say about money. And we were going to try to take this all on in one week. But it was looking like it was going to be like a 37 point sermon. Which for those of y'all who've been here a while and have heard me preach, you know that I mostly like to preach sermons that don't even have a point. And so 37 was going to be a lot. So we're going to look at it in two weeks.
We're going to study it this week and we're going to see what the Proverbs have to say about our approach to money. How we ought to consider money as we come to it. But then next week we're going to look at basically what does Lady Wisdom do when she gets a paycheck? What does her budget look like? If you are wise and righteous, what does your budget look like? But this week we're going to take a more broad view and just kind of understand some of the things that the Proverbs has to say about money and finances and wealth.
And I know that talking about money can make some people uncomfortable. And I know for some of you if it's your first Sunday you were like, I knew it! I knew this is all they talked about in churches. It's not, but it will be for the next two weeks. But stay for three and then you'll hear something different.
But I know this makes people uncomfortable sometimes to talk about money and so I thought I'd ease us in by talking about something else to start off. So we're going to begin this morning by talking about guns. That's actually just a fun transition into this idea. We will get to guns, but let me tell you that I have two sons. I have a three-year-old and a six-year-old and I'm teaching them things all the time. And I'm going to have to continue to teach them things all the time.
And one of the things that I've realized is there are certain things in life that are good and enjoyable, but that you have to approach with a certain level of seriousness, a certain level of maturity, a certain level of caution, a certain level of wisdom. Otherwise, they can be very, very bad. Swimming is like this. Swimming is a lot of fun. But without a certain level of maturity, without a certain level of wisdom, without a certain level of seriousness, it can be very terrible.
We like to build fires in my backyard and roast marshmallows. And that can be a lot of fun. But without a certain level of maturity, it can be terrible. I want to teach my sons to hunt one day. That's where the guns comes in. It was just a fun intro, like I said, to this idea.
But without a certain level of maturity and seriousness and training and thought, that can be terrible. I want to teach them to drive a vehicle one day. And there's tons of things in the world that work like this. And the Proverbs are going to caution us that money is also like this. That finances are like this. Wealth are like this.
There's this idea that we have that if I just had more money, things would be better. And the Proverbs says, no, maybe not. Maybe you having more money would make things worse. Maybe it would be bad for you to have more money. And so even this tension of us going, well, money is not like that, means that we have some wisdom to gain from the Proverbs that knows something about wealth that we don't. So let's pray and let's study this together.
And hopefully we can change our approach to money a little bit. God, we thank you for this time we get to spend gathered as your redeemed people. That even as we've spent this time in the book of Proverbs over the past several weeks, and as we continue to spend our time in the book of Proverbs, and we grow in wisdom, we do not grow in our ability to be saved. We do not grow in our morality so that you might love us more. We do not come as people who are here to get this right so that we might have life. We come as those who have been given life through the work of Christ, and therefore get to grow in obedience and joy as we walk faithfully following you.
So, Lord, may we be a gospel people who trust your word and trust you, and may we grow in wisdom. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Proverbs 10, chapter 16 says this, The wage of the righteous leads to life, the gain of the wicked to sin. The wage of the righteous leads to life, the gain of the wicked to sin. So when the righteous get paid, good things happen.
Life increases. Life increases. Life increases. That there is more of God's work and ministry going on in the world when the righteous have money. That through money there can be people can be helped. People can eat.
Things can change. Sin can be held at bay. That there's these things through money, through wages, that in the hands of the righteous are very, very good. But money in the hand of the wicked, when they gain, when their portfolio looks really nice, it only increases sin. So if you take notes, one of the first things you need to write down is that money is a tool.
Money is a tool. And therefore, because it is a tool, it depends on who's wielding it as to whether or not it's good or bad. This is why, if you just think, if I just have more money, things will be better, the proverb says, maybe not. Maybe it will just empower you to sin more. My family, we appreciate the movie Megamind. It's a very underrated movie.
Some of you are like, I've never heard of that. I just said it was very underrated. Megamind is a good movie. One of the scenes in Megamind, they encapsulate superhero powers basically in a pill. And they're trying to find someone to give this to. So they have basically the powers of Superman in a little capsule.
And what you realize is that the powers don't actually make you great. They just enhance who you are. So if you give the powers to someone who is already righteous, then they will be super-powered righteous. But if you give it to someone who is a fool, you will have a super-powered fool. I don't want to ruin the movie for you. It ends up in the hands of a fool.
And it makes things worse. And so that's actually somehow we ought to consider money. That if you had more money, it does not necessarily mean good things for you. It actually may be God's grace on you right now that he's kept you in your tax bracket. Because he's gracefully limiting your ability to multiply your sin. Some of y'all need to go home and say, thank you, Jesus.
That I only get to sin at just barely above the poverty level. Because if you'd have given me money, I'd have been all over the place. We've been convincing ourselves that if we just had money, things would be fine. But that's not necessarily true. And so we need to grow in wisdom before we get money. Because money works like this, it is a tool.
But that means that money is also a test. That money displays what you love, what you care about, what matters to you. That money displays your heart. It's like taking a test. That's what a test is, that it shows us where we are. And you don't actually have to have a lot of money for it to do this.
All money does this. It's what Jesus says in Luke 16, 10. One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much. And one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. Sometimes we like to convince ourselves that I'm only this way with my money because I don't have a lot. And that sounds great unless you talk to Jesus.
And he says, that's not true. But we believe this in other things. We don't think that she makes a terrible employee, but she'll be a great boss. She'll show up to time, work on time and really care. It's like she has this much responsibility right now and she can't do that. So let's give her more.
Don't believe that. If you're dating a guy and he says, yeah, I'm a bad boyfriend, but I'll really step it up when we get married. Don't believe that. That's not how it works. And so if right now you do not handle money well, biblically, getting more of it will not help you. It will harm you.
It will promote wickedness and sin. So money is a tool. And because of that, it's a test. Our money displays what we love, what we care about. But it's not that neutral.
It actually gets worse than that. The scriptures tell us that it's not just a test. It is also a temptation. That money woos us towards sin. And that you're better off without it to be sinless than to pursue it and grow in sin. So it's a temptation.
Proverbs 18, 10 through 11 says this. The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous man runs into it and is safe. A rich man's wealth is his strong city and like a high wall in his imagination. I love those two verses together. The name of the Lord is a strong tower.
That you can run into him and be safe. This is told to us throughout the scriptures that all those who believe in him will not be put to shame. That if you trust him, he will rescue you. He will defend you. That all you really need is him and he can protect you and keep you. And then it says, but rich people replace God with money.
God is a strong tower, but to a rich man, his money is his strong city. Like a high wall in his imagination. Oh, a little pretend wall. That's cute. It's like when my son's holding up a cardboard like roll-up thing and it's a sword. It's like, that's neat.
You're not going to get to defend our house with it though because it won't actually work. That's what it says about money. And the truth is right now we can look at this and go, those rich people. Trusting their money. Thinking it's a strong tower. But the reality is, isn't that how money works?
Don't we see how much money we have first to then decide whether or not we really need to pray about something? Some of you, your tire blew out. It's not a problem. I have money. Some of you, your tire blew out and it was a big problem. Why?
Because you didn't have money. Your strong city was gone. You needed a strong tower. And it just depends on your tax bracket and your wealth amount and how many zeros you have in your bank account as to how safe you feel. And that's why money can lure us away because money makes God-sized promises that are extremely believable. I mean, extremely believable.
It says things to us and to our hearts. That's why it's competing. That you can trust in the Lord, but a rich man doesn't trust in his wealth. Because it's so easy to do. It makes God-level promises and we want to believe them. That's why Jesus says you can't serve God and money.
You'll either love one or hate the other. They're in competition in a distinct way. Your money says to you, do not be afraid for I am with you. I know the plans that I have for you. Plans for good and not for harm. To give you a future and a hope.
Pleasures are at my right hand forevermore. And none of us doubt it. If I had enough money, wouldn't that just be true? I always feel like this is the reality because we can replace worship songs with money and they still make sense. I grew up singing the song, Because He Lives. That song could just be Because I'm Rich.
Because I'm rich, I can face tomorrow. Because I'm rich, all fear is gone. Come on. Because I know who holds the future. And life is worth the living just because I'm rich. And we believe that.
But it's not just that. A mighty fortress is our gold. We could make a whole album. Only bling forever in cash alone. Money makes God-level promises to us and we do not doubt them. And that is a danger.
And the more money you have, the more believable it becomes. And again, I'll say, God has been gracious to us in that He has not let us grow in finances if we are not yet trusting in Him. And it can actually be a form of His wrath on you for you to financially succeed so that you might run headlong into sin. Proverbs 11, 28 says this. Whoever trusts in his riches will fall. And in the Hebrew, that word fall means fall to His death.
But the righteous will flourish like a green leaf. So when we begin to believe this, when we believe that money can redeem us, save us, help us, protect us, that it is sovereign over us to keep us from harm and danger and to give us the good life, we begin to head into trouble. 1 Timothy 6, 9 says, Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. Matthew 13, 22. As for what was sown among the thorns, this is the one who hears the word. These people who would say they believe, but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and it proves unfruitful.
That our money lies to us. And it competes with God and we begin to love it. We begin to worship it. We begin to serve it. And this is an idol. We have a handful of things that I think will help us identify this idolatry.
Let's look back at that chapter 18. So this is like a strong tower in his imagination. A high wall in his imagination. So I think one of the first questions you can begin to ask is, how does money work in my imagination? Be the first question to try to see, is this an idol for you? Is this something that you long for?
Is it something that you worship? How does it work in your imagination? How do you finish the sentence? If I just had enough money, then I wouldn't have to worry. As if money somehow replaces the sovereignty of God on the throne. If I just had enough money, then I could be happy.
I wouldn't be so stressed. Then I could really have the good stuff. If I just had enough money, then people would listen to me. They would respect me. What is it? How do you finish that sentence?
And the reality is, however you finish that sentence helps you begin to identify what it is that you want money for, what it is that you will most love to serve, and why you would get money. And all of them can be an extreme danger to us. So that's the first question. How does money work in your imagination? Number two, has money begun to give you identity? Proverbs 28, 11 says, A rich man is wise in his own eyes, but a poor man who has understanding will find him out.
Okay, so wealth and wisdom. So it says a rich man says, I'm wise. Becomes wise in his own eyes, which in the Proverbs, being wise in your own eyes is one of the pinnacles of foolishness. But he actually thinks that his wealth dictates to him his character and his maturity. And for many of us who aren't rich, we're like, But don't we often use money to help us know where we are in life? Like a tangible scorekeeper?
As to whether or not we're good, as to whether or not we're successful, as to whether or not we've progressed. Don't you, when you picture yourself, you have more money in the future than you do right now? I don't know of any American who thinks in the future I'll be poorer than I am right now. And if you do, someone near you will say, have you not heard of compound interest? You're doing this wrong. But there's this reality that we use this as somehow dictates to us how we're doing, who we are.
Like somehow wealth dictates to us character. And that is completely foreign to the scriptures and is actually foolish. So has your money begun to give you an identity? Either to grant it to you or to take it from you, depending on where your wealth is at the moment. Third question. Are you willing to sin to get money?
So here's how idolatry works. If we love Jesus as our highest joy, then we will forsake sin to have him. But if something else is our highest joy, even though we know that something is wrong, we will choose sin to have it. It's one of the best ways for you to identify what you love more than Jesus is just ask the question, what am I willing to sin to have? But specifically here, are you willing to sin to have money, to get money?
Proverbs 15, 27 says, Whoever is greedy for unjust gain troubles his own household, but he who hates bribes will live. Unjust gain means gain that you should not have gotten. You're welcome. That's greed. Wanting something that should not be yours. Sinning to get it.
Let's look at a couple. Proverbs 22, 16 says, Whoever oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth, or gives to the rich, will only come to poverty. So, the back half of these two that we're going to look at, show that God ultimately thwarts this plan. But it also, in the first half, shows us that we try it. So there is a way to oppress the poor to increase your own wealth, and to be generous with the rich, and Jesus talks about this as well, to be generous with those, to give to those who can give back to you.
But there's no point in being generous to the poor, because they can't help you. But being generous and gracious to the rich, rich is a good way to grow in social capital. The next one says this, Whoever multiplies his wealth by interest and profit, gathers it for him who is generous to the poor. Again, ultimately, God's going to thwart that plan. But, oh my goodness. I went to business school.
I have a business degree. I studied economics. Multiply your wealth by interest and profit. That's what we're supposed to do. It's what I've been told my whole life. Now, it's a little more nuanced than it reads.
I want to say some things real quick. One is, I'm a fan of capitalism. I think it actually does promote greater freedom. I think it does promote greater wealth. I think everybody ends up a little bit better off. But there is an untethered capitalism that most Americans ascribe to that is wickedness.
We're taught to pay the lowest wages you can possibly pay to retain the type of worker you need to retain. And that you pay them more if it's in your best interest to do so. We're told to charge the maximum amount of money you can charge for an item where people will still pay for it. We're told to gain as much interest as we possibly can to pay as little interest as we possibly can. And ultimately, the Bible's going to say that these tactics begin to oppress the poor. And that God does not look favorably on it.
You know who pays the highest interest rates on things? The poor. Do you know where payday loans are located? And buy here, pay here, car places are located? Do you know who has to take the lowest wages offered? And keep taking the lowest wage offered?
Do you know who buys things in smaller quantities for a higher markup? Do you know who does not have a Sam's card? Or a Costco membership? The Bible says that we practice this to the detriment of our souls. Now, some of you just got real excited because we took 15 seconds to stick it to the man. Well, you're included in here as well.
Let's see. Proverbs 20, 23 and 21, 6. It says, Unequal weights are an abomination to the Lord and false scales are not good. The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a snare of death. There's a possibility for you to convince yourself that whatever you do that somehow takes away from the big corporations, whether it's true or not, is perfectly justified because they're wicked. The Bible would call that wickedness.
Unequal weights is the idea that someone would have when they were buying and selling a different weight that they actually used to measure out goods so that you could pay less and charge more. You don't walk around with weights in your pocket. But you probably have played up the quality of the vehicle you were selling when you knew there were some things wrong with it. You probably have played down how much you wanted something, maybe even lied about it. I used to work in sales. Customers ask good questions that salespeople don't know the answer to.
People who sell a lot of things make up good answers that may or may not be true. If you meet a salesperson and they have really good answers to everything, there's a good chance that they are lying to you. Some people clock in and don't work. Have their friend clock in for them. Some of you have started working from home because of the pandemic. I'm sorry.
Working from home because of the pandemic. There's a way for us to lie to gain. You lie on your resume. Download pirated content. You know the sticker is wrong on something at a retail place, but the person running the register doesn't, so you pay what they asked you. It's a good way to save some cash.
It's an unjust weight. It's an abomination to the Lord. Are we willing to sin to gain? Now, I would encourage you to not just sit at this moment and try to think through that, but to go sit with the Holy Spirit and ask these questions because the Holy Spirit does not want sin for you because sin ultimately does not lead to life. I have found one of the questions. I ask the Lord a lot of questions.
I found one of the ones He's most readily able to answer and desires to answer for me is where am I sinning? I can usually sit with a blank sheet of paper and say, Lord, where am I sinning and not seeing it? He usually has a few things that He tells me. That's why I don't do it very often. I find it uncomfortable. But I would encourage you to sit and do that.
The next one is, are you willing to sin to keep your money? Some of us made it through. We're not willing to sin to get money. But the Proverbs says some things about keeping our money. Proverbs 11, 24 says, One gives freely. It grows all the richer.
We're going to talk about that next week when we talk about what does wisdom do with its money. But the next one says this, Another withholds what he should give and only suffers want. You'll see that word should in there. Not withholds what he could give. Not withholds what he might give. Withholds what he should give.
Meaning that some of the money you have, there are claims made to it that are not your own. Three primary ones that the Bible is going to give us. Is that we are to return our first fruits to the Lord. Meaning to support His work. We're to pay our taxes. And to be generous to the poor.
And that when you get money, you are a steward of God's provision. And you ought to handle it well. The FedEx driver does not get to go through the boxes and decide what they keep and what they deliver. And some of the money that is coming into your account is not for you. But we withhold what we should give.
The poor is disliked even by his neighbor. But the rich has many friends. Whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner. But blessed is he who is generous to the poor. So I think one of the best questions is to ask, how do you defend your money?
How do you defend your money? What do you tell yourself to make yourself feel better about the fact that you are guarding your money? Well, I would give to them but they'd handle it poorly. So I'll handle it poorly for them right now. I don't have to give because I give my time. Which you should do.
You give your time. That's good. But that's also a really good way to defend your cash. Oh, this is one of my personal favorites. I like to execute this move. It's I find out someone needs something.
I tell myself I'm more than happy to help them. Because I have to say that to myself so I can feel good. And then I say, but I'll wait and see if somebody else takes care of it first. I don't want to get in the way of letting someone else receive a blessing by being generous. You have really needy friends. So then you just change that to I had some really needy friends.
You avoid certain sections of town because someone might ask you for something or you'll just see them and know they need it and you feel uncomfortable. So you just tell yourself it's not really safe over there. What you really mean is my cash isn't really safe over there plus my guilt feels bad when I'm in that side of town. You've got 15 I hadn't even mentioned. We're all really good at this. But are we willing to sin to keep our money?
Proverbs 21, 26 All day long this is the sluggard. He craves and craves but the righteous gives and does not hold back. I think just one of the simple tests is does all your money terminate on you? Every bit of the money that comes in go towards your life your lifestyle how you get things. Do you crave and crave? Can't wait until you get your next paycheck because you know already what it's going to get for you.
It's a good way to indicate that you're handling your money poorly. Money is a tool it tests us and it tempts us. Proverbs 23, 4 says Do not toil to acquire wealth. Be discerning enough to desist. That be discerning enough means in the words of the way my dad would put it is have enough sense. Have enough sense to stop.
When your eyes light on it it is gone for suddenly it sprouts wings flying like an eagle toward heaven. Some of you are like I thought that was just my money. The Bible says all money works like that? It just disappears? It's one of the ideas from the scriptures that ultimately all your money will be gone but you can use it in a way that has eternal effect but to pursue money ultimately will fail you. And so the Proverbs says have enough sense to stop.
But how many of us have just bought into the lie that if I can just make more if I can just get to here if I could just be as high as if I could just have as much as if I could just finally get this house this car these clothes these friends this job that office Proverbs says see it and stop. Now why? Why does God tell us that? Proverbs 15 16 Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it. If you don't fear the Lord your great treasure will trouble you. It will lead you into sin.
It will lead you into temptation. It will convince you to trust it and it makes very convincing arguments. But the Bible says it's better it's better if you just have the Lord. That Jesus is better if you can end up with him and no money no treasure you're better. Why does it say that? Because it believes it.
Is better if you can end up with him and no money no treasure you're better. Why does it say that? Because it believes it. It believes that he actually is a strong tower that can defend you that can protect you that can provide for you that can guard you that can help you.
He owns all the money multiple times in this these Proverbs it kept saying God's going to take the money and give it to who he wants to. He can do that anytime he needs to for you and he will. Now you can have treasure actual real treasure and you can also have a little an actual
Little this isn't some sort of trick like if I get Jesus then I get the cash no you you might just have a little you might miss out on some things there might be some stuff you don't get to go do you don't get to partake in
Your house is not as nice but you get Jesus and he's better there's joy and peace and hope and life and if you read through the Proverbs you'll see this over and over again it's better to just have some love than a giant house where there's wickedness and trouble
It says it's better to eat herbs than a meal with meat where there's trouble and wickedness and sin now herbs is the stuff we put on top of our meat so just eating herbs is like what but it says it's better because he's better he wants himself for you
So much so that he was willing to die to rescue you to steal your heart back from money he wants good for you and hope and life for you and money lies to you and we so often believe it isn't it more tangible isn't it more under our control isn't it nicer to
Have at some point I just want money because I don't really want God to be in charge of how things work out for me it's not that I don't trust him it's just that I don't really trust him that's really what we're saying
I just need well okay but I just need the money and if he could just give me the money then I'll just handle it fine and that'll be great ultimately money is a good gift it's just a terrible God it can be used for good things
We'll talk about that next week but if we don't have wisdom we don't have righteousness we don't have the fear of the Lord you don't want money it's just gonna be worse if you have righteousness if you have wisdom if you have fear of
The Lord then you can have some money because it won't grab your heart you can handle it much much differently Proverbs 11 7 when the wicked dies his hope will perish the expectation of wealth
Perishes too the rich and the poor meet together the Lord is maker of them all eventually everything money told you it was gonna do it fails to deliver eventually yes you can be super rich and you
Can own a chimpanzee and have a super nice house and a swimming pool but eventually everything money tells you it's going to do it fails to do it doesn't protect you it doesn't provide for you it doesn't save you it doesn't give you pleasures forevermore
It doesn't have a hope and a future for you Jesus does but your money doesn't that's what it says Proverbs 11 4 riches do not profit in the day of wrath but righteousness delivers from death you know there's a day of
Wrath coming where we stand held accountable for our sin and we want to stand in the righteousness of Christ not in the wealth of our bank account one of the benefits that rich people have in the world right now is that
They can sue out of court they can settle out of court they can just work something out with somebody they can make a deal most people can't do that they have to go to court to get justice but a lot of wealthy people can just say it's gonna be too much of a
Burden too much time too expensive and I'll just settle out of court there is a court that rich people cannot settle out of because no one can settle out of it you stand in that court on that day before the king and you are
Either clothed in his righteousness or you stand on your own and wealth cannot save you but all those who put their faith in Jesus will not be put to shame so may we be wise enough to stop chasing money to understand its inherent dangers to approach it with some
Wisdom and some temperance and some calm and be happier to not have it and have Jesus than to just get it so that we can feel okay right now in our imaginations the band's gonna come back up we're gonna
Be thankful in Christ that we have an inheritance that is undefiled unfading and kept in heaven for you we read that earlier together but that's the reality for those who have placed their faith in Jesus is that there is hope
In him that he keeps us from danger that he keeps us for all eternity so we're gonna try to join with Proverbs 37 through 9 that says this two things I ask of you deny them not to me before I die remove far from me
Falsehood and lying give me neither poverty nor riches feed me with the food that is needful for me lest I be full and deny you and say who is the Lord or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name
Of my God can we be that free can we just come to him and say Jesus I just want you you handle the finances give me what you want me to have I trust you but don't give me so much that I
Lose this make sure I'm fed make sure I'm cared for Lord I trust you to do that but oh Lord help me not have money be a thing
That stands in the way of me having you can I just have you can we say that can we believe that by the power of the spirit can we just say I just can it
This not get in the way can I just have you so we're going to stand and we're going to sing take the world but give
Me Jesus and we're going to try to join with Proverbs 30 and say Lord let me just have you and if I can have
That it'll be enough and there can be times I really need to trust you and I really need to lean in you but
The truth is in those moments I get more of you that's what he wants for us so much so that he would die
That we might have him and he might have us and the truth is if money gets in the way of it get rid
Of it let's pray Lord our money tempts us towards sin and it exposes our hearts and may we not believe the lie that
We're told by money and that our culture supports wholeheartedly that it will give us hope it will give us future it will keep
Us safe it will tell us who we are and how much value we have may we run from that to the cross and
The king who holds all pleasure and joy and treasure and hope forever Lord may we handle money as if we have been redeemed
And were held in the very competent hands of the ruler of the universe might we look so drastically different when it comes to how we
Handle our finances to what our bank account looks like because we trust that you are God over all may we be honest in
Our dealing may we be open with our finances may we be generous Lord may we have you in Jesus name Amen we have
In 简 we have him may speak in your words
Work, Enjoyment, and Savings (w/ QandA)
Transcript
Good morning. We're in our fourth week of our money series, just talking about money. We're actually wrapping everything up today. I am the type of person, and you probably know someone like me, that talks to the television. So I talk to my television.
I respond to characters. And I don't do this in movie theaters and stuff, but mostly if I'm by myself, I'm going to interact with what's going on. And so I'll – like if I'm watching a movie and something happens that is just unbelievable. So like the movie Shooter, where he's like a really great sniper, and they explain that to us. He's a really great sniper. And then later, bullets don't hit him.
They didn't explain that to us. So like he can shoot really well, but then like 30 military guys are shooting AR-15s at him, and he's just like sitting on a hill. And so I'm like, really? Come on. Are we serious right now? And then he blows up a helicopter and runs into the woods, and that's the end of the scene.
Like we don't even know what happens. Like so I respond to my television, and there are two things that I respond the most to that I'll talk to my TV the most. Like that's sports, football, the sport. I talk to football, and I will talk to TV preachers. So when I'm watching football or a television preacher, I'm going to be talking to my television a good bit.
So I will yell. Like if it's football, I'll be like, yeah, come on. Let's go, son, especially if there's like a really good defensive hit. Like I will jump up and shout, which annoys Anna, but like I've got to. I will complain about what people are doing. And then when I'm watching TV preachers, I do the same thing.
So if they're saying good stuff, I'm like, come on. Yeah, that's right. Preach, preacher. Like I don't really do that, but I do talk to the television. And mostly though I get really angry at TV preachers. And so we recently had a son, and I have been catching up on all of my middle-of-the-night television shows.
So I don't know. So maybe me and one other insomniac who like you have insomnia, you have a problem with sleeping, you watch the shows that I've been watching recently. So if you get up in like the first shift with our son, because he eats every three hours, you get to catch up on like late-night shows. So like the late show, the late, late show, the later than the late, late show. Like the – you get to catch up on those. If you get the second shift though, it's like 3.30, 4 o'clock in the morning, and nothing is on except for paid programming and television preachers.
I should watch paid programming, but I end up watching TV preachers. And if you watch TV preachers, you would assume 85% of the Bible is about money. Like that is what they talk about. So I'm watching a guy last night, and he has really cool hair. Because if you're going to be on TV and preach, you have to have really cool hair. It usually needs to start here.
It needs to be slick all the way back here. There needs to be some sort of throne that you and or your wife sit on or you and a panel of other people. And wife needs bouffant hair, and she needs to look – her face needs to look like she lost a paintball match. Like she's back here. There's usually a spinning globe. I don't know why there's a spinning globe, but on any of these shows, there's a globe that just slowly rotates in the back.
That's going on. And then what they do is they just talk about money. And they'll talk a lot about like sowing seeds and I didn't have any money and then I gave money and now I've got money. And look at my suit and then someone will come up and be like, I didn't have any money and then I gave money. And now God doubled that and then I paid back and he doubled that again. And now I'm super rich and that's what God wants.
And so if you watch them, you would assume that being rich meant that God loved you, God blessed you. Like if you are financially secure and stable, that is the sign of God's blessing. And that is incorrect. So having wealth can be a blessing and in the Bible it is a blessing. It is not the sign of God's blessing. And the Bible gives a lot of warnings against wanting to be rich, making that your hope, your aim, your goal in life.
So people react to that. They don't have TV shows because TV shows cost money. But the way they react is they say, no, you're holy and you're good and you love Jesus if you're poor. And that's actually a sign of God's blessing is to be poor and to give everything away and to eat dirt and crickets. And God loves you the most if you do that. And the more you smell because you haven't bathed, more holy.
Like that's like you have people that start pushing on this end. And the Bible also does not say that. It doesn't say that being poor makes you more holy. Actually, the Bible is going to kind of stand in the middle and give a lot of warnings towards wanting to be rich. And then give some teaching about that you're blessed if you're poor and that's okay. But there's not a rule of if you start having money, you have to give it all away.
There are times the Bible is going to tell somebody, yeah, you're rich and you need to give it all away. You're supposed to. But that's not the rule for all rich people. It's way more in the middle. And so what we're going to do today is we're actually going to spend some time. We're going to be in 1 Timothy chapter 6.
And we're going to look at just as practically as we can as we finish up this series. We're going to try to just run through some stuff really practically looking at money today. And then we're going to spend a little bit more time doing Q&A. So we've been having people send in questions about money. We're going to spend a little more time doing Q&A when we get finished this morning. But we're just going to take a minute to try to look at some real practical stuff when it comes to money.
So what we've been doing mostly for this series is we've been looking at more big picture. How should we view finances? So if I'm a Christian, if I say I believe this, if I say that I believe that Jesus was God who became a man, who lived perfectly on my behalf, who generously, blavishly poured out love and grace and gave up his entire life for me, and then is a king who rules over my life, that he rose from the dead, and he is the king of everything, if I say that is true, how does that affect how I handle my money? If I believe that there's an eternity, if I believe that my God is a generous God, if I believe that this is the truth, how does that affect my money?
And that's what we've been looking at. And today we're just going to try to kind of wrap up the series with some real practical teaching on how to handle money. And really what we've said in the first three weeks is give money away. And as Americans, we need to hear that. But you're not going to give all of your money away.
And so today we're going to spend some time saying, okay, what else do you do with your money? Like where does the rest of it need to go? And so that's where we'll be as we're in 1 Timothy, page 644, if your Bible looks like this. If you don't own a Bible, take this one with you. That's our gift to you. I'm going to pray real quick, and then we're going to hop in and read some in 1 Timothy.
God, we thank you for your grace. We thank you for your love for us. And we pray, Lord, that you would speak to us, that you would give us freedom and wisdom when it comes to handling money. And we just thank you for the time we have together this morning. We love you, praise you. In Jesus' name, amen.
So we're going to be in 1 Timothy 6, 17 through 30. Raz, two weeks ago, spent some time here. We read through this text, and so we're going to read through it again. I'm going to quickly kind of recap some of the stuff he said because we're going to be looking at it from a different angle today. But as for the rich in this present age, okay, I'm going to stop there for just one second.
What Raz did was he explained to us that on the sliding scale of richness, and I'm going to swap. So I was poor here earlier and rich here, but we're going to swap that. Now this side is rich. Now this side is poor. So on the sliding scale of richness, down here you've got the poorest person in the world, probably in a third world country, probably lives in a garbage heap and picks around for food in that.
That's a real thing of children in our world live in garbage piles and look for food. So that's far end down there. Far end up here is like you've got your LeBron James, and then you've got the guy who pays LeBron James, and then you've got the guy who – Microsoft guy, Bill Gates, and then you've got like Warren Buffett. They're down on that end. And all of us are somewhere on this sliding scale. And as Americans, we're more towards this side of the scale.
But mostly what we do is we stand in line this way, and we say, I'm not rich because this person has more than me, and that's our logic. I can't be handling my money poorly. Look at how this guy handles his money. And I can't be rich because look at what that guy has and look at what my neighbor has, and so I'm not rich. And so what Raz said was, first of all, that logic doesn't make any sense. It's the same as saying I'm not full because you ate more than me, or I'm not wearing any clothes because you have on more clothes than I do.
Like the logic does – it's not sound, that I'm not rich because someone has more. And what he said was we needed to turn around, look this way, and realize how well off we are, how rich we are. And so as he walked through this passage, he was just trying to help us all see that really we all need to pay attention. So when it says to the rich, not many of us are like, shh, he's talking to me. I'm super wealthy, guys. Be quiet.
Like not many of us do that, but the truth is we're actually all very well off, and as Americans, for the most part, are more wealthy than many other people, and so we at least need to all pay attention and learn what he's going to tell them as he talks about finances. So as for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, which just means prideful, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you.
Okay, we're going to stop there. For some of you, that really bothers you if we stop in the middle of a verse. So you see the 20 at the front of that, and you want us to read to the 21. The verses were added later to be helpful. We can stop wherever we want, and we stopped at the end of the sentence, and we're okay to do that, just so you know. Those are just for reference.
That's not how Paul wrote it. He didn't write and go, you know what, I'm going to add a little 20 here. He didn't do that. He just wrote a letter. So we're stopping at the end of his sentence, which is, O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you.
If you have struggled with, you know, you need to complete it, go ahead and read the rest of the sentence to yourself. I'm not mad at you. We're just not going to talk about it. The rest of the verse. So, okay, so Paul finishes this up, and he says, O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. And so what he's saying is, Timothy, God has given you a deposit.
He's made a deposit in your life. And that includes everything. So when he's talking to Timothy, he's specifically talking about some of the gifts he's been talking to Timothy about, the responsibilities he has as being a pastor of this church. That's why he's writing the letter. But he's also including everything that's been given to him.
And so he says, guard the deposit entrusted to you. And so here's the deal. Timothy will one day stand before God and have to give an account for how he handled what he had been given. And so Paul says there's been a deposit entrusted to you. Handle it well. Guard it.
Defend it. Take care of it. Be wise with it. And that includes gifting. That includes ability, talent. That includes his finances.
That includes everything. He's to guard the deposit entrusted to him. And here's what's really cool that we need to all be aware of. Timothy will be held accountable for what has been entrusted to Timothy. And you will be held accountable for what has been entrusted to you. And I will be held accountable for what has been entrusted to me.
And so that's life, health, skills, ability, talent, finances, everything. There is a day when we will stand before our maker and we will give an account for how we handled what he gave us. Because everything we have is grace. It's on loan. Like you didn't pick the parents you have. You didn't pick the genetics you have.
You didn't pick the skills you have. Like I could work my entire life and will never play an instrument well. It will not happen. I cannot clap and sing at the same time. I was in a gospel choir. I proved that publicly.
I showed the world I can do one or the other. I can clap or I can sing. I'm not doing both at the same time. It's not happening. I didn't know we had to clap until the very end. They were just like, all right, now we're going to clap and sway during these.
And I was like, I've only practiced the singing. I needed an entire semester to work on this. Y'all are terrible, terrible people. But we've only been given so much. I had a college football coach. We had meetings with our head coach every once in a while.
And so I sat down in his office and he said, Chet, you have done everything that you can do with the potential that God gave you. He just, God sometimes gives more people more potential. Thanks. I think. What my coach said was, Chet, the best you could ever be is a four. And you're a four, man.
You nailed it. And you will never play. You will be a four and you will be on the bench. And that's okay because there are some people on our team that God gave them the ability to be an eight. And they're a six. And that's better than a four.
That's what he said. That's how the conversation went. I read between the lines. I knew what was happening there. It was also in his conversation where he was telling me that I would not be receiving any scholarship money ever from them forever for any reason whatsoever. So, yeah.
So, just so you all know, I reached my potential. Just so you know. But for some, but like we'll be held accountable for what we have. So, some people are like, what we cannot do. Timothy will be held accountable for what he has, what he's been given. What he cannot do is say, I'm not held accountable for what I've been given because Paul has more.
What I can't do is say, well, I can't waste this because he's, look at what he has. Look at how he's wasteful. Like, then mine doesn't count. We can't do that. So, we can't look at someone who has more money, more talent, more ability and say that, well, what I do with mine doesn't matter because they have more. It doesn't make sense.
We are all going to be held accountable for what has been entrusted to us. And so, specifically for us today, we're going to talk about money. That verse means everything. It is definitely more than money. It's not less than money. And since this is a series on money, we're going to talk about money, not your ability to play guitar or sing or serve or dance or run or whatever other talents you have.
And I don't know why all those are physical, looking at a spreadsheet. Whatever talents you have. We're not talking about those. We're talking about money. So, all of us will be held accountable for how we handle money. So, what we're going to do is take, as helpful as we can be, we're going to take a second to look at how we can handle money.
And so, we don't usually do this, but we've got props today to be helpful. I was really tempted to just stay behind the wall and talk for a little while, but that would have just been weird and only entertaining to me. So, these are five buckets on where your money can go. Taxes is one place your money will go. And we're going to talk through all of these. Debt is another place your money will go.
And some of you are already nodding. I can't see you, but you know. You know about that. You're nodding. Your heart is nodding. You know what's up.
Are these centered? Because I don't want to, like, make someone not be able to pay attention the whole time because they're off center. And I'll keep referring to them if you can't read the labels. So, this is a bag of golf balls, but it represents money. These are golf balls of money for everyone in here. This represents you will only ever make a limited amount of money.
You will only ever this month make a limited amount of money. You have a limited amount of money that will pass through your hands. And one of the things we've talked about is that everything has been entrusted to you by God, and you will be held accountable for how you handle it. However big your bag of golf ball money is, you will be held accountable for it. So, some of us need to be really excited. I'm kind of glad that my intelligence is where it is, and my amount of money I'll make is where it is, and my ability to play football is where it is, so I just have less to mess up.
I'll be like, yeah. I reached my potential. It was a three. Wasn't that great? Like, I had less to do, less to go for. So, some of us need to be real excited.
You're really mad you don't make a lot of money. Be happy. You have less to mess up. Okay, so, taxes. We will only talk about this for a second. These are five places your money will go.
They will fit into these buckets. Taxes, debt, saving, giving, and lifestyle. So, and every, that's it. That covers everything your money will ever go to. So, taxes. Some of us don't make much.
We're not going to pay much in taxes, but we have to pay taxes. Some of us make more. You will pay more in taxes. But you're going to pay taxes. The government is going to get your taxes from you. You do have one option if you really want to stick it to the tax man.
Again, don't pay your taxes. Then you'll get arrested. And then other people's taxes will have to pay for you. You'll get three meals and a bed. And you will doubly stick it to the tax man. Otherwise, you're going to pay taxes.
That's how that works. So, we're not going to talk about that anymore. The next one is debt. First of all, let me say this before we get into debt. Here's the first rule when it comes to handling money well. And we're just trying to be as practical as we possibly can be.
Rule number one, make a budget. Some of you need to be writing that down. You don't make a budget because you don't write things down. Now would be a good time to start writing things down. Write down, make a budget. Here's why you need to make a budget.
You will be held accountable for everything that has been entrusted to you. You will be held responsible for it. Now, the best way to begin to plan on how to handle it is by having a budget, which is just where you write down where your money is going to go. If you are in this room and consistently you get to the end of a month and you think, where did all of my money go? You need to make a budget. Because you either tell your money where to go or you will wonder where it went.
Those are your two options. You're either going to tell your money where to go or you just will be like, what? Where did I spend my money? And then eventually you start planning a budget and you're like, how much money did I spend at Taco Bell this year? Yes, a lot. That's really personal.
I'm just confessing. I spend a lot of money at Taco Bell. I like that place. Okay. So make a budget.
Have a plan. Write something down. It's very simple. At the top you will write down how much you make and then you will write down how much you have to spend and that's really it. You'll start walking through that. Some of you are like, I don't make enough money to have to make a budget.
All you really just said was, making a budget will be very, very easy for me. That's what you just said. So if you think, I don't make enough money to have to make a budget. No. You just said, making a budget is easy. Okay.
This much money. Rent. Food. I'm done. I did it. My budget is made.
The truth is this. Some of us think, I don't make much money and I don't handle it well now, but I will handle it better later when I get more. That's not how that works. Not really how that works with anything. So we as Americans believe that.
I'm a terrible boyfriend. I'll make a great husband. There's no logic in that. You will just have more to mess up. You will just be a terrible husband. That's how that works.
I've said this before, but girls, if you're dating a guy and he is a terrible boyfriend, do not think that marrying him will fix that. You will just be married to someone who is terrible and that will be your fault. Okay. That was for free. So make a budget.
Make a plan. Handle your money. Pay attention to where it's going. Tell it where to go. So that's step one when it comes to money.
Okay. Debt. The goal with debt is that we would not have any. The goal with debt is to get out of debt. That's the plan. So there are a couple of different types of debt.
Most of us can't pay outright for a house, so we'll get a mortgage. That'll put us into debt. Now, a house is different in some ways because it is a, and the word has just left my brain. It's an asset, but it's an appreciable asset. Thank you very much. That's the word I was looking for.
It's an appreciable asset, which means that if you buy a house now for $100,000 and 10 years later you sell it, it should still be worth $100,000 or more, which means that at any point you don't get upside down in it most of the time. And being upside down just means that you owe more on something than it is worth. So if you had to sell it because the mafia was after you and you had to move and you had to sell and run away, you couldn't because you owe more than it's worth. Does that make sense? But a house is an appreciable asset.
So housing debt is one thing. The biggest problem for us as Americans is consumer debt, which is where we go into debt to buy things that we can't afford for our lifestyle. Our lifestyle bucket consistently just pours itself into our debt bucket, just so you know. So you have a limited amount of money and you're trying to decide what kind of pants am I going to wear. So you have an option for Wranglers from Walmart.
You could go with pants from Old Navy and that's going to cost you a little bit more. Or you could go with something from Buckle. And then if you went with pants from Buckle, you don't have that amount of money. So what you're going to do is get a credit card that just says, I don't own money, but I will in the future probably. And so then you just pour a bunch of money in here. Some ladies get, what are they called?
Credit cards at retail credit cards. And then you think, oh, I need to get this now because it's on sale. And so you pay interest, which is money for nothing other than just having something now on something that's on sale. And so you take something that would be cheap if you had the money and you make it more expensive over time because you put it in your debt pile. Does that make sense? So the goal is get out of debt.
Now, student loans. Should I just put the whole? Okay. Student loans. We're done. That was it.
Y'all have a good day. Some of us have student loans. And here's the thing. We're Americans. The average American has about $15,000 worth of consumer debt. And then you start adding on student loans and medical bills and different things.
This is not feel guilty, feel shame. It is make a plan, make a budget, and let's work to get out of debt. If you are choosing student loans, like if you haven't made that decision yet, consider going in-state, consider going public, not private because you are going to add on extra debt that really isn't going to help you too much in the future when you can get the same kind of degree somewhere else cheaper. That would be my advice there. And don't use student loans to pay for expenses if you can help it and get a job. Otherwise, though, we have debt.
So the goal is make a plan to work to get out of it. Don't assume I'm going to be in debt forever. Psalm 22, 7, Proverbs 22, 7 says, The rich rules over the poor and the borrower is slave to the lender. Some of you are working 40-hour-a-week jobs just to pay the lender, which means your job isn't so much for you as it is for the person you owe money to. You are a slave to the lender. That's how it works when we borrow money.
In some small fashion, we become a slave to the lender. And as Christians, we're supposed to be slaves to Jesus, which means that we shouldn't be in so much debt that we're not freed up to move and to do what God asks us to do. Not freed up to, if he tells us to go be a missionary in another country, that we can't because we have so much debt. So the goal would be get out of debt. Now, be honest with your community group about this. Be real with where you are.
We have people in our church family who are good with money. They know math. They think through things well. They can do spreadsheets and magical things with computers. And so we actually can help do financial counseling or have somebody from our finance team sit down with you and just help you make a budget. Like we want to be as helpful as possible.
But the goal with that would be to get out of it if you can. Savings. Okay. Savings is one of these where it's, we kind of want to stay in the middle. You can't go too far one side or the other. So here's the thing that you need to know.
Saving money is okay and smart. Proverbs 21. Yep, save some money. That's number three. And we can go back to that in a second. Proverbs 21.20 says, Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling, but a foolish man devours it.
Which just means that it is smart, wise, to save up. Because you're going to have emergencies, you're going to have problems, and it is foolish to just use all, to have your budget match your income. It is helpful to save some money. So, really practically, if you are in debt, pay minimum payments until you can get something into savings. Get an amount into savings so that if you get a flat tire, if your washing machine breaks, you don't have to go into more debt to pay for it. So get something into savings so you can handle emergencies so that you can then begin to work on your debt, and if something comes up, it doesn't derail you.
Have something in savings. And here's the thing. Timothy says this, and I think this is really beautiful and helpful when it comes to thinking about savings. Talking on verse 18, talking about the rich. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share. Which means they have finances ready to share.
And then he says this, thus, so by being ready to share, storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future. Okay, what is storing up treasure for yourself for the future? I'll give you a hint. It's saving. That's what storing up treasure for yourself for the future is. That's savings.
That's all that is. So what he says is, people who have money, the part of the purpose of saving is to be ready to share. So that when someone in your group needs help, someone in your community group, someone you're in life with needs help, you hold your savings with an open hand. For people who have an emergency and you don't have savings, credit card is not your first option. Church family is. Our church is.
That's part of the reason we pull our money together is to help each other. It's part of the reason your community group exists. So don't just put it on a credit card, go talk to somebody. We should have people who save with an open hand ready to share. He also says this, verse 17, as for the risks in this present age, charge them not to be haughty nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches. Perfectly good to save.
Don't put your hope there. Don't have your life there. Don't have all of joy and purpose of life is in savings. And also for couples, saving is not automatically more holy, just so you know. So some of us feel really self-righteous because we like to save money and our spouse likes to spend money.
Both of them can be very selfish, self-motivated, chasing after what makes us feel good. So someone likes to be able to look in the bank and see money and that makes them feel comfortable. And someone else likes to wear shiny shoes and that makes them feel comfortable. And we're both chasing after the same thing. We just have a different motivation. But we should save some and we should save with an open hand and that's okay.
Okay. Giving. This is what we've talked about for a lot of weeks. We're going to skip over, but that's just, we're going to come back to it, but that's just meaning that you give money away. Doesn't help you. Doesn't go to you.
That's giving to the local church, giving to friends, giving to people who need help. Like some of your money is just not going to terminate on you. That's giving. Everything else goes into this bucket. The lifestyle bucket. And so some of us say, well, I really just pay my bills.
Yes. But you, through your lifestyle, have chosen what type of bills you're going to have. Does that make sense? So when you buy a house or rent a house, you're choosing what kind of life am I going to have? What kind of house am I going to have? What's my mortgage going to look like?
How big is this apartment going to be? What kind of internet am I going to have? Am I going to have Netflix? Am I going to have cable? Am I going to have direct TV? Am I going to get the Hoppa?
Like what's the plan? What am I choosing with how I'm going to live? Where am I going to get my purse? Walmart. Dugan and Burks. I don't know if that's the name, but Dooney.
Maybe her name's Dooney. Dooney and Burks. What's the one with all the really weird patterns on it that looks kind of awkward and like super colorful? What? Louis Vuitton and Prada. So like, yeah.
Where's that coming from? Like I asked Anna this stuff yesterday and I don't remember any of the words she said. Sorry. I should have been paying more attention. So, but like we make lifestyle choices. What kind of car am I going to drive?
Does it get me to and from work? Or does it tell everyone I'm awesome as I get to and from work? We're making lifestyle choices. Does that make sense? So everything else is going here.
So here's what you need to know. Question your choices. Jesus says that life is not found in the abundance of possessions. And when he says that, he is talking to Americans because we believe that. Millions of dollars are spent every year to get us to be here and to be here and to know that that's what makes us okay. That's what makes us good.
That's what tells the world we're fine. That's what communicates to the world who we are and what we care about and what we value. And that's how people know you. And he says that life isn't found in the abundance of possessions. Life isn't there. That's not where joy and freedom and fulfillment come from.
So, when it comes to the lifestyle bucket, the fourth thing we need to know is we think about money. So we need to make a budget. We need to get out of debt. We need to save some. We need to plan ahead, know that there's going to be a rainy day. There's going to be some problems.
We need to provide for ourselves and we need to enjoy. I'm going to read you all one of my favorite passages in Scripture that I just think is great. This is in Deuteronomy. So it's in the Old Testament law, Deuteronomy 14, and it just kind of shows us some of God's heart towards why he gives us things. You shall tithe, which means 10%, and it means set aside for God, for his purposes. You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from year by year, from the field year by year.
This is Deuteronomy 14, 22 through 26. I'm just going to read through it really quickly. You don't need to flip there if you want to. Write down the reference. And before the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose to make his name dwell, so this is before Jerusalem, but that's where the temple is, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock. So meat, wine, oil, grain, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always.
So part of tithing was to enjoy it for the purposes of fearing God, knowing that he's the one who provides. But then he keeps going and it gets really cool. Fear the Lord your God always, and if the way is too long, so you live too far away from Jerusalem for you, so that you may not be able to carry the tithe, which, like, I have a ridiculous amount of wine and grain and goats that I'm going to have to take up there. When the Lord your God blesses you, because the place is too far from you, which the Lord your God chooses to set his name there, then you shall turn it into money, and bind up the money in your hand and go to the place the Lord your God chooses and spend the money for whatever you desire, oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves, and you shall eat there before the Lord your God and rejoice you and your household.
That's cool. God says part of your money, part of the reason he's given you your money is to enjoy. He says bind it up, take it, go before him and in worship, eat, celebrate with whatever you desire. Oxen, sheep, wine, strong drink. Some of you are like, he told them to buy wine. What verse is this?
Like, I'm quoting that to my grandmother. Like, how's college going? I've been worshiping a lot. Sorry. What he says is that part of how you worship, part of how you celebrate, part of how you, you trust God and rejoice is by taking what he's given you and using it to celebrate, using it for enjoyment. So let me tell you this, part of your budget, even if it's very small, needs to be set aside for the purposes of enjoying it with worship.
So not just enjoying the thing itself, but letting it roll up and worship for a good God who provides for you and who invented that thing. God, creator of the universe, invented flavor. He made steak delicious on purpose. He made bacon more delicious and then he gave someone the idea to wrap bacon around steak. Can I get an amen? Somebody say praise the Lord.
This is real. Now, that's a real thing and we should sometimes order a steak and enjoy it and celebrate that we have a good God who blesses us, who we can trust, who even when money fills really tight, we should set some aside to enjoy, to celebrate that we have a good God who provides and cares for us. Some of us feel like we can't enjoy our finances because we're so worried and that's why he says, no, set some aside and celebrate and rejoice before me and enjoy it because I'm a good God who provides and takes care of you. That actually is in this passage that we read earlier in 1 Timothy. It says, verse 17, as for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, not to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.
Which means that some of us, because we're unwilling to enjoy things, are putting our hope on riches and not on God who's provided you with the ability to enjoy something. Some of you are now going to pull that out on your spouse. See? I'm just worshiping. I'm just loving God. Like, I'm just, that's why I want to, like, and maybe you should.
Maybe y'all should have a discussion about the ability to enjoy your finances. Now, that probably was really helpful for two people who don't feel like they can enjoy their money. For everyone else, because we're Americans, that's not the goal of life. It's not just to enjoy, not just to celebrate, but we do have a good God who invented amazing things and invented flavor and enjoyment and roller coasters and all of that for us to enjoy and to celebrate and we should set aside money sometimes to do that. Should be okay with that. He invented gluten because he's a good and loving guy and you should partake.
So those of you who aren't actually gluten intolerant, stop promoting this gluten-free nonsense. I was at Raz's house the other day. He's gluten intolerant. He said, you want a cookie? And I said, sure, because I know what cookies taste like. And then he handed me a gluten-free cookie and I was like, this is not a cookie.
I don't know what this is and I'm very, very sorry for the way you have to live your entire life. So we have a good God who gave us things to enjoy and that's okay and we should. Now, this bucket, this one is the fun bucket. This is the one where a lot of joy is found in giving things away. And so, what we need to know, the last thing we need to remember and to hold, and this is what we've been talking about this whole time, is we want to give as much away as possible. We want to give as much away as possible and what I don't mean by that is wait till you're done with your whole budget, wait till you get to the bottom line and ask, how much of this can I give away?
No, when we set a budget, some of it needs to be towards saving and a lot of it needs to be, I want to make certain lifestyle choices so that I can give a lot away. Here's the difference between you and your neighbor if you are a Christian, just so you know. Your neighbor, for the most part, is going to be operating with these four buckets. Lifestyle, debt, taxes, saving. And there will be some giving. But for a Christian who knows that everything has been given to us generously from a lavish God, we automatically have places we want our money to go that our neighbors don't.
So if you live next to your neighbor and he makes the same amount of money that you do, it's quite possible that you should look like you make less because you automatically have places you want your money to go. You automatically because you know in response to God's generosity you have places where you want your money to go. And this is where you get to plot on people. This is where you get to have a lot of fun. This is where you get to find out about a need and sneak over in the middle of the night and stick money in somebody's mailbox. Do you know how fun that is?
This is where you get to send a certified check in the mail so it just shows up. There's no way like they just Wells Fargo sent me a check. Like what? Why would Wells Fargo do that? Like this is where you get to just go pay for things for people. This is where you get to just this is where you get to send some of your money for God's mission.
Some of you will never step foot in Africa. Some of you will never learn another language. Some of you have tried. It's not going to happen. You're American. You speak American.
You don't even speak English very good. You speak American. That's the way it is. But, so you're never going to translate the Bible into another language for a people group that's never heard it but you can actually send some of your money and get to be a part of that. You can actually send some of your money with a missionary and get to be a part of everything that happens in that country and when you get to eternity part of your money went ahead to that. You actually got to as Paul says here verse 19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
So what he says there is he's kind of a play on savings because he's telling them to save for the purposes of giving it away and what he says is that by giving stuff away that's actually a better savings account. You save it for a better future. You have a better savings with a better treasure for yourself for a better future and he's talking about eternity and some of us need to start sending some money on ahead to that better savings account. I'm going to tell you a story about a guy named John Wesley. John Wesley started like that's where the Wesleyan church comes from and the Methodists and I just wanted to tell you a little bit about what he did and this is the idea of giving as much away as you possibly can.
In 1731 John Wesley started doing ministry stuff and they paid him 30 pounds which is like English money and back in the day that was enough to live on but for our sake because we're Americans and we don't use pounds and the exchange rate has changed a lot so that 30 pounds I don't know buys you like a cheeseburger now. We're just going to say $30,000 because let's assume that's enough for him to live off of and we're just going to keep the ratio that way so where it's 30 pounds I'm just going to have three zeros and call it $1,000 so that we can actually pay attention to what's being said here. So they paid him $30,000 he decided looked at his budget looked at his lifestyle and decided he could live off of 28 so he gave two away $2,000 away that first year. The next year his salary doubled to $60,000.
So he gave two away $2,000 away that first year. The next year his salary doubled to $60,000. How sweet is that raise? Like your boss calls you in and they're like we're going to give you a raise this year we're going to keep up with inflation no your boss calls you in and says we're doubling down on you like what? That sounds great.
Most of us though would have our budget our lifestyle begin to expand to our new income. What he did was he was like well I can live off of 28 so the next year he gave away $32,000 over half of what he made he gave away do you know how much fun that would have been? Think of what the stuff he could do with it like he doesn't make a whole lot
Of money but now he's being able to go hey you're going on that trip yeah let me let me just pay for that oh you're going to go there and try to plan a church yeah let me just pay for your salary for a year like that's cool the next year they moved it up to 90 he still was like well I can live off of 28 so he gave away
62 In his lifetime he got to where he was making 1400 pounds so adding three zeros that's 1,400,000 he never got much over his lifestyle being 30 pounds he towards the end of his life was giving away 1,370,000 of a 1,400,000 salary now how much fun would that be because we believe no no no the fun would be with the boat that you got and the fun would be
With your beach house and he said no I don't want a whole bunch of stuff I want my money here I want to send as much ahead as I possibly can I want to leverage as much as I can possibly can he actually got contacted by the tax service because they just assumed he was under reporting his property tax because they saw his income and were like there's no way you only own the stuff that you're talking about so they actually
Contacted him and had to question him a little bit here's the thing this is where the fun is this is where the joy is so ultimately as Christians we want to try to get this one gone so that we're just working with these four we want to enjoy celebrate Christians aren't supposed to be unhappy grumpy people just so y'all know
We're supposed to throw the best parties like Jesus showed up to a party at Cana and he made the party better that's how that works Christians should throw great parties Christians should throw great parties I'm just saying that we should enjoy we should celebrate like we have
A son every time he laughs I don't smack him and say stop it God hates happiness we don't do that that's not how that works we're supposed to enjoy but we're supposed to make intentional lifestyle decisions so that we can put as much here as we possibly can we should save with an open hand we should pay
Taxes and not go to prison that's how we ought to handle our money as Christians we ought to have a budget we ought to have a plan because we will be held accountable for it now just because we always do this flip over to Ephesians chapter one I want us to help us see one more thing as we finish up our series
On money we're going to read from verse 3 to verse 14 and then I'm going to help us see how the gospel the truth about who Jesus is and what he's done for us impacts our money on both sides and I'll explain what I mean by that so we're going to read through this really quickly it's just a
Really awesome passage blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ if you have one of these Bibles on page 633 verse 3 through 14 blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly
Places even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious grace which means he just poured it out on us we didn't earn it
With which he has blessed us in the beloved that's Jesus in him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our trespasses that's our sin according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight making known to us
The mystery of his will according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him things in heaven and things on earth in him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose
Of his will who works all things according to the counsel of his will so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory in him it affects our money on both sides which means
That as Christians we have an inheritance we have a salvation we have a better home that we're going to and that absolutely affects our money we have a generous God who lavished everything on us and that affects how we
See our money how we handle our money and what we believe it's for and how we handle our money will not save us will not justify us will
Not let us stand before God and say look at how well I handled my money I'm okay so we have a lot of freedom there aren't hard and fast rules on a
Lot of these things we have freedom to trust God and to know that if we mess up we get to repent and that
We've been saved by Jesus not by our ability to be smart with money we should try we will be held accountable for it but
We get to repent and we're saved by Jesus so there's a lot of freedom when it comes to money there's not a whole lot of
Tension and am I doing this right am I doing that wrong am I going to mess this up is he going to be
Mad at me we've been saved by how we see it but it also isn't used with this really clenched fist and this really
Terrible fear that we have a good God who wants us to enjoy things who's provided for us and we get to rest in
His ultimate sacrifice for us on the cross I'm going to pray and Matt is going to do Q&A to finish up this series
God I thank you for your grace thank you for how wonderful you are to us I praise you Lord that you made things
Good and enjoyable on purpose and I pray Lord that you would help us all to grow in wisdom and how to handle our
Money for your glory and for the good of those around us and for our joy we love you we praise you in Jesus
Name amen one more thing I will say questions on saving or giving or anything talk to us we do counseling on money and
Different stuff like that it can be really helpful as you try to think through some stuff part of the reason we do a
Song after the message part of the reason we are not doing that is the majority of our questions that you guys sent in
Were actually in this category and so we wanted to if you ask the question and you feel like we didn't answer it well
Or didn't go into the specific thing that you were asking just come and talk to us afterwards we'll try to clarify and go
More specifically into your situation but we do want to answer as best we can for everyone also if we say something that you're
Like I don't know that I agree with that don't but at least we know that we've clarified okay so I'm going to kind
Of take us through our questions and we've got a good bit so I'm going to walk through it pretty quickly all right we've talked a lot
About giving does serving count towards that or does it have to be money okay so serving and giving aren't like opposed to one
Another we are all supposed to do both when we should relinquish the things that we own that we get really attached to for
Some reason most of us seem less attached to our time and more attached to our money and so sometimes we say stuff like
I serve so I don't have to give and we're actually just defending our money and so the same way we tell someone who
Says I give so I don't have to serve we should all be doing both now some of us make more money and are
Gifted in giving and we'll give more and some of us make less money and we'll serve more but all of us are called
To both serve and to both give at what point does debt credit cards student loans mortgage etc. become sin or are they necessary
Evils yeah I think with credit cards that you probably should cut them up or freeze them in a block of ice specifically if you
Have a really hard time with handling them well and constantly putting things on them consumer debt mostly we should just pay for the
Things that we use there are some things like student loans like medical bills and mortgages that are a little bit different but everything
Else we really need to with our money with our time and just like the scripture you read the person who owes is a slave
To the lender and so if that is you if you are in debt be working be having a plan to get out of
It let your group in on that let other church family be a part of you helping you do that I get that we
Shouldn't go in debt but what about saving isn't saving a huge amount of money specifically to ensure a sum for retirement just as
Disobedient doesn't it show a lack of trust in the Lord's provision I think that it can show a lack of trust in the
Lord's provision I don't think it automatically does some of us like retirement is forced on us in America especially in certain vocations and
So having some money saved for retirement isn't bad the question is your hope there is that where your trust is is that the
Goal of life is to just enjoy to rest to retire then maybe maybe that is very disobedient and have you sat with the
Lord on it it doesn't I don't think it necessarily has to be and the Bible calls us to be generous and so for
The person who's in debt and for the person who just may be continuing to save the call is to be generous and so
The person who is in debt would be actively seeking to be out of debt so that they can be generous and the person
Who is saving is saving with an open hand realizing that at any point all of this belongs to the Lord and they can
Use it but it it's a heart level issue so absolutely every person on either side of that equation needs to sit and ask
The Lord where their hearts are and all of us have to save some so I get paid once a month so I don't
Just try to spend all of that or give it all away that day and then just hope that over the next three weeks
The Lord takes care of me part of us they are wrong I do think there is more of a chance that they would
Place their hope there so if you don't have much money it's harder to place your hope there because you don't have it does
That make sense so like when I don't have much money I'm not trusting in it because it ain't there so it's harder sometimes
If you have a lot of to to put more trust there although we do sometimes put trust and hope in the future money
We will make when we become awesome at something is it wrong to save invest for the future if you are faithful in giving to
Ministry and others I would say no just the way that question is worded if you are faithfully giving to ministry to our church to
Church family to others you have an open hand I would just encourage you that if you are saving and investing make sure that
What you are saving and investing you are also approaching it with an open hand too but I think someone who's faithfully giving and
Serving who's approaching things with the attitude of generosity that we've been talking about I think that's good yeah and I would add to
That that I agree with what Matt just said all right saving for future needs is hard I would rather just spend money got
Any tips on making myself save do it okay next question no put it in your budget early so go ahead and work to
Shrink your lifestyle your expenses and put saving at the top so have income giving and saving right off the top and then live
Off of 80% live off of 75% live off 70% if at all possible and that's the best way to do it and if
You have to start really really small $5 I'm going to save $5 from every paycheck so that you start building in the habit for
Yourself and then you can slowly grow that as that works more so some people have a really tight budget give away $5 save
$5 Change it to I'm going that's $10 does that make sense so on both giving and saving put it early in the budget
Don't wait to the end and then you'll actually do it should we strive to be debt free or should we carry some debt to
Minimize our taxes the person who asked this question is in a different tax bracket than I am yeah so we actually tried to
Look this up online because I have no clue about this question we sent Matt's dad a message and he's a CPA did he
Respond to that he did and said he would be willing to actually talk with that person specifically about the way you're looking at
That the Bible is going to say don't be a slave to the lender pretty clear on that but more specifically if you'd like
Some more information on that question we can get you in touch with him yeah so for all the other people that is not
A helpful answer but that's a very intense question that we did not know anything about and the Bible doesn't say much about that
Other than to pay your taxes and to try to stay out of debt next question can I spend anything on myself or should
I feel bad when I do that you should feel bad everybody else can spend money on themselves you are okay to spend money
On yourself obviously not all of it there but no shame no guilt it's not the goal of your money but it's okay how much
Is enough retirement savings cushion yeah that's a good question different people will tell you different things the guy who's on the radio all the Dave
Ramsey says you want to have three to six months of living expenses saved not income but living expenses in case you get hurt in case
There's something like that if you have an emergency he would tell you if you're trying to get out of debt to save a
Thousand dollars really quickly or save five hundred dollars really quickly and then begin to work off debt really that is the question to
Continually ask yourself given your lifestyle given what you need to continually ask is this enough am I putting too much here am I hoarding here that's the question
To keep asking versus that's what I would say and in the same way that we look at giving sit down with the cross not
A calculator be asking the Holy Spirit to reveal these things to you be talking with your group about them next question that we
Have we did math and we know when Jesus is coming back no I'm kidding yeah so here what I like about that question and
I think it's a little bit tongue in cheek whoever sent it in but I like the fact that whoever sent that in understands
That whatever they have saved when Jesus comes back or when they meet him no longer means anything or is worth anything so like
We said in the first week our money is kind of like playing the game uno when the game is over whatever you're penalized
For whatever cards are still in your hand like they were useless to you there's a story Jesus tells where a guy makes a
Lot and he says oh I'll just tear down my build bigger barns and God says you're a fool because you're going to die
Tonight and so yes saving for retirement is fine but always hold into your head I don't know if I'm actually going to make
It to retirement and the day I meet Jesus everything I have in a bank account no longer was useful to me was no
Longer helpful everything I gave away actually I sent on ahead I used to serve for his glory and for his name so just
Having that eternal perspective is important
Gospel Giving (w/ QandA)
Transcript
My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here, excited to be in our third week of our money series. And so you knew it was coming. We're talking about money, so today we're going to be talking about tithing. I mean, you had to have been getting yourself prepared for this. And the funny thing is, I know our church family, so I know that some of you are like, yeah.
And some of you are like, I didn't know that was coming. I don't even know what the word tithe means. So we're just going to spend some time this morning, really. We're in our third week of this money series, and we're going to take some time to kind of ask some questions when it comes to tithing. And what we realized with money in general is that as a church, we're very much, we're going to talk about Jesus. We're going to talk about the gospel.
We're going to make much of Jesus every time we get together. We're a band that plays one song, kind of like Rush. But we're a band with one song. That's all we're going to talk about is Jesus. And as we're getting started, there were a lot of things we wanted to talk about, wanted to coach ourselves up on and understand. And then we just realized that we hadn't ever spent any time talking about money specifically, and that the Bible treats it very much as a gospel issue, as a heart-level gospel issue.
And so that we needed to spend some time talking about it as we talk about Jesus, as we grow together as Christians. And so today we're just going to be asking, what is tithing? Really, the word tithe just means a tenth. So it's an Old Testament concept, but tithing just means a tenth. So tithing is giving a tenth.
And most of the time when someone in a church setting talks about tithing, what they mean is giving a tenth of your income right when it comes in to the local church. And so really we're going to ask a bunch of questions like, is that a Christian concept? Is that for the New Testament? Is that just an Old Testament thing? Is it a flat 10% for everybody? Does it matter how much money you make?
Like, are you supposed to... Like, we just... There's a bunch of questions when it comes to this topic. And so we're just going to try to spend some time looking at those questions this morning and really trying to kind of dive into that. And here's the thing. We have a...
In our culture, we have a saying, put your money where your mouth is. And what we mean by that is, if you believe so strongly in something, if you're going to talk big game, we'll back it up. If you really think that you're telling the truth, back it up. And a lot of times that we mean money specifically, a lot of times we just mean like, you know, live that way. Or like if you're talking smack, you're about to fight somebody and they're telling you they'll beat you up. And you say, well, put your money where your mouth is.
You don't actually mean give me money. You mean let's fight. Let's do this. But I actually, I like betting. Confession time. If that's bad.
I don't do it a whole lot, but I do like betting because I feel like it makes trivial things more interesting. And so recently I lost a bet to Matt Freeman about... I lost a lunch. We bet lunch on it. We bet whether or not Cracker Barrel has omelets. And that was the bet.
And I know and love Cracker Barrel and basically have their menu memorized except for the low-carb stuff because why would you go to Cracker Barrel to eat anything low-carb? But we got into a discussion about whether or not they had omelets and Matt said they did and I said they didn't. And so we bet Egg Roll Station on it, which would be $6.26 because you have to pay cash and that's what you're going to spend when you go to Egg Roll. But anyway, we'll talk about that later. So we bet Egg Roll Station on it.
We went to Cracker Barrel and Matt said, can I get an omelet? And our waitress said, yes. And she was wrong. There are no omelets on the menu, which was really what I was trying to bet. But Matt got by on a technicality because our waitress said yes because she understands that if you have all of the ingredients, you can just fold it over and it's an omelet.
But I have had waitresses say no before because it's not on the menu. But anyway, I'm still bitter about it. I just need to get that off my chest. But we have this idea. We have this idea of put your money where your mouth is. And here's what the Bible is going to say.
It's actually going to say that you put your money where your heart is. That your money, that your treasure follows your heart and vice versa. So that if you move your treasure, your heart will follow. And if your heart moves, your treasure will follow. And so the Bible is going to say that to the extent that something gets your money in your budget is to the extent that you value it and really that you love it. And so some of you are thinking, okay, so I love carowinds 1%.
And it's like, well, not really that specifically. More, how much when you add up, how much you're willing to spend on vacations, how much you're willing to spend on cable or satellite, how much you're willing to spend on comfortable things in your house, like a really nice couch. Eventually, you begin to see that if you look at your budget, okay, I value comfort this much. Or you can look and, okay, I value control this much. Or my family, the way I think about my family, takes up this much of my heart. That's what the Bible is really saying when it comes to our money.
It shows us our heart. So any amount of discussions on the topic of money immediately get intense. You ever notice that? Like when you get into an actual discussion on money, you feel tense, the conversation feels tense, and it's because we're talking about heart-level things. So when you question your roommate's spending habits, and suddenly the conversation gets really like, whoa, I didn't mean for this to be this dramatic.
Or husbands, wives, when you say something really smart like, why on earth would you spend that much money on this? Are you crazy? And suddenly you've entered into a minefield, and you didn't realize how intense this was about to get. It's because it's all heart-level stuff. And so that's why, if you're hanging out with a church on Sunday, and it's like, we're going to talk about money immediately, you go, ugh. Because it's a heart-level issue.
So, with all of the questions that we have about tithing, what is it? How do we do it? What are the rules? How should we approach it? Where does this come from? Honestly, to really answer it, and to really have it take hold, we have to have a heart-level answer.
There has to be a heart, it's a heart-level issue, so it has to have a heart-level solution. Otherwise, we'll just have some information, but it won't actually change us. It won't actually move us, because when our heart moves, our wallet follows. And if we move our wallet, our heart will follow. And so really, for us to answer this question, we have to have a heart-level solution. We have to have a heart-level answer.
So I'm going to pray, and then we're going to hop into 2 Corinthians. Well, we'll be in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 today. That's on page 628. It's going to take us a minute to get there, because we've got to do a little bit of background work, but that's where we're going to land. So let me pray real quick for us.
God, we ask that you would lead us, that you would give us your wisdom, that as we study your word, you would help us to grow in what it looks like to follow and to submit to you. And God, we praise you, and we thank you. In Jesus' name, amen. So 2 Corinthians chapter 8, page 628, if your Bible looks like this, towards the back, if your Bible doesn't. And what we're going to be doing today is we're going to be talking through how are we to, as Christians, view tithing. And tithing, when we say that, what we really mean is how are we to view giving to the local church and giving towards mission kind of on a regular basis.
And the truth is, what we're going to see is that our giving should be based off of the cross, not a calculator. Then when it comes to the answer that is given in the text is that our giving is based off of the cross, not a calculator. And that's really, that it should be based off of the gospel. So where does tithing come from? Let's answer that question first.
Where does this idea come from? It begins in Genesis when Abraham meets a guy named Melchizedek. And Melchizedek is the priest of Salem, which ends up being Jerusalem. And he gives him 10% of everything he has. And so that's where the idea just kind of originates is that there would be 10% given to a priest, kind of a religious, someone in between you and God kind of thing. And then in Leviticus, Deuteronomy and Numbers, it's taught as a part of the law.
So Numbers 18 and Leviticus 20 are basically going to say that you give 10% of your increase. So 10% of whatever comes in, and this would for them would have been goats, sheep, grapes, like whatever came in, you would give 10% to the Levites, to the priestly class because those are the ones that were running the sacrificial system. Those are the ones. And so they didn't get land. They were one of the tribes, but they didn't have any inheritance. And so you were to give it to them.
Actually, you were giving it back to God. And then God said, I'm giving it to them. And that's what Numbers 18 and Leviticus 27 says. Deuteronomy 12, 14, and 26 says that the tithe serves three purposes, still 10% off of increase. And what it said was, it's to go to the Levites, the priestly class, for them to do what they do in the temple. A portion of it is for you to celebrate.
So they were supposed to take the tithe and eat it in celebration in front of God to celebrate His provision. And if the temple was too far away, you were supposed to sell the stuff, take the gold, go to the temple, go to Jerusalem, buy whatever you wanted. It says buy meat, buy wine, wine, strong drink, and drink it and eat it in the presence of the Lord as a celebration. That it was a reminder of God's good things. And so for those who even didn't have a whole lot and were just getting by, they were still supposed to take a portion of their money just to celebrate with. And the other reason it exists was for taking care of the widow and the poor.
So that was the three reasons for the tithe in Deuteronomy 12, 26, and 14. 12, 14, 26, if you want to do that in the way Numbers go. Then we see a few examples. Second Chronicles, Nehemiah and Malachi are all going to talk about the tithe and how it works. Malachi, God's actually going to show up and tell him, you haven't been tithing and you've been stealing from me. You haven't been giving and you've been stealing from me.
And then he's going to do something that he doesn't usually do. He's going to say, test me. Test me and see. Apparently they weren't giving because they didn't think they could afford it. And what he says is, test me and I will provide for you and I will open the floodgates of heaven and I will take care of you if you'll trust me. Now, Old Testament's pretty clear on it.
It's 10% of increase. Most of the time when tithing is taught in the church, every time I've heard it, someone goes to the Old Testament and says, here's the rule. And so even as we were praying about it and talking about it, we knew we were going to need to address this issue and as we started working on it, we just opened the Bible and started reading everywhere they talked about the tithe. And the New Testament doesn't really talk about it. Doesn't come up. There's no verse in the New Testament that's like, it's not like in second opinions where it's like, hey guys, keep tithing like we used to.
Just pretend like the church is the temple now. You're welcome. Like the New Testament doesn't say that. Paul never writes it. Jesus doesn't really address it. Jesus talks about it twice while he's fussing at Pharisees.
So he's in the middle of yelling at people, which I don't know if y'all know, Jesus does that. He yells at people. So he's in the middle of yelling at people and what he says is, you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, which are spices. So he's saying, you tithe, you're so legalistic, you tithe out of your spice rack. So when they went and got spices, they would have said, okay, let me measure out 10%.
So if y'all have a spice rack, go home, measure out 10% and then you gotta bring it in little bags. But if a cop finds you with a bunch of little bags of spices, good luck. But just be careful on the trip. Don't drive too fast. But no, he says you tithe out of your spice rack and what he says is, this you should have done without forgetting the way to your things of the law.
And that's the only time Jesus addresses it. Paul never talks about in any of his letters. And so the New Testament doesn't really talk about it. And so for us, we have to look at the Old Testament and say, how are we to understand this as Christians? Because the law was given in the Old Testament and then Jesus tells us, Romans 7 tells us that he fulfilled the law on our behalf so that we're no longer bound by the law but we've been set free. We died to the law when Christ died for us and that we're now bound by the law of Christ.
And Jesus says he didn't come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. And so there are certain aspects of the law that have been fulfilled and there are certain things that the New Testament clarifies when it comes to the law. And so the Old Testament law kind of breaks down into three things if you're trying to just do this really quickly and kind of look at it. They had civil law which was because they were a nation. Because the nation of Israel existed they had civil law which was like if my bull breaks out and kills your bull I've got to give you my bull. That's the rule.
And we have civil laws like you can't drive too fast. Look at the sign. Do what it says. And so the civil laws for Jerusalem don't really apply even though when we've crafted laws we look to see kind of what God thought was fair and we took some of those out but they don't really apply to us anymore because we don't live in Jerusalem. We live in the United States. So the civil laws aren't really for us as much and the tithing does kind of fall into that category some.
They had ceremonial laws which was how they related to God through the temple system. Through sacrifices through clean and unclean laws through some dietary laws and basically what that was teaching them was this. God is holy and you are not. He is clean and you are unclean and there are things that make you unclean and it was a consistent reminder of that and even when you were clean when you had done everything you had to do to be clean when you showed up at the temple you still needed a sacrifice. So God's teaching us in the Old Testament that the best of us still need Jesus.
Still need a sacrifice on our behalf. But the ceremonial laws don't really apply to us anymore because Jesus fulfilled that in his sacrifice on our behalf when he died on the cross when he rose again. So we're not bound to that anymore. And then there's moral law which is like the Ten Commandments. So moral law is just here's how humans ought to interact with each other.
Don't lie. Don't commit adultery. Don't covet your neighbor's stuff. Don't steal. And those still apply. Those are still things that we would look and say this is how God thinks we ought to interact with each other so we should still follow these.
And really when it comes to looking at the Old Testament you have to look at the context and you have to look at what the New Testament says about it. That's why people will say stuff like oh yeah? Well the Old Testament says not to cut the corners of your hair. Nice flat top, hypocrite. Or oh yeah? Well you're not supposed to eat shellfish.
Let's go burn red lobster to the ground. Like people accuse you of these things but they don't really apply anymore because Jesus has paid for and taken care of those aspects of the law. And there are certain New Testament passages that just say things like you can eat whatever you want. God declares it all clean. And that's why if you ever eat bacon praise Jesus. So there are certain things that when we're looking at how do we apply this and then the Old Testament speaks on it and teaches on it and then the New Testament is silent.
It begins to you begin to ask the question why? Like why doesn't the New Testament address this? Hebrews talks about it a little bit but all it's talking about is the story of Abraham meeting the priest of Salem. So why doesn't the New Testament address it? Why doesn't the New Testament talk about it? Why doesn't the New Testament say how we ought to handle it?
Because we've got a lot of questions, right? And nowhere in the New Testament which the New Testament is pretty straightforward on most things does it address it. And here's what I think as we began to read it and began to look at it here's why I believe that the New Testament when you see how the New Testament starts treating money the way the New Testament is going to talk about money post-cross it actually begins to make sense why tithing isn't mentioned. Why there isn't a rule given why 10% isn't there and here's a way to think about it. My wife and I just had a son his name's Archer he is two and a half months old I don't know if you know many two and a half month olds he's the best.
So just take the greatest two and a half month old you know just go a level up and that's kind of what Archer's like you'll get to kind of be able to imagine him now. Just kidding. Anyway no I'm serious but we have a two and a half month old and right around the time that Anna got pregnant Matt and Katie realized they were going to be having a baby as well and so everybody we were kind of wanting to see if it was going to be two boys or if we knew we were having a son if they were going to have a boy or a girl and once they found out they were having a girl Emerson Lane Freeman who when I wrote all of this that we're about to talk about I just assumed Matt and Katie wouldn't be here so some of this is going to get a little awkward for them because I felt like I had the freedom to say whatever I wanted to but they apparently don't have their baby when they're supposed to.
[QA NOTE — 2026-05-10] The remainder of this sermon is missing from the cleaned transcript because Whisper produced a single unpunctuated mega-sentence at the tail of the audio. The raw text in transcription_work/ contains the rest. Recommend re-running the cleanup with timestamp-based punctuation restoration, or capturing the missing portion manually from the audio.
Where Your Heart Is
Transcript
Well, good morning. How are we doing? All right. It's my favorite thing to do. I do that all the time. I ask how people are doing, no one responds, and then I make fun of you.
It's great. It's a wonderful way to start off a sermon. So my name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here, and we are in the second week of our Give series. And so what we're doing is right around Christmastime, as our culture just kind of goes crazy with buying things, with Christmas in general, and sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a healthy, we're excited about Christmas way. More often than not, though, it's in a consumeristic kind of frenzy-ish way.
So, like, I heard somebody said that there was someone who was from another country. I think they were from England or something. They were here on Black Friday, and there was, like, people shooting and stuff at a Black Friday thing. And they looked at someone near them and said, is this normal? Like, do y'all usually shoot each other on Black Friday? Like, is this, should I have brought a gun?
Like, I'm not an American. What should I have done here? And so it turns into that, where there's this mob of people and this massive amount of weight and pressure that come with Christmas. I'm assuming y'all feel that, have noticed that. Like, there's this pressure for it to be magical, for it to be special, for this Christmas to somehow outdo last Christmas. There's this pressure to have perfect time with family.
There's this pressure for there not to be any problems or anything bad. Or, like, we just, no, no, no. It's Christmas. You can't be angry at Christmas. Like, my mom cried one time and told my dad he was ruining Christmas. And his response was, like, how?
What am I doing? And she said, I don't know. Because there's just this weird pressure of this has to be perfect. This has to be great. This has to be. And even when it just, when it's a really nice time, when it's a really special, it just, you feel this weight for it to be better, for it to be bigger, for it to be more magical, more special.
And so what we try to do around this time of year, and we've done it every single year for both years that we've existed as a church, is we try to intentionally be generous, intentionally try to reorient our hearts towards generosity with a series called Give. And we're not the only church in this area that does this. There are two others that we partner with and are good friends with. They do this as well. And it's just an intentional around Christmas. We're going to try to be generous.
We're going to try to remind ourselves what's really important, why it really matters. And so what we're doing for three weeks is we're looking at some tough sayings of Jesus on the topic of money and possessions. So what we're celebrating at Christmas is that God became a human. That's what the word Emmanuel means. So they said he'll be called Emmanuel, which means God with us.
We're celebrating that God became a human, took on humanity with the express purpose of dying on our behalf. And so when we read the words of Jesus, when we look in the Gospels and see what Jesus says, we're seeing what God says. The creator of all things. We're seeing what he says about marriage. We're seeing what he says about relationships with other people. We're seeing what he says for the next three weeks or for these three weeks on the topic of money.
We're seeing what he says about money and finances and possessions so that we know how we ought to think, how we ought to view this, where we see it incorrectly. So that's what we're doing. I'm going to pray and then we'll be in Luke 12, which is right where we left off last week. God, we thank you that we get to gather as your church, as your people to hear your word. We pray, God, that you would help us to follow, to not just say we're disciples, not just say we're followers of Jesus, but to actually follow Jesus. We pray, God, that you would, through your Holy Spirit, help us to see truth, to believe it, and give us, God, the grace that we need to repent and the grace we need to follow after you.
We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. We'll be in Luke chapter 12, and like I said, we're going to pick up where we left off last week. So last week we started in verse 12, 13, somewhere around in there, 13.
And basically Jesus is teaching. Somebody comes over and says, hey, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me. Jesus immediately starts teaching how this guy's kind of covetous. He turns it on, everybody. It'll be on page 566 if your Bible looks like this. If you don't own a Bible, take one of these with you.
We want you to have a Bible. This is our gift to you. Take this with you. And so what we talked about last week, though, was that Jesus tells us to be on guard against all covetousness. And so we tried to point this out and even jokingly some point how we're covetous and we don't even notice it. It doesn't even show up on our radar.
It's just normal to us. We were shooting some video stuff yesterday. And Charlie, one of our group leaders, came over to give something to Matt. And he came over on his motorcycle. And when he rode off on his motorcycle, I looked at Matt and said, I want a motorcycle. And Matt responded, me too.
And that's called covetousness. That's seeing something you don't have and then feeling like you need it. Feeling like somehow you're missing something by not having it. And desiring something that someone else is. It's innate in us. And we don't even notice it.
It doesn't show up. The other thing that he said at the beginning of this passage is that life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. And although we've watched the Hallmark movies, we don't believe that. There's something deep in us that feels like, no, yeah, but yeah, it kind of does though a little bit. Like good point, but yeah, but not really. Like we feel that.
And I'll show you how this shows up. You're in your community group. You're walking with church family. You're praying about stuff. And somebody says, hey, I've got an opportunity for promotion. I just got promoted.
Automatically. Boom. Celebration. That's automatically a win. You're getting more money. It's a win.
Because life exists in that. We don't ask, well, does that mean you're going to have to travel more? How is that going to affect your ability to spend time with your family, to do what you're doing with like? Automatically it's a win. Somebody says, hey, I've got a better Job. I'm moving.
Oh, congratulations. We'll help you pack your stuff. We don't ask. Do you think that's what you ought to do as a part of church family, as a part of a Jesus follower? Is that like we just don't even show up? Because we believe somewhere deep inside of us that life exists in the abundance of possession.
So if you can get some more, if you can make some more, if you can rise up in the world, that's a win automatically. It's just not on our radar. And so Jesus goes through and he tells the story about a rich man who gets more wealthy and basically says, cool, I get to tear everything down. I get to be set for life. And that God looks at him and says, well, kind of, because your life's going to end tonight. And all this wealth that you've accumulated, whose is it going to be?
And then Jesus says that he's foolish, not wicked, not evil. He says he's foolish because he doesn't understand how to be rich towards God. He doesn't understand what it means to actually invest in something that lasts. And so that's where we are. That's what he just finished saying. That's what we're going to pick up today.
But we're going to do something a little bit differently. We're going to jump to the end of what Jesus says, kind of his summary statement, so that we have this in our head as we walk through. And this is one of my favorite passages on the idea of finances, on the idea of possessions, because I feel like Jesus just says it so clearly. And so it makes me very uncomfortable. And that's why I think it's good. Just so you know, when you're reading scripture and it makes you uncomfortable, you're reading it correctly.
If the Bible always agrees with you, you're reading it wrongly. Like if you read the Bible and you're like, told you, Jesus is a Republican. It's like, no, I think you may be off there. I don't think he automatically agrees with everything you think. And so this is one of the areas where Jesus just says something. He says it very straightforwardly, and it makes me uncomfortable.
So we're going to jump to the end. And we're going to kind of do, you know how you're watching movies sometimes, and it starts off like it just drops you in the middle of a scene. And there's like the main character is like sweating and holding a gun. And you look over, and there's some guy you don't know, but he's like bleeding out. And you can tell that they like each other or whatever. And then he like spins around the corner, and he's like, I guess you're wondering how I got here.
It's like a voiceover thing. He's not actually saying that because that would be weird and walking around saying it out loud. But it's like a voiceover. Two days ago, I was just your normal, average high school student. And then it like takes you back. So like you got to see where you're going, and then it takes you back.
And so you've got that in your mind the whole time you watch. That's what we're trying to do as we read the end of this passage. So like when you meet the character that's bleeding at the end, you're like, bro, I know you're worried about that math test on Friday. You ain't even going to. Don't worry about it. Don't study.
You might as well watch some Netflix. You ain't going to make it. That's what we're doing. We're going to see where Jesus is taking this. We're going to see what the ending scene is so that we can hold that in our brain for the rest of the time as we go through this passage so that we can understand more clearly. I think it's a helpful way to go through this.
So jump quickly to Luke 12, 34. This is Jesus, kind of how he lands this. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So what Jesus is going to say at the end of all this is he talks about money and possessions.
He's going to land in. If you want to know where your heart is, all we've got to do is look at where your treasure is. And he's talking about it specifically in the context of money and possessions. Like the passage before says, sell your possessions, give to the needy, provide for yourself money backs. He's talking about the concept of finances. So don't sit there and go, well, my treasure is my children.
That's not what he's talking about. What he's saying is where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So where you send your finances, where you put your possessions is showing you what you care about. It's going to indicate to us what we love. And we know this. We see this in our culture.
Like I was a business major. One of the things that you talk about a lot when there's a crime is committed, they're going to look at, well, where's money going? So like we have websites called Follow the Money that are going to tell you who gives to what political party. So that you'd watch a guy and see how he votes over and over again in Congress or something. You start seeing, well, who gives him money? There are different TV shows at different times that were Follow the Money.
Every time someone's killed, they're going to look and see, well, who's the beneficiary on their life insurance? Because we know that the money is going to lead us somewhere. And that's what Jesus is saying. He's saying, follow the money and you'll find your heart. But you'll get to see clearly what it is you actually care about.
I saw this about a year ago and I looked it back up today to make sure it's true. But it's a lady won a million dollars on Wheel of Fortune. Which I didn't even know you could do. It was apparently like a special thing. Three people now in all of history have won a million dollars. And I was watching it on like local news and they were like showing the clip of how she won.
She's all excited. And then the news anchor before they swap to the next story goes. And the lady said that she would spend all of her winnings on her upcoming wedding. And then they changed over to a new story. And I was like, do what? You're going to spend a million dollars on a wedding?
Like what are the party favors at this wedding? Leather jackets with diamond encrusted doves in the pocket? Like what? You've got to do work to spend a million dollars on a wedding. And immediately I'm like, that is absolutely ridiculous. Because if you gave me a million dollars, I would spend it on the things that I love, not the things that she loves.
That's all we're saying when we look at something and say, that's a dumb way to spend your money. All you're saying is, I don't place value where you place value. But Jesus says that you follow the money and you'll find your heart. That where your treasure is, that's where your heart's going to be. That's why it gets so tense when we talk about money. That's why conversations with people about money and how they spend money get intense.
Because there's an immediate connection between your wallet and your heart. So if I start telling you how to spend your money, what I'm telling you is, this is how you ought to have your value system line up. And immediately you're going to get defensive because your heart lines up with your money. So Jesus, he's getting in our business a little bit, isn't he? Okay, so that's where he's going to take it. That's where he's going to land it.
Let's jump back up to the top here in verse 22. And he said to his disciples, Therefore, I tell you. Just so you know, whenever you say therefore in scripture, it means you need to know what just happened. Because he's responding kind of in light of what was just said. So what was just said was, You're foolish if all of your money goes to you.
If you don't ever put any money towards long-term, eternal investments. You're foolish. Therefore, I tell you. Oh, and he says this to his disciples. So really, Jesus is talking to those who follow him.
So if you're in here today and just checking out this whole Jesus thing, this is something he turned and said specifically to those people who said, I follow Jesus. Now, the stuff is still true about your money shows you where your heart is. But some of where he's going to press us some today, specifically to those who say, No, I'm a Christian. I follow Jesus. I've had my sin paid for by him. He is my king and leader.
Therefore, I tell you, Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens. They neither sow nor reap. They have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?
And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith?
And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried, for all the nations of the world seek after these things. And your Father knows that you need them. That's beautiful. Like, that's a very encouraging thing that Jesus says. He looks at these people and he says, don't be worried about this stuff. Don't worry about what you are going to eat, what you are going to wear.
Look at the ravens. Look at these birds. They have no intentionality behind what they are doing. Like, they don't have barns. They are not punching the clock. And your Father knows them and feeds them.
How much more value are you than birds? That's beautiful. Like, there have been times before where I've sat in my backyard in the morning and just hear tons and tons of birds. My wife and I recently had pet squirrels that we found. So they were baby squirrels and we raised them.
And then we kind of let them out into the wild. And as they got older, they just kind of quit coming around so we wouldn't see them anymore. I was in my backyard. Probably hadn't seen any of those squirrels. I mean, you see squirrels, but you don't, you can't tell. Like, we didn't spray paint them to know which ones were out.
I was in my backyard on the phone and I looked down and there was a squirrel at my feet and it just ran, climbed up my leg, sat on my shoulder, climbed back down as a full-grown squirrel and ran off. And as I was reading this today, I thought, you know, that squirrel was raised by humans so it really doesn't have much of a chance at being a good squirrel. Like, it's, like, God's really got to be on that. Like, we were feeding them for a while and then they quit coming around and we didn't know if they lived or died or whatever. And what's beautiful is that God knows about that squirrel, cares about that squirrel, has been feeding that squirrel.
You can sit outside and hear birds chirping and God says, I know each of them. Jesus at one point says not, there's not a sparrow that falls to the ground that God doesn't know about. He knows each of them, cares for each of them, provides for each of them. And some of us today, that's what we need to hear. Life's tough. Christmas just points out to us how short we fall on things, how far behind we are.
And you need to know that. You're worth much more than birds and grass and God takes care of all of them, provides for all of them. So when he was talking to this crowd, this original hearers, that's mostly what he was pushing in on them a little bit. Was you're concerned about, you're anxious about, you're worried about these things because you're consistently asking, where's my next meal coming from? Am I going to eat? Is this going to work out?
How am I going to stay clothed? How is this going to work? Because for the majority of history and the majority of humans, even on the planet Earth now, primarily you eat to not die and you wear clothes to not have the sun cook you or the weather freeze you. I guess pretty much for the majority of people across the world, that's how that works. But for the majority of Americans, that is not how that works.
So for some of us, he's going to talk to us in the same way that he was talking to them, which was saying, don't be anxious about these things. God will provide for you. But when it comes to our anxiety for most of us, our anxiety around food and our anxiety around clothing is in a completely different place. And so he's going to be talking to us in a different area. Because here's the thing. Most of us don't ask the question, am I going to eat later?
Most Americans are asking the question, what am I going to eat later? Most of us are not asking the question, will I have clothes? Most of us are asking what type of clothes, how much clothes, what brand of clothes. That's kind of where we land on things. Because in the past hundred years or so, we started being able to produce more than we actually can handle. So it used to be you had about the same amount of shoes as you had feet.
But now we can make shoes so much faster, so people have to convince us that we need different types of shoes. And that our shoes tell the world about us. Isn't that with food? Most of us aren't worried about, am I going to eat? It's like, we're a little bit like, I've got so many Doritos, I don't know what to do with all of them. I guess I'll just eat them until I fall asleep.
Like, when it comes to food, it's a little bit like, I'm happy, so I'll eat. I've got something to celebrate, let's eat. I'm sad, so I'll eat. I'm depressed, I'll eat. The TV's on, I might as well eat. I have the whole day to myself.
I want to nap on an empty stomach. Like, that's kind of how we treat food. We've got way more than we actually need and our anxiety with it is in a different space. Same thing with clothes. Clothes to us, you don't pay more because your clothes has more material to it for the most part. You pay some more for different types of material.
Most of the time though, we're paying for the label that's on it and the place that we bought it from. You're spending more because they put a little stitch thing on the front. Like, it's not like you walk up to somebody and be like, long sleeves. I bet that sets you back. That's not how that works. Ah, purple.
Didn't know you were rich. That's not, that's not how, it's way more what's on the front and what do your clothes say about you. And I'll give you examples of this. Like, if you watch advertising, you'll pick up on this pretty easily. So as you walk around doing your Christmas shopping and you're out, you're going to see two to three thousand ads a day, the average American does.
Uh, and as we're walking around doing our Christmas shopping and seeing different things, like some, all right, so, uh, you're watching TV and a car commercial comes on. There are some car commercials that are going to sell you on features. Most of them are going to sell you on what type of person that car makes you. So it's just like a cool guy riding around in the car and he hops out and he's got a tuxedo and he lights up a cigarette and you're just like, I want to smoke and drive that car. Or like, uh, legitimately, car advertisement is hamsters dancing. My wife drives one of those cars.
I have no clue what that tells us about her, what kind of a person she is. She's the type of person who wants to dance with a hamster. Like, I don't know, but they don't tell you anything about the car. It's just like techno music and hamsters dancing and you're like, cool, that's the type of person I want to be. Uh, one of the best examples of this, you're walking around Christmas, please, if you're at the mall, look for Hollister bags. I've said this before because I think it's the best example of this.
Look for Hollister bags. I used to work at the mall. People would come through with Hollister bags. Okay, so Hollister is a clothing company. That means they're a company that sells clothes. On their advertisement is a picture of a guy torso-ish up with no clothes.
He is wearing nothing as far as we know in this advertisement and they are trying to sell me clothes. They are not selling me on our clothes will keep the sun from cooking you. They are not selling me on our clothes will keep bugs from eating you. They're selling me on our clothes are so cool you won't have to wear clothes. I don't even like, I wish I could be like that guy if I had one of those Hollister shirts I'd have abs. Like, I don't know how that works.
But it's obvious that they're no longer selling us that when it comes to our anxiety around food and our anxiety around clothing it's obvious that it's no longer where he was talking to them about. See, here's what happens. I want to show you where he takes this. Verse 29 And do not seek what you will eat and what you are to drink nor be worried for all the nations of the world seek after these things and your father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom and these things will be added to you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
Okay, that gets a little confusing if we don't know what the kingdom is. because it seems like he just changed subjects. He's talking about money, possessions, he's talking about this rich guy not being, only being rich towards himself, not being rich towards God and then he says don't worry about clothes and food because God wants to give you the kingdom. So it's just a little bit of like, what, is the kingdom filled with clothes and food? Like I don't understand what the kingdom is. The kingdom is this, that Jesus, that when God created the world we rebelled against him and that we're sinful, we're broken, we're off, we don't love God, we don't follow God, we don't want to be a part of his system and that Jesus came, that's what we're celebrating at Christmas, that Jesus came to die for our sin, to pay our debt and when he did that he invited us back into his kingdom where he's the king and our debt has been paid, we have been set free from sin and we have become God's children, God's family, citizens of the kingdom and here's how that impacts money.
To a Christian, money is just money because we've been invited into the kingdom. So here's what's true. You don't actually love money. We said last week that we liked money. You don't actually love money. You love what money gives you.
You love what money provides for you. That's actually why we like money. Nobody in here is like addicted to collecting Monopoly money. None of you would work for Monopoly money. The only time you care about Monopoly money is for the seven hours that you play that game until one of you gets so mad at your grandmother that you flip over the thing and walk out. But we don't care about Monopoly money because it doesn't give us anything.
The reason we like money is because of what it provides. And what I mean by that is this. some of us in here if given a million dollars we would invest and we would put it in the bank. And our standard of living wouldn't change a whole lot but we would feel so good at night going to sleep thinking nothing can mess with me because I've got a million dollars in the bank. Like if I mean I can pay off my house I can be perfectly secure and if anything comes up if there's any problem and so money for some people is going to be security and control. You get to feel like by having money by having possessions that you have a level of control over your life.
You have a level of I don't have to worry I'm secure because I have finances and that's actually going to show you where your heart is. That's showing you what you worship what you value what you love. Some of us it's going to be comfort and you get money it's gone. Well I have money when I could have a cheeseburger. Well I have money when I could get a hot tub. Well I have money when I could go like it goes towards just us enjoying life.
That's the purpose of money is to have nice things in our house to have a nice couch to have a big TV because money brings comfort. Money brings vacations. That's what it represents to you. Some of us it's going to be power. Money gives you authority over people and things so you get really rich you can actually influence how political parties work, who gets elected, what happens, how things happen. You can show up at the school and your kids are in trouble but you got a lot of money so you can get them out.
What happens, how things happen. You can show up at the school and your kids are in trouble but you got a lot of money so you can get them out. For some of us though we're not going to have that much money so it becomes more like this. I'll help you pay for this and you're just doing it not out of generosity not out of love but it gives you a little bit of
Power over somebody so you see parents be like I hope you pay for your wedding if I'll give you that small loan if or even there's no if they don't say if but it's an included if because it just oh yeah my money works for me to elevate me in power. Some of us it's really just approval that's what he says
When he says that Solomon in all of his glory didn't look like the flowers it's really just money helps people know my status helps people know where I am that I've arrived that's why we say things like man I wouldn't be caught dead driving that because that that vehicle would not articulate my status to the world appropriately that's why if you're out
Somewhere like you went to Walmart at two o'clock in the morning you didn't think anybody was going to see you so you're wearing like really grungy clothes you run into somebody and you're like dang it I'm going to be on people at walmart.com and you're embarrassed because of
How you dressed just because because clothes no longer are just how to cover you but it actually says something about you it tells the world your status and so when Jesus said it's God's good pleasure to give you the kingdom it eradicates the need for all of those other things
Because Jesus stepped in to pay for our sin and when he did status and approval were forever taken care of that the God of the universe approves of us because when he looks at us he sees Jesus standing in our place money cannot buy a Christian approval approval approval approval
Has been given by the shed blood of Jesus on our behalf there is no higher status than a son or daughter of the king of the universe and that's already been given to us by Jesus that's the
Invitation into the kingdom and that's why it's God's good pleasure to give it to us and that's why it eradicates our need for these other things comfort we have an eternity to spend with the creator of the universe in heaven
I don't know if y'all know much about heaven it's nice and there's nothing that comforts our soul more than knowing that we have been secured forever by God and that that's where we are going to end up because of Jesus
Not because of us security and control you're in the hand of God and your security has already been won for you forever by Jesus because you've been invited into the kingdom by his work not yours and the ultimate most powerful
Being on earth loves you cares for you provides for you works for you serves you in the cross to give you life and joy and hope and peace and you get to rest in his powerful controlling hands that's why
Money gets to be just money for a Christian that's why it means nothing else to us it doesn't buy us approval doesn't buy us power doesn't buy us status doesn't give us control those all belong to God they all
Belong to Jesus and they've all been given to us freely in the cross that's why we get to look like we're citizens of a different kingdom that's why he starts talking about the
Kingdom I was talking to Raz recently he's from Australia so he thinks about things differently so we have different discussions about guns we have different discussions on taxes and social
Issues like how the government interferes with and works in society with medicine we're always on different pages the most recent one we had was we were here at
Glen Forest they were having a basketball game we went into the side just because we're used to being around here doing stuff when we were leaving we realized that we had not paid
And we were supposed to we were there for a few minutes so we didn't turn around and pay which maybe we ought to have but I was like oh we didn't pay and Raz was like
Pay we didn't pay to get in the game he was like y'all pay to get into games at a high school I was like yeah he was like no
He's like who pays I was like parents you gotta pay to watch your kid play a sport I was like yeah he said no I was
Like how do y'all pay for stuff he was like school fees I was like I don't think we really have those private schools
Do I guess he's like oh well public schools don't have sports I have in heaven as citizens of king Jesus and it changes
How we view money it changes how we view relationships we are secondarily american citizens australian citizen that's secondary for us primary is citizen
Of the king citizens of heaven and that's why he says it's God's good pleasure to give you the kingdom and that's how that
Affects our finances and our hearts that's how that actually steps in and changes so that when we see what Jesus has provided for
Us we no longer trust money to do that when we see the generosity given to us and what we celebrate at Christmas and
What we celebrate at Easter we're no longer so caught up in what finances can accomplish for us because we know that they're secondary
They're smaller that money is just money you can be generous with it and you can be good with it yeah you can buy
Some food and clothes with it yeah but God's got all that God's going to provide and we actually get to leverage our money
For his kingdom we actually get to leverage our money to be generous to be good to others and that's actually what he says 31
Instead seek his kingdom and these things will be added to you I'll provide for you follow me fear not little flock for it
Is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom 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 those of
Us who say we are followers of Jesus I believe that many of us will get on the other side of eternity and will
Immediately see miss the boat I failed to see how money was supposed to work on earth because I did not fully understand how
The gospel applied to my wallet because he says give be generous provide yourself with stuff that's going to last you can buy a
New car it's not going to be new forever you drive it off the lot value drops it's going to rust out you're going to need another
One you can get a new house it's not going to be new forever value that's going to increase most likely but not forever you can buy some
New clothes you need some more and what Jesus says is no no make an investment that lasts forever make an investment that's there
Forever where moths don't eat stuff up in heaven people don't steal stuff in heaven and then he says this for where your treasure
Is there will your heart be also here's why Jesus is going to talk so much about money because he knows that it is
Directly linked to our hearts and Jesus cares about our hearts sometimes you hear church talking about money and you think oh goodness Jesus
Really need my money like is he broke he had a hard time paying rent in heaven I guess the expenses up there are
Pretty good it is a gated community you immediately get cynical but here's the thing Jesus doesn't need your money you Jesus cares about
Your heart and that's why he's going to go hard after finances because he knows that it's directly tied to what we value and
What we love and so he's going to come after you because he loves us enough to do that you ever notice that some
Of the people that are most willing to get in your face call you out on stuff that are closest to you care most
About you that's why Jesus is going to talk about money because he cares about us and he wants our hearts to change that's
Why the Bible so often isn't going to go after behavior it talks about behavioral things but it talks way more about heart change
Here's the truth some of us in here can be like I'm generous I give to the church I give to other people and
Honestly all we've done is our heart hasn't changed we've just said okay so if comfort and control or whatever it is I'm seeking
If the best way to get that is to pay God off let me do that you're saying if I give to God he'll
Bless me cool let me do that our heart hasn't changed we're just using God we're just paying him out to get what we
Want I'll be a part of this church thing I'll give as long as my kids are going to turn out okay I'll give as long as I won't
Be late on on payments and stuff because you say God will bless me heart hasn't changed that's why the Bible is going after
Our heart so often because our behavior indicates where our heart is and especially when it comes to money so specifically every month we have a
Limited amount of resources and where we're willing to put money shows us what we actually value what we actually care about very clearly
Very clearly here's how this ought to work here's how this does work and here's what it ought to look like if we took everybody in your
Social economic status same bracket tax bracket everybody in your neighborhood all of your co-workers that are around the same level as you and we begin
To show with no names exactly where everybody's money went over the past month over the past year it should become obvious to us
That's a Christian because you can see their heart and how their money spent should become obvious if you print out your bank statement and lay it
Down because you can go to Jesus and you can tell him all the stuff that you love I love you I love this
I love that he goes okay bank statement not because he wants your money could care less about it cares about your heart and
Where your money is where your treasure is where your possessions are is where your disciple of Jesus you ought to look poorer because
You automatically have places where you want money to go that your neighbor doesn't you automatically see the world you're investing in eternity your
Neighbor is not you're selling your possessions and giving to the needy your neighbor is not you're providing paying for mission and stuff taking
Place at local churches at local places that give things away you're paying for stuff it's just money because of what Jesus has provided
For you so Jesus says we want to know where your heart is let's look at where your treasure is let's look at how you
Spend your money that'll tell us what you love every time he doesn't he doesn't give caveats he doesn't beat around the bush he says
Where your money is that's where your heart is I don't want us to just move past this I want us to sit with
This for a second so here's what we're going to do and I'm going to come back up and talk about some other things
We're going to talk specifically about our give project this year I want us to sit and I want us to think just a little
Bit about what you're willing to spend money on there's some things that you spend money on you don't have to think about there's
A no brainer to you of course I'd spend money on that there are other things you've got to think about I don't know if I want to give money to that so there's some stuff in the past week that time to spend money on you didn't even cross your mind because you have value on high school I want us to just think for just a second, where's my money go? What's it say about my heart? What is it I actually love? Do I actually, if you looked at my financial records, would it say, would it scream? This person knows the gospel. This person loves Jesus. This person absolutely has had their heart wrecked by the grace that has been offered to them in the cross.
They know that everything's been given to them by Jesus. So I just want us to ask some questions. Sit and think. What am I most willing to spend money on? What am I least willing to spend money on? Some of the times we'll say things like, well, if I just made more, I'd be more generous. But the problem is making more money doesn't change our heart. Jesus does. It's actually good for us. It's God's grace to some of us who do not handle money well and use it to chase after things other than what we ought to. That God hasn't given us more. He's being gracious to us. He's allowing us to mismanage a small amount of money as opposed to a greater amount. So I just want us to sit and think. God, where am I most willing to spend money? Where am I least willing to spend money? What is it that you have to work with me on to actually give towards? And I'm going to come back up and we're going to talk about some other things.
But I just want us to think through our budgets. Think through how we allocate money and what that says about our hearts and what we actually care about. And I'll come back up and we'll talk about our gifts. Don't be afraid of God. It's true. Don't be afraid of Maharaj's помощь. The power of Yahudi and Eisenhower Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This is one of the areas where most often the Bible is going to talk to us about your heart changes and then your behavior changes. And that's true. The Bible says our hearts are deceitful, they're messed up, and that Jesus is going to give us a new heart through the Holy Spirit and he's going to change us and that's going to change how we act. And you can see that in normal life with everybody. It's like he loves this now, so that's why his time goes there. When I started dating Anna, I quit hanging out with all my other friends because what I cared about had changed.
My heart had changed. And that's true. But this is one of the few instances where we can actually intentionally move our hearts. So we can start sliding our treasure over to a different place and our heart will go with it because where our treasure is there, our heart will be. Here's what that means. You buy some stock. That's the only little thing you're looking on on the ticker because that's where your money is. That's the one you care about. You bet on a game. If you're watching a game, like a football game, and you don't even care who's playing, bet. Put $5 on it. You will care. Here. I'll be like, all right, I got $5 on the team with the orange helmets. Syracuse? Okay, I'm a Syracuse fan now for the next two hours. Because when we start shifting where we send our money, where we put our treasures, where we have our possessions, it's going to move our heart with it.
It's one of the few instances that that's true. So that's why we do the Give Series the way we do it, where we're going to intentionally seek to be generous, intentionally go out of our way to follow some clear, direct teaching that Jesus has on being generous, on giving, on moving our hearts with our treasure. So here's what we're going to do. We announced this last week. I know some of us weren't here, and I'm going to have to say a good bit to make this clear. And like with everything we do, we exist in church families. So if something is confusing, as soon as we're done, you just ask somebody and we'll clarify. Here's what we're going to do. We went on Thanksgiving and handed out about 270 meals. We gave out 200 in the Gentle Pines apartment complex in West Columbia. And while we were there, we asked them, is there anybody here who needs assistance for Christmas with small children?
And we just prayed beforehand. We were like, God, send us the amount of people you want us to have for us to handle. And 77 children were signed up for us to help give assistance for Christmas. Majority of them Hispanic. And we got what we have on these. Each one of these represents a child in our city that needs some help. Their parents need some help for Christmas. We're going to follow what Jesus says, which is give to the needy. Give to those who need help. We've got over there on some of these. I wrote some of these down. There's a three-year-old girl named Jocelyn. She'd like a soccer ball. She lives in our city. And I don't believe outside of us stepping in and helping, that's going to happen. Does she deserve a soccer ball? I don't know. Does it matter? Absolutely not. We're called to be generous. We're called to love. We're called to share.
And our church is called to make our city better by being here. Because we're a group of people who've been changed by the gospel, which changes how we interact with everything, which makes us bless everyone that's around us as best we can. There's an eight-year-old boy named Christian, and he needs some shoes. And there's a six-month-old named Dana. They've asked for some clothes for her. And we, because we know Jesus, get to step in and help. Because Jesus paid our debt, we get to help with others. Because Jesus gave us the greatest gift we'll ever receive. Because Jesus completely turned our value system upside down. Money's just money to us. Everything's already been given to us. Nothing can be taken for us because it was given to us by Jesus, and it's kept by Jesus. It's held secure for us forever. So we get to step in and be generous because we're citizens of a different kingdom.
So here's what we're going to do. So we're going to continue to play some music. And I expect this to be loud because there are going to be some conversations that need to be had. You're going to need to talk to your spouse. You're going to need to look at one of your friends. You're going to need to say, you may need to call somebody. You might want to talk with your community group. But we're going to try to get all these children off of here. And here's what we're going for. Those tags over there have a couple of different things I need to explain to us. They're going to have a name, an age, and a gender at least. And if that's the case, it's basically, okay, it's a three-year-old boy named Michael. And I get to get him whatever I'd like to give Michael. I get to just be, what do I think a three-year-old would like? And you just get to be generous to this kid.
Some of them are going to have name, age, size, and a request for clothes. Some of them are going to have name, age, size, request for shoes. Some of them will have name, age, gender, request for toys or maybe a specific type of toy. And we're just going to go out of our way to inconvenience ourselves to bless other people, which is what Jesus did for us. So that's what we're going to get to do this year to celebrate Christmas as part of how we celebrate Christmas as a church. So what you're going to do is if you pick a child off of the thing, you're going to keep that because that's going to tell you how you ought to, what it looks like for you to bless them. You're going to grab one of the sheets on the table with some more specific information about what kind of gifts are okay, not okay. And then on that table back there, you're just going to write your email address and name next to the child that you picked.
And they're all numbered on the back. So the number on the back will match up with the number on one of those sheets, and you'll just write that down. And our church family is going to go out of our way to bless children this Christmas. And the goal for us is that we would bring the gifts back in some sort of a bag because we've had different people say they'd like to give one certain type of thing to each child, and so we want to be able to just stick that in their bags. Bring it back in some sort of a bag next week. So this week we want to try to get the gifts, and honestly, I hope that inconveniences us a little bit. Because the more I'm inconvenienced, the more I have to press into the gospel. I know that's true for me. The more I have to remind myself why it's worth doing and what Jesus has already accomplished for me. And then on our Christmas gathering, which will be the 21st, we're going to go over there.
We're going to load up some vans and go over there and give them out. And anyone in our church family who wants to go do that gets to go do that. So you want to just go help knock on doors, say Merry Christmas, hand somebody a bag full of stuff, which is a lot of fun. We want to do that. Come on. Goal being to spend about $15 to $30 per child because most of them are in sibling groups. The majority of the kids came from sibling groups, three to four plus per household. And we don't want to have a big disparage between like one kid in the house gets $50 spent on him and one kid gets $10 spent on him. We kind of want to keep it in the $15 to $30 range. And if you want to sponsor more children, do that. I'm going to pray for us. We're going to continue to play some music. Actually, we're going to continue to play some music. And go ahead and start having conversations.
Go ahead and start grabbing those. Go ahead and start writing your name down. And then I'll come up and pray for us and we'll close out. And then we can still grab names and children after that. So wide open for anybody who wants to go grab a name, grab a kid, write some information down. If you need to make phone calls, you need to talk to people, whatever you need to do. If you know you can't figure it out right now, you're going to be able to do it. But you want to talk and grab one later, we can do that as well. We'll be wide open for it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Charlie. If you wanted to sponsor a child and all the names are gone, just talk to somebody. Talk to somebody in your community group. Ask how you might be able to get a gift for a specific child. If you need to, if you need to, if for some reason you know you wouldn't be able to bring the gifts back by next week, even though that's our goal, just get with somebody.
We'll see if we can't have somebody bring it over for you. That sort of thing. God, we thank you. God, we thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That because of your grace. God, we thank you. Thank you. And because you intentionally planted us here. God, we thank you. That 77 children in our city are going to get gifts this Christmas that may not otherwise have been able to. That 77 children in our city, whether they know you or don't, are going to be impacted by what you've already done, are going to be loved because you love, are going to be given to because you've given to us. God, we thank you. We thank you that these small gifts pale in comparison to what you've given us. We thank you, God, that you will work in our hearts as we go out of our way to be generous to change us. God, I pray that this is one of the first very small steps for us as a church family, us as individuals, in stepping into what it looks like to be generous in a way that is completely impacted by the gospel.
We praise you, Jesus. In Jesus' name, amen.
What is it I actually love? Do I actually, if you looked at my financial records, would it say, would it scream? This person knows the gospel. This person loves Jesus. This person absolutely has had their heart wrecked by the grace that has been offered to them in the cross. They know that everything's been given to them by Jesus.
So I just want us to ask some questions. Sit and think. What am I most willing to spend money on? What am I least willing to spend money on? Some of the times we'll say things like, well, if I just made more, I'd be more generous. But the problem is making more money doesn't change our heart.
Jesus does. It's actually good for us. It's God's grace to some of us who do not handle money well and use it to chase after things other than what we ought to. That God hasn't given us more. He's being gracious to us. He's allowing us to mismanage a small amount of money as opposed to a greater amount.
So I just want us to sit and think. God, where am I most willing to spend money? Where am I least willing to spend money? What is it that you have to work with me on to actually give towards? And I'm going to come back up and we're going to talk about some other things. But I just want us to think through our budgets.
Think through how we allocate money and what that says about our hearts and what we actually care about. And I'll come back up and we'll talk about our gifts. Don't be afraid of God. It's true. Don't be afraid of Maharaj's помощь. The power of Yahudi and Eisenhower Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This is one of the areas where most often the Bible is going to talk to us about your heart changes and then your behavior changes. And that's true. The Bible says our hearts are deceitful, they're messed up, and that Jesus is going to give us a new heart through the Holy Spirit and he's going to change us and that's going to change how we act.
And you can see that in normal life with everybody. It's like he loves this now, so that's why his time goes there. When I started dating Anna, I quit hanging out with all my other friends because what I cared about had changed. My heart had changed. And that's true. But this is one of the few instances where we can actually intentionally move our hearts.
So we can start sliding our treasure over to a different place and our heart will go with it because where our treasure is there, our heart will be. Here's what that means. You buy some stock. That's the only little thing you're looking on on the ticker because that's where your money is. That's the one you care about. You bet on a game.
If you're watching a game, like a football game, and you don't even care who's playing, bet. Put $5 on it. You will care. Here. I'll be like, all right, I got $5 on the team with the orange helmets. Syracuse?
Okay, I'm a Syracuse fan now for the next two hours. Because when we start shifting where we send our money, where we put our treasures, where we have our possessions, it's going to move our heart with it. It's one of the few instances that that's true. So that's why we do the Give Series the way we do it, where we're going to intentionally seek to be generous, intentionally go out of our way to follow some clear, direct teaching that Jesus has on being generous, on giving, on moving our hearts with our treasure. So here's what we're going to do.
We announced this last week. I know some of us weren't here, and I'm going to have to say a good bit to make this clear. And like with everything we do, we exist in church families. So if something is confusing, as soon as we're done, you just ask somebody and we'll clarify. Here's what we're going to do. We went on Thanksgiving and handed out about 270 meals.
We gave out 200 in the Gentle Pines apartment complex in West Columbia. And while we were there, we asked them, is there anybody here who needs assistance for Christmas with small children? And we just prayed beforehand. We were like, God, send us the amount of people you want us to have for us to handle. And 77 children were signed up for us to help give assistance for Christmas. Majority of them Hispanic.
And we got what we have on these. Each one of these represents a child in our city that needs some help. Their parents need some help for Christmas. We're going to follow what Jesus says, which is give to the needy. Give to those who need help. We've got over there on some of these.
I wrote some of these down. There's a three-year-old girl named Jocelyn. She'd like a soccer ball. She lives in our city. And I don't believe outside of us stepping in and helping, that's going to happen. Does she deserve a soccer ball?
I don't know. Does it matter? Absolutely not. We're called to be generous. We're called to love. We're called to share.
And our church is called to make our city better by being here. Because we're a group of people who've been changed by the gospel, which changes how we interact with everything, which makes us bless everyone that's around us as best we can. There's an eight-year-old boy named Christian, and he needs some shoes. And there's a six-month-old named Dana. They've asked for some clothes for her. And we, because we know Jesus, get to step in and help.
Because Jesus paid our debt, we get to help with others. Because Jesus gave us the greatest gift we'll ever receive. Because Jesus completely turned our value system upside down. Money's just money to us. Everything's already been given to us. Nothing can be taken for us because it was given to us by Jesus, and it's kept by Jesus.
It's held secure for us forever. So we get to step in and be generous because we're citizens of a different kingdom. So here's what we're going to do. So we're going to continue to play some music. And I expect this to be loud because there are going to be some conversations that need to be had. You're going to need to talk to your spouse.
You're going to need to look at one of your friends. You're going to need to say, you may need to call somebody. You might want to talk with your community group. But we're going to try to get all these children off of here. And here's what we're going for. Those tags over there have a couple of different things I need to explain to us.
They're going to have a name, an age, and a gender at least. And if that's the case, it's basically, okay, it's a three-year-old boy named Michael. And I get to get him whatever I'd like to give Michael. I get to just be, what do I think a three-year-old would like? And you just get to be generous to this kid. Some of them are going to have name, age, size, and a request for clothes.
Some of them are going to have name, age, size, request for shoes. Some of them will have name, age, gender, request for toys or maybe a specific type of toy. And we're just going to go out of our way to inconvenience ourselves to bless other people, which is what Jesus did for us. So that's what we're going to get to do this year to celebrate Christmas as part of how we celebrate Christmas as a church. So what you're going to do is if you pick a child off of the thing, you're going to keep that because that's going to tell you how you ought to, what it looks like for you to bless them.
You're going to grab one of the sheets on the table with some more specific information about what kind of gifts are okay, not okay. And then on that table back there, you're just going to write your email address and name next to the child that you picked. And they're all numbered on the back. So the number on the back will match up with the number on one of those sheets, and you'll just write that down. And our church family is going to go out of our way to bless children this Christmas. And the goal for us is that we would bring the gifts back in some sort of a bag because we've had different people say they'd like to give one certain type of thing to each child, and so we want to be able to just stick that in their bags.
Bring it back in some sort of a bag next week. So this week we want to try to get the gifts, and honestly, I hope that inconveniences us a little bit. Because the more I'm inconvenienced, the more I have to press into the gospel. I know that's true for me. The more I have to remind myself why it's worth doing and what Jesus has already accomplished for me. And then on our Christmas gathering, which will be the 21st, we're going to go over there.
We're going to load up some vans and go over there and give them out. And anyone in our church family who wants to go do that gets to go do that. So you want to just go help knock on doors, say Merry Christmas, hand somebody a bag full of stuff, which is a lot of fun. We want to do that. Come on. Goal being to spend about $15 to $30 per child because most of them are in sibling groups.
The majority of the kids came from sibling groups, three to four plus per household. And we don't want to have a big disparage between like one kid in the house gets $50 spent on him and one kid gets $10 spent on him. We kind of want to keep it in the $15 to $30 range. And if you want to sponsor more children, do that. I'm going to pray for us. We're going to continue to play some music.
Actually, we're going to continue to play some music. And go ahead and start having conversations. Go ahead and start grabbing those. Go ahead and start writing your name down. And then I'll come up and pray for us and we'll close out. And then we can still grab names and children after that.
So wide open for anybody who wants to go grab a name, grab a kid, write some information down. If you need to make phone calls, you need to talk to people, whatever you need to do. If you know you can't figure it out right now, you're going to be able to do it. But you want to talk and grab one later, we can do that as well. We'll be wide open for it. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Charlie. If you wanted to sponsor a child and all the names are gone, just talk to somebody. Talk to somebody in your community group.
Ask how you might be able to get a gift for a specific child. If you need to, if you need to, if for some reason you know you wouldn't be able to bring the gifts back by next week, even though that's our goal, just get with somebody. We'll see if we can't have somebody bring it over for you. That sort of thing. God, we thank you. God, we thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That because of your grace. God, we thank you.
Thank you. And because you intentionally planted us here. God, we thank you. That 77 children in our city are going to get gifts this Christmas that may not otherwise have been able to. That 77 children in our city, whether they know you or don't, are going to be impacted by what you've already done, are going to be loved because you love, are going to be given to because you've given to us. God, we thank you.
We thank you that these small gifts pale in comparison to what you've given us. We thank you, God, that you will work in our hearts as we go out of our way to be generous to change us. God, I pray that this is one of the first very small steps for us as a church family, us as individuals, in stepping into what it looks like to be generous in a way that is completely impacted by the gospel. We praise you, Jesus. In Jesus' name, amen.