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.