Jesus The Financial Planner | Guard Against All Kinds of Greed

Thanks for checking out this podcast from Carterville Christian Church.

We're so glad you're here.

Our hope is that through these messages you'll grow deeper in your faith and experience the life-changing hope of Jesus.

Now let's jump into this week's teaching.

Well, good morning, Carterville Christian Church.

Good to be here with you today and excited to carry on this uh sermon series that we're in.

I'll start with a story.

It's of a wealthy old man who knew that his days were numbered.

And so we gathered three of his closest friends by his side.

His three friends were a doctor, a priest, and a lawyer.

And he said to his three friends, I want to take it with me when I die.

And so he handed each of them an envelope with$100,000 in cash in each of the envelopes.

And he said, At my funeral, I want you to drop these envelopes into the grave.

So they thought this was strange, but they of course agreed to do it.

He passed away.

The day of his funeral came, and so each one of them dutifully stepped up to the grave and they dropped the envelope into the grave.

Well, they're in the car leaving the funeral, and finally the doctor breaks down in tears.

He says, I have to confess our hospital needed a new machine, so I took$20,000 of cash.

I bought the new machine and I dropped in$80,000.

The priest said, Oh, I feel so guilty.

Uh I have to also admit that our church needed a new roof, and so I took$50,000 and I replaced the roof and I and I dropped$50,000 into the grave.

The lawyer said, I can't believe you guys.

The lack of integrity.

I want you to know that I threw in a personal check for the full$100,000.

I'll let that one settle in just a little bit, perhaps.

If we were sitting across the table from Jesus today, as we're doing in this series, seeking financial wisdom and guidance from Jesus, our financial provider, the advice that we're focusing on that we would hear from him today is this Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.

Be on your guard.

Watch out for all kinds of greed.

So to start off, there's this really uh fun, impactful youth conference in the mountains of Colorado.

It's called Nationwide Youth Roundup.

What makes it unique is that these students and sponsors, when they come, they don't stay in cabins or in dorms, they stay in campsites along the mountainside, and so they cook their food outdoors, and it's it's really an incredible experience.

It's not just a few of them, but there are close to 2,000 students and sponsors that come to this conference for an entire week every summer.

Well, uh one of my former students, now a minister at CCO here in the area, he has for the last several years taught a high the high school boys' class.

And he's got a unique way of starting off his class.

Uh he makes them engage in a tug-of-war contest.

That's what he does.

And so they wake up in the morning and sides are formed and they they start the tug-of-war contest.

You can kind of see the men going to battle there in the video.

I don't know if you remember doing this in PE class.

When it comes to tug of war, there's a winner and there is a loser.

Eventually, one side prevails over the other.

The side with the greater girth, perhaps, or the side that knows how to use leverage or has more muscle, but but by the end of it, one side wins and the other side loses.

Well, as we continue this series, we acknowledge that there appears to be in scripture a bit of a tug-of-war contest happening.

On one end of the rope is the call to live with sacrificial generosity, to, in essence, give it all away, to live generously in everything that we do on one end.

But then on the other end of the rope, there is this very clear mandate to live with financial wisdom, to budget well, to avoid debt, to prepare for the future, to provide for our family, this tug of war, this back and forth, which side will win.

It's like a tug-of-war contest between St.

Francis of Assisi.

Maybe you recognize that name.

He was a Middle Ages monk who gave everything away to the poor.

Maybe St.

Francis of Assisi is on one end of the rope, and maybe you're familiar with the name Dave Ramsey.

You guys know Dave Ramsey by the radio program.

He's on the other end of the rope.

If that contest were to happen, maybe it would look like this.

That's a real picture right there.

You can have confidence in that.

A little AI magic.

So I want to explore this tension.

So on one end of the rope, we have the teaching and example of Jesus.

And what becomes very clear from the Gospels is that we are challenged and compelled to live our life with sacrificial generosity, to live our lives with open hands, to hold loosely the possessions and the things and the money that we have acquired.

There are three stories in particular that teach us more about living with sacrificial generosity that we find in the Gospels.

Story number one is found in Luke chapter 12, and it's where our advice comes from, from Jesus.

Luke 12 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 12, Jesus is interacting with the religious leaders in the course of his uh teaching of them in verse 13.

Luke 12 · chapter mention

Someone in the crowd, this isn't an unusual thing that happens oftentimes, somebody speaks up, asks Jesus a question, and so someone in the crowd said to Jesus, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.

It's not even a question, really.

It's uh a request, it's a command.

Tell him to do this.

Now, historically, culturally, probably what's happening here is in this first century context, the firstborn son would receive a double portion.

And so this is a younger sibling, very likely, who is saying, I don't think he deserves a double portion.

I think we all deserve equal portions.

Tell my brother to not be greedy and to share his portion with me.

But Jesus, and it wasn't uncommon in this day for rabbis to be asked these kinds of questions, to settle disputes, to speak into the civics of the day.

But Jesus doesn't have any time for that.

As Austin talked about last week, Jesus skips past the surface idol and he gets to the heart of the issue, and the heart of the issue is not his brother's greed, it's his own greed.

Man who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you.

Then he said to him, Watch out.

Be on your guard against all kinds of greed, because life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.

So from these words of Jesus, from this teaching of Jesus, there are at least two takeaways.

First of all, greed is a problem.

Greed is a problem, not just for some people, but for all people.

Greed is an equal opportunity sin.

It doesn't matter how rich you are or how poor you are, all of us are susceptible to greed.

Watch out for greed.

It's a problem.

But number two, greed is a problem that takes on many forms.

It doesn't look the same for all of us.

Therefore, none of us are exempt.

All of us must be mindful of what we must do to counteract the temptation of greed.

To counteract allowing greed to take root in our lives.

And by definition, I'll just define greed as the insatiable desire for more.

Never satisfied, always wanting more.

It's a pack of chips ahoy cookies in front of me.

It's never enough.

I just keep eating, just going down the row.

I could eat two rows if you just left it to myself.

The insatiable desire for more, never having enough.

It is living out the words of Solomon in our personal lives.

Whoever loves money never has enough.

Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income.

This too is meaningless.

St.

Francis once said, We should have no more use or regard for money in any of its forms than we have for dust.

Those who think it is worth more or who are greedy for it expose themselves to the danger of being deceived by the devil.

Right?

So to live generously, we need to avoid all forms of greed.

Story number two is found in Matthew chapter 13.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

It's actually a parable of Jesus.

Jesus is talking about a generous farmer who is sowing seed far and wide, and some of the seed falls upon the hard path, and some of the seed falls upon the soil that has rocks beneath the surface, and some of the seed falls upon the soil that has weeds and thorns that grow up with the good stuff, but eventually choke the life out of the good stuff, and some of the seed falls upon the good and fertile soil.

Jesus says that seed that falls on the good and fertile soil produces in a harvest, 30, 60, even a hundred times what was sown.

What I want to focus on in this parable of Jesus is the seed that falls upon the war, the um the thistles, the thorns and the thistles.

Jesus says that those thorns, those thistles, those weeds, the stuff that grows up with the good stuff, that chokes the life out of the good stuff, that those represent, here it is, those represent the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth.

To live life with sacrificial generosity is to experience the full life that God has for us and to not allow greed to choke that life out.

Third story gives us a face, it makes it personal, it's the face of greed.

Jesus has another interaction with someone in the crowd, uh uh uh what we call a rich young ruler, Matthew chapter 19, uh, verse 16.

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

We read that a man came up to Jesus and he said, Teacher, what good thing must I do to inherit, to get eternal life?

Why do you ask me about what is good?

There's only one who is good.

If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.

Well, which one of the commandments?

He asks.

And Jesus quotes some of the ten commandments: don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't give false testimony, honor your father, your mother, love your neighbor as yourself.

I've kept all of these.

Really?

What do I still lack?

And here it comes.

Again, Jesus gets to the heart of what this man is really struggling with, perhaps what we're struggling with as well.

If you want to be perfect, if you want to be complete, then go sell your possessions, give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.

Then come and follow me.

When the young man heard this, he went away sad because he had a great wealth, because he was clinging on tightly to his money and to his possessions.

So what becomes very clear from these stories and others like them in the Gospels is that the gospel of Jesus Christ, what he has done for us, what he calls us to, compels us to live with sacrificial generosity, to avoid all forms of greed, to experience the full life that God has in store for us, to hold on loosely to our possessions.

Not an easy thing to do, so how do we do it?

Well, recently we recorded a podcast on our uh Carterville podcast uh channel.

I want to encourage you to listen to it.

It'll be released in just a few hours, actually.

I got to sit down with three individuals from our church who are extremely faithful men and women of God who live their lives with generosity and who have combined a combined 65 years of experience in financial planning and organization.

And so it is well worth your time to spend 40 minutes listening to this podcast.

Well, in the podcast, Adrian Jackson, one of the participants, uh said these words.

I I asked the group to just offer some next steps advice.

If somebody's sitting here today and they're like, you know what, I want to take the next step, I want to live my life with greater levels of generosity.

What do I do next?

I had some great answers.

Here's what Adrian shared.

She'd say, I'd I'd say, have a plan.

Know your goals, stay focused, be diligent, start early.

And then I think equally important, and I love this, is to become an expert in contentment and gratitude.

Isn't that a great phrase?

I I I tell you, if you don't hear anything else today, if you just walk away with that one phrase kind of lodged in your heart and in your mind, become an expert in contentment and gratitude.

She said, that's that that's what's going to be more meaningful than the dollars you spend.

Being grateful for what you have develops a contentment which will go a long way.

I think her words echo the teaching of Paul in 1 Timothy chapter 6.

1 Timothy 6 · chapter mention

You've heard these words before probably.

For the love of money, well, it's a root of all kinds of evil.

It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and they've pierced themselves with many pains.

Later on he writes, as for the rich in this present age, charge them to not be haughty, to not be proud in what they have gained and accumulated for themselves.

We should not set our hopes on the uncertainties of riches, but we should set our hopes on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy that we are to be good, to be rich in good works, Paul writes, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasures for ourselves as a good foundation for the future, so that we may take hold of that which is truly life.

1 Timothy 6, 17 through 19.

Let me give you a picture of this.

Anyone who goes to a baseball game, if you go to a baseball game, especially a major league baseball game, then you know that a prized possession is to get a baseball, right?

Whether it's a home run ball or a foul ball, a pop-up, or maybe your favorite player tosses a ball into the stands.

Nobody would fault a kid if they're in the stands and a ball is tossed to them.

Nobody would fault that kid for clinging tightly to it, for holding on to it as if it were a prized possession, which is why I love this video so much.

You'll see it up here.

Favorite player sees a kid up in the crowd, makes a pretty good toss, pretty great catch.

Notice the first thing he does, gives it to his little sister.

Gotta love the moment there.

That's a good picture for us.

As Jesus teaches us, it is more blessed to give than it is to receive.

To hold on loosely to the things that we have been given by the Lord Himself.

Here are a few questions to wrestle with as you consider living with open hands rather than clenched fists.

Maybe one or two of these questions will be more relevant to you than others.

You can write these down.

Take a picture of it if you need to.

Here's the first question.

When I receive more, do I think about ways to give more or do I think about ways to spend more on myself?

That's a personally convicting question for sure.

When I receive a bonus, a gift, a raise, am I automatically thinking, how how can I give more?

Who can I give this to?

How can I give more away?

Or am I thinking about how I can spend more on myself?

Second question, am I practicing hospitality on a regular basis in my life?

And I'm not just talking about the opening up of your home, but the using of your possessions, whatever it is you have in your possession, how am I using that to love other people, to bless other people?

Am I practicing hospitality?

Third question, am I partnering with global outreach partners?

God's heart is for the nations.

Is his heartbeat my heartbeat?

Am I generously praying for, encouraging, financially supporting our global outreach partners?

That may be a way that you can live generously.

Here's a fourth question.

It's a very specific one.

I appreciate Garrett, he kind of spoke of this in the podcast.

Garrett's one of the podcast uh contributors.

It's a good question.

It got my wheels spinning a little bit in my own thinking.

Have I considered a charitable contribution to the church or to a ministry in my estate planning?

This may not be relevant to everybody here today, but it may be very relevant to some of us today.

As I think about what I've accumulated throughout my life, have I thought about what's going to happen after my life is over?

You can't take it with you.

You can't be like that rich old man who wanted$300,000 in his grave.

Am I blessing a ministry?

Am I blessing the church with my estate planning?

It's one way that we can generously invest in the next generation, that we can store up for ourselves treasures not here on earth, but we can store up treasures in heaven.

Maybe something to prayerfully consider.

Here's a fifth question.

Am I contributing regularly, sacrificially, and joyfully to my church?

All three of those adverbs are important.

Am I contributing regularly?

Is it planned giving?

And not just reaching into my pocket, giving out of the excess, but I'm doing this on a regular basis.

Am I doing it sacrificially?

Am I truly trusting in the Lord as I give to my church?

And am I doing it joyfully, with the joyfulness of the Lord, cheerfully, gladly, knowing that I'm being a part of something bigger than myself, that I'm investing in something that will really make a difference in this world.

So back to our tug of war contest.

On one end is this call to live with sacrificial generosity.

The call is very clear, but there is on the other end of the rope this clear biblical mandate to live with financial wisdom, to demonstrate and practice sound financial wisdom, specifically the wisdom to do two things.

One, to prepare for the future, for the inevitable things that are to come up in life.

And to two, provide for our family, both our biological family as well as our spiritual family.

We can turn to the book of Proverbs and we can see wisdom given to us throughout Proverbs over and over again, telling us what it means and what it looks like to plan for the future.

Wisdom like Proverbs 21:5, that tells us good planning and hard work, that's what leads to prosperity.

Proverbs 21:5

Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts, that's what leads to poverty.

Did you know that sports gambling in Missouri is legal now?

You probably knew that, right?

We voted on it.

We approved it.

December 1st, since December 1st, Missourian, this is not the country, this is not United States of America, this is just in Missouri, not even a year, December 1st, 2025.

$150 million has been lost by Missourians since December 1st.

Good planning and hard work, that's what leads to poverty.

Not the next lottery ticket, not the casino, not your sports bet.

No.

That leads to poverty.

Over and over, the wisdom of Proverbs is that we must prepare and plan for the inevitable needs of life.

And not only are we to prepare for the future, but we are commanded in the New Testament to care for both our biological family as well as our spiritual family.

On one hand, we have 1 Timothy chapter 5.

1 Timothy 5 · chapter mention

Paul says, those who don't care for their relatives, especially those in their own household, have denied the true faith.

Paul writes, such people are worse than unbelievers.

It's a really strong statement that Paul makes the necessity of hard work, of planning, of taking care of our family.

And it's not just our biological family that we're to take care of, but also our spiritual family.

We've got to take care of each other.

Paul says in Galatians chapter 6 that we shouldn't grow tired of doing what is good.

Galatians 6 · chapter mention

At just the right time, we'll reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up.

He goes on to write, therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone.

We should take care of everyone.

Especially, he writes, especially to those in the family of faith.

And of course, there's the great example of the early church in the book of Acts.

We read that there were, quote, no needy persons among them.

That's what it says.

That's how it describes the early church.

There were no needy persons among them.

Why?

Because they were rich.

Is that why there were no needy persons among them?

Because they were wealthy?

Overflowing with wealth?

No, of course not.

They were being martyred and persecuted for their faith.

It's not because they were rich, it's because they took care of each other.

They had each other's back.

They met each other's needs.

Can I just get real practical for just a moment?

According to the wisdom of Proverbs, one clear way we prepare for the future and we provide for our biological and spiritual family is to avoid debt.

And if we are in debt, it's not a reason to be ashamed.

Sometimes there's necessary reasons for that, but if we are in debt, we don't bury our head in the sand, we don't make it worse and compound it.

We make a clear plan to get out of it.

Proverbs 22, 7, the rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is the slave to the lender.

I mentioned Dave Ramsay earlier on.

If you're not familiar with Dave Ramsey, he has a radio program, and people call in and they, you know, ask him questions and they receive financial advice from him.

It's a really uh interesting and entertaining show at times.

Well, there's a particular conversation that went viral.

And here's how it went.

Caller calls in.

Hi, Dave.

I make sixty-five thousand dollars a year.

Dave, okay, what's your debt?

Caller, three hundred and eighty thousand dollars.

Dave, how is that possible?

Caller says, Well, I have two hundred thousand dollars in student loans, I have$120,000 in credit card debt, I have a$45,000 car loan, and I just put down$15,000 on a boat.

Here's my best Dave Ramsey impersonation.

You just bought a boat while you're drowning in debt?

Yeah.

It was on sale.

You're insane.

Caller.

Well, my friend said I deserve to have fun.

Your friends are broke too, aren't they?

Yeah.

Dave, stop listening to broke people about money.

You need to sell that boat today, sell the car, attack that debt like your life depends on it, and get a second job, caller.

But I'm tired.

You're tired?

Try by being 65 with$380,000 in debt and no retirement.

Basically, we need to take a lesson from the ants.

You lazy bones.

Learn from their ways and become wise.

Though they have no prince or governor or ruler to make them work, they labor hard all summer, they gather food for the winter.

But you lazy bones, how long will you sleep?

When will you wake up?

I love this.

A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest.

Then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit.

Scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.

Maybe these were the words of uh that inspired the fable of Aesop called The Ant and the Grasshopper.

In a field on a summer day, there was a grasshopper who came hopping by, chirping and singing to his heart's delight, and the ant passed by, working hard to carry an ear of corn he was taking back to his nest.

Why not come and play with me?

The grasshopper said, instead of working in this way.

Oh, the ant said, I'm I'm helping to prepare for the winter and would recommend you do the same.

Ah, why bother with winter?

We have plenty of food at the presence.

But the ant continued his preparations, and when the winter came, the grasshopper found himself dying of hunger while the ant was busily distributing corn and grain to his family from the storage he had collected.

And then the grasshopper knew it is best to prepare for the days of necessity.

So there you have it.

On one end, sacrificial generosity.

This seeming call to give it all away.

But then very clearly on the other end of the rope is the call to financial wisdom.

So which one is it?

Which one wins?

And of course, the answer is that it's not an either or contest, is it?

It's a both and.

It's not either live with sacrificial generosity or financial wisdom.

It's both generosity and wisdom at the same time.

It's not a tug of war, it's a rubber band.

And we embrace the tension.

We constantly live in the tension.

We prepare for tomorrow and we give generously today.

One without the other leads to greed.

We store up in our barns and we continue to plan for the future and we continue to hold tightly our possessions.

It will inevitably, because of the sinfulness of our hearts, it will lead to greed.

But at the same time, if we don't prepare for the future and we don't provide for our family, it leads to poverty.

As Craig Blomberg writes in his book, a biblical theology of possessions is neither poverty nor riches.

Or as Garrett in the podcast said, it's the call to generosity and stewardship.

Both are commanded in Scripture.

But hear me, this is where I'm going to land today.

I also appreciate what Garrett also pointed out.

The reminder, and I think this is true, that in the Bible there is much more of an emphasis on generosity than there is on stewardship.

Why is that?

It's because Jesus knows.

Jesus knows that the gravitational pull of the human heart is selfishness, is greed, is self-preservation.

And so at the heart of the gospel is a word.

It's the word give.

Whoever wants to save his life will say it with me.

Lose it.

For God so loved the world, say it with me, he gave his one and only son.

Jesus said he didn't not come to be served, but to serve and to say it with me, give his life as a ransom for many.

For this reason, each man should give what he has decided in his heart to not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

What it ultimately comes down to is an attitude of the heart.

And I guess this is what I've come to say.

It's at the very end.

It's my whole sermon in a sentence.

We manage our money well so that we can give it all away.

We manage well.

We use prudence and wisdom and sound advice, and we heed it and take it to heart.

We manage our money well.

Why?

So that we can give it away, so that we can invest in what lasts forever.

As Jim Elliott, the missionary who died as a martyr for the sake of the gospel, once wrote in his journal, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

In so doing, we will avoid all kinds of greed, we will be rich toward God, and one day we will hear our master say to us, Well done, well done, good and faithful servant.

Would you stand with me at this moment as we get ready to continue our worship?

And I'm gonna ask you to do something.

I'm just gonna ask you to put your hands out like this.

We do this for a lot of different reasons.

Sometimes we do it because we want to receive the Lord's will and blessing in our life, but really I want you to do this to see yourself, see your hands in front of you as a posture of generosity.

That when we leave this place, that this is how we'll live.

Holding on loosely to our possessions, to our money, to our time, to our resources.

And that when we see the opportunity this week, that we will be a people who live generously with open hands, ready to give, ready to bless, and we'll experience the full life that God has in store for us when we live like this.

Let's pray together in this posture.

Dear Lord, we need your help in this.

We need your spirit to convict us, to give us your wisdom, your guidance.

And Lord, even in our giving, help us not to do so with pride or selfish ambition, but Lord, help us to do so out of a deep desire and love for other people and in response to the gospel.

Lord, thank you for giving your life so that we might live fully.

We pray all of this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thanks again for listening to the Carterville Christian Church podcast.

Our prayer is that today's message has encouraged you and drawn you closer to Jesus.

To learn more or get connected with our church family, visit Carterville Christian.com.

We'd love to walk alongside you in your journey of faith.