Resist // Control Issues

Amen, amen.

First Chronicles, chapter 29 this morning.

1 Chronicles 29 · chapter mention

First Chronicles 29.

Have you ever met somebody that is selfish?

You ever met somebody that's selfish?

Can you raise—you met somebody that's selfish, okay.

Do you live with somebody that's—no, don't raise your hand, don't, don't.

There's always somebody, there's always—we've all met people that maybe have a tendency to be selfish and, if we're honest about ourselves, every now and again maybe like once or twice a year on really bad days we can have a tendency to be a little bit selfish.

In fact, let's just have a moment of honesty and transparency in the room this morning.

Who can say every now and again on rare occasions, but every now and again you have a tendency to be a little bit selfish Raise your hand up.

I see some liars in the house of God your hands.

We're actually starting a new series today entitled Resist.

Everybody say the word resist, ready, resist.

This is what this series is all about.

It's how do you resist selfishness and embrace selflessness, because we all know that all of us have a tendency at times to be a little selfish and we say being selfish.

We're not talking about understanding and giving attention to real needs that we all have in our life.

What we're talking about is making life more about us than about others, and what we're going to see over this three-week mini-series is we're going to see three principles, one each week, that, if you embrace them, will be a game changer.

In fact, I'm going to make a promise that I don't hardly ever make in message series, but I'm going to make a promise that I don't hardly ever make in message series, but I'm going to make it in this resist series is that if you will come each of the next three weeks and you embrace each of these three principles, you will be a person that is less selfish and more selfless by simply embracing three principles.

So today I'm really excited.

Today we're going to talk about principle number one, and you have to get principle number one because this is foundational for all the other principles that we're going to build on.

Here's the first principle God is the owner and you are a steward.

God is the owner and you are his steward.

Now you might say God's the owner, I'm a steward.

But what exactly?

What's this all about?

There's a really different mentality between an owner and a steward.

An owner possesses this is mine, I'm in control, I make the decisions.

Nobody decides but me.

But a steward manages.

A steward understands that they've been given something by somebody else and their role is to steward that how the person that gave that to them wants things to be stewarded.

There's a verse in 1 Corinthians, chapter number six.

It says this it says you are not your own.

Can we say that underlined phrase together, ready?

You are not your.

I like it.

You're not your own.

You were bought with a price.

What was the price?

It's right, it was Jesus dying on the cross in our place.

So glorify God.

So if God's the owner and I'm the steward, this is what this means.

It means, like this verse says, your life is not your own.

It means your talent and your treasure is not yours.

It means your time is not yours, that you are just stewarding what God's given you.

Now, this can be a little uncomfortable, right, but this is what we think.

We think man, like bro, I worked for this, I sacrifice, I own this.

My name is on the title.

This was given to me Like I own this.

But there's a problem with this thinking.

There's a challenge with this.

And I was seeing a therapist last year and in one of our conversations she said Nate, here's your problem.

She said you're overly responsible.

I thought, since when is being responsible a problem?

She said you're overly responsible.

I said okay.

I said help me understand this.

Like I'm overly responsible, like what's the problem with this?

She said responsibility is really good when you take responsibility for your choices and your actions and your bills and things that have been assigned to you.

But wanting to be overly in control and sometimes what can happen is you can have, you can want to be overly in control, nate, and you can have control issues that masquerade themselves as you being responsible, and I was like I don't like you very much.

Appointment over.

Here's what this Christian therapist is trying to get me to understand.

Understand is that god's in control and I'm not, and if I think I'm the owner, instead of embracing the fact that I'm just a steward, what I'm doing is I'm putting myself in the place of god, and bad things happen when I put myself in the place of god.

And what I want to do this morning is I want to take you to a passage that shows you in the place of God and bad things happen when I put myself in the place of God.

And what I want to do this morning is I want to take you to a passage that shows you the power, the power of embracing the fact that God's the owner and you're just a steward.

It takes us to 1 Chronicles.

A little quiz question for us this morning 1 Chronicles in the scripture Is it in the New Testament or is it in the Old Testament?

1 Chronicles is in the man.

Y'all got it 100% on that Bible quiz.

Let's go right.

1 Chronicles is in the Old Testament and Chronicles chronicles some of the history of the nation of Israel, specifically about a guy named David.

Everybody say David Ready Second King of Israel.

David, second King of Israel.

It chronicles his reign.

So we get to chapter 29,.

And David, he's an old man.

Take that back.

David's a very experienced man.

David's lived a while, he's at the end of his reign.

And David, what he wants to do is they're going to build, they're going to take this offering, this offering because they want to build a place of worship for God.

Now, david being the great leader that he was, understood that leaders always go first, leaders always sacrifice the most and leaders always sacrifice first.

So David gives this sacrifice of finances to allow this house of worship, this temple, to be built.

And David gives a massive, massive offering.

He gives.

It's in the beginning of 1 Chronicles 29,.

He gives 225,000 pounds of gold and 525,000 pounds of silver.

Y'all that's a lot of money, equivalent today over $3 billion.

David gave all this and then what happened was the people followed by giving, and they gave in such a way that in our 21st century American mindset that has this is inundated with materialism.

They gave it away like we just can't quite comprehend, like they gave in historical ways.

It says in verse 17,.

This is what they gave For the service of God's house.

These people, they gave 185 tons of gold.

Now, I don't know about you guys, I'm not really a math fan.

I don't really do math very well, I have a hard time.

But 185 tons is a lot of gold.

I think that's 370,000 pounds of gold, right?

So it's a lot.

They gave that.

Thousand pounds of gold, right, so this is a lot.

They gave that.

They gave 10,000 gold coins, 375 tons of silver, 675 tons of bronze and 4,000 tons of iron.

How many of you guys would say these people are very financially generous?

That's right.

Okay, the rest of y'all are sleeping, right?

These people gave, they sacrificed.

It says in verse 8,.

Whoever had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the Lord's house under the care of Jehiel the Gershonite, and when the people rejoiced because of the leader's willingness to give, for they had given to the Lord wholeheartedly, king David also rejoiced greatly.

Now I might not be very spiritual, but I read this passage and I see people give an offering like that and I'm like why would you guys give so much?

I mean, couldn't you just drop like a 20 or like a $50 plate in or you know, into the plate, or you know, couldn't y'all just gone online and like gave like $75 or something?

I mean y'all gave how much gold?

I mean these people gave at a crazy substantial level and my question is why.

This isn't normal, at least in my mindset, and what we're going to see over the next several passages, next several verses, is why they gave Spoiler.

They gave because they understood that God was the owner and they were just stewards.

This is what it says in verse 10.

It says David blessed the Lord in the sight of all the assembly and David said he's about to pray.

May you be blessed, lord, god of our father Israel, from eternity to eternity.

Yours, lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the splendor and the majesty For what's that next word?

For everything in the heavens and on earth belongs to you.

Yours, lord, is the kingdom, and you are exalted as head over all.

Now you think about this.

David's the king.

Here, in this time period, kings I mean kings are in control.

Kings are seen as gods.

Kings are the ones that are sovereign.

And you got the king saying no, it's not me, this is God's, it's all God's.

He says in verse 14, he says verse 12, he says riches and honor come from you.

Verse 12, you are the ruler of everything.

So verse 11, he says everything belongs to God.

And verse 12, he says God rules everything.

Power and might are in your hand, and it's in your hand to make great and to give strength to all.

Now, therefore, our God, we give you thanks and praise your glorious name, but who am I and who are your people that we should be able to give as generously as this?

David says I'm just privileged to be able to give to you like this.

And then he says another word, that same word again.

He says for let's say it together for everything comes from you, god, everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.

It's God's, he says, for we're aliens and temporary residents in your presence, as were all our ancestors.

Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.

Now, when it says aliens, it's not talking about that.

These guys came from UFOs, you know.

It's like do-do-do-do-do-do-do.

All this means is that they were in a place that didn't belong to them and God graciously gave it to them.

They were from a different place.

In verse 16, lord our God, all this wealth that we've provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand, and he says the word everything.

Again, he says everything belongs to you.

You guys picking up on this theme, you guys picking up on this theme, you guys picking up on this Everything.

He says I know, my God, that you test the heart and that you are pleased with what is right.

I've willingly given all these things with an upright heart, and now I have seen your people who are present here give joyfully and willingly to you.

These people here had a different mindset than so many of us do as 21st century followers of Jesus or 21st century people us do as 21st century followers of Jesus or 21st century people.

They had a mindset shift that we have to have if we're going to understand that God is the owner of everything, and this significant mindset shift is going to allow you to be less selfish and more selfless.

But I have to warn you, guys.

I have to warn you.

This mindset shift is very humbling and very countercultural.

Here's the mindset shift.

Here's the first one.

There's two.

Is that everything comes from God too?

Is that everything comes from God?

Did you see verse 14?

Everything comes from you.

Now, this is hard to embrace for some of us because it's what we think.

I worked for that.

I sacrificed for that.

I got up at 4 am in the morning for the last 25 years so I could save money to buy this right.

My name is on this.

This is mine.

Let me ask you a question who gave you the physical health to be able to work so you could earn that money?

Who gave you the mind where you could think through things and problem solve and figure out how to do these things so you can have a job and have resources?

Who gave you the opportunity to live in a country like America, where there were opportunities for things?

Where did the talents and abilities that you have.

Where do they come from?

God?

And what makes living selflessly a challenge is that is that we can think that everything came from us and our work ethic and our discipline and our sacrifices.

And and if I think that everything came from me and from my discipline and my work ethic, then that means that it's mine and I get to decide what I'm gonna do with my life and my talent and my treasure and my time, because, well, it's mine.

In fact, our default setting in life is kind of selfish, pretty selfish, wouldn't you agree?

I mean, you don't got to teach a two-year-old to say no, I mean, you don't got to teach a two-year-old to say no.

You don't got to teach a little toddler to say this is mine, right?

They just naturally are selfish.

Let me give you an example here.

You ever taken a picture with a group of people?

You ever take a picture with a group.

Maybe your family or your friends or significant other, who's ever taken a picture with a group of people?

We all have.

So you got one or two options when you're taking a picture with a group of people.

You can pull up the phone, you can do the selfie thing.

Right, we're gonna do the selfie thing.

Or you can do like the new cool selfies, where you like flip the phone around and you can't see the screen.

You can do it that way.

Or what you can do is you can hope somebody is around you, like walking by, that can take a halfway decent picture, and you ask them.

Now, if you're like me, sometimes I can ask the wrong person and then you look at the picture and then you wait for that person to walk by so you can ask somebody else to take the picture.

And they take the picture and they're like is it good?

And you always lie to them.

You're like yeah, that's great, right, just kidding, it's just me, I just do that.

When you look at the picture of the group picture whether there's five of you in the picture or 10 of you in the picture or 20 of you in the picture when you look at the picture, what's the first thing you do?

Find yourself?

And if you look good in the picture, it's a great picture, no matter if everybody else is looking kind of ratchet you know what I'm saying, and but?

But if everybody else looks amazing, like they got their good side, everybody's looking skinny and lean and all that and you look bad.

We retaking this one, y'all, we finding somebody else right.

It's the human condition.

We have this natural bent.

We have this natural bent to make life more about us than about others.

But when we embrace that God's the owner and we're a steward, it allows us to live our life in such a way that actually brings real joy to our life, because it allows us to put other people ahead of ourselves, it allows us to give generously, it allows us to serve other people, when we realize that God's the owner and we're the steward, because our mindset shifts.

I want to illustrate this and each week we're going to give a visual illustration each week of this series to help us kind of understand this a little bit.

Here we have a conduit.

Everybody say the word conduit Ready.

We got a conduit, we got this tube.

And then we have this container.

We got this bucket.

Can somebody tell me what's something you can put in this container?

What can you put in this bucket Water?

What's up, joey?

That's right.

Fabuloso, give us some fabuloso.

That's not the first thing that came to my mind.

But it does got that color.

That's right.

Fabuloso, give it some fabuloso.

That's not the first thing that came to my mind, but it does got that color.

That's right, you can put that.

I expect you to be cleaning the kitchen when you get home mopping.

You can put fabuloso.

What's something else you can put in this container?

Ice cream, my guy.

Ice cream, that's right.

What kind of ice cream could you put in here, mike man?

All of it, yeah, all of it.

You shouldn't be saying that right before lunch, bro.

I tell you what you put ice cream.

What's the most you can put in here?

What's that?

Toys you can put toys in here.

That's right, you can put toys.

Chihuahuas, dirty chihuahuas you can put.

You can put ogies I mean dirty chihuahuas up there.

Yes, that's right.

You can put a.

You can put sand in here, right, because of the sand, go to the beach, put sand.

You can put water, you can put all kinds of stuff in here.

The container, the bucket, is meant to hold things, to put things in it, to carry things, to have things just sit there.

But this conduit has a different purpose.

The conduit's purpose is not to hold on to things, but for things to flow through it.

The conduit is not designed to hold on to it, but for things to flow through this and for some of our lives we live like our lives are containers.

When God has designed your life to be a conduit and what we've done, and there's nothing wrong with enjoying the good gifts that God's given us, there's nothing wrong with that and we should enjoy your stuff, there's nothing wrong with that.

But the problem arises when everything we look at is how can I have more and how can I hold on to, rather than how can these things flow through me to bless other people?

And God wants your life to be a conduit, not a container.

God wants your life to be a river, not a reservoir.

God wants your life to be a pipe, not a pail.

And when you understand that God has designed you to be a conduit instead of a container, you're going to see joy in your life that you've never had before and you're going to understand this second mindset shift that's really important and it's that God has given you blessings so they can flow through you.

God has given you blessings in your life so blessings can flow through you.

So blessings can flow through you.

And verse 16, it said everything belongs to you.

So the reason why they gave is because God had already given everything to them.

And when we understand that God owns everything and we understand that we're conduits, our life is going to look different because the questions we're going to ask about our life are going to be different and when you ask different questions you'll get different answers.

See, an owner and a steward ask two completely different questions.

This is what an owner asks.

An owner asks this.

An owner asks how can I, what should I do with my stuff and my money?

If we can get the next slide up?

This is what a steward says.

A steward says what should I do with God's stuff and God's money?

Do with God's stuff and God's money.

An owner asks what should I do with my time?

It's mine.

A steward asks what should I do with the time that God has given me?

An owner asks what should I do with my talents and gifts?

How can I use those to forward me?

A steward, on the other hand what should I do with the talents and gifts that God has given me?

And it's possible in our life that we've come to a place where we've gotten the wrong answers because we've asked the wrong questions.

And when you ask the questions from a stewardship mentality instead of an ownership mentality, it changes how we see life.

It allows us to have this mindset shift Now for most of us.

If you're anything like me, I naturally have a bent to maybe be a little more generous in certain areas of my life and not as generous in other areas of my life.

So, for example, some of you, you are very generous with your time.

Like somebody asks you to like help out, You're like, yeah, I'll be there, bro.

Like you need me to help you move, I'll be there at 7 am on a Saturday morning.

Like I want to be there, I want to help you.

Somebody asks you ask me to help you move at 7 am on a Saturday morning.

I don't know what excuse I have, but I'm coming up with one while you're asking me.

Okay, right, you know what I'm saying.

Let me just give you $100 to go find somebody at Home Depot and they'll help you move.

Right, you know what I'm saying.

Some of you are like super generous with your time, but then, when it comes to your treasure, like your money, you're like whew, have you seen the economy lately?

Have you seen inflation lately?

I just went to McDonald's and spent like $55, and there was like three of us.

Like I can't do that.

But the time you're like, oh yeah, others of us, maybe you have a bent towards you're very generous financially, like somebody has a need, you're like, yeah, how much, let's go, I'll write the check.

Right now.

Some of you think you know Pastor Cody or somebody says, yeah, giving 10%.

You're like, yeah, how much, let's go, I'll write the check.

Right now.

Some of you think you know Pastor Cody or somebody says, yeah, giving 10%.

You're like I give 15%, it's no problem.

But then, when it comes to your time, you're like, no, no, no, no, no, no, I can't do that.

And what gonna happen is, I think, naturally we have a bent to maybe give more of our time or maybe give more of our treasure or maybe give more of our talent away, like I'm willing to use my gifts and skills to help you out, and maybe these are dependent on how we were raised or where we came from.

But when you understand that God's the owner, it changes everything.

In fact, when you embrace God's ownership, you don't compartmentalize your generosity.

We don't say, okay, god, I'll give my time, but not my treasure.

I'll give my treasure, but not my talent.

What we say is God, this is all yours.

How can I use this for you?

How do you want me to use this?

And for some of us in our lives, we've lived as owners for so long that whenever God asks us to do anything uncomfortable in one of these places, our time, our treasure, our talent, our serving what we do and I'm going to get all up in somebody's business right, quick, unapologetically is we make excuses, or we say that we can't, or we say that we shouldn't.

For some of us, we live in fear, like we have this fear mindset, and so we're so scared to give God, obey God, in our finances because we're scared that we don't have enough.

For some of us, we have a maybe it's maybe it is some fear, but maybe it's a scarcity mindset, where we hold on to everything so tightly, like everything is like this.

This is what you need to realize is that our God has unlimited resources, power and ability and when we live our lives open-handed, god can give you more than you can give away.

And for some of us to grow in our faith, what we have to be willing to do is we have to be willing to step outside of our comfort zone and do what feels a little bit risky.

So God will grow us.

You have to be willing to go outside of your comfort zone to grow.

To go outside of your comfort zone to grow.

And the reason why this matters so much is because God's mighty works are often set in motion by our acts of obedience.

If I said who wants to be a strong, faith-filled follower of Jesus, raise your hand.

Most of you would raise your hand, some of you would raise two hands, some of you would stand up.

If I said who wants to see God's power work in your life, like I do, pastor Nate right here, me, me, me, me.

Okay, then obey God in the uncertainties of life, then get out of your comfort zone and be willing to take a step into the unknown.

Y'all remember old Peter, how he walked on water.

Peter walked on water.

Let's go, bro had to get out of the boat.

You guys remember the woman with the issue of blood.

And she had an issue of blood and she went to Jesus and she touched his garment.

Instantly she was healed.

We're like, wow, that's amazing.

You know what she had to do.

She had to uncomfortably fight through the crowd and risk being shamed and humiliated.

She had to get out of her comfort zone.

You guys remember the children of Israel.

They marched around the walls of Jericho.

It's an incredible Old Testament story where God wanted to give them Jericho.

God wanted them to see this mighty victory in their life and God said I want you to obey this is what I want you to do.

Like God, what do you want us to do?

We want to take Jericho.

What is it?

God said I want you to walk around the wall.

Jericho, what is it?

God said I want you to walk around the wall.

Walk around the wall.

God said yeah, you're going to get a lot of steps in over these next few days.

Just walk.

God like can we strategize this?

Like we did this battle over here and this went good.

Like why can't we like do a sneak attack and I can like throw this over there and surprise God's like no, walk, walk.

Is this the best plan?

Can you imagine the kids are looking at their mom like mom, why are we walking around the walls?

Just come on, just walk.

God said.

God's like we did it.

Walk again.

They didn't even have any AirPods.

In this day and age, I mean, they're probably getting bored walking around, probably sweating.

It's probably hot.

They're in the Middle East, like walking around.

Like God, can you give this to us already?

We already walked two days ago.

Walk again.

And you say walk, they're walking, they're walking.

This don't make any sense.

Why am I doing this?

Why am I getting outside of my comfort zone?

And they walked, and they walked, and they walked.

And you know what happened.

Some of y'all know what happened.

The walls of Jericho came down and they got a great victory and saw God's power work in mighty, mighty ways in their life.

But you know where it first started.

It first started with some people that were willing to take a walk of obedience.

That's where it started People that were willing to take a walk of obedience.

You know some of the things we're going to do today To take a step of obedience, to take a walk of obedience.

And I want to end with a question that we have on the screen here, and it's this how would you and how should you handle the treasure, talent and time that God has entrusted you with?

Thinking about this, thinking about obeying God and all that he's put in your hand, how should you handle your time, your treasure and your talent?

For some of us, what we need to be willing to do is we need to be willing to take some risks for God, and it might not be risky for somebody else, but it might be risky for you Like I'm gonna give you a little example here For some of you, sometimes during the worship music and maybe like the Spirit's touching you, like some of you maybe like raise a hand every now and again you know what I'm saying Nobody's watching you, like nobody really cares.

For some of us, what taking a risk might look like is asking somebody to pray with us at the prayer next step spanners.

Like maybe you're just so worried about like what's people going to think?

Who cares what people think you need prayer, like pray.

For some of us, it's bigger things.

Like for some of us, it's come to serve night tonight and join a serve team, which I'm so excited.

Tonight we have more people RSVP'd than any team night we've ever had here, which is amazing.

And for some of us, we need to take a step of faith and that's what we need to ask ourselves is how should I handle my treasure, my talent and my time that God has entrusted me with?

Can you imagine what would happen if a small church like us of 250, 300 people on a typical Sunday morning.

If we all asked ourselves this question and we acted on the answer, can you imagine what would happen here?

I'll tell you what.

Watch out Solano County, watch out Northern California.

We coming for y'all Like watch out.

What can God do through you?

Because if God's the owner and we're the steward, then that's the question to ask.

And however you answer that question, god's going to give you the strength and the power to obey and to follow, and when you do that, you'll live your life more selflessly and less selfishly.

I promise you that.

Let me pray for you.