Transferring Trust // How to Experience Financial Freedom

And onto God.

That's right, god.

Y'all a little slow on that.

Let's try that again.

Transferring trust how about transferring trust away from ourselves and onto?

That's right, god.

And we're talking about area.

It's a little bit uncomfortable.

Does somebody remember the area that we're talking about?

We're talking about the area of Finance.

Finance is somebody you guys remember, or maybe you just looked up at the screen and saw it.

But either way, that's all right.

We're talking about that and sometimes we get it's just uncomfortable to talk about this.

But I learned something is that we cannot out give God.

And recently I got a Facebook message this past week and this person maybe you can relate they were just having a hard time trusting God in the area of their finances, trusting God in the area of their giving.

Now, let's just be honest.

It's just us in here.

Who in the room has ever struggled with this area of trusting God in your giving or trusting God into your finances?

If that's, you raise up your hand, nice and high, nice and high, okay, most of the people in the room are honest.

We do have a few liars sprinkled throughout, but yeah, so you know what this person was going through kind of wrestling with this.

I'm like, ah, should I give?

I don't really know.

They said the craziest thing happened.

They made the decision to tie to give 10% and they had some expensive expenditures that were surprisingly taken care of and they also got a pretty good size unexpected check in the mail after they made that decision.

Now, I'm not some prosperity gospel preacher that's like if you give, you're gonna get a big check in the mail.

Guys, that's not us, okay, but you can't out give God.

And when you make the decision to transfer your trust away from yourselves and your resources and on to God, you are going to experience what God can do through your obedience.

Now, when I was younger in my faith, whenever I thought about God's perspective of finances, I always thought it was just about one thing, just about giving.

I think it was learning about giving Because I've matured in my faith.

This is something I've learned that it's really not about giving.

It's actually about my heart.

It's not about giving.

It's about our hearts and it's learning to steward, manage the resources that God has put in our hands.

It's about our hearts and it's about stewardship, and if we will steward things how God wants us to steward things, this is what's gonna happen.

We are going to experience freedom, because God's ways always lead to freedom and the world's ways always lead to bondage.

So what God says is God says, hey, I'm gonna give you some principles of how I want you to steward your financial resources, because I want you to experience freedom.

I do not want you to experience bondage.

And he gives something that we're gonna call the 10, 10, 80 principle the 10, 10, 80 principle.

Now I'm really excited because some of you guys are gonna hear this for the first time, and I'm telling you this literally can.

This is God's plan for financial freedom.

Some of you are already practicing this and you're like I just wanna come up and testify about this, nate, because it works okay.

But before we learn this 10, 10, 80 principle, let me tell you guys a story.

Well, it's from Jesus.

It's in Matthew, chapter 25.

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

It's a story about three servants and how three servants stewarded their resources that they had been given.

So, matthew 25, let's pick this up in verse number 14.

If you're excited to be here, would you say amen, amen.

Here he goes.

Matthew 25, verse 14, and some of you are a little nervous, guys, this is a good day.

Matthew 25:14

We can relax, it's gonna be great.

It says in Matthew 25, 14,.

For it is just like a man about to go on a journey.

He called his own servants and what's that next word?

And entrusted, and entrusted his possessions to them.

So he's going on a trip somewhere.

He's going somewhere, and before he leaves to go on his trip, he calls his servants.

Hey, come here, come here, come here.

I wanna entrust with you my resources before I go on a trip.

What resources did he have?

What was he gonna give to these servants?

Well, it says in verse number 15, to the one, he gave five talents, to another two talents and to another one talent, depending on each one's ability.

So to the first servant, he gave how many talents he gave Five.

To the second one, he gave how many talents he gave.

And to the last one, he gave how many talents he gave.

He gave it to him.

Now here's a question how much is a talent?

Your translation, another translation might say bags of gold.

So this is how much a talent is.

Are y'all ready for this?

It's a lot of money.

Twenty years worth of wages, that's a lot of money.

So y'all think about Bro no 1, with Five Talent, servant no 1.

He was entrusted with more money than he would see in his entire lifetime.

That's a lot.

He entrusted him with it.

So what were they going to do with all that they had been entrusted with?

Were they going to go to Cascreek and try to strike it rich?

Were they going to go buy some cryptocurrency?

What were they going to do?

Well, this is what it says in verse number 16.

Immediately, the man had received five talents went.

He put them to work, whatever that means, and he earned five more.

He invested them.

In the same way, the man with two.

He earned two more.

But the man who received one talent he went off, dug a hole and hid his master's money.

But something happened.

The man, the master, had been gone.

He came back.

The master verse 19,.

It says after a long time how long, we don't know, it was a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them.

So the master says okay, bro no 1, you got five.

Bro no 2, you got two.

Bro no 1,.

Bro no 3, you got one.

Okay, now I'm going to settle up the accounts.

What have you done with what I've entrusted you with?

What have you done?

The man who had received five talents approached, presented five more talents and said Master, you gave me five talents.

See, I've earned five more talents.

His master said to him well done, good and faithful servant, you were faithful over a few things.

I will put you in charge of many things.

Share your master's joy.

The man had two talents also approached.

Now I wonder how these guys approached their master.

I wonder if they approached them with like an air of confidence, like okay, I'm going to show the master what I did.

I wonder if they just kind of were kind of cool about it, like nonchalant Five, I got five more.

There you go.

I don't know how it went, I don't know how it looked, but the guy with two talents came and in the verse number 22, he approached, he said Master, you gave me two talents.

See, I've earned two more.

His master said to him well done, good and faithful servant, you were faithful over a few things.

I will put you in charge of many things.

Share your master's joy.

Then we get to verse number 24.

You know, you know who verse number 24 is about, right, y'all know that's everything.

With one talent, the man who received one talent, he also approached.

He probably approached pretty sheepishly.

You probably approached a little master.

You're a harsh man, reaping where you haven't sewn in, gathered, gathering where you haven't scattered seed.

So I was afraid and I went off and I hid your talent in the ground.

See, you have what's yours.

What?

So hold on, hold on, hold on.

This servant is blaming the master for the way he didn't steward his resources.

You'll see that he says I know you.

What are you?

You're a harsh man.

It's your fault.

You're mean, you're unloving.

It's you, you, you, you.

The servant had come to this conclusion that he couldn't trust his master.

The reason he didn't steward his resources well was because how he viewed his master.

Now, time out, step back, step back, step back, step back, step back, step back, step back.

Let's look at this story from a 30,000 foot view.

Jesus is trying to teach something.

He's trying to teach that every one of us are stewards.

We're stewards of our time, of our treasure and of our talent, and he's the master, and one day he's gonna come back and we're gonna give an account for what we've done with what we, what we've been steward and the way we view our time, the way we steward our time.

Talent and treasure has less to do it how much we have and more to do it, how we view God, so, so, so, so split this in my world.

Okay, my words are some posture okay, and what I can do is I can look at other pastors with with speaking gifts much greater than mine and I can say this guy's got way more talent than me.

So for me, because I don't have a whole lot, I'm not really gonna work on my message preparation.

I'm just gonna kind of like prepare something Saturday night at like 10 o'clock.

I mean, that's what the church thinks I do anyways, right, you know, and I'm not even gonna try, I'm not gonna work at getting better, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna study well, because they, that guy's got way more ability than me.

It's like no, no, no, no, no, it's not about how much ability you have, it's about what are you doing with what God has given you and what we can do in our life.

Sometimes it's we can say this person has more than me, this person has more talent than me, this person has more treasure than me.

So because of that, that's why I'm not doing a whole lot with this, because I only have a teensy bit.

If I had more than him over here, or if I had as much as she had over here, let me tell you I'd be putting that to work and God says nope.

That's not how it is, because the way we view our master determines what we do with what we have in our hand.

This is what he's teaching right here.

And look at how the master responds when the steward blames him in verse 26, his master replied you evil, lazy servant, if you knew that I reap where I haven't sown and and gather where I haven't scattered.

If you evil, lazy servant, he did not mince his words, he was straight up.

Tell us what you're really thinking, master.

Verse 27 then you should have deposited my money with the bankers Now, would have received my money back with interest when I return.

So take the talent from him, give it to the one that's got ten talents, for everyone who has, more is gonna be given and he will have more than enough.

But from the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.

He didn't do it.

Well.

What do you get?

What he had been given verse 30 and throw this good for nothing servant Into the outer darkness.

There will be weeping and and gnashing of teeth.

Didn't steward it Well, didn't steward it well.

Now God has put financial resources in all of our hands.

Okay, now, some of us we don't have very much financial resources.

Some of us have a lot of financial resources.

That's not what matters.

No matters how much we have.

What matters is what are we doing with what we have?

So we're gonna do the rest of the rest of the ways.

We're gonna look biblically at four, four potent, powerful principles for potent, powerful principles, right 10, 10, 80 that if you will apply you, if you will apply you can experience the financial freedom that God wants you to experience.

Here's a potent, powerful principle.

Number one Stay away from debt.

Stay away from debt.

Some of y'all thought saw that coming.

The rich rule over the poor and the borrower is slaved to the lender.

Now, guys, I get it and sometimes we're in seasons of life where we have to take on some debt, and I understand that.

But overall, can't we just agree debt is very debilitating?

Can't we all agree like debt causes a lot of stress?

Has debt ever kept you awake at night?

You ever thought like, how am I going to pay for this credit card bill?

What am I going to do?

I remember when I was 18 and I was starting out.

I was grown, I was an adult, graduated high school, had the whole world in front of me.

It was great Started getting these letters in the mail, these things in the mail that I had never gotten before, and they came from companies that some of them I hadn't even heard of before.

They came from companies like Mastercard and American Express and Visa and Capital One.

I was like I saw a commercial for Capital One one time and I was getting all these things in the mail and y'all know what I was getting.

What was I getting?

I was getting credit cards.

They were giving them all to me and these multi-billion dollar companies were giving this 18-year-old this liberating permission to buy things I didn't need With money.

I didn't have To impress people, I didn't even like it was awesome, there it is.

So now I could take this plastic and I could swipe.

I could go to the Nike outlet and buy a lot of shoes.

I noticed when I'm looking at these letters and I'm opening them up, I'm noticing there's a little number in the fine print At the bottom.

I don't know if you know what I'm talking about Interest.

It was like 30% or something ludicrous.

I was a high risk and while I didn't have a lot of sense at 18, I had enough sense to say I need to stay away from this credit card.

Gotta stay away, because what can happen is debt can bring us into bondage and guys, like I said before, I know there are seasons of our life where maybe we have to do some of that and do some things like get that.

But one of the reasons why God warns us about debt is because he wants you to live in freedom.

And if debt brings us into bondage and God wants us to live in freedom, then God loves us enough to tell us hey, just be careful, just be careful.

And I can just say personally, if you're at a place right now where you're just overwhelmed and you're like I just can't even breathe, I would love to personally help you find a financial peace university that can just help you get some tools to get out of debt.

And if we can stay away from debt, if we can minimize our debt, we can really start living out this 10, 1080 principle, which is really powerful.

Here's the first 10.

This principle number two, it's a learn to give.

It's a learn to give, give 10%.

Jesus says in Luke, chapter six given it will be given to you, a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap, for with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

Here's what Jesus is saying you can't out give God, you can't out give God.

In fact, there was one time in the scripture where Jesus actually told people I said I want you to test me, I want you to test me.

It's almost like did you guys grow up ever tell somebody?

Did you ever tell somebody?

I dare you to do this.

So everybody, every friend group you have like that one friend that's more likely to do something dumb than the rest of the people in the friend group.

You know what I'm saying?

Right, got that one friend.

Some of you were that one friend.

And if you guys got that one friend, okay, here we go.

Here's your one friend.

You dare them.

Or if you really need to up the ante, you double dog dare them.

Or if it's super, super serious, triple dog, dare them.

Now they got to do it.

Right, god said to his people he said I want you to test me, I dare you to do something.

Hmm, now I'll try.

310.

Bring the full 10th into the storehouse so there may be food in my house.

What's those next two words?

Let's say it together Ready, test me, test me.

Hey, hey, test me.

Put me to the test In this way, says the Lord of armies see if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure.

I dare you to do this and see if I don't bless you.

I dare you and watch what I can do.

He says give me your first fruits, put me first and see what I can do with the other 90%.

We can say it this way God can do more with 90 than you can do with 100.

What do you say?

God can do more with 90 than you can do with 100.

I know some of us are out, I don't know about that.

God says hi, dare you.

God says test me.

This past week I want to tell you guys me and Pastor Cody we were talking about going out to lunch.

I don't know about you guys, but when it comes to going out to lunch and different food places, me and Pastor Cody were really not that fancy.

Some of you guys in the room, some of you guys are pretty bougie, right.

When some of you all want to go out to eat, you guys are like I'm going to Napa, we're going to the fancy places.

Me and Pastor Cody, we're satisfied with going to Chipotle.

Any Chipotle fans in the room, my people, my people, I see all.

Yes, yes, chipotle is wonderful, it's great.

It's healthy-ish right, pretty healthy right.

You can get like a chicken burrito or a chicken bowl for right around $10.

What a country.

It's still possible, right around $10.

So we're talking about this.

So if he gets a burrito and I get one, 10 plus 10, that's about 20 bucks.

So if it's about 20 bucks, we can go out to lunch this week.

In fact, does anybody in the room have $20 that I can have so we can go out to lunch this week?

Oh, brennan, you have $20.

You're going to give me this $20?

Are you sure you can give me this $20.

?

I need more friends like you, bro.

I need more friends like you.

That's right.

That's right.

Yeah, we can clap for Brennan.

Hey, pastor Cody, I'm buying.

I'm buying.

Back to where we were.

Now some of you are thinking what in the world just happened?

Why did Pastor Nate take that poor teenager's money and why was he so quick to give it to him?

Why did he just raise his hand and just give it to him?

Some of you are thinking how come I didn't raise my hand and give it to you, nate?

I'm asking the same question.

Well, let me explain something.

It wasn't his money.

So before the service, I went to Brennan.

I said hey, brennan, can you help me with something?

I was like so in the service, I'm going to give this illustration and blah, blah, blah, I'm asked for $20.

When asked for the $20, here's the $20.

Can you raise your hand and just give it to me?

I said, yeah, no problem, because it wasn't his money.

He's like yeah, I'll give it to you, no big deal.

I didn't have to argue with him.

We didn't let go back and forth.

He was like no, I'm not going to do that, nate.

I was like yeah, sure, no big deal.

I'm like are you sure?

He's like yeah, cool, it wasn't his money.

So when I asked for it, he's like yeah, here you go, it's yours, it's yours.

Now here's what happens when we have a hard time giving, we think it's our money.

When really it's God's money, we think it's ours when it's his, and you think about the graciousness and the goodness of God right here.

Think about this, guys God says I want a small portion back and if you will learn to give a small portion back to me, what's going to happen?

It's going to strengthen your faith.

So what I'm going to do, god says I'm going to give all of this to you and you just give me a small portion back.

And in other words, I'm going to supply to you what I'm going to command you to give back to me in just a small number.

Think about this God supplies what he commands us to give.

God supplies what do you command us to give in God good.

And then God says give what I already supply to you and just give me a small portion back, and then you're gonna see that you can test me.

You're gonna see that you can trust me.

Some of us in the room were like I want my faith to grow.

You want your faith to grow, learn to give.

I know it's scary, but take the test.

Last week we mentioned something.

We mentioned a 90 day Tithe challenge and I honestly, I would encourage some of you and I'm gonna challenge some of y'all right now that have been following Jesus for a while but you have not given up to that number.

To take 90 days, not nine months, not nine years, not 90 years but to take 90 days and say I'm gonna give from September 1st to December 1st, I'm gonna give 10%.

I'm gonna give 10%.

Now here's the thing If you don't believe that God will meet your needs as a church, we will 100% give it all back to you at the end of this.

So it's risk-free.

And this is why we do this, because we believe that if you will learn to trust God, you will learn you cannot out-give God.

Now I gotta stop for a second Cause in the room.

You're not yet a Jesus follower and you're super uncomfortable and you're like ah, okay, I am not inviting you, if you're not yet a Jesus follower, to give.

This is what I want you to know.

60 seconds.

If you're not a Jesus follower yet, lean in.

Before God ever asked something from us, we give something to us.

The best gift he ever gave us was his son Jesus.

God gave his son Jesus to us.

God gave his son Jesus to us and if we will turn from our sin and trust Jesus to be our savior, we can experience eternal life.

Scripture says that we are primarily not.

We are not good people in need of improvement.

We are sinful people in need of a savior.

And you might be in the room and you're like, okay, okay, so Jesus he gave this gift of.

Okay, I think I understand some of this.

This is what I want you to do.

You can take out the green card and you could indicate decide to follow Jesus.

Or you could scan a QR code around you and indicate decide to follow Jesus, and we would love to help you and give you more information about what does it mean to follow Jesus and make him your Lord and your savior.

If you are somebody here that's a Jesus follower and you wanna take this 90 day challenge, this is what I'm gonna encourage you to do.

I'm gonna encourage you to either mark on here taking the 90 day challenge or scan the QR code and indicate taking the 90 day challenge, because I wanna send you some resources that have helped me personally in this area, because I know it's really hard to help you grow and take steps in this area.

Okay, so here we go.

We gotta hurry, okay.

So first 10 is we give.

First 10 is we give.

Okay.

Second 10,.

Second 10 is we save okay.

Second 10 is we save.

We gotta hurry.

We got some baptisms, this is gonna be great.

So we give, we save.

In Proverbs, chapter 13,.

Proverbs 13 · chapter mention

It says a good man leaves inheritance to his grandchildren, but the sinner's wealth is stored up for the righteous.

Now, while the Bible doesn't give a percentage of how much you should save, it gives a principle of saving.

This is why savings is important, guys, because stuff happens Way more than we wish, right?

It's like why did?

Why did my dishwasher go out?

Why did my refrigerator go out?

Why do I have to get a new alternator on my car?

And it's like there's this money, there's that money.

It's like where is this money gonna come from?

From savings.

And what savings does is savings turns emergencies into inconveniences.

Savings turns emergencies into inconveniences.

So this happens, yeah.

It's like oh, this is annoying, but it's not an emergency, like I'm losing my hair, I'm stressed out.

It's just gotta go into savings a little bit.

That's what it does.

So we give, we save.

10, 10, and then 80,.

Principle four we live, we live.

It says in Philippians 419,.

My God will supply all of your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus.

Notice, god doesn't promise to meet all of our wants, but he promises to meet all of our needs.

Now you might look at this in your.

You might think 80%, there's no way.

You don't even understand.

Like, okay, I get it.

So this is what I would invite you to do, something that I've done.

That's really uncomfortable and it's actually uncomfortably surprising too.

So what you do?

You write a list with the line right in the middle of it Needs on the side, wants on the side, needs want.

Then you look at where you spent your money over the last 30 or 60 or 90 days and you transfer what's a need and what's a want.

Now here's what's in the needs category food, shelter, transportation.

That's the need.

Now, this is what we do, right?

We're like football game tickets.

Oh, my favorite singer has a concert at Levi Stadium.

That's a need.

$500 that's guys, guys.

It's okay, you can want some stuff.

There's nothing wrong with that, but you got to be who.

I identify what's a need and what is a wants and when.

You can identify these.

It will give you Uncomfortable clarity that might show you this is actually possible.

And can you imagine what would happen in your life if you lived at a percentage of 80 percent, which would give you margin that you could actually say for emergencies.

It would be so freeing.

And, guys, when God gives us his, his, his plan for financial peace, for financial freedom, it's like we said last week, it's because he wants something for us.

He doesn't want something From us.

And if you will follow this plan, this is what you'll find.

You'll find that this whole idea of living our lives built built on scripture and Building our lives built on God's value system even though it seems like nobody else is doing this right, but you truly will say, god, I'm gonna build every single air of my life on scripture, on your value system.

You're gonna see this.

It works.

You're gonna see, like Jesus, you know what you're talking about and we don't follow Jesus because he makes our life better.

We follow Jesus because he's better than life.

But if you follow Jesus, I believe he will make your life better, and some of us are in An uncomfortable step away from experiencing financial freedom.

10, 10.

Try to stay away from debt, give 10, save 10 and live on the rest, and you'll experience what God wants to do in your financial life.

Let's pray together, father.

I just thank you.