God Owns It All | The Almighty Dollar S5 E1

Welcome to the Island's Christian Church podcast.

Subscribe to hear a new episode every week.

Thanks for joining us. Yeah, so we're beginning this

brand new series today called The Almighty Dollar.

Good series title, right? You guys just love talking about

money at church. It's our favorite thing to do.

All right, but if I don't know if you know this or not, the

Bible, especially the New Testament, the Bible as a whole

talks about money a lot. But the New Testament, Jesus

himself only talked about the Kingdom of God more than he

talked about money. So money is a prevalent subject

in the Bible, and that makes sense.

A friend of mine recently said, he said, you know, Steven kind

of said it like, you know, matter of factly, like almost as

if I didn't know. He said, you know, Steven, money

runs the world. That's what he said.

He said money runs the world. And on one level, that feels

true, doesn't it? Like money runs the world.

It affects your decisions. It affects other people's

decisions. It affects opportunities.

Like the opportunities you can take in your life really are

dependent upon money. It affects your stress.

It definitely affects your security.

Have you ever had apprehension and feelings of fear because you

don't have a lot of money about the future?

Money can cause insecurity, can cause stress.

Money effects wars, nations, and my goodness, can we all agree

that money effects politics? I mean, nobody said Amen except

for my buddy over here like Fred's had Amen.

But everybody else is like, I don't know, maybe y'all not

watching the news. Money effects politics man.

It affects everything. Money, money.

See, my friend seems to be right that money seems to run the

world. And so falling into the trap

that money runs the world is quite easy.

Usually we're more likely to fall into the trap because if

we're being honest, money doesn't just seem to run the

world. Money seems to run my heart.

It seems to run my life. I used to always, you hear

people say, you know, money does funny things to people.

You ever heard anybody say that money does funny things to

people? I like to say money does funny

things to me. I like to be honest.

The reason that we seen it seems like money runs the world.

This seems like it because it has sway over peace and

happiness and hope. It seems to and we invite that

power and that authority into our hearts.

We allow that. In other words, that's a, that's

a, that's a, a gate we let down, that's a drawbridge we let down.

That's a, that's a door we open up.

And if we're honest, most of us, we're not quite sure if there's

even a possible way to live differently.

Like we're, we kind of, we go to church and we kind of want there

to be a different way to live. But if we're honest, we're like,

I'm not sure if there is another way to live without money having

to sway over my heart that it does.

Now, my hope is in this series is that we'll replace the

almighty dollar with our almighty God.

Like that's that's what I hope we'll do it.

And for some of us, maybe just might be a little bit.

And for some of us, it may be a full, you know, renovation of

our heart. And what I'm hoping in the

series is that we'll move from living as though money runs the

world and money runs our life to living as we know God is

sovereign. God runs the world and God runs

my life that I can trust him. That's what I hope happens in

this series. We're going to discuss money

saving. We're going to discuss giving.

We're going to talk about investing and how the Bible

talks about these things. In other words, the whole series

is not going to be about why you should give money away.

So if you're sitting here thinking like, I don't want to

go to this series, like he's just going to be hammering

giving money away, we will talk about that one week.

But we're going to be talking about the Bible has how the

Bible views money, which is way more than just generosity.

It it all belongs to God. As you're going to see today.

We're going to be talking about how the Bible talks about

investing and how it talks about saving all of those things.

Here's the reason I'm doing this series.

And to be frank with you, I don't do this a lot.

Maybe because I'm fearful, maybe because I'm not a very good

pastor, maybe because I am a good pastor.

It's your decision. I don't know.

But as I became convicted through the last part of last

year, just talking to some friends, one friend in

particular who kept saying to me, you know, man, money is

money isn't what we do with our money is an act of worship.

What we do with our money is an act of worship.

If the Bible says that our worship is a living sacrifice,

then what we do with our money is an act of worship is I just

became convicted. Like I don't talk about this

enough. And you know, I was like, I just

I got to face this be a man, right?

And what I realized is like money and what we do with money

and how money controls us really is a discipleship issue.

It's really a Jesus following issue.

And so money, I'm hoping this series as we talk about the

almighty dollar will form you and I me you into deeper

disciples of Jesus Christ. Like that's what I really did.

This is a formation series that this isn't a, you know, I got to

get back. Like I don't want this to be a

series about shame and guilt. And I feel terrible and I've not

been great with money or I feel amazing because I'm really good

with money. I don't want to be that at all.

I want to be like, how am I surrendering to Christ with my

money? How is Christ forming my heart

as it relates to my money? So let's jump into our first

scripture today. We're going to get 3 scripture

passages, and so we're going to jump on our first one here,

Psalm 24, verse one. This is like a foundational

thing you have to know as we get into this series.

Psalm 24, verse one, this is what it says.

The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and

all who live in it. Super simple, right?

The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and

all who live in it. This verse gives us exactly what

I hope we will discover throughout this whole series,

but especially today. So if you take notes, here's

kind of our main idea today. You ready?

Most of our money challenges are not about the dollars.

Most of our money challenges are not about the dollars.

They're about authority. Can I say that again, most of

our money challenges are not about our dollars.

How much we have, how much we don't have.

Most of our money challenges come down to authority, the

authority. So there's three ideas that

we're going to unpack today #1 God owns it all #2 money is a

terrible master, and #3 we don't own, we manage.

So first of all, God owns it all.

When authority for your life, like who's in charge of your

life becomes unclear, money will always take the position of

authority in your life. Can I say that again?

Because I that's just the kind of thing that just goes,

especially if you're young, that just kind of goes over your

head. You always have an authority in

your life. You think it's you.

That's what you think. Like if you're not a believer in

God, like if you don't believe in Jesus, you don't buy into

this Jesus stuff. You think you're in charge of

your life, you think you're the authority, but you're not.

There really only are two options.

Maybe you could argue that, but for most people, let's say this,

for most people, if the authority of structure in your

heart and in your mind, if the authority of your life is

unclear, like you're not quite sure who's in charge of your

life, who has the say over your life, then what I'm telling you

is that money will take that position of authority in your

life. When you're unclear about who's

in charge of your life, money will fill the gap.

The psalmist says that God owns everything, that he he owns the

world and everything in it. Now we might struggle to believe

this because when you look at our culture, that our culture is

screaming another message. The Bible says that God owns

everything. He owns the Lord.

He owns the earth and everything in it.

OK, the culture is screaming a different message.

What is culture saying? Culture is saying who owns

everything? You, You own everything.

And, and in our culture, the basis of success, the basis of

having a good life, how you know you've arrived, how you know

you're successful is that you own some stuff, you have some

stuff. And so owning stuff is the mark

of living a good life. I mean, we celebrate, I mean,

we're, we live in the social media age.

We celebrate people's first car like they got a medical degree,

like we take a picture of our kid when they're 20/19/17,

whatever. Like when they buy their first

car. Not when we give them their

first car, but when they buy their first car.

Like it's like I'm letting all my friends I went to high school

and college with know that I'm a really good parent because my 20

year old bought their very first car on their own.

Look at this, Junior bought his first truck today.

We're so proud. I mean, really, the reality is

junior just went into debt. But but culturally, I'm a good

parent because my junior bought his first vehicle.

What do we tell young people? Like we tell them like you got

to what you have to do is you have to, you have to own

property. You have to own a house.

Is that what we tell young people?

We say you, then you get and my kids, listen, Claire's up here.

She'll tell you she's saving money.

She'll if you go, why are you saving money, Claire?

She goes, I got to own a house one day like she's 16 years old,

like saving money for a house because we tell our kids our

culture screaming our kids having a house is the mark of

success. Having having property is the

mark of success. And what that turns into is

owning stuff becomes kind of how we know we've arrived in life,

having ownership. And so I mean, what other

cultures have stored each unit businesses to the level that the

United States does? Nobody like, I mean, can, can

y'all think about that critically for a second?

Like, do developing countries buy a property and build little

mini warehouses for people to put their junk in?

So I'm not like trying to be like, you know, cutting.

I'm just trying to say I'm trying to diagnose the culture.

Why do we have, why do we have storage units?

Why is that a business model? I mean, I've told Mary Ann for

years, like, we should buy a storage unit business.

Like we should just buy one that exists.

They make money. Why do we have that?

Because owning ownership is how you know you've arrived.

And so it's very difficult for Americans specifically to

believe that no, God owns everything.

He owns it all. I own nothing that goes against

the current of our culture. Now don't don't misunderstand

me. I am not opposed to a private

ownership economy. If you hang out with me, you

will find that I'm very much a believer in private ownership of

property as a basis for economy. I actually happen to believe

it's the way to have the most stable economy in the world.

But you can see how that way of thinking that everything in the

world is up for grabs for ownership dilutes the belief of

the Bible, which says God owns everything.

And so our culture says everything's up for grabs for

ownership, and whoever dies with the most stuff wins.

The Bible says you cannot own anything.

You don't own anything, own anything.

God owns it all and everything in the world.

But to live like you don't own anything.

What I mean is like, it's one thing to be like, I don't own

anything, but to actually live that way is very difficult.

To stop thinking like an owner requires us to live differently

than how our culture trains us to live.

It requires us to replace our thinking about ownership with

more sober thinking. And what I mean is this, you

have to like consistently remind yourself daily that you don't

own anything because you didn't create anything.

In other words, if I said to you, make a house just not like

go buy materials and hire contractors.

I mean make the trees that buy that provide the lumber, you

can't do that. You have to remind yourself

consistently that I don't that everything that's existing comes

from a hand and it's not my hand.

Let me read you this next verse, Psalm 24, verse 2, and you'll,

Psalms 24:2

and you'll see what I mean. The one who made it owns it.

Listen to verse verse 224 for he founded it on the seas.

He's talking about the earth, for he founded the earth on the

seas and established it on the waters.

Now, and you go back to Genesis. The Bible says that the, the IT

was dark and formless and water covered water covered the earth,

right? And so the existence of land,

the existence of culture, the existence of society is the

existence of being able to produce is because God went, I'm

going to take from the waters and I'm going to bring up land

and then establish it with people.

I'm going to establish this on the waters.

And what we know just instinctively, because we're

we're good Americans, we're good Western American.

We get this. Like if you found something like

if you start a company, if you start a business, then who owns

the business you started? As long as you don't sell it,

who owns the business you started?

You do. That's not a trick question,

right? You're like, well, I don't know,

man. I mean, is he trying to trick

me? If you found a business, if you

start the company, you own it. We'll apply that to this passage

of Scripture. He founded it on the seas and he

established it on the waters, right?

And so if you see like a, like a business sign and it's like, you

know, whatever Jimmy's dry cleaning and it says established

2012, then that tells you that Jimmy, assuming Jimmy owns it,

Jimmy established his dry, Jimmy owns the dry cleaners, right?

It's the same principle for what what the psalmist is saying is

that the earth was founded by God, is established by God, and

everything in it belongs to him because he founded it, he owns

it. And what goes with ownership?

So like my, my friend, my friend Ada here owns a construction

company and I try to tell him what to do all the time.

I show up at his job sites and say, don't do that.

Do this instead. He never lets me have authority

over over his job sites. I'm making this up.

I never go to his job sites and do this, making it up on the

spot to to be an analogy. But if I go to his job site and

say, hey, don't, let's don't, let's don't do the floors today,

man. Let's let's top out the

plumbing. Like let's just do that instead.

He would look at me like I was stupid, first of all, because

that's not how you do that. But the more important thing is

he founded it. He established it, established

it. What does he have?

What does he have over it? Authority.

He has authority over it. He gets to call the shots.

He's in charge. Does this make sense?

And this is so countercultural for us.

It's so challenging for us because we can't help but think

like owners. But God founded everything.

He established everything. He owns everything.

And He has the authority For most people, when they reject

God's authority in their life, they replace his authority not

with, you know, another God or good friends.

What most people do when they reject the authority of God in

their life is they replace that authority with money or

ownership or possessions. And so that the single most

important thing to them becomes having more, not always for

nefarious reasons, like don't, don't.

It's not like they're going, I'm going to control the world.

Let me get all I can get. Sometimes it's for good reasons.

Like I just need more because I want to feel safe and I want to

feel secure and I want to have a good retirement and I want my my

wife, if I die, to have plenty, right?

But all this language is based on authority and based on

trusting something other than the one who owns everything.

Does this make sense? And So what most of us do is

when we reject the authority of God in our lives, the authority

of money takes over. So when authority in your life

is unclear, money will step in to fill the gap.

Remember, I told you most of our challenges with money are not

the dollars. Most of our challenges with

money are authority. Who has authority in my life?

So God owns it all. That's that's movement one

movement 2 or idea 2 that we want to talk about today is

money will make a terrible master.

So if you write notes, write stuff down, write that down,

money will money makes a terrible master.

Listen to what Paul says, the apostle Paul, early Christian

writer, first Timothy 610. This is what it says you ready?

It says for the love of money, everybody say love.

All right. For the love of money is a root

of all, a root, a root of all kinds of evil.

Some people eager for money have made money their master, have

made money their authority. Some people eager for money have

wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many

griefs. Now, this passage is often

misquoted. I just saw it yesterday on

social media. This passage was misquoted.

Do you know how most people misquote this passage?

They don't. What do they say?

They say, they say this. They say for money is the root

of all evil. That's what if you ever heard

that before, people say for money is the root of all evil.

That is not what Paul wrote. So when you're on your social

media and people are like, well, you know, the Bible says money

is the root of all evil. You can just write back, copy

paste the verse and be like, hey, try reading the Bible

before you quote the Bible. I'm just, you shouldn't say it

that way, but yeah, yeah, you should, you know, like we got to

correct, like we got to clean this up, all right?

Like I'm just like, we got to clean this up.

Just say, hey, please don't, please don't quote the book

unless you read the book, all right?

That the Bible doesn't say that the text says it's not that

money is the root of all evil. That's not what the Bible says

at all. I mean, that is that is like

that, that would be like, oh, I better live under a rock and

have no money. That's definitely out of

alignment with the script. As you're going to see, God

actually blesses us with money. He actually gives us money.

We're going to see that in this series that like he gives the

rich their money for their enjoyment.

Like, wait, do I show you this? It's like the Bible's hardly

anti money, but if you think the Bible says for the for money is

the root of all evil, then you would think the Bible's anti

money. But that's not what the Bible

says. What the Bible says is that it's

the love of money that is a root, a root of all kinds of

evil. In other words, there are other

roots that lead to evil than just the love of money.

Right? There are.

I mean, you think about it just a moment, you can figure it out.

And So what Paul is saying is that it's not money that's evil,

it's it's the hearts that have made money, the authority that

have made money, their God that have decided to love money.

And to love money means to give it devotion, to give it

authority in your life. And what this text says, it just

throw that text back up there for a second notice.

Notice what this text says when you give money the authority in

your life, when you love it and you give it devotion.

What? Because notice he says some

people eager for money. He didn't say all people eager

for money got to read the Bible carefully.

This isn't like a hard and fast rule.

This is like, hey, the odds are stacked against you.

Statistically, this isn't good. If you make money your God, if

you, if you give an authority and devotion in your life, Some

people who do that have wondered from the faith, well, duh, if

you don't, if you choose money as your God, then God can't be

your God. So you wonder from the faith.

Now look and have pierced themselves with many griefs.

Now is it, Is it just for clarity?

Is it money that pierces us with many griefs?

Everybody shake their head no, it's not money that pierces us

with many griefs. What is it the love and the

devotion to money that pierces us with many griefs And notice,

notice this here. Money does not attack us in this

tech. Money doesn't it's not money

going I'm going to get you. Money doesn't attack us.

No, it's it's my devotion to money.

It's my love of money and it listen, listen, listen.

I'm putting some expectations on money to do something for me

that it cannot do, and it's going to collapse under the

weight of those expectations. Does this make sense?

It's my wrongly looking at money that leads to being pierced with

griefs. When we are devoted to money,

inevitably, inevitably, it will come crashing down under that

weight of devotion. It will.

And the Bible says Paul says you and I will be injured by that

crash. And it isn't because of money.

It's because of devotion to money.

It's grievous. It grieves us as you trust it.

It grieves you as you trust it. It grieves you.

And maybe you've noticed this in your life.

If we're honest, many of us don't have to be convinced of

this. We felt it.

How many times has money created anxiety for you?

Like not enough trying to pay this bill.

Not sure are we going to have enough for retirement?

I wish I could have this. How many times has the

comparison game made your life miserable?

Like the people that are the same age as you who are better

off than you and you're like, man, what did I do wrong?

I don't know. Why can't I get my life together

fear strained relationships How many marriages have been

destroyed because of money? Like we know that money causes

griefs, and the reason is is because we're asking money to do

more than it was ever meant to do Here's another thing.

Here's another thing that happens when you were devoted to

love as Paul to use Paul's words love money.

Your generosity is always tainted with a little

apprehension always Now that's that's this is a hard thing to

say. The Bible says that commands us

to give with a cheerful heart. And that's, that's not just

about giving to your church. Like, please don't like just

giving in general, like how you are generous to just people.

The Bible says to do that cheerfully.

But if I'm devoted to money, if I have a love relationship with

money, then even when I'm generous, it will be tainted

with apprehension. It will be tainted with

apprehension. All of this because I'm devoted

to and I trust and I've given authority in my life to money.

And here's the thing about this grief.

Most of the grief that comes from trusting money in your life

is not dramatic. It isn't like all of a sudden

your life fell apart and you go, oh, this is because I was

trusting money. No, it's never dramatic.

Most of the grief that comes from trusting and being devoted

to money to our lives is just daily erosion of joy, peace and

confidence. And it is cumulative.

It's cumulative. One day we just wake up and

we're a miserable person that nobody wants to be around.

And it's all links back to our devotion and love of money, our

trust in it, our giving it of authority.

Now, all of this is not because money is evil, but because money

is a terrible master. And trusting money causes all

types of griefs in our lives. That's just what the Bible says.

So if God owns everything and money is a terrible master, then

here's our question. We got to end with this.

What role does God intend for money to play?

I mean, money's here. Do you know what I mean?

Like, you can't deny that. It's like, it would it be easier

if, like, it just wasn't here? Sure.

Like, whatever. But there's an economy and

there's money and. And it's.

Yeah, that's real. So if God owns it all and

money's a terrible master, then what is the role that money's

intended to play? Well, here we go.

Or what is the role? Better question is, if I'm not

supposed to trust money, I'm supposed to trust God?

Like, how do I live differently? How do I live without facing

those griefs? You ready .3 Movement 3 Here it

is. We don't own, We don't own.

We manage. We don't own.

Write that down. We don't own, We manage.

You don't own anything. I don't own anything.

We establish that God owns everything, including our money.

My role is to manage or to steward, and that is a necessary

mindset change that I have to make every single day.

I have to constantly remind myself that everything I have

has been given to me by God to manage on His behalf.

And by doing that reminder project in my heart and in my

mind every day, I'm able to avoid the pains, or at least

some of the pains that are brought to us by making money

our Master. Does that make sense?

I have to remind myself constantly I'm not the owner,

I'm the manager and this helps keep those griefs at Bay.

You have to remember, our money challenges are not about the

dollars we have and don't have. Our money challenges are about

authority. Getting the authority right in

our lives is the key. It's not the almighty dollar

that runs our hearts, At least it shouldn't be.

It's the Almighty Lord that runs our hearts.

We're not, we're not instructed by by the Bible to reject money

or avoid money or go live in a cave somewhere and be like, I'm

not participating in the economy like that is not what the Bible

teaches us to do at all. Actually, the Bible encourages

us to be engaged in the economy of the society we live in.

I'm thinking of the, the, the book of Jeremiah right now to,

to seek the the good of our society, of our culture.

So this is not what the Bible teaches us, but we are told in

the Bible to view everything that is in our realm of

possession, like everything that we have in our realm of

possession actually as belonging to God.

And then we are charged with being stewards or managers of

it. That is how we're called to view

money. And here's the here's the next

part. And we will be held to an

account for how we manage that which we've been entrusted.

And that's a whole other sermon. But it's not just like I'm a

manager and I'm a steward and it's never going to come up.

Actually, the Bible does say it's going to come up.

God cares about his stuff. Do you care about your stuff?

You care about your stuff? If you gave me, if you gave me

something to take care of for you for a while.

So he take care of this for me for 4-5 years.

I'm coming back from Europe in 4-5 years.

Will you take care of this? And you came back and I just

basically wore it out and just destroyed it and didn't maintain

it. Would you be happy with that, or

would you not ask me about it? Anyway, this perspective is

foundational. When we understand that

everything belongs to God, it changes how we manage money.

We move from an ownership mindset to a stewardship

mindset. And this isn't just about giving

money away. That's not what this is about.

God is interested, let's say you give away 15 or 20% of your

income. God is interested in the other

85 and 80% of the money that you spend like it's, it's about

stewardship of everything he's given you.

We stop asking how do I want to spend my money and what do I

want to do? What vacation do I want to go

on? Where do we want to invest this?

We stop asking those questions and what we start doing as we

start asking questions like this.

God even trusted a lot of resources to me, or a little bit

of resources to me. What do you want me to do with

them? You ask that question when you

are a believer in Jesus Christ. You ask it, How do you, how do

you want me to manage what belongs to you?

That prayer life reminds me that I don't own this stuff, that

I've been entrusted this stuff. And as this mindset change takes

place, the the grief of trusting money is replaced with something

that this is important. Please, I know we're close to

the end and you're like, wrap it up.

But hear this, OK, As you, as you make this mindset change and

you go from ownership mindset to stewardship mindset, you, you

begin to move the grief in the heartache out of your life and

it's replaced with something else.

And it's replaced with a kind and gracious God who is marked

by generosity. Please hear what I just said.

Instead of the pain of grief and, you know, fear and anxiety

around money, what that gets replaced with is a kind and

gracious God who is marked by generosity.

Listen to Romans 832. This is what he says.

He says He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us

all, how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all

things? That means that we can trust.

That means that we can trust that the resources God has given

us are not given to us begrudgingly.

He's a generous God. He gave us His Son.

How much more will He not give us all things?

But why did He give us these things?

He gave us these things for His purposes and for His mission,

for what He's about in this world, so that we can execute

His purposes in this world. We can manage, you can manage

what God has given you without fear and anxiety.

See if, if I'm the owner, if I'm the authority over my money,

fear and anxiety come up naturally.

But if I look at everything I have as this belonging to God,

fear and anxiety don't come up. Why?

Because I have a gracious and kind and loving Heavenly Father

who's like, no, everything I'm giving you let's, this is

important. Everything I'm giving you is

exactly what I know you need. I'm not giving you too little

and I'm not giving you too much, Steven.

Like, yeah, I'm not going to ask you this, but you know, when the

lottery was like at $1.20 million or something, 21.7

billion. Do you guys remember that a few

days ago I didn't buy a ticket? Like I you were like, why

wouldn't you buy a ticket? I can't take a chance of

screwing up my life. You know how bad my children's

lives would be all of a sudden, You know how bad everything

would be for me? I have to go into hiding.

How am I go preach the gospel if I'm in hiding somewhere because

I just won $1.2 billion? Like, that's crazy.

I'm like you No way. Now, if you played it and you

want to just put it in the black box out there in the lobby, all

right, I got I got a building renovation we're trying to do,

but we just tear this one down, build a whole new one, brother.

But so again, I'm not opposed to money, don't get me wrong, but

but what this is what I mean is, is this is that my Heavenly

Father, I can trust that what I have in my bank account, what I

have, my retirement accounts, what I have that what I'm

driving the old cars that I drive, I can trust it.

That's exactly what he wants from me.

I can trust that. And so I don't have to have fear

and anxiety and I can trust that as I pray and as I try to think

like a steward, he's going to lead me in managing his

resources. I don't have to live in panic

and fear because here's the thing, if you own the company

and I manage it, when the resources fluctuate up and down,

that's not my problem. When the income goes up and

down, that's your problem. In other words, I don't have to

panic about the resources. I'm not in charge of the

resourcing. I'm in charge of managing the

resources that I've been entrusted.

I've been entrusted by a gracious and loving father.

And notice this too. Your identity and your worth in

the culture is all about what you own, what you possess.

But what Paul says is that he who did not spare his only son

for you, your identity and worth is not what you possess, but

what was given for you. What was given for you was God's

very own son. That's how much you're worth.

It's not what you own. It's not what you possess, no

matter what culture says, instead of God created you and

saved you and loves you. OK, Steven, what can I do?

It's got to do something out of the sermon.

Well, think like a manager, not an owner.

All right. OK, I'm a manager.

What should a manager do? Well, this is what I think a

manager should do. You can argue with me, but I

think a manager should take an inventory of that which he's

been given to manage. And I think that could be a

project for you this week. I think you and your spouse, if

you're married, you by yourself could sit down and go, OK, how

much do I own? How much do I owe?

And that's not meant to like call shame or fear or anxiety,

you know, kind of like, well, I'm managing this.

I'm not in charge. I'm just in charge of this for

my lifetime. God owns it.

But if you're going to manage somebody's resources, you ought

to know what you've been given. So let's say it this way.

What if this week you took a financial snapshot of your life?

What if you and your spouse sat down or you by yourself sat down

and went, How much money do we have?

How many cars do we have? What is the real estate that we

own? How much debt do we have?

How much retirement do we have? And then write it all down and

look at it. Establish your net worth, if you

will, and say, OK, Lord, all of this, we have been charged by

you to manage it. You own this.

We're the stewards. So we're going to start praying

over what it is you're calling us to do with that, what you've

given us. Again, that doesn't always mean

giving it away. It might mean that it just means

you're not in charge. It means you're asking the one

who is in charge. That's all it means.

And as you do that, it may be a bit depressing.

It may be a bit like, whoa, look at this.

Do not let money get its hooks in you either good or bad.

Like look how poor of a decision maker you've been, or look how

great of a decision maker you've been.

Don't let it get its hooks in you.

Instead say, this has nothing to do with my value in my worth.

My value in worth was established by the generous God

who gave His one and only Son for me and invited me in to

managing all that He owns. What a good and gracious God we

have. Will you stand with me as we

pray together? Father, thank You that you are

not a taskmaster. Thank you that you owned the the

cattle on 1000 hills, that the earth is yours and everything in

it for you founded it on the seas and established it on the

waters. You founded it, you established

it. You want it all.

Help us to be people who think like managers and stewards and

give us the courage this week to take this step, to do a

financial snapshot to see exactly what it is that you have

entrusted to us to manage. What is it exactly?

Is it that we own or we don't own, but you own and we manage?

Remind us, God, that our challenges with money are not

about the dollars. Our challenges with the money

are about who has authority over our lives.

In Christ's name we pray, Amen. Thank you, friends.

Have a blessed week and a wonderful day.

We love you so much.