Abound, Part 2: Breaking the Spirit of Mammon // Luke Humbrecht

Hi, welcome to the Vine Life Church podcast.

We're in Boulder, Colorado, and we're following Jesus by staying rooted in his presence, growing in his family, and living on his mission so that hearts are awakened with his all-inspire.

And if we can help you in any way, reach out to us at VineLife.com.

For now, here's a short sermon from last week in Finalife.

Again, thanks for joining us.

Announcements, Luke's gonna come up and bring an amazing word.

Alright.

Thanks, Jeanette.

Good morning.

Good morning, guys.

Good to see you.

If you have your Bibles this morning, we're gonna start in 2 Corinthians chapter 9.

2 Corinthians 9 · chapter mention

You can turn there while I set this up this morning.

If we haven't met yet, my name is Luke.

So good to have you guys with us this morning.

We're gonna we are gonna jump into the Word.

But let's just pause for a moment.

We have about 25 students coming back from winter camp, probably as I speak right now.

They just had a weekend of encountering God up in the mountains.

And so let's just hold them in our hearts as we pray.

And let's welcome the Holy Spirit.

We thank you for your goodness here with us today.

As we open your word, God, we do open us up, open up our hearts.

We thank you for your voice that nourishes us.

We thank you that your voice is our bread, it's our food.

And we hear a lot of things throughout our weeks, we hear a lot of things throughout our day, but it's your voice that we want, it's your voice that we need, God.

So would you speak to us through your word today, God?

And as our students come back from camp, we thank you for every seed deposited in their life.

That you would protect and guard it from the evil one, that it wouldn't be choked out, that it wouldn't fall on hard soil.

But thank you, Father, for your word to bear fruit in the lives of our youth, God.

That they would know you in the power of your presence, Jesus.

It's in your name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

So I'm gonna try to catch you up real quick.

We just started last week a new teaching series.

Uh, we're spending a few weeks on this whole idea.

It's called Abound, Unlocking Kingdom Generosity.

I'm gonna open up with this passage.

And in this passage, uh the Apostle Paul is writing to the Church of Corinth.

Um, and in this particular passage, he was preparing to visit the church in Corinth, and he was inviting them to contribute to the needs of another church.

And so here's what it says, 2 Corinthians 9, verse 6.

2 Corinthians 9:6

He says, Remember this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver, and God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

Everybody say abound.

Say every good work.

And really, the principle here is that we're anchoring into this belief that God's desire actually is to bless us, to actually become a people, a blessing, so that we may become a blessing.

Paul uses the word abound, which is this word means to overflow, to live lives that are more than enough, a spilling over into every good work.

How many of you guys know that God has called each and every one of us to a good work?

We are not here to just exist.

We are called to be with the Father in every good work.

And uh, and he his desire as we live these lives is to resource us, not just both for our needs, but then to resource for the work that he has called us to.

And yes, this isn't just about finances, this is about all of life.

And yet, typically where we feel this the most in our lives is around our money, right?

It's it's a conversation we're in every day.

Almost every day.

We're considering how our lives are being shaped by what's coming in and what's going out.

Truth is, uh, maybe you're here today, and when you look at your bank account, things are tight.

You just spent$8 on eggs yesterday.

You spent half your paycheck filling up your Toyota Corolla.

And you're looking at your calendar, realizing that you have more month than you do money.

And that's that's a hard place to be.

Others are here, and it's even it's even more than that.

You're outright in need of a miracle, and you're sitting right here and in the back of your mind, you've been trying to focus in on singing songs and paying attention, but you're in need of a miracle in your life, and you haven't told anybody that because you don't want to be a burden to the people in your life, but honestly, you're slightly embarrassed because there have been things you know that maybe you could have done a little bit differently to be not be in the situation you're in, um, but you're not entirely sure how much is your undoing or how much is the cards that have been dealt to you in your life, and so you're hitting sitting here today praying for a miracle, and whether it's you or your employer or just the hand of God, you need something to give in your life.

That's gonna be true for some of us here today.

And if that's you, I just want to say this I want you to know that you're in a safe place, rest assured you're in good company.

And the good news that we're anchoring into here is that we're worshiping a God who has a name, and his name is Jehovah Jirah, the God who provides.

His name is El Shaddai, the God who is more than enough.

And maybe you're here and you're in a season of provision and abundance, and and you and and you're you are overflowing.

And and this is a chance today to turn your attention to the giver in worship so that his life can flow through you.

Because that's really what we want.

We want to be the type of people like Graham talked about last week.

When we live lives of generosity, it's actually the type of life where the life of God flows through us like a river.

I want the life of God to flow through me like a river, not to just terminate on me and stop, but to flow through me like a river.

I think you do too.

I think all of us want to live the kind of life where the life of God flows through it through us because that's where our lives become a blessing, not just to ourselves, but to the entire world.

Do you guys want that today?

So as we're as we're digging into this, one of the principles that we're we're we're exploring here today is that the way that we respond to financial pressure, the way that we respond to a global economy that has a lot of question marks over it, has a kind of an ominous cloud hanging over it, the way we respond to financial pressure really reveals what kingdom we are living in.

We're all living in a kingdom.

It's not what kingdom, it's not if we are, it's which kingdom are we living in, which is exactly what Jesus said would happen in the Sermon on the Mount.

So let's turn to Matthew 6 now.

I want to explore a couple passages from Jesus.

Um and as we know, Jesus talked a lot about money.

Uh he talked about money more than almost any other topic, not because he was obsessed with money.

That wasn't his thing.

He died naked and alone and in a tomb with nothing.

He lived, you know, arguably, he lives most of his life, you know, his adult life, homeless.

Um, so it wasn't that he was obsessed with money, he just knew for the hearts of his listeners, the hearts and minds.

It was the usually the first thing on the top of the mind and on the front of the heart of most of us.

And the same is true because Jesus knowed that the gateway to our hearts is often through the things that are most present, too, is the things that we think about the most.

And so I want to read just a passion of or a portion of the Sermon on the Mount.

This is where he talks three sections about um how we are to think about our money.

So Matthew 6, 19.

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moss moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The eye is the lamp of the body, so if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.

If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness.

And this third movement here, he says, this no one can serve two masters, for he that either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and money.

So there's kind of three movements here.

First, he talks about treasures in heaven, we can make treasures on earth, or we can actually live the kind of lives where we're actually storing up treasures in an eternal place in heaven.

And then he moves from there to talk about this interesting idea of the eye as a lamp.

It looks like he's changing subjects, but when you actually get into this passage, there's many scholars that would argue this is this exactly in the same movement because from a from a Jewish perspective or Hebrew perspective, the eye was the way that we would see the world.

And the eye as a lamp, typically we we think of the eye as receiving of light, but he's saying the eye is actually a lamp, not just to the body, but just imagine your eye illuminating the way that we see the world.

If our eye is good, the way we see the world will bring light.

If our eye is bad, the way that we see the world will bring darkness, not just to ourselves, but uh in our lives.

And I believe that it's it's consistent with what he's teaching here about the way that we are to perceive, that it's not just about money, it's about the way that we see the world.

And then he continues with this last little zinger, it's what we the word we use in sermon talk.

Um a little zinger where he says, listen, at the end of the day, you cannot serve two masters.

You're and if you do, you're gonna end up loving one and hating the other, and you can't serve God and money.

And some of you know that the word money here is not actually the word money, it's this actual specific word mammon, which is not just a physical thing.

Mammon is an idol, mammon is a spirit, and uh and that's what we're gonna spend some time on in the few minutes we have today here.

Mammon is important.

Jesus actually talks about it a few different times.

Mammon is an Aramaic word that means riches, and actually the Assyrians got the concept from the God of wealth from the Babylonians.

And as as you as we know, if you study Babylon in the scriptures, Babylon was the center of self-dependence and self-achievement.

The Tower of Babel was the place where man built a structure in a way of a tower unto our own name and unto our own achievements, in a way of saying we don't actually need God.

And so in this way, mammon is a demonic influence over the things that we possess, a demonic influence that is over, often over money, which sounds super intense, if you've ever thought about that, because isn't money just money, right?

I thought it was just money.

And so we tend to think of money as as neutral.

It's just it's just a tool to transact, it's a tool to get things that we want, to pay for those eggs, those overpriced eggs, or the or the or the gas in the car.

Either you have it or you don't, and you have to either figure out how to make a lot of it, or I'm just not good with it, and it's just all really math at the end of the day.

And then what makes matters worse, we're living in this day where money just doesn't even feel like anything.

Most of the thing, I'm just using my phone.

I'm scrolling on this, and it's just I just tap a few buttons and all of a sudden something happens.

Something's paid for.

If I go to the grocery store now, I I take out my wallet.

And I don't it used to be that we had like these little green pieces of paper called cash.

But now I don't have to do that.

I just literally, and even with a plastic card, it used to be that you had to like swipe it and just like you see sparks flying off this thing as you swipe it.

Now I just get to wave a magic wand and it beeps.

And then somehow I get what I paid for.

And so it's sometimes it feels like money.

It's like, what is it?

It's just this mysterious imaginatory thing, but according to Jesus, it's more than that.

And here's the thing: if you don't remember anything else, I want you to remember this.

Money, according to Jesus, is always under the influence of a spirit.

It's not if it is under the influence of the spirit, it's which one.

Money can be under the influence of the spirit of God or the spirit of mammon.

And mammon has a few cousins that it takes along with it, a few little minions, a spirit of fear, a spirit of pride, sometimes a spirit of poverty.

So money, according to Jesus, is an at a doorway to the heart, it's a way we see, and it tells us, it tells us what spirit we are under the influence of.

So money that is devoted to serving God rather than replacing God is blessed by God and cannot be consumed by the devourer.

I'll say that again.

Money that is devoted to serving God rather than replacing God is blessed by God and cannot be consumed by the devourer.

Money that is not first submitted to God ends up controlling us, leading us, and used to manipulate others.

And so sometimes we can't tell on the surface how our money is being influenced.

In fact, it can look the same on the surface.

How we spend or invest our money is not always necessarily right or wrong.

It's about which spirit is it motivated by.

So we can save money under the influence of the Spirit of God.

We can also save money under the influence of the spirit of mammon.

You can purchase a brand new car in a way that's blessed by God.

You can purchase a brand new car that's motivated by mammon.

So how do we actually identify what's God and what's mammon?

And that's what we need to talk about for a few minutes.

Because this is central, it's core to our identity of living as free sons and daughters in the kingdom with the life of God flowing through us.

So here's a few things I want to talk about.

How do you know if your life and your money are being influenced by the spirit of mammon?

By the way, I've never spoken about this before.

This is not, this is not like a go-to topic for me.

But as I was preparing for this week, I just felt like, man, this is, I felt the weight, I felt the weight of this for us and as the people of God, as the church, as we live in freedom.

Number one, mammon keeps you in anxiety over unmet needs.

So just like we talked about, mammon is not just a neutral thing that uh affects you.

Mammon is seeking worshipers, according to Jesus.

And it says, if you don't serve me, you'll have nothing.

It promises everything and delivers nothing.

Mammon says, Come and serve me, I'll take care of you.

And under this influence, money is always fleeting, it's appearing and disappearing every time, just out of reach, which creates this fear and that no amount can satisfy.

And it's not an issue of being wealthy or being poor.

See, the thing is, mammon actually has a way of creating anxiety no matter what you have or don't have.

And you always think that you if if you just got a little bit more, it would satisfy that.

And so it keeps us in this perpetual fear of the future.

In fact, I have family members who are still preparing for Y2K.

I'm like, that was 23 years ago.

And it's like that, you know, it just kind of came and went, and then after that, they were like felt the need to prepare for the next crisis.

And it was just like this crisis thinking.

There's always something, another crisis to prepare for.

Now listen, I'm not saying we don't prepare.

Like we stocked up on toilet paper just like you did two years ago.

Okay?

I got canned food in my basement, my wife buys extra.

But I'm telling you, um, there's a difference between stocking up in the Spirit of God for an act of generosity and the stocking up out of self-preservation and fear.

Mammon will never let you rest.

It doesn't matter how much you have, it will always keep you anxious and fearful about not having enough.

And that it's in contrast with what Jesus says, doesn't even the Father clothe the lilies of the field and feud the birds of the air?

How much more his sons and daughters.

Mammon will not let you rest, but the Spirit of God will let you rest.

No matter how many needs that you have.

It is possible.

Two, Mammon overpromises and under-delivers.

Just like any other spirit that's different than the Spirit of God.

Mammon keeps you reaching for more.

It says, Come follow me, I will show you the pathway to respect, validation, security, significance, and belonging.

And that's gonna come.

I'm gonna need you to get that bigger house.

I'm gonna need you to get that nicer car.

Your vacations need to become more photo worthy.

No more going to Nebraska.

You gotta go to like the real expensive places because those photos aren't gonna work.

You're gonna need to keep looking for another job with that pay increase.

If you had more money, people will listen to you.

Your relationship problems would go away, your marriage would be in better shape.

Mammon has a way of dangling a carrot that once you get to that carrot, it just moves one more step.

Have you guys ever experienced that before?

I have.

And I think if I can just get to that one more thing, then that's where peace and happiness and fulfillment, that's when uh I'll start being concerned about certain things.

That's when I'm finally going to be settled into a financial picture of the future.

So mammon overpromises and underdelivers.

It's never enough.

And by the way, just to be clear, there's nothing wrong with nice cars and nice houses and nice vacations.

I like all of those things as well.

But if you need them to fulfill what's missing in your life, you know that you're under the spirit of mammon.

That vacation will not satisfy you at your core.

I don't care how white the sand is.

Listen, I'm going to Hawaii in a couple months.

I am stoked about it.

But I'm telling you, it will not get to the part of me that needs to be settled in my sonship.

Neither will the house.

If you get the house, awesome.

Let it be a blessing to you.

If you get that car, awesome.

Let it be a blessing to you.

It will not satisfy.

And so when Megan and I first got married, we had pretty much zero.

We were completely broke.

I was working here at the church.

Uh and oh my gosh, it was shocking how little we had, but we refused to get out a credit card and to pay for things that made us look like our lives were better than it was.

And so what happened was we made a list of things that we were desires or needs.

We made a list of like 10 things.

Not all of them were technically needs, they were wants.

But so at the top of the list was get a puppy.

Second on the list was I wanted a guitar, we need a grill, a kitchen table, and some art for our white walls in our house.

And it just kind of went from there.

There's about 10 to 12 things.

And we took this list and we said, All right, God, we don't know how you're going to do this, but we're going to submit this to you.

These are desires, our wants and needs, and we want to pay this off or this or that.

We did have a little bit of medical debt at that point in time.

But we took it, we wrote it down, we submitted it to God and said, God, your provider.

We're going to honor you with the way that we steward our finances.

We give to you first.

We give to the house of the Lord and we try to be generous, but God, we don't know.

There's things that we don't know how we're going to get to, but they they matter to us.

And so we held it before the Lord.

And that year we watched every one of those things be checked off in his way and his timing.

Some of it was just free things given to us, others, it was just his thing.

But we we positioned ourselves before the Lord instead of trying to uh following a spirit that said, go get it right now because you need it for success.

We waited on God's timing so he could provide according to his will and his way.

It's a different way of thinking.

Most marriage problems are finance related, but the solution to that is not more money.

I'm just gonna tell you right now it's actually not more money.

The solution is for the little you have to be submitted.

To God and blessed by God in unity and agreement with you and your spouse.

That's what God wills for us that we can come together and take the little we have sometimes.

Because God can do a little, a lot with a little if it's blessed by Him.

Number three.

This is so encouraging, isn't it?

Mammon always puts generosity in the future.

It's always a future goal.

Mammon always says, yeah, generosity.

You're gonna be able to get to that one of these days.

I remember as a kid, we have uh there's a lake cottage in northern Indiana, and what we do is we get on these boat rides and we go around the lake and we'd watch as all these new houses were being constructed around the lake, these beautiful new houses, huge, monstrosities, and there's like nobody ever there because there were like second and third homes for people.

And we'd always like tour the lake, and every time we'd go by a house, it was just like, whoa, I wonder what they do, you know, and you just keep going, and you just the boat cruises by, you get to the next house, whoa! You see how many wave runners they have?

See the windows on that place?

And it was kind of like it was kind of one of those things where it was like we're just going around thinking, one day, maybe, maybe that'll be me.

And it was always this thing, and sometimes even in church world, we have this thing of one day, you know, as soon as I, you know, as soon as I get that raise, man, it's gonna unlock all kinds of generosity.

As soon as I get that promotion, that upgrade, woo! Look out! Here we come.

If I just had more, I could actually help a lot of people.

And so it always puts it as a future goal and never a present reality.

If I could just pick up more leads at work, if I could, you know, if those Powerball numbers would actually like, if I could get it this next time, right?

By the way, I bought a Powerball ticket a couple a couple months ago when it was really high.

So no like elitism here, all right?

I'm right with you.

We all bought Powerball tickets, all right?

Um but it's it always kind of puts this thing.

If one once I did, once I win the Powerball, then I'm going to give to things that matter to God.

But the reality is when we step into the life of the kingdom, we're stepping into the generosity and the flow of God.

Some of the most generous people I know don't actually have a lot.

But somehow, what they have is there's a flow.

There's a flow of life.

And it's not something they're waiting for a future day because they know they've been a recipient of the generosity of God today.

Number four, mammon robs you of experiencing God's miracles, of experiencing God's miracles.

It trains you to think that everything you have or don't have is a result of your own doing or not doing.

Mammon actually prevents us from experiencing the wonder and mystery and gratitude towards the giver, the giver of life.

It creates unbelief and doubt and disappointment.

Because every every gift that we receive, we either attribute to our own success or just happenstance.

It's just a coincidence that we receive.

Where every every every time something is taken from us, or maybe maybe expenses are outweighing the income in the season of life, we see it as something we've done wrong or something we need to get out of, versus a time where God wants to come and provide for us supernaturally.

We actually rob ourselves of the ability to position ourselves to need a miracle from God.

And that's that's evil.

Mammon wants us to not experience the miraculous provision of God in our life.

He wants us, Mammon wants us to trust in it rather than God.

Mammon is seeking to replace God.

Living in the kingdom of God is positioning our days whether we're in plenty or in want.

Every day is a miracle, and every day we are deeply dependent on God.

Mammon wants us to get us to not depend on God, and maybe you ever thought about that.

You know, if I was just making enough, I wouldn't have to be such a nuisance to God anymore asking him for anything.

I'm tired of asking God for miracles.

If I could just kind of get to that point where I don't need God, then we can really partner together on some things.

Do you guys realize that actually takes us out of relationship with God?

That is mammon's purpose.

It convinces us that there is another route forward than to need God, which is a lie.

It's an absolute lie.

And even when the provision is coming into our lives, do you guys realize how deeply in need of God we are?

Even when it's there.

Do you realize how deeply in need of God we are?

Every second, every day, every breath is a miracle.

And that's how we move from the world's economy to God's theonymy.

I didn't make that up.

Somebody said that, I don't know who it was, but I'd rather live in a theonymy than an economy.

I'd rather live in God's uh God's world of resource.

Because that's where life is, right?

That's where the blessings, and I've seen it time after time again.

All right, last one here.

Mammon causes our hearts to become cynical.

Because even Jesus said, no one can serve two masters.

So if you think I'm hard on this, Jesus was harder.

He said he his was literally black and white.

No one can serve two masters.

If you love one, you will hate the other.

If you are devoted one to one, you will despise the other.

Mammon actually causes you to despise God for not providing enough.

It causes you to grow cynical and even scoff at sermons about money and generosity.

It causes judgment to rise up in our hearts.

Anytime somebody shares a story of miraculous provision, because there's this little voice that says, Well, that's not how it works for me.

And so man can cause us to become callous and even hard-hearted.

We become envious of those who seem to find breakthrough freedom in life.

And listen, if that's where you are today, I'm just telling you, this I want the word of the Lord to be heard by you, that you can become free from the spirit that robs you from the ability of experiencing life and joy and celebration or seeing breakthrough in somebody else's life and being able to come alongside them in a spirit of celebration with them.

You don't have to live a life of envy.

You don't have to live a life where you're judging others for what they're doing or not doing.

It's possible to live with an open heart in the Spirit of God to celebrate all the ways that He's providing supernaturally for the people in our life.

It always reveals our heart when somebody gets something that we've been praying for and we didn't get it, that reveals where we're actually at.

See, in the kingdom of God, there's more than enough to go around.

And sometimes there is a mystery of his will and his way, and I can't give an answer for every time God decides not to answer our prayers right now.

But I'm telling you, if we don't have the ability to honor the work of God wherever we see it, we are cutting ourselves off from the life flow of the kingdom of God.

It's a critical principle, the ability to honor and to celebrate his work.

And Mammoth says, No, you can't do that because you're serving me.

And here's how things work in my kingdom.

But I'm telling you guys, there is another way forward.

Here's why all this matters.

I believe, you know, we're we're in this testing point right now, and one of the contexts that we're in in our world today is again this you know, we're this idea of this global recession, this uh volatile market.

And and like I said before, times like this can become a testing ground for what we actually believe in.

And in the way of the world, when things are going well, that means that we're doing well, right?

So when things are going well, we're we're skipping around.

There's a little jump in our step, right?

I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna go out to that nice restaurant tonight, you know, I'm gonna be a little more generous.

And so think we can ride high on life when things are going well, but when things kind of like on that down slope, we start to kind of, you know, it's easy to kind of get nervous and shake a little bit and feel anxious.

But here's the reason all this matters.

I really believe that one of the things that the Lord, the invitations for this season is to become the type of people who remember that the kingdom of God is not a roller coaster going up and down.

We are not on a roller coaster.

The kingdom of God is the reality of God's goodness and provision and favor that is available to us.

And it doesn't have ebbs and flows to it.

It's always present and always moving forward.

Hebrews says it like this the kingdom of God is actually unshakable.

So we live in a world that's very shakable, and even sometimes as Christians, we can live shaken lives.

And I'm not saying, listen, if you're there, I get it.

I've been there too.

I've I've experienced like even this last year, there was a couple months where I saw my bank account, it felt like it was hemorrhaging.

It's like, oh my gosh, what's happening here?

But even that was all an invitation to be reminded that we are of a kingdom that actually is unshakable.

And so, as believers, we get to enter into the life of God where, like Paul would say, in plenty and in want, I have learned the secret of contentment.

I am content in God.

You can take it all away and you can give me the world, but I am content in the Lord.

And this is an opportunity for us in this kind of world to be reckoned with in our heart of hearts.

What master am I serving?

Because the spirit of mammon will keep us enslaved and keep us moving, will never allow us to rest, will never allow us to be excited about the future, will never allow us to live in hope or thanksgiving or celebration.

That's always reserved for another day, where the kingdom of God allows us to enjoy the freedom and the rest of being cared for by our Father.

And certainly, um, and certainly there's a lot to be learned about the stewardship of money, right?

And and and why is investments and where we put our money.

But the first thing that we have to talk about is what master are we serving?

And this is not a once-and-done thing.

We are in a world where that question has to be asked often, and our hearts have to be exposed to the Lord often.

Our hearts have to return in repentance.

Often, I know that's the case for me, but that's the case for me.

And so this morning, I believe, I believe the Lord wants to invite us into more freedom.

And some of you are as I'm talking, you can feel those pings maybe a little bit, and you can tell, like, oh man, I can feel that on the inside.

I just want to invite you today.

Mammon is not a problem to be managed, it's a spirit that needs to be broken.

It's not a problem to be this is you're not going to get out of this by doing your budget again.

Or shifting around your stock portfolio.

Mammon is not a problem to be managed, it's a spirit that has to be broken in the name of Jesus.

How is it broken?

It's broken first of all by turning our hearts to the Lord and saying, God, I want you to be Lord.

And I surrender all that I have to you.

I remember when I first got to Colorado back in 2000.

When was that?

2002.

See, I'm getting too old already.

When I got to Colorado in 2002, I remember my pastor at that point of time, Brenda Rogers here at the church.

She taught us to take our budget and to print it out.

And none of us had any cash at that point in time.

We were all just broke ministry school students.

It was bad.

She said, I want you to print out a budget, every dollar, and I want you to, you know, write this thing out, and then you're gonna take it into prayer and you're gonna hold it as a piece of paper before God and say, God, I don't know how this is going to happen, but this is what I need.

But I'm submitting this to you.

Is there anything that you would want to say about this?

Is this budget honoring to you?

Am I giving to your purposes first?

And if the answer is no, you know, then we'd rework the budget.

Maybe we're under budgeting in certain areas, maybe we're over budgeting in certain areas.

Most of us were just being so frugal, we weren't budgeting hardly anything, and it was just more about in faith, just like, okay, this is what I need.

And we would hold it and pull it to prayer and say, God, I want to submit this to you.

Is there anything that you would do differently?

And the thing is, even that one act for some of you would change everything.

It would remind you that you're not in control.

You're not in control of your budget, you are a manager of your budget.

But first and foremost, we're invited to submit it to the giver of life and say, God, does this represent you?

Is the gospel reflected in this budget?

And if the answer is no, show me your ways.

Some of you, you need to leave here and this week go do that.

If you're if you're in a time of crime, you're just asking a lot of questions, which is which is a lot of people, there's no shame in that, but I'm just, I think there's an invitation.

Put your budget out.

What do you need?

Submit it to God and say, God, what would need to be true for this to honor you?

Yeah?

Number two, some of you, Piper, you can come on up.

Um, one of the best ways to break a spirit of mammon is to give in secret, to find a need and meet it without anybody actually knowing.

You'll never get the credit, you won't get the attaboy, nobody will esteem you more, they won't know who it is.

It's just something that you can do between you and the Lord.

There's nothing more fun than anonymous generosity.

There's very few things that are more fun than finding a need and meeting it without anybody knowing.

And Jesus told this to the Pharisees.

He's like, Some of you give so that you will get the credit.

But giving in secret tells mammon that you do not have power over me for anything, security, significance, or belonging.

Some of you this week, I think there's a breakthrough that's going to come if you do something extravagant in secret.

And then the third thing here is this breaking the spirit of mammoth, sometimes it involves an extravagant gift, an extravagant gift even to the house of the Lord, even to the work of the church, which is the body of Christ.

Last year, Megan and I did that.

We gave something, we were down here during worship, and I felt like God said, I want you to do some, you know, give something big today.

Uh, you know, I want you to do something significant today.

And I leaned over to Megan and said, Hey, this is what I feel like we're supposed to do.

And she said, How about we quintuple that?

It's like, that's not what you're supposed to say.

Don't encourage me.

You know, you know, so one of those things we're like, oh wow, okay.

So we we ended up giving a gift.

I don't say that that has nothing to do with us gloating over that.

Because you know what happened after that?

You you know, you know what happened after we gave this gift?

Nothing.

It's not like we came home and opened our mailbox and there was like this huge, it wasn't like somebody dropped off the keys to a card.

Nothing happened, but you guess what we did get?

Unbelievable joy and freedom.

You know how free we felt?

We felt so free.

We got nothing.

I couldn't see anything that nothing visibly changed in our life.

But I'm just telling you, it was about freedom.

It was about, God, I get to do this with you, and we're doing this together.

How fun it is to be able to give with God towards his purposes and let him take care of us in the process.

It's the work of God.

That's how we break the spirit of mammon.

That's how we live into the kingdom of God, that's how we take what we have and say, God, if my stuff is gonna be influenced by any spirit, it's going to be the spirit of God.

So if that's you today, I want to pray for us here.

We're gonna end our time.

Some of you have a big step to take this week.

And it's not a mathematical equation.

If I do X and Y, then A, B, and C is going to happen.

It's not that's not how this works.

But what I'm saying is this this is about our deepest joy and our deepest freedom, and not living as slaves to a spirit of mammoth or fear or poverty or pride.

Amen.

So that's you.

Wherever you're at, close your eyes this morning.

I want to pray for us here today.

And no, we're not taking up an offering.

Today, it's between you and the Lord.

And if you feel like God is pinging you, maybe you feel that just a something in your heart.

I just want to invite the Holy Spirit.

So, Father, today I believe across the this room, our greatest desire is to experience your freedom and your joy, and and especially as it relates to this broad topic of money and how that hits all of us and pings us differently.

I thank you, Holy Spirit, that you know what we need to hear.

Your yoke is easy and your burden is light.

I thank you, Father, that what you want for us is to live as free sons and daughters, not as a slave to any other spirit, but joyfully entering into the flow of your life.

And I just pray this morning, God, for anybody here that is in a has been in a financial crunch.

I thank you, Father, that you are with them and um that your heart is that they wouldn't be burdened with shame or embarrassment about that.

But I thank you, Lord God, that it's possible for you.

Um, that God, you want to reveal yourself in a new way as a loving father and as provider.

And I thank you, Lord God, for breakthrough.

And even this week, God, as we learn to submit to you in all things, I just thank you for breakthrough for your people, that we can trust you, God.

I thank you for the freedom that comes as we trust you.

And God, for those of us who haven't even thought about it for a while, because things have just been generally okay, and we've been on this steady, you know, this kind of steady uh uh road, and it seems like you provide it for us.

God, let us not forget the miracle of life and the miracle of your provision.

Let us not forget that we are not in control of our own lives, and I thank you, Lord God, for worship to happen.

That for you, Lord God, this is a matter of deep, our deepest identity, it's a matter of worship.

So I just thank you, God, for all the ways that you have provided, that it would result in thanksgiving, it would result in praise, and it would result in uh a continuation of the life of God through generosity.

Jesus, we say yes to you.

And for anybody who hasn't said yes to Jesus, I invite you this morning in your heart to say yes to him, to say yes to his ways, to say yes to joy, to say yes to freedom.

And even after the service, I'm gonna invite you to come up and we want to pray for you.

But today, God, we thank you that you have allowed us to enter into the life of your kingdom.

And as we go from this place, God, I thank you to open our eyes that the ways that the way that we see the world would be through the lens of abundance and generosity and joy.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Can we stand together across the room?

Thank you for allowing us to go over time a little bit.

If you do have kids, just kind of do a light jog back to the uh kids area and pick them up.

Our kids' teachers will love you for that.

Um, we love and actually thank them.

High five, our kids' teachers, they they take what they do seriously.

And when you're picking up your kids, thank them for what they do.

And listen, this morning, if you want prayer for any, if you need, if you need prayer for anything we talked about, even over your money, your finances, we're gonna have some people up front that want to pray with you, that want to be with you in that.

Um, but as we leave, you don't have to rush out.

Feel free to hang out, have some conversations.

Um, visit our info hub for some uh next steps information.

But I just want to pray one last prayer over you today as our ministry team comes across the room.

May the Lord bless you and keep you, may He make his face to shine upon you, may He be gracious to you and give you rest.

We love you guys.

Have an awesome day.