Peace with what you DON’T have | Trust-Onomics

Hey, what up?

It's Mark Carter on, the Pastor of Fierce Church.

Welcome to our podcast.

I'm so pumped that you're able to join us today.

I hope this encourages you, inspires you, strengthens you, gives you hope to keep pressing on, and it's my prayer that this sermon gives you a more expansive view of God's love for you.

Enjoy the message.

Let's talk about contentment.

Let's talk about trust dynamics.

We're just in a weird financial time right now.

We've been in it for a little while and so we thought we would go to God's word and see what we could learn about how to make it through tough times financially with a spirit of confidence, able to move forward in faith and trust in the kindness and the goodness of God.

Quentin Beck was a false father to Peter Parker.

You might know him better as Mysterio.

But in Spider-Man, far from home, he at first appears to Spider-Man or Peter as kind of a friend, kind of a fatherly figure that's there to give advice and has his best interest in mind and protect him.

But what's so horrible about Quentin Beck or Mysterio, is he actually wants to hurt Peter.

That's what a false father does.

I don't know if you've ever had any kind of version of a false father.

You had someone who's supposed to protect you.

They presented themselves one way Maybe they were going to give advice or they just told you they had your back, but the truth of the matter is they had your hurt in mind.

I've had a few people like that in my life and I don't blame anybody else.

I know that maybe they had their own issues and they had their own tough times, but it can still feel like a real betrayal when you find out someone you trusted doesn't necessarily have your best interest in mind.

Money can be like that.

I'm going to make the pitch to you today that money is a false father.

It promises all kinds of protection.

It promises it knows what's best for us, and yet it is a false father.

See, often, here's what we do we use God and trust money.

We use God and trust money.

I'm just going to get God to do what I want.

Really, my trust is over here, though, in money, and we want to reverse it today.

I'm going to trust God and just use money.

I'm going to trust God and use money instead.

Let's learn a couple things about money before we get into this.

The Bible talks a lot about money.

It talks about money more than heaven.

It talks about money more than prayer.

That doesn't mean those other things aren't important, it just means Jesus the Bible talks about it a lot.

And one thing that we should know look at the way this is balanced here.

First, timothy 6, 17, command those who are rich in the present world not to be arrogant nor put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

So it's warning us hey, man, like be careful with this.

But then, on the other hand, all the things that you have, god wants you to enjoy them.

That's why he gave them to you.

Like I don't give my kids stuff and I'm not pleased if they were to be like thanks, dad, but I'm so spiritual I just don't even want to enjoy this.

No, I give them stuff for them to enjoy and God gives you all the things of yours to enjoy.

Have you considered that?

Have you considered lately, like if you just paused as an expression of worship and just enjoyed the thing?

Have you recently enjoyed the long-term relationships that you've had, people that have just had your back in the past for a long time?

Have you enjoyed that Some of us are so used to feeling guilty about dessert that we never actually enjoy it.

We enjoy the taste, but we have this thing that isn't allowing us to thank God for dessert.

Yes, lord, thank you for French silk.

Excellent idea.

What about just like stuffing in your home, whether it's in the kitchen, just like cookware, or your favorite chair, or your favorite pair of shoes?

Are you taking the time to enjoy those and say God gave me this?

What about life lessons?

What about just even enjoying the trip over here to church?

I know it was raining, but did you enjoy the trip Like God gave you?

Somehow he got you here.

He got you here with some kind of transportation.

God gives us stuff to enjoy.

There's warnings about it, but it's also I mean, let's not be out of balance he wants us to enjoy what he gives us.

Now, jesus, jesus is so good like this.

Somebody's kind of interrupting Jesus' interaction with some religious leaders of his time and he's asking Jesus to weigh in on a topic of fairness.

He's saying Jesus, I need you to tell my brother to give me more of the inheritance and listen to what Jesus says.

Luke 12, starting verse 13,.

Someone in the crowd said to him Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.

But he said, man, who made me a judge and arbiter over you?

He probably said, just like that man, now you know, jesus really is going to come back and judge the living and the dead.

He's going to be the judge of all the earth.

But in this moment, you know how Jesus does this.

He does this with me.

Who probably do it with you?

We bring up something wrong with somebody and he says, well, let's talk about you, let's talk about you.

You're complaining about somebody.

You're saying, god, can you believe what they did?

Like yeah, but he gives us his judgment on us, and that doesn't mean like punishment judgment.

It means he weighs in about what's right and what's wrong for us.

He's so loving, like that.

And then there's verse 15.

We're going to read it out of the amplified because it's so nuanced.

I want us to hear this.

And he said to them guard yourselves and keep free from all covetousness and immoderate desire for wealth.

The greedy longing to have more for man's life does not consist in and is not derived from, possessing overflowing, above Overflowing, abundance or that which is over and above his needs.

Now, covetousness, this is greed.

This is the desire to possess more and more, more than is necessary, more of other people's stuff.

And the lie Jesus just pointed it out the lie in covetousness is that more stuff will equal more life and it won't equal more life.

He says oh, you're looking for life in the wrong place.

See, real life comes from satisfaction in and enjoying God and the stuff that he gives us to enjoy, and being contented in him.

Say, lord, I'm just contented to just love you and have the thing.

And that changes even our enjoyment of the stuff.

So if you're enjoying the shoes or you're enjoying the sofa or you're enjoying the car, it's not even just that.

Oh, I really like this God, I like this thing from you.

I'm enjoying it with you, in your presence.

I'm enjoying you as I enjoy the thing.

That's how it becomes true life.

Now, covetousness, really, it's just a different expression of lust.

Instead of lusting for people, it's just lusting for more stuff or wealth or treasure or things.

And just like lusting for people, if you give it a little, it changes you to want more.

The more we lust after things, we wanna get more and more and more and more.

Has anyone ever discovered that when you're shopping on Amazon and you get used to just hitting that button of like yep, need one of those and one of those and one of those, and at a point like you don't really need that, like you just like to hit that button because it feels good and you can find yourself lusting for more.

It changes you and here's like the long-term impact.

It makes people ultimately like they're never quite satisfied with what they have.

It's always gotta be something else.

I mean, just think about all the stuff in your home right now that you probably don't even like you're aware that it's there but you haven't enjoyed it in years Like it's right there.

And when you think about what you need to be happy, it's probably just something else that you don't have right now, instead of all the things that you actually have.

It teaches us to be dissatisfied with life.

Often it makes people make unwise we'll just say family choices.

Or they've got man.

They've gotta make a certain amount now because they've got so much that they need to pay for they bought so much house, they've got so much stuff, they have so many extra payments that they've gotta keep working and they can't really give their family the time that they or God maybe wanted them to.

We rack up all kinds of debt, and I mean consumer debt, I mean just stuff.

You can't even find the thing anymore, but you're paying interest on it.

This is what covetousness.

This is real dude.

This is what it does to us.

It distorts our values because now that we've spent all that stuff on Amazon and now that we're used to well, I gotta have this amount to get my other stuff.

When God tries to touch our heart and be like I actually want you to channel that this way, we won't even consider it.

Buf 2%.

Are you serious, god?

Do you see all these things that I have to have?

That's the result of covetousness.

So you can tell your heart has become a little bit, or maybe a lot, covetous.

When it's really more like a sponge, your heart absorbs things Mine, god made our hearts to be like a funnel.

Thanks Lord, I'm gonna funnel this right to where it's supposed to go it's.

I'm holding it loosely because I know the one who gives it and he'll just give whatever else I need.

But if we're used to always spending on ourselves, it's hard for us to take relational things seriously, because we've gotta get all of our stuff taken care of first.

And so Jesus warns us about this.

He told us hey, man, no one can serve two masters.

You can't serve both.

God and money, or God and mammon is what some translations say.

Now, mammon wasn't actually a God, it was like personified desire for wealth and treasure.

It's kinda like we might say consumerism.

Jesus says hey, man, you can't have both of these, meaning you can't go north and south at the same time.

One of them is gonna draw your heart to go the way it wants you to go.

It's helpful to think about it.

Personified like Jesus makes it, though, it's like it's a monster, it's like it's a demon.

And here's what this mammon god says.

It says to you and to me hey, I'll take care of you, I've got you, I will protect you, I will help you make all the wise decisions you need to make.

But don't be fooled.

That thing is mysterious man, that thing is a false father.

It does solve some problems, in a sense, but it's also drawing our heart away from God, because then we look at God and he asks us to do something.

We're like oh God, but I trust this, I will use you, but I trust this.

And what is the sin?

The sin is, we begin to look at even God with distrust.

We say, as long as I have this, I'll be okay.

God, I can't necessarily do what you want.

We don't even ask him.

Hey God, I'm thinking about spending this, but before I do, what do you think about this?

What do you want me to know about my financial plan for this stage and season of my life?

And we end up lusting for more and more things.

Here's how it makes life worse.

First, we talked about lust grows and you got to keep feeding it.

Second, we miss delighting in some of the blessings that we already have.

Now I want you to watch this video.

Pastor Andy turned me on to this experiment that we're going to watch.

Here's what's happening.

There's two monkeys in this video, and they're both.

They're playing a little game.

They're given.

If they give a rock to the scientist, they're going to get a little treat.

Okay, so at first you're going to see the monkey get some cucumber and it's like, oh yes, delicious.

So, for those who might be listening by podcast, what happens is, once the first monkey sees that its buddy monkey gets a grape, it doesn't want to have anything to do with the cucumber, so it throws it back in anger at the scientist.

And sometimes that's how covetousness works with us, like, hey, man, I'm good, I'm golden for this, for where I am in life, this is great.

Until we see somebody with something else and then we say, what the heck is this crap?

Well, I can't, I have that, and we fail to praise God for where he's already brought us and what he's already given us, and it makes us less generous.

In fact, it makes us less generous the more we have.

Studies have been done again and again.

You can check this out online the richer people are, the less generous they are in terms of with their, the percentage that they give.

And I can remember I can remember when Kenzie and I were poor, and you know what we didn't have.

We didn't have a lot of options.

We just knew there wasn't a time we could even do.

And so, yeah, let's give, because God might bless that.

And we know what it's like to be hurting financially.

But you know, as you gain more wealth, as you gain more stuff, often you gain more opportunities, but you gain more things to spend money on, and so I can't be generous anymore because now I can get all these different things.

And why not?

Why shouldn't I have them?

And God's solution is to resist covetousness, to resist this greed, this lust for things, and instead it's to rely completely on his kindness and the fact that he knows what we need and he's going to protect us.

He knows what we need and he's going to protect us.

Let's go.

Here's the real text for today Hebrews 13, five and six.

Make sure that your character is free from the love of money.

Be content with what you have, for he himself has said I will never desert you, nor will ever abandon you, so that we may confidently say the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.

What will man do to me?

Keep your character free.

It's important word, that word character.

Some translations say life.

It's not really life, it's character.

Your life could just mean the things around you in your space.

Character is your heart.

It's the combination of all the patterns, all the beliefs, all the ways that you behave in any given circumstance.

That's your character.

So if you've got a morally stout character, you can be around a lot of difficult to resist stuff and you're still like no, I'm good.

If you have a weak character, you're easily overtaken, you're easily tempted into sin.

Make sure that your character is free from the love of money.

It's our total personality, it's our inner moral fabric.

Here's number one Be content with what you already have.

That's what he just said.

Be content with what you have Now.

Contentment we talked about covetousness.

Let's talk about contentment.

Contentment is internal satisfaction which does not demand changes in external circumstances.

I'm saying it again it's internal satisfaction which does not demand changes in external circumstances.

I, like one commentator they said this it's an uncomplaining acceptance of one's share.

This is good.

The Greek word really means satiated.

You're satiated with where you are right now, with what you have right now, with the limits that you have right now.

Maybe, if you've had this at Thanksgiving or some other meal like that, you've had all the delicious stuff and then you lean back and you're just before the point where you would be painfully full.

You're right before that.

You're just full enough that you lean back in your chair and you just rub this thing well done.

You say Good job, all is right with the world now.

That's contentment, that's satiated.

Or when you wake up from the perfect nap it wasn't too long, it wasn't too short you wake up, I'm rested and internally, still inside, I'm feeling satiated.

Or maybe a different way to understand it is to contrast it with happiness.

Happiness is kind of transitory man.

Happiness comes and goes and it's based on the day, it's based on what's happening.

Even maybe in the season I can be happy or not happy.

Contentment is deeper.

So if you think about happiness, it's the surface of the ocean, it's where all the stuff happens.

There's a storm man, it's jostled, it's all over the place.

But if you go down deep and then keep going down deeper, it doesn't even matter what goes up goes on up there, you're still, it's still down there.

That's what contentment is.

We can have an unhappy surface, but if we've got contentment, we're still poised, we're still still.

We're still like well, you know I don't like that, but I'm content, I'm still satiated with the goodness of God.

I've still thought about it.

And the more contented we are, the more.

My friend, if you're a Christ follower, you are a sign and a wonder to the world around you that the world is not about just getting more stuff, it's not about short-term goals.

You can actually say, yeah, I don't really need all the stuff because I'm already rich man, my real riches aren't here and I've got everything I need.

I don't need what the world needs.

Now, if we're not contented, here's what's going to happen.

We're going to have a lot of murmuring, a lot of complaining, a lot of discontent, and we're going to try to claw and get stuff and be angry when we don't get it, because we're still walking in covetousness and we're not satiated.

Now, some things we can do we can willingly just want less.

That's part of it.

That's part of contentment.

We just decide I'm just going to want less.

I'm going to resist the pull of things.

We resist coveting.

This is where we look at other people's stuff and we desire it.

We shut that down as soon as we realize we are coveting stuff.

Hey, I'm not going to.

I'm glad that they've got the family life, that they've got.

I'm not going to covet that.

I'm glad that they've got the vehicle that they've got.

I'm not going to covet that.

I'm glad about how they look when they exercise.

This is fine.

I'm not going to covet that.

I'm glad for them.

I'm not going to covet it.

I'm not going to covet their wife.

I'm not going to covet their access, the things that they get to do.

Not gonna covet it.

I'm gonna resist that coveting because I'm gonna trust God with the limits that he's already given me, because he's given me providential limits.

Oh, this is hard, man.

See, just to be clear, you got a practice being content.

You got a practice being satiated.

It doesn't just happen overnight, it's something we got to keep coming back to, yeah, but God's my protector and God's provides for me, and I'm gonna keep meditating on that and keep coming back to it, and I'm gonna keep coming back to this idea that God is Giving me limits and I can be okay with those limits.

He's saying you can't go further than this in different areas.

Think about some of the the Bible heroes.

They had limits that they didn't like.

They had to learn to be content with them.

Moses didn't have eloquence, just didn't have it.

Gideon didn't have enough military strength.

He might have thought what about Elijah?

This dude's complaining?

He has no friends, he has nobody.

Who's really as hardcore for the Lord as Elijah was?

Esther?

She doesn't have any political power, she's called to do this thing and she doesn't even have any weight to throw around.

Or Mary and Joseph.

They don't have anything, they don't have riches.

How they supposed to do this?

How they supposed to survive?

But God, just like they could.

You can trust God's Providential arrangement of your circumstances.

Can we just receive that's otherworldly?

To receive that that God has put you where you are With the limits you have on purpose, for the purpose of blessing your soul, of Producing Christlikeness, of giving you little tests that he wants to help you pass, and or for you to be less like the world and more like his son, jesus.

So that means if one of your limits is presently okay, it's not forever, but it's presently low income.

That's a limit, god, I don't want to be here forever.

I'm just saying that.

But I accept this.

I Accept that there's a purpose for this.

I'm not going to freak out about it.

If you are someone who just really wrestles with self-doubt, you just have this thing.

I just can't help but doubt myself.

I'm not saying that the Lord doesn't want to help you with that long term, but at some point you've had to accept.

Accept this is my.

You know I have this.

I'm not.

I'm not gonna wait until I don't have it to be happy.

I've got what I've got.

Maybe you feel like you're not popular or people don't really know you or don't really like you, and there's there's a point where, okay, I mean, you know, do what you can and love people, but just, you've got to embrace, you've got to be content with the limit that you've got.

I Can remember so many seasons when Kenzie and I do we didn't have nothing.

We didn't have friends, we didn't have items, we didn't have entertainment, but we had this stupid old box TV that had three channels.

But even that, I mean to look, janky man, you didn't have to hit it yet to hit it to start it, like you turn on and then Just like an NT on TV when they do that, we really had to do that.

Maybe you've got a busy schedule and dude, I know like we talk about balance and you got to get Less busy, but for some of us do that is really just where you are and there's no use whining about it.

God wants you to embrace the limit.

Hey, this is, this is where you are.

Embrace it and learn to be content, learn to be satiated, learn to go down deeper.

If it's rough up here, let your heart sink down deeper Into the soil of God's word and God's love and you know you can trust God if you're feeling behind or left behind or lost and with finances that can often be the case.

I feel behind or feel like I don't know what I'm doing.

For he himself has said I will never desert you, nor I'll ever abandon you.

Therefore, we can confidently say the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.

What can man do to me?

I will never desert you.

You know you're never alone financially.

Whatever's going on, no matter how confused you are, god is with you in that moment.

He's aware of all the data better than you are.

Obviously I can remember being in our back junk room.

Kenzie and I had a junk room when we first got married.

We just had a junk room, like I don't know what to do with this junk room.

And in that junk room there was a computer that I would get on this computer and try to do my finances on this nasty old PC.

I'll leave it there.

And I was freaking out.

Guys Like I, could you ever have those moments where you can feel the pressure Like you're just?

Oh, I'm so stressed I don't know how we can't even make this work.

And you know, god met me there.

God met me there and he taught me how to do my money.

Obviously, he used other tools and other books and other people.

But he met me in there as a car round with you.

I know where you are and this is part of my good purposes for you.

You are not alone.

So we confidently say the Lord is my helper.

I'm content with what I already have.

But then, number two trust God to get you what's yours.

Trust God to get you what's yours.

See, when my faith is really in God and I'm not listening to Mammon the monster, it's telling me just trust me, I will take care of you.

When I reject that and say no, no, no, there's someone else who takes care of me and he gets me everything he wants me to have.

He may not want me to have thus and so right now, but if he wants me to have it, he can get it for me.

And that leads to prayer.

We pray, we confidently say the Lord is my helper.

Who do we say it to?

We say it to Him.

We bring Him all the stuff and we start asking Him for the stuff that we need.

Before we just go and buy it, before we press on Amazon, we just, lord, I confidently say in prayer to you you are my helper, not Mammon, you are, and I'm asking you to get me this thing or that thing, and when God gets it for you, dude, like we've got stuff all over the house.

Some of it is stuff that we got by ourselves, but there's other items that I look at I'm like God got me that.

I asked for that and God got it for me.

And it's such a better feeling even thinking about those items and if we'll learn to pray contentedly, asking for God to do that kind of thing.

Check it out, yo, it builds faith.

But if you just always get it, your faith is going to be in you and in Mammon.

I say he's trying to grow us.

Yo, lord's my helper, not Mammon.

And now, if God is doing all this and I'm seeing God do all this then I'm free to be generous because I remember my heart is not a sponge, it's not meant to just me.

My heart is a funnel and I can just keep it right on open because I know where to go back to.

God will protect what is mine.

God will be sure to deliver what I need to have.

Therefore, I can be generous without impulse.

That's sometimes what happens.

We get an impulse to be generous, but then there's another impulse protect it, protect it, that's Mammon talking to us Like I'm going to be generous.

No, protect it, that's Mammon.

We say Mammon, I'm not going to swear, so let's keep going.

Here's the bonus we are to be contented with all this stuff, but we're never to be satiated with this life.

See, this place is not our home.

We're content for now.

Hey, I'll be here for now I'll be here, but my heart is in heaven, it's not in this Mammony things.

That's why Paul told us since then you've been raised with Christ.

Set your hearts and minds on things above, not things below.

Set your hearts and minds on things above.

Don't be satiated with this and, in fact, if you'll refuse to be satiated by Mammon, you'll have the best, most awesome satisfaction in heaven.

Where you're going, what does God do?

He comes and gently, he tells you, and I, again and again, I give you all the stuff for your enjoyment.

But that thing is a liar, it is a false father, it is not.

Have your best interest in mind, I have your best interest in mind.

And because he comes to release us of that villain, we should go to him in worship right now.

Let's bow our heads Now.

Thank you so much just for warning us.

The world does not have any clue about this.

God, thank you for your word.

I got every place.

Some of us are, we're lonely.

Some of us, some of us, are stressed out.

Some of us know we're like trying to make money to catch up to the debt.

And which one invites you into it, jesus?

We know we will say of you that you are our helper.

You have not called us to do this alone.

We pray in Jesus' name, god, that you would give us a resistance to covetousness.

Help us to see it, help us to cast it down and help us to choose contentment and satisfaction in you.

In Christ's name, amen.

Hey, thank you so much for joining us today.

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