House Money - Week 2

Amen, Amen, and amen, let's give the Lord another handclap.

You know we're going to uh, we're gonna finish up

our series today called House Money and we last week

we talked about we talked about our relationship with money

and what that relationship looks like. Today we're going to

continue talking about money. And listen, it's okay. I'm not

talking about giving. I'm still not flipping the switch, so

just ease up. This is all about the money that

you keep, amen. This is all about the money that

that God has entrusted you to be a steward of.

And to manage. So you don't have to tighten up.

I'm not asking for extra today, Amen, I'm asking you

to come into a proper relationship with money, the relationship

that the Lord wants from money in our lives. If

you've got a Bible, go to Luke chapter sixteen. Luke

chapter sixteen, and we're going to start reading in verse eleven.

If you're there, say amen. If you're not, say oh my.

Woo.

I think some of y'all answered affirmative to both. Just

read along on the screens. It says, therefore, if you

have not been faithful in unrighteous Mammon. Remember last week

we established that Mammon was the figurehead, the false God's

symbol of the monetary system of the day. So when

you see Mammon in the Bible is talking about money,

that's talking about the money system. Faithful and unrighteous, Mammon,

who will commit to your trust the true riches? And

if you've not been faithful and what is another man's,

who will give you what is your own. No servant

can serve two masters, for either he will hate the

one and love the other, or else he will be

loyal to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and Mammon. Let's pray.

Father, We thank you that your word is.

The only change agent on the face of the planet.

And today I pray that it takes resident deep at

the foundation of our soul, and that those seeds planet

bring a harvest of life, a harvest that changes us

from the inside out. Lord have your way in Jesus' name. Amen,

you know this is powerful. These are the words of Jesus.

And Jesus is not talking about faithfulness of the gift alone.

He says, listen, if you can't be faithful in the

secular side of money. If you can't be faithful and

not the part that you give that you sow to

be holy.

But if you can't be faithful.

In the rest of it, how can you be trusted

with true riches? So he says, the stewardship over over

what you don't give is just as important as what

you give when it comes to God being able to

trust you and release his blessing into your life. Because

money very easily becomes our master.

You know, here's the thing about money. It's a magnifier.

Money magnifies if you are a good person and you

have money, you.

Can do good things.

Somebody say, amen, y'all just like shut down when I

mentioned money.

It's okay, We're gonna get through it. This is it.

Then next week I won't be talking about money. I'll

be talking about prayer. But so it magnifies. If you're good,

you can do more good. If you're bad, you do

more bad. Money is a magnifier of what's truly in

your heart.

And God says, listen, if.

You can't learn to be faithful over that part in

which we exchange for goods, that part that we should

treat a seed. If you can't be faithful in that.

How can I trust you with true riches? Now, I

want to just explain true riches for a second. True

riches go beyond any value that monetary.

Wealth could ever buy.

True wealth exists beyond dollars and cents. True wealth is

truly nothing missing, nothing broken. It's not just having things,

but having the ability to enjoy, having the ability to sow,

having the ability.

To have proper relationship.

True wealth is when money is our master, we're not

its servant. When we're money's Master's what I meant to say.

When we're money, I don't know what I said. Now,

I'm just so confused. We become money's master, we're not

money's servant. That is why we must have that relationship,

and we must become a good steward of what God

has put in our lives. And in this passage, a

Christian says, listen, you can't serve two masters. And let's

talk about those two masters for a second, because it's

a pretty easy choice. Number one, it's the imagery of

those task masters from Egypt. It's that hard driving force

that tries to push us beyond what we can actually do.

A task master will always push us to do things

that we're not capable of doing. And I'm not talking

about in a good way, like setting goals that stretch us,

but I'm talking about it we don't have the ability

to actually live up to what that task master is

asking us to do. How many of you you've had

something set before you and no matter how you work,

you just can't get it done. You're not lazy, you're

not putting things off. It's just you look at that

task and you're like, I'm gonna run into that brick wall,

and I'm gonna keep running into that brick wall. But

that brickwall is going to knock me unconscious. There's nothing

I can do about it. That desire that runs us

into that brick wall is a task master. It lashes

up and punishes us for trying to make progress. And

that's what that imagery of that, that wicked.

Task master is.

It's the first master that when we allow money to

be our master, it requires.

Us to do things that we can't do.

We get those those letters in the mail, or we

get those emails saying listen, because you have such good credit,

we want.

To extend to you more money.

We want to give you more availability we want to

we're going to increase because you have you have maxed

out your credit card and you're faithful to pay the

minimum credit. We're going to do you a favor and

we're going to increase your credit line until we get

to the place that you can't pay it anymore.

Task Master.

It continues to expand until you can't accomplish that that

you want to accomplish. It drives you towards more and

more debt and more and more servitude. That is money

in an improper relationship with our lives. When it becomes

our master. The other master is Jesus. If we serve money,

we will despise Jesus. Now, I just want to talk real.

This is not even part of the message. I just

want to talk real with you for a second. If

you are carrying an immense debt load and you are

upside down and underwater, and listen, it doesn't matter if

you're an inch underwater or a mile underwater. Drowning is drowning, amen,

So it doesn't matter how you identify where you are.

Drowning is drowning. And I want to throw you a

life jacket today. See when we don't have that good

relationship and we find ourselves in debt, we begin to

despise the things of God. It starts as wanting to

do something that we can't do, and then it becomes

bitterness because we can't do those things, and then it

becomes anger towards God because everybody else can and I can't.

And the reality is that is the Master of money

working against us. When we find ourselves in debt and

we can't give like we want to give, the first

thing that happens is guilt.

Then the second thing that happens is bitter and.

Angerness, and bitter and angriness angerness just created a new word.

And then the third thing that happens.

Is we begin to allow greed and coveteousness to engulf

our lives. And it's not bitter that we can't do

those things anymore, but we're bitter that other people can.

And we begin to cheer against the blessing of God

in people's lives rather than cheering for God's blessings in

people's lives.

That's how we.

Know that we have begin to allow a different master

to be in our lives. Because it drives us to

have a characteristic a character a personality that we don't

desire to have.

It's not who we truly are.

But because of the load we carry, because we can't

fulfill the obligation, it becomes so heavy that it begins

to break us. Listen to the second Master, though, Matthew,

Chapter eleven, verse twenty eight. Come to me, all who

labor and are heavy laden. Now, I just I want

you to be honest. Okay, I want you to be honest.

How many of you feel like you're worth more than

you get paid. I'm just gonna be honest. I don't

even I don't even think that that that I'm worth

a lot. I believe that I'm just I'm God's favorite,

and I believe that I'm worth a lot. Your God's

favorite too, though, I just want you to He's not just.

He don't just have one f I don't know how

God does it, but he does it. If we live

in God's favor, we're his favorite. That's just simply the

way it is. And I'm worth a lot.

And it's not that y'all don't pay me well, because

you do.

It's just I just think that I'm.

Yeah, I've got myself in a hole now.

But but yeah. We all feel like we're worth more

than what we get paid.

We think that we bring more value.

To the table, and the reality is you do, because

if your worth has a dollar sign on it, then

it's never going to be enough dollars to come to

your worth because you're made in the image of God,

and the value you have on your life is that

which the very son of God surrendered his life for.

Money.

Can never bring the proper value in your life.

And Jesus says, listen, come to me, all who labor

and are heavy laden.

If you're a working and trying to make ends meet,

Jesus says, I'm your guy.

Wow, just come to me.

Here's the most amazing line, and I will give you rest.

The taskmaster drives and drives and drives and drives, and

you're lay down at night and all you can think

about is what you owe and who you owe, and

what you can't have and what you can't do.

That is a task master.

But Jesus says, listen, come to me, and I'll give

you rest. Take my yoke, submit yourself. He's talking about

his mastery. He's talking about being our master in our lives.

He says, listen, take my yoke, Submit to me, Submit

to my guy that's submit to me. Take my yoke

and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly

in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

So the option I think that I think that God

sends intelligent people to this church. I believe that God

sends rational people who can weigh the scales and make

good make good decisions. Do you want your life driven

by the task Master or do you want the one

who's burden is easy and light. I don't know about you,

but I'm going to serve the second Master all day

long because that just fits my lifestyle a little better.

I just think that that Jesus looks at me and

he says, hey, I gave my life for you, and

there's value in your life, and I'm going to fill

the voids that are in your life because I want

you to have the very best, because I died for

you to have the very best. So we have to

choose which master we are in alignment with. But the

reality is in this place right now. Most people in

this room now listen. The Holy Spirit did not reveal

this to me during an intense time of prayer. Statistics

revealed this to me. Amen, you know, statistics are are

are right. You can use them to tell a different story.

But the numbers are the numbers. You know, Chipper Jones

was about a three oh five lifetime hitter, So that

means if he went through a month and he hit

two thirty, he was going to go on a tear

next month because he was going to get to around

three oh five.

Because the numbers are the numbers, and the numbers.

Tell us that most well that the average American carries

around eight thousand dollars in ADIT card debt in their life,

unsecured debt at a high interest, So that means that

most people here have debt in their lives. So let's

talk about that. So for every person that has zero debt,

there is another person that has sixteen thousand dollars. So

those of you who are celebrating your zero debt, just

realize that somebody else is carrying double weight. So instead

of looking down, help somebody up. So instead of instead

of talking about how they shouldn't have, talk about how

you can because the reality is we're all here to

pull one another up to help one another.

We are a community, and.

The Lord has brought us together to cheer for each

other and to help that weight that we carry.

And we're all under that hea heavy.

Hand of that strong man in our lives that we

just can't get free of. Once you find yourself in debt,

it's hard to get out.

It's really hard. As a matter of fact.

Jesus talks about this bondage in Matthew, chapter twelve, verse

twenty nine. It says, or how can one enter a

strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first

binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house. Now,

Jesus is speaking specifically here about casting out demons, but

he's more broadly and more specifically talking about bondage in

people's lives, that heavy oppression of the enemy of that master,

pressing down on us and keeping us held into position

and trying to achieve things that will never achieve because

we can't get out from under it. And he says, listen,

the only way to get out of bondage. The only

way to do that is you first have to buy

the strong man.

You got to tie him up so he can't work

against you. Anymore. And the reality is that we have

to look at our finances.

If we have that insurmountable amount of debt, we have

to look at our finances, and we have to identify

the number.

One major strong man in our.

Finances, because if you try to whip them all at

the same time, they're going to whip you.

If I can square off with one of you, I

got a chance.

But if you all come at me at the same time,

I'm just gonna dunck and run. And he says, listen,

you gotta understand who the strong man is. So let

me just give you some practical some practical things here,

and then we'll move on to some spiritual things.

Maybe if we get past the practical.

But how many of you know that practicality works in

the spiritual too. I have no doubt that if most

of you were out from under debt, you wouldn tribute

more to the kingdom and we would see more people

set free and saved.

I have no doubt about that.

The first thing you need to do to buy in

that strong man is you need to get some other

people on board into your situation.

You're not alone.

The average person carries eight thousand dollars in signature debt

unsecured debt eight thousand dollars at a high interest rate.

Credit cards now, as of right now, can carry an

interest rate up to thirty two percent. Some of you

have credit cards that are thirty two percent interest. That

means that if you pay the minimum amount, the minimum

balance on your credit cards is going to take you

twenty one years to pay off your debt twenty one years,

and you're going to pay twice as much as the

amount you purchased. So if you put five thousand dollars

worth of toys on your credit card and you're paying

the minimum amount, you're going to pay ten thousand dollars

for that five that. Now, listen, if that's how you

like to do things, talk to me. I got some

stuff I'll sell you right after church. Amen, if you

want to pay twice as much, I got some things.

I will sell you nice things and some junkie things.

Whichever ones you want, it don't matter. For twice the money,

I'll sell them to you. So we see then that

these things keep us bound because we can't ever get

out from under them, and it's common to most people.

So you need to onboard some people, because you need

a cheering squad and an accountability squad. You need some

people that will help point you and keep you moving

in the right direction so that you can finally see

some freedom. Because by yourself, what will happen is if

you ever get something paid off, you're going to increase

your lifestyles to take up the gap, and you're going

to find yourself back in debt, but surround it.

Get in a group.

That's a long way of saying you need to be

in a group, and you need to be transparent about

your financial situation because people care about your financial situation.

The second thing you need to do is find out

where you're paying the most interest.

Now, don't look at you.

If you own your house, don't count that because your

house is going up in value. That's not bad debt.

Let's just worry about that later. Find out where you're

paying the most interest. If you've got a credit card

that has thirty two percent interest and you a one

thousand dollars on it, and you have another credit card

that has five thousand dollars on.

It but you're paying eight percent interest, you're.

Going to pay the one where you're paying the most risk. First,

because it's eating you the fastest. It's beating you harder

than everything else. So find out what the highest interest

rate is you have, and then start aggressively.

Paying off that debt. How do I how do I

pay off debt? Well, we're going to get that in

just one second.

But then when you finally pay that beast off, when

you've bound that first strong man, you got him tied

up in the corner, take all that money you were

paying to whip him and just roll it down to

the next one. So, in other words, if I'm paying,

if I'm now paying six hundred dollars a month to

pay off that credit card and I get that paid

off when I get paid, I don't go buy a

brand new truck.

Amen.

That that's no you just you just hired another taskmaster.

You take that six hundred dollars and you keep paying

that six hundred dollars, but you pay it down on

the next hardest strong man or the.

Next big strong man you have.

What is that next highest interest rate that I'm paying

And I put that six hundred dollars every month until.

I pay it off, and then I roll that told.

Them out down until I'm completely debt free, and now

I can make money work for me, and I can

take that six hundred dollars and I can invest that

six hundred dollars, and instead of paying compound interest, I

can get compound interest and begin to build wealth.

And then you become the master rather than the servant.

Listen, young people, my wife and I when we first

got married, we wanted everything our parents had. Right now,

the worst mistake I've ever done is finance furniture, because

you know what, I break the furniture before it's paid off.

I mean, I used to weigh three hundred and fifty pounds.

It don't take much to break a couch. Amen, they

don't make one that's meant to hold me. They just

don't make one and it breaks. And guess what, I'm

still paying for junk in my garage.

Live within your means.

But here is the uh, here's the ultimate way we

get it done. In James chapter two, verse eighteen, it says,

but someone will say, you have faith and I have works.

Show me your faith without your works, and I will

show you my faith by my works.

You believe that there's one God. You do well.

Even the demons believe and tremble But do you want

to know, old foolish man, that faith without works is dead.

Some of us we've been in this situation financially for

years and years, and we go to bed every night. God,

I'm believing that you're going to get me out of dea.

That God, I'm believing that tomorrow when I wake up,

my dead is gonna be supernaturally canceled.

God.

That man on TBN said if I send him one

hundred and eleven dollars, that I'm gonna get notices in

the mailbox that all my bills are paid off. And

now don't say paid off, it says foreclosure. That does

not mean the same thing. By the way, what that

means is you are about to be out. But here's the

reality is that if I have faith to be out

of debt so that I can do more with the

resources God has blessed me with than I put my

work behind my faith. Listen, I used to think, you

know what, I don't necessarily, I don't think I want to.

You know, if I live to be sixty five, I'll

be happy. Honestly, that was how I used to live.

If I live to be seen, I'll be happy. I

don't care sixty five is you know, when I was

twenty sixty five years old, and now I've realized that

my kids may not have grandkids until I'm eighty, and

I like to see at least one. So I thought, hey,

you know what, I might need to change some things

about my life because I can have faith.

For those things.

But if my works don't match my faith, most I

us think, Oh, I'm gonna have faith for God to

give me old age, but I'm gonna keep drinking twelve

Mountain dews a day, And God saying, bro, you ain't

got that much faith. Yeah, I mean the amount of

caffeine and sugar you're putting in your body is there's

not enough faith to overcome that. So I made some

health choices, and I cut out some things and added

some things, and I'm starting to get healthier because now

my faith says, hey, I think it's gonna take.

Me longer to make the difference that I want to make.

So I need to now align my works with my

faith so that I can get there. And now I

can believe God. And God says, well done, my good

and faithful servant, Because I've trusted you over a few things.

Now I can trust you over many. It's the same

thing with getting out of debt. You got to do

some hard things to create the margin to get the

ball rolling.

You got to cut.

Off at least at least one off Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu,

whatever it is.

Listen, you got to cut some of those things off. Amen.

Maybe you're gonna have to have some yard cells. Maybe

you're gonna have to get a second part time job,

and all of that money goes towards debt elimination. But

you got if you're gonna bind the strong man, you

have to get the resources in order to bind him,

or he's going to keep ruling over your house. And

I believe that God wants you to establish and have

a great house, a house of freedom and peace of abundance.

God wants that for you.

But you've got to put your work behind your faith

and allow your actions to line up with who God is,

and then you'll see him move mightily on your behalf

and you can begin to climb.

Out of that hole and experience freedom.

So when you go to bed, you dream about heaven,

and you dream about good things, not about the bet

collector coming to pull your car out of your driveway.

You shouldn't have to live under that pressure. So let's

align our actions with our faith, and let's make progress

right now, starting today, and climb out of that hole,

because God wants more for you than what you're living

in right now. But you know this faith without works thing,

there's one area of our lives that it doesn't apply

to play. You guys can come and get ready. You

know there is one thing where works don't matter, and

it's our salvation. See everything in the Kingdom of God requires.

Effort.

Accept our salvation and it's a free gift. Jesus did

all the work for our salvation. He offers you the

ability to climb out from under a debt that you

couldn't possibly pay, the debt.

Of sin in your life.

In Romans chapter five, verse one, that says, therefore, having

been justified by faith, we have peace with God through

our Lord or Jesus Christ, through whom we also have

access by faith into this grace in which we stand

and rejoice and hope of the glory of God. Two

thousand years ago, Jesus Christ, the only thegotten son of

God God, clothed in flesh, looked into this room and

he saw you. He saw you and all your dysfunction.

He saw you and all your insecurity, and all your fear,

and all your brokenness, and all of your trauma, all.

Of your all of your sin, and heard, and when

he looked and he.

Saw you, he said, trading my life for theirs is

worth it. It wasn't somebody that looked off clean and

shiny on the outside, that had everything together. Jesus died

for hurting broken people who were looking for answers and

didn't know where to find them. That's who Jesus died for.

And there's no way to work your way there. You

can only believe your way there. Two thousand years ago,

a man who was completely innocent.

Was beaten beyond human recognition.

For you, he was made to carry the instrument of

his death, an old cross, through the dusty streets of Jerusalem.

His people spat on him, mocked him, and screamed at him.

For you, he walked up Calvary and he laid himself

down on that cross, and he allowed those soldiers to

drive nails through his hands and his feet lift him

suspended between Earth and Heaven. For you, and the blood

that trailed down that cross.

Puddled in the sandy soil.

Has the ability to wash away our sin and reconcile

us with God.

And he looked into.

This room just moments before his death, and he said, Father, God,

forgive them.

They don't know what they do.

Every single person here was born a sinner. We all

have the ability to be redeemed by the blood of Jesus.

And after he said that, he looked into heaven and

he said, Father God, into your hands, I commit my spirit.

And he breathed and he died. And that's powerful. But

the reality is his love didn't stop when he died

for you.

He loved you so much that three days later, in

that borrow too, he came back to life to be death,

hell and the grave for you because he loved you

so much that he was willing to die and come back.

And all you need to do to.

Receive that love, to receive that forgiveness, is to trust

him as your savior. I believe that there's somebody thinking

right now, yeah, but you don't know who I am

or what I've done. You don't know who I was

and what I had done. You don't know what God

saves me from.

He's not asking you to clean up first.

He's just asking you to come to him, fall into

his grace.

For everybody here right now, just by your heads and

close your eyes, just for a moment.

But it's nobody's business the decision you're about to make,

except your own right now in the moment.

But if you're here and you want to ask Jesus

to forgive you of your sins to be the lord

of your life, if you want to trust him, just

slip up your hand and say that's me, Pastor, pray

for me.

I want to give my life to Jesus today.

I want to trust him. Amen. I see that hand.

I just want to fall into his arms. Amen, I

see that hand.

I'm gonna wait just a moment, because I believe you're

there's some people wrestling, Oh tear. There's not one person

in this building that cares where you've been, what you've done.

Or only cares where you're going Heaven. Just slip your hand.

I'm saying, that's me, Pastor, Amen, see that hand. Everybody

would open your eyes, everybody, stand to your feet. Scripture

says this, that Jesus says, if you confess me before men,

I'll confess you before my father in heaven. If you

deny me before men, I'll deny you before my father

in heaven. And the reality is, when you walk out

of these doors, you're going to face the same adversity

and pressure and hardship that you faced your entire life.

And you're in a place that's already been praying for you,

that loves you, that wants you to succeed.

So, if you're here and you raised your hand, I'm

about to count to three, and when I count to three,

I want you to step out from where you're standing.

If you raised your head and said that's me, I

want Jesus to forgive me of my sins, and I

want you to make your way down to the front

and just wind up with whoever you think is the prettiest,

and they're gonna pray for you. The blood of Jesus

is gonna wash you clean, and you're gonna be a

brand new creation on your way to heaven.

This is but don't look to see if anybody else moves.

This is not about that. This is not about acceptance.

It's not about popularity. It's about you finishing faith, taking

a step into new It's on the count of three,

I want you to step out. Come one, two three.

If you're lifting your hands, step out and come right now.

Come on, come on, don't leave it.

Come on amen, amen, Amen, Amen, come on, don't let

What will they think rob you of this moment?

People already think I'm