How to Manage My Finances | Generous Like Jesus

Thanks for tuning in to the Sandals Church podcast.

Our vision as a church is to be real with ourselves, God, and others.

We're glad you're here, and we hope you enjoy this message.

Hi, guys, and welcome to Sandals Church.

I just want to share with you that there are a ton of reasons I love the church.

Some of you are joining us for the first time at a Sandals Church campus.

Some of you are watching online for the first time, and you're not sure about this whole

church thing.

Look, let me tell you, I love the local church.

I've lived my life in a commitment to three things.

Number one, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We give a hand for that.

Amen.

Number two, my beautiful wife who helped decorate this amazing studio.

Thanks for the golf clap.

She'll write down all the names of the people didn't clap.

And then number three, to the local church.

And there's tons of reasons I love the local church.

And some of you are missing out on the blessings of being a part of a local church.

But here's one of the things that I just love the local church for.

It's one of the last remaining places where we can talk about real things and hard things.

I want you to think about Thanksgiving last week, how hard it was to have a real

conversation about anything politics, money, marriage, sexuality, you name it.

We're all walking on eggshells in our culture because there's a heightened sensitivity and

there's really a low, low level of grace for anybody who disagrees or thinks differently.

And the church really is one of the last places where we can talk about hard things.

And as your pastor, I just want to say thank you for giving me permission to talk about

hard things, to challenge you to think about hard things.

And I don't know if there's a harder thing in our lives right now than talking about

money.

And so I just love our church.

You keep coming every week.

You know, this whole series.

You're like, okay, what could generous like Jesus be about?

It's going to be about money.

And you guys keep showing up.

And I just want to say thank you, Sandals Church, for being brave enough to be challenged

about such a sensitive issue.

And I would say this for the singles in here who are dating somebody, seriously, before

you say I do, I would have a conversation about money, because money separates families,

parents and kids, brothers and sisters, and it can even separate husbands and wives.

And there's a reason Jesus never shied away from tough conversations about money.

Now, if you're new to Christianity, you don't know this, but he talked more about money

than any other topic.

Isn't that interesting for somebody who never owned anything?

He talked about money more than any other topic.

If you took the New Testament Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and you laid out all the

verses and you divided them numerically.

Jesus would talk about money.

Listen to this.

Every 6th verse.

Isn't that crazy?

And so what I want to talk to you today about is how Jesus teaches me to get the most out

of my money.

Anybody been to the grocery store lately?

The other day, Tammy sent me to a restaurant.

I bought salsa.

Salsa and rice.

He's like, Why would you buy rice?

Because we can't make Mexican rice.

We can't do it.

We're white people, so we pay for it.

And I bought Mexican rice.

Salsa and Mexican rice.

The guy said, 32 50.

What?

That's the most appropriate what ever.

And I said, no, just salsa and rice.

He said yes.

32 50.

And I was just like, oh, my gosh.

Felt like a crack deal or something.

I didn't know what it was.

And when I told my wife, she's like, well, how many things of rice did you get?

I was like one.

One.

And so all of us are having to make our money go further, and Jesus is going to teach you

today how to do that.

Thank you so much for joining us for our service today.

I want to take a quick second and invite you to give and to be a part of the work that

we're doing here at Sandals Church, you can do so by going to donate SC for.

Now, let's get back into our sermon with Pastor Matt.

This is one of the most challenging sermons on money that Jesus ever gave.

It's challenging.

It's difficult to understand.

But we're going to walk through this together verse by verse.

So to get the most out of my money, number one, if you're taking notes, I want you to

follow along.

I must see myself as a manager of God's money.

If you're a Christian, this will set you free.

If you're not a Christian, I'm going to talk in a moment why you need to believe this and

start living this way.

So Jesus told this story to his disciples.

So if you're a Christian, you're a disciple, this story is for you.

If you're not a Christian, this is for you.

At the end.

Because there are non Christians, we find out that are listening as well.

They don't love the message.

Matter of fact, they think it's a joke.

And a lot of people who don't get God don't get money, and they won't get this message.

He says there was a certain rich man who had a manager handling his affairs.

Wouldn't that be nice to be so rich?

You have people that handle your money.

I don't have enough to have it handled.

Amen.

But one day, listen to this.

A report came that the manager was wasting his employer's money.

And so the employer called him and said, what is this I hear about you get your report in

order?

Can you imagine freaking out because you are going to be fired.

Whoa.

Here's what you need to know about God.

Nothing on earth is yours.

It's all God's.

It's all God's.

Psalms 24.

One says this the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world.

And listen to this, and all its people belong to him.

If you can just pray this psalm, believe this psalm, live out this psalm, god will set you

free.

And some of you, you say, well, that's easy for you to say, Pastor, because you want me to

give my money to the church because you own the church.

I hear this all the time.

Do you know I don't own the church?

I don't own anything in the church.

The other day, we were going to Lax, and somebody took us in a brand new, sweet, beautiful

minivan.

And I love minivans.

And my wife says, that's because I never had to drive one.

But I was like, man, this is a great minivan.

I said, whose is this?

And the driver said it's yours.

Pastor Matt.

I was like, I don't own a minivan.

He goes, well, the church does.

But even one of our key volunteers confuses this sometimes.

I don't own the van.

I don't own anything at Sandals Church.

Listen to me.

I'm building a multimillion dollar business I will never own.

Now, I am either a fool or the wisest business owner on earth.

Now, let me tell you something.

A couple of years ago, when we built this building, the studio I'm speaking from is from

our Hunter Park campus.

We had some well meaning staff, and they were so grateful, and we were so grateful that

God allowed us to build this $15 million project.

This was huge.

We were a bunch of college kids.

We had two nickels together and faith in Jesus, and we were able to do a $15 million

project.

And so the staff got together and they bought a bronze plaque, and they wanted to put it

on the building.

And it said Sandals Church.

Founded in 1997 by Pastor Matt Brown.

And they said, what do you want me to do to this?

I said, Throw it in the trash.

And our know, they were sweet.

Their feelings were hurt.

But listen to me.

If Sandals is founded and owned by Matt Brown, we're in trouble.

It was founded by the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is his church.

He owns it.

And let me tell you something, there is freedom in that.

There's freedom in that.

So we're in this giving campaign, and we're trying to raise an extra couple million

dollars.

I know I don't know what your problems are.

Those are my problems.

And last week I get a text message that our Palm Avenue campus.

And pray for them because they're trying to stress me out.

But our Palm Avenue campus main water line went out.

Now, here's the thing.

If that's my problem, I'm flipping out.

But I got good news that's god's problem.

You see, I'm not an owner.

I'm a manager.

And do you know that God handled it?

We had people donate time dollars.

We were able to do it almost at no expense because the people of our church rallied

together, paid for the cement cutting, paid for the plumbing, paid for the cement work,

donated their time.

And listen to this.

And why is that?

Because they believe this is God's church.

What would happen to your money if God believed your money was his money?

I'm just curious.

I'm just curious.

So to get the most out of my money, I've got to do a couple of things.

I got to see myself as a manager.

And number two, I got to be honest, real honest.

If you're a young person, write this down.

This is free.

I got to be honest about my income earning potential, because some of you, you're on

TikTok, but you're not in reality.

Amen.

And all these young people, I want to be a billionaire, man.

I want you to make minimum wage.

Amen.

Let's start there.

Let's start there.

And this is the reason so many people are miserable with your $6 coffee.

Because you got a 60 cent budget for coffee and you're just miserable.

You know what the Bible says?

The Bible says that Godliness with contentment is great wealth.

Let me say that again.

Godliness with contentment is great wealth.

You want to know what misery is?

Always wishing you had more.

So the manager finds out all this money, this lifestyle he's been living, it actually

isn't his.

And the master said, I want an accounting.

You're fired.

Turn in all my money.

Give a report for my stuff.

And the manager says, now what?

Now what?

My boss has fired me.

I don't have the strength to dig ditches, and I'm too proud to beg.

Some of you are like, I'm not, pastor.

He says, ah.

He says, I know how to ensure that I'll have plenty of friends who will give me a home

when I'm fired.

Let me say this.

Unrealistic ideas about money will make you miserable.

I heard this song at my gym, and the song was, I Want to be a millionaire, and I'm going

to say, so flipping bad.

That's not what he said.

But I was like, who doesn't?

Dude, that's a dumb song to sing.

He's like, I want to be like Oprah.

I'm like, you're not going to be Oprah.

You're not even close.

You're not even close.

And so many young people today have these aggrandized views of what life is going to be.

And when you set the bar ridiculously high, you're never going to be happy.

And let me say this.

If you're older, you can't manage imaginary money unless you're in government.

And you do it every day, right?

You do it every day.

I know.

That was free.

That was free.

But you can't manage imaginary money.

Years ago, we were doing a giving campaign.

And this young man came up to me and he handed me a CD and he said, pastor, this CD is

going to change the world, and I'm going to donate all the proceeds from this CD to the

giving campaign.

And I listened to his CD and there may be a future in music, but it is not with him

singing.

Let me just say that.

Let me just say that it was awful.

It was terrible.

And some of you, that's what you tell God you're going to give.

I'm going to give this to you when I'm famous.

I'm going to give this to you when I'm rich.

And let me tell you something, that doesn't work.

You need to be honest about your income earning potential.

And the world is changing.

America's changing.

We used to value a college education.

Listen to me, young people.

Now we value labor.

Things are changing and we need to pay attention to that.

And you can spend $200,000 to go work in labor, to get a college degree and go work in

labor.

The money is shifting.

The money is shifting.

It's interesting.

And we need to pay attention to this.

And so what can I do?

So what does he say?

I'm too old to dig ditches.

You need to be thinking ahead.

And so many people today because money's getting tight.

Did you know that there is an epidemic of people robbing their four hundred and one K to

pay their bills today?

More people in 2022 have done that since the 2008 crisis.

They're robbing their future.

And let me tell you something.

If you're doing that, you're taking money from when you can't work to pay for your bills.

Now, when you can work, that's not wise.

You need to be thinking about this.

Be honest.

And some are like, I'm going to work till I'm 80, okay?

You can't even walk to church.

I see you guys parking right up front when you're 50, what are you going to do when you're

80?

So be thinking about this.

Be thinking about your future.

And be honest.

What can I do?

Like, I meet young kids all the time.

I'm going to be a professional athlete.

And I look at them like, probably not.

Probably not.

Have you seen a professional athlete?

They don't look like you.

They don't look like you.

And so a lot of us have these unrealistic expectations.

And I'm not saying you shouldn't have goals.

I'm just saying they should be realistic goals.

They should be realistic goals.

What can you really do?

And so here's the thing, is jesus is going to commend this guy.

And a lot of people have a problem with it.

But here's one of the things I think Christ is commending.

He's at least real.

And some of you just aren't.

And instead of playing the lottery hoping, what I would encourage you to do is start

planning out and working and say, okay Lord, what can I do?

What can I do?

And again, what is happiness?

Happiness is not the money that you don't have.

It's learning to make it work with what you do have, that's happiness.

So to get the most out of my money, number one, I got to say, oh, I'm a manager, not an

owner.

Number two, I got to be realistic about what I can do.

And number three, I got to use the resources that I do have strategically.

This is so huge.

Jesus says, so here's the guy.

I can't work because I can't dig ditches because I'm too old.

I'm not going to beg because I'm too proud.

I know what I'll do.

And so what does he do?

He invited each person who owed money to his employer to come and discuss the situation.

And he asked the first one, he says, how much do you owe him?

And the man replied, I owe him 800 gallons of olive oil.

Now, this is hard for us because in our world, everything's money.

But for most of the ancient world, they traded in things.

Tammy and I just were in Ireland a couple of weeks ago, and do you know, the Irish didn't

have money until the twelve hundreds they traded in sheep and cattle.

That was it.

There was no such thing as coin until the 1200s.

Isn't that incredible?

Just 800 years ago, there's no money in Ireland.

And so he says, look, you owe him all of this oil.

And so the manager told him, take the bill quickly and change it to 400 gallons.

Whoa.

And then he asked the next man, how much do you owe my employer?

He asked him.

He said, I owe him a thousand bushels of wheat.

Now, I don't know about you, but I don't traffic in wheat.

Amen.

I have no idea how much this is.

1000 bushels of wheat is 60,000 pounds of wheat.

Let me put it this way.

It's several hundred tons of wheat.

Wow, this guy owes a lot.

And here's what he said.

Take the bill and change it to 800.

He just took tons, literally tons of debt off of him.

And so here's the thing.

The rich man, the master in this story, had to admire the dishonest Rascal for being so

shrewd.

And this is where Christians in private school flip out.

Oh my gosh.

Jesus is saying we can lie.

That's not what he's saying.

Listen to what he's saying.

He says, and it's true that the children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with the

world around them than are the children of light.

Here's the lesson.

Jesus says, use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends.

And then when your possessions are gone, they will welcome you into an eternal home.

Can I just say this?

If you're a Christian, this is not always true.

But oftentimes nonchristians are better with money.

Than Christians are.

Why is that?

Because nonchristians don't believe in a man upstairs who will fix their dumb decisions

down here.

That's why.

And some of you keep believing this, that God is going to bail me out from my continued

foolish financial decisions.

And you say, well, Pastor, I thought God was a God of grace.

He is.

It's amazing grace, how sweet the sound.

But let me say this, and this will preach.

There's a difference between fixing something and forgiving something.

God will forgive you for your stupidity.

Yes, you got it.

But that doesn't mean your situation is fixed.

Did you know that there are eleven specific biblical commands to be wise?

Why would God say eleven times in the Bible, be wise, be wise, be wise.

Here's the thing, because your decisions matter.

Listen, if I'm a Christian and I am, god will not bless my foolish financial decisions.

And we need to think about this.

And that's why Jesus says the children of this world are wiser.

They're more shrewd with their money than are the children of the light.

And some of you are saying God's in control, not of your spending.

That's on you.

God's in control, not of your management.

You see, this story from, from beginning to end is god is in control of everything.

But he's expecting you to manage.

Listen to this, what he's put you in control of.

And so many Christians miss this.

Completely miss this.

And so here's what I would challenge many of you to do today.

You want to get more out of your money, you got to be wiser about your money.

I learned this long ago when we started Santos Church and we had nothing.

Every dollar mattered, every penny mattered.

And we literally had to get every last drop out of the money that we brought in.

It was so difficult.

It was so scary.

And many churches today, and many Christians are in trouble because they operate their

finances by faith and not out of wisdom, believing that God will bail them out for their

foolish decisions.

And Jesus says, this dishonest guy is better with money than you are and you should learn

from him.

Why?

Because he has a strategy.

And his strategy was a relational strategy.

Even though he continued to rip off his manager, his owner, excuse me, as the manager, he

kept ripping him off.

He said, I got to do what I got to do.

So to get the most out of my money, I got to keep the end in mind.

Man, this is what some of you miss.

The second this guy knew he was fired, he changed his whole financial life.

You see, he knew what the end was.

He knew the end game.

Some of you Christians, oh, you believe in heaven, but you live like you're going to be on

earth forever.

Some of you Christians are Christian atheists.

When it comes to your money.

You have faith in your heart for God, but when it comes to your money, like, I don't

really believe.

Romans 1412 is a news flash, and many Christians don't realize this.

This is written to Christians for believers.

I'm going to give you two verses.

So many Christians, when I ask them, where are you going to go when you die?

And everybody says heaven.

That's not what the Bible says.

When you die, you stand before God and are judged.

The first place you go is judgment.

The first thing that happens to you when you take your last breath on earth and you take

your first breath before Jesus is you are going to be held listen to these words

accountable.

There's an accounting, and some of you are not ready for that.

You're not ready for the audit of your life.

Anybody ever been audited?

Oh, I have.

It's super fun.

Super exciting.

You get that love letter from the IRS, it shows up.

It's terrifying.

It's terrifying.

A couple of years ago, Tammy and I, we got our wages garnished by the IRS.

That's super fun.

When our accountant at church is like, oh, our pastor doesn't pay his taxes.

He's like, we got to garnish your wages here's.

The thing is, I told our business director here, I said, do whatever they say.

I told my wife and I told our tax guy the same thing.

I said, we've not cheated.

And I have absolute confidence that in this end, we will be exonerated.

Now, I didn't like it, but I had faith that I was going to survive the accounting and by

the grace of God, we got through it.

And actually they owed us money.

So hey, god reigns.

Amen.

Yeah, god reigns.

It was awesome.

Romans 1412.

Yes.

Each of us will give a personal account to God.

Personal.

Tammy and I will not stand together.

She will stand alone before God, and I will stand alone before God.

Are you ready?

Two corinthians 510.

For we all must stand before Christ to be judged.

Some Muslims understand judgment day better than Christians do.

You know that?

Muslims understand they will stand before Jesus and be judged.

Many Christians have forgotten this.

Listen to what he says.

We will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and we will receive whatever we

deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.

Now, let me say this.

We're not saved by works.

We're saved by grace.

You cannot earn your salvation.

The Gospel is opposed to earning.

Listen to me.

But Jesus demands effort.

He demands effort, and he wants you.

Like, what did you do with the fact that you were saved?

What did you do with the fact that he died for you?

What did you do with your life after he paid it all?

What did you pay forward?

See, here's the thing.

The servant in this story was not ready to be held accountable.

He wasn't ready for how he managed.

As a believer, you should be.

As a believer, you should be, jesus said.

Here's the lesson.

Use your worldly resources to benefit others and to make friends.

And then when your possessions are gone, they will welcome you into an eternal home.

This text is so rich, and some of us have missed this.

Our life should be lived to make one friend.

I meet so many people.

How do you know you're going to heaven?

I believe in Jesus.

The scariest verse in the Bible is found in Matthew.

There will be all these people on the Day of Judgment that said, Lord, I did all of these

things.

And he says, Depart from me, you sinner.

Listen to these words.

I never knew you.

You know what he's saying?

We weren't friends.

We weren't friends.

So Jesus has two audiences.

One audience is his disciples, and the other are Pharisees.

And you're going to hear from them in the end.

But the Pharisees, when they hear this word, make friends for an eternal home.

There's two people in the Jewish Bible that are called friends of God.

Did you know who they are?

Moses and Abraham.

They're both called friends of God.

And both of them lived every day on this earth for God.

Who are you living for?

This last week, Tammy and I, we've started our Christmas movie.

Movie season.

We have all of our Christmas movies, and one of the movies that I love to watch is the

Lord of the Rings trilogy from the early two thousand s.

I absolutely love it.

I'm a big Tolkien geek.

I love it all.

But that there's this scene in the first movie, Fellowship of the Rings, where they're

trying to enter a cave, and they have Gandalf the wizard who can't figure out the riddle.

And here's what it says in Elvish on the door.

It says, Speak, friend and enter.

And they can't figure it out.

And some of us as Christians are just like Gandalf.

We can't figure it out.

And it's the Hobbits that say, what's the word for friend?

And they say it, and they're welcomed in.

Let me tell you how you're going to get in heaven.

Are you a friend?

Have you spoken friend in this life?

That's how you get in.

Jr.

Tolkien is trying to teach us something there.

He was a devout Christian, devout believer in God, and some of us are failing to be

friends of God.

Use your money in this life to make friends and to usher people in to the kingdom of God.

That's what you should be using your resources for.

So here's what he's saying.

Be generous to people and God in order to have an eternal impact.

An eternal impact.

I don't know about you, but I've wasted my money on stupid things.

Anybody ever bought something that's stupid?

Okay?

And if your hands not up, you probably did it yesterday.

But here's the thing.

When we get to heaven, I'm going to get to see the money that I gave to Jesus and how it

impacted not just my life, not just your life, but every life.

I'm going to get to see all the saints and their offerings.

I'm going to get to see what it did forever.

Here's the thing.

Nothing that we buy in this Earth lasts.

Everything that we give to God lasts forever.

It lasts forever.

And so I want you to think about that when you're spending your money, be asking yourself,

what is the eternal impact of this?

All of my financial decisions are made out of that.

We don't buy cars we can't afford because I don't want to be a slave to a car company.

I want to be a servant of Jesus.

I don't buy a house that's going to put pressure on me.

So I become a slave to my house because I'm a servant of Jesus.

All of my financial decisions are funneled through this idea.

Years ago, Tammy and I wanted to buy our first brand new home.

And when we sat down with a housing agent, we wrote down our expenses, and he asked,

what's tithing?

And I said, that's tithing.

And you know what he said?

If you put that down as an actual expense, the bank will not qualify you for this home.

And you know what I said then?

I guess we don't qualify.

I guess we don't qualify, because I'm not going to buy a house that's going to put

pressure on my Tithing.

I'm not going to do it.

I'm not going to do it.

Just so you know, that was a hard no, because Tammy really liked the house.

I really liked the house.

But we never lived there.

One day, and I don't regret it at all.

To get the most out of my money, I must be listen to this a faithful manager who is worthy

of more.

How many of you guys in here and if you're watching from a campus, how many of you guys

could use a little more money?

Raise your hands.

It's okay.

There's nothing wrong with that's.

Not a sin.

You guys like, no.

Let me explain theologically what you're asking God for a raise.

You you're asking God for a raise.

And I want you to know this.

I tell this with people all the time.

I have people all the time that work for me are like, I want to plan a church, or I want

to go here, I want to do that.

And I tell them this all the time.

I say, every day is an interview.

Every day is an interview.

I want you to know with God, every day is an interview for a raise.

Listen to Jesus.

This is all in his teaching.

He said, if you are faithful in the little things, you will be faithful in large ones.

You want to raise?

You want more.

Be faithful little.

But Jesus says if you are dishonest in the little things you see, some of us believe money

will change us.

No, it won't.

It just reveals us.

You won't be honest with greater responsibilities.

You want to know how much you have?

You have what you can handle.

He says this and if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, then who will trust you

with the true riches of Heaven?

And then here's where the challenge comes.

And if you are not faithful with other people's things, why should you be trusted with

things of your own?

I would encourage you to park in this verse for the rest of your life.

If you're not faithful with someone else's things, why would you be given something that's

your own?

What on earth is Jesus teaching here?

This is huge.

One of the guys I've been following for ten years died this last week.

His name is Charlie Munger.

He's the chief financial analyst for a guy you've probably heard of, warren Buffett.

These guys bet on Costco 20 years ago.

How'd that work out?

I mean, he has bet on companies that you all know.

Target costco.

I mean, you name it.

He's just worth billions and billions of dollars.

But you know, he died this week.

And guess how much he got to take with him?

Zero.

Here's.

What Jesus teaching?

No matter what you have in this life, it's not yours.

Here's what Timothy says.

You come into the world with nothing, and you will leave with nothing.

Here's what Jesus is saying.

You want true riches, you want real riches, then you want something that lasts forever.

I don't care what you think you own.

When you die, you let it go.

It's not really yours.

Jesus is teaching something here in eternity, not just in Heaven.

Oh, by the way, some of you don't know this.

There's a new Earth.

There's a new Earth, there's a new Heaven, and there's no gap anymore, and there's no

sickness, and there's no death.

But you know what there is on the new Earth?

Things you can actually own.

Things that will actually be yours, because they will never be taken away from you.

Think about that.

Some of you are gambling your whole life on everything you have to give up here.

And you're missing out on the blessings of what you get to own forever there.

Why on earth would God give you more when you've not been faithful with what you have?

Why park in that verse?

Why would I ever, God says, give you something that you can own when you haven't been

faithful with what I own?

God says so many Christians think that Heaven is this socialist empire where everything is

equal.

You've not read the Gospels.

Everything in the next life.

Your position, your status, where you are, what you do, it's all based upon the rewards

that are handed out for your faithfulness here.

And, oh, by the way Jesus says, whatever you spend in this life for his kingdom, you get

100 X in the next life.

100 times in the next life.

How's your 401K doing this year?

I don't know about you, but I'm not getting 100 X.

Man.

I'm grateful.

This year I got 1%.

I made 1%.

And if you know anything about inflation, that means I'm down 20.

Jesus is saying, Whatever you do for me, I'm going to multiply it a hundred times in the

next life.

And you get to own it.

You get to own it.

Listen, this life is tough, but this life is just a test.

It's real, but it's a test.

And some of us, unfortunately, are failing miserably because we're like the dishonest

manager who thinks we own something.

And then all of a sudden, the owner calls for an accounting, and we realize we got

nothing.

We got nothing.

Now, in the story, the master laughs at the rascal, but he still knows he cheated.

He still knows what he did was dishonest.

And the compliment is not to go and be dishonest.

The compliment is to be shrewd and strategic and figure out the blessing of seeing

everything in your life.

As God's.

To get the most out of my money, I must not just work hard, but work hard to keep money in

its place.

Man some of you, you work hard, and the Lord has blessed you, and I'm grateful for that.

But as hard as you work for money, I want you to work equally hard to not be enslaved to

money.

Jesus ends this teaching with this statement.

No one can serve two masters who did the dishonest manager ultimately serve himself.

You can't kind of serve God and yourself, he says, for you will hate one and love the

other.

You will be devoted to one and despise the other.

He says this.

You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.

You can't do it.

And by the way, in the Greek, the word is not money.

It's mammon.

It's the God of Money.

It's the only God Jesus ever mentions, the God of money.

And many of us worship him, are enslaved to him, pray to him, wish to him, live for him,

and for what?

You lose it all in the end.

I don't know if Charlie Munger was a Christian, but here's what Jesus said.

What do you gain if you inherit the whole world, but you forfeit your soul.

Listen to me.

If money is first in your life, then your soul is last.

Your soul is last.

So put money in its proper place.

And here's the sad thing.

The story ends, and the Pharisees think Jesus is a joke.

And do you know what the Bible says?

Because they loved money.

They loved money.

Look, every single week when we have offering time, it's a tough time, and I get it.

Money's tight.

I get it, man.

Times are tough.

Times are scary.

I understand it.

The offering time is a reminder to us every single week, what God do we serve?

Who do we serve?

It's a check yourself time.

It's a check yourself time.

And for those of you who aren't Christians, you're like, oh, I came to church.

George.

The church is all about in the money.

No God could care less about your money.

He cares about your soul.

And money robs you of your own soul if you love it.

If you love it.

And I want you to know there's such freedom when you make a decision that I'm not an

owner, I'm a manager.

There's such freedom in that.

There's such peace with that.

Years ago, I got sued.

Somebody in our church got hurt volunteering, and they sued me for $2 million, which I

thought was kind of funny because I don't have $2,000.

But I was pretty stressed out about it.

I had to go to court.

I had to stand before a judge, and I felt bad.

This volunteer got hurt at our church volunteering.

And I felt bad for them.

It impacted his finances and his situation.

So I loved him as a member of our church, but I was mad at him because he was suing me for

$2 million.

And the judge was looking through the paperwork, and he looked up at me and he said, you

don't own Sandals Church.

And I said, no, I don't.

Your Honor.

He said, Then you were dismissed.

Come on now.

Amen.

You're dismissed.

And I said, listen this.

I said, I'm free to go.

And the judge said, you are.

And I walked out of there.

And you know why?

Because it wasn't mine.

It wasn't mine.

And there was such peace.

I was so worked up leading up to have to standing in front of a judge.

I didn't know what was going to happen, and I was so overwhelmed.

But there was such peace.

Hearing a judge say, It's not yours, is it?

He looked at the paperwork, he looked at the facts, and he let me go.

Listen to me.

I was free.

There is such freedom for those of you who aren't Christians yet, when the judge looks at

you and you say, oh, this isn't yours.

There's such freedom there, and there's such peace.

And I cannot tell you how amazing it is as a family when you need a raise to look to God

and say, god, we need a raise.

And you know, we've been faithful.

We know we've been faithful, and, you know, we live like this is all yours.

There's such peace.

There Sandals Church, and I want you to experience that peace.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, would you bless us with the peace that surpasses all understanding God?

And I know families are struggling, Lord, to pay for milk, diapers, rent, mortgage, car

payment.

Lord, our insurance has gone up.

And, Lord, many of us haven't gotten a raise.

And we're really struggling trusting you in this time.

God, I pray that you would give us a sense of freedom to know that if our money is yours,

these financial problems are not ours, they're yours.

And, God, I pray that you would help us to get to that place.

And, Lord, I pray for those who are faithful, who are giving.

God, I just want to pray for a raise.

I want to pray for a real raise and a substantial raise.

And I pray that you bless them this week in the midst of their finances and their

faithfulness.

I pray this in Jesus name.

Amen.