Confidence In God as a Shrewd Steward - TWCC 10-12-25 9:30am Service

[SPEAKER_00]: What's going on, y'all?

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's dare haul on the past of the way community church.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I want to welcome you to our podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we've been in this series called Trust Issues and what we really've talking about is money and the church.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so today we're going to look at a popular passage of scripture where we will think through the reality that God can provide for us, whether we have plenty or whether we are experiencing the season.

[SPEAKER_00]: of lack and so you can follow along the notes in this podcast and our transcription or you can go to the Bible app and you will find the notes there.

[SPEAKER_00]: I also want to shout out a minister of great Kirkland who is stepping in for me today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, Greg, for teaching guys where all right y'all let's grab our Bibles.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's study together.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now I want you to join me in Philippians, Philippians, Philippians chapter four.

[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 13, I'll be reading from the King James Version of the Bible.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's just one simple verse and a simply reads, I can do all things through Christ, which strengthened with me, amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: I wanna talk from this thought this morning, confidence in God as a true steward.

[SPEAKER_01]: confidence in God as a shrewd steward.

[SPEAKER_01]: You may claim your seats in His presence.

[SPEAKER_01]: Father, we thank you.

[SPEAKER_01]: We thank you that you have allowed us to have this opportunity once again to study your word and to hear from you.

[SPEAKER_01]: I believe that you have spoken to me and now I pray that you would speak through me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that your people will hear a word from you hide behind the cross.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I pray that this word will be applicable, sensible, logical, practical, and that all of us will be better than we came.

[SPEAKER_01]: In Jesus name we pray, amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Confidence in God as a shrewd steward,

[SPEAKER_01]: Les and I have been married now for nine years, and I came into our marriage with two beautiful daughters, Kirsten and Kyla, and they are now in college.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's hard to believe that, but they're right, wow, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Many of you remember when they would put their pajamas on and bring them to a choir rehearsal.

[SPEAKER_01]: and let them sleep while I talk.

[SPEAKER_01]: And now they're in college.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they are more expensive now than they were then.

[SPEAKER_01]: Some of y'all know what I'm talking about.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then, Les and I married, and we went on to have two more children, God help us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Two bouncing baby boys, cartas, the oldest and Cooper, who is a pandemic baby.

[SPEAKER_01]: because pandemic maybe is a different.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so started over and I went from college, that two kids in college and two kids in elementary school.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I often say, I don't know what I was thinking, but I do know what I was thinking.

[SPEAKER_01]: I tell the truth and shame the devil.

[SPEAKER_01]: I do know what I was thinking.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so what I was thinking that night has brought me to this point today.

[SPEAKER_01]: Two kids in college, two in elementary school, what I wasn't thinking about was the fact that now that we have, and that I have basically essentially started over, is that now I'm faced with something again that I didn't consider that night of those nights.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's called homework.

[SPEAKER_01]: Carter is a second grader and we are working with him on reading.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're working with him on reading.

[SPEAKER_01]: And one of the things that I have come to learn as we work with Carter on his reading is that I had known it before, but I feel like it's even more so now that the English language has got to be the hardest language to teach and comprehend as I mean it's so inconsistent.

[SPEAKER_01]: And what I've learned is that you have long vowels.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have short vowels.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have consonants.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have silent letters.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have blends.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they go on and on and on.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have learned, and I'm trying to teach Carter that G sounds like G. But can also sound like G.

[SPEAKER_01]: But can also sound like, why sounds like I at the end of a word sounds like E. And if you stick it on the front of a word, sounds like, yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Some of y'all know what I'm talking about.

[SPEAKER_01]: I am learning that I am indeed not smarter than a second grader.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because it's confusing, it's inconsistent.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's something in English language called homographs.

[SPEAKER_01]: Homographs.

[SPEAKER_01]: Homographs are words that are spelled the same, but mean different things.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're spelled the same, but they mean different things.

[SPEAKER_01]: So let me give you some examples of homographs if we have it on the screen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, look at this chart.

[SPEAKER_01]: Just some examples.

[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all know y'all was coming to English class this morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: Just look at these, just look at these behind me.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have these awards at a homographs.

[SPEAKER_01]: They spell the same with mean different things.

[SPEAKER_01]: Quarter.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a quarter past 12.

[SPEAKER_01]: I use a quarter to buy a piece of cake.

[SPEAKER_01]: Bar was she was sitting at the bar, or I ate three bars of chocolate.

[SPEAKER_01]: That would be my testimony.

[SPEAKER_01]: Bad, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: I am afraid of bats.

[SPEAKER_01]: or it's his first time at bat in the major leagues.

[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all following?

[SPEAKER_01]: Desert, the area of the country is mostly desert or the village was deserted.

[SPEAKER_01]: Bank, I worked for a bank or he jumped in and swam to the opposite bank.

[SPEAKER_01]: You with me?

[SPEAKER_01]: Look at this one left.

[SPEAKER_01]: look left and right before you cross the road.

[SPEAKER_01]: Or the plain left for Dallas last night.

[SPEAKER_01]: Makes sense?

[SPEAKER_01]: So homographs are words at a spell the same, but mean different things.

[SPEAKER_01]: But while homographs share the same spelling, there's something which is new to me and some of the other instructors in the first service were all surprised that there's something called heteronims, heteronims.

[SPEAKER_01]: heteronomes are homographs where the pronunciation also differs often to distinguish their meaning.

[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all got an example of heterogram.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sorry, heteronomes up there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: He-to-re-knowns, heteronomes, tomato, tomato, potato, potato, how you said?

[SPEAKER_01]: These are examples of heteronomes, all right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Roll.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now I've never heard of, well,

[SPEAKER_01]: or there's Roe as a line, Roe help me, Roe is a fight, okay, listen, all I do is sing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Roe as a fight, Roe as a line, but they spell RW.

[SPEAKER_01]: Effect, there is effect, which is a person's feelings like affection, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Then there's effect meaning to change something, had an effect on somebody.

[SPEAKER_01]: OK, there is R-E-S-I-D-E, on one hand it could be reside, which means to change places, or it could be reside, which means to stay put.

[SPEAKER_01]: You with me?

[SPEAKER_01]: There's D-O-V-E.

[SPEAKER_01]: It could be dove, like jumped off.

[SPEAKER_01]: It could be dove, like a bird.

[SPEAKER_01]: There is A-X-E-S, axis, which is the plural of axis.

[SPEAKER_01]: or Axis, which is more than one Axe.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now our culture, if you try to figure out how to say ask, most of the time, we're going to say Axe.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's another point for a different day, OK?

[SPEAKER_01]: And as one more word, CON, VICT.

[SPEAKER_01]: There is a convict, similar to who was just caught in the southwest Atlanta from New Orleans.

[SPEAKER_01]: which is what they're going to do to the young man that they found from New Orleans in the swastows.

[SPEAKER_01]: I had a random name, I hate a random name, you follow me?

[SPEAKER_01]: Now look at this word, there's one more.

[SPEAKER_01]: One more word, if you'll have it up there, let me know.

[SPEAKER_01]: One more word, look at this.

[SPEAKER_01]: CONTE and T. How do you pronounce that word?

[SPEAKER_01]: Uh-huh, I heard two different things, okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: All right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Which refers to the ideas or subject matter contained within something such as a book or a speech or a work of art is commonly used in a singular form and can be thought of as a collective noun.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then there's content which means to be in a state of peaceful happiness.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a state of satisfaction.

[SPEAKER_01]: So in this context, it will be like biblical content meant, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's look at what biblical content meant is.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is a state of inner peace and satisfaction, not dependent on external circumstances, but rooted in a deep trust, somebody's a trust, in God's sovereignty and goodness.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, now watch this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then there's one more, C-O-N-T-E-N-T, if you add an S, then it becomes contents.

[SPEAKER_01]: You follow me?

[SPEAKER_01]: Contents refers to the individual items or components contained within a physical container such as a box or room.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's typically used in poor form, okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's okay, so you can, it's nap time now.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just kidding.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not nap time now, it's not recess time, but we finished the lesson for right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: Last week, Dr. Hall began a new series entitled Trust Issues About Money.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, if this is your first time here, I'm starting to tell you that, yes, we are teaching about money.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I don't want you to think about money in the form of, like, Richard Pryan,

[SPEAKER_01]: or I don't want you to think about money like Mike Epps in a lottery ticket.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, we are talking from a positive place of money.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're talking about a stewardship.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're talking about trusting God and understanding now.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let me stick a pin in that very quickly because Pastor Hall preaching an amazing sermon last week, but we had technical issues.

[SPEAKER_01]: for those of y'all that may have been watching online or have gone back to look for it.

[SPEAKER_01]: So let me let you know now that you can either tune into the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to hear last week's sermon, or Dr. Hall is going to re-record the sermon and we're going to upload it this week.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I just want you to know that you can't you will be able to access week one of the trust issue series, okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: I just want to say that.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the goals for this series are to increase your trust when it comes to money in God as your secure source.

[SPEAKER_01]: yourself as a shrewd steward or your ability to manage funds or the way community church as a spiritual storehouse, okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: Dr. Hall shared last week that God doesn't need your money but the local church does.

[SPEAKER_01]: And here's the reason why extensive ministry is expensive ministry.

[SPEAKER_01]: When you consider community service, community work, when you consider benevolence, when you consider resources that we want to give, that we give regularly to church members and things with that sort, the only way that you can bring those things, the only way they could be meet in my house in the storehouse.

[SPEAKER_01]: is if people give into the storehouse.

[SPEAKER_01]: So you understand where we're going with it?

[SPEAKER_01]: God is your secure source, yourself as a true steward and last but not least, the way community church as a spiritual storehouse.

[SPEAKER_01]: Last week's sermon was, it's deeper than numbers.

[SPEAKER_01]: Money is more about trust than numbers.

[SPEAKER_01]: Next Sunday, Dr. Haul's going to be teaching, what the Bible didn't say about money.

[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all need to be here for that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't be here for that because I personally feel like there should be at least two to three sermons a year just on what the Bible didn't say period.

[SPEAKER_01]: because so many times when we miss quote, miss, understand, miss, interpret, miss read.

[SPEAKER_01]: Uh-huh, we quote scriptures according to what the Mississippi Mass choir said and they saw, and it wasn't biblically based, you understand what I'm saying?

[SPEAKER_01]: So, so you definitely want to be here for that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't want to get ahead of us, but what's interesting to me is that this week's sermon lesson, somewhat lends itself.

[SPEAKER_01]: two things that the Bible didn't say, not in so much that the Bible didn't say what we're digging into today, but it's not so much about what the Bible didn't say, but more so about what the Bible didn't mean.

[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all with me?

[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all with me?

[SPEAKER_01]: Philippians 4 is a letter written by the apostle Paul to the church he had established in Philippine.

[SPEAKER_01]: The letter was pinned while Paul was in prison, probably at Rome or Ephesus, and sometime around 62 CE, the letter contained several messages to the Philippians.

[SPEAKER_01]: At the beginning of Chapter 4, Paul addresses a dispute between two women.

[SPEAKER_01]: you audio and sentite, admonishing them to be of the same mind in the Lord and encouraging their reconciliation.

[SPEAKER_01]: Paul Urges believers to put away divisions and work to be united in spirit and focused on the good news of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: And instead of anxiety and complaint, believers should present their request to God with thanks giving, which leads to the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guarding our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then we get to verse 8 in chapter 4 Philippians, and as somewhat of a closing address, and this is where I realize that Paul is a Baptist preacher, because he has his first

[SPEAKER_01]: Verse eight, he says, finally brother.

[SPEAKER_01]: What so ever things are true?

[SPEAKER_01]: What so ever things are honest?

[SPEAKER_01]: What so ever things are just?

[SPEAKER_01]: What so ever things are pure?

[SPEAKER_01]: What so ever things are lovely?

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, let's go on.

[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 10, he says, but I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at your, at the last, your care of me has flourished again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Wherein, he were also careful, but he lacked opportunity.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not that I speak in respect of want.

[SPEAKER_01]: For I have learned in whatsoever state I am, that with to be content.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know both how to be a beast, and I know how to be a bound.

[SPEAKER_01]: Everywhere and in all things, I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to a bound and to suffer need.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why should I?

[SPEAKER_01]: I can do all things through Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: What's strengthened with me?

[SPEAKER_01]: Now what I've learned church is that Philippians 413 is one of the most misconstrued.

[SPEAKER_01]: misinterpreted, misquoted versus in the whole Bible.

[SPEAKER_01]: It says what it says, but it doesn't mean what most of us believe that it means, and in many of our cases was even taught to believe what it means, anybody who's ever played sports.

[SPEAKER_01]: Anybody who's ever shared moments of discouragement about a task or an assignment or struggled in school, any church kid like me.

[SPEAKER_01]: who was brought up in Sunday School and Vacation Bible School and B-T-U in youth ministry who has ever made the horrifying mistake of uttering the words, I can't to church mother or to a youth minister or to a deacon or to a person has been stopped in your tracks.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you said this to the Sunbeam choir director, I can't.

[SPEAKER_01]: you were stopped in your tracks and you were told, don't say that because you can do all things through Christ with strengthens you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now listen, it was without ill intent, you know, they weren't trying to miscorder, they weren't trying to misunderstand it as a matter of fact, it really makes sense.

[SPEAKER_01]: why people would apply the scripture in the way that they do.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the issue is we quote it almost suggests that through Christ we can achieve anything as it pertains to achievement.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not that we've been wrong.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's that we read and quote this particular scripture completely out of context.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's another English lesson for the day.

[SPEAKER_01]: Context clues.

[SPEAKER_01]: Anybody remember context clues?

[SPEAKER_01]: Context clues basically tell you that whatever you, if there's a word in the story that you don't understand, just read what's in front of it or read what's around it, read what's behind it, and that will give you an understanding of what that word means because you're reading the context clues.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's why you gotta be careful when a preacher gets up, read one script and close the book.

[SPEAKER_01]: because there's more than that story.

[SPEAKER_01]: Something happened before it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Something happened.

[SPEAKER_01]: After it, which will give it context and so what that scripture means.

[SPEAKER_01]: So here we are, we have Paul, who wrote the letter to the Philippians while he was in prison.

[SPEAKER_01]: Most likely in Rome and Ephesus, Rome and in prison it was tough.

[SPEAKER_01]: He had already been in there for about three years.

[SPEAKER_01]: This letter was to express his gratitude to the people of Philippine for their financial support and encouragement while he was in prison.

[SPEAKER_01]: Watch this, no other church had done it, no other church had helped.

[SPEAKER_01]: know how the church had sent support.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he thanks them for their gifts, and particularly, he thanks them for the visitation of one of their faithful ministers, a path for dietists.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come to see him, brings all of their gifts, brings everything that they've been throwing up to try to get to Paul while he was in prison.

[SPEAKER_01]: He thanks them for it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Paul is essentially saying to them, I want to thank you all for checking on your boy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come to see about your boy, put in some money on his books, while I was doing a beat.

[SPEAKER_01]: Apologies essentially saying, thank you for sending the things that you're saying.

[SPEAKER_01]: But look at verse 10 in the message Bible.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, I'm glad in God far happier than you would ever guess.

[SPEAKER_01]: Happy that you are again showing such strong concern for me, not that you ever quit praying and thinking about me.

[SPEAKER_01]: You just had not had the chance to show it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Part of saying even though quite some time had passed without hearing from you all, I never doubted that you cared or concerned about me.

[SPEAKER_01]: The issue was that there was such a great distance between Philippi and the Roman prison that I was in, they didn't have email.

[SPEAKER_01]: They didn't have cell phones.

[SPEAKER_01]: They didn't have the phone where you can call to make a collect call from your understand?

[SPEAKER_01]: They didn't have UPS ground.

[SPEAKER_01]: They didn't have those things.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if you wanted to get something from one place to another, or if you wanted to get something to somebody, you had to travel that length of time, that distance to get it there.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Paul is saying, I don't doubt that you're all cared about me, even though I didn't hear from you all, because I understand.

[SPEAKER_01]: It there was such a distance and a gap in communication so he expresses his happiness to their gifts that their gifts have finally made it to them, to him, but he's also not trying to use this in manipulation to get them to send him more.

[SPEAKER_01]: Make sense, y'all follow me?

[SPEAKER_01]: All right, he says, actually, verse 11, I don't have a sense of needing anything personally.

[SPEAKER_01]: He said, I've learned by now to be quite content whatever the circumstances, this is the message Bible.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just as happy with little as with much.

[SPEAKER_01]: with much as with little.

[SPEAKER_01]: I found the recipe for being happy with a full or hungry.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hands full or hands empty, whatever I have, wherever I am, watch this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I can make it through anything in the one who makes me who I am.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not about achievement.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not about life's goals.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not about sports.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's expressing his appreciation for their love and their gifts that have finally arrived.

[SPEAKER_01]: But what he's saying to them is, I'm glad they came.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm glad they finally made it.

[SPEAKER_01]: But let me tell you what happened in that stint of time that I didn't have what you sent me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let me tell you what I had to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let me tell you what I learned when I didn't have money on my books.

[SPEAKER_01]: When I didn't have all the accouturements.

[SPEAKER_01]: When I didn't have all these things.

[SPEAKER_01]: Can I tell you what Paul learned?

[SPEAKER_01]: He told him, let me tell you what I learned.

[SPEAKER_01]: He learned.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know the law.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: We all make a way.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yes, you will.

[SPEAKER_01]: Can I get a witness in the room today?

[SPEAKER_01]: Paul said, I know the law.

[SPEAKER_01]: We all make a way.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yes, you will.

[SPEAKER_01]: He said, he'll make way for me and for you, the Lord will see you safely through, I know the

[SPEAKER_01]: So Paul said, I knew I was going to have to wake y'all up after the English lesson.

[SPEAKER_01]: Paul says, essentially, I've learned to trust in God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 11, actually, I don't have a sense of needing anything personally.

[SPEAKER_01]: He said, I've learned by now to be quite what church content

[SPEAKER_01]: Look at a point in one, learning to trust God helps me to be savvy, learning to trust God helps me to be savvy.

[SPEAKER_01]: The word savvy means shrewdness and practical knowledge.

[SPEAKER_01]: The ability to make good judgments.

[SPEAKER_01]: What I love about Paul is that Paul doesn't mind sharing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Paul doesn't mind sharing his experience.

[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't mind telling them what he's learned along the way.

[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like we don't do the best job now of sharing our journey.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you look, let's look at another book from Paul.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's go back to second Corinthians chapter 12, verse nine.

2 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_01]: Even here Paul is sharing, second Corinthians chapter 12 verse 9 Paul is sharing about a thorn that's in his flesh.

2 Corinthians 12:9

[SPEAKER_01]: He's prayed three times for the Lord to remove it, but to know of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And look what verse 9 says in 2 Corinthians 12, he says, but he said to me,

[SPEAKER_01]: See, the problem is that we are living in a time where people only want to share their success stories.

[SPEAKER_01]: People don't want to share their weakness, or anybody who's on Facebook, not my space, anybody who's on Facebook and Instagram and TikTok and all those things you can testify to the fact that all you see are success stories.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because that's what people want to show you.

[SPEAKER_01]: You see the young lady with the, you feel like she got the best body, and you see the young man who was all chizzled, and he's got the best physique, and then you see the young lady who's taking the selfies, and it seems like she's always well put together, and her makeup is always perfect to attend, and then you see the person is always traveling and jet-setting and always in another country, and traveling around the world.

[SPEAKER_01]: What you don't realize is that the young lady with the best body,

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: and a young man with that chisel physique might be overcompensating for something else.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the young lady that's taken herself it is always well put together is just a bundle of insecurity.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the person that you see that's always traveling and jet-setting in there and all across all around the world when they come home, they sleepin' on somebody's sofa because you see the success stories.

[SPEAKER_01]: But you don't see the weakness is.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so we have to do it better job, see, if we come full circle to the point that I was making it in the beginning, listen to this, some people will never be content because they're too concerned with creating content.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's okay with sharing his story.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's okay with sharing his weaknesses.

[SPEAKER_01]: As my fact, look at what he says in verse 9, on the be side of it, he says, therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses.

[SPEAKER_01]: He said, I'll boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me for the sake of Christ, then I am content.

[SPEAKER_01]: With weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities for when I am weak, what church, then I am strong.

[SPEAKER_01]: Paul came to the understanding that it's okay for me to share my weaknesses because I know that what I have gone through was really probably so that I could encourage somebody else who might at some point in time be experiencing the same thing that I've experienced while I went through my situation.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let me give you a more practical example, our very own pastor, Dr. Darrell Hall.

[SPEAKER_01]: We know him to be a huge success story and author and amazing family man and amazing pastor and amazing preacher went to school, got his doctorate in ministry and doesn't amazing thing, but he'll be the first person to tell you, I didn't want to be no preacher.

[SPEAKER_01]: He said, I was going to be in the game.

[SPEAKER_01]: He said, and when I did go to school, I was really going to school for law.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, there's been many times that I wanted to quit preaching.

[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't even want to do this, but it's to call prisoner of the gospel, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: He went on to do it anyway, but thanks be to God, we have a pastor that's willing to share his weaknesses that can help us to understand that I'm not above what I preach and teach to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: We all have our moments where we go through times of weakness, but it's okay, there's nothing wrong with weakness.

[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, let me share my own personal testimony in 2010.

[SPEAKER_01]: I went through a divorce, and I was broke.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was with church.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I was broke, broke.

[SPEAKER_01]: I heard somebody say it twice.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I was so broke, I was broke twice.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was broke, broke.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you know, I had, I had the, oh, really, I was in a pursuit of happiness.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was that broke.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that,

[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, uh, I had, uh, I had, uh, I had gone to a one bare room apartment.

[SPEAKER_01]: I had become a single father, you know, there, there my mom had them in there on her time.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I had them with my time of a single father.

[SPEAKER_01]: I got a one bare room apartment where the bedroom was mine.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I turned the dining room into a bedroom for the girls.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they, they slept on a full time.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they had it, you know, they own furniture up there.

[SPEAKER_01]: They kind of made it their own, uh, I had a, uh, uh, uh, a Ford Explorer Eddie Bower, y'all remember Eddie Bower?

[SPEAKER_01]: I had to send it in for a voluntary repo because I was what broke I could no longer afford the note So I got rid of that and I got this so broke down for the explorer that the back door didn't have an inside the window didn't go down the radio was stripped out of it I was broke

[SPEAKER_01]: I was broke and what people don't understand is that his great Kirkland used to sing with five young men been in the movie the gospel and did all these things sing it all around the world singing on all these major stages and situations going on but if you saw me on Tuesday I was likely at Kroga with my coin jar pouring coins into the coin star.

[SPEAKER_01]: So then I could get that little slip that came out, take it to customer service, and get them to give me the cash.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I could go buy groceries, so I could feed me and my children.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was in a place of weakness.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks be to God, God is good, and He kept me, and I learned contentment and I learned satisfaction.

[SPEAKER_01]: And a couple of years later, I came across this lady at ABC with this little short pixie haircut, and she had a little voice like a songwriter, and I was kind of feeling like, okay, let me take you out and she said no, and I said, let me take you out and she said no, and I tried for eight months, and she said no for eight months, and I kept on trying.

[SPEAKER_01]: Little this she know while I was asking her I recognize one thing about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: She was boozy

[SPEAKER_01]: She had an old house, she had an old car, she had never been married, she had no kids, she had money, she had an old I love her because she got a home, that was it.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's how it was feeling at that time.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I had to level up because I had been, what?

[SPEAKER_01]: Bro, I was making my way back, I was on my way up.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so finally, just around the time, the things started turning the corner, the sheets, she might have felt it, maybe.

[SPEAKER_01]: And she finally, finally decided to give me a chance.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so, and so, we started going out, and we started dating, and then we got engaged, and then we got married, and then we had kids, and now money is doing a little better, we're working together, and when we had kids, it was time for daycare, but old booze you over here, we started looking for daycare, and everything we walk, I don't like the smell of this place.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not feeling this place, would get in the car and cry.

[SPEAKER_01]: We mess around and we went to Primrose on Druid Hills.

[SPEAKER_01]: She walked in, it was as if the gods and the heavens had opened up and the violin started playing and we started hearing angels and in my mind I'm crying because I already know.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm jumping up and down.

[SPEAKER_01]: We are not putting half in primrose.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's nothing wrong with these other schools.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're not going to primrose.

[SPEAKER_01]: So six months later, when he was in primrose.

[SPEAKER_01]: And guess what I had to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now things were getting a little better.

[SPEAKER_01]: But guess what I had to do?

[SPEAKER_01]: I had to.

[SPEAKER_01]: By this point, now I'm back on my feet a little bit.

[SPEAKER_01]: I had the 2014 Lexus ES350.

[SPEAKER_01]: I went and I shine that Lexus up.

[SPEAKER_01]: I cleaned the inside out.

[SPEAKER_01]: And here, Greg Kirkland, Tyler Perry, a dead family funeral, all these planes, singing that all these churches on all these major stages was picking people up on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Uber and for day care.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because here's something that I learned.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was a lesson.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was a lesson.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was a lesson that I learned.

[SPEAKER_01]: While learning to trust God helps me to be savvy, I learned that trust is a two-way street.

[SPEAKER_01]: because after all my life's experiences, I know I can trust God, but I had to show God that He could trust me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, Paul says, learning a trust God helps me to be savvy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Point number two, learning a trust God helps me to be satisfied.

[SPEAKER_01]: Learning the trust God helps me to be satisfied.

[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 11, actually, I don't have a sense of needing anything personally.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've learned by now to be quite content.

[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever my circumstances, I'm just as happy with littleness, with much, and with much as with little, I found the recipe for being happy, with a full or hungry, hands full of hands empty.

[SPEAKER_01]: Look at this full circle point.

[SPEAKER_01]: Paul says, I'm content because I'm not concerned with the contents.

[SPEAKER_01]: You see that?

[SPEAKER_01]: Paul says, anyway, you bless me, Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll be satisfied.

[SPEAKER_01]: And here's what's funny.

[SPEAKER_01]: When I research satisfaction in the Bible, many of the scriptures that have direct correlation with satisfaction actually pertain to an admonishment to not fall into the trap of the love of money.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, again, I don't want to get ahead of us in the series, because I know the Doctor Hall is going to be teaching about those very things.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a love of money and all of that, but I did want to share some scripture today, just to kind of wet your pot for it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's go to the Old Testament.

[SPEAKER_01]: Look at the ecclesiasties, five and ten in the NIV.

[SPEAKER_01]: It says, whoever loves money never has enough.

[SPEAKER_01]: It says whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income.

[SPEAKER_01]: This too is meaningless.

[SPEAKER_01]: Have you ever met a person that's always chasing the bank?

[SPEAKER_01]: Every time you see him, they got a rich quick scheme, and they're trying to get you to come to this meeting.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I all you need is 10 family members.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then all they need is 10 family members.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we're going to be rich.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have to notice that they're never satisfied.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's like it's never enough.

[SPEAKER_01]: The police ask you said whoever loves money never has enough.

[SPEAKER_01]: Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income.

[SPEAKER_01]: This two is meaningless.

[SPEAKER_01]: Look at Hebrews, start ten and five.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hebrews, start ten and five.

[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all rockin' with me, dad is.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hebrews, start ten and five.

[SPEAKER_01]: It says, keep your lives free from the love of money.

[SPEAKER_01]: Watch this and be content.

[SPEAKER_01]: with what you have because God has said never will I leave you never will I forsake you.

[SPEAKER_01]: I love this comparison because essentially what the Scripture is saying is stay clear of the love of money because you have God.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's my question.

[SPEAKER_01]: Isn't God enough?

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we sing songs in church and we say all these things alone.

[SPEAKER_01]: I love you more than anything, but do we really mean it?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because what this scripture is saying is, stay clear of the love of money because you have God and it's not about what you have, it's about who you have.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because here's a shouting part with God, satisfaction is guaranteed.

[SPEAKER_01]: So learning a trust God helps me to be savvy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Learning a trust God helps me to be satisfied.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thirdly, and finally, learning to trust God helps me to be secure.

[SPEAKER_01]: Learning to trust God helps me to be secure.

[SPEAKER_01]: He said in verse 11, I'm just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little.

[SPEAKER_01]: I found the recipe for being happy, whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty, whatever I have, wherever I am.

[SPEAKER_01]: I can make it through anything in the one who makes me, who I am.

[SPEAKER_01]: Essentially, he's back to King James Version.

[SPEAKER_01]: He said, I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so at this point, I felt like it was necessary to pivot, just for a second, just to share a different perspective.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's look at Mark chapter 9 verse 20, and I'm almost done, I promise.

Mark 9:20

[SPEAKER_01]: Mark chapter 9 verse 20, in an IV, this is a story of a boy with an evil spirit that calls him to be deaf and mute.

Mark 9:20

[SPEAKER_01]: The disciples couldn't do anything with the boy.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Jesus says, bring him to me.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Mark 9 and 20, so they brought him.

[SPEAKER_01]: When the Spirit sought Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion.

[SPEAKER_01]: He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus asked the boy's father, how long has he been like this?

[SPEAKER_01]: Father says from childhood, it is often thrown him into fire or water to kill him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Watch this, but if you can do anything,

[SPEAKER_01]: Take pity on us and help us.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is why I like it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I told y'all I think it was last time I preached that I have learned as I'm getting older, that Jesus really had a little slick mouth.

[SPEAKER_01]: He really did.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus, slick mouth.

[SPEAKER_01]: The dad says, but if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus, if you can,

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus, if you can't.

[SPEAKER_01]: But we said, everything is possible for one who believes.

[SPEAKER_01]: So why don't I go to that scripture?

[SPEAKER_01]: I went there because it was important to me to let you know that this would be the example of a scripture that can be used to support achievement.

[SPEAKER_01]: Does that make sense?

[SPEAKER_01]: God's ability to do exceeding and abundantly above all that we can ask or think according to the power that works within you.

[SPEAKER_01]: You understand?

[SPEAKER_01]: These are scriptures that support achievement, but see, in Philippians 413, Paul has not come to the realization that I can achieve anything.

[SPEAKER_01]: Paul has come to the realization that he can make it through all things through Christ that strengthens him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Does that make sense?

[SPEAKER_01]: And so here we are, learning to trust God, helps me to be savvy, learning to trust God, helps me to be satisfied, learning to trust God, helps me to be secure.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the goals for this entire sermon series of trust issues is that we need to learn that God is our secure source.

[SPEAKER_01]: We need to trust ourselves as a true steward.

[SPEAKER_01]: What the shrewd mean, shrewd means having or base on a clear understanding and good judgment of a situation resulting in an advantage.

[SPEAKER_01]: Although Paul was locked in prison, we can learn from Paul's testimony of contentment and apply these practical steps to how we view money and grow to be more savvy and shrewd in managing the money that God has blessed us to be stewards over.

[SPEAKER_01]: How do we do that?

[SPEAKER_01]: We ask ourselves these questions.

[SPEAKER_01]: Am I savvy in the way I manage my finances?

[SPEAKER_01]: Am I shrewd in the way I manage my finances?

[SPEAKER_01]: Am I never satisfied because I'm always busy chasing the bank?

[SPEAKER_01]: Do I spend excessively on non-essential things?

[SPEAKER_01]: Is my lifestyle more consumed with content and contents versus resolving to be content?

[SPEAKER_01]: Does my home feel peaceful?

[SPEAKER_01]: Do I store an environment of contentment within my family?

[SPEAKER_01]: What my family still be happy with just the bare necessities?

[SPEAKER_01]: So, you were having the worksheet when you walked in.

[SPEAKER_01]: You were having the worksheet.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you did not receive one, raise your hand.

[SPEAKER_01]: You were having the worksheet.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm so grateful.

[SPEAKER_01]: Raise your hand.

[SPEAKER_01]: Can we pass these worksheets out to those?

[SPEAKER_01]: Have the hands raised?

[SPEAKER_01]: And while those have the hands raised, are getting worksheets.

[SPEAKER_01]: Talk to this works seem very quickly.

[SPEAKER_01]: I love the fact that the way community church believes and giving practical tools to help us apply the word of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Work week two, confidence in God, the big idea, God sustains in lack or plenty.

[SPEAKER_01]: Pray, He's a practical tip, pray before every purchase this week.

[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all here, bougie.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, when Amazon comes to the house every day, how many days, every day.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amazon, man, those are my payments to calculate.

[SPEAKER_01]: I say, hey, Bill.

[SPEAKER_01]: What you got for me today, Doc.

[SPEAKER_01]: Pray before every purchase this week.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's the weekly challenge.

[SPEAKER_01]: Every section invites you to grow in a specific way, take time to reflect and respond on your own as a family and across generations.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's one, grow deeper for you personally.

[SPEAKER_01]: Fast, one luxury item, and journal how you felt.

[SPEAKER_01]: Grow together for your home.

[SPEAKER_01]: Choose one thing as a family to go without this week.

[SPEAKER_01]: I see the couples just go, oh, just go, where's out of this?

[SPEAKER_01]: Grow early, file young ones, share one toy or a game with a sibling or a friend.

[SPEAKER_01]: Grow strong for youth and young adults, skip one purchase and put that money into savings.

[SPEAKER_01]: Look at this, grow forward for our seniors, reflect on a past season of lack in how God carried you.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then look at the flip side, emotions and expenses, you know homework.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because last week, we learned that our finances are tied to our emotions, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Our emotions don't follow our money, our money follows our emotions, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: So this is going to give you an opportunity to track how your emotions and your expenses.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen?

[SPEAKER_01]: That's your homework for this week.

[SPEAKER_01]: The big idea for this series is if we grow in our trust, God will bless us abundantly.

[SPEAKER_01]: The growth often comes on the back side of weakness and struggle, but weakness is not something to be fearful of or ashamed of.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because it's in weakness that trust, strength, and wisdom is built.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if I never had a problem, I wouldn't know that God could solve there.

[SPEAKER_01]: When abundance comes, when abundance comes, I will have learned to be savvy, satisfied, and secure.

[SPEAKER_01]: Second Corinthians 3, verse 4 through 5, says, such is the confidence that when we have, that we have through Christ to Word God, not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God.

2 Corinthians 3:4–5

[SPEAKER_01]: My prayer today is whatever season you're in currently.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can have the testimony that I've learned by now to be quite content, whatever my circumstances,

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've found the recipe for being happy with a full or hungry, hands full or hands empty.

[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through all things through Christ which strengthens me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.