Financial Peace & Purpose: God’s Alternative to Money & Worry - February 22, 2026

Boots on, we're going to ask them to try to fix the heat in

here so it comes on earlier on a Sunday morning.

I'm so sorry you're feeling a little chilly, a little cold.

We've been talking about money and our relationship to it.

Even as believers, we still have to sort out and wrestle with how

it pulls us, right? We know that there's four basic

things that we can do with money.

You can pop that forward. Thanks.

There we are. You can earn it.

Hopefully you will. Hopefully you might actually be.

I know, you know, there's a lot of students who actually have a

job while they're in school, and it really changes their life and

work experience with school during that time.

And then you can spend it. How many of you like to spend

it? Yeah, like to spend it.

And then you can save it. How many of you are like, when

it comes push comes to shove, I'm a saver, A few savers here.

That's good. You know, the other side of

saving to spending is that you get in debt.

And so we've invited you to come to a workshop on debt and the

skills that it takes, the mindset that it takes, It's

actually if you've never been in debt and fought your way out of

that hole, and there's a set of skills that you maybe you

haven't learned. And so we want to invite you to

come learn those skills, start to apply them in your life.

And these are proven mindsets and ways to find your way out of

debt. It's really, really important.

In fact, if you're in debt, the Scripture says you are actually

enslaved. You're enslaved to the lender,

OK. And so this is a spiritual

condition and we want to address this and help you because if

you're carrying debt as you graduate, there might be some

things that God wants you to say yes to.

But you, you see the debt sitting over there and you're

like, well, I'll just, I need to wait till I get the debt done.

So you wait on the yes to God. And that may indeed be part of

his plan, But if you don't tackle it like a gazelle and get

out of that situation as quick as you can, you're going to wait

10 years to actually see that debt done.

So if you graduate with $30,000 in debt, which the it's pretty

close across Canada, student loan debt is usually around 28

to $29,000. And if you wait 10 years to pay

that off, you will actually have paid out $40,000.

It's called interest. OK, so we want to help you

address this. Another thing you can do is give

her. You can be a give a giver.

How many of you like to give a few of you?

Yes, you like to be a giver, but you know there's something else

you can do with money besides these 4.

You can worry about it. You can worry about it.

Hey, This is Money. Get ready to worry about it for

the rest of your life. Wow, that's sad, right?

But that is much of our introduction to money and some

of us in our culture and our experiences, we find ourselves

worrying. Jesus knows this.

Notice what Jesus says. He says.

I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or

drink, or about your body. What you will wear.

Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes.

Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store

away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not much more valuable than they?

Can anyone of you by worrying? Add a single hour to his life,

and why do you worry about clothes?

See how the flowers of the field grow.

They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even

Solomon and all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

If that is how God clothes the grass of the field which is here

today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much

more clothes you, you of little faith?

So do not worry, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we

drink, or what shall we wear? For the pagans run after all

these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these

things will be given to you as well.

Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will

worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble on

its own. Jesus trying to help his

disciples form an alternative view of their lives, and he

wants them to form an alternative view.

On the issue of more, how many times have you said I just need

more money? I just want to earn my way out

of this debt. I'm going to earn more money.

I need more. Give me more, more, more.

I mean, this, this can be a prayer that we have it.

It can be a delightful prayer. In fact, I remember an occasion

where we were driving across the Alex Frazier Bridge and there

was a sunset and my daughter Michaela starts signing more.

More. She was so excited about that

sunset that she begins to sign more.

We had started teaching her sign language as a baby, and so it is

within us to want more, better, higher.

We wished Canada had scored more goals this morning.

More. But Jesus wants them to have an

alternative view of more he says.

Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes?

The more factor he applies to the issues of the life and the

body and that you are worth more, he says I tell you, do not

worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your

body what you will wear. Is not life more than food and

the body more than clothes more this word worry actually could

could be more accurately concerned as or shown as focused

concern In English. We we go towards the element

inside here where it's it relates to our worry and our

anxiousness. Some of your translations might

say don't be anxious about your life.

Don't be hyper concerned such that you actually get tunnel

vision when you're worried about these things.

You actually can't get your head up and see the opportunities.

You can't think creatively. I actually like the English word

for anxious. Can you put a a hand at your

throat? Angst.

Angst means to be a sort of choked up and you're so worried

and hyper focus that you you become angry.

You have angst about what others have and you're anxious you

can't breathe. And when we have that kind of

hyper focus that influences us, we miss this more quality to

say, you know what life is more than clothes and food and what I

eat, which are all associated with status.

You know, you can, you can set great style at Sally Ann.

Some of you love to go thrifting and you're able to find style

because you're like, I can, I can raise my head.

I don't have to keep up with everyone else.

It doesn't apply just to that. It applies to our cars or lack

thereof. I mean, how many of you have a

really fancy compass card? Have you painted your compass

card, You know, to make it the envy of everyone?

We can look for status in a lot of different ways.

And he says, look, don't worry about that.

But you have to realize that the audience that Jesus was talking

to was mostly poor. They were mostly survivors,

day-to-day sustenance workers. They were laborers where what

they ate at the end of the day was what they had earned during

the day. There were among them those who

had it a little easier, but they also worried.

He also encourages them to think of themselves as more You are

worth more than you imagine. You are incredibly valuable to

God. If God values the birds, won't

he value you? So tell your neighbor you are

more valuable. You are more valuable you, you

are enough in the eyes of God because you are so valuable to

him. The more factor we have to

always find an alternative view of ourselves, but we also find

its roots in our alternative view of God.

He says look at the birds of the air.

They do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your

heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable

than they your heavenly Father? Jesus is speaking to this large

crowd and the Sermon on the Mount, and he's telling them

your heavenly Father feeds them. Your heavenly Father cares for

you. In this alternative view of God,

we need to see that God feeds God clothes, and God knows

because God cares for you. That must become this

foundational, confident, humble view that you carry around in

yourselves. My heavenly Father cares for me

on the tough day. My heavenly Father cares for me

on the good day. My heavenly Father cares for me

on the day you fail your math 101.

My heavenly Father cares for me. He cares for me.

This is the alternative punk rock Christian view of God that

we hold up in our lives every day, in every moment.

This is the alternative view that Jesus wants you to have.

My Heavenly Father cares for me, and what this does is it

actually generates a kind of freedom in our lives.

It generates the ability to look up and see opportunity, to have

divine imagination about what God might do among us.

It actually helps me value the more.

The more that God has given me in terms of time, the more that

God has given me in terms of relationships, my relationship

with God, with self, with people, and the stuff of earth.

There is so much more in those things that God wants me to know

and enjoy and find great purpose in.

And when I'm worried and when I'm anxious and when I'm hyper

concerned with the small things, I actually neglect.

The values that God had pushed put in me.

I neglect the greater purposes that God could put in me.

I neglect people. I might even neglect myself and

stop caring for myself as God intends.

But the alternative view of God and have more actually rests in

the alternative view of His Kingdom, that this world's kings

and kings will pass away, but the Kingdom of Jesus will last

forever. Say this verse with me, but seek

first his Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these

things will be given to you as well.

Matthew 633. This is worth memorizing.

Let's say it one more time, but seek first his Kingdom and his

righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as

well. Do you know, it's possible that

we hold to this idea of Kingdom as if it's some great Camelot,

it's some great ideal that's far off from us that we can't

actually attain. But to Jesus, the Kingdom of God

was a reality. It was a real body life

experience that he was living in.

In fact he announced it. He says repent for the Kingdom

of God is at hand and he began going around and telling the

good news of the Kingdom. It was such good news that he

could give it to the poor, and it was rooted in a very old and

ancient idea about God's view of Kingdom and what God was up to

in God's Kingdom. When God rescued Israel from

Egypt, he announced to them, I am going to turn you into a

Kingdom of priests. You may have come from a place

that had a king, that had a pharaoh, but I'm going to be

your king and you will be my priest.

Priest administer the life and work of the king.

They administer the mercy of the king.

They administer the grace of the king.

They carry out the will of the king in order to do good and

provoke change in others. The priests were seen almost as

a mediator, but as we'll see, Jesus becomes our mediator and

so we are just actually mediating it by giving it away.

Again, God's view, His Kingdom and his people in it are meant

to be a Kingdom of priests. He says You yourselves have seen

what I did to Egypt, how I carried you on eagle's wings and

brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and

keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my

treasured possession. Although the whole earth is

mine, you will be for me a Kingdom of priests and a holy

nation. This is God's view of his

people. Now we know that they actually

began to want to have a king. The people were like, we need to

be like the other nations and have a king.

They went through a period of judges and they went through a

period where Samuel was being the great prophet.

And they came to Samuel and said, give us a king.

We want to be like the other peoples.

And Samuel goes in on them and says, look, having a king is not

going to go well. The king will take and he uses

this word over and over and over.

The king will take. It's actually a violent word.

So I've just pulled out a little bit here.

He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will

become his slaves. When that day comes, you will

cry out for relief from the king you have chosen.

But the Lord will not answer you on that day.

In fact, he says, the king will take your sons, the king will

take your daughters, the king will take your abilities, the

king will take your lands. The king will take your flocks.

The king will take everything for himself.

How many of you want a king like that?

No way. But they said no, we want a king

over us. Then we'll be like all the other

nations, talk about FOMO. Then we'll be like all the other

nations with a king to lead us and to go out before us and

fight our battles. Oh, that's interesting.

They wanted someone else to be responsible for the decisions of

their lives. Someone else to fight their

battles. 3 kings later, they're back in Egypt.

David. Well, Saul.

David Solomon. Solomon enjoyed an incredible

time of peace, an incredible time of wealth, an incredible

time of learning, an incredible time of wisdom.

We can see all the great gifts that Solomon gives to us.

We can see it in the Scripture how Israel rose up into this

sort of golden age, but at the same time, they became like the

other nations, the very nation they left.

They became like Egypt. For Solomon began to take, and

he did all the things that the kings were told not to do.

The kings were told do not have horses.

He multiplied horses so much they had to build a city for the

horses. He took on wives and concubines

in order to build strategic allegiances and satisfy his

passions. He had 700 of them.

He took on wealth, exorbitant wealth for himself, and had

taxes on the land and the people.

He began to take people. He conscripted 30,000 Israelites

as laborers and assigned people over them.

They were back in Egypt. Does this sound like Babylon,

anyone? Do you remember that?

That impulse and power to dominate and to take, to take,

to take for yourself? Jesus knows there's a conflict

of kingdoms. And so the prophets that God

gave to Israel began to remind the people of God's vision for

them. The people are like, hey, we're

fasting. We've entered into this time

where we're we're trying to get your attention.

God, we read this passage earlier.

Thank you so much. That was a great reading of the

passage. Is this not the kind of fasting

I've chosen to loose the chains of injustice, to untie the cords

of the yoke and to set the oppressed free to break every

yoke? Is it not to share your food

with the hungry? To provide the poor wanderer

with shelter? This is God's vision of his

Kingdom, that where his rule and reign, these things begin to

happen. Where he rules and reigns in the

heart of a person who's his people, his person, they begin

to do these very things. His Kingdom view is of a people

who does this kind of stuff. They give their food to the

hungry, they provide the poor wanderer with shelter, they see

the naked and clothe them, and they don't turn away from their

own flesh and blood. Then he says, you will shine

like a light, and your healing will appear.

Your righteousness, your your move of justice will go before

you like a reputation, and the glory of the Lord will be coming

up behind you. You will call and the Lord will

answer. Look at the prayer life of these

people. They cry for help and he will

say, here I am and I am. And he says, you got to deal

with that yoke of oppression. The pointing finger, that's

judging finger. Spend yourselves on behalf of

the hungry, satisfy the needs of the press and your light will

rise, it will shine and the Lord will guide you.

What a great picture. Next slide.

And then get this. You will be like a well watered

garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

Do you hear these echoes that Jesus had in his language about

how his people would thrive? He says your people will build

the ancient ruins, you will raise up the age-old

foundations, you will be called repairers of broken walls,

restorers of streets with dwellings.

You're going to be rebuilders that where things have been

destroyed and demolished, you rebuild it with your life.

Where the healthcare system begins to decline, you rebuild

it. Where education systems decline,

you rebuild them because you're rebuilding people and providing

healing. Where architecture has fallen

away, you rebuild it. See, Jesus believes his Kingdom.

People actually have a relationship with the stuff of

earth. They actually have a

relationship with money. They actually have a

relationship with knowledge. They actually have a

relationship with the skills that are required to lead and

mobilize people and be a steward of everything he's given.

He has this vision, and Jesus inaugurates and announces that

Kingdom. Jesus had said, repent, for the

Kingdom of heaven is near. Then he went throughout Galilee,

teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the

Kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the

people. And news about him spread all

over. Now when Jesus saw the crowds,

he went up the mountainside and began to teach them.

We call this the Sermon on the Mount.

And his disciples came to them, and he began to teach them,

saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the

Kingdom of heaven. And he goes on through this

sermon to describe his people, that his people are salt and

light. You are the salt of the earth,

so tell your neighbor you are the salt of the earth.

Going to be some salty people here.

Seriously. You're not just passive, you're

active ingredients. You are the light of the world.

A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.

He's going to build a town. He's going to build up a people.

It seems that he does this where people of prayer and his life

and his compassion and his justice show up.

There you can find people gathering even in deserts.

How many of you have been traveling along with the Desert

Fathers and Mothers in Lectio 365 this week?

Welcome to Lent 3. Lectio 365 will take you on a

great journey. Go to Lectio 365 on YouTube and

watch the videos, the history lessons about the great fathers

and mothers. This is the Kingdom that Jesus

envisions. It's not an ideal, it's the

reality. It's a reality that we are able

to live in and measure. We don't get to see it and be a

part of it though, he tells Nicodemus.

Unless you're born again, unless there's a spiritual transaction

of the soul, you can't see it and you can't be in it.

Unless you were born again, the radical revolution and

realignment of your affections for Jesus.

Born again, where the Spirit makes your soul and spirit alive

to God and to him. This is his offering to all who

surrender to Him. He envisions this, the apostle

Peter said. It's for real, he says, you

writing to the people. You are a chosen people, a royal

priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may

declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into

wonderful light. Seek first the Kingdom, he said.

Next slide, just say it with me if you don't have it memorized

yet, but seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all

these things will be given to you as well.

This is the way to more peace and purpose in your life, not

just with finances, but with the stuff of earth.

And all of you've got some stuff of earth, got shoes, stuff of

earth, got clothes, stuff of earth.

Do you have a degree yet? It's stuff of earth.

It's knowledge all about the stuff of earth.

It's things you're learning. And Jesus wants to take all of

this as a great purpose in your life so that you can be a part

of his Kingdom work in these days.

You know, just a caution to the pull of the desert fathers and

mothers that we've been hearing and their vows of poverty and

that move. I, I want us to consider what

Dallas Willard said about that. Dallas Willard said poverty as a

general practice cannot solve humankind's bondage to wealth.

So this is just a little caution to the to the pull of Francis

and others who just give up their wealth.

Even the rich young ruler who was told to go sell his wealth

and give it to the poor, that was actually going to take a

while. Jesus was inviting him into a

stewardship way of life. I mean, he, he just couldn't get

rid of all his wealth. Wealth was usually tied up in

property and stuff. He was going to have to go sell

it and then he was going to have to be a steward of it, giving to

the poor. And that vision is what he

didn't really like. Jesus was calling him into a new

relationships with his wealth, not just an abandonment of it.

Because we find even the desert fathers and mothers could not

abandon the stuff of earth, they actually had to become different

kinds of stewards of it. So freedom from possessions is

not an outward thing as much as an inward one.

It is something that can come from the inward vision of faith

alone. The Kingdom of God starts within

you. This is the point of

Bonhoeffer's remark. To be without desire is a mark

of poverty, but to abandon the goods of this world to the

enemies of God is to fail the responsibilities we are given at

creation. To have dominion to rule over

all life forms above the plants. So he says this possession and

right rule over material worth is a spiritual service of the

highest order, and our response must be to develop a ministry

that prepares people for that service.

Jesus went about preparing his disciples for this kind of

service. The apostles all tried to

prepare the church for this kind of service.

This is why Jesus talked about money more than he did.

Heaven is that you are being prepared for service now.

That's why next week we're going to talk about stewardship, that

we are not owners, but we are stewards.

But it comes to us with this alternative view.

When's the last time you saw a LinkedIn account that said

Steward? It's an alternative view to say

it's God's and I'm a steward. My Heavenly Father cares for me

so I could give it away. My Heavenly Father cares for me,

so I must take responsibility of it.

I must see what is in my hand and do something with it.

Do it well, do it beautifully. 4 things If you want to live into

this life, here's what's going to happen for you.

You're going to be grateful. You're going to be grateful

about the Moors of life, and you're going to have to see them

and develop them and make them part of your values.

You're going to have to rest in the gracious provision of your

heavenly Father who loves you. That's why Psalm 58 ends with

the Sabbath. Wasn't that weird?

Take a day off, rest, take a Sabbath where you recognize God

is in control and I am not. I can rest.

And when you rest you can be more creative, more thoughtful,

more resourceful. You begin to see new

relationships. God gives you divine imagination

when you rest, when you live purposely by sharing the beauty

and abundance and Kingdom of His, the goodness of His

Kingdom. This is going to come in your

life. If you take this alternative

view, you're going to live purposely and then you're going

to live confidently through the troubles and shortness of life.

Didn't you like it twice in here?

Jesus says, who by worrying? Who by having a hyper concern on

all these things can make their life longer.

He's like, you can't do it, you're not in charge of that.

Who have you by worrying can change the troubles, he says.

There's enough trouble in today, but you can live confidently in

the troubles of today and the shortness of life.

You weren't meant to live in fear of death and loss.

You're meant to live in confidence of God's gifts and

God's Kingdom in life. And This is why Jesus came to

set us free from such fear of death.

We're going to come to the table in just a moment, and we're

going to consider Jesus body and his blood.

We're going to invite the worship team to come now, and

we're going to remind ourselves again of him who gave himself

for us. That Jesus opens the way that we

might be born again and see the Kingdom and enter the Kingdom.

That Jesus is the one who gives us the forgiveness of sin and he

conquers death so that we might live.

I'm going to invite you all to stand.

Heavenly Father, I pray that now as we consider the gift of Jesus

and his body and his life to us, that we would let your spirit

create an alternative life in us, that we would truly say,

yeah, Lord, your love is better than life.

I want more that we would say, I want to know you more.

Oh God, who loves and cares so deeply for me, I want to

actually participate in your Kingdom work, Lord Jesus.

And so as I come to your body, I see that sometimes a Kingdom

work means laying my life down, and I pray that You would give

me the wherewithal to do that. Forgive me, Lord, when I've

complained about not having enough, where I've doubted Your

goodness and where I've run from the life of Your Kingdom and

generosity. We pray Father, that You would

reset our souls in this very moment and we ask this in Jesus

name, Amen.