Help! Series: Managing Money

Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Inglewood

Baptist Church here in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.

Thank you for tuning in to the podcast today.

Today we're going to continue in our series called Help Searching

for God's peace with him, with one another, and with ourselves.

Listen closely to what God has to say to you today.

Thank you, Pastor Charles. Well, it's good to see everybody

in this session together for those who are listening online,

thank you so much for tuning into this episode and and this

session together. For those of you who are alive,

it's always very encouraging to see all of you in the middle of

the summer. And just a, an an advertisement

for down the road for both of those who are listening as

podcast and those who are coming live.

We're going to be developing additional podcast only podcast

series. Obviously, we'll continue to do

live things here as well. But one of the things that we'll

be working on is a personal discipleship podcast that'll

help you and your personal daily walk with Christ.

And so I'll continue to spread information about that.

So down the road, those of you who are listening and live,

that'll be something additional you may enjoy while you're

you're walking or working or, or or whatever time you listen.

This series is hopefully helpful in the sense of it.

You know, if it's not, then the title of the series is kind of

pointless where, you know, we're we're working with in God's word

to think about things like stress and fear and anger, and

also sometimes the things that cause those things like time and

work. And tonight money.

I'm not here to pick your pockets.

I'm actually here to help you think through how do we address

this thing called money in our world today.

And our goal as, as we have said every week, is we we're very

thankful that that God wants us to have peace with him.

I often think of the famous Billy Graham tract, Steps to

Peace with God, which was kind of the famous Gospel tract that

the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has used.

And that's in a sense what we're looking for here.

How do I actually work through this thing called life, which

can be interesting and have peace with God and peace with

others and peace within my own house and peace within myself.

And so that idea of Shalom, that idea of completeness is part of

that. I'm very thankful, as I've said,

every single single episode for those people who are involved in

Christian counseling, it's a ministry.

I hope that we at Inglewood could continue to develop down

the road, something that I'm praying about, we're thinking

about and talking about. But then also those who are in

our recovery ministries that meet every Tuesday night at

Inglewood. And then also, even those who

are in the medical industry and law enforcement, for some who

may be facing traumatic need in their life, some folks need

these special networks of support.

But we all need to know what God's Word says about some of

these these stresses and causes of stress right, in life.

And so that's what we're going to be be talking about.

And so the question for the night really is, why do we value

what we value and how does that affect us?

And that may not sound like I'm talking about managing money,

but I am. Why do we value what we value?

And, and how does that affect my life?

And how does that drive me? And how does that distract me or

how does that help focus me? And So what do we believe

because of that understood value the, the, the value that we

believe in and understand, and how do we live based upon that

understood value? Those are the questions that

we're really dealing with tonight.

So it's much deeper than just, you know, dollars and cents, but

at the same time, dollars and cents often represent value, our

culture. And so we need to think about

this issue because God, God's word, certainly addresses it a

lot. As I've mentioned in in previous

sermons and as I even shared in my latest sermon, it's very

important that that in the midst of this worldly confusion and

chaos that we might find ourselves living in to be

reminded of of why we are and who are supposed to be.

What is our true biblical identity and how does it get

impacted by what we define as being important and how we

define success? How we define important, how we

define value? Those philosophical theological

type questions really do or should impact in a sense how

we're practically living out our lives and even dealing with

something such as money. So we one of the things that

we'll recognize is that as as people, we are going to invest

in those things that we think are valuable, not just money,

but as I've shared in previous times, overall stewardship

concept. And again, this isn't even a

stewardship Bible study really, but to think about time and

energy and best focus. We're going to spend, we're

going to invest in the things that we think are the most

important. So answering those questions of

what I think the most important things are, are what do I think

are the most valuable things really are significant questions

to be addressing all the time because we can, we can get off

track, we can get, we can get off kilter.

So the things that we find are considered truly valuable.

Things like family, things like friends, but even more basic

things. And when you travel around the

world, you realize that there's a, there's a lot of insecurity

in the world and also here locally, But you think about

things as simple as safety or comfort or food or shelter,

things that are important, things that are valuable, even

perhaps vital and necessary in life.

And so, so how do we, how do we deal with those things?

And then how do we then translate that into eternal

things, things that are beyond our presence here in the

creation, our time on earth, our limited time here, things that

go beyond that. So how generous will we be in

extending and investing in what we consider valuable?

I remember doing COVID. Anybody remember COVID?

So I remember COVID. You remember you remember that I

need to hoard toilet paper craze.

Everybody remember that some of you anybody still hoarding

toilet paper at this point? Thank you.

I've I've known people from Y2K that still have bottled water.

So, so, so you know, some of you may still be hoarding toilet

paper. I remember there was a time

during the I Need to Hoard toilet paper craze where we were

trying to figure out sources of toilet paper.

And I found some, some mini rolls of toilet paper online and

I ordered them. And, you know, six months later

when they actually showed up, they were about the size of hair

rollers. I'm not kidding you.

I mean, I mean, I don't know how to describe them.

I mean, it was, it was amazingly not valuable, you know, even

though at the time I've got to have these, you know, and it

didn't matter that you know how much they cost or whatever we're

going to anyway. So but little hair rollers of

toilet paper. So not so generous perhaps.

But as as true Kingdom seekers, we desperately want to grow as

disciples. We want to, we want to grow in

our community with one another. And, and one of the enemies of

peace, frankly one of the enemies of Shalom, one of the

temptations or distractions away from Shalom in our life can be

how we manage resources, how we manage our money, or in turn,

how they might manage us. And so these are important

lessons I've shared with you back in when in our Acts series

on Sunday mornings when we were in about Acts 5, that that Jesus

spent a large number of verses, a large number of parables.

There's a large number of verses in the New Testament about

money. And so this is an issue that

needs to be addressed. And so one of these, one of

these enemies perhaps, or one of these causes of some of the

things we've talked about in this series, the stresses, the

fears, the worries, the guilt, etcetera, can actually be this

category. You know, it's been said among

the things that money can't buy is what it used to.

And so and so it's an interesting slippery thing.

So folks are lined up though in your life, Don't worry, Folks

are lined up for you in your life on social media, on

television, everywhere in your world, in your e-mail box, even

calling you on your telephone constantly to guarantee you a

way to cash in and to make more. Anybody getting those, those

weird texts where they're going to hire you from home for a lot

of money And you get to, you know, we got your resume and

you're like the only qualified person in the entire world to

come work for us. Yeah, yeah, I've been getting

those a lot. And I didn't realize my resume

had gone that far. But but you know, they'll tell

you you can fulfill your earning potential from home.

Unleash the power within you and and men.

And meanwhile, truly our income or frankly, our lack of income

at times can strict can trigger stress and it just piles up.

It's also when I do these community assessments like we've

done around here, it's obviously one of the top felt needs of

people in our community. One of the one of the worries,

one of the concerns is financial security.

And that's a big part of our world today.

And especially with some of the, the current, you know, inflation

rates, etcetera, going on, people are worried about that.

And so there was a lady one day that they got a bill from the

hospital for her recent surgery, Paul, that you might need to pay

attention to this because you can have surgery tomorrow.

And she was astonished to see this huge fee from the

anesthesiologist. And so she called the office and

she just wanted an explanation. This is this some kind of

mistake? And and she got the doctor on

the phone and the doctor said, no, no, no, this is not a

mistake. And she goes, see, that's

awfully costly for just knocking somebody out.

And the doctor said, well, no, not at all.

I knock you out for free. The huge fee is to wake you up

again. So sometimes we don't understand

how do we manage the stress that can be induced with the thing

called money or the lack of it. And so we, we here and we

believe that God will provide for our needs.

And so we have to ask ourselves, what do I really need?

And, and obviously it's not a sin to have money.

It's not a sin to be wealthy. It's not a sin to even earn

money. The Bible tells us we've talked

about work in this series. We're supposed to work, we're

supposed to provide. And so, but it can also be

dangerous if we have the improper perspective toward

earning money and what it means and, and, and how how high a

priority that is for us. So we need to carefully define

value tonight. So we're going to go to Luke

Luke 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12 and we're going to learn, you know, see, in this

passage, Jesus is performing miracles.

He's teaching truth, he's doing what he often does and and at

this point in ministry, he's drawing huge crowds, large

numbers of people, thousands of people are coming to him and

they're following him. A lot of them want to see him

perform miracles. Obviously a lot of them are

coming for all the wrong reasons, but in Luke chapter 12,

Luke 12 · chapter mention

verse one, we see this in the meantime, when so many thousands

of the people had gathered together, they were trampling

one another. He began to say to his

disciples, you know, I've been actually walking through the

Gospel of Luke again and one of the books that I'm studying in

my personal quiet time. And I I don't know that I've

ever recalled noting how often Luke talks about the large

numbers of people that are affected early on in the

ministry of Jesus. He really does all of Judea goes

out to him, all of these people. So this this is a lot of people.

So he shares warnings to them. He's also sharing encouragement

to them. And then let's go all the way to

verse 13. Someone in the crowd said to

him, teacher, tell my brother to divide, divide the inheritance

with me. But he said to him, man, who

made me a judge or arbitrator over you?

So one of the things I would just want us to start off

talking about, let's talk about some of the problems that we're

going to run into with money. Money can cause problems.

I don't know if you ever have money problems or not, but money

can cause problems. And so this one man works his

way through the crowd and and shares his problem.

He's got a, he's got a stingy brother and the brother, daddy

has passed away and, and brother wants all of it.

Brother wants the inheritance. Now, throughout the ages,

settling estates has caused a lot of bitter family quarrels.

Anybody have that relative? Anybody ever, you know, you all

have that. You all been through some of

that. I've walked through that with

many families, including my own, where you have that relative who

kind of thinks their piece of the pie is frankly the only

piece and no knife is needed. Just hand me the whole thing.

And listen, I once and I can't tell all these stories

completely because, you know, especially this one, this is

going, this is being recorded. But, but I've performed a lot of

funerals in my life. And I've mentioned to you before

that I should write AI don't know if you can write a funny

book about funerals. But but I once had to break up a

fight between the wife and the girlfriend over a dead body.

So you talk about I thought about, I thought about cutting

him in half and giving each one of them a part, but that just

didn't seem appropriate at the time.

But but today in our culture, when that kind of issue arises,

normally that can be settled in court.

You'll have judges who would settle that.

But in Jesus's day, that wasn't to the way in the in the Jewish

world, they would take these kinds of things and they would

be arbitrated by the rabbi. And so it wasn't, it wasn't

wouldn't be unusual for this man to come to Jesus and ask this

kind of question. But Jesus is basically saying,

listen, I'm not your rabbi. Go to your rabbi for that.

That's not why I'm here. But as you notice, the man

addresses him, his teacher, and we don't know why the brother

won't share. And and Jesus points out I'm not

the official judge in this matter, but he also recognizes

this is a moment to share truth. So look at verse 15.

And he said to him, take care and be on your guard against all

covetousness for one's life does not consist in the abundance of

his possessions. Now, I thought this was an

interesting thing to say to the guy who's getting ripped off.

You know what I mean? I mean, if the brother was

there, it would seem more appropriate.

But but Jesus is going to make a point here.

I'm not questioning Jesus. He's going to make him a point

here. And and then one of the points

is, and we need to recognize money in and of itself is not

evil. That's not that's not a problem.

Possessing money, being wealthy is not evil.

It's what we're going to do with it, our relationship with money

and striving for money as our primary goal in life can be a

problem. And I, I've experienced that in

my own life. In my childhood, that was kind

of the way our, our family lived and dwelt.

And so money was king. But but that relationship with

it. So I'm reminded of the words,

and some of you would know this, the words of Tephia in the

Fiddler on the Roof Roof, when a friend warns him that money is

the world's curse. And then he says, may the Lord

smite me with it and may I never recover.

And then of course, he breaks out into, if I vote a rich man,

you know the rest of the song. And so let's see what Jesus

really is talking about here. So what he's trying to say,

first of all, is money or the pursuit of it, the primary focus

upon it can lead to greed. And this statement wasn't

obviously just for this man. This was a a lesson.

This was a teaching that these thousands of people needed to

hear. He says don't be stingy and

don't be greedy. And this is such an important

issue because it comes up over and over again.

The idea of covetousness or greediness can be a real poison

to the point, if you'll remember, it's one of the 10

commandments to not covet, to not wish you had something that

you don't have that somebody else has.

And so, so much so that that the lust for more and more stuff

could be an ever present danger, even for the disciples of Jesus.

We've, you know, eventually get to the point to where one of

them turns on him for the sake of pieces of silver.

And so he uses two really important words here.

So let me break this down some of the original language for you

to drive this point even further home.

He says, first of all, you need to take care.

It means to watch out it it it means to beware.

But it's the form of a verb that ordinarily means to see

eyesight. So when he says you need to

really fix your eyes on this, you need to really focus.

You need to pay attention to what I'm saying to you.

This is a big deal focusing on this.

And then he says, he says, be on guard or look out or avoid.

And, and then there's a second part of this, this verse, it's

really awkward when you translate it.

And so it says, for one's life does not consist in the

abundance of possessions, right? But in, in, in one sense, it's

it, it could go like this. A person's true life is not

made-up of the things he owns, no matter how rich he may be.

Or another translation would say, don't be greedy for what

you don't have. Real life is not measured by how

much we own. Or even another translation a

little more obscure says even if you have more than enough, your

property doesn't give you life. And I like that.

What you own, your stuff does not equal life.

It doesn't give you life. And so we've got to be careful

that your life isn't just about the obtaining of things, right?

And so greed is deadly because it can lead a person to believe

that having wealth or pursuing wealth is all that life's about,

that that's what everything is for.

So it can become their focus. It becomes your goal, it becomes

your target. So we got to lay aside greed,

that idea of covetousness, to think about what life is really

about. So the poor envy the rich, the

rich envy the richer, and the cycle tends to not stop.

And so ownership of possessions does not mean possession of a

meaningful life. It it will never satisfy.

We keep pursuing it, believing that satisfaction will come.

But that's part of the problem. So this one of the second

problems of money is that money or the pursuit of it can lead to

misplaced faith. So now Jesus says, let me Share

your story. Let me tell you a story.

And so he shares a parable with them beginning in verse 16.

He says, and he told them a parable, saying the land of a

rich man produced plentifully. And he thought to himself, what

shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my

crops. And he said, I will do this.

I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I

will store all my grain and my goods.

And I will say to my soul now, don't miss that phraseology.

Among the probably the most important part of tonight is

getting ready to come up. Don't miss that phrase, my soul,

right? Remember that in a minute, soul,

you have ample goods laid up for many years.

Relax, eat, drink, be merry. You should be familiar with that

saying, but God said to him, Fool, this night your soul is

required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will

they be? So is the one who lays up

treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

So the farmer had a plentiful, very plentiful harvest.

Nothing at all wrong with that. In fact, what a blessing from

God, right? That's not a problem.

And at no point here's the problem.

At no point with that blessing did the farmer ever acknowledge

God. This reminds us of a passage we

were in, in James at another time in this series.

So he never acknowledges God in appreciation.

So it's it's not wrong for the farmer to be successful.

It's not even wrong for him to plan to store his grain or to

plan financially for the future. That's not the problem.

That's not the problem. The problem was the farmer was

relying upon his wealth and not the grace of God.

That's the point, that at no point is he acknowledging God's

graciousness, God's blessing, giving God the glory, the the

credit for everything that's happened.

And so in a sense, he's taking credit for it and he's just

running his life his own way without including God in any way

whatsoever. I earned this.

I rolled up my own sleeves. I did this.

I magically can make things grow because I'm a magician and I

take credit for it. And so his faith and his

expectation are in the wrong place.

So I can afford to build bigger, bigger barns because this crop

is so good, it's going to support me for years to come.

I'll be on easy street. I don't need God, all right?

And so he thought it would just last forever.

This will keep going forever. I can depend upon this the rest

of my life. I've earned enough, put away

enough. I don't have to worry about a

thing. I can now rest on my Laurel, my

laurels, right? But you got to note the my's and

the ay's in this passage, especially in verses 17 through

19. A lot of my's and a lot of eyes.

So I will do for my or me. I will build my.

These are my crops. These are my goods.

So he's misunderstanding the idea that that that wealth,

earthly wealth and possessions actually provide him security,

that that they're the ones that are going to provide him

security and sustainability. It's again, like our passage a

few weeks ago from James. He thought he was in control of

things. He thought he could depend upon

that ability. So all I got to do is relax,

eat, drink and what? Be merry, right?

It's a familiar philosophy in those days.

It's also a pretty familiar philosophy in our day that I, I,

I can depend upon myself, right? Advertisers today are going to

send out that same message that somehow we make our own lives

worthwhile by embracing as many of the pleasures and

opportunities available in the world today.

But there's a problem with that philosophy.

And it begins in verse 20 again. But there it is.

There's that word. But God said to him, you are

exactly right. You're a wonderfully intelligent

human being and you can depend upon your own intelligence and

you're going to do just fine. You don't need me.

You're going to be able to sustain yourself the rest of

existence and eternity right now.

What did he call him? Fool says you're a fool with an

exclamation point. You're a fool this night.

Your soul is required of you and the things you have prepared,

whose will they be? So is the one who lays up

treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

So there's a good, there's no doubt about what's going on

here. He's not rich toward God.

So this man is not spiritually minded.

He's not spiritually obedient. He's not spiritually faithful.

He's not doing what God wants him to do.

He's just doing what he wants to do right.

Again, nothing wrong with being a successful farmer.

Nothing wrong with being successful in business, nothing

wrong with doing well and working hard and and seeing

things happen. But in the end, you've got to

recognize who's, who's actually enabled that to take place.

So here's the problem. And so and so God has a

different perspective and he says, what if you died tonight?

That's what he's saying to him. What if you died tonight and you

had replaced God with earthly goods?

That's the point. What what's going to happen to

you? How valuable is your earthly

wealth when you die, right? Who's going to get it then?

Remember the the man's original question and complaint and

statement about his brother? Daddy's died, the stuff's left.

Who's going to get it? And he's going to say what's

going to happen then? And so he says it's this greedy

heart is a foolish heart because in making his plans for the

future, this farmer showed he was living as if there was no

God to whom he would ever be accountable.

And that's foolish. So money can lead us into almost

a Scrooge like existence in which we believe it's the answer

or it's the goal of everything. But we know that life is

fragile. Life is frail.

We're just a mist, we're a vapor, we're a breath.

So this very night, your soul might be required of you.

Your soul will be demanded. Now I want you to pay close

attention what I'm about to say because this is a big

theological deal. You need to understand that what

that means is it carries the idea of a loan, OK?

In other words, get ready for this.

Life is a loan that must be returned.

Your life is just a loan. It doesn't belong to you.

It was given to you and it will be recalled one day and it's

going to be returned. Your life is just alone.

That has to be returned. Look at verse 19 and it says,

and I will say to my soul, so you have ample goods laid up for

many years. Relax, eat, drink and be merry.

In other words, I'm in complete control of eternity.

My soul, your soul does not belong to you.

It's a gift, and no matter how hard you think you've worked, no

matter how hard you think you've achieved, no matter how hard you

think you've done in this earthly existence, it's all

going to be recalled one day. Life is a gift.

And one day God's going to say, I'm going to take that right

back. Thank you very much.

It's mine. I gave it to you.

The Lord giveth. And we come from dust, and to

dust we shall return. You can understand this is a

gift. What a wonderful gift.

What an awesome gift. This is the time we get in order

to trust in Him, to know Him, to serve him, to be saved, to

become a believer while we're in this little timeline called

earthly existence. But there's going to come a time

when it is no more. And earthly riches have an

incredibly major weakness. Earthly riches have no

purchasing power whatsoever after death.

None. You can't buy your way out.

You can't pay your way out of hell, no matter what they used

to do in church history. Have you ever heard of

indulgences? One of the reasons why the great

Reformation took place is some of the corruption within the

church, where rich people were donating land or donating money

or donating armies or donating jewelry to the church, and they

would get grace in in repayment. You would get so much grace, so

many years off of purgatory, so many years toward heaven because

you paid for eternity. The problem with that is it's

just not biblical. It's not true.

You cannot buy the currency needed to get to heaven.

And so again, there's nothing wrong.

We, we're, we, we've looked in our last episode about working

hard. We're supposed to work hard.

We're supposed to provide, we're supposed to earn so that we can

give and so that we can invest. So there wouldn't be good

stewards. But if we depend upon that and

we think somehow we now own life and I'm in charge.

So you just kicked you just kicked Jesus off the throne and

you put yourself there, You put your bank account there or your

house or your yacht or your and it's not going to buy your way

out. So the rich man can enjoy a few

years of of misty, vaporous pleasure on earth.

But that's that's poor exchange for eternity.

Jesus says verse 21. So is the one who lays up

treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

So it's better than just the opposite.

It's better to be rich toward God.

And now listen, you got to understand what these words

mean. It's better to be rich toward

God than to lay up literally to hoard.

That's what the word means. Don't be a hoarder things.

Don't be hoarding things for yourself because it won't

matter. It won't matter.

And those who are rich toward God lay up treasures for his

Kingdom, and they find security in him rather than in stuff.

It doesn't mean that we don't need stuff to survive.

We we'll need some stuff. We need some food.

We need a shelter. We need to be able to provide.

But, but that stuff isn't the answer.

So when the books are settled, those who are hoarding

possessions for themselves are going to fail to have those

possessions that are left to enjoy and will actually matter

when it comes to eternity. Teresa and I, and I don't know

if she'll remember this couple or she will when I start telling

the story. But in one of the churches I

pastored, we had an older couple who were hoarders.

I mean, if you've ever seen those TV shows, these people

were worse. And this older couple were

hoarders. And I would try to go visit

them. I physically could not get into

their home. You would go into their home and

there's little passageways. And I'm just way too large for

that. I'm, I'm, I'm surprisingly

abnormally large and I couldn't get in there and neither could

they after a while. And so they lived in their car

out front and could not live in their own house.

And after a while the car didn't work anymore.

So they were living in a broken down car parked in front of

their home while they couldn't get in their house.

And I tried and I tried to get them to accept help and we

offered to go in and do everything you can imagine, but

they were so focused, so distracted.

Obviously there was some some mental illness involved with

that in their life, some things that were not healthy, but they

struggled with that and they weren't enjoying any of it.

Think about that. It was all locked up in there,

but they weren't enjoying any of it.

So what value is it right when my mom and dad died, which they

died separately, but not too many years apart really.

And when my mom and dad died, my brother became the executor of

the estate because he lived closer and, and, and, and we had

a house. My family home was a home that

my family had lived in for over 100 years.

And every single drawer, nook, cranny, under every piece of

furniture, there was something. And my brother and I had to have

hard conversations about we're not going to become the

caretakers of the Newark Museum, you know what I mean?

And I remember just kind of offloading all of that stuff for

for pennies on the the dollar just so that we wouldn't have to

have that stuff anymore. You know what an amazing thing,

the things that we think are so important, so covetous people,

those are in that spectrum. They, they just want more and

more and they want what you have.

They want what you have. There's almost, there's almost a

robbery concept, almost thief like tendencies.

I want what you have and I'm going to figure out how to get

to what you have if I can. All right, but don't focus your

life upon trying to be rich in regard to the Bank of the barn.

Jesus says you've got to be smarter than this and you've got

to focus on eternal things, be rich in your relationship with

God. That doesn't mean you don't

farm. That doesn't mean you don't

harvest. That doesn't mean you don't

work. But he says, listen, you've got

to have a priority here. You've got to remain in focus,

right? And so we need to be very

careful about this. But Jesus wasn't finished.

He wasn't even close. Look in 22 verse 22.

And he said to his disciples, Therefore I tell you, do not be

anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your

body what you will put on. For life is more than food, and

the body more than clothing. Consider the Ravens.

They neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor

barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you

than the birds? And which of you, by being

anxious, can add a single single hour to a span of life?

If then you're not able to do a as small a thing as that, why

are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they

grow. They neither toil nor spin.

Yet I tell you, even Solomon and all his glory was not arrayed

like one of these. Can't you just imagine he's just

looking at flowers when he's telling them that?

But if God so clothes the grass which is alive in the field

today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more

will He clothe you? Oh, you have little faith and do

not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be

worried for all the nations of the world seek after these

things, and your Father knows that you need them.

So a third thing we need to see here is that money or the

pursuit of it can lead anxiety. And we've had different

episodes, different sessions on stress, anxiety, worry, those

kinds of ideas and these lessons.

If you'll notice, you may not realize this, but all the

lessons, all the episodes of help all connect together.

So my advice for those who are listening to a podcast or those

of you who have missed being here live, that you go back and

you put it all together. There's a holistic picture of

life that's being painted for you in this series.

It's best to listen to all of them to get that complete

picture. But in order to achieve that

peace with God, but but trust God to help you to take care of

the essentials. That's what Jesus is saying.

Anxiety or worry are not part of God's menu for living.

So let the Holy Spirit lead in your decision making process and

trust Him to lead you to a meaningful life.

And thank Him when He blesses you.

Give Him credit for your revenue, give him credit for

your job, give him credit for your blessing.

And if God has blessed you, we, we've had friends and church

members over the years who are very, very wealthy, wonderful,

godly people. And they were so generous in

their giving. And you can just see why God was

blessing them because they, they turned around and use that as a

tool for the Kingdom. We've also known people who are

dirt poor like us. I, in my very first pasture, I,

I, we cut firewood to have heat in the winter.

And if it weren't for the people who drop off firewood and some

vegetables every now and then, I like beans and cornbread.

The beans and cornbread about 7 days in a row.

You're getting a little tired of the beans and cornbread, you

know what I'm saying? We've lived that life.

And of course, you know, I've worked around the world with

people who couldn't scratch 2 pennies together to make a cent.

Some of the poorest people on the planet, but some of the most

joyous, glorify thankful people for every single thing that God

has blessed them with. I've told you the story before,

but my favorite honorarium of all time ever sharing in a

church was in the largest refugee camps in the world with

the South Sudanese and old red dirt tin roof, tree branches

holding that roof up. No electricity.

That would be unheard of. And we worship together and

worship together. And after the service, they

asked me to come and stand in front of the pulpit.

And I thought the service was over, but they were just getting

started. And the women of the church

began to chant and sing and dance down the aisle.

And they gave me that live chicken.

And so I held that live chicken in one arm, shaking hands with

everybody, thanking them for being there.

We took that chicken home with us and ate it the next day.

And let me tell you, that's the toughest chicken I've ever had

in my life. I don't know what that chicken

had been through, but it was merciful.

It was merciful to for him to give his life for the gospel.

I'm telling you, Teresa actually gave me a little toy rooster, a

little toy chicken that I keep in my office to remind me of my

favorite honorarium. Listen.

And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour

to his span of life? What are we accomplished by it?

Absolutely nothing. And so we can't fret over what

might happen. Life is worth much more than

that. It's a gift, it's an investment.

So there's some problems with money, but let's also learn some

principles. Let's let's move off the

problems and let's learn some some principles that'll help us.

So look at verse 31. It says instead, So note that

transition, but instead instead do this, don't do that, do this,

seek his Kingdom and these things will be added to you.

It's a huge word instead, not that way, but this way Jesus

says, and so here are just a few things he says seek God's

provision. That's the first thing.

Have this goal. This is the primary goal,

Accomplish this goal. Be a growing disciple in God's

Kingdom. We're going to provide

definitions for that. We're going to provide

directions for that. We're going to provide

destinations for that in just a few weeks.

We're working on, in fact, pray for a meeting coming up on June

17th where we're meeting together in a huge workshop and

we're going to be coming out the other side with some

discipleship language. So do the work that God gives

you and allow him to provide you with purpose.

Allow him to provide you with direction and the resources to

fulfill that purpose, right? He's here to help you.

He's here to, to, to give you the resources that you need.

It reminds me, this is a true story.

I want to know a pig farmer. And, and I was out there and he

raised pigs. That's what he did.

He was a, a, a pig farmer and he raised big pigs.

You know, you ever seen a really big pig about the size of

Volkswagen? Some of them you feel like.

And he raised big pigs. And I was out there one day with

him and he picked up a baby pig. And that, you know what, what

you do when you pick up a, what that pig does when you pick up a

baby pig. Anybody here have pigs?

Yeah. Start squealing Their their

their little mouths off and so that little pig just is

squealing away and within a minute he had about £2600 Mama

pigs come running toward him all squealing.

Leave my kid alone. Help was coming.

So just squeal a little bit and see what God does for you

because we have mighty resources.

He goes on in chapter 12, verses 6 and seven, he says they're not

5 sparrows sold for 2 pennies and not one of them is forgotten

before God. Why?

Even the hairs of your head are all numbered.

Fear not, you're of more value than many sparrows.

I've just made it easier on God with my head.

That was a joke. Sometimes the timing's not

there. Sorry.

Or listen to what Paul writes to a church that just seemed to

struggle with all kinds of things.

He wrote to the church at Corinth in Second Corinthians

98, he says, and God is able to make all grace abound to you, so

that having all sufficiency in all things at at all times, you

may abound in every good work. And do you see those all's in

every. This is a God who can provide.

He's a God who has you. He's a God who understands what

you need and can help you. And so he goes on.

Jesus continues in 1232. Fear not, little flock, for it

is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.

So not only do do we recognize that we need to seek His

provision, but we can also be secure in His pleasure.

Everything of true value. Now listen to me.

Everything of true value in your earthly existence is given to

you by God. Anything else is temporary.

Anything else is fleeting. Anything else will be sold for

pennies on the dollar. But God gives us true value, so

we need to surrender our fear. Tie these lessons together.

Work hard with the opportunities He gives you.

That's part of your stewardship of life.

Work hard, earn what you're supposed to earn, be the best

employee at the at the company, earn what you can, but also

trust the Father because he seeks to give you a Kingdom and

he's gone to prepare a place for us in that Kingdom and we can

bank on it. Listen, the delight of his life,

the delight of God's existence, which is the whole purpose of

our existence, is, is to find ways to not just give us daily

needs, but to give us His Kingdom.

We are joint heirs with Christ, and we don't need to worry about

the small stuff. In an obscure passage, perhaps

from the Old Old Testament, listen to Habakkuk chapter 3.

Habakkuk 3 · chapter mention

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit beyond the

vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no

food. The flock be cut off from the

fold and there be no herd in the stalls.

Doesn't sound very good, does it?

Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my

salvation, because it doesn't depend upon my earthly

circumstance. This is, it doesn't depend upon

my state of earthly being. It doesn't sound like they had

very much in earthly terms, but they had the Lord and that was

plenty. It was enough for real joy.

And we need to be careful. So be careful about trying to

keep up with the Joneses. Don't try to keep up with them.

They're not paying their bills anyway.

They got everything on a credit card and and owe everything to

that anyway. Don't try to keep up with the

Joneses. Instead, listen to what he

writes to the church at Philippi Philippians chapter 4.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

He says in verse 12, I know how to be brought low and I know how

to abound in any and every circumstance.

I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger,

abundance and need. And then he goes to verse 19

eventually, and my God will supply what everything, all

things. He'll provide every need of

yours according to his riches, His riches in glory in Christ

Jesus. My life isn't dependent upon my

riches. My life isn't even my own.

I've been bought with a price I no longer live.

He lives and I depend upon his riches right now.

Listen to how Jesus concludes his lesson for us.

We we've discussed some of the problems that we've seen some of

the principles, but we need to go one step further.

So let's talk about some practices.

Here's some practices practices. That's the word sorry for money.

Chapter 12, verse 33. Sell your possessions and give

to the needy. Provide yourselves with money

bags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that

do not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

So so dedication to Jesus is more than simply becoming worry

free. Not that simplistic, not that

shallow. It's loving and living like Him.

So here are a couple. Here are a couple of practices

#1 invest in sacrificial service.

He in fact, remember what Paul said about the Macedonian

churches. He's, he's trying to help the

church at Corinth by giving them a good example from other

churches. And so this is what he says for

in for in a severe test of affliction.

And what In other words, they were hurting.

They, they weren't wealthy. They weren't overflowing with

abundance in the earthly terms, but listen to this in in a

severe test of affliction. Their abundance of joy and their

extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on

their part. In other words, part of what

part of what the apostles had to do at some point is take up an

offering. They took up a collection

because the the, the believers back in Jerusalem were having a

very hard time and they needed help.

And so they were actually collecting from other churches

and the churches of Macedonia stepped up.

Even in the midst of their own struggles, even in the midst of

their own problems, they stepped up.

They were incredibly happy, though desperately bored.

And so that pressure triggered something totally unexpected.

Instead of saying we can't, they actually had an outpouring of

pure and generous gifts. See.

So, So don't be tempted by your earthly money bags.

Don't be tempted by your purses that will just grow old and rot

and be ruined. We need purses that will never

ruin. We need heavenly treasures

because earthly treasures are susceptible to thieves.

And I'll probably spend too much time telling you stories about

me and my life, but I, I, I, I want most illustrations to just

be authentically personal and real.

My childhood home was broken into at least three times in my

lifetime, maybe more before that because it was in the family for

so long. But I remember 3 different

burger, burger, that word, whatever that word is.

I remember 3 different times people robbed us.

Justin. I'll edit that out later.

He really won't Burglary. Thank you very much.

God bless you. Thank you all.

Good night, everyone. I used to stutter as a child.

You'd be amazed. Anyway, it's always fascinating.

So my, my childhood home was broken into at least three times

that I, I can remember. I've been robbed twice at

gunpoint personally. You, you know when a man has a

Vietnam era M16 barrel resting on your heart and he says, I

want all the chickens from your camp.

You know what you do? How would you like those

stacked, Sir? Would you like them vertical?

Horizontal. How can I load those for you?

You give them all your chickens. I've been pickpocketed.

Teresa remembers that one. And then Teresa and I have had a

previous home on the edge of inner city when we were working

with St. gangs and police officers and some inner city

situations. We had our previous home, they

literally took a sledgehammer to our front door, busted the front

door in, pulled in a van to the garage and literally emptied the

house. They even took the only copy of

our wedding video. And so they took everything.

Everybody say, oh, that's right. I mean everything.

Oh can openers, I mean everything.

I later found out it was a street gang that was just

testing whether or not I'd stick around or not, but they didn't

give me my stuff back so and so. With all that being said, you

all may not want to hang out with us.

I don't know. All I know is don't become too

attached to your stuff. Don't let it be your God.

Don't let it be the leader of your life.

Instead, invest your resources into Kingdom work.

Give so that others may be blessed.

Give it so that God can bless you.

You know, it's kind of like Mark Twain once attended a church

service where a missionary appealed for funds to evangelize

overseas. And after 10 minutes of a

description about the unhappy plight of the lost overseas, he

said I wanted to give $50. And then he said the preacher

kept on another 15 minutes. And that gave me time to realize

that $50.00 was an extravagance. So I cut it in half and at the

end of another 10 minutes I reduced it to $5.

And when at the end of an hour of speaking the plates were

finally passed, I was so annoyed.

I reached in and helped myself to 1/4.

Heavenly treasures give no cause for worry.

Therefore, let me give you some keys to managing your money.

Very simply, we have to recognize God as the owner of

all of our money, and we're simply a steward.

That's true of life as well as money.

We need to commit to, to giving a first fruits tithe faithfully

and regularly to His Church because that represents #1 #2

helps us represent number one. We give a first fruits tithe

offering because that's what they used to do long before the

law, long in the early part. I'm reading through Exodus again

right now and every first born is dedicated to the Lord and,

and our tithe just represents that.

That's all that is. It's representing that every

single thing I have, every single thing I earn is really

yours. Thank you for allowing me to

keep part of this so that I can provide for my family, so that I

can use it to invest in in earthly things.

But I want to give a portion of that back at the very beginning

to acknowledge that I recognize that this is all yours and that

you're loaning the rest of this to me and I appreciate it.

In fact, there was a synagogue in New Jersey.

You may not know this about synagogues, but they'll

actually, they actually have do's.

And so there's a synagogue in New Jersey.

This is in the news that recently sued some members for

back dues. And so when joining, members

actually sign a contract for goods and services in the form

of annual dues which cover those expenses.

And a court ruled a synagogue is free to sue its members for non

payment of dues. Where's the finance team?

I just thought I'd bring this to our next meeting.

Don't worry, I'm not getting any ideas.

You're welcome. And those of you listening to

the podcast, keep listening. It's not over yet #3 just

remember your responsibility of discipleship to your family.

Now, now listen to this, this very real, significant point I

want to make. Remember that your families are

your, your, your primary base of ministry.

And part of your discipleship responsibility is to take care

of your family. Part of what we talked about in

our lesson on work is we are to provide.

We should do that. And so I do know families and

churches and I've known them who are in constant financial

trouble because they actually gave away too much.

They would actually give away, they couldn't pay their bills or

take care of their own families properly.

But when they encountered somebody in need or or heard of

something, they gave away what they didn't even have.

So there's, there's a balance of responsibility and discipleship

here. So after you meet your basic

needs, not necessarily your wants, but your basic needs,

then then we think about how we can invest to help others.

But you have a discipleship responsibility to your family.

If if you're single to yourself and we need to take care of our

families, number 4, then we can give sacrificially to meet the

needs of others and to support additional Kingdom work beyond

the tithe to special gifts and offerings, which you all dingo

would do a good job of. So, so don't worry about what

you what you have or or don't have to give.

That's not the amount's not the issue at all.

It's proportion. It's in proportion to everything

that you've received right. How can I work through this

balance and priority? Because giving the stewardship

idea is just an act of worship. Money management is an act of

worship. See, these are gifts from God.

So God didn't or Christ didn't say.

He never said you can't serve God and have money.

That's not what He said. He says you can't serve both God

and money. So priority #1 is serve Christ

and be that steward. And so we want to invest in

sacrificial service. Verse 34 of Luke 12 says for

where your treasure is there, where your heart be also.

So the second thing, the second practice we've talked about for

a minute is to investigate your heart.

So it's not the extent, it's not the amount of wealth that a

person has. It's not the extent of 1's

possessions. It's it's the place that it has

in your life. It's the priority it has in your

life. It's the direction of your

heart. Is, is it heavenward or is it

earthbound? That's what Jesus is concerned

about. It says you need to choose where

you want to store your treasure. Your, your heart.

Your heart will focus on where your treasure is.

Ignore God and and spend all your physical, emotional and

mental energy on the world's goods and on earthly success

like my family did. Or or trust God and spend your

efforts on Kingdom matters. We we have no right to be proud

of our money. It's going to be gone soon

anyway. One way or the other, we should

be about the business of investing in the Kingdom, that

that's where our heavenly treasure is accumulated, right?

That's where we can actually store up.

See Augustine or Augustine, depending upon what part of

North Carolina you're from, says where your pleasure is, there is

your treasure. Where your treasure is, there's

your heart, and where your heart is, there's your happiness.

And so if you really want to find Shalom, you really want to

find peace, you need to recognize that where your heart

is, is going to give you and lead you to that place.

And so the things that affect your heart can be your friend or

your enemy in this search for peace.

If our goal is money, Satan's served.

If our goal is the Kingdom, our money becomes ministry currency

and God's honored by that. And so think about how you use

what you have. He'll make certain we have

enough. God is not broke and and I mean

God can make money out of rocks, but we have to think about how

we're investing. There was an actual sign in a

hospital that said this is this is not even a joke said due to

current budget cutbacks. The light at the end of the

tunnel will be turned off until further notice.

It's an actual sign. We have to trust in him.

The lights are never turned off. I always, whenever I'm in this

passage, I, I often think of my grandfather's business.

And I think when it came time to shut down that office and we

actually sold the office to the Cherokee Nation and we had to

deal with an 1880s safe that that the building was actually

built around. It was a freestanding safe very

much like you would find on an old railway.

Think of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid or something.

I mean, it's just like one of those old safes you'd find on a

rail car that somewhere he had obtained before they built the

building and they actually had to put that in there first

before they could build the walls.

And we had to figure out what are we going to do with this

three ton safe, right? Are we going to bust out the

cement blocks? Are we going to take?

Because that's what the building was made out of.

It wasn't a wooden structure. It was cement block everywhere.

Are we going to bust out the blocks and the windows and the

doors in order to get the safe out?

Well, for years we didn't know what was in the safe.

As kids, you can imagine we were mesmerized by that.

You know, I'd go in the office and I was playing Cowboys and

Indians or something and that, you know, I was going to be the

safecracker, you know. And for years we didn't know

what was in the safe. Dumber than that, nobody had the

combination to the safe. So for years we didn't know what

the combination was. So finally, no joke, in a drawer

someplace, scribbled on the bottom of something, somewhere

with the combination to the safe.

I mean, it's Al Capone time. You ready?

We're going to open up the safe, and we're going to find gold

bars. What are we going to find?

Silver coins? Civil war might.

What are we going to find in there?

Because my grandfather was, you know, born in 1879.

What are we going to find in the safe?

I'll never forget the Vance vault.

Dun, Dun, Dun. We finally cracked the safe.

Big. I mean, those doors are that

thick. I mean, surely there's something

valuable being guarded in here. Surely there's something

important. And and we open up the door.

I mean, it takes two of us to push the doors back.

The safe. Safe is as tall as I am.

It's a massive thing. We're pushing it back.

And you know what's inside? Dust.

The most highly protected dust in Cherokee County, Oklahoma.

And so not only was there nothing in the safe, but we

still had to pay to get the stupid safe moved out of the

building with a crane. Funny our perspective in it.

Let me go back to the beginning. How do we define value?

How do we label something as important?

How do we discover whether or not we've been successful?

How are you measuring that? Are you envious?

Do you covet? Or are you just trying to

survive because you don't have enough?

Truly, literally, we could have both ends of the spectrum in

this one room. People who don't have enough to

pay their next bill and people who can't don't even know how to

pay a bill because they have someone else do it for them.

What is valuable to you? Jesus was just trying to help

them to understand that here I am right here with you.

I'm right here in your midst. And what I'm saying to you about

the Kingdom of God, that's value.

That's what's important, Not how much you have, not how much you

don't have. Because I promise you, your soul

is not your own. Your life is not your own.

And as I've shared in multiple illustrations with you, we have

no guarantee. We have no idea how long, what's

going to happen next. When I was in school, after I

was a believer, there was a kid who sat next to me named Phil,

and Phil used to just irritate the fire out of me.

He knew I was a Christian and he was not.

And not only would he poke fun at me, he would sit there and

flash pornographic things in front of me in class just just

just to irritate me, just to egg me on.

There are days I just wanted to pick up Phil and toss him out of

the room in the name of Jesus. But but God convicted me and

says you need to share the gospel with Phil.

So I, I, I, I, I was praying that night and I, you know,

tomorrow I'm going to share the gospel with Phil.

I go to class, Phil's not there, and he's not there the next day,

and Phil never comes back. Phil would ride his bike to

class and Phil had been hit by a truck and killed the very night.

I was praying about leading him to Jesus this very night, this

very day. You don't know your soul belongs

to Me. Your life is alone.

Be very careful where your focus is.

Be very careful where your heart is.

Be very careful what you're seeking so desperately that you

seek Him first. Father, thank you for life.

Thank you for this gift that we do not deserve nor could we

create. Father you, you are the miracle

worker who brings life. And Father, I thank you that you

give us these years sometimes just a few moments.

You know, as I get older, Father, every cliche about

growing old and time become more true, flying by.

Just yesterday, just yesterday, Lord, I was just, just just

yesterday. My kids were were a vapor, a

mist. But Father, what a wonderful

mist you've given us. What a wonderful, vaporous

opportunity we have to live and to live abundantly, to live with

joy, to live with purpose, to live in relationship with you.

The honour, the privilege of knowing you, of praising you, of

thanking you, of giving you the credit for this thing called

life and anything and everything, anything possibly

good that we might accomplish, whether it's it's something in

the church or something at work or something at school,

anything. Father, we give you all the

credit. Thank you for loaning US time.

Thank you for loaning us breath. Thank you for loaning us

heartbeats and opportunities. And Father, because we're still

here right now, because we're still here in this second, we're

still here in this moment. That means that we're not quite

done, that you still have purpose, you still have

investment. You still have reason for us

being here. And Father, if you, Terry, if

you don't blow the trumpet, if you don't bring us home and

we're still here tomorrow, that means there's a reason.

And Father, I pray we invest in that reason.

And Father, I thank you for jobs.

I thank you for work. I thank you for money.

I thank you for resources. I thank you for the opportunity

to feed my family, to take care of my bills.

I thank you for that. But Father, never let that over

shadow my responsibilities to you and to one another, to the

Kingdom. And so, Father, thank you so

much for this opportunity just to be in your word for a minute

to talk about you, to talk about how you are the provider and the

sustainer, and we owe everything to you.

Father, help us to remember those verses that we have been

purchased, we have been redeemed, we have been bought

back, and we no longer live, but Christ lives in US.

And Father, I pray, Lord, that we will live our lives that way,

that we will be testimonies. Thank you, Father, for the

privilege of gathering in this place.

For those who are listening online, I pray that if there

anyone, anyone who's listening to this and they recognize that

the priorities of their lives are not in proper order, that

they're all messed up, that they're seeking the wrong

things. Much like my brother declared on

my mom's deathbed that he was living for all the wrong

reasons, even as he had money and resources, mansion, yacht,

everything, he knew that was nothing.

So, Father, I pray that we find real value.

I pray we understand it and we appreciate it and we thank you

for it. Father, thank you for your word.

I pray you'll bless us. Thank you, Father, for those

listening online, wherever they are, I pray that if you're

speaking to their hearts that they'll reach out to us at the

church, that we might reach back out to them and help them.

For those who are here, live that before they leave that they

would take one of us by the hand, and we might pray together

and talk together about what you're laying on our hearts.

So, Father, thank you, thank you, thank you that our barns

are full, our crops are good, but thank you, Father, when

they're not just as much because it all belongs to you and it's

all for your glory in Christ's name, Amen.

God bless you all. Thank you all so much.

Thank you so much for listening today.

And I also hope that you'll go to

[email protected] as well as our app and find many

other resources that will bless you and your families.

Thank you once again.