What Does Money Mean To Me? // Wicked: The Worship Of Wealth (Part 5) // Charles Metcalf

Welcome to Transformation Church Podcast, where we represent God to

the lost and found for transformation in Christ. We're so

glad you're here and wherever you're listening from, we believe

God will transform your life.

Do today's message, open up your bibles. Luke chapter sixteen.

Luke chapter sixteen, We're going to read a portion from

scripture from doctor Luke today as we close out our

series on finances. We've been in this for four weeks now.

This is our fifth week, and it's a beautiful series

because anytime you read the Word, there's a writer and

pastor theologian who's gone to be on with Jesus now

named Timothy Keller. But he said, the Bible is written,

and when you do it the Bible's way, it promotes

human flourishing. There are a lot of different things you

can do a lot of different plans, a lot of

different paths, but when you do it God's way, it

produces the most in your life. So in this series,

we've been talking about stewarding our finances, being wise with

our finances, not wasting wealth, not worshiping wealth, because all

of those it's not that there's not another way to

do it. Because some of you are like I know

a lot of people who are rich who don't love God.

Yes, but the question.

Is is their soul prospering? Are they flourishing in all areas?

And today we're going to dive into that a little

bit deeper.

But Luke chapter.

Sixteen, If you got it, say I got it. If

you don't, too late, I'm going on anyways, okay. Luke

Chapter sixteen, Verse number ten says this, whoever can be

trusted with very little can also be trusted with much.

Whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest

with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in

handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?

And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's

property or your apartment dirty you don't even own it,

who will give you your own property? Verse number thirteen.

No one can serve two masters. It will either hate

one and love the other. You will be devoted to

one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God

and money. I'm gonna pray for us real quick. We're

gonna jump into the sermon today. Lord God, we love

you so much, Thank you lead us and guide us.

We pray in Jesus name. Everybody said, Amen. If you're

taking notes, I need you to write this question at

the top.

Of your notes.

You don't have to answer it in real time, but

you do have to answer it at some point. My

question is what is your relationship with money?

What is your relationship with money?

We've been in series for five four weeks talking about money,

talking about finances, talking about giving, talking about living. A

general is life, but the truth is behind how you

receive and release money is a dynamic that you need

to be aware of, and that is your relationship to money.

How'd you get introduced to money?

How has money talked about in your house? Do you

have a lot of money? You get no money? You

got paid?

Your family got paid once a week, twice a week,

no times a week. What is your relationship with money?

And I have found in being a pastor that one

of the most beautiful things that I have discovered is

we really all got the same issues. The temptation would

be to believe that you are alone, that nobody experiences

it like you do, that nobody understands what you're going through.

But that would be the plan of the enemy to

make you feel isolated to make you feel alone. The

truth is we all going through the same thing at

the same time. And I have learned that there are

many different dynamics and relationships you can have with money,

and if you're not aware of that, you will be

trying to apply biblical principles with a broken perspective. So

you will do the right thing out of the wrong spirit.

You'll be tithing but you're doing it out of shame.

You'll be giving, but you'll be doing it because you

saw somebody else give something and you.

Feel weird and you don't want to.

You won't give money, and you'll be Some of y'all

are great savers, not because you're a good steward.

Though. Let's not get it twisted.

It's very easy to do the right thing with the

wrong motive, and this is what happens. It's very easy

sometimes to be in this series and either exclude yourself

because you feel like you got it, or say, you

know what, I don't need to listen to this all

based upon your relationship with money.

Now, I'm not gonna make you raise.

Your hand, and maybe I'll just talk about me and

my relationship with money, because I'll be honest with you,

I'll be.

Sitting in these series.

I've been at this church now for almost ten years,

eight and a half years now, and known Pastor Michael

for almost ten years, and it is my process of

growing through this series has really challenged me. I came

to this church with no kids, been married barely a

year and twenty.

Three years old. Now I got four kids. We've been

married for a while.

Come on with a lot of life has happened, and

my relationship with money has changed over the years. Backdrop,

before I even got here, I got my first job

at fourteen, I was working at Dairy Queen. Come on,

shout up to fast food workers.

You used to do the thing, walk up and bang them.

You know what I'm saying. They flipping it over like no,

It's like it's a trick. This is glue.

You're about to drink this Oreo glue smoothie we made.

I worked at Dairy Queen for two weeks.

I got fired after two weeks.

I did. I didn't get fired. They just slowly.

Stopped putting me on the schedule, which is a punk

way to fire somebody.

By the way, you're gonna have fire, have the courage

to say it to my face.

I'm like yelling at someone back in two thousand and

what I don't know, but anyway, ways, I get fired

from Dairy Queen. Then I get hired at Quails Springs. No, no, no,

what was the name of that more I don't even

remember it. Met maul in Kentucky. I was a junior

in high school. Started working at Pac Sun. And let

me tell you how my relationship with money started. I

would I worked to stock room. In the back of

it was a clothing store. So as I'm going through

putting stuff on the shelves, I was going through picking

one of everything in my size.

So I'd be like, oh, that's.

Dope, okay, sit that under the shelf, hiding stuff complete

little I would lie and be like, Oh, we're so sorry,

we're out of that.

Yeah, no, we don't have that size.

I got a whole stack of stuff under the cabinet,

only to then on pay day immediately be broke. I

would get paid, it would hit my account. I would

show up to work, I would get a stack of

clothes out, put them on the table, and spend eighty

percent of my check the first day I had it.

That's how my relationship to money's But I.

Was tiething though, Hello somebody, So God was keeping the

canker worm off my back. Okay, I was just broke.

But our relationship with money changes, and I realized over

the years there are a lot of different avenues and

perspectives I've had. For sometimes I would just avoid money.

It was one of those tactics. I was talking to

a friend of my tribe and they were talking about

I'm not gonna name who it was, but they said,

you know, my tactics.

As long as we don't look at the count, everything

is good.

Anybody else relate to that. Come on, be honest, now

raise your hands some of y'all. She said, yes, you know.

Sometimes you just don't look it feel like you got

more money. I'm keeping my eyes up here because my

friend is sitting in this section.

But you just avoid money. Some of us are relationship

to money.

It makes us anxious, like just the conversation.

Makes you anxious.

Some of them, some of us were obsessed with it.

It controls every single one of our thoughts. Some of

us are ashamed when we hear the topic of money.

There's a sense of shame because you feel like you

should have I have more by now, or you should

have saved more by now. You're not as generous as

you would want to be. There are all these moving

and motivating factors. Whenever the word money is said, what

is your relationship with money? And don't give the church answer.

Don't give the answer of man, I don't even worry

about money. That is a lie.

Church people be lying and doing dumb lies like I'm

not even focused on money. Money doesn't have my heart.

I got the king.

Yeah, and you gotta pay rent, so stop playing. Tell

your landlord see if you can pay with grace. No,

it don't work.

It doesn't have my heart.

Okay, but if I said you would you like a

million dollars, you wouldn't be talking about No. I got Jesus,

I don't need a million dollars.

Get the heck out of here, goofy. It's just so ridiculous.

What is your relationship with money? Here's my goal today.

My goal today is no matter where you may find

yourself in your relationship with money, you avoid it, you're

anxious about it, you're ashamed of it.

Maybe you're just average. You feel like I'm not good.

I'm not bad.

Here's my goal is that you would just be aware

of where money should be placed in your life, aware

of where it should fall on the totem pole, because

there are two trains of thought. In Luke sixteen, Jesus

is having a conversation and he's saying, hey, listen, you

need to understand how money works.

The first thing he needs to see.

Is in verse thirteen, he makes a very clear statement,

you cannot serve both God and money. There are some

things people love to debate nowadays. And you see people

on TikTok who got a podcast microphone, and so now

they're theologian apparently, and they be going all through these

things that are unclear in the Bible. Let me tell

you one thing that is not unclear. Jesus makes a

definitive statement, you cannot have money as your king and me.

As your king. It don't worry.

You have to choose who you're gonna serve. Choose who

you're gonna wake up and think about. Choose who's gonna decide.

How kind you are to people.

Choose what's gonna be the motivating factor of your life.

You're gonna have to choose why would you move to

that state? You're gonna have to choose who is your king,

who is your master? He makes a clear statement it

cannot be me and money. But before he makes that statement,

there is this question he asked.

He says, if you cannot be trusted.

With worldly wealth, who's gonna trust you with true riches? Now,

I did some study this week, and depending on how

you grew up and what you read and commentaries you

look at, there are a couple of different trains of

thought when.

It comes to true, true riches.

Some people when they hear true riches, they think.

Like getting rich rich.

They're like, come on, if you can't hear no little money,

who's gonna trust you with the bank? And some of

y'all when you hear talking about money, even in church,

some church culture, we think it is in God's will

for everybody to be re See how silent it God,

because you thought up until this point. I want to

make a statement today. It's not a discouraging statement. It's

an honest and aware statement. It is not God's will

for everyone to be rich. If you are up in

here thinking okay, I'm gonna give ten, I'm gonna slide

it over here, I'm gonna tie. I'm gonna do the

crazy faith offer anything chu ching. I'm gonna get a

check in a mail for a million dollars. You can

go to O Sage Casino if you're trying to play

a game and get a trick. But Jesus, it is

not in his plan for everyone to be rich.

But let me say this very clearly.

It is God's plan for everyone to have the ability

to build wealth.

And there is a.

Difference between being rich and building wealth.

There is a difference.

And we have to be honest about this because some

of us I said that that some of us feel like, okay,

I really is supposed to be about money, and then

other believers act like money is not a thing at all,

and that is not a good interpretation of this scripture.

There's this idea that somehow creeped into scripture and to

theology and ideology of the church that if you follow Jesus,

you're supposed to be broke, dry around the mouth and

can't afford nothing but rama noodles.

That's how we know you're spiritual. You smell a little bit.

We don't know if you shower, your hair's all dreaded up,

not in a vibe just because we don't know.

If you took a shower, say now I'm taking shots.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that, but that

is not true. Write this down if you're taking notes.

Money is not everything, but it definitely is something.

We gotta be honest again.

I'm trying to get us to address our relationship with

money and to be aware of our relationship with it.

Is not everything, So no, it should not move and

control our lives, but at the same time, we do

have to be aware it impacts us every single day.

Money is something so much so Jesus thought. So you

read throughout the scriptures. I did some research this week.

There's about one hundred and fifty two hundred verses in

the Bible on trust, five hundred on prayer, five hundred

on faith, guess how much on money two thousand, So too,

as a follower of Jesus, say money, is that not

that big of a deal? Exposes that you have not

seen the teaching of Jesus.

Who wanted you to know it is gonna mess with

you a lot.

You are majority of the prayer requests we pray in

some way you can trace back to money. The tension

in your marriage is because you bring up to the bay.

What are these boxes doing at the door? You want

to say something? Okay, never mind, never mind. You can't

even talk about money. Some of y'all, you.

Certain family members you don't talk to anymore because they

owe you eight dollars.

Not even about the eight dollars. This is just the

fact of how they took.

The eight dollars and now they want to act like

they don't owe you eight. Money dominates a lot of

our life. Some of us will accept jobs we know

we are not in purpose for just.

Because there's a raise involved.

Again, money isn't everything, but it is something. And if

you are not aware of that, you will be out

here moving wild for money and still expecting God to

bless you. I'm not saying that he won't because God

is gracious and kind. What I am saying, if you

are not aware of your relationship to money, it will

be very difficult to do it God's way because there's

something inside of you fighting every single second. It is

God's plan for everyone to build wealth. There are a

lot of different definitions of wealth, and one could be said,

and this is kind of my working definition.

As we talk today, is.

Wealth is being able to bless anyone at any time

in any way. Being able to bless anyone at any

time in any way. Many believers, the foundation and one

of the most powerful things we know is the power

of prayer, the power that comes in our connection with Jesus.

We actually see this depicted in scripture. There's a moment

in scripture where a god is found begging and the

apostles are talking to him and they're saying, hey, could

you give me something? And he says, silver or gold?

Have I none, but in the name of Jesus, get

up and walk. Being wealthy is being able to be

a blessing to anyone at any time, with any thing.

And you need to know, because the spirit of God

lives on the inside of you, you can be a

blessing to anyone at any time. You can say, hey, listen,

I may not have a ton of money, but can

I pray for you right now? Hey, I may not

know what you're going through, but I serve a God

who can heal and restore. You can still be a

blessing no matter how much money is in your bank account.

And some of us have reserved being a blessing to

people that just to being able to give people money.

There are some things money can't buy. There are some

situations that it doesn't matter if you have handled them

to check. This takes an awareness. There are so many

times I cannot tell you how many times I be

going through the grocery line and I'm going through the

line and I'm just getting my things, and all these

people be like you need to talk to you need

to pray for them.

I'm like, i am not about to be weird. I'm

not about to be weird. Man. Ain't no way. This

is me talking to Jesus. Ain't no way, bro. I'm

not about to play myself like that.

This is not we got a natural I'm just getting

these organic eighty six eggs because my wife said to

get these.

My kids gonna eat them in a day. And just

let me get my eggs and get out of here.

And those moments are so special, so divine you can

be a blessing in that moment. You need to understand

being having wealth in your life is bigger than just money.

I wrote it down this way. Wealth is way more

than money. You need to know that wealth is way

more than money. But finish the point but it does

include money. Again, this is a healthy perspective because we

have believers who will.

Be like, oh, I've got true wealth.

Yes you do, and you keep asking us for money.

So money is not everything. Wealth is way more than money,

but it does include it.

And if Jesus says he wants us to prosper as

our soul prospers, he wants us to live an abundant life.

And in scripture he's talking about money over two thousand times,

why would he not also be talking about your financial situation.

So you could be a blessing to anyone at any

time with anything. It is powerful to be able to

offer someone prayer. You know What's just as powerful somebody

come to you and say, I just don't know what

I'm gonna do. We don't know what's going on with

our house, I'm gonna get evicted, And you say, let

me pray for you. You pray for them, and then

you say how much do you need?

See this is a different level.

We're not just settling for ye I just want to

walk around praying for people.

That is powerful.

I want to steward my finances in a way where

I can.

Bless anyone at any time with anything.

There are certain things you would not have to pray

about if we could find ourselves in a position or

we could say I want to be able to build

wealth in a way that could be a blessing in

any moment. Do not tell me that there would not

be a transformative moment in your life.

If someone walked up and hands.

You twenty thousand dollars, someone says, say, wooh, they felt

that the wind of God at their twenty bands right there.

That's just what they need.

All I'm saying today is we need to have a

balanced perspective. Some of us were on the side of

obsessed with money and that's all we think about. It

dominates our thoughts, it dominates our hearts, it dominates.

Our minds, and then some of us we avoid it.

And Jesus brings perspective to say, hey, if you don't

learn the steward what I've given you here, I can't

give you true riches. What is Jesus talking about when

he says true riches?

What is he? What is he? What is he getting at? Now?

There is one train of thought that I've heard preachers

preach and I totally get it, and that is to

demonize worldly wealth. That is to say, there's worldly wealth

that is demonic, and then there's true riches.

You could do that.

I just don't think it's a fair assessment of the

text because we need the worldly riches to.

Do righteous things.

There's a practical side of being a blessing and helping

orphans and widows that you need physical, tangible money to

do that.

What I read, I read this scripture.

One interpretation could be read, and you see is that

there's traditional riches and then there's true riches.

And here's the difference in those two things.

If I said, do you want a traditional marriage, do

you want a true love? Do you want a traditional

love in your relationship? Do you want a traditional way?

Or do you want something a little bit deeper. It's

not to make the other one evil. What we are

saying is there's something that's on the surface, and then

there's something that's a little bit deeper than the surface.

There's something that doesn't shake you so much when you

wake up on the first and fifteen. There's something you

can build your life on that people can't mess with.

There's something that's below this not that you don't need

this one. It's just if you build your life on

this one, it'll be like the sand, and when the

waves come and the wind comes, it'll knock you down.

True meaning something a little bit more anchored.

True riches.

True riches really starts with understanding your relationship to money.

And today I have a very simple message. I'm gonna

walk you through three ways to be healthier with your money.

Three ways to be healthier.

I'm not saying these are the answers. This is a

part of my R and D research and development, and

trust me, I've had a lot of research and development.

Come on, I woke up with no money, woke up

with money you didn't know where it came from. Find

one hundred dollars and think Jesus came back in your pocket.

Come on, I've had times where some of y'all know this,

where you get to the end of the month.

I used to do this.

I had My first car was a nineteen eighty seven

Volkswagen Rabbit and Dream Car, still my favorite car.

And at the I would you.

Know, I would spend all my money at the pack

Sun and then I would eat my mom and dad's food,

and then around like the twelfth before I got paid again.

I would go to the gas station and all I

knew is on my debit card if I had one dollar.

See, some of y'all ain't ever been this broke.

If you got one dollar, you run that debit card

as a credit card.

They just checked for that one dollar. Fill that boy up.

It ain't gonna hit for a couple of days.

By the time it hit, my money doesn't hit bam.

See yeah, I ain't never been broke before. Some of

you all like, what, just try it for fun.

I know you got bands in your bank account, but run.

That debit as a credit See what happened. Same.

Some of you are like, that's how I got a

church today. I drove from Koweita on that one dollar

debit thirteen gallons.

Oh man, that's the best. Okay.

Three ways to be healthier with money. If you're taking

notes right down my first point, it.

Starts with the truth.

You're gonna have a healthier relationship with money, you gotta

start with the truth, the truth of where you are.

Pastor Michael has been so beautiful in our journey as

friends and as my pastor and my leader and all

the different hats that he wears in my life. But

I remember there was a moment or he was talking

to me and I was like, hey, man, you know

I was talking about.

Money, and he was like, be honest with me.

Pastor Michael is the only person in the world that

calls me Charlie. He's the only person and he has

a special beautiful green car for that green light.

To call me Charlie.

So he calls me Charlie. Nobody else has it, because

ain't none of y'all is my pastor. He says, Charlie, be.

Honest with me.

Bro, you're good with money. You bad with money? And

I'm being like, what do you mean bad? Like I'll

be having it sometimes. He said, Okay, so you're bad

with money, But it starts with being honest. You need

to know are you a spender or a safer? You

need to know in your marriage who is gonna not

look at it and who's gonna over obsessed? And we

tense for no reason, some of y'all are. Your budget

is not bringing you freedom.

It makes you a slave. You can't have no more peace.

It's more shame to you. You got Dave Ramsey, got

your dollars, your envelopes, and we all wait in line

waiting for you to get them dollars out, and you're like,

hold on, let me throw them through and get the

You gotta be truthful about your relationship to money, Be truthful.

Where are you at? And where did you get your

truth about money?

Where did you get your understanding right?

Because some of you think if you have enough money,

bad things won't happen to you. Some of you think

if you have money, you will have the piece you need.

Some of you think if you have money you'll get

the friends you need.

Some of you think if you get.

More money, you'll then become a generous person, and it

is not true. You have to start with the truth

about how you relate to your money. The truth is

you are in a job working that you don't love

because you know this provides the security you need in

this season, and that's okay if you know that. If

you don't know that, it's dangerous. What is the truth

about money? It starts off with saying.

Where am I at?

It could be very easy to listen to this whole

series as a spectator because you're not even aware of

where you are. What happens when you get more money?

How do you feel when you get more money. What

does money do to you? Does it make you more

generous or does it make you hoard? What is the

truth about money? Jesus gives us so much scripture on

the truth about money, and he says it in this

verse thirteen. You cannot serve both God and money.

You have to.

Decide, and if you do not decide, it will decide

for you. You have to establish what is your truth?

And how in your house do you handle money? What

do you do with your money in your house?

Some of y'all know this, but in the Metcalf house

we are very big on confessions. We just did a

We have our Metcalf confessions. We say them all the time.

We set them before we came out here. Every single

day we say Metcalf's carry peace and purpose, kindness and compassion,

boldness and bravery, love and light. And we recently added

on because.

God chose me say that every single day. And that

is to tell.

Ourselves, this is who we are, regardless of how we feel,

regardless of our situation.

This is what Metcalfs carry. There's been a truth.

That I've had to learn through talking with some of

my friends, of my relationship to money.

Was so up and down.

I did not have a good confession for money.

My money confession for money was like, hey, well we

got it. It's cracking.

If we ain't got it, we can probably get it.

Like That's all I had as a matter of fact.

And I'm just being honest with you.

I'm trying to say this up here, so some of

y'all feel here it's been my relationship to money for

a long time. Is because I had no problem from

an early age being generous. Problem I just and here

was why my parents are such hard workers.

My parents had me very very young.

My dad had always been working, my mom worked very hard.

All these different things.

So I always felt like, as metcasts, if you work hard,

you can make money.

So here was my relationship to it.

Because I always felt like I could work hard and

make money, it made it very easy for me to

give money away. So I'd have stuff be like, oh

you need twenty bucks, boom, here you go, and it

made people feel like, oh, man, Charles is a very

generous person. Me and my wife have gotten to give

away so many different things.

It's been a blessing.

Here's the other part of it that was not healthy

because I felt like I could always make more.

It also didn't matter if I spent it.

While This is what I mean when I say being

aware just because you're doing one thing that God would

shed light on does not mean you have a pure relationship.

To do it right.

Holistically, you have to be truthful about where you are

with your money. My little brother recently got married about

a year and a half ago, and I really thank

God for him marrying a normal, amazing person, you know,

because let's just say there was a time when.

We didn't know.

But but me and my little brother we FaceTime almost

every day, almost probably two or three times a week.

We're just sitting there FaceTime, me and my wife and

him as his wife, and we've been talking about money

and I'm trying to help him along the way.

And they got their first little apartment. We're talking about stuff,

and I said.

You know what bro our relationship to money just as

a family, we've got to work on this and you've

got to fight to lead your.

Family in this way. And I said, I want you

to know.

Here's because he was talking about starting his business and

his wife is this amazing creative and they were trying

to think about stepping out and doing this. And he

was like, I don't know about making a lot of

money and blah blah blah. And I said, I said

this to him, and some of you're gonna have to

hear the whole sentence because you'll be like, oh, I said,

here's my frame from money that I've worked on. I've

gathered through conversations with friends and some help.

I gotta make money. As a matter of fact, Metcalf's.

Here's the full confession' gonna give I wall go give

it to you. There's a phrase you're gonna judge me

as a matter of fact, I don't care because God

chose me.

So here we go. I'm gonna give it to Ma Carl,

so everybody as well do it.

Metcalfs make a lot of money because I got a

lot of difference to.

Make in the world God.

I have to have access to resources because God wants

to make a lot of difference in the world.

And I told this to my little brother.

I said, the reason you gotta make money, bro, is

because you have a difference to make in the worth

and you cannot have money having you make decisions that

you know are not God. You cannot have yourself fitting

into boxes that you are not supposed to fit in.

And some of you need to get a new truth

about money. You are not controlled by money. You are

not gonna live your life always at this spot. But

God is gonna give you wisdom to steward your money

and to make money because you've got a difference to

make in this earth. That is the truth. You've got

to start with your truth. What is your truth about money?

How are you gonna get healthier with money? The next

one you gotta start with the truth. The next one

is you gotta try. You gotta try. My favorite, one

of my favorite preachers and friends, I heard him a

long time ago, and he said, the best version of

the Bible to read is the one you read.

Very profound.

The best budget for you to have is the one

you gonna do. And I just want to say that

because some of y'all are so overwhelmed by the idea

of a budget, by the idea of talking to someone

about finances, by the idea of going to a financial

peace class or to a money class, just because you

don't want to try, because you don't want to fail.

And until you address that, some of your relationship to

money is a fear of failing, a fear of not

having money.

You will never try.

You will never try to get a budget, You will

never try to be generous, You will never try tithing.

Tithing doesn't make sense, absolutely, it don't make no sense.

Pass that's making sense.

A thirty three year old got up out of a tombstone.

Next week we passed making sense. So that card is

out the window. If you worried about tithing, I got

some other stuff that can.

Really throw you for a spind.

But until you understand and you be honest, you won't

ever have.

The courage to try.

And if you want a healthier relationship with money, all

I'm saying is, whatever that area is that's intimidating, that

you avoid, that makes you anxious, that makes you obsessed,

whatever that.

Is, try try talking to somebody.

Try putting five dollars in your wallet and saying, I'm

gonna give this away this week.

Five dollars. Now, some of y'all like five dollars.

That's not a lot of money to you, it's not

a lot of money.

And let's be honest.

If you can't give five dollars away, don't even act

like you're gonna give fifty thousand away, it's not gonna happen.

Tell you you got the lottery right now. I don't

know what it is be getting up there to two

hundred and fifty billion dollars, Like we should.

Be using this on some other stuff.

We're giving this to random people at a gas station anyways.

But but if you don't feel like you would be

generous with what you have, why.

Would you be generous for more? You gotta start with

to try.

Truth, try the last one. Get a healthy relationship with money.

Point number three. Trust Trust, And here's what I mean

by trust. For a long time, anytime I got money

depending on how.

I stewarded it.

If I felt like I have money and then I

spent it on things I wasn't supposed to, or maybe

there was something.

I didn't foresee.

Y'all ever had those money moments where you feel like

you really trying, and then randomly you get.

A flat tire and then it's always the left back tire.

It's like y'all be putting some in there, man, I swear, but.

You're trying, and you're trying to do the thing, and

then it just feels like somehow you end up at

the same spot.

You swore this, I'm gonna get it right. We're gonna

pay our things.

We got the taxi, we got all this stuff, and

you're doing everything right, trying to get it all together.

But you still find yourself at the.

Same spot, still feel all the pressure.

Still feel like you don't have enough, still feel like

you should have done more with what you had in

the last season, and now you don't have it.

And that's where you are.

When I say trust, here's what I really mean, because

in my life a lot of my.

Relationship to money with shame.

It was I should have more, I should have saved more,

I should have spent it.

But here's what I'm saying to trust. Trust that his

mercies are new every morning.

Trust that God is a good father. Some of us,

our relationship to money is so tense.

Because you feel like God is looking over you and

down at you.

And you read Luke Chapter sixteen like this, you think

I'm gonna give you more. You won't handle that. Don't

come asking me for no more money. I gave you

money already, you spent it.

Good luck.

That's how we read the scripture, and we separate God's

nature and how he talks through all scripture, and how

it'll come find you no matter how far away you are,

how it'll come rip you up out of the dirt.

And we take that and put that over here. But

when it comes to money, you better figure this thing out.

You better not mess up if you spend your money

that shall.

You better give more tith. You have to be cursed.

You cannot separate God from his character, and you cannot

talk about money and your relationship to money and not

include God's love and his grace and his mercy and.

His redeeming power.

God is not looking at you with the budget saying

you better don't mess it up.

Don't mess this up, because if you mess this up,

I'll never give you more. Luke.

Chapter sixteen is a clear principle. And here's a beautiful

lens to see it through. Because I know the power

of money, because I know what it has the opportunity

to do. I want to give you time to figure

out this amount, because if you don't figure out this amount,

if you're reckless with this amount, if it produces anxiety

with this amount, if.

It causes you to feel overwhelmed.

With this amount, if it changes your character with this amount.

If I give you more, it's only gonna further the anxiety.

It's only gonna further you feeling overwhelmed.

It's only gonna further the shame.

So in my grace and in my mercy and in

my I'm saying, hey, be faithful with this small amount.

I promise you. I want to bless you. I promise you.

I'm gonna provide for you. I promise you, I'm gonna

take care of for you. But I gotta give you time.

The Bible tells us he's not being slow about his promises,

as some of you would.

Think, but he's being patient with you, giving you time

to repent.

He wants to provide for you, he wants you to

be a blessing. He just doesn't want it to crush you.

So he says, hey, you can trust me. I'm still

here with you. Yes, you made a mistake. Yeah we

didn't see that coming. Yeah you didn't see the divorce coming.

And now you've got money and you don't know and

the child.

Support isn't come. Yeah, I see all of that. But

I'm here and I'm with you, and you can trust it.

What is true, Riches, What is your relationship to money

as a matter of fact, that I didn't have a

title for this sermon, but I got it.

What does money mean to me? Where does it fall

in my heart? Is it really really high up there?

And can it can send me over the edge at

any moment? What does money mean to me? You gotta

ask yourself that.

And what is true? Riches?

As I close today, there is a perspective I want

to submit to everybody, and we're gonna close.

We're gona get out here.

At the end of service, masculr state for a moment,

we're gonna do a moment. I want to pray for

everybody in this room.

But there's a scripture I want to read to you.

It's actually in Second Corinthians. It says this is in

second Corinthians. For we do not preach ourselves but Christ,

Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bond servants for Jesus's sake.

For it is the God who commanded light to shine

out of darkness, who has shown in our hearts to

give us the light of the knowledge of the glory

of God and the faith of Jesus Christ.

Verse seven. But we have this treasure.

In earth and vessels, that the excellence of the power

may be of God and not of us.

True riches.

The scripture tells us that there is this treasure, and

this treasure in the context of the scripture is they're

telling these people, they're explaining to the church, Hey, there

is an ultimate treasure that you need to understand, and

it is the good news of Jesus. The treasure is

the Gospel. The treasure is that you didn't do anything

to earn this love. The treasure is that God loves

you and he'll meet you where they are. The treasure

is that you can be filled with His power and

it can empower you to live the life you're called lived.

There is this treasure.

And where does he hide the most valuable treasure.

He doesn't put it in a vault. He doesn't hide

it away where you can't find it. He puts his

most valuable thing in earthen vessels.

And it's really hard to understand your relationship to money.

It's really hard.

To use money the right way if you don't understand

that the truest riches is not paper, it's.

People and some of you.

If you do not, if you confide your life to

being rich to making money to having things.

You will live a big.

Life in some ways, in a very small life in

other ways. And some of us have failed to realize

that the truest rich He has placed in your life

is that person sitting next to you that has the

same situation you're in.

But for some reason, God.

Has placed the most prized possession, and that is His

good news on the inside of that broken, messed up.

Hurting, undeserving person.

Do not get it twisted. We are not on this

earth to make money. We're on this earth to share

the good news that there is a God, that he

loves you, and he has a plan for you.

This is not about money. It's about people.

And until you understand that, you will rob yourself of

so much joy, of so much life, and you will

work hard for a long time to make a lot

of money and have no one to share it with.

What good is the budget if you don't have anybody

to talk to.

I'm not saying it's bad, but what I am saying

is if you make.

Your whole life about.

Money, it's all you think about, it's all you obsessed out,

and you get to a point where you got it.

The only reason God wants you to.

Get it is so that you can share it with

somebody else.

True riches people. We cannot miss that because name means.

To overcorrect, to get it right, we will miss out

what God says is the most beautiful thing. And there's

so many points in scripture where Jesus alludes to this.

There's one of my favorite moments where there's this woman

at a well and this is a completely.

Racially charged situation. If you just read it now, you

wouldn't know.

But culturally at the time, there are a lot of

things happening that Jesus should not be doing. But for

some reason, Jesus always did the stuff that the church

people said he shouldn't be doing.

That's why I like Jesus.

But Jesus is there, and this woman is coming at

the well at noon because it's really really hot, and

she don't want to see nobody. The reason she don't

want to see nobody is because she would have been

a talk of the town. And Jesus is sitting there

and he has this beautiful exchange with this woman and

he says, you know, if you drink from this well,

you're gonna get thirsty again.

Let me tell you.

If you live your life for money, there is no

end to that journey.

Let me just tell you.

I was listening to an interview this past week and

there was this entertainer. They said, you know, it's actually

a blessing because I have found myself to reach the

end of the material world, and I've realized there's nothing

out there. So if you want to keep searching, you

can have it. But we've got story after story after

story of people who continue to drink from the well

that money can be all my peace and it doesn't work.

But he says, if if you drink from me, you

will never thirst.

Again. I'll give you something money can't buy. I'll do

something that your bank account can't fix. And here's the

beautiful thing.

The disciples come up and they're definitely kind of eyeing Jesus,

like why is he talking to her?

He should not be talking. Does she know who she is?

He's thertaining all this stuff, and they're like, hey, Jesus,

you want to go and get some food.

Jesus says this, I have food. You don't know about.

What he's talking about is I found something deeper.

Than what this earth has to offer.

I found a fulfillment that is deeper than working to

make a paycheck, to pay a bill, then to put

it in an account, then to spend it. I've found

something deeper, and it's not for me to serve money,

but for money to serve me. And I'm not gonna

be afraid of it. I'm not gonna be intimidated by it.

But I will find it and use all of it

for the sake.

Of God's most prized possession, and it's people. If you're

on a little perspective of how God he talks about money.

On earth is very important. When you get to heaven,

streets are gold.

What is he saying the thing that's most important to

you down here?

Up here? We use that to just because we got

to get from A to B.

To we close service today. My hope is maybe you

just become aware of what has your relationship with money been,

Become aware of what's the truth about where you are?

What do you need to try?

After Easter, we're.

Starting some more discipleship classes. Some of y'all you need

to try getting in a discipleship class.

We have Bible study, we.

Have a fitness class, we have a finance class.

We have so many different things we're working on, but

there just needs.

To be a try, not I got it, not I

nailed it, not as perfect a try.

What happens if you fail? What happens if you don't fail?

Why are you so worried about what happens if you fail?

What happens if you get it and you don't have

to feel that shame for so long? What happens if

you actually do take the step and it works? And

the last thing is trust trust God's love. The Bible

says it's his loving kindness that draws us to repentance.

I'm gonna close out service today. I might ask everybody

to stand all over.

This room, and I want to take a moment and

be out of here in five minutes.

I want to take a moment to pray for you, and.

I would specifically want to pray for people who I

don't know where it falls, but you feel like when

you ask yourself that question, what is my relationship to money?

There's something in there that feels a little unsure.

Specifically, I know for me, many years.

My relationship to money was really centered around shame. What

I should have, what I didn't have, what I should

have had, what I could have done.

If you're in here today, it's any part of you.

That when you feel or think about money, or you

think about a budget, or you think about getting paid,

are you thinking there starts to be a heaviness or

a shame. What I'm gonna do is just moment, ask

everybody about their heads and close their eyes. As matter

of fact, go ahead and do it right now. Everybody,

bout your heads and close your eyes. If you're in

here and there is any weight, that's the word. There's

any weight when you think about money, it's a weight.

It's not joy, it's not excitement. It's not opportunity, it's

not what God can do. But it's pressure and its weight.

If there's anybody in that room, in this room watching online,

won't you take a moment right now and be brave.

I want you to lift your hand say that's me.

So men, my relationsips for money. In some way, it's heavy,

in some way, it feels overwhelming. Still figuring it out.

Thank you so much with your courage. You put your

hands down. God, you see every hand that was lifted.

God.

I pray right now for every single person that was

brave enough to admit the truth and where they are. God,

I thank you you always meet us right where we are.

And I speak peace right now in the name of Jesus.

I speak peace, Lord. I speak against Lord God, every

negative thought, everything that would come to steal, everything that

would come to rob, Lord God, the pressure in the

weight that has been crippling, Lord God, the anxiety it

is created in your relationship. I speak the peace of God.

And right now I speak supernatural wisdom in the name

of Jesus. Give us the power and the desire to

do what pleases you. There's another group of people in here,

every head, about, every eye close some of you. Specifically,

that last thing I talked about seeing treasure in people.

Maybe you got the money thing right. Maybe money isn't

that big a deal of you.

Maybe the true issue of stewardship, the true thing that

you feel like you're wasting, is the people around you.

I want to take a moment. I just want to pray.

Even this week we got Easter coming up, statistic tell

us people will be so open to coming to church.

I want to pray right now that God would help

us to see the treasure in people.

Lord God. I thank you that Lord you saw treasure

in us when it was hard to see.

Lord, you saw things in us that no one else saw.

So I pray that this week give us eyes to

see people the way you see them. Give us eyes

to see people not have something to use or to

get past, but something your children, your prize possession. Lord, God,

give us intentional moments since week, and the courage and

the boldness to step outside of our comfort zone to

see people as your treasure.

Every head still about, eyes still closed, the last group

of people.

If you've listened to this whole sermon, maybe you've lived

your whole life and you have not accepted Jesus Christ

as your Lord and savior. What that means is is

you've been carrying the pressure of life, the responsibility of life,

the difficulty of life.

You've been carrying that.

All by yourself, and you are realizing that it is

crushing you.

My friend, you do not have to live.

That way is a better way, and it is surrendering

to the name of Jesus Christ. All it does is says,

I cannot do this life by myself. I need help,

and Jesus stands ready and willing to meet you right

where you are. You don't have to stop doing a

bunch of stuff. If you accept him into your life,

that is the very power you need to become the

person you know you're supposed to become. So right now,

in this moment, I'm gonna count to three. And when

I get to three, if you want to accept Jesus

into your life, you want to give your life to

him for the first time, or you want to come

back to him. Some of you know you've wandered away

and this is your moment. The Bible says today is

the day of salvation. You don't have to wait till

next Sunday on Easter to get your life right. You

can decide right now that you are giving your life

to him, and next week.

Will be a celebration for the decision you made. One.

He loves you.

To raise your hand three right now, give your life

to Jesus. You say, I want to accept him right now.

I see you, so proud of you. I got you, ma'am,

so so.

Proud of you.

Keep that hand up, put it up high, so proud

of you. I see you, so proud of you, so

proud of You'll see you up there. Hey, listen, all together,

as a family, can we pray out loud together everybody

say Dear God, thank you for loving me. Dear Jesus,

I admit I need you, save me, change me, make

me new in your name.

I prayer, Amen, CC. Can we give God a shot

of praise for everybody we just gave their life to Jesus.

Hey, listen, if you just gave your life to Christ,

we would love to know about it. Text the word

saved to the number eight two eight two eight two

and uh man. I would encourage you to tell somebody,

somebody on your row as you're walking out, tell.

Somebody, hey, I gave my life to Christ. We would love.

Love to know about it. We're going to close our

service the same way we do every single week. We

have prayer in the back of the room right under

that sign that says prayer you need prayer for anything.

Our team would love.

To pray with you.

Our worship team is going to sing and worship and

some of y'all maybe you just need a little extra time.

Some of y'all you ain't gonna go out there and

fight that parking garage.

You're like, you know what, I'm gonna let them do

their thing. I'm gonna sing this song, and I'm gonna

be all right. We're so grateful for you.

Next week's gonna be a beautiful, beautiful time.

Avioute your friends and your family.

Hey, we do something called meet the pastors right across

this hallway. I'll be over there, my wife, our entire team.

We just love to meet you. If you're looking for

a way to get connected, maybe you've been coming to

the church, but you never got involved in the church.

It's an easy way to do that.

Also, as you leave today, we got tribes that are happening.

We got leaders who are wearing shirts. You've been looking

for community, walk up to.

Someone one of those shirts. They'd love to help you.

Listen, I'm gonna pray for you, pray over your week.

This week we're gonna worship God. God, we love you.

Thank you for giving us true riches and that is

the gift and grace of your son. I think you

this week would be filled with joy, with a lightness

and experiencing you.

It's the name of Jeeves. We pray, and everybody said Amen.

Until next week, go out and live a transformed life.

Thank you for joining us today. If you said that

prayer and accept it. Jesus into your heart. It's the

best decision you could ever make. We want to celebrate

with you, and we have some tools to help you

on your journey. Tech saved to a two A two

A two and to find out more about TC text

connect to a two A two A two. Be sure

to subscribe and share this podcast with your friends. Thanks

for listening. Now go out and live a transform life.