Money Under Pressure

With our church family today.

If I haven't met you, my name's Russ.

I'm one of the pastors here.

Um if you are here for the first or second time, we're especially glad that you're here and glad everyone is here.

A couple of things.

Um we got Shop with a Hero coming up, two weeks from yesterday.

Opportunity for us to invest in our community.

We need uniformed heroes, uh law enforcement, firefighters, EMTs.

So if you are one yourself or you have somebody in your circle of family or friendships, uh love for you to be a part of that.

And then a week from tonight, we are having a remembrance gathering to enter into the holiday season, specifically for those that have lost a loved one.

And maybe it might be recent or it may go back years, but the holiday time tends to be a very difficult time for people in grief.

And so we want to kick off this season with just a special time to focus and remember the ones that have gone on before us.

And um my desire and my prayer is it will it will turn a tough season into a tolerable season.

I I my desire would be joy that would enter your heart, but sometimes we we just need the strength to get through it.

And so that's gonna be at 5 o'clock next Sunday.

Everyone's invited, but man, if you this is a great opportunity to connect with somebody and invite them and tell them this is a gathering for our community and to remember those that we've lost in our families.

And so that's next Sunday evening at 5 p.m.

Well, today we we continue in our series called Under Pressure, and we've looked at uh at several specific areas.

We've talked about uh the pressure that life throws at us in general.

We begin the series uh based on this verse that says, where Jesus says, Come to me, all of you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, uh, for it is easy and it is light, and I will give you rest for your souls.

And so then we've looked at marriage, we've looked at, we've looked at parenting, and and we've we've looked at some different topics.

Today we're talking about finances, and I know, I know, I'm always prepared for somebody to say, here it goes, the pastor's talking about money.

Well, listen, you can turn it off if you want to, but I it that's not what I think about money, it's not what I want to tell you about money, it's what God tells us about money.

You see those chairs you're sitting in?

Those chairs were bought in the early part of 2016.

So coming up on 10 years, these chairs probably cost about$25 apiece when we unloaded them off the truck in May of 2016 to come in and have our own place, our own building, and to see how God has worked.

Now we've been pricing chairs for our new building.

And basically the same chair is it's upgraded, it's made better, it's a newer model, but it shouldn't cost over double of this chair.

Do you realize 55 Joy?

What's exact?

52?

52 dollars.

So, so now listen, we all probably feel a bit of that.

You go into Kroger expecting to pick up a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk, and you come out with one of those CVS receipts, right?

It's about that long, and you've spent$250 on milk and bread.

That's why I'm not allowed into that grocery store.

Because a lot of stuff would be mine, like Eminem's peanut.

If you want to know what my favorite candy is for Christmas.

So isn't that crazy?

But we we all feel that pressure.

I think we all feel it.

You you have a direct deposit or a paycheck.

Before it even gets comfortable, that money is gone.

Right?

You're paying for a mortgage, you're paying for insurance, you're paying for utilities and groceries and gas before you can even get comfortable holding it.

It is gone.

That's a real pressure that I think all of us feel regardless of our age or where we are in life.

And we we feel it.

And so, how do we deal with that pressure?

How do we handle our finances in a way that honors God but also helps us get through these difficult seasons?

And see, we live in a culture not only where inflation is feeling like it's crippling us, we live in a culture already that places so much emphasis on money and wealth in connection with your identity and your status in life.

Think of it this way: we live in a culture that measures our worth by our wealth.

And that's not how God sees us, that's not how God measures it, but we get through life and we get to a particularly a season like this, and and there's a voice that whispers in our head, and that voice says, You should have more saved by now.

You should be doing better by now.

That voice continues and says, your kids deserve better or more.

You're falling behind.

And if we're not careful, we'll begin to buy in and believe what the enemy wants us to believe.

And here's what's interesting: the Bible never says that money itself is the problem, it's the pressure that is imposed upon us by the enemy, by the culture, by the world around us, that says your worth is tied to your wealth, and that says that there's pressure, pressure, pressure.

Now, here's what the Bible says: the love of money.

The love of money is the problem.

When we want to hold on to it, and and you notice, as we, regardless of your financial status, you can pay off another debt, one debt, another one pops up, you can get a raise, but as soon as you get a raise, your rent or your mortgage goes up.

Um, you get a little bit of margin, and you think, man, we're we're doing better, but then a tire blows or the washing machine overflows.

I I could go on and on.

And so what we've got to realize, and what Jesus teaches us in this passage in Matthew chapter 25, is that it's not about control, it's about trust.

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

It's not about control, it's about trust.

It is important how we manage, but manage does not, steward and manage does not mean control.

We give up the control, we turn everything over to the Lord, and he reminds us that peace isn't found in control, it's found in trust.

And so the way out of pressure, the way out of financial pressure isn't more control.

Here's the big idea.

It's more, let's say it together, trust.

It's trust.

Because when life feels heavy, especially financially, the last thing we need is more guilt, more pressure.

That is not what I want to offer you today.

And we say this all the time at Church of the Grove.

It's not that we want something from you.

We want, I want something for you.

I want you to be able to walk in freedom.

I want you to be able to walk in a way that you hold on things loosely, where God gets the glory.

People are impacted by our faithfulness.

And so here's the passage out of Matthew 25, verses 14 through 30.

Matthew 25:14–30

He says again, and then we're going to look at three different truths that we learn out of that passage.

Verse 14, he says, again, it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them.

Now, in the passage, when you read a parable, you read a passage like this, you want to identify who is represented in this passage.

God is represented, we are represented, and then often there's another party or two that are part of the equation.

And so here's what we learn is that everything we have belongs to God.

Everything we have belongs to God.

And what we have, he's entrusted to us, just like we see in this parable where it says, a man is going on a journey, so he calls his servants and he entrusts them with his wealth and how it should be managed.

And that word entrusted in the Greek, it literally means something that is valuable, that is placed in your hand for a purpose.

So it's not just about you having something valuable, it's about something valuable being placed in your hand for a purpose.

Now, my little girl, Abigail, she's 24 now, but when she was little, I'll never forget her first couple of Easter egg hunts as a toddler walking around picking up Easter eggs and realizing her desire is to pick up more, but she doesn't want to let go of the one she has, which would free her to pick up more.

So to watch her down on the ground struggling with how do I hold on to this and then pick up more and grab hold.

And so to me, it was a beautiful picture of how God does not want us to live close-fisted.

He wants us to live open-handed.

And we are conduit.

We are uh we are we are uh uh uh uh in a sense, we have a river of life, a river of life that flows through us through the gospel.

And so everything that God entrusts to us is something that we're not meant to hold on to tightly, we're meant to hold on to loosely, so God can have access to it when he wants it.

And so here's what I've learned.

Everything we have belongs to God.

Everything that he's given me, it is his, it is not mine.

I am the steward, I am the servant, I am the one he's entrusted it to.

And what's he called me to be?

He's called me to be faithful.

He's called me not to control the economy, he's not called me to impact inflation or interest rates.

Those things are are probably out of my control.

I can't control those things.

But I can be faithful with what God has given me.

And we can control our response.

We can control how we move forward.

John Wesley once said that a man came running to him shouting, Mr.

Wesley, your house is burned down.

Your house is burned down.

And Wesley immediately calmly responded, No, the Lord's house has burned down.

That means one less responsibility for me.

And and that was just his mindset.

And it should be our mindset.

He understood what Jesus is teaching in this passage.

When you see yourself as a steward and not an owner, you live your life with open hands.

And so let's go back to the passage.

Verse 14 again.

He says, again, it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them.

To one, he gave five bags of gold, say five.

To another, two bags, say two, and to another, one bag, say one, each according to his ability.

Then he went on his journey.

The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gave five bags more.

So also the one with two bags of gold gained two more, but the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master's money.

We'll come back to that third guy in a second to see how that played out.

But here's the second thing I've learned.

I learned that it's not about control, it's about trust.

Everything I have belongs to God.

I'm a steward.

Second thing I learned is it's not about how much you have, but what you do with what you have.

Same master, same opportunity, but two different responses.

Two of the men went out and did something that they were given.

One froze under fear and pressure.

That's the part I want you to notice that it probably doesn't get brought up enough.

The master doesn't judge them by how much they've made.

He looks at what they did with what they were entrusted with.

Huge to understand.

Faithfulness matters more than figures.

Faithfulness matters more than figures.

Faithfulness matters more than the amount.

You might look at someone and think, well, of course they're generous.

They look at how much money they have.

Look at the wealth or look at their income.

What you will find out at the end of that pathway is really probably more often than not, it's not about what they make, it's about how they manage it.

How you manage it.

Faithful servants put what they have to work.

They don't bury it, they don't give in to fear, as we see in this passage, verses 21 and 23.

Here's what we see.

Well done, good and faithful servant.

You've been faithful with a few things.

I will put you in charge of many things.

Come and share your master's happiness.

It's not well done, wealthy servants.

What's it say?

Faithful.

Faithful.

Say faithful.

Faithful.

Listen, God's approval isn't tied to the to the size of your paycheck.

God's approval is not tied to what you make, it's tied to the posture of your heart.

God's blessing.

God's response.

God's approval.

Maybe you're going through it right now.

There's one income where there should be two, or maybe, maybe you're on a fixed income.

Maybe you're a business person.

Maybe there's things that have gone on that that none of us could understand.

But what we see here, what's gonna, the thing that keeps this servant from being the one who hears, well done, good and faithful.

The thing that keeps him from experiencing that blessing is fear.

It's fear.

And here's what I've learned: fear will always keep you from faithfulness.

It says in verse 18, but the man who'd received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master's money.

Then the man who'd received one bag of gold came, master, he said, I knew that you were a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed.

So I was, what's the word?

He says, So I was afraid.

And went out and hid your gold in the ground.

See, here's what belongs to you.

And so you catch that.

Catch that.

He says, I was, let's say it together, afraid.

I was afraid.

See, fear is the root of so many issues in our life.

And particularly here, talking about financial.

Fear always leads to us hiding or burying the blessing that God gives us rather than sharing it.

Fear is when you have been blessed with new life, eternal life, the goodness of God, salvation, and fear will keep you from sharing the biggest blessing you ever received from sharing it with somebody else.

Isn't it crazy?

How fear can grip us?

What if I'm rejected?

What if they they don't like me?

What if you come out, what if?

And God says, I'm not the God of what if?

I'm the God of can do.

And so he is faithful.

He's faithful.

When fear leads, our faith disappears.

The writer of Hebrews says in 11 6, he says, now without faith, it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

And that's why when the master returns to the unfaithful servant, he replies, You wicked, verse 26, you wicked, lazy servant.

That's strong language, isn't it?

That's strong language.

Lazy?

I wouldn't have classified myself as that.

Wicked?

That seems harsh.

But for think about it.

For God to entrust the gospel, for God to entrust a new identity, for God to entrust you with every individual blessing in life.

For us to hide it, it's one of the worst things we could do.

It's worse than somebody who just simply walks away from the gospel and says, I don't want any of that, and they go live their life.

They don't care because they're not adopted into the family.

They don't care because they haven't been redeemed.

They walk away.

There's no guilt, there's no pressure.

But for those of us who've been changed, impacted, transformed by the gospel, how can we not open up our hands and live generously, not to earn God's approval or favor, but because of God's approval and favor.

So what do we do?

What do we do?

Well, here's some practical to-dos.

I'm gonna show you something I'm hoping you'll enjoy.

But but here's practically, and here's what a Dave Ramsey or or Larry Briquette or different ministers that talk to us about finances, they tell us some real practical things to help us understand how to apply some of these principles in a way that we can live more generously.

Bring glory to the kingdom, bring glory to God.

He says, number one, track your spending.

Track your spending.

I mean, and listen, I I think that is probably one of the hardest things in the world to do, but it's probably one of the easiest things you can do.

And there's so many different ways.

You can use this archaic method where that involves an actual writing instrument and putting it on paper.

It's amazing.

You do columns and track your spending, you collect receipts.

It's an old-fashioned way, or you use electronic methods or apps, there's different ways to track it.

So what we're trying to ingrain in our kids is they begin a new life.

It's not about what you make, it's about how you manage what you make.

And create a spending plan.

You create a spending plan.

And you know what the mantra of the spending plan is?

Is don't buy stuff you can't afford.

Why watch watch this with me.

This is so profound.

I just can't get these numbers to add up.

Like we're never gonna get out of this hole.

Credit card debt, does it ever end?

Maybe I can help.

We sure could use it.

We've tried debt consolidation companies.

We've even taken out loans to help make payments.

Well, you're not the only ones.

Did you know millions of Americans live with debt they cannot control?

That's why I developed this unique new program for managing your debt.

It's called Don't Buy Stuff You Cannot Afford.

If you don't have any money, you should not buy anything.

Sounds confusing.

I don't have a lot of money that makes a lot of sense a lot of stuff to bear money.

How about expensive things using money is today?

And where would you get the money?

I tell you where and how in chapter three.

Okay, well what if I want something, but I don't have any money?

You don't like it.

Well, let's say I don't have enough money to buy something.

Can I buy it any money?

No.

It's a little confusing at first.

What if you have the money?

Can you buy something?

Yeah.

Now take the money away.

Nope.

You can buy something when you don't have the money.

I think I can buy something I want.

And then hope that I can.

Make sure you have money.

Then you buy it.

Then you buy it.

Do you have the money?

No.

It's in the bug.

It's only one made a lot.

It's free.

We can order another crack.

So wait for your free copy of it.

Don't buy stuff you cannot afford.

And if you order that money, you want to see what do you need to do.

If you don't have the money, don't buy it.

So order today.

Alright, so God's word gets no applause in Saturday Night Live.

God can use a donkey and speak through a donkey.

He can use anybody to speak some truth through.

And it's so profound, so simple, but it's so true.

Don't buy stuff you can't afford.

And we could go on and talk about what it means to dump debt, how to how to use the debt snowball principle, payoff.

We talk about how how you everybody needs to have some emergency funds set aside for a difficult time.

Three to six months, something they talk about.

God gives us a principle in Scripture where we give first fruit.

And that's really, that really, for me, that's what anchors Jill and I.

It anchors us.

Just just giving regularly on a weekly basis.

It keeps us anchored in a place that we are reminded that God is the one who provides everything and that we simply give back to him a portion of our first fruits.

But we also forget about this is that God wants us to be generous with what he allows us to keep as well.

And so I want to encourage you to, for wherever you are in life, there might be some of you here this morning that maybe you've never put your faith in Jesus for the first time.

And maybe your first step today is to experience this blessing, this unbelievable blessing of being able to trust in Jesus.

John 3.16, one of our favorite verses.

God so what loved the world that he gave.

You get it?

You see it?

He gave.

In a sense, you want to break the power of greed in your life, then you got to give.

You've got to live generously.

There's really only one way to break the power of greed.

And it's to give.

And I'm not asking you to give to church at the grove.

I mean, I'm so thankful and grateful for how God has provided.

Now, if you want a tangible, observable way to give, let me tell you that we will be ordering several hundred chairs at$52 a pop.

And it's not in the construction budget.

So how about if you bought a chair for each person in your family?

And then bought one for a guest who will want a chair to sit with you.

It's just an idea, a practical way to be a part.

Some of you have come since we started our season of four generations, our campaign.

And you say, well, man, I'd love to be a part of what God is doing.

That's a practical, tangible way.

So would you pray with me?

Let's ask the Lord to have his hand on this morning.

Father, we thank you for the way you have provided for us, the way you have given, the way you have offered yourself, your son Jesus, to die on the cross, to pay for our free gift of righteousness.

So in a sense, you gave us something that we didn't deserve, but you also paid for what you gave us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

For a heavenly Father to give up his one and only Son as a sacrifice for us.

So would you work in our hearts?

Would you draw us to Jesus?

Draw us into a relationship with Jesus where we trust him maybe for the first time.

And Father, would you work among our church family?

God, we pray that you would work.

We live in a very difficult season with some of the financial pressure that we feel, inflation, rising prices, rising, taxes, lots of things that we're dealing with.

Not to mention the fact that people deal with things in their own personal lives, maybe the loss of a job or a difficult health diagnosis, things that can add so much financial pressure.

And so, Father, I pray that you would, I don't, I don't, I don't want you to motivate by guilt.

We don't want to be motivated by pressure.

We want to give out of thankfulness.

As we come to the end of this month and we celebrate a special time with family and friends this next week, may it be a time for us to remember what we are truly grateful for.

Knowing that gratitude, gratitude has the power to help break the bondage that greed would place on us.

And gratitude leads us to give, it leads us to live generously.

So, Father, would you work in our hearts?

We trust that you will provide for us and our families and for this next season that we have as a church family, the ability to make an impact in our community.

And so, Father, would you bless this time as we sing this response back to you and consider how faithful you are to us?

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.