God and Money | Ps. Keith Pittman

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you for joining us to learn more about Celebration Orlando, a church devoted to reaching the lost, equipping the found, and helping the hurting.

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Appreciate you.

Church family, how you guys doing?

Everybody doing okay?

It's so good to see everybody.

We're so, so glad that you are all here with us today.

Would you mind helping me welcome our online community?

Those who are joining us on a podcast, those who are in a family lounge.

We're so glad that you're here.

If you happen to be watching from afar, or maybe you're at home, but you're local to Orlando, we want to invite you that if you are in the area and if you're able to come join us in person.

I truly believe that God gives us the gift of technology so that we can stay engaged, but I think that there's nothing like being in the presence of God amongst God's people.

And I just think there's power and transformation in that.

Church, can I get a good amen to that?

All right.

We are going to continue in our trend of examining the words of Jesus found in the Sermon on the Mount.

Over the past several weeks, we've been unpacking the words of Jesus, the life of Jesus, the ministry of Jesus, specifically as he's inviting us into what I like to call a new kingdom ethic.

The Sermon on the Mount is a powerful collection of words and thoughts that maybe we've heard in different sermons and phrases that maybe we've repeated at different moments.

But but Jesus is speaking this to a group of people and he's inviting them into this thing called the kingdom of God, and he begins to unpack what it means to be a part of God's kingdom.

And if I can be honest with you, as I've been going through this with you, there's been aspects of this that have been so encouraging and so life-giving and so building us up, but there's also been aspects of this that have challenged me, aspects of this that has corrected me, aspects of this that I've had to wrestle with in prayer.

And if we're honest with ourselves, that's exactly what the word of God is meant to do.

It's meant to confront us where we are, and the truth of God's word leads us to better, and he gives us the grace, which means we have the room to get there.

And that's the beauty of this sermon on the mountain.

And so we've talked about a uh a list of things that I want to encourage you to go back and check out, ranging from anger to lust, to what does it mean to have a life of impact?

All of those sermons are available on our YouTube channel as well as wherever you listen to podcasts.

But now today we finally get out of Matthew chapter five and we finally get to Matthew chapter number six after six weeks.

So we now are finally in Matthew chapter number six.

But we're gonna be jumping down to verse 19.

And I want to give us some context before we get there.

We we're not passing over these passages of scripture um for any other reason, except for we examine some of these passages in the recent past.

Specifically, I want to talk to us about um the Lord's Prayer.

This is where we find the Lord's Prayer in Matthew chapter number six, and so we went through the Lord's Prayer over three weeks.

Last month, I think it was in January, where we examined the Lord's Prayer in a three-week um equipped class that took place um at our church offices, just by a quick response.

Does any was anybody at any of our Lord's Prayer teachings that we had?

Let me hear you, let me hear you, let me hear you.

Okay, so so we unpacked that over the past um three weeks, and and it was really exhaustive as we examined every single word um of Jesus and we created space for us to engage in.

One of the things that I have seen, one of the most consistent threads, I would say, of people when they are walking and developing their faith is one, how do I engage the word of God in a way that is practical, in a way that is theologically accurate, and so we we try to make resources available for that.

But the other thing is actually, how do I pray?

How do I approach God?

And so our Lord's prayer teaching provided some context for that.

And so I won't be going over that today, but we did want to make those resources available for you.

We didn't record it, but we do have all of the notes from it, and so we made those notes available.

So if that's something that you're interested in, learning um your prayer life, learning how to approach God, understanding what the Lord's Prayer really means, um, then we want to make that available for you.

And a way that you can get that is by the app.

Download the app.

Um, and when you download the app on the homepage, you'll see that it says Lord's Prayer 1, 2, and 3.

That's the three teachings that we did on it, and it's available to you.

I encourage you to take your time, read through it, look at every scripture reference, really, really spend some time with it, and then watch what God does in your prayer life.

So we want to make that available to you as well.

Another thing that Jesus talks about in Matthew chapter number six is fasting and the way that we fast and how do we approach God with fasting.

Again, I won't be preaching on that specifically because we we started our fast in the beginning of the year.

So every year um we take some time where we set aside some space, we we dedicate our time to God.

And so we did that in January, going into um February.

And so we did go on a fast.

I won't be teaching on fasting.

However, um, this upcoming Wednesday, it does enter into what we refer to as the Lent.

This is the 40 days leading up to um the resurrection of Christ.

And different church traditions approach this differently.

Um, but what Lent traditionally means in a church context is that it's a time where we set apart some space where we can reflect, we can repent, and it's all about preparing ourselves for the harvest that we expect to see God do um on resurrection Sunday.

This always takes place 40 days before Easter Sunday.

So as a church, we want to engage in this as well.

And so we want to invite you that starting this upcoming Wednesday, for you to begin the process of praying and processing, what does God want you to minimize so that you can make more space for Him?

Some of it may be social media, some of it may be going into certain environments, some of it may be turning down your plate in some way.

But as a church, I would love for us to engage this 40 days leading up to Easter as a time of reflection, repentance, but also believing that not only will we see a harvest in our own lives, but we're gonna see a harvest of people who come to faith on Easter Sunday.

And so we wanted to make sure that we equip you with some resources for that as well.

So on Wednesday, in in some traditions, they call that Ash Wednesday, but at the beginning of Lent, we're gonna have a um a Bible reading plan available that I want all of our church to be going through together.

It's just gonna be um an examination of the life and ministry of Jesus leading all the way up to Resurrection Sunday.

So, what you can anticipate from this Bible reading plan is a breakdown of different passages.

You can also expect that as we get into what we call Holy Week, which is starts with Palm Sunday, we're gonna have um an opportunity where we're gonna listen to different voices, share devotionals that week, and then we're gonna conclude it with us having a good Friday service.

So it's gonna be an amazing opportunity for all of us as a church to immerse ourselves in the word of God and the things of God with an expectation that on Easter Sunday, on Resurrection Sunday, we're gonna see lives transformed, not only just ours, but also for people that decide to come to church that day.

So we're really excited about that.

So can we get a good amen to what we believe God's gonna do in this upcoming season?

Now I'm ready to preach God's word today.

So if you have your Bibles, we're gonna be picking up at Matthew chapter 6, and we're gonna read verses 19 through 34.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

If you are reading along, especially if you're using a digital Bible, we'll be reading from the CSB translation, Christian Standard Bible translation.

If you want to mark it in your Bibles, that's fine.

If you don't have your Bible, that's okay.

It'll come up on the Bible in the sky.

But let's read God's word together and let's see what it is that He wants to speak to us today.

Starting at verse number 19, it says this it says, Don't store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

But store for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, where thieves don't break in and steal.

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

The eye is a lamp to the body.

If the eye is healthy, the whole body will be full of light.

But if the eye is bad, the whole body will be filled with darkness.

So if the light within you is darkness, how deep is that darkness?

No one can serve two masters, since he will either hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve both God and money.

Therefore, I tell you, don't worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or your body what you will wear.

Isn't life more than food and a body more than clothing?

Consider the birds of the sky.

They don't sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly father feeds them.

Aren't you worth more than they?

Can any of you add one moment to his lifespan by worrying?

And why do you worry about your clothes?

Apparently, they thought about their clothes a whole lot.

So he mentioned that like two or three times now, and I get it because I was trying to figure out what I was gonna wear today.

Um, so I get it.

But he says, Why do you worry about your clothes?

Observe the wild flowers of the field and how they grow.

They don't labor or spin thread.

Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all of his splendor was adorned like one of these.

If that's how God clothes the grass of the field, which are here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won't he do much more for you, you of little faith.

So don't worry saying, What will we eat, or what will we drink, or what will we wear?

For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them.

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all of these things will be added or provided to you.

Therefore, don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself.

Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Uh to money in this world.

He says, Don't worry about it.

And and if I can be honest with you, that's hard.

Because we live in a world that has created a system that forces us to work and chase and pursue and create debt and get and get and get, and and we're part of a system that seems like it's beyond us.

And yet Jesus is speaking to a group of poor, a group of lower socioeconomic people, and he's telling them, Don't worry about it, don't get caught in the system that the world has been trying to present to you that makes you feel like you will be fulfilled.

All it will create is this restless anxiety.

So Jesus is speaking to them, and I believe he's speaking to us on the importance of having a proper perspective when it comes to resources.

So if you're taking notes, and I certainly hope that you are, I have entitled today's thought God and Money.

Let's pray and let's see what it is that God wants to speak to us today.

Lord, we thank you so much for this gathering.

We thank you for our community, those who are with us today, those who are traveling, those who couldn't be with us today, those who are joining us online.

We're grateful that however anyone stumbles across this, that they are with us today.

And Father, I pray that as you know each and every one of our needs, our burdens, our struggles, those who are sick that need healing, those who are needing provision, God, I pray that you meet us exactly where we are.

And God, I also invite your spirit to have it sway.

I ask that you speak to our minds, speak to our hearts, and stir our souls.

So Lord, I ask that you give us open eyes to see you, open ears to hear you, and open hearts to be transformed by everything you want to speak to us.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.

Amen and amen.

You know, I've been I've been thinking a lot about the things that we just can't do without, or better yet, the things that we can't leave home without.

I think all of us, if we were to consider the things that we just couldn't imagine going a whole day without, there would certainly be a variation of responses, but I suspect at some point we all would agree that I can't leave my house without my phone.

We would all come to that conclusion that that we can't go but so far without our phones because of the way that our phones have begun to really invite itself into every area of our lives.

I still remember when the very, very first iPhone came out, standing in lines about ready to have a heat stroke, not even knowing what the capabilities of the phone were.

And I never will forget when we were trying to understand what is the iPhone and what is it going to do, the words from the late Steve Jobs said, he says, people don't know what they need until we tell them.

We need to tell them what they need.

And so he created this thing that then made us feel like we absolutely need it.

And now here we are, many years later, and many of us can't even go to the bathroom without it, and that's nasty.

But I'm not here to judge, I'm not here to critique.

But we all probably would agree that we need to have our phones with us, again, because of the way that it's woven into every area of our lives.

I I want to give you a glimpse into the Pittman household because ultimately that's what you guys signed up for, and this is better than therapy for me.

So here's something that happens in the Pittman household every single day.

It it's without fail that at some point, as we are leaving our home and we begin our journey to go wherever our destination is, that I'm gonna get a panic response from my wife where she's gonna say, Oh my god, I don't think I have my phone.

Like it's inevitable that at some point that this is gonna be a part of our reality, where she's patting her pocket, I don't I don't think I have my phone.

And so one of the things that that that really is interesting to me, I bought her an Apple Watch, and the Apple Watch was meant to be a fitness device in order for us to make sure that we stay on track with our fitness goals.

Do you think we use it for that?

No.

We use it so we can ping and see where our phone was last left.

So literally, I say, Hey, did you ping your phone?

She'll ping it, and she'll be like, oh no, I left it in the house.

We have to turn around, go back into the house and get her phone.

She has forgotten her wedding ring.

I'm like, oh, you want to go back and get it?

No, I'm good.

But but but her phone?

Nah, bro, you're gonna have to turn around and make a U-turn.

So, so me being the gracious but also not so smart husband I am, I began to say to her, like, hey, you need to create a system.

You need to do a better job.

You need to, you need to be like me.

I said that once.

Never said it again.

So I would say to her, like, you need to create a system so that way we don't have to go through this.

Why does every day when we leave, we don't know if you have your phone or not?

There's gotta be a better system.

And so now my sis, her system is me.

Hey, do you have your phone?

Hey, do you have your phone?

Hey, do you have your phone?

Like, I literally have a reminder in my phone that says remind her to get her phone.

That's kind of where we are at this point, but it's all about managing my frustration.

But I think that God has a very unique sense of humor.

Because about two weeks ago, we left the house, and to give you context, where we live at, we live in this this weird like landlocked spot where it takes us about 15 and sometimes 25 minutes to get to the highway from our house.

And depending on the cycle of lights, you guys know what I'm talking about.

You get the right cycle, I can get there in 12 minutes.

You get the wrong cycle and you stop at every light, it's 25 minutes just to get to the highway before we can make it to our destination.

And so we're on our way, we make it almost all the way to the highway, and Megan's like, oh, like let's put on some music.

I'm like, okay, I got you, girl.

I got this playlist that I had been planning and working on.

It's gonna be a vibe.

I reach for my phone, and I don't have it.

Now, now you have to understand, not even a week ago, I was getting on my wife about how she has to be more organized and better about it.

But now here we are, and I left, I looked at my watch, and you can see that little red dot saying that your phone is not with you.

And we've already made it to the highway at this point, so we're too far gone for us to go back.

And so ordinarily, Megan moves on fairly quickly.

She's like, hey, put some music on, and I didn't put anything on, but this time she was diligent, like, hey, why don't you put any music on yet?

Are you gonna are you gonna put something on?

I was like, nah, you put your playlist on.

No, I want to hear, I want to hear your playlist.

I'm like, nah, like I'm doing some work on it, I gotta clean it up.

No, I want to like it's almost like she knew.

I want here what you know what?

I had a revelation.

I think she took my phone and hit it.

I see what you're doing, Megan Pittman.

I see what you're doing.

So I had to say to her, I don't have my phone.

And and you can only imagine, like you would suspect for the pastor of this church, this this woman of God, this woman of faith, that she would have said, Keith, I too know what it looks like and feels like to forget your phone.

We have this shared trauma together, and I'm here to support you on whatever is necessary in order to get the phone.

That's not what Megan said.

She said, Oh, so I guess you aren't perfect, are you?

And then she just said a whole bunch of other stuff that I just disassociated and completely locked out.

But here's the thing: I didn't have enough time to go back and get it.

We had an appointment to get to, and so I was I'm just gonna power through it.

So we get on the highway, and the moment that we get on the highway, I find myself reaching for the phone that I know is not there because I want to put in the proper direction so I can avoid any traffic.

I realize I don't have my phone, so now I don't feel like I have a great sense of direction.

Later on that afternoon, I went to the grocery store to pick up some things, and as I'm walking up to the register, I reach for my non-existent phone and realized that my phone also is where I have Apple Pay, and I don't even carry my cards with me anymore.

So now I'm standing in line.

I'm like, okay, like, hey man, you guys see me in here every week.

You see me here every week, Chad.

I talk to you about your kids, I talk to you about your dog.

Chad wouldn't have, hey man, go ahead and put that back.

Like I had to walk out of there empty-handed, hungry.

And so all that day, as I was patting down my pockets, all that day there was this moment of stress and anxiety because I completely forgot that my phone was at home and the amount of stress that it created, the lack of direction it created.

I didn't feel like I could connect and communicate with people.

Like I realized that probably there's an unhealthy dependency on our phone, but also I also realized that it's possible that that momentary feeling that I had is how some people feel about their finances every day.

Every day.

I don't have it on me.

I look in my bank account and I just don't have enough.

Think of that anxiety, think of that stress when you think you've left something very valuable back at the register when you feel like you don't have enough.

That anxious feeling is what people feel like every single day.

I didn't have my phone, so I didn't have my map, I didn't have direction.

There are people when they don't have finances, they feel like they don't have direction.

They don't feel like they have connection, they feel hopelessness, they feel despair, they they feel that they're struggling.

And Jesus being fully aware of that anxious moment and feeling that we all can relate to, and he shows up to these poor people and he says, Why are you worried about money?

Why are you worried about what you're gonna eat?

And I've often said that it's so interesting when people with wealth tell you that money's not everything.

I'm like, well, let's switch places and let's just see if it is or not.

But but I have grown to recognize a little bit more of what Jesus is ultimately insinuating when he's talking to a group of poor people and telling them to not get consumed with it.

Don't misunderstand.

Jesus is not saying that money's not important.

Jesus is not saying that we shouldn't be wise stewards and that we shouldn't have a desire to have it.

But what Jesus is saying is we have to be careful that money doesn't have us.

He's talking about this connection and this obsession that we can have with money that gives us a false sense of security.

I read a study recently that said that 70% of Americans say their number one source of anxiety is their finances.

They worry about how they're gonna pay bills, they're worried about inflation, they worry about if they're gonna have enough, and then politicians weaponize that worry and say that they're gonna be the answer and solution for every single one of them, and they're not.

And yet the people are still filled with anxiety and stress.

It's like being on a treadmill that never stops.

I work harder, I move faster, but the scenery or my vision still hasn't changed.

And so Jesus is saying, what would it look like if we just got off of the treadmill?

What would it look like if we stopped allowing money to dictate our peace?

He's not just addressing money, he's actually talking about trust.

And he begins to use this series of statements to dismantle and confront some things that maybe we've established in our lives that's not serving us well.

The first thing he addresses is the illusion of security that we think that our money can provide.

He starts off by saying, Don't store for yourselves treasures in heaven.

Again, Jesus is not saying that having money is bad.

What he is saying is that if your security is built on your money, then your peace will always be fragile.

That if you truly believe that I will meet a magic number and then I will have peace, what he's saying is that peace will always be elusive.

Because no matter where you are, there's somewhere else you want to be.

I know and I've seen the trajectory of my life in times when I didn't have much, and I thought to myself, if I just have a little bit more, then I would be good.

I would never worry about money ever again.

And then when I get there, if I just had a little bit more, then I wouldn't, then I would definitely, God, I wouldn't need another single dollar.

I'll be set.

You get there.

But if I if I had just a little bit more, it's amazing how we see that contentment is ever so elusive.

So Jesus is beginning to confront that by saying that wherever your treasure is, that's where your heart is.

So if your treasure is in these earthly things, that means your heart's connected to things that are finite and have the ability of letting us down.

The next thing Jesus addresses is he's talking about perspective.

And this is where he begins to talk about how the eye is the lamp for the body and if whatever you focus on is what your body is filled with.

And that could seem a little bit puzzling, but ultimately what he's saying is he's talking about it's all about perspective.

What in the biblical times, when they would say that a person had a healthy eye, that meant they had an eye that looked at things through the filter of the kingdom.

They had an eye that looks at things through the filter of God.

They look at things through the filter of God's faithfulness, the filter of God's goodness, the filter of God's provision.

But an unhealthy eye is a person that looks at things through the filter of their lack.

They look at things through the filter of their suffering.

They look at things through the filter of their disappointment.

And it says that their hearts are filled with darkness.

In other words, what the text is saying is whatever you focus on is what you will be filled with.

Whatever you focus on.

So if you focus on the goodness of God, you'll be filled with joy, you'll be filled with peace, even though you may find yourself in difficult situations.

But if you focus on the negative, then you're going to be filled with negativity.

This is why I'm very mindful of what I watch on TV, specifically in the media spectrum, especially when it comes to news, because every news channel has a slant.

And what they want to do is weaponize your fear and continuously make you focus on that.

So now I'm filled with fear instead of the goodness of God.

We have to be mindful of where we look to our sources from.

Jesus is saying that if your perspective is right, you'll look at things through a different lens because our focus is the thing that fuels our feelings.

The other thing that Jesus begins to address is this idea that money is spiritual before it's financial.

It's spiritual well before it's financial.

And this is where Jesus really begins to step on some toes and confronts us at a very deeply personal place.

He says this in Matthew 6.24.

He says, No one can serve two masters.

Either you will hate one and love the other, or you will be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve both God and money.

He's bringing us to this place, which he has done over and over again in the Sermon on the Mount, to make a decision.

And the thing that's so challenging about this is that this gracious, loving Jesus who makes himself available and invites everybody in, he also doesn't mince his words when he says, You're going to have to make a choice.

And you'll notice in his language, he says, You can't serve God and money.

The translation of money is the word mammon.

And he's talking about the spiritual personification of greed.

It's literally a demonic spirit.

And Jesus is saying, It is impossible for you to call yourself my disciple and still be obsessed with money.

It is impossible for you to say that you're a disciple of mine and you don't care about other people.

It is impossible for you to say that you're a disciple of mine and you're not generous.

Jesus is saying, you can't serve me and also serve money.

He didn't even say it's not a good idea.

He didn't say it'll stretch you thin.

He didn't say that it's against best practices.

Jesus literally puts a limit on what we can do based on a choice that we can make.

He's saying that this idea of mammon, it's a false God that sounds a lot like God, but can never deliver on God's promises.

Mammon says things like this if you have enough, then you'll be safe.

If you get more, then maybe you'll be happy.

Mammon says things like this if you keep what you have, then you will truly be secure.

And this is deception, because money can never provide the things that only God can provide.

Mammon tells us to chase more, but God tells us to trust him.

Mammon helps us to thrive on scarcity and fear, but God operates with abundance and provision.

Mammon makes us anxious about the future, but God invites us into peace that surpasses all understanding.

Mammon is a false God.

And the enemy loves for us to get so fixated in the culture of this world where we're chasing and we become consumers of everything that it causes us to lose sight of the peace that is only found in the presence of God.

Ecclesiastes 5 10 was written by the most wise man to ever walk the face of the earth, Solomon, next to Jesus.

This is a man who amassed a great deal of success, and this is what he says concerning our resources.

He says, The one who loves silver is never satisfied with the silver.

And whoever loves their wealth is never satisfied with their income because it's all too fragile.

It's saying ultimately that money is a great tool, but it's a terrible master.

Money is a great resource, but we can't make it the source of our joy and our peace and our hope.

What scripture is ultimately bringing us to is this place where we have to fight against the messaging of the world to recognize that God is our provider.

Because when there's not trust in God, there's an abundance of anxiety.

This is why Jesus says, Why are you so worried about food?

Why are you so worried about the clothes you're going to wear?

Look at how I provide for the birds of the air.

And they don't even instinctively worship me with their own free will.

They just live for my glory.

They're evidence of my goodness, and just by proxy of that, I provide for them.

What about the grass?

They're not intentionally worshiping me, they just exist, and yet I make sure that they have what they I make sure that flowers are blooming.

If these finite things that are not made in my image, I take care of them.

How much more will I take care of you?

How much more will I make sure that you have everything that you need?

I remember about two years ago, um, I was notified that that one of the biggest givers in our church was moving away.

And so as we had this conversation and they were talking to us, and I was like, okay, man, great.

Like we prayed a blessing over them, released them.

It was an amazing opportunity to kind of see people go on to what God had next for them.

And it was sincerely just that for me.

But a month later, I remember getting an email saying that our giving had dropped because when this person gave, it moved the needle.

Like it was a single person, they moved the needle substantially.

And so in that moment, I began to get messaging and messages of like, okay, what are we gonna do?

Like, yes, we're gonna continue to operate, but we may have to make some very tough decisions.

We have to make some very serious adjustments.

And up to that moment, I hadn't even given it a thought.

When they said they were leaving, I didn't think, oh man, our big givers leaving.

I was thinking of the person and their family, and that was it.

So now I'm beginning to think about, but man, like they were very generous, they were very kind, and that really helped move the needle for the church.

So for that next week, I began to find myself processing.

That next week, I had moments where I couldn't sleep at night.

For that next week, I found myself wrestling about the different contingency plans that we needed to put into place.

And there's a part of that that's just a part of the business background that I have, there's a part of that that's actually wise and a part of good stewardship, but it was robbing me of my sleep.

And then there was a moment where God intervened.

Now I want to give you this disclaimer because I recognize that each of us have our own unique relationship with God.

And God speaks to us and meets us where we are.

And for those of you that when you're like, hey, God speaks to me with a whisper, He nudges me on my shoulder and says, I am for you, I will never leave you or nor forsake you.

I love that for you.

I love that for you.

I do.

God doesn't talk to me like that.

God talks to me like a person who's seen his provision in the past and he's worried about and he's concerned about why am I worried about the future.

So when God confronted me that night, he says, What are you so worried about?

Have I not always provided every one of your needs?

He began to not only speak to me, but I'm gonna say a word that we don't often use in the church context because we all get upset.

He rebuked me.

He says, How often have you seen my faithfulness in your life?

When your mother was left because your bioological father walked out of the house, I provided then.

You saw that first hand.

When you were struggling financially and you didn't know where your next meal was coming from, I provided for you then.

He began to walk me through the timeline of his faithfulness, and he said, So how dare you think that a single person will determine what I'm gonna do in my church?

Who is your provider?

And God began to confront me and deal with me in a very direct way of saying, Do you trust in man or do you trust in God?

And what I can tell you is when we had this moment with God and I had a moment of repentance and I acknowledged that God indeed is my provider, I began to see the giving to begin to tick up.

But but here's the thing God didn't replace one big giver for another big giver.

I would have loved that.

I would have loved for God to say, this person's leaving, boom, here's another person to take their place.

It would give me so much more peace.

But what God actually did is he stirred the hearts of the people that were already here.

And then he would send a couple of other people who couldn't give that much.

But somehow in God's economy, it actually gave us more than what we had when the other person was here.

God has shown me over and over again, it may not look the way you want it to look, but it doesn't look anything like what the enemy said it's gonna look like.

God is our provider.

And I don't know who needs to hear that right now.

I've sat in your seat when I've had negative balances in my account.

I know exactly where you are.

I've been in seasons where my credit was so bad they wouldn't even take my cash, but I can also recognize.

Seriously, like we don't even know if this is real.

I've been there, but I've seen God's faithfulness.

I've seen God come through, I've seen God move and remind me that He indeed is my provider.

He is the provider for my family, He's the provider of the church, He's the provider for you.

So let us not lose sight that no matter what the world says, no matter what my bank account says, that God is faithful and he tells us to stop worrying and getting caught up in the world system.

He is for you.

He is for you.

And so he brings us on this journey where he says that I will supply all your needs.

And so I want to give us three thoughts.

These are not silver bullets, these are not gonna fix every essence of anxiety that you may have around money, but I want to move the needle in a direction that can hopefully produce a little bit of peace.

Here's my first point I want you to write down Build a longer table and not a higher fence.

I'll explain that in just a moment.

Build a longer table, not a higher fence.

The Bible says in Matthew 6.33, connected to this same thought, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all of these things will be added unto you.

That these things that the text is referring to is our provision, is our food, is our health, all the things he says that if you seek first the kingdom, have an eternal perspective, think about things beyond yourself, that when you do that, that you're in the right alignment with God and that God is going to make sure that you have everything that you need.

I'm a firm believer that order matters.

Order absolutely matters.

What it's saying is seek first, put God first, pursue the things of God first, and then everything lines itself up.

So I'm a firm believer that when order is restored, blessing is released.

When I put things in their proper order, I will absolutely see blessings come from me.

He says, put it first and watch what I do with it.

One of the things that we know about stress and anxiety is it continuously makes us ask the question of will I have enough?

But Jesus is leading us to a place that we don't hoard, that we don't accumulate, but we learn how to be generous.

This whole idea of building a longer table and not a higher fence is from this story that I read about this African village where they lived off of the land.

And what we know about this particular community is that different people would have different levels of harvest.

And you would imagine for any community that that that lived off the land and they literally didn't know what the next harvest was going to be, that whenever they had an abundance, that they would keep it in the storehouse and prepare for the winter season or prepare when their season may be a little bit slower.

But instead of them building bigger storehouse to handle their abundance, it was a known fact in the community that they would use those resources to build a longer table to make room for those who didn't have such a good harvest.

They had a mindset that says that when I am blessed with abundance, it's not about me building more security to keep it all to myself, but it's about me creating more space so I can invite other people in.

It's recognizing that I'm blessed to be a blessing.

The Bible speaks about Abraham and says that through you, all the nations of the world will be blessed.

We are the inheritors of that promise, according to Paul in the book of Galatians.

We now get a chance to walk in that promise.

So I'm a firm believer that the very blessings that was on Abraham has now been passed on to us as sons and daughters of Christ.

So yes, I have savings.

Yes, I want to have more things and investments.

I want to have all of those things, but I also recognize that I'm blessed to be a blessing.

That God is calling me to create more room to be a blessing to others.

The other thing that I want us to do is redefine what enough means.

Each of us has our own version of when we have enough.

Paul says this.

He says, I have learned the secret of being content in every situation.

Contentment.

Just learning how to be good with where you are.

I'm content.

I'm good.

Paul said, I learned this secret.

If you notice, Paul didn't say, I was born with this.

Because the truth of the matter is, our human condition, we aren't born, created to be content with where we are.

There's always somewhere else that we wish we were.

I had my grandkids with me this weekend, and we were celebrating my granddaughter's seventh birthday, and we took them to the store.

One of the things that we do, but it's I'm a glutton for punishment apparently, is we go to a store and we just say, Hey, pick out whatever you want.

Right?

Stewardship.

So pick out whatever you want.

And so they are walking down the aisles picking out things, and this was the one time that their mom and their dad was with us.

And so as they're walking down the aisle and we have this cart, the mom and dad are looking, and my my son, he looks, he says, Well, they already have this.

And then the other, my my oldest granddaughter, because it was her younger sister's birthday, she's definitely gonna probably end up being a cop because she was telling all the business.

She was like, She already has this, she doesn't need this.

Why are you asking for like so she was policing everything that her younger sister was getting?

It was really weird.

I was like, yo, like, she's gonna punch you in the face one day.

Um but it was really interesting because what I noticed with my grandkids, each of them did it in their own way.

They were still getting things that they already had.

I got this doll, but I want another doll just like it.

I got this, I got this toy, but I want to get another toy just like it.

Our human nature is always wanting to have more of what we already have.

It's just built into us.

But Paul said he had to learn how to be content.

He had to learn how to recognize, hey man, at the end of the day, I'm actually good with where I am.

The way that we redefine what enough is is we have to separate a couple of things.

Here's a couple of things I want to share with us really, really quick.

We have to identify our needs, our wants, and our have-to-haves and put them in their proper categories.

Our needs are the things that we absolutely need.

That's food, that's shelter, health, relationships.

We need those things, and God promises to meet those needs.

But then we have our wants.

These are the things that are nice but not necessary.

We want a bigger house.

We want a new car.

We want brand new clothes.

There's nothing wrong with these things at all, but we know that they're not absolutely essential.

But our culture is really great at making sure that the things that we want are things that we need.

So now we pursue the things we want and equate them with needs, and we find ourselves going into debt or overextending ourselves, pursuing wants because they've they've disguised themselves as needs.

And then we have our have-to-haves.

These are the things that we convince ourselves that we can't live without.

And this is where money really traps us.

It convinces us that certain things are non-negotiable.

I have to have the newest iPhone.

Which, I mean, I kind of do have to have the newest iPhone, but but that's that's besides the point.

I I have to live in this kind of neighborhood.

I I have to send my kids to this private school because if I don't send them to this school, then they're gonna be exposed to the world and they're gonna spiral into depravity.

So I have we create these, I have to do this, and then we create expenses to support the things that we have to do, and then when our money runs short, we're filled with anxiety because we've created a bunch of expenses that are really rooted in luxuries because we convinced ourselves that we have to do it.

A recent study showed that once our basic needs are met, that more money does not increase our happiness.

That's science, that's mind-blowing to me.

That once our basic needs are met, that more stuff actually doesn't translate into more happiness.

You might go on better vacations, you might live in a better home, but it doesn't translate your overall well-being.

I guess the words of the prophet notorious B.I.G.

are correct, where he says, Mo money, more problems.

It's recognizing and separating ourselves from the things that I know I need.

There's nothing wrong with the things that I want, but also not obsessing about the things that I claim that I have to have, because that allows us to get out of sequence with our debt, and now we're filled with stress because we have to fight and be a part of the system.

Here's our third and final thing practice generosity as an act of freedom.

The thing that frees us from the bondage and tyranny of the God of money is being generous.

Nothing frees you from obsession and the desire to hoard your resources more than recognizing that I am not an owner, I am a steward.

And God has called me to be generous with the things that He's placed in my hands.

2 Corinthians 9 7 says that God loves a cheerful giver.

He just doesn't call us to give, but he calls us to love the very idea of giving.

Generosity is not just about helping others, it's also about freeing ourselves.

Because nothing breaks the power of money over our life more than giving it away.

The Bible tells us in Matthew chapter 19 a story about the rich young ruler.

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

And he comes to Jesus with the desire of being his disciple.

Lord, what do I need to do in order to be a disciple, an apprentice, a dedicated follower of you?

I'm gonna orient my life around you.

What do I have to do?

And Jesus looks at this man because he knows the wealth that he has, the greed, the spirit of mammon on his life, he says, For you, I want you to sell everything you have and give it to the poor and follow me.

And the man walked away bitter and crying, and he didn't do it because he didn't have money, but money had him.

And Jesus recognized that in his life and says, As long as you obsess over money, you cannot serve God and man.

I'm trying to lead you to a place where you can free yourself from the things that are holding you back.

Practically speaking, for us as a community, there are several ways that we can practice generosity.

One of those ways is if this is your church home, that you partner with the vision that God has given us.

Throughout the course of scripture, people have always been the conduit that supports the ministry, and they do that through their tithe.

That's the first 10%.

Another way we do that is by giving offering.

Those are ways that we are partnering with the vision, but it frees us from the bondage that's attached to money.

But I also believe in having planned generosity.

One of the things that I do every single time I get paid is I put aside a set amount of money that's not connected to my tithe, that's not connected to my offering, that's not connected to the building fund, but it's just money that I have set aside.

Some of it's in cash, because I want to have it in a car, some of it may be gift cards, some of it just may be sitting in another account.

And then I'm genuinely saying, God, who do you want me to bless with this?

And there are times I may see a GoFundMe pop up and I'll be able to transfer the money there.

There may be a time I see somebody on the street corner and God nudges me to give them some money and I give it there.

But I try to live my life in a way of having planned generosity to the best of my ability.

I don't always get it right.

But I believe that if we don't plan to be generous, we won't be generous.

If we don't plan to surrender our resources, our natural desire won't be to do it.

Because there's always something else that's crying for our money.

So God is leading us to a place where He wants us to be free.

At the end of the day, Jesus isn't asking for your money, He's asking for your trust.

If we put him first and we don't we free ourselves from financial fear.

If we truly trust him and we don't feel like we have to be in control, it alleviates distress.

And if we seek his kingdom first, we truly do believe that we can experience freedom.

Because a good life isn't found in having more, but it's found in needing less.

And the older I get, the more I'm beginning to recognize that not so much do we have to give, but I'm beginning to say, how much do we need to keep?

Because we want to be a conduit to be a blessing.

As I say these words to you, and as I've shared earlier, I have been on every end of the spectrum as it relates to finances.

Not the rich end, but you know, middle class end for sure.

But if somebody wants to bless me, the God will bless you.

Anyway, um I've I've I've seen it.

I've seen it.

I've I really want to be honest with you, I've seen it.

I've I've been at places where I didn't know how we were gonna pay the rent.

I've shared with you when I got in my car accident and I couldn't work for a year, and Meghan's was the only income.

We struggled, we struggled, and God provided, and and and there were some basic things that we needed, and it wasn't until we got into uh Financial Peace University that we learned to switch our mindset around money.

We just needed that, something to help us think differently around money.

And so I see that, I understand that, I recognize that some of us are so upside down we don't even know where to begin.

And so one of the things we want to make available to our church family is that our legacy team, which is filled with people at varying degrees of financial expertise, they they want to serve as our financial coaches for our community.

That that means that maybe you just need someone that can help you budget.

Maybe you need someone that can help you with a good strategy on the best ways to pay off debt, or maybe you do want to have somebody that can give you some ideas on how to plan for the future.

None of these things are bad.

Don't hear something I'm not saying.

All of that's good, but we want to make sure we do it a healthy way.

And so we have amazing team members that are in our church that would love to offer this to us for free.

This is not financial counseling, this is not financial advice, but this is really people who have a heart for it that want to see God's people free.

So if you know that you could benefit from that, you could benefit from someone just helping you figure out how to budget well.

You can have someone that could teach you, like, hey, these are my debts and this is what my interest rates are, and someone who's very experienced in this can come alongside and just give you some insight in that.

Or even if you're saying, Keith, I don't even have any major investments.

I'm not, I'm I'm entering my 50s and I don't even have any retirement.

We have people in our church who are literally experts at this and they're making themselves available to you as a coach to just give you some insight that can hopefully help.

So if you do feel like you would benefit from that, we have a barcode that you can scan, we have a form that you can fill out, and one of our experts will reach out to you to help you with next steps.

But we want to make sure that we resource and equip you.

These are things that I wish I had earlier in my journey with God.

And so as a church, we want to make them available to you.

So if you can benefit from that, please don't hesitate to do that.

Don't hesitate to reach out to us and connect with us out there.

This is not a space for us to be sequestered and filled with pride, but this is an opportunity for us as a church to link arms with you, to make sure that in the same way with the book of Acts, where it says, and not a need was among them, that's what I want for our church.

We may have varying degrees of resources, but I don't want any of us struggling.

And I believe that if we link arms together, we can see God's blessing in our life.

Can we get a good amen to that?

All right, let me pray for us as we prepare to leave.

With every head bowed and every eye closed, Lord, I thank you so much for the resources that you make available to us.

God, I thank you for the wisdom that you give us when it comes to money.

God, we're continuously reminded and cautioned about elevating money above all else, pursuing money above all else, and finding ourselves upside down, trapped in a system that doesn't love us.

So, Lord, you're not asking us to make less money, not to not to make decisions that's going to help us to increase, but you are telling us to protect our hearts as we do this, recognizing that our peace is only found in you.

So, Lord, I just pray for everyone that's in our community, for those who are struggling financially, that God, you give them peace and that you show them the provision that you have for them.

For those who are in the middle of the road and who just need some direction and guidance on how to manage their funds, that God you order their steps and provide them with blessing.

God, I pray for those who are in the land of abundance, who are just tremendously blessed.

I pray that they can they can build longer tables instead of continuing to build higher fences, that they can recognize that they're called to be conduits and they're called to be a blessing to others.

So, Father, wherever we land, I know that there's a next step for us.

So, God, I just pray that you stir our hearts, that you activate our faith, and allow us to take the step that you're calling us to take.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you for joining us to learn more about Celebration Orlando, a church devoted to reaching the lost, equipping the found, and helping the hurting.

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