Money, Why is It Important to God?

uh so i wonder what you think about when someone gets up to talk about money

i bet some of you or maybe me think actually that's a private affair don't intrude what i do

with my money is my affair it's not it's not god's um other people might be like oh i already

know the church's agenda here they just want me to give more come on that's it done

so i'll just switch off and i'll nod along and just dave will think he's doing a great talk if i

smile and nod but inside i'm thinking what am i making for dinner what am i gonna have for lunch

because you know i've already thought this through i tithe it's fine um or do we feel condemned or

guilty so often i've been to see inspiring preachers uh who talk about money sometimes and they

you you hear of inspiring people like um i can't remember his name american pastor he he earned

loads of money through the purpose-driven life if you rick warren rick warren uh so he earned a lot

money through that book and he said he started to tithe at 10 and then him and his wife sat down

they figured i actually would give a bit more 20 and now he's giving up to 90 of his wages back to

the church and living off that 10 and that's like the other way around what we expect and i think

that's great for you i'm just going to hold that arm's length and just you do that that's fine i can't do

that um and so we hear these inspiring messages people have laid down everything and gone off and

done something else and inside if i'm honest i just feel a bit condemned and guilty and then as a

result i'll switch off and just nod along and say yeah great don't disturb me in my way of doing things

so i've been given the task of talking about money in church so you might be feeling various of those

responses um that's that's the reality isn't it that's where we're at you also might feel joy and

happiness at stages of this talk which is lovely as well so we'll go we'll see so why is money so

important to god um quick question did jesus say more about money in the bible than he did about

heaven and hell yes he did he said a lot more about money jesus said more about handling money

possessions than any other single thing in the bible now i've got a friend called pete berry and he got

up to do a sermon once a previous church i went to and it was about money and he pulled out a 10 pound

note and i wish i was doing i'm not brave enough he pulled out a 10 pound note and he turned on his

lighter and he burnt it in front of everyone to start his talk on money we're like whoa what is he

doing and again various responses pop out of you they they so some people went treason you can't burn

the face of the of the queen that's just awful how could you do that other people were like that money

could have been given to the poor to charity which really reflects with mary's pouring the perfume onto

jesus and judas saying that money should be given to the poor because that might have been pete offering

up to god in his own way and a lot of people got angry some people were just like you just burnt money

for entertainment what are you doing like all these various responses come out of people and as a speaker

you can't you you just don't know what's going to come out of these kind of things we all have

different emotional and physical responses to money um uh but i'll always remember that talk because it

was shocking it was really shocking he's burnt 10 pound 10 pound note

his his his point though is that often

so he has a history of um gambling addiction and he was trapped by a crushing debt in for most of his

adult life at this moment he'd lost his his partner he'd lost his wife his car his job everything

and through god it completely turned around he's now really he's an amazing salesman

he's got a wife he's got a child and he's got a house and he is on fire for god and when he got up

to do that talk he just wanted to say i am free of this and burnt it and obviously other people in

that congregation weren't at that point they might be on the journey and they might be nowhere near it but

they weren't where he was at and so he got a real angry shocking response but petebury is free of

money which you know i think in itself is a miracle after seeing what he's been through

there's also around money various myths so you might have heard from my accent i'm scottish

um it doesn't really come out that strong but have you ever heard of the stingy scotsman

well that's a no that's not a myth i'm really stingy

i'd like to think it was a myth but it's not the way i've been brought up

and there's a famous saying if you want to know what god thinks about money just look at the people

that have it or that he's given it to you i'm like actually i'm quite privileged is that me

and when we hear stories of the widow's mite in the bible she gave out of her poverty she gave

everything and jesus said look at that woman look what she's done compared to just giving a little

bit out for her wealth again is that an uncomfortable reaction you get in yourself

i do i feel a bit guilty and condemned

but if we are feeling condemned or guilty when we talk about money then we're missing the point

because all these stories are about the joy and the love that people encountered through jesus

zacchaeus met jesus transformed his life and gave back loads of his money the widow's mite

out of this generosity and love gave all that she had it's not about the comparison it's not about

a measuring stick that we've got to live up to it's not you know if we're feeling these feelings of guilt

and condemnation that it's wrong and often we look at the end product and not the journey they've gone

on so we compare ourselves to the end product like isn't rick warren amazing instead of looking at

the journey that he's been on i'm thinking actually that's okay

because we've all got different journeys to take

so i've got a little confession to make i am judgmental who else here is judgmental

well done most people that's good uh so my brother recently spent a few hundred

pounds quite a few hundred pounds of my parents money how dare he on my inheritance on um

a sleep therapist so his son was going through just not sleeping um and he's was he was two years old

and they just really needed some help so they sought professional help that's quite expensive

and me in my um thinking i know it all kind of frame of mind after having joy who's now three years

old and she was a great sleeper so i approached the subject of well joy slept i know how to make

this person sleep just give me a call i'll tell you all you need to know now i've got two children

the second one doesn't sleep i think god's got a sense of humor

but at that point in my life i was really judgmental like how dare you spend my parents

money on something like this it's just like like come on it's easy i did it it's easy

now i'm like oh a sleep therapist let's look that up

the point um the point is i haven't walked in your shoes you haven't walked in mine

and often we project our own path our own journey onto each other so i don't know what you've been

through i don't know what financial hardship you've been through i have never uh lived hand to mouth

i've never missed a meal unless it's my own choice

that's like um if if i had been through real poverty i might have a very different outlook on life

and none of us have walked the same journey we've all got our individual stories to tell

and so it's really hard to try to try not to be judgmental and actually just to

just to allow allow god to speak to us in our own place it's good to seek wisdom from each other

um but we need to be careful as well

so jesus said jesus says that you are not condemned

jesus said to the women in adultery in john 8 where are your accusers didn't even one of them accuse you

no lord she said jesus said neither do i go and sin no more for in christ jesus there is no condemnation

so right now no matter how you're feeling i want you to hear the message there is no condemnation

no matter where you're at with money there is no condemnation

so in praying for this talk

um myself and donna had a had a little pray and donna's really good at getting images from god

and she got this picture of a money spider and then the various things that come along with the

the figure you know a picture of a spider and she felt that was from god so i'm here to share it

so there's three aspects of spiders that we might have one is fear

are you scared of them and relating to money are you scared are you scared of not having enough

or maybe you have enough but you're scared that one day you won't or your children won't

how much fear do you have

now quite early on in my christian walk someone i went up for prayer ministry and someone was very

bold and said i've had a word from god for you and it is you will always have enough you will never

be rich or poor but you will have enough i was like oof okay and i actually throughout the years

i've hung on to that when there's been difficult times when i've been scared there's not enough

in the culture around me today it says i meant to be the breadwinner i meant to be earning lots of

money for my family my wife's on maternity leave we're now trying to save some money it's quite tight

and i feel like i should be out earning all the money it's the culture but i keep going back on

this word from god that they will will always have enough and just to do what i think god is telling

me to do i also um when i started doing youth work i just finished a degree in astrophysics i might

have told this story before but i had this huge student debt i had um yeah some debt and i couldn't

see a way of doing what god wants what i thought god wanted me to do which was youth work and getting

paid very little and still being financially stable and paying off this loan and so i asked god you

know i will i will go into ministry if you pay off this loan for me because i was scared i was scared

of like actually you know doing it without the financial backing and then i got a phone call from

my uncle who we hardly ever hear from he lives in malaysia and he says david i just want to pay off

the student debt that you got you had i'm like what you don't know what you've just done it was 15 grand

just gone and so then i enrolled in a in bristol baptist college and started doing a youth work degree

and i didn't get more debt from that it was good um but that was just an incredible moment where

actually my uncle said oh i was going to tell you at the start of the degree that all your student debt

was going to be paid for but your parents asked me not to and it just so happened at that point i

prayed to god and then it had been answered and so i haven't looked back since

the second part of being a spider of not being a spider of a spider is um perhaps feeling overwhelmed

if there's too many of them is it you know if there's a bunch of spiders like you know when

there's nests they're all hatching out

maybe you have too much money

which is an interesting thing so you often um maybe you don't have enough maybe you've got too much

so this reminds me of a song by c6 steve does anyone know c6 steve is he's an american yes

he's an american singer he's i think he's in his 60s he's got a big gray beard he's really lived

a life and he does this kind of country style singing but it is very good well he's got this

one song called treasures i just want to read out the lyrics to you i would quite like to sing it but i'm

not sure when i walk down that's okay when i walk down your street through your barred windows you look

at me and you wonder have i come to ask for one of your precious things that do not last all your

treasures all your treasures you think you know me but you don't know that there's more to this picture

than that shows and you fear that i come to steal your security that ain't real all your treasures

all your treasures i will leave now and you won't cry with relief you'll just sigh you'll remember come

one day and you'll walk out your door because you can't stay while all your treasures all your treasures

slip away so he wrote that um after reflecting on his youth he used to go just walking aimlessly

walking and walking and he used to go through these american suburbs and he never looked that well to do

and people would look out their windows at him and go what does he want and he didn't want anything

he's just walking he didn't want any of their stuff but they'd always look out with that look of what

do you want and look through the windows and then sigh with relief when he's gone but he says in

an interview and about this song is that they all look like they're imprisoned by their stuff he was

there walking down the street free and they're all in their houses peeking out going what does he want

and sighing with relief and they shut the door and he's out there going you you all look trapped

what's going on why are you all trapped in your possessions all your houses all your treasures

that will slip away that was his perspective on things it's a very powerful song if you get the

chance to listen to it c6 steve treasures it's a good plug for him so we can be trapped by money

the more we have maybe the more security you want to have more cameras we might put up more insurance we get

the third part is exchange so there are myths about spiders do you i wonder if you know some of these

i was surprised by a few so there's superstitions surrounding spiders if you step on a spider

you'll bring on rain did you know that it's gonna rain if you said all spiders except tarantulas

are omens of good luck the larger the spider the bigger the rewards if you see a spider climbing

the wall you will have your dearest wish come true seeing a spider run across the wall is another

sign of good luck i mean if you see a spider spinning a web you'll have an increase in your income due to

it's hard work like do people know this stuff if a spider crawls into your pocket you'll always have

money like get in there if a spider hangs over your head you'll get a letter that day and if a spider

builds its web across your door you can expect company and if you walk into a spider web you'll meet a

friend that day and one of the more interesting ones is um don't kill spiders because it has been

unlucky since a spider spun a web over baby jesus to hide him from herod seriously i haven't read that in

the bible did that happen there are superstitions that exist um so there's also superstitions

around around around money and it's like it's it's the exchange of money that superstitions around

surround so consumerism if you buy the next model up of car of whatever it is you'll be happier

one of the ones i've been i have encountered time to time in myself

is the exchange superstition with church and tithing so if i give my tithe to christ church it will meet

my need and if it does not meet my need it i will reduce my tithe that is a superstition that's a

consumerist myth being put onto your tithe that's not biblical and i've i've i've had that

so it's annoyed me you've sung the wrong hymn you've got the wrong guy up to speak i'm not giving my

tithe this week it's that exchange that that superstition that is in our culture of this consumerism

that money rules

but we've already received we give because we received first

we we give out of what jesus has done for us not what we're yet to get

but in all these examples the fear feeling overwhelmed the exchange money has been given too much power

god wants us to give that power over to him

our god is a jealous god he's a loving god he loves you so much

and he warns us that you can't serve both god and money

because money will give you orders it will boss you around

if we don't put god first

and god wants freedom not condemnation

he wants

money that comes from generosity

not from guilt

so if it's like oh if i have to give 10% oh because everyone

says i has to you know is it

if you're feeling guilty it's your heart's in the wrong place it needs to come from a joyous generosity of what

god and jesus has already done for us

so we had that reading

jesus saying do not worry

and that has annoyed me from time to time

because it's so hard not to worry

the world is full of anxiety

on the news all the time

the unemployment level

brexit

just like everything

so i encounter young people

um so i work at the ymca twice a week

and this summer i was um given a job

at the skate park at locking

in western supermare

and my job was just to get to know the young people there

and hang out there

um

and through the ymca as well recently i've been allowed to take some young people for meals

that wouldn't otherwise have you know had the opportunity to

and during my time with these young people i've been asking them

are you hopeful you know what are your aspirations for the future

and many of them

just

aren't hopeful of what's to come

they read the news they oh we're all going to die in a nuclear war between america and north korea anyway

world war three is not far away

or they look at house prices and think we're never going to afford a house

they look at jobs and think it's very competitive i don't know if i could do that

and they're crushed by this anxiety and the schools and everyone trying to get the best out of them the results

and the anxiety level between young people is going up and up and up and it's coming out in self-harm

in eating disorders

in you know mental health

and it's really hard to see to see that happening

so this world is filled with anxiety

and yet jesus says do not worry

so we need to be

able to show these young people that you can get through life without worrying

i wonder if we could do that i mean i think that's one of the gifts

as you get older and wiser

you've encountered

things in your life

hardship

moments where you're not sure if you've been made redundant what's going to happen

but you're sitting here you've got through it somehow

these are things that we need to pass on this good news that actually

you don't have to worry

so much

now i wonder is your picture of jesus a happy person

or is it someone who's very

doom and gloom

because a lot of people like to think

that the message that the church gives is this world is a place of shadows

it's a place of sin

of war

you know it's

it's just not a hopeful place

but is your picture of jesus

out of a happy person

because yes

there is darkness

and all the darkness and sadness in the world landed on him at the crucifixion

yes he wept at lazarus's tomb when he died and raised him from life

yes he became sad when angry when people did not trust god

and there's the agony of the garden of gethsemane

but these are the exceptions

they're the dark patches on a bright background

jesus is watching the birds in this passage

and he's going look at them

look how they're enjoying life swooping together

just having a great time

they're not worried

then he looks at the flowers in the fertile

galilean soil

says look at the colors and the patterns

look at these flowers

look what god has done

and yet they could be cut or trampled

really easily

but just look at the beauty in this world

we have a creator god

that has

made an amazing

world

for us

i wonder who here watches planet earth

because that really brings it out doesn't it

where you see things that just amaze you

i can't believe that the world does this

jesus isn't filled with anxiety about tomorrow

but he's able to be fully present in today

so he's able to wear

i i never thought about this before

but when he when he was crucified

the roman soldiers cast lots over his tunic

that's because it was an amazingly beautiful tunic

it wasn't just a piece of sackcloth

that it would have torn and thrown away

because it had blood on it and stuff

they cast lots over it

they wanted it

because he was able to wear a tunic

there's that story of the perfume being poured over him

and he he's able to appreciate it

and be fully present in the moment

he's able to put money in its place

when jesus tells us not to worry about what to eat drink or wear

he is not saying that it doesn't matter

it isn't about eating less

or drinking less

or wearing the worst clothes

jesus liked to party

and when he done

and he was able to wear things like this tunic

so we are to work

we are to earn a living

but we should do it with joy

because our father the creator god of all

wants to clothe us and feed us

there's a saying like

put the world first

and you'll find it gets moth eaten in your hands

but put god first

and you'll get the whole world thrown in

and you'll find it