Money Problems Part 2

We're gonna jump back into a conversation that we started last week, and I'll give you some context.

This summer, we are in a series called the Summer of Wisdom, and it is not me imparting all of my wisdom onto you.

Just ask my wife, that would be a very short series.

We would have been done ten minutes in.

It's not that at all.

No, this is the wisdom that God gives us in his word.

Proverbs chapter 3 says that joyful is the person who finds wisdom, the one who gains understanding.

Proverbs 3 · chapter mention

For wisdom is more profitable than silver, and her wages are better than gold.

Wisdom is more precious than rubies.

Nothing you can desire compares with her.

There is nothing in this world that beats wisdom.

There's so many things that we desire, there's so many things that we want.

What we should crave more than anything else is the wisdom to know what to do with what God has already given us or what He's going to give to us in the future.

The responsibilities, the roles, the relationships, whatever it might be.

We happen to live in a world that tells us all kinds of things, a world that gives us all kinds of advice about how to live and what to value and what to prioritize, and most of it is garbage.

Most of it's ridiculous.

Like at a young age, through Disney songs, we train our kids to do silly things like follow their hearts no matter what.

You know that?

Like, how many of us have followed our heart into regret?

You're like, yeah, my biggest regrets in life, I was following my heart hard when I made that decision.

Our world gives us so much advice and it's worthless.

But Jesus in Scripture, God through his word, totally different.

In fact, Jesus said it this way in Matthew chapter 7.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

He said, Anyone who listens to my teachings and follows it is wise.

Like a person who builds a house on solid rock.

And though the rain comes in torrents and the flood waters rise and the winds beat against that house, it will not collapse because it's built on bedrock.

But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn't obey it is foolish.

Like a person who builds a house on sand.

And when the rains and the floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.

Jesus gives us wisdom.

He gives us truth that we can build our lives on.

And that's what we're exploring this summer.

And all the different facets of life and all the areas of life that we struggle and we we try to figure things out, all the areas of life that confuse us and challenge us.

God has wisdom for us that will see us through.

We want to build our lives on that wisdom.

Now, we've got a phone number that you guys can text to all throughout this series, and I am answering each of these that comes in personally, doing my best just to give you perspective from God's word on whatever situation you might be going through.

We've had so many texts come in, and I believe that I'm I'm like this close to being fully caught up.

A few came in late in the week.

I may not have gotten to the ones that came in on like Thursday, Friday, Saturday.

But that is the number if you want to save it.

And it's been a blessing for me to go through those.

Again, it's not like I have the answers.

Half of them I get, I go, oh dang.

Um, this is tough.

But here's what's what's incredible God's word speaks to all of it.

There's yet to be one text that's come through where I have to say, hey, I'm really sorry, but uh yeah, God's word is silent on this issue.

You have no hope, just quit.

I haven't been able to text that to anybody.

It's not that everything in the Bible is some life hack that you're like, oh, just do this and it works instantly.

No, but it's it's true wisdom, and if put into practice patiently over time, it will guide you through.

And so every single text I've I've I've had, I've been able to say, hey, here's what scripture says to this.

Pray about this, think about this.

And I hope it's been helpful to those of you who have received it.

If it hasn't been, I'm sorry.

But I will tell you this, it's been very helpful to me to have a sense of what everyone here is going through.

And these texts are actually helping inform what we're gonna talk about.

So last Sunday we started a conversation on money.

We're gonna finish that today.

We had a lot of text about financial situations and finances in general.

And then after that, we're gonna just wade our way into the muddy, murky waters of relationships.

So many texts about relationships and how to forgive someone who's betrayed you and marriage relationships, uh, parent-child relationships, parenting, all that kind of stuff.

And so, woo-hoo, here we go.

It's gonna be good.

But today we're wrapping up our conversation on money.

Now, last week we kicked this off, and I've spent so much time in the last week just thinking about my relationship with money over the years.

Like, can you think about the first time money became a real thing in your mind, like a reality?

Maybe you grew up in a home that was really financially challenged and you became aware of the reality of money at a young age.

I shared last week that I actually grew up in a very poor home until I was about middle elementary school.

My dad got a big promotion and things really changed for our family.

But at a really young age, we were poor.

I just didn't know it because my parents worked really hard and they made sacrifices, and they they, even though we lived in a trailer when I was a kid, it never occurred to me.

And I, from my perspective, I had everything I needed and enjoyed.

The refrigerator was just a magic portal to food.

You know, you just open it up and it's just wow, food.

That's how my kids see the refrigerator.

They'll come to us sometimes and say, hey, there's no snacks.

It's like, well, get a job.

You know, that's the answer I want to.

Because now I don't see the refrigerator as a magic portal of food.

I see the refrigerator as a money-eating machine.

Yet every time I have to go to the, I'm like, kids, stop eating so fast.

Like, you y'all don't need to be that tall.

Like, our oldest plays basketball.

He needs to be tall.

The rest of you, normal-sized humans.

No, I'm teasing.

No, when I was a kid, I was probably in third or fourth grade, money became a thing to me for the first time.

I collected baseball cards when I was younger.

It was just a passion I had.

I loved baseball.

My dad would buy me baseball cards every Christmas, every birthday, baseball cards.

He'd take me to card shops, and I built this collection.

But then when I was in fourth grade, my parents, it may have been a mistake, but it was well intended.

They got me a subscription to this magazine called Beckett Magazine.

And if you grew up collecting cards, you might know this.

It basically every month it shipped this magazine to me, and it was just a catalog of every card that had ever been made and how much it was valued at.

And I began to go through my collection and I would highlight every card and I would calculate how much it was worth.

This is what I would do on Saturdays as a fourth grader.

It's the most organized I've ever been in life.

And so I remember there was this moment when I was in about fourth, fifth grade where, according to Beckett, my card collection was worth like$5,000.

And I felt truly like I could just leave home with that.

You know, I'm like, hey, mom and dad, if y'all don't don't make things too hard on me because I'll take my cards and I'm out of here.

I've got everything I need.

No, I felt like I had this treasure.

Now I would end up selling that years later for far less.

They did not hold their value.

But for a while I felt, I was like, I'm rich.

I'm I have I'm a thousand air.

That was incredible to me.

But that's the first time in life that money became a reality, and I thought about it.

And it's it's been a reality ever since.

And I can say honestly, I have not always had a good relationship with money.

It's hard to have one.

Money's tough.

Last week we we talked about this idea of money problems.

That's actually the title of last week's message in this message is money problems.

And we laughed at the fact that even though we use that phrase in our society, we say money problems plural, we only ever mean one problem.

If someone says they're having money problems, what they mean is money problem, and the problem is they don't have enough money.

We never say I'm having money problems related to having so much that we don't know what to do with it.

And so last week we covered that category of money problems.

What do you do if you're struggling?

And how do you how do you have enough?

How can you be wise financially?

And scripture speaks to this greatly.

We kind of focused on five things.

I really wish I would have added one more, but I can add it now.

So that's the beauty of having church every week.

But the five things were pretty simple.

We went over work really hard, right?

Work hard.

Be patient.

Don't try to get rich quick or anything like that.

Work hard, be patient.

Save money.

You want to save, you want to live below your means.

Sometimes that's easier said than done.

You want to avoid debt.

Like get out of debt as fast as you can.

If you don't have debt, don't get more.

And if you have to get more for something, sometimes there's purchases where you just need to borrow, but man, get out of debt as fast as you can.

Scripture speaks to this a lot.

And the last one didn't have a lot of time with it last week, but honor God.

I had a couple of my friends, I want to pause here for a second.

I had a couple of my friends that challenged me in the last couple of weeks, and I'm really grateful.

So, Mike and Ben, you both had conversations that you may not have realized challenged me as much as they did.

That last category, honoring God with your finances, which has traditionally meant set a portion, a percentage of your income aside, and give it to your church or give it to a missions organization or just give it to the kingdom of God.

This is something that followers of Jesus, followers of God, have done for thousands of years.

I struggle sometimes talking about that because so many churches abuse that concept to try to manipulate people into giving exorbitant amounts of money.

And they use that money in foolish ways.

Like it's very easy for churches to create very expensive ways to do church and then put a pressure on people to pay for it.

And we don't do that here, and because so many churches do this the wrong way, I have a tendency just to avoid that conversation because I know that so many of us have sat in places before where we've experienced that, you felt that, and it's disgusting and gross.

And I don't want to add to that, but a couple of my friends challenged me and said, Listen, it's also wrong to avoid talking about it because God promises to bless us when we do.

And so, just as it's wrong for those pastors to twist those scriptures, it would be wrong for me to avoid them because that's a huge part of what God says is necessary for financial health.

And so if you try to do all four, if you're like, man, I'm gonna work hard, I'm gonna be patient, I'm gonna save money, I'm gonna avoid debt, but God, I'm gonna keep you out of my finances.

It's not gonna work.

So we're called in scripture to partner with God.

And we set a portion aside and we dedicate that to the Lord's purposes, whatever he puts on our heart for that.

Traditionally, it's giving to your church, but it can be other things as well.

And it's funny, I've done that my entire life.

Even when I was in high school and my parents gave me an allowance, I tithed my allowance.

One time my mom was like, You don't have to tithe your allowance.

We already tithe that.

I'm like, well, double tithed.

Here we go.

But I've lived that out, and and I don't I don't ever believe that I have less than I could have had because of that.

I've seen God honorate, I've actually seen that happen in this church.

Because about 12, 13 years ago, we realized as a church, we're not doing what we encourage people to do.

We're using 100% of what God gives us for our needs, but that's not what we tell people that we're taught in Scripture to do.

So as a church, we set aside 10% of everything that is given and we give it away.

And in the last 12 years since we've been doing that, it's not like our finances have been harder.

God has blessed us, He's met our needs.

So I just I should have spent more time on that last week because it is such a powerful promise.

And pray about that.

That's between you and God, but just know that in his word, he wants to partner with you in your finances.

And he's a provider, he's a God who has plenty of resources.

So pray through that.

The thing I wish I would have added last week, the sixth one, real quick, is to enjoy what you have.

I'm bad at that.

In fact, my wife reminded me of that a few days ago.

She's like, Do you know how bad you are at enjoying?

She always tells me things I'm bad at.

No, I'm just joking.

She's an incredibly, no, I'm teasing, she's amazing, she's an incredible encourager, but sometimes she gives me wisdom in a direct way that I need.

And I can feel so much financial pressure to provide for my family.

I'm sure a lot of you feel the same way.

And I want to make sure we we cover all of this and pay for that, and then in the future, what if this happens that I can struggle to enjoy what God has has given us.

And so if you want to have healthy finances, if you want to solve the prop the money problem that we tend to think of as people, then do those things.

Work hard, be patient, save money, avoid debt, honor God, and enjoy what you have.

Okay?

You can listen to last week's message if you want more details on that.

But today, we're gonna talk about the real money problems.

Because while as a culture, when when we hear money problems, we think not enough money, scripture actually gives us an entire different set of money problems.

So if you were talking to one of the prophets, or if you're talking to Jesus Himself, and you said, Yeah, I'm having money problems, they would not look at you and say, Oh, you don't have enough money.

Because we're given an entire different category of money problems.

The primary money problem that Scripture helps us deal with is not you owning less money.

Like the primary money problem is not you failing to have enough money.

The primary money problem is that money owns you.

It's that money has too great a hold on your heart, on your mind, on your life.

That is the primary money problem.

The real money problem that Scripture presents us with.

It's not how much money we own, it's how much money owns us.

Let me give you some examples.

Matthew chapter 6, verse 24, Jesus says, No one can serve two masters.

Matthew 6:24

You'll hate one and love the other.

You'll be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.

It is possible to be enslaved to money.

It's possible to worship money.

In Luke chapter 8, verses 11 through 15, Jesus explains the meaning of a parable, a very famous parable that he taught about these four different soils.

Luke 8:11–15

And these soils represent the different statuses of a person's heart in terms of how ready they are to receive the truth of God and have it grow in their life.

And Jesus says, this is the meaning of the parable.

The seed is the word of God, and those along the path are the ones who hear.

And the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so they may not believe and be saved.

He talked about this soil that as soon as it's on rocky, it's on like the pavement, basically.

As soon as the seed hits the ground, it just gets snatched up.

Doesn't grow at all.

He said, Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they don't have any roots.

They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.

The shallow soil.

It's those that hear it and they're like, Yeah, I'm all about it.

I love God, that's awesome.

But as soon as something hard happens, they're like, never mind, they're gone.

And that happens.

He said, the seed that fell among the thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by life's worries, riches, and pleasures, and they do not mature.

But the seed on the good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

We all want to be that fourth soil.

But the third one's really interesting because it's a huge part of what Jesus says can choke out the growth that we can have in our lives through God is obsession with money.

He said it's it's the worries of life, the cares of life, pleasures, riches, those types of things, if they take over in our thinking, it chokes out the growth that we can have with God.

Mark chapter 10, verses 23 through 26, Jesus looked around and said this to his disciples, how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.

Mark 10:23–26

And this amazed them.

But Jesus said again, dear children, it is very hard to enter the kingdom of God.

In fact, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.

And the disciples were astounded than who in the world can be saved, they asked.

They had been taught to believe that if someone was rich, they were God's favorite.

Clearly, look at all the stuff they have.

God must love them more than most people, but he's like, not exactly.

Doesn't really work that way.

It's not a sin to be rich, it's not wrong to have wealth at all.

Scripture teaches us we looked at that last week.

We're taught in Scripture how to be wise financially and have wealth.

But this concept that Jesus is talking about is people who are who have so much, maybe, that money has become their God, and they they can never let it go.

He says, Man, it's really hard to enter God's kingdom if you're trying to carry all that with you.

It's tough.

So suffice it to say that Jesus presents us with a very different perspective on money, entirely different than the perspectives that we see in Scripture, and he would say, Hey, your primary money problem, the money problem you should be the most focused on, is simply does money have too great a hold on your heart?

So that's what we're gonna explore today.

And we're gonna look at this in terms of symptoms and remedies.

Okay, symptoms and remedies.

So what are some symptoms that we might experience if money has too great a hold on our heart?

As we read this, I want you to know I've experienced none of these.

I have a perfect record with these.

Um, not never, none of these apply to me.

Um, no, teasing, I've listened I told Megan writing this message the other day, I said, sometimes writing messages every week, it's the worst.

She's like, why?

I was like, because I get convicted every single week.

Like, this is why it's so important to put your faith in Jesus.

Like, our faith is about grace and forgiveness.

That apart from God, we couldn't earn salvation, we couldn't earn a place in his kingdom that he lets us in, he forgives us, because without the grace of Jesus, my own messages would convict me.

Like, truly.

I can't live up to this stuff.

As I'm going through this, I was like, ah, uh, I can think of so many situations.

I'm like, man, this is hard.

But I'm grateful for the opportunity every week because it, if there is something wrong in my life, I have a choice personally to either be a huge hypocrite and just pretend, um, which I'm not gonna do, or wrestle with these things.

And if there's anything in here that is off in my life, I gotta deal with that.

It's just inconvenience sometimes.

So this was a rough week.

All right.

Let's talk about the symptoms of money having too great a hold on your heart.

Number one is greed.

Now, very few people would say, I'm greedy.

I'm I'm such a greedy person, greed.

I love greed.

Or maybe we use the older word avarice, like I'm, oh, avarice is my is my friend.

We wouldn't really describe ourselves as greedy, but here's what here's what scripture teaches us about greed.

1 Timothy 6, 9 through 10.

People who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.

That is so clear, is it not?

I'm gonna read this one again.

People who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.

Many people have chased money off a cliff.

It says, for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, and some people craving money have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

So it describes greed here as longing to be rich, is craving money.

This can show up in a number of different ways.

It can be uh can be obsessive.

If you obsess over money, it can happen at a young age.

In fact, my youngest Eli, he has no money.

But uh, but when he was like two, he became obsessed for whatever reason with his his older sister's earrings.

He thought they were treasures.

They're shiny, I guess.

And he would take her earrings and like keep them in his hands and hide them in places.

And he he called them goldens, but he had a really bad lisp, and so he would always say golden.

And you would Lily would be missing earrings, and we'd be like Eli, and he'd sure enough, in his hands, open hands, and there's like he's like, I have so many goldenth.

He would say that.

He thought these things were just like treasure.

At a young age, he was obsessed with shiny things.

And we're kind of like that as a culture too.

It's amazing how we it's like amazing that we still buy things made out of gold and diamonds, you know, it's like rocks.

It's like, ah, rocks, you know.

We know that they're rocks, but we're like, can't help it.

We like it, you know.

I'm not a jewelry person at all, but uh much to my I'm sorry, Megan, I'm not a jewelry person.

I should I should have bought my wife more jewelry.

That's true.

But there's other things, oh, there's other things that that I like.

Like dumb things.

When when my oldest asked me years ago if he could start collecting basketball cards, I was like, yeah, let's do this.

And I actually sold my old baseball cards to start his collection.

And then if you ask Megan, who in our home actually collects basketball cards, is it is it Liam or is it Justin?

Because pretty soon I was like, I don't know, the nostalgia men, you you, I'm sure all of us have this, but I don't know, guys, I've always found that nostalgia is like a dangerous drug for dudes.

And so all of a sudden during the pandemic, we're we're going to card shops, we're buying basketball cards, and I'm opening these up, and I'm like, oh, look at this one, we got this one.

You know, and my wife's looking at me like, what is wrong with you?

I was like, it's a rare card.

I got really into that.

It's amazing the kind of material things that you can become obsessed with, an obsession and thinking about it and thinking, how do you how do we get more of that?

That's greed.

It can manifest in other ways.

Um, the the inability to let it go, like the inability to part with money.

Right before Jesus said to his disciples, this is why it's so rich or so hard for the rich to enter the kingdom, that wasn't just a random statement that he made.

It was in context of this story.

In Mark chapter 10, it says Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, and a man came running up to him, knelt down, and asked him, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Mark 10 · chapter mention

Why do you call me good?

Jesus asked.

Only God is truly good.

But to answer your question, you know the commandments.

You must not murder, you must not commit adultery, you must not steal, you must not testify falsely, you must not cheat anyone.

Honor your father and mother.

Teacher, the man replied, I've obeyed all these commandments since I was young.

Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him.

There's still one thing you haven't done, he told him, Go sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you'll have treasure in heaven.

Then come follow me.

And at this the man's face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

This guy had a lot of stuff, and it's it's amazing this story because he's rich, he's loaded, and Jesus has nothing.

And yet he recognizes Jesus has something I don't have.

Jesus has something I can't buy.

And so he throws himself at Jesus' feet.

Here's this rich man throwing himself at the feet of this poor prophet and saying, I need you to show me how to have what you have because clearly I'm missing something.

And Jesus says, Okay, let's go through the list.

And the guy's like, I've done it.

It's not working.

And Jesus says, All right, here's what I want you to do.

He's calling this man to be his disciple.

It's the same thing he does with the fisherman.

He says, Drop your nets, follow me.

Maybe it's easier to drop nets full of fish than it is to drop all the bags of money that you own.

But the the fishermen drop their nets and follow Jesus.

This man he can't drop his wealth.

And so he leaves sad.

He can't let it go.

If you can't let go of money, if it's if it's really hard to part with it, that's a symptom of greed.

We've got to own that.

So greed is one category.

We could say, okay, greed is it's one of the symptoms of money having too strong a hold of your heart, but it's not the only one.

What about this one?

Dishonesty.

Dishonesty.

Are you willing to do less than honest things in order to gain money or keep more of your money?

Proverbs 11:1 says, the Lord detests the use of dishonest scales, but he delights in accurate weights.

Proverbs 11:1

In that day and time, whenever you would buy something, it would always be weighed out, and there were merchants who would use faulty scales to cheat people into paying more money for what they purchased.

And God says he hates that.

Our world is full of dishonest tactics.

And man, it's it's crazy the number of ways that it affects.

In fact, many of us, I'm sure, in our jobs, we've seen things even in the companies that we work for, and we're like, this isn't right, this isn't honest, and it bothers us.

Before I worked here, this is a long time ago because I've been here for like 19 years, but before I worked here, I worked out of college at this marketing company in Kansas City, Missouri.

And my biggest clients were banks.

I had a couple of banks, this one bank in particular.

This this bank basically, I worked off commission, and when this bank did business with me, it like it was my month.

So I was very grateful for the client.

But as I started working with this bank and began to understand what we were actually doing, I my conscience was just messed up.

Because this bank, what they did was they wanted to get people to open checking accounts.

This is a long time ago.

And so they would send these mailers out and they would they would offer you$100 to open up a checking account.

You open a checking account, they put$100 in your account.

And what I didn't realize is that they were targeting people who were low income and people who had bad financial history.

They were paying for lists, knowing that those were the people most likely to jump at$100, and they made a fortune off non-sufficient fund fees.

So when people overdraw and they charge you a fee to cover that, a lot of that's gone away, but years ago that was a big deal.

Sometimes it'd be like$20 for an NSF fee.

And they were making millions of dollars off that.

So basically we were we were marketing to people trying to entice them to fail so that we could profit off of that.

And when I learned that, I mean, it was like I I can't I can't do this.

Like I can't bothered me so much.

My my wife used to work as a teacher for a very prominent Christian school.

And she was pressured by administration and forced, it wasn't even her choice, to change the grades of certain students.

And when we when she left that job, she made that all very clear in her exit interview that it was wrong.

And guess what the factor was in the students whose grades she was forced to change?

Money.

How wealthy the students were.

You're like, what school was it?

I won't tell you.

Um but yeah, it was it was heartbreaking.

Because that's supposed that's a Christian school.

Churches, pastors, oh my gosh, the amount of dishonesty that happens.

In fact, there's this big, there's a there's a trend.

Um I'm just gonna share this because like us bothers me so much.

There was a really well-known pastor, and you're again, who is it?

I'm not gonna tell you.

Super well-known, super popular guy.

And years ago there was some controversy because sometimes really successful pastors, you know, they they live very interesting lifestyles, and the clothing is really, really expensive.

This is from Dick Sporting Goods, just want you to know.

Um wear really expensive clothes, and they drive really expensive cars, have really nice houses.

And again, there's nothing wrong with having nice clothes.

There is nothing wrong with wealth.

Wealth is not wrong.

But if you go about it dishonestly, it is.

And so this guy had come under some fire because he lived in this huge house, and so he stood on stage, and he's like, Yeah, you know, people have been talking about my house and all this kind of stuff, and he said, you know what bothers me is that I don't even use my church salary for that.

That all comes from my book sales.

And everyone kind of goes, okay, well, yeah, this guy writes books and his books blow up and they're really successful.

So yeah, book book sales do whatever you want with it.

But here's what came out later is what no one was told was that the church as an organization purchased his books.

So he would write a book, and the church, check this out, so crazy.

Oh my gosh, this has to make God so mad.

Um so, like, imagine you imagine this scenario.

You give money to his hands to do what you trust us, to to pay the right staff people and to start ministries and do outreach and all this kind of stuff.

And then we use the money that you've given to buy my book in bulk.

And I take that check and I go buy whatever I want.

Um, and then we encourage you to buy the book in our bookstore.

Like, hey guys, buy the pastor's book.

You already bought the book, you just didn't know you bought the book.

And then the church would sell the book to those same people who already bought the book the first time.

Does that, I mean, Jesus would turn some tables, am I right?

But the way it was put out there was like, guys, I don't even use my church money for I that's my book money.

And then that came out, and I guess I still writing books, but I don't get it.

It's dishonest.

One more.

This might convict more of us than the book writing thing, because not many of us have probably written books, but maybe.

Um Jesus was once asked in uh in Mark chapter 12.

Mark 12 · chapter mention

Pharisees came to Jesus to trap him.

He says, Teacher, we know how honest you are.

You're impartial, you don't play favorites, you teach the way of God truthfully.

Now tell us, is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

Should we pay them or shouldn't we?

And Jesus saw through their hypocrisy and said, Why are you trying to trap me?

Show me a Roman coin and I'll tell you.

When they handed it to him, he asked, Whose picture and title are stamped on it?

Caesar's, they replied, well then Jesus said, Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what belongs to God.

And his reply completely amazed them.

In other words, Jesus says, Pay your taxes.

And be honest on your taxes.

Now listen.

Claim every single legal exemption that you possibly can.

Take advantage of all of those things.

But never lie on your tax returns.

Don't like hide money and pretend, oh my gosh.

Don't do that.

That's dishonest.

And if if you're tempted to, that's just a sign that maybe money has a hold.

And by the way, if it does, you've grown up in America.

How are you supposed to grow up in this culture and not have money be a problem?

Like, be honest.

Okay, so dishonesty, that's a sign of greed.

How about this one?

A couple more real quick.

Identity.

Having your identity be wrapped up in wealth.

It's funny, we live in a we live in a nice neighborhood.

Meg and I.

It's like our third, fourth house, and we've been blessed that don't worry, it's it's my book money that is that's where it comes from.

Um, it was uh it was houses that we sold at the right time, and Bitcoin helped, and that was it.

Uh but we live in this nice neighborhood, but our neighborhood's divided by a roundabout.

Some of you are like, I'm gonna try to figure out which Cherokee County neighborhood this is.

Some of you know.

And we live on what is referred to not by us, but by people in the neighborhood as the poor side of the roundabout.

And it is it is interesting because on our side of the roundabout, the houses are nice.

They're, I mean, it's we are so blessed to live where we live, and there's a neighborhood pool.

There's actually two neighborhood pools, it's a huge neighborhood.

So the pool on our side of the neighborhood, it's nice.

It's nice, it's a pool.

But the other side of the neighborhood, it's like that is a nice pool.

That's got a water slide.

And our kids are always like, oh, are we going to the pool on our side of the neighborhood?

You may have grown up on the wrong side of the tracks.

My children are growing up on the wrong side of the roundabout.

Like, pray for them.

It's gonna be really hard for some, they're really suffering.

Um, but we we hear that talked about.

The other side of the neighborhood, the houses are just, I mean, so much bigger, but it's actually a thing where I live, there's this whole attitude, and you'll hear it talked about by oh, you live on that, oh, you live on the other side of the roundabout.

It's like, yeah, I do.

So why don't you get off your golf cart and just relax, okay?

No, I'm not bitter.

I I take long walks and I go to the other side of the roundabout, and when I do, I feel like am I gonna be in trouble for is someone gonna stop me and say, get back over there where you belong?

It's just very easy for people's identity to be wrapped up in their wealth.

And so you you live in a certain sized house, you have a certain income, you drive a certain car, and it's like, this is me.

And this is what I want to present to the world is who I am.

And oh, if your identity gets wrapped up in in money, that's a huge sign.

Money's got too strong a hold on your heart.

Two more, really fast.

These are connected trust and worry.

Trust and worry.

In Luke 12, someone comes to Jesus and they call from the crowd, Teacher, please tell my brother to divide our father's estate with me.

And Jesus replied, Friend, who made me a judge over you to decide such things as that?

Jesus is like, I'm not your financial advisor.

And then he said, All right, beware.

Guard against every kind of greed.

Life is not measured by how much you own.

And then he told him a story.

A rich man had a fertile farm that produced fine crops.

He said to himself, What should I do?

I don't have room for all my crops.

Then he said, I know.

I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones.

And then I'll have room enough to store all my wheat and other goods, and I'll sit back and say to myself, My friend, you've stored enough away for years to come.

Now take it easy, eat, drink, and be merry.

But God said to him, You fool.

You will die this very night.

And then who will get everything you work for?

Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth and not have a rich relationship with God.

This man put his faith and his trust in what he had.

He thought, Man, I got so much, I'm good.

That's not how life works.

Don't put your trust in wealth.

Proverbs 23, 5 says, in the blink of an eye, wealth disappears, for it will sprout wings and fly away like an eagle.

Some of us have experienced that.

That one stings a little bit.

Don't put your trust in money.

If your trust is in your wealth, if if you feel secure because of what's in your bank account or your 401k or whatever, or even your future plans of wealth, you're like, I know I'm gonna hit it big.

And this, if that's your trust, that's not that's not good.

And honestly, I've I've been there.

That's the one I struggled with the most.

Because I joked about this a few times and I'm working through it, but like I used to be a Bitcoin guy, and now I'm not.

And uh I was so obsessed with that for a while that I would pull out my phone, I would check it every day, like multiple times a day.

Just I had an app.

And it got to the point where you know how your phone predicts what apps you use the most?

If I typed in the letter B, first was Bitcoin, second was Bible.

Yeah, okay, judge me all you want, all right?

Fine.

I'm standing, I'm admitting it.

No one found, no.

No, it was it was really hard because it was the first time in my life that I felt successful financially because I had invested in something and it was growing, but I became obsessed with it.

And I rode that roller coaster and it was not, my blood pressure was not friends with Bitcoin.

And uh and honestly, it surprised me how much of a hold, how quickly of a hold, that that had on me.

It was it revealed parts of me I did not like, and I had to wrestle with that.

It's easy to put your trust in money, especially if you have more than you thought you would have one day, and some of us are in that position where maybe right now you have more than you ever thought you would have, and it's easy to go, wow, thank you, God, but eventually you stop saying thank you, God, and you you start doing everything you can to grow that and hang on to that.

And oh, that's if your trust is in money, that's a sign that money has a hold on you.

The last one we're gonna go through this quick because I'm looking at the clock.

Okay.

He said, go as long as I want.

That's what that guy in the front row said.

So we're gonna honor him.

Okay.

Connected to trust is also worry.

If you find yourself worrying about money all the time, that's a sign that money has too great a hold on your heart.

So in Luke 12, it says, then turning to his disciples, Jesus said, This is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life, whether you have enough food to eat or enough clothes to wear, for life is more than food, your body's more than clothing.

Look at the ravens, they don't plant or harvest or store food in barns.

God feeds them.

You're far more valuable to him than any birds.

Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?

And if worry can't accomplish a little thing like that, what's the use of worrying over bigger things?

Look at the lilies and how they grow.

They don't work or make their clothing, yet Solomon, who is the wealthiest king in Israel's history, maybe the history of the world, it says, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are.

And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you.

Why do you have so little faith?

Don't be concerned about what to eat and what to drink.

Don't worry about such things.

These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers all over the world.

Is that not true?

These kinds of thoughts, materialism, money, dominate the thoughts of the world.

But your father already knows your needs.

Seek the kingdom of God and above all else, seek it above everything, and he will give you everything you need.

Don't be afraid, little flock.

For it gives your father great happiness to give you the kingdom.

Sell your possessions, give to those in need.

This will store up treasure for you in heaven, and your possessions and the uh the purses of heaven never get old or develop holes.

That's an interesting thought.

Your treasure will be safe, no thief can steal it, no moth can destroy it.

Wherever your treasure is, there, the desires of your heart will also be.

Okay.

So these are just a few of the symptoms.

Worry and trust.

If you're worried about money all the time, if you're trusting in your money, if you're dishonest or willing to be dishonest, even just a little bit to have more, to get more, if you can't let it go, right?

If you get your identity from it, if you're obsessed with it, just longing for more, those are signs.

Don't feel bad, but repent, make changes, because that's a sign that money has a hold on your heart.

So if those are the if those are the symptoms, what are the remedies?

And this is fast.

We don't have to spend a lot of time on this, because they're pretty straightforward.

Number one, honor God.

That's kind of where we we ended last week.

Honor God.

The most amazing thing about setting money aside for God's purposes, this is something that's been part of my life, my entire life, is that more than anything else, even when I have gotten off track and I'm worried too much about money and I'm panicked because of.

Did I mention I have four kids and they all need braces?

I think I said that last week.

Like, anytime those thoughts start going through my head, when when I give, and we do we do it like clockwork, it's taught me every month I need a reminder, God is my provider.

Everything I have came from him.

I set a portion aside, and it's taught me really two primary things.

He blesses me.

I I don't I'm not destitute because I I did without that small percent.

But it's also taught me I don't need, I don't need everything I have.

Like we are so wealthy.

You might be like, I'm not wealthy.

If you live in this country, by definition, you are compared to the rest of the world for the most part.

And really, like, it's true.

I mean, it's actually humbling if you there's whole websites dedicated to this.

You can just put in where you live, your income, and here's where you are in the in the world, and it's it's humbling where we're at.

But but we don't need a hundred percent to live.

We think we do, we think we need like 130% to live.

But giving on a monthly basis, honoring God, whatever you put that to, that that has taught me over the years.

Wait, I don't need everything that I have.

God's actually given me more than I need, not less.

And you reorient your finances around that, and it protects you from being greedy because you're able to do without.

You're able to let go.

You do it all the time.

That's a huge one.

So honor God.

This one's pretty simple, be honest.

Like that's the remedy for dishonesty.

Be honest about your money, pay your taxes.

Like, really pay your taxes.

And and when you feel yourself ever tempted to twist the truth, to lie in any way, you know, if you're if you got a commission-based job and you can figure out a way to sort of finagle the numbers in some way to give you a little bit more, don't do that.

Like, don't exaggerate, don't minimize, just be honest.

The Lord sees that and it it honors it honors him when we're honest and he honors us, all right?

Trust in God, not money.

That's the next one, pretty basic.

Like, don't do not trust in in money.

That scripture about money like growing wings and flying away.

Show of hands, who's experienced that in life?

Who's been like, wow, that went fast?

You know what I mean?

But it's amazing how we'll still put our trust in it.

How many of us, and you don't need to raise your hands for this one, how many of us have more today than we ever thought we had, we'd have?

Like if our 20-year ago self could look at us and be like, wow, you have that, and you're stressed about money?

What is wrong with you?

It's like, well, I just spent more.

But don't put your trust in.

Trust in God.

He's your provider, he loves you, he takes care of you.

This is huge.

Be grateful and content.

Be grateful and content.

Thank God every day for what you have.

Even if you think it's not enough, thank him for what you have, because I promise you there's people that have a lot less.

1 Timothy 6, 6 through 8 says, true godliness with contentment itself is great wealth.

After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world.

We can't take anything with us when we leave it.

So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content.

If we have food and clothing, let us be content.

Notice what it doesn't say if we have a big 401k.

You know, if you have an emergency fund, if you have stocks, if you have you know, it says, if you have enough food and clothing, be content.

That's humbling.

We're told in Proverbs chapter 30, verse 8, first, God help me never tell a lie.

Proverbs 30:8

Second, give me neither poverty nor riches.

Give me just enough to satisfy my needs.

That is a bold prayer.

How many of us would be willing to pray that?

God, don't give me too little.

Also, Lord, not too much.

Just enough.

That's godliness.

Man, you imagine how free we would be emotionally, stress-wise, if we were truly content with just having enough.

And I'm not accusing you, I'm sure many of us are.

But as a culture, we're definitely not like that.

Like, Lord, just give me enough.

That's all I need.

And last one, the worship team, you guys can make your way up.

Be generous.

Just be generous.

If you can meet someone else's need, pray about it.

Don't be guilted into that.

But if you can meet someone else's need and you do it, be excited about that.

Jesus says in Luke chapter 6, and it's funny, sometimes this is used in the context of people giving to church.

Luke 6 · chapter mention

This isn't talking about giving to your church.

This is talking about giving to people in need.

And Jesus says, if you love only those who love you, why should you get any credit for that?

Even sinners love those who love them.

And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit?

Even sinners do that much.

And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit for that?

Even sinners will lend to other sinners for a full return.

But Jesus says, I say, love your enemies, do good to them.

Lend to them without expecting to be repaid, then your reward from heaven will be very great.

You'll truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked.

You must be compassionate, just as your father is compassionate.

Don't judge others and you'll not be judged.

Don't condemn others, or it will come back against you.

Forgive others and you will be forgiven.

Give and you will receive.

Your gift will return to you in full, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over and poured into your lap.

The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.

Be generous.

Pray and ask God for opportunities to help someone who has less than you.

And do it with joy.

Because you're able to, and God honors that.

Alright, so all that said, we covered a lot of ground the last two weeks.

Money problems.

Not having enough money, but ultimately the real money problem is money having too great a hold on your heart.

So if any of those symptoms we talked about, if if you're be grateful anytime the Lord shows you something that requires some work.

Because he loves you and he's patient with you.

So if any of that stuff, you're like, man, I do kind of struggle with that, don't walk out of here with a heavy burden on you.

Walk out of here grateful that the Lord showed you something and then, okay, what's the remedy?

And whatever that is, commit yourself to it this week.

Pray about it, talk about it with a friend so that you can have some accountability in your life.

Because if you can have the right relationship with money or it does not own you at all, that is a life that is truly blessed.

We're gonna wrap up with Lord's Supper.

And then we've got one person getting baptized.

We've got to stick around for that.

That's exciting.

Always.

Alright.

I was really impacted by this last week as we took Lord's Supper because here we are talking about money, which is the thing that we are taught and conditioned to believe provides for us.

But in reality, every dollar you have will be worthless to you one day.

Every single penny you have will be utterly worthless.

But who Jesus is and what Jesus gives to you, that will eternally be something you're grateful for.

And so as we take this meal, if you're new to church, we do this every Sunday.

You can go grab at the tables in the back, grab some bread, some juice.

This reminds us of what Jesus did for us.

He died on the cross for us.

He gave up his body as a sacrifice, he spilled his blood to cleanse us from our sin so that we would be forgiven and complete in God's eyes.

And this is a gift.

This is like never-ending provision.

That the sacrifice of Jesus is a constant, ever-flowing, ever-growing provision in your life.

And it provides you with a right relationship with God.

It provides you with peace in your heart to know that your sins have been taken care of, and there's nothing like this.

This is real provision.

And this is what we should put our hope in.

So, Jesus, we thank you so much for this bread.

We thank you for what it represents.

This is your body given up as a sacrifice.

You provide everything for us, not just the financial resources that we need, Lord.

You provide grace, you provide forgiveness, you provide mercy, you provide access into a relationship with you, and there's nothing greater than that.

We can never purchase that with any any amount of money on this earth, Lord.

We thank you.

Let's take the bread.

And Lord, this juice, we thank you for this.

This is your blood poured out, this cleanses us, pays the price for our sins, it washes away all our impurities.

And this is real provision.

Money could never buy this.

You could not be bought, Jesus.

Because you don't have to be, because you're generous and you give willingly and abundantly.

And you've given to us, and we thank you for this, Lord.

Let's drink the juice.