Healing From Life's Hurts // Healing from Financial Hardships

Also think we also thank our worship team for leading us in worship worship our God.

I gotta say, we're learning how to sing! We're learning how to worship the Lord through song.

I just wanna affirm that in your lives.

I I also I wanna celebrate some people in our church that are making Jesus know in our community in incredible ways.

Just recently, we had five teenagers start two Christian clubs at their public school.

I think I think we y'all just stand up, stand up, stand up, you Lucy, stand up, come on, stand up, alright?

Lucy! I want y'all to think about this.

You stand up.

I just want to impair you for a second, okay?

Lucy, alright?

You think about this, guys.

At her public school, you where do you go to school?

DSA, Public Safety Academy.

At Public Safety Academy, her, and then there was somebody else somebody else at Fairfield High School.

They saw a need, they took a step of faith, and now there's a gospel witness on the campus of Public Safety Academy and Fairfield High School.

So we honor you.

In fact, let's do this.

Can we just reach out an arm and just pray for her that God would use her?

Lord, we just pray right now.

Now, first of all, she'd be really embarrassed.

I know she is.

But I just pray, no, Lord, I just pray that you would work through her, you would work in Lucy in a mighty, powerful way, and the girls that are leading this Christian club.

I just pray that your spirit would be upon them.

I pray if there's any insecurity, if there's any doubt, if there's any reservation that they may have, I pray that your spirit would silence those voices and they would walk in boldness making you known.

I pray they would know that as a church we stand behind them and we are for them.

And I pray that their efforts would inspire the rest of us to make you known in mighty, powerful ways.

In in our world around us, and we ask these things in Jesus' name, and all of God's people said, Amen, amen.

You can sit down now.

You can sit down.

Let that inspire us to say what can God do to us.

And I also want to say whatever we can do as a church to help you.

We got you back, we're gonna help you give you Bibles, whatever that is, okay?

Well, let's get into the message this morning.

We're gonna be in the book of Proverbs this morning.

The book of Proverbs this morning.

And we're in a series entitled Healing from Life's Hurts.

Healing from Life's Hurts.

And today we're gonna talk about how do we heal from financial hardship.

How do we heal from financial hardship?

A few weeks ago, Angela and I, we were hanging out with some friends, and our friends have five kids.

Five kids.

In fact, five kids under the age of eight years old.

I think we have a picture of them.

Oh everybody's like, they're so cute.

They are cute.

And I also look at that picture and I'm like, I need a nap.

I need a nap just by looking at them.

And honestly, as they shared their story with us, I was just deeply touched.

And I wanted to share it with you all, and they gave me permission to do that.

These are some incredibly faith-filled people.

And a few years ago, they had some significant financial hardship.

Their oldest son, who's the little boy, cute little guy off to the right, he was diagnosed with brain cancer.

And hospital rooms became a normal thing for their life.

Overnight stays became a normal thing for their life.

And as you can imagine, if you've experienced this, you know, along with hospital stays comes very big expensive hospital bills.

And the bills mounted and the pressure mounted on top of the regular expenses of having a family that could fill up a 15-passenger van, right?

And they were just trying to survive.

And some of you are in the room, you you know what that's like.

I'm just trying to survive.

You open up your banking app, and your stomach just kind of tightens up a little bit.

You see the bill coming in the mail, and you think, how am I gonna pay for this?

The math just ain't mathing.

You lie awake at night, and the numbers are just running in your head.

Maybe you're there.

And this couple told us about their story of how they healed from financial hardship.

And it didn't click in the moment, but but days later I was thinking back to what they were sharing, and really what they were sharing is God's wisdom for finances from the book of Proverbs.

Now, the book of Proverbs is a book that's all about wisdom.

You go to Proverbs and we find financial wisdom.

If you in your life, if you need wisdom or you want wisdom, read the book of Proverbs.

Or better yet, if you know somebody else that needs wisdom, have them read the book of Proverbs.

You know anybody that needs wisdom?

Nobody.

Okay, we have just a couple of Kyle's got two hands up, okay?

Two here, right?

Proverbs is a book that's all about wisdom.

And when it comes to God's wisdom about finances, it's really like a load-bearing wall in your spiritual life.

I don't know if you guys have ever remodeled a home or remodeled something.

There are certain walls you can't take out.

You can't take out the load-bearing walls.

Because if you take out the load-bearing walls, bad things happen.

The structure's compromised.

Because the load-bearing wall is holding all these other things in place.

And when it comes to the Christian life, there are certain load-bearing truths.

If you get these right, they provide support and strength, and they hold other things in place.

And the reality is, is while all truth is true, not all truth holds equal weight.

While all truth is true, not all truth holds equal weight.

And embracing God's wisdom about finances is one of those load-bearing walls in our Christian life.

That if we get this right, it just sets things in place.

And God's wisdom about finances goes far beyond giving us we're gonna see today.

And I want to unpack this morning four decisions.

It's gonna be a different kind of message.

Usually we're pretty preachy.

We're gonna be a little teachy this morning.

We're gonna look at what the book of Proverbs says about how do we have financial wisdom and how do we heal from financial hardship?

And these are the same decisions that this couple, Ethan and Sammy, made that allow them to heal from financial hardships.

So if you're ready for it this morning, would you say amen?

All right, here's the first decision that you gotta make.

And some of y'all are allergic to this one.

Decision one, you gotta choose to work hard.

I'm just kidding, you're not allergic to it.

Choose to work hard.

Here's what scripture says in Proverbs chapter 12.

Proverbs 12 · chapter mention

This is God speaking.

It says in Proverbs 12, verse 11, it says, the one who, what's that word?

Proverbs 12:11

The one who the one who works his land will have plenty of food, but whoever chases fantasies lacks sense.

Something I really appreciate about the generation before me is by and large, they were hard workers.

My dad's dad, he owned a dairy queen in West Virginia.

Anybody ever been to West Virginia before?

Couple, a couple you guys have been to West Virginia.

Let me tell you, West Virginia, it is not California, okay?

They owned dairy queens in West Virginia, and they went from one dairy queen to owning five dairy queens.

And my dad growing up, he lived on the second floor of a dairy queen.

So what that meant is he could go downstairs anytime he wanted and get ice cream.

Which I say, what a life.

But also, being in a family business, living on the second floor of the Dairy Queen, they weren't just going down to get ice cream, they were going down as children to sweep the floors, take out the trash, wipe down the tables, and this was part of what was like ingrained into him as a small child.

You work hard.

Now it's interesting to me is sometimes I'll have business owners talk to me and they'll say, Pastor Nate, I just can't find people that will work hard.

It's like they don't show up half the time.

It's like when they show up, they come in late.

They'll be in their first week, and I'm like, where'd they go?

They're in the closet on their phone scrolling.

And God's wisdom for finances is that first of all, we choose to work hard.

And as men, men choose to work hard.

Can the ladies in the room say amen?

Amen.

Now you might say, Pastor Nate, Pastor Nate, you know, working.

I don't know about working.

The reason why I work and work right, the reason why, you know, that's the thing we gotta do is it's Adam and Eve's fault because in the curse of sin they sinned, so now we have to work.

I would say, brother, you need to study your Bible.

Because work is not a result of the curse of sin.

God actually designed work before sin even happened in the world.

So we were designed by God to work.

Look what Ecclesiastes says.

Ecclesiastes says this it says, Whatever your hand finds to do, whatever it is, whatever it is, do it with all your strength.

When Ethan and Sammy were faced with this couple, they were faced with bills and financial pressure.

Ethan didn't say, God, why is this happening to me?

He said, God, what's my next right step?

And he actually chose to get a different career.

And he chose to get a different job so it could provide for his family.

Sammy, as a stay-at-home mom, she discovered that she could be a stay-at-home mom and still refurbish antique furniture.

So she learned how to do that.

And what Sammy and Ethan chose to do is they chose to work hard.

Decision number one for God's financial wisdom is choose to work hard.

Decision number two, and I'm gonna warn you, this is a hard one.

Here it is.

Distinguish between wants and needs.

Better a little, better a little, Proverbs 15, with the fear of the Lord, then great treasure with turmoil.

Better a meal of vegetables.

Now I just want to apologize in advance for all my vegan friends in the room.

But a meal of vegetables does not sound the most appetizing to me.

In fact, there it does not make my mouth water at all.

A meal of vegetables.

Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened ox with hatred.

Hey, better to have some veggies than to have a tri-tip steak.

Better to have a tri-tip, better better have veggies where there's love than a tri-tip where there's drama.

That's what the text is saying.

That's what it's saying right here.

And here's what financial hardships forces us to distinguish what is something I need versus what is something that I want.

Now let me give the clarification of a need.

Here's the clarification, the definition of a need.

A need is something that you need to survive.

Something you need, that might be, bro, that actually might be a need, right?

You need to survive.

See, because what happened, what can happen, what can happen, what happened?

It's really easy for me to put things that are in the wants category.

Transferred over into the needs category.

For example, for example, for example, Apple has convinced me that my perfectly operating cell phone is not it's just not holding up anymore because the new one, it's got a little better camera.

So I need this better camera.

I need this new iPhone.

You know, I already have 10 subscriptions, but I really need this 11th subscription because Netflix and Hulu is not enough.

I need Disney Plus because I need to watch all the originals.

And what can happen, what can happen with financial stress is it usually doesn't come from like one big mass of things, but it comes from all these small things that build up over time.

So for example, I go on a trip with money I actually don't really have.

I buy a more night, a nicer car, I get a larger house, I spend extra money on Christmas and I just slide the card.

And before we know it, we have all of these things.

We have all of these things that we've gotten, and now we have this financial burden, not because of one big mass of things, although sometimes that happens, but often financial stress comes from small things that build up.

We buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't even like.

And what financial stress calls us to do is to say, okay, what's a want, what's a need, and then allows us to say, is it possible that I could simplify some things?

So let me show you an example of simplification, okay?

Here's some ways you can simplify it just to kind of show you how much things are.

A$7 coffee every day.

$7 coffee.

Now, how many of y'all love coffee?

Come on, let's go.

Coffee, coffee, let's go.

A$7 coffee every weekday is about$1,800 a year.

A$600 car payment,$7,200 a year.

I just heard a huh over here, right?

Sorry, brother.

Eating lunch out at$15 a day for workdays can be over$3,500 a year.

These three places alone are over$12,000 a year.

And there's nothing wrong with going out to lunch.

There's nothing wrong with having a nice car.

There's nothing wrong with getting coffee.

There's nothing wrong with having stuff.

But the challenge is when we have financial stress, is we have to simplify and say what's a need, what's a want.

The text shows us in Proverbs that it's better to have a little, it's better to have some vegetables.

Better to have that than to have a tri-tip with a bunch of drama and a bunch of hatred going on.

Because the most important things in life you cannot buy.

You can't buy your relationship with God.

You can't buy peace of mind.

You can't buy healthy relationships with people.

And when we learn to say, okay, these are what's most important in my life, these other things I like.

I would like to have more of them, but this is what's most important.

It allows us to simplify and allows us to heal from financial hardship.

Decision number one.

Decision number one, we choose to work hard.

Decision number two, distinguish between want and then decision number three.

Don't put it up yet, guys.

Decision number three, I want y'all to brace yourselves.

Decision number three is to learn to resist debt.

Learn to resist debt.

Proverbs chapter 22, it says this the rich rule over the poor, the rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.

Proverbs 22 · chapter mention

Now I understand.

Sometimes there are certain situations that are out of your control.

I get that.

And there's nothing you can do about those.

But we also know that one of the biggest financial stressors in our lives is having debt.

I don't need to tell you guys that.

Sometimes we even buy things we can't afford because these things promise happiness, but they actually leave us more stressed out because we bought them with money we don't have.

And then we're living in debt.

Ethan and Sammy, they got focused on paying off their debt because they realized that they couldn't borrow their way out of their financial hardship.

It's easy to be like, I'm in financial hardship.

Let me get, let me do this, let me do this, let me slide this car, let me do, but you can't borrow your way out of financial hardship.

And can I say, as a church, we want to help you get out of debt.

Like as a church, we are passionate to help you in this area.

Pastor Cody was sharing how we have our group semester getting started today, this week.

And this Wednesday, we have Financial Peace University, which is a group that's all about how do you get out of debt.

And Dan Dow.

Dan, can you raise up your hand?

Dan is yeah, let's clap for Dan.

Dan's awesome.

Dan is gonna be leading that group.

And if you'd get in that group, he'll give you resources and tools and tremendous mentorship from Dan.

He's so good at all this stuff to help you get out of debt.

What is God's wisdom for your finances?

Resist debt.

Cut up the credit card, get rid of the temptation.

Decision one, we choose to work hard.

Decision two, we distinguish between our wants and our needs.

Decision three, we resist debt.

Then number four, and this one's ironic.

Because on the surface, it doesn't make any sense to me.

Just being honest.

You ever read something in scripture and you're like, that doesn't make any sense to me.

You ever read something where in your mind you kind of like argue with the Bible a little bit?

Like, are you sure God?

I don't know.

This is one of those.

Here's the fourth decision.

You choose to give to God first.

You choose to give to God first.

Now I'm like, that don't make any sense.

Look what scripture says in Proverbs 3.

It says, honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first produce of your entire harvest.

Then your barns will be completely filled.

And your vats will overflow with new wine.

So God tells me, this is God's wisdom.

God tells me what I'm supposed to do.

I'm supposed to honor the Lord first with my finances, give to him first, then he's gonna take care of all this stuff.

Honor him first, and then and then after honor him first, then I take care of the Wi-Fi, then I take care of this stuff over here, then I take I do this first.

Now here's what we do.

We take care of all of this stuff first, and if there's any leftovers for God, which a lot of times there's not, then we give to God.

Here's what What was so remarkable to me about Ethan and Sammy's story.

It wasn't surprising to me that they worked hard.

Because a lot of people work hard.

It wasn't surprising to me that they chose to resist dad and they focused on getting rid of their debt.

That didn't surprise me at all.

A lot of people do that.

What surprised me and remember guys, a lot of y'all see me as a pastor.

I'm a human before I'm a pastor.

Okay?

I like putting pants on just like y'all do.

So I'm listening to their story.

What surprised me is that they didn't stop giving in the midst of their financial hardship.

And I'm listening to them and I'm like you guys did what?

They kept using this phrase.

We're partnering with God.

We're partnering with God.

We're partnering with God on this.

We're partnering with God on this.

And they chose that they were still going to tithe even in their hardship.

Now here's what tithing is.

Sometimes people get confused about tithing.

Tithing is giving 10% of my income.

So if I were to give$10 or$15, that's not a tithe.

The tithe is giving 10%.

And when I tithe, what it does is it teaches my heart that God really is first place in my life.

When I tithe, it breaks my fear and builds my faith because I'm saying, I'm not going to let my fear of not having enough control me.

I'm still going to have faith in God.

When I tithe, it teaches me, it teaches me that God is the provider, and I'm trusting God by giving this to Him.

Tithing.

It breaks our fear, it builds our faith.

What I'm going to ask the ushers to do this one, I'm going to ask them to do something a little bit different, is I'm going to ask them to give out a card actually similar to what we did last week.

And here's all this card is.

If God says that one of the way that we use this financial wisdom is learning to give, I think it would be helpful if we could learn, if we'll just take a moment and just self-identify.

You can pass them out, uh Joe, others, if you could, if you could pass them out.

It's learning to first of all just identify where are we at in our giving.

Like where are we at?

Here's the thing.

This is this is between you and God.

Nobody's putting their name on anything.

You don't have to look, don't look at the person next to you.

Don't write your name on this.

Here it is.

For you just to be honest and say, hey, this is where I'm at.

This isn't judgment.

This isn't condemnation.

This is just where I am.

And then I'm going to invite you to say, hey, I want to take a step and learn to give.

Because giving is powerful.

I want to give you an example of how when Ethan stepped away from his career and chose a new career, he stepped into a sales role and he started at the very bottom.

What his company does is his company provides tickets for events, tickets for organizations.

And one day he decided, I'm going to randomly send an email to this company.

He just found a random email address on a website.

So he randomly sent an email to this person.

That person happened to know and work in the same area where the person that makes decisions for ticketing, they work near them.

So they randomly forward the email to that person.

That person had randomly been in a meeting just a couple days earlier with his constituents that said, oh, we actually need some type of a ticket uh ticket sales thing, the very same thing that Ethan, his company, did.

That company said we need somebody to do this.

But unfortunately, they did not go with Ethan.

Ethan thought he was gonna get this deal.

Ethan thought things were gonna be a lot better.

He didn't get it.

But randomly, the company that did get it, that person didn't show up.

So Ethan's now on deck.

This company, you may have heard of them.

They're a really small mom and pop company.

Real small, real little, don't have very many people go through there every year.

It's called Six Flags.

Yeah, that one?

Like the only, like the one that and Six Flags, Six Flags chose Ethan and made a deal with Ethan and his yearly salary, get this, his yearly salary quadrupled.

That is times four.

That that'll change that'll change your lifestyle a little bit.

That'll that'll change some things a little bit.

And the reason why I'm inviting you this morning to take a step in your giving, maybe that's like I need to give for the first time.

Maybe something, this is what I used to do, but I need to re-engage with this.

The reason why I'm asking you to do this is because it's God's plan for our finances, but God also promises to bless those people that give.

Look what 2 Corinthians 9 says.

It says, the person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously.

I think what can happen in churches like ours and with pastors like me is we can be so fearful that we'll lean into the prosperity gospel that we don't take God at his word.

That God promises that he will bless those people that give, that he will care for those people that give.

I'm not saying your salary is gonna be quadrupled, but I'm saying that God's gonna care for you and God's gonna bless you.

The picture here, and this is specifically about financial giving in context, it's a farm ring, farming illustration.

So it'd be like, it'd be like this, it'd be like a farmer that didn't sow any seed in their field, and they go out and harvest and they look around and they're like, how come nothing's growing?

What's wrong with a soil?

No, farmers don't do that.

You know, if you what what you sow, you reap.

If you sow sparingly, you'll reap sparingly.

If you'll sow generously, you'll reap generously.

I uh I learned a lot about this as a as a small child.

Because when uh when I was a small child, I my parents told me you you give 10%.

They modeled it for me, but they also told me you give in 10%.

So I get money for Christmas from grandparents.

You know the whole thing about being a cheerful giver?

Nathan, they didn't call me Nate, they called me Nathan, Nathan, 10%.

10%.

Ann, and and and my parents were watching.

They made sure when the plate was passed, we did the passing plates thing, they made sure 10% went in there.

I was taught you give.

But when I became a teenager, I actually owned this for myself.

And as a teenager, I said, This is something I'm actually doing for me.

Like I actually believe in this, like this is what the Bible says.

So I learned not just to tithe, but sometimes I would feel led, like something in me would say, give a little extra.

We'd have a special speaker come through, and I'd I'd give a little extra to the offering that week, or I'd feel a little something in me.

Now I know that was the Holy Spirit.

But then I'm like, it just feels I just so I would just do it.

And I would learn that as I would give, it's like God would bless me.

So I would like the next Saturday, I'd go out and I'd I'd mow yards.

I don't know if any of you guys ever did that at mow yards, and I'd go knock on people's doors, say, hey, I'll mow your yard for this.

And I would do incredibly well.

I mean, I'd go out for three or four hours and I'd come home with$140 in my pocket.

Now at 14 years old in 2003, that's big ballin.

That's big ballin.

Yep.

And I was learning, I was learning that as I gave, as I gave, as I opened my hands, that now my hands were open to receive.

You see, the world that we live in, this is what we're taught to do.

Hold on to everything because it's gonna run out.

Because you don't know if you'll ever have enough.

And when we hold on to everything, what we don't realize is our hands are also closed where we can't receive anything.

But when we open our hands to give, our hands are also opened to receive.

I'm still learning this in my life.

Uh about a month ago, I had something happen to me that never hardly ever happens to me.

Is somebody gave me$200.

$200.

It just so happened, me and Angela, we were going on our a trip for my sister's wedding in Hawaii.

If you've been to Hawaii, you know that place ain't cheap.

I'm like,$200?

This is really gonna help.

Like, praise the Lord.

Thank you, God, you're providing.

I told Angela, she said, why don't we give half of it?

So half of it.

I said, last time I checked a tithe, ain't half of it.

She said, you give a hundred dollars, that's a hundred more dollars than you had before.

You're not wrong.

So I get cheerfully.

And we went on that trip, and two meals were unexpectedly paid for.

Those meals would have been worth around$200.

Think about this.

I gave a hundred, and God said, that's cute.

There's two hundred.

And while the motivation for us to give is not to get, the reality is we cannot outgive God.

You can't outgive God.

God's math is different than our math.

It's different than our math.

And here's what we have to choose to do.

Here's what we have to choose to do.

We have to choose to say, God, I'm gonna live open-handed and I'm gonna choose to give.

We're gonna do what we did last week in service.

It's it's been awesome to see God's people responding to God's truth.

I'm gonna invite you to take out your cards and I'm gonna invite you to respond.

And a very similar way in the 845 service did this.

I'm gonna invite you to say, my next step in giving, whatever that looks like, I'm gonna invite you.

I'm gonna invite you to take your card and just drop it in this white box.

And this isn't about being showy.

This isn't about doing this so people will see you.

This is what this is about.

This is about me saying, God, I just want to choose to trust you with my finances.

I'm gonna invite the worship team to come up.