More | Week 5

They're doing pretty well. The rest of you party too hard on Cinco de Mayo. What's going on? It's great to be here. Great to be here. 11:30 service. Yeah. Hey. You know what's what's what's really weird is having, roommates that are good friends.

I mean, have you had roommates before? You know, but it's weird is when you get friends to be your roommates,

you think it's gonna be the greatest thing ever, but when it doesn't go right, it becomes the most awkward thing ever. Doesn't it? It's like, well, wait, we're we're we're friends, but now I wanna kill you in your sleep, and you're just not sure. I remember back when I

was engaged to be married, my father-in-law came to me because you know, we were looking around at these apartments, and he goes, hey, I I have a proposition for you. I got a proposal here. He goes, I have a house that I rent,

and I'm willing to let you live in it for free from now till you get married, which is five months, and you could save up more money for your honeymoon. Matter of fact, if you wanna get a couple buddies and charge them a little bit, maybe give them a great deal so they can save money, but you make a little more money, you can save the money, and then after you're married, I'll rent the house to you guys for the same price that the apartments are renting for. So you'll get a house for apartment rent. He goes, that's a great deal. He goes, there's only one thing I need you to do. And what about you? He goes, you need to clean the house out. And I go, well, how is that such a big deal? He goes, well, I just had to evict the last tenants,

and it got to the point where they had to send marshals over there. Like they waited till the very last legal and they ended up pool party. They were then there for months and months and months, not paying for any of their utilities, nothing. And I mean, this thing was hideous.

Matter of fact, I thought I got a good deal till I walked in, then I thought maybe I got swindled by my future father-in-law. There was a turkey carcass in the middle of the kitchen floor that was from, like, Thanksgiving, and this was, like, March. It was

disgusting. So I spent like a week and a half cleaning this thing out. It took forever. It was nonstop,

every day, tons of work. Finally got it put together, and in that process, I had two of my friends that would like to have a place, and then what they were thinking they'd do is they'd save up enough money, and at the end, they'd have some money saved, and maybe they could go be roommates and go go get an apartment. So it was like a great deal, and I told them I'll I'll let you live here for just like a $100 a month. That's it. And and and it was a great deal. No utilities, nothing. So so they're excited. They move in,

and and immediately started eating all my food. It seemed like I'm the only one that went to the grocery store, but I I'm gonna be cool about that. But the other thing that was weird is my my father-in-law say, good business practices. Get their first month's rent

when they come in. So I said, hey, you got your $100. And they immediately had all the reasons why, hey, come in. I'm good for it. You gotta spot me, dude. I'll it in a few weeks. I'll get it later. And I was dumb enough to say, okay. So we go through that first month, no $100. Now I go on and go, guys, me $200.

And they both have their reasonings why, and they couldn't give it to me, they couldn't do that. Think about it. The crazy thing is their excuses, they it's like it's so weird to watch somebody be so irresponsible, but talk to you like they're trying so hard to be too adult.

They they they they think what they're saying is so profoundly

deep, like, well, I got my tax thing coming, I'll hook you up then, but right now I gotta do this, and I got that, and they have all their reasons. So finally, the third month came, and I'm just about done. They owe me $300 now. So so I walk into my one roommate's room, and he's playing his guitar.

But it's not the guitar he had the day before. It is a brand new, really expensive guitar.

It's probably a year's worth of what I've asked him to pay me for rent that he just couldn't pay me. And I go, hey, Neil, you got a new guitar? He goes, oh, yeah, man. This thing is awesome. When I lead work and he's starting to describe how awesome it is, and I watched his face as his brain caught up with his mouth.

And he realized he just told the guy he owes $300 to that he just spent a lot of money without giving his friend and landlord the money that we agreed to. And he looks at me. He's like,

yeah. But, you know, I I had to do it. This was a business expense. It was a it was a had. And he goes through all of the reasons why why you'd added us, so you don't know $300. And he goes, no. And I go,

I just walked out. I was so mad. As I walk out, my other roommate shows up, and he's got like 17 bags of clothes from the mall.

And he had told me he'd get me once he gets his tax refund. And I knew he'd got it and he had cashed it. And he came with all these clothes. He goes in, go, did buy another clothes? Yeah, did. And I go, so you got your tax refund? Yes. I go, so you have my $300? He goes, no. No, I don't have it.

I'm like, well, why did you go shopping? And he and he got so serious. He thought this was responsible.

He goes, well well, Bill, I I mean, I gotta be an adult here. And I and I knew that I I got this job, so I had to get some clothes. Of all the clothes he bought, there was one pair of khakis and a polo shirt. That was it. And everything else was and he goes, but and before I even agreed to move in with you, I had already budgeted what I was gonna do with the tax refund, and clothes was number one. And so I had clothes, then this, and then you, and the problem is this thing and the clothes, they end up costing more than I thought, so I ran out of money, so I can't pay you. That's totally responsible of me. You were third on my list of my budget.

I'm like, shelter is number three on your budget. And I'm like, okay, well then I got a new budget plan. Get another roommate. And I go, you're out of here. And he didn't believe me. He's like, whatever. And he had to leave, and he left.

So after he left, I took all of his stuff and put it on the front lawn with a note. I wasn't kidding. Probably shouldn't have turned the sprinklers on, but no, no, I'm just kidding. But but but I left this note there for him and

to see, and then I turned around, I go, alright, I took care of that. Now I'm gonna go take care of Guitar Hero in there. And so I start walking in, ready to go have this conversation with him. I walk in and right there on the counter, magically and mysteriously $300 had appeared.

And he found $300. I mean, must have went through the couch cushions because it was like some 20, some dollar bills, some quarters, some nickels, even some pennies, and a little bit of belly button lint. You know? It's like, but he found $300, all of a sudden paid me. And what's funny is he only did it out of fear

and guilt. The other guy would never do it, and both of them, one of the number one excuses they gave me when I was trying to get him is like, hey, we know you're not having to pay your dad, your father-in-law, So why should we have to pay you? You don't need our money. Why should I have to give it to you?

They thought that was a good excuse. And the reason I tell you this story is just to let you know what a hard life I've had because I've had terrible friends. No. No. No. The reason is is I often think about that story and I think, I wonder how often

God feels like I did in that situation.

And how often we look like they did when it comes to listening to God with what he asked us to do. And especially when it comes to money. When it comes to money.

And I I I cleaned the house. I had the house. I took care of the groceries. I let them eat my food. All I wanted was this little bit, and they acted like that was too much to expect. They had all their sob stories, all their reasons why they they didn't have to do that. And then their final thing was to blame it on me, like, why would you ask this of me when you don't need it?

And I think that we do the same thing when it comes to what we do with our money.

That God says, hey, here's what I want you to do. This is gonna lead to the best way to live. This is going to be the best for you. And we start adulting in a very immature way, and we have all of our reasons why we don't have to listen to God on this. And then when that doesn't work, we end up getting frustrated,

and then when we get told we should do this, we get angry like they did. And so like I'm talking about, today we're in the series on more. And we've been looking at this story of Solomon, who spent a whole chunk of his life trying to find out what would bring real satisfaction to our lives.

And he chased after everything under the sun. And when he says that, it means everything in this world that you can try to fill your life with to find satisfaction. And basically, he went away from what his father David had told him. Fear God, worship God first,

and then go after things. But he decided, I'm gonna go find out what would really provide,

fulfill that longing that we all have for more. We all have this longing for more in our heart. The problem is the more is not more of this stuff of this world. Matter of fact, the more and more we run after this stuff, the less and less we get out of it. What he built into us, it says in chapter three of Ecclesiastes,

was a longing for eternity. Meaning a longing for him. A longing to have a relationship with the creator who made us and to put our lives into stuff that transcends and goes beyond this space time continuum we're in right now.

And he goes, if you run after all these other things, you're never gonna get there. And it's what's interesting is we've been looking at this list, he wrote this, he did this almost three thousand years ago,

and it's the exact same things we all still try to fill our lives with to find significance in what we run after. And they're not bad things, They are gifts from God kind. He keeps saying enjoy the gift God gave you. Enjoy the gift God gave you. Pleasure, having fun, feeling good, that's a gift from God, but it's not God.

And then he says, then we looked at work. Work is a gift from God, but it's not God. And then last week we looked at politics and activism and trying to change our world that way. And God says, hey, government is a gift for me and we should be involved in it, but that's not God.

And then now we're gonna look back at money. And he says, money is a gift I've given you to use, but it's not God. In other words, to kind of summarize every week of where we gone is, what we're seeing is every time we replace God with something else, that's idolatry.

And what we're going to see today, especially with money is this. When we face after the gifts, not the gift giver, that is the heart of idolatry. When we want the gifts, not the gift giver.

That's what idolatry is. Now, if you think, well idolatry isn't that like carving some statue and worshiping it? Yeah, could be that, but it's really what do you place in God's job description?

What do you place and say, this is where I get satisfaction. This is where I get security. This is where I get stability. This is where I'm going to be content. And what we do, we could be Christian idolaters. You could even be a church goer, and you're saying, I come to church, but here's the problem.

I worship the gift, but I use God. I worship. What I really want is this, but I use my spirituality to try to get God to give me what I want. If you're not a believer, you just say God's useless. I want these things. But we could turn into these church going idolaters.

Meaning, I'm gonna use God to get what I want. God's the resource, he's not the source. So we come, we pray real hard, we act really spiritual, and I go, now God's gonna give me what I really wanted. And it's either money, or this relationship, or that. We really think that's what I need and what we really need is God. That's the heart of this whole series.

And today he talks about money. And I I gotta tell you something before I jump in here and and tell you right now is is is I love this church. Best church I've ever been a part of. I think Rock Point is an awesome church. If you're new here, found a great church. But there's a there's

challenges for every group of believers because we live in a broken world. And the problem with churches out here in these suburbs, in these wealthier parts of the world, is there is a number one thing that I think is the number one idol that even Christians can do all the churchy things,

but they can make this their idol. And I believe it's the number one problem in the suburbs. And as much as I love this church, it is the number one problem sitting in this room right now. And that is, there are tons of us in this room that your wallet is your God. You refuse to trust God with your money.

And some of you are getting angry right now. I can see it, especially some of you men. Ladies, you'll you get angry, you smile, it scares me. But that's scarier. Yeah. You're you're gonna die for this. But guys, we're just like

I see some of you guys are like, you pulled out your shields already. You got the spear up. Hold the line. Hold the line. And you think, here it comes. This guy's gonna yell about money, and some of you are are are frustrated right now. I haven't even said anything yet. You're already getting frustrated in your heart,

and you're starting to get angry in your heart. And here's gonna make you a little bit more frustrated. In about ten minutes, I'm gonna tell you why. And I'm gonna be right, because it's right out of scripture. And then you're gonna have to decide, am I gonna choose to be dumb and stay angry,

or will I maybe listen to what God is saying? Maybe I'll listen to what God let me let me prove this to you. We're in Ecclesiastes chapter five, and in it, the first part of this chapter, Solomon, who knew a lot about wealth and what money can and can't do,

he starts off kinda jumping off top. He's not talking about here's another thing that we waste our lives going after. He starts off by talking about how we approach God. How do we come in and worship?

How do we choose to worship God? And it seems like it's disconnected, but it's actually setting up. Yeah, it takes this break in the middle of all, this was a waste, this was a waste. And you know what? You gotta understand, part of the problem is we approach God wrong, and we think this is what worship is, and then we make these mistakes.

And and and he talks, so the first seven verses, he basically talks about making vows and coming in and talking a lot, but not really listening. And and basically, he's describing going through religious ritual. Like I get up, I go to church, I try to be a good person, I try to do this, and you make your faith separate from your life. And it really when it comes down to it, yeah, I believe in God, and I'm saying these words, I sing the songs, I come. But when it really comes down to it, when the tough thing happens, when God says trust me on this, and it's clear, I'm not really gonna do that.

I'm more talk, not much walk. And my faith is just this emotional experience that really is not tied into a real relationship. That's really what the first seven verses about. And to land how important this is, I just wanna read verse one and seven, and you'll get the gist of how important this topic is.

He starts off in verse one, if you think I'm a throat puncher, listen to this. As you enter the house of God, keep your ears open and your mouth shut. He's like shut your mouth and listen up.

It is evil to make mindless offerings to God. Man, what he's trying to say there is he's like, hey, you know, when we come to worship God, when we come to to relate with God, we and don't do this enough.

When we hear God says something rough, it's like my roommates. We wanna talk about all the reasons why we can't listen to God. We have all this talk. God, I love you. I love you. I love you. But I love you. And he's like, shut up and listen. That's what he's saying. Shut up and listen. We should move our mouth less and open our ears more. And some of you are saying, there's only one person in this room moving his mouth right now.

Well, that's my job. I'm teaching. But I do that too. I liked it more than. And it's important. Now, you don't have to have your mouth moving to be doing what he's saying. Every time I have to approach something that's really, I think is a serious roadblock to our growth, it's hard.

Some of you, you're talking so much in your head right now. You're trying to drown out what I'm saying. You're trying to drown out what God has to say. Right now what's going on your mouth is in your head is in your heart every excuse why if he tells me I gotta change how I spend my money or I got to give,

have every reason going off in your head and heart right now, how you're the exception or it's my fault. I'm an idiot. I'm just not expecting something right. That's what's happening right now in many of your hearts. You say that's the problem. You can get mad at me, but God called me to be a shepherd.

Shepherds lead, feed, and protect. And if I know there's a wolf amongst us that is destroying our ability to relate to God and truly experience what he has for us, it is my job to chase it away. And many of you are trapped by the wolf of the lie of money, and you've made it your idol. And the only way out of it

is to worship God and use it properly. That's the only way. So you can get mad at me or to use the words of Solomon not me, you can shut up and listen to what God has to say. I am trying to help you. Okay? Trust me. If I wanted to be mad, I could get a lot louder and a lot more angry. I'm not.

I want us to find the freedom of what God wants. So he says that and then it gets worse. He says down in verse seven, talk is cheap like daydreams and other useless activities. He's like, we talk a lot and then we don't actually do. You know what he says? Fear God instead. See his point was we're not fearing God,

because we're not truly worshiping God. We wanna use God to get what we want. What we're really afraid of is not having enough. When it comes to money or any the things we're talking about. When we don't listen to God is we're afraid of something else more than we are of God. We're afraid that if I do what God says, I'm not gonna have enough of this. If I give, I won't have enough for me. If I serve, I won't have enough time for me. If I do this, there's not enough time for me. That's a fear. And when he says, we should be more afraid of God than that because God can take care of us. And part of that thing for fear, there's no way to put it. A lot of churches, like, just don't want to give you the truth about who God is. They don't want to be Mr. Rogers. Will you want you? Ain't you gonna come on be our neighbor? God loves you. Jesus died for you. God did everything for us. He built this whole world. He created us. He is the most amazing, loving, incredible creator there ever was on the face of the planet. But He's also the creator of the universe,

and He is holy and righteous and judge and creator. And He knows you better than you know you. He knows how you were built. He knows more than you do. And sometimes, Eunice shows up, you should be afraid.

He's not talking about a fake fear. Every time in the Bible an angel shows up. It's just an angel with God's glory. People fall over like they're dead. If God showed up in here right now, you'd be like, oh, his glory would almost melt us like on Raiders of the Lost Ark. God is not to be played games with.

That's what it means to fear God. But the reason you should fear him is he loves you. He's the guy you want on your side. He's that player that scares the snot out of you, and you're glad he got on your team.

But sometimes we play games. That's what the first seven verses is talking about. We play the church game as if God's too stupid and doesn't know. And he doesn't really understand your scenario. And that's why you can ignore him when he says, I want you to do this with your money. And what's so funny is,

what he asked us to do is like what I asked my roommates to do. I'm not asking for everything. I just want you to commit what I asked you to commit first. And when we do it right, the thing we really want with money, to enjoy, have peace, have these things, when you do it God's way, you actually do get that.

You're not gonna get it the other way around. Show you why. Down to verse 10 is where he starts talking about it. In verse 10, in these two verses I'm gonna read, he talks about four lies. There's four things that he says that we think wealth will do. We think our money will do,

and every one of them is what makes money an idol. If I fall for these lies, if I go that's what I do, then I have I'm worshiping the money, not God. I've turned it into an idol in my life. And so the first one is he says in verse 10, those who love money will never have enough.

How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness. The first thing he's saying is money will not bring satisfaction.

It can't bring our satisfaction. If you think the money you have from the job you earn is gonna ultimately make you have a satisfied life, because it won't. Because if you put money above God, you love money. That's what he's saying. Bible says you can't both serve God and money at the same time. He's saying if money becomes the thing you really serve, because you think that's gonna give you satisfaction,

he goes you're gonna be caught in this treadmill of you always need and want more. It doesn't mean you wanna have moments of satisfaction. That's where we fall for life. Some of are like, well, I'm doing pretty well now. I feel pretty satisfied. Yeah. For how long?

Think through your life, especially if you've gone down the road a little ways. There was times when you were more broke, right? And then you got a little something and you felt this is the greatest thing ever. The house I described, that above an apartment, I thought Shangri La.

If I had to go live in that house again now, I would think God hates me.

It was satisfying in that moment. But if I stay on that track, then I'm gonna want this. And I want this. And want and here's what happens to your satisfaction.

The more you go this way, eventually you need more. And every time you go more, you not only don't have the satisfaction of not having more, you now have more fear of what you might go back to. Every step you get, now I have more to lose, but I still want to gain more. And here's what's dumb.

We all have this incredible amount of amnesia. We do we play the game over and over and over again. Every time you get to a certain point that you think I got enough, you think you're done, and then you're not.

And you can't remember the last 10 times you did that. The last 20 times you did that. And some of in this room right now, ears are shut, mouth and your heart's open. No, don't get it. I'm where I wanted to be. I finally got there. Good luck. Talk to you in a year. Something's going to happen.

And that's what he's saying. If you love the money, if you think money is where you get satisfaction, you will always be on a track. It'll slowly creep in like a frog in a kettle, boiling slowly, and it'll slowly get you. You will have to get more and more and more, and it won't get you where you want to go.

The second thing, verse 11, the second lie that tells you you might just be making money your idol is, the more you have, the more people come to help you spend it. Well, that's the truth, ain't it? So what good is wealth except perhaps to watch it slip through your fingers?

What he's really trying to say there is the more money you have, it doesn't solve problems. We believe that more money will solve my problems. He's saying it might solve one issue you got there, but it creates even more than it solves.

He says money doesn't solve problems. Having more doesn't solve all your problems. It actually ends up creating problems in and of themselves.

And then verse 12, he says people who work hard sleep well. Whether they eat a little or much. It means if you have a lot of money or you don't. But if you worked hard, slept pretty good. But the rich seldom get a good night's sleep. And and and that's talking about peace of mind.

So he goes, his first lies, we think money's gonna bring satisfaction, it won't. We think that money will solve our problems, it won't. We think money will bring a peace of mind. And we fall for this, it's the same thing, we're falling for it. Everyone of us, right now, I guarantee everyone in this room, I even do this all the time, it's a battle. I think, you know what, once I get this paid off, or once I get that raise, or once we get this, or once I can finally buy that other car, or once I can get this kid in college, or once I can

do that, or once I what? Every one of us, you have that next thing. That right now you're thinking, I will be so much more peace of mind once I get that. It's eerie how I just got in your kitchen, isn't it? Because that's what we do. And guess what? It will next thing, we'll give you peace of mind. Until the next thing.

You will never have enough money to just say, have no more issues. I have a nice my my mind is at ease. You'll have moments of ease, but then it'll come back. That's what he's saying. Because money does not bring satisfaction. It doesn't solve every problem. It doesn't bring peace of mind.

And then the final thing in verse 13, he says, there's another serious problem I have seen under the sun. Hoarding riches harms the saver.

He's not talking about just stockpiling a bank account. He's talking about hoarding stuff for yourself. Spending your money on you all the time. It hurts you is what he's saying. He says money is put into risky investments that turn sour because he's think you need more. I need more. I need more. So you start pushing more to get more. And he goes, you can put it into bad things and you can lose everything. And in the end, there's nothing left to pass on to one's children. Now that's just an example. He's he's here's the problem he's saying it is. We all come to the end of our lives as naked and empty as on the day we were born. We can't take our riches with us. And this too is a very serious problem. People leave this world no better off than when they came. All their hard work is for nothing like working for the wind.

What he's saying is in the end, it doesn't matter how much you get, how much you think it's gonna satisfy, solve your problems, bring the security, bring all up, but the end you think it's gonna give you security, but it's not. That's the last lie, is you think that having more money will ultimately bring you security, but in the end you die. And you being the wealthiest person on the planet and the poorest person on the planet, if you put them both together when they're dead, they're the same, dead.

And that's it. And you did all of that to get nowhere. And here's the thing. Think of this list of everything he just said there. We try to make money bring satisfaction, solve every problem, bring peace of mind, and bring security. If you know anything about the Bible, whose job description is that in the Bible? God's.

This is why God asked us to do something with his money. It's why he asked us to give. It's why he asked us to think of him first and do these things first. You know why? Because if I choose to do it his way, I'm battling against this false god. I'm saying, I'm gonna trust and fear God.

I'm gonna trust you for those things. That's not what gives me those things.

You can't say you trust God and ignore him with your money at the same time. That's why the Bible says you can't serve God and money at the same time. Because one of them is gonna be God. One of them is a gift. One of them is the gift giver. And we reverse that sometimes.

We we we we we we wanna worship the gift, and then use the gift giver, and that leads to frustration. If you're caught in that lie, you're on this thing and it's not working.

And then you hear a guy like me get up and preach again. Hey, here's what God says to do with your money, and I'm gonna challenge you to give. I'm gonna challenge you to put it in the right order and do what God asked you to do. And you're starting to get a little bit fearful. Like some of your blood pressure is going up because you know what your finances are like, and you're like, if I do that, I'm gonna have less. I'm gonna have less. And you know, if you're worried about having less, guess which lies you're buying? You're on the more philosophy, on more will more of this will give me more of life, and you're afraid if I do it the other way around, I'll have less. You've bought into the lie. And when you buy into the lie, guess what it says you'll do? Right here. When we buy into this lie, it says in verse 17, throughout their lives, anyone who follows this way, it doesn't matter how many times you go to church, throughout their lives they live under a cloud.

Frustrated, discouraged, and angry. Remember when I told you I tell you exactly why you're frustrated, discouraged, and angry? Hello. There it is. That's why you're buying into this lie. So when you hear someone say, don't do it this way, do this.

You can't do this and keep the lie. If you try to do what God says and keep the lie, you're like my roommate Neil. I don't really believe in this. I think this is terrible, but I've been so guilted and shamed and fearful. Here, here's the money. And that's not gonna get you any joy. You're just doing out of fear. We understand is you are under a cloud. You have been lied to. You're buying the lie, and I am your friend.

I am not your foe. I am trying to help you. So shut up and listen, as Solomon said, and find the real joy. Stop making the excuses in your heart. It's what it's saying. Because anything like that when I ignore God on this, money is my idol. And you know what's crazy about this? It does you

could be someone that gives the most in this room and it's still your idol. I'll show you what I mean. How do I correct this? How do how do I like I said, how do I learn how to worship God and use the gifts not the other way around?

Because if I do that, verse 20 if you go down, he says, I learn to live and accept my lot in life and trust God for what I'm doing, he says in verse 20, God keeps such people so busy enjoying life that they take no time to brood over the past. One of the biggest things I see when people are are

really hurt and talking about they won't trust God on money. You have something happening like, I grew up poor. I did this. You don't what happened. I gave a lot to a church and they misused it. You're so caught up in your past that when you just learn to trust God, he says he'll bring joy. You will enjoy it. Truly.

But you gotta get away from the lie. You gotta get away from the lie. So in in in where am I at? Matthew chapter six. Jesus actually says, here's what we need to do. In verse 19, he says, don't store up treasures here on earth where moths eat them and rust destroys them, where thieves break in and steal,

your treasure in heaven, where moths and store your treasures in heaven where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. So it's a pretty simple little line he said. He said, here's what we need to do. What you're supposed to do with what I gave you is you need to not spend it, you need to invest it. We all know the difference between spending and investing. Right? When I spend it, it's gone. When I invest it, it usually builds up and grows and and can come back and help me in the end. He's saying listen, a lot of us what we want to do, the lie says to experience more. To really have satisfaction in life. I need more and more and more. I need to spend more on the things of this world. But he says those things don't last. They get destroyed, they get eaten up, they get stolen. He goes, but if I spend my money or invest my money in the kingdom of God, the things he wants me to invest it in. Those things are of eternal value, and it'll grow, and it cannot ever be destroyed. It'll outlast this life. And what he's really saying is it's two things about three things that giving is actually a gift.

It's a gift. The first thing that giving is a gift is it allows us to have a front row seat on God changing eternity. Like me with my roommates, God doesn't need that money he asked us to give.

But we get to be a part of what he's doing when we give.

And that is a treasure that we get to keep. For all of eternity, we get to be a part of it. Everything I spend on myself, you might get to enjoy it, but it doesn't last.

The second thing that's clear about giving is is I'll show you in a minute when how we get this messed up is, when we give that is the only weapon God has given us against the lie.

Even secular studies have proven how do you get out of overspending? How do you get out of this materialism? How do you get out of being a spendaholic? How do you get out of these things? They said there's only one thing that's proven over and over again to be effective, is they teach people to give more.

There's something about how it centers you, it wakes you up, it opens your mind, you get to see it better, and you start to realize that giving is actually better than receiving. And it makes you budget better.

And then the last thing, which is sad because it's the reason we usually believe the lie and won't listen to what I'm saying right now is. You're afraid to give because you think I won't have enough, so then I won't enjoy. I'll just suffer. The last thing is when we learn to do it God's way, you actually do have joy.

And he wants you to enjoy it. Even the things you do spend on yourself. He part of that is part of the bonus. He doesn't ask for everything. Let me show you what I mean. There there there there there there here's the you can spend your life, spend your money, or you can invest it. I have two wheels. Look at this one.

This first one, this is the world's way of doing it. This is the spend your money. This is the one we all fall for because it's it's $24.07.

This is what everything on this planet teaches us to do. TV, everything, our own hearts, this is what we wanna do, and yet we try to go, I'm gonna be a Christian, but I'm still gonna live this way with my money. And what is it's easy to do because it goes clockwise.

And we naturally read a clock, we naturally go clockwise. Right? So what we think about money is we think I need to acquire it first. We acquire it.

And and and the next thing, the reason I want to acquire money is I really want to enjoy it. I want to have a nice house, nice place, nice things. I want my kids to have nice things. So we think the ultimate goal, the first step is I need to enjoy. Well the problem if I make that first, then what I'll do is we tend to enjoy too much. Matter of fact, Bill Earl said it this way. When your outgo exceeds your income, your upkeep will be your downfall.

And that's really the position most of us are in. Because when you start to enjoy, you're like, well I need more to enjoy, more to enjoy, but I'm not acquiring enough to enjoy at the level I am. So I have these little plastic things or these bank notes or these things. And what I do is I start to build up more debt. So instead of just repay, meaning I'm paying my house payment and maybe a car payment, and you know my kids went to the dentist, for the most I start buying more and more stuff. Or I buy a bigger house, or every time I get a little bit of a raise, I buy more of something. And so what happens is is the repay starts to grow. Then what we get to is we'll save,

and then we give. Gives always after save. Give becomes the leftovers. And then when we realize that's probably not working that well, we decide to plan. But by the time we planned, guess what happened? It's already a little bit late. This model, would you put enjoy first and acquire? You know what happens?

Which one starts to take over the whole wheel? Repay. And all of a sudden you get that's what he's saying. Some of the most in debt people I know are some of the most highest income people I know. You leverage it, they call it. And you just go

and so then what happens is when repay grows, guess what has to go? You don't want enjoy to go because that's your number one reason you're doing this. So what happens is, give goes first. Plan's out the window. I don't even wanna look at the plan. Some of you, I don't even wanna look at my finances.

But but you don't wanna plan, but then give goes first. Save will go second, because you know save helps you in the event of acquire shrinks, and you want enjoy and repay to still be able to happen.

So so so save then goes away. Repay grows. Enjoy, the whole thing becomes acquire, enjoy, repay. But the problem is repay gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And then what happens if acquire starts to shrink? What happens if your income goes backwards? What happens like what happened in 2008?

People just start losing houses and turning stuff in. And and then what happens is, so finally, you know what you finally lose out on? Enjoy. That shrinks. And then some of us in this room, your entire financial wheel could be described as this, acquire and repay. That's your life.

All you do is work to pay all the bills you have. If we live if you enjoy first and thinking about as a choir, what he's saying is you're never gonna really enjoy it either. God's way is different. It's the other wheel.

It's got the same exact things on it. There we go. There's only two differences. Instead of thinking about money as something you acquire that's yours, why don't you think about as a gift that God gives you that you dedicate? You dedicate your income because it's not yours. It's the first thing you're gonna have to get right.

Everything you have isn't yours. It's God's, and he gave it to you. We're just stewards of it. So some of the guys in this room that you struggle with, some of you guys and ladies struggle with this idea the most. What makes me laugh and cry is you have a bunch of employees that work for you.

What would you do with an employee if he started taking your business account and acting like it was his own money? How long would he work for you?

What if he tried to say, is my money. I work hard. I got the money. I got and he made all the reasons why he doesn't have to listen to you. Wouldn't you just think that is the dumbest thing you've ever heard?

The Bible outright says God created you and everything we have is a gift from him, even the ability to make the money we make. We are a steward, not the owner.

So we should dedicate it. And if you're gonna be a steward that dedicates it, the other difference is it's the same exact wheel. Only we gotta go counterintuitive. We gotta go against everything the world says and everything our own heart. This is hard to do because we naturally wanna go the other way.

But we have to choose out of dedicating it to plan. And if I'm gonna dedicate to God and make a plan, then my plan is gonna be God's way. And God's way is giving is always first. The Bible says you're giving to the Lord, giving to your church. Giving to him is called the first fruits.

It needs to come first or it's not faith. If it doesn't come first, then you really do think money's your God and you're just giving from your leftovers.

The only way it builds your faith. The only way you know that God took care of you is when you choose to give him what he wants even if it doesn't look like it's gonna work. That's the only way it works. God can then come in and show you it can work. And that's what I meant. Some of us in this room, you might be giving more than anyone else in this room and still you are not worshiping God with your money. You are not honoring Him. You just happen to be able to acquire so much that you have more leftovers than everybody else in this room.

And you give, even if it's a huge amount, but it's your leftovers, that does not honor God. You are still worshiping your money. You're just like, hey God, here you go. Get yourself something nice. Buy yourself a new pair of shoes. Because you're still trusting your ability to acquire money to take care of you. You're not

dedicating it. First fruits means first. And that's what God asked us to do. And so you give, then you save, then you repay, then you enjoy.

At first, it seems like you have less enjoy. Right? But when I do it this way and I save, save only needs to get to a certain amount. We don't need to hoard. Saving is like the Bible says, like be like the ant. Save up so in case you acquire your ability to get money to dedicate goes down, you can make it through, and you can you can feed yourself. So you just you wanna have a certain amount of time of money saved up, and you don't have to keep keep keep keep keep hoarding money, so that eventually stops. If I give first and plan and enjoy last, what's going to happen to repay?

It's going to pretty much disappear at some point. So as repay shrinks, save stays there, guess what gets to grow? What God says two things get to grow. Enjoy and give.

Because he says, I will increase the blessing and not to raise your standard of living, but your standard of giving. But here's what's cool. I can give more and I end up even enjoying more. And that's where God says when Psalm keeps saying, hey, just eat, drink, be merry. Enjoy. What he's trying to say, if you do it right, you're gonna be able to actually enjoy the things you do have. He's not a killjoy. He wants to give you the joy. But you're gonna get to greater joy this way.

It makes sense. It's the only way it works. But it's hard. We don't wanna do it. So how do I do that? How how how do I choose to give? I I I should give. The the biblical plan to have a plan to give? Simple three words. I'll give it to you real quick. I already said the first one, priority.

It's first fruits. If you are a believer and comes to this church, I'm gonna flat out challenge you to plan to give to God and give first and start doing it now.

No more talk. No more I'm going go wait. I'm going go see. I'm going just make a plan and do it, and make it the priority. The second thing is make it a percentage. A percentage. God always works with percentages.

Especially you work on commission. Well, I don't know. I'll make this much this much. Well, if you pick a percentage, it's pretty easy. And what's what's what's say you, I'm going give 10%. What's 10%, a zero? You don't have to feel guilty when it's a percentage.

If God is giving you if you're not making anywhere, you're at zero, you don't have to feel guilty. He asked for you to give a percentage of what you've got. If you got zero, you don't give anything.

Now a lot of people are here comes, you can say 10%. You know, I can be legalistic. You can say this 10%, argue. You know, the money the 10

was a tenth. It was a number of testing in the Bible, so it's used all the time. But I gotta tell you, in the Old Testament, when God challenged us to give and to tithe as they said, it's where the word tithe comes from a tenth,

that you realize the tenth was the starting point not the finish line. We think like it's some absurd high number that we're supposed to get to. You know, you could be at a tenth and it could be like, you were really not trusting God anymore. That was a beginning number. The Old Testament Jews, they gave over 30%. The tenth was just what ran the the temple. Basically, the tenth was what they gave just to their church.

And then they had all this other stuff that went beyond. But you know what? I don't care about that. You know what I want you to do? I want you to start trusting God. So take a percentage, pick one.

Like if you're a zero, if you have to start somewhere. If you're all messed up from the other wheel, just say God, an honor you, but you gotta help me. Right now, I don't know how this is gonna work, but I'm going from zero to 1%. And you know what's gonna happen? When you find out you don't die,

and God takes care you, you go like, well, then I'll go to two. Then I'll go to three, because that's the third principle. Progressive. I don't think you should stop at ten. As God takes care of you, you should keep going. Go to eleven. Oz, go to eleven. Spinal tap. There you go. Old movie reference. Nobody? Too

busy being mad at me for talking about what to do with your money. Be progressive with it. Man, what would think about the kingdom work that would happen. Like what he said about how you can store up treasures in heaven. How God would use what we did to change the world. What would happen if just this service,

if everyone in this room moved 1% in how they gave.

Last week I talked about political activism, and we as Christians like to complain about we're losing our culture. Where's the world going? It's all going to hell. And the reality is there's some ministry and things we can be doing. And we would have more Christian values in our culture.

If Christians would actually do what Jesus asked them to do, especially with our money. Especially with our money. You realize we had to build a building soon. We're gonna do a campaign because you always had to do that.

But if everyone in this church said, you know, I'm gonna give and pick the percentage and moved over here. If everyone did that, we wouldn't even have to do the campaign. We could build the building cash.

The reason we entered it, why was the church always do funnery? Why did they do these things? It's because we're not honoring God. If we just did what he asked us to do, I wouldn't we didn't have to ask for anything else. We would just have what we needed. A lot of these campaigns is because of our lack of faith.

So that's why we do it, to challenge us to just go beyond. But what would happen if

and see, and here's the thing. This is especially for you guys, ladies too, but understand guys because I is one. It's interesting to me. One of the number one things I hear from men that are Christians is to they have a hard time with consistently having spiritual passion is the best way to describe

Like, I have a hard time reading my bible consistently and praying. I try to be a better husband. I wanna serve. And you go in bursts and you you go to a command camp and you get excited for a few weeks and then it it wanes and you're always coming back to the same story. I just lost that passion. Where's that passion? And what's weird is we never put two and two together. Look what he says in verse 21.

In verse 21 Jesus says, wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will be also. Wherever your treasure is, that's where your heart will be. People read that over and over again and what you thought you heard was, I'll put my money where my heart is. That's not what it says.

Jesus made a very clear principle. He says wherever you put your money, that's where your heart will go. So guys especially, and the ladies here, but I know a lot of you men out here that struggle with spiritual passion.

You wanna do all these godly things, but you are too chicken to trust god with your wallet. You just won't do it. And part of it is a misguided notion that I'm the one that's supposed to secure my family. I'm the one that's supposed to take care of them. I'm the one supposed to provide. And you wanna provide all this junk instead of just showing them how to trust God.

And so we don't do it, and then you wonder why the passion doesn't last. Throw your wallet in the ring and see where your heart goes.

Throw your wallet in the ring and see what happens. I challenge you. You know what the Bible says to Malachi? The only time God ever challenges us in all the scripture to test him. You know what he asked us to test him on? Giving. See what happens if you just do that.

See what will happen. And the beautiful thing is the joy will be there. You'll get what you were actually the reason you're afraid, if you have the faith, you'll actually get what you're afraid of losing. Because what you're afraid of losing, you don't really have in the first place. It's your choice.

Do I want to spend my life, spend my money, or invest it? And I want to give you an example to close this out. By my own stupidity, you need to trust me on this. When I was a kid, we used to trade baseball cards.

My name I took great care of mine. Incredible care of mine. And so we'd go out and we trade them. Well, one day we're out there, I'm like six years old, like 1976.

We're out there and and we go to trade, and and I walk over and my friend comes out with his cards, he has a toy with him. It's it's it's this toy right here, actually. I have a picture of it. It's a Star Trek communicator. This is from 1975.

There you go. I still have it. See, I took good care of my stuff. And my mom saved this to remind me of my stupidity. Thanks mom.

But I I wanted this. You know why? I had all the Star Trek stuff. I had the phaser, had this, but my dog chewed up my communicator. So I wanted it. You know what this is? This thing they talk to the ship. You know, it's like, Spock.

We need help right now. You know, I wanted to be captain Kirk. You know, and so so I I wanted the communicator. So I wanted that. I go, hey, hey, instead of just trading cards, what do I have to do? I'll trade you a card for that. And my friend goes, okay.

Well, I want an all star. And the way when I was a kid, our cards we looked at, they'd say all star on it, and what we thought the best cards were were the all stars, and he looked on the back, and they had all their massive stats. So he looks through me, he goes, I want your Steve Garvey all star. No way. You can't have my Steve Garvey all star. I'll give you I'll give you Jim Rice from the Boston Red Sox, because I had seven of them. So I go, here he goes, all right, I'll take that All Star. But with Jim Rice, I want another card. I go, no All Star. He goes, okay. He starts looking at my cards. He goes, here's one. This guy's not an All Star.

And I look at the card, and I'm like, okay, this guy I had never even heard of this team. This must be a minor league team. I turn it over, go, this guy's got no stats. He's never even played a season.

So I'm like, that's all you want? Yes. Okay. I hand him the cards, he hands me this, I have this. I want to show you a picture of the card I traded.

Those of you who went, ah, you understand baseball cards. Let me explain to the rest of you that don't. See, that's Hank Aaron. The year before, he had just broke the all time home run records of Babe Ruth. I watched it happen. I'm six. I knew who Hank Aaron was. I didn't know who Henry Aaron was. I

knew who the Atlanta Braves were. I didn't know who the Milwaukee Braves were. They didn't exist. They had moved. This was before my time. I had no clue. I thought that was some minor league team. And when you turned it over, he had no stats. You know why? This is a rookie Hank Aaron baseball card. Now, if you know me.

One recently sold at auction for $357,000. $357,000. But I got this.

This is what I got. Spock, I've made a terrible mistake.

But I got this. You know why I tell this story every couple years? Some of you have heard it before. Right? Does anyone remember it? Told it two years ago. You know how much the card was worth then? $2.90. Four years before that? $1.50. Five years before that? 60. If I wait long enough,

I'm gonna be telling the story about how I traded a million dollar baseball card for this. But listen to me. If you're still angry in your heart, you still don't wanna trust me. I really did enjoy this. I love this. I did not miss that baseball card at all.

I didn't. And some of you say, I don't get what he's saying. I'm I'm having fun. I'm enjoying what I'm doing. You're right. You don't miss because you don't know what you don't know. I didn't realize what a dumb deal it was till I found out what I missed out on. And then it's too late.

This was really, really enjoyable until I discovered the till I came to the point that I said I wanna actually date a girl someday. Then this was just a piece of plastic. My same thing. What you're doing with your money, you might really be enjoying it right now. But that's a season. This is spending it.

That's investing it. What do you wanna do? Father God, I just thank you Lord. I thank you that you do care for us. And Lord, I I just pray right now as we go. We spent a lot of time

kind of talking about this topic, Lord, because I just feel so much like there are so many people in this room right now that this is the moment. This is the biggest battle

for their heart to trust you. So God, I pray that we just listen to you. I simply just pray we'd listen to the wisdom of Solomon that you gave him in the word. I pray that we will shut up and listen, and put our faith in you and do something about it. Lord, help us to be people that don't just spend our money.

May we be people that invest it. I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.