Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Inglewood
Baptist Church here in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.
Thank you for tuning in to the podcast today.
Today we're going to continue in our series called Help Searching
for God's peace with him, with one another, and with ourselves.
Listen closely to what God has to say to you today.
Thank you, Pastor Charles. Well, it's good to see everybody
in this session together for those who are listening online,
thank you so much for tuning into this episode and and this
session together. For those of you who are alive,
it's always very encouraging to see all of you in the middle of
the summer. And just a, an an advertisement
for down the road for both of those who are listening as
podcast and those who are coming live.
We're going to be developing additional podcast only podcast
series. Obviously, we'll continue to do
live things here as well. But one of the things that we'll
be working on is a personal discipleship podcast that'll
help you and your personal daily walk with Christ.
And so I'll continue to spread information about that.
So down the road, those of you who are listening and live,
that'll be something additional you may enjoy while you're
you're walking or working or, or or whatever time you listen.
This series is hopefully helpful in the sense of it.
You know, if it's not, then the title of the series is kind of
pointless where, you know, we're we're working with in God's word
to think about things like stress and fear and anger, and
also sometimes the things that cause those things like time and
work. And tonight money.
I'm not here to pick your pockets.
I'm actually here to help you think through how do we address
this thing called money in our world today.
And our goal as, as we have said every week, is we we're very
thankful that that God wants us to have peace with him.
I often think of the famous Billy Graham tract, Steps to
Peace with God, which was kind of the famous Gospel tract that
the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has used.
And that's in a sense what we're looking for here.
How do I actually work through this thing called life, which
can be interesting and have peace with God and peace with
others and peace within my own house and peace within myself.
And so that idea of Shalom, that idea of completeness is part of
that. I'm very thankful, as I've said,
every single single episode for those people who are involved in
Christian counseling, it's a ministry.
I hope that we at Inglewood could continue to develop down
the road, something that I'm praying about, we're thinking
about and talking about. But then also those who are in
our recovery ministries that meet every Tuesday night at
Inglewood. And then also, even those who
are in the medical industry and law enforcement, for some who
may be facing traumatic need in their life, some folks need
these special networks of support.
But we all need to know what God's Word says about some of
these these stresses and causes of stress right, in life.
And so that's what we're going to be be talking about.
And so the question for the night really is, why do we value
what we value and how does that affect us?
And that may not sound like I'm talking about managing money,
but I am. Why do we value what we value?
And, and how does that affect my life?
And how does that drive me? And how does that distract me or
how does that help focus me? And So what do we believe
because of that understood value the, the, the value that we
believe in and understand, and how do we live based upon that
understood value? Those are the questions that
we're really dealing with tonight.
So it's much deeper than just, you know, dollars and cents, but
at the same time, dollars and cents often represent value, our
culture. And so we need to think about
this issue because God, God's word, certainly addresses it a
lot. As I've mentioned in in previous
sermons and as I even shared in my latest sermon, it's very
important that that in the midst of this worldly confusion and
chaos that we might find ourselves living in to be
reminded of of why we are and who are supposed to be.
What is our true biblical identity and how does it get
impacted by what we define as being important and how we
define success? How we define important, how we
define value? Those philosophical theological
type questions really do or should impact in a sense how
we're practically living out our lives and even dealing with
something such as money. So we one of the things that
we'll recognize is that as as people, we are going to invest
in those things that we think are valuable, not just money,
but as I've shared in previous times, overall stewardship
concept. And again, this isn't even a
stewardship Bible study really, but to think about time and
energy and best focus. We're going to spend, we're
going to invest in the things that we think are the most
important. So answering those questions of
what I think the most important things are, are what do I think
are the most valuable things really are significant questions
to be addressing all the time because we can, we can get off
track, we can get, we can get off kilter.
So the things that we find are considered truly valuable.
Things like family, things like friends, but even more basic
things. And when you travel around the
world, you realize that there's a, there's a lot of insecurity
in the world and also here locally, But you think about
things as simple as safety or comfort or food or shelter,
things that are important, things that are valuable, even
perhaps vital and necessary in life.
And so, so how do we, how do we deal with those things?
And then how do we then translate that into eternal
things, things that are beyond our presence here in the
creation, our time on earth, our limited time here, things that
go beyond that. So how generous will we be in
extending and investing in what we consider valuable?
I remember doing COVID. Anybody remember COVID?
So I remember COVID. You remember you remember that I
need to hoard toilet paper craze.
Everybody remember that some of you anybody still hoarding
toilet paper at this point? Thank you.
I've I've known people from Y2K that still have bottled water.
So, so, so you know, some of you may still be hoarding toilet
paper. I remember there was a time
during the I Need to Hoard toilet paper craze where we were
trying to figure out sources of toilet paper.
And I found some, some mini rolls of toilet paper online and
I ordered them. And, you know, six months later
when they actually showed up, they were about the size of hair
rollers. I'm not kidding you.
I mean, I mean, I don't know how to describe them.
I mean, it was, it was amazingly not valuable, you know, even
though at the time I've got to have these, you know, and it
didn't matter that you know how much they cost or whatever we're
going to anyway. So but little hair rollers of
toilet paper. So not so generous perhaps.
But as as true Kingdom seekers, we desperately want to grow as
disciples. We want to, we want to grow in
our community with one another. And, and one of the enemies of
peace, frankly one of the enemies of Shalom, one of the
temptations or distractions away from Shalom in our life can be
how we manage resources, how we manage our money, or in turn,
how they might manage us. And so these are important
lessons I've shared with you back in when in our Acts series
on Sunday mornings when we were in about Acts 5, that that Jesus
spent a large number of verses, a large number of parables.
There's a large number of verses in the New Testament about
money. And so this is an issue that
needs to be addressed. And so one of these, one of
these enemies perhaps, or one of these causes of some of the
things we've talked about in this series, the stresses, the
fears, the worries, the guilt, etcetera, can actually be this
category. You know, it's been said among
the things that money can't buy is what it used to.
And so and so it's an interesting slippery thing.
So folks are lined up though in your life, Don't worry, Folks
are lined up for you in your life on social media, on
television, everywhere in your world, in your e-mail box, even
calling you on your telephone constantly to guarantee you a
way to cash in and to make more. Anybody getting those, those
weird texts where they're going to hire you from home for a lot
of money And you get to, you know, we got your resume and
you're like the only qualified person in the entire world to
come work for us. Yeah, yeah, I've been getting
those a lot. And I didn't realize my resume
had gone that far. But but you know, they'll tell
you you can fulfill your earning potential from home.
Unleash the power within you and and men.
And meanwhile, truly our income or frankly, our lack of income
at times can strict can trigger stress and it just piles up.
It's also when I do these community assessments like we've
done around here, it's obviously one of the top felt needs of
people in our community. One of the one of the worries,
one of the concerns is financial security.
And that's a big part of our world today.
And especially with some of the, the current, you know, inflation
rates, etcetera, going on, people are worried about that.
And so there was a lady one day that they got a bill from the
hospital for her recent surgery, Paul, that you might need to pay
attention to this because you can have surgery tomorrow.
And she was astonished to see this huge fee from the
anesthesiologist. And so she called the office and
she just wanted an explanation. This is this some kind of
mistake? And and she got the doctor on
the phone and the doctor said, no, no, no, this is not a
mistake. And she goes, see, that's
awfully costly for just knocking somebody out.
And the doctor said, well, no, not at all.
I knock you out for free. The huge fee is to wake you up
again. So sometimes we don't understand
how do we manage the stress that can be induced with the thing
called money or the lack of it. And so we, we here and we
believe that God will provide for our needs.
And so we have to ask ourselves, what do I really need?
And, and obviously it's not a sin to have money.
It's not a sin to be wealthy. It's not a sin to even earn
money. The Bible tells us we've talked
about work in this series. We're supposed to work, we're
supposed to provide. And so, but it can also be
dangerous if we have the improper perspective toward
earning money and what it means and, and, and how how high a
priority that is for us. So we need to carefully define
value tonight. So we're going to go to Luke
chapter 12 and we're going to learn, you know, see, in this
passage, Jesus is performing miracles.
He's teaching truth, he's doing what he often does and and at
this point in ministry, he's drawing huge crowds, large
numbers of people, thousands of people are coming to him and
they're following him. A lot of them want to see him
perform miracles. Obviously a lot of them are
coming for all the wrong reasons, but in Luke chapter 12,
verse one, we see this in the meantime, when so many thousands
of the people had gathered together, they were trampling
one another. He began to say to his
disciples, you know, I've been actually walking through the
Gospel of Luke again and one of the books that I'm studying in
my personal quiet time. And I I don't know that I've
ever recalled noting how often Luke talks about the large
numbers of people that are affected early on in the
ministry of Jesus. He really does all of Judea goes
out to him, all of these people. So this this is a lot of people.
So he shares warnings to them. He's also sharing encouragement
to them. And then let's go all the way to
verse 13. Someone in the crowd said to
him, teacher, tell my brother to divide, divide the inheritance
with me. But he said to him, man, who
made me a judge or arbitrator over you?
So one of the things I would just want us to start off
talking about, let's talk about some of the problems that we're
going to run into with money. Money can cause problems.
I don't know if you ever have money problems or not, but money
can cause problems. And so this one man works his
way through the crowd and and shares his problem.
He's got a, he's got a stingy brother and the brother, daddy
has passed away and, and brother wants all of it.
Brother wants the inheritance. Now, throughout the ages,
settling estates has caused a lot of bitter family quarrels.
Anybody have that relative? Anybody ever, you know, you all
have that. You all been through some of
that. I've walked through that with
many families, including my own, where you have that relative who
kind of thinks their piece of the pie is frankly the only
piece and no knife is needed. Just hand me the whole thing.
And listen, I once and I can't tell all these stories
completely because, you know, especially this one, this is
going, this is being recorded. But, but I've performed a lot of
funerals in my life. And I've mentioned to you before
that I should write AI don't know if you can write a funny
book about funerals. But but I once had to break up a
fight between the wife and the girlfriend over a dead body.
So you talk about I thought about, I thought about cutting
him in half and giving each one of them a part, but that just
didn't seem appropriate at the time.
But but today in our culture, when that kind of issue arises,
normally that can be settled in court.
You'll have judges who would settle that.
But in Jesus's day, that wasn't to the way in the in the Jewish
world, they would take these kinds of things and they would
be arbitrated by the rabbi. And so it wasn't, it wasn't
wouldn't be unusual for this man to come to Jesus and ask this
kind of question. But Jesus is basically saying,
listen, I'm not your rabbi. Go to your rabbi for that.
That's not why I'm here. But as you notice, the man
addresses him, his teacher, and we don't know why the brother
won't share. And and Jesus points out I'm not
the official judge in this matter, but he also recognizes
this is a moment to share truth. So look at verse 15.
And he said to him, take care and be on your guard against all
covetousness for one's life does not consist in the abundance of
his possessions. Now, I thought this was an
interesting thing to say to the guy who's getting ripped off.
You know what I mean? I mean, if the brother was
there, it would seem more appropriate.
But but Jesus is going to make a point here.
I'm not questioning Jesus. He's going to make him a point
here. And and then one of the points
is, and we need to recognize money in and of itself is not
evil. That's not that's not a problem.
Possessing money, being wealthy is not evil.
It's what we're going to do with it, our relationship with money
and striving for money as our primary goal in life can be a
problem. And I, I've experienced that in
my own life. In my childhood, that was kind
of the way our, our family lived and dwelt.
And so money was king. But but that relationship with
it. So I'm reminded of the words,
and some of you would know this, the words of Tephia in the
Fiddler on the Roof Roof, when a friend warns him that money is
the world's curse. And then he says, may the Lord
smite me with it and may I never recover.
And then of course, he breaks out into, if I vote a rich man,
you know the rest of the song. And so let's see what Jesus
really is talking about here. So what he's trying to say,
first of all, is money or the pursuit of it, the primary focus
upon it can lead to greed. And this statement wasn't
obviously just for this man. This was a a lesson.
This was a teaching that these thousands of people needed to
hear. He says don't be stingy and
don't be greedy. And this is such an important
issue because it comes up over and over again.
The idea of covetousness or greediness can be a real poison
to the point, if you'll remember, it's one of the 10
commandments to not covet, to not wish you had something that
you don't have that somebody else has.
And so, so much so that that the lust for more and more stuff
could be an ever present danger, even for the disciples of Jesus.
We've, you know, eventually get to the point to where one of
them turns on him for the sake of pieces of silver.
And so he uses two really important words here.
So let me break this down some of the original language for you
to drive this point even further home.
He says, first of all, you need to take care.
It means to watch out it it it means to beware.
But it's the form of a verb that ordinarily means to see
eyesight. So when he says you need to
really fix your eyes on this, you need to really focus.
You need to pay attention to what I'm saying to you.
This is a big deal focusing on this.
And then he says, he says, be on guard or look out or avoid.
And, and then there's a second part of this, this verse, it's
really awkward when you translate it.
And so it says, for one's life does not consist in the
abundance of possessions, right? But in, in, in one sense, it's
it, it could go like this. A person's true life is not
made-up of the things he owns, no matter how rich he may be.
Or another translation would say, don't be greedy for what
you don't have. Real life is not measured by how
much we own. Or even another translation a
little more obscure says even if you have more than enough, your
property doesn't give you life. And I like that.
What you own, your stuff does not equal life.
It doesn't give you life. And so we've got to be careful
that your life isn't just about the obtaining of things, right?
And so greed is deadly because it can lead a person to believe
that having wealth or pursuing wealth is all that life's about,
that that's what everything is for.
So it can become their focus. It becomes your goal, it becomes
your target. So we got to lay aside greed,
that idea of covetousness, to think about what life is really
about. So the poor envy the rich, the
rich envy the richer, and the cycle tends to not stop.
And so ownership of possessions does not mean possession of a
meaningful life. It it will never satisfy.
We keep pursuing it, believing that satisfaction will come.
But that's part of the problem. So this one of the second
problems of money is that money or the pursuit of it can lead to
misplaced faith. So now Jesus says, let me Share
your story. Let me tell you a story.
And so he shares a parable with them beginning in verse 16.
He says, and he told them a parable, saying the land of a
rich man produced plentifully. And he thought to himself, what
shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my
crops. And he said, I will do this.
I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I
will store all my grain and my goods.
And I will say to my soul now, don't miss that phraseology.
Among the probably the most important part of tonight is
getting ready to come up. Don't miss that phrase, my soul,
right? Remember that in a minute, soul,
you have ample goods laid up for many years.
Relax, eat, drink, be merry. You should be familiar with that
saying, but God said to him, Fool, this night your soul is
required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will
they be? So is the one who lays up
treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.
So the farmer had a plentiful, very plentiful harvest.
Nothing at all wrong with that. In fact, what a blessing from
God, right? That's not a problem.
And at no point here's the problem.
At no point with that blessing did the farmer ever acknowledge
God. This reminds us of a passage we
were in, in James at another time in this series.
So he never acknowledges God in appreciation.
So it's it's not wrong for the farmer to be successful.
It's not even wrong for him to plan to store his grain or to
plan financially for the future. That's not the problem.
The problem was the farmer was
relying upon his wealth and not the grace of God.
That's the point, that at no point is he acknowledging God's
graciousness, God's blessing, giving God the glory, the the
credit for everything that's happened.
And so in a sense, he's taking credit for it and he's just
running his life his own way without including God in any way
whatsoever. I earned this.
I rolled up my own sleeves. I did this.
I magically can make things grow because I'm a magician and I
take credit for it. And so his faith and his
expectation are in the wrong place.
So I can afford to build bigger, bigger barns because this crop
is so good, it's going to support me for years to come.
I'll be on easy street. I don't need God, all right?
And so he thought it would just last forever.
This will keep going forever. I can depend upon this the rest
of my life. I've earned enough, put away
enough. I don't have to worry about a
thing. I can now rest on my Laurel, my
laurels, right? But you got to note the my's and
the ay's in this passage, especially in verses 17 through
19. A lot of my's and a lot of eyes.
So I will do for my or me. I will build my.
These are my crops. These are my goods.
So he's misunderstanding the idea that that that wealth,
earthly wealth and possessions actually provide him security,
that that they're the ones that are going to provide him
security and sustainability. It's again, like our passage a
few weeks ago from James. He thought he was in control of
things. He thought he could depend upon
that ability. So all I got to do is relax,
eat, drink and what? Be merry, right?
It's a familiar philosophy in those days.
It's also a pretty familiar philosophy in our day that I, I,
I can depend upon myself, right? Advertisers today are going to
send out that same message that somehow we make our own lives
worthwhile by embracing as many of the pleasures and
opportunities available in the world today.
But there's a problem with that philosophy.
And it begins in verse 20 again. But there it is.
There's that word. But God said to him, you are
exactly right. You're a wonderfully intelligent
human being and you can depend upon your own intelligence and
you're going to do just fine. You don't need me.
You're going to be able to sustain yourself the rest of
existence and eternity right now.
What did he call him? Fool says you're a fool with an
exclamation point. You're a fool this night.
Your soul is required of you and the things you have prepared,
whose will they be? So is the one who lays up
treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.
So there's a good, there's no doubt about what's going on
here. He's not rich toward God.
So this man is not spiritually minded.
He's not spiritually obedient. He's not spiritually faithful.
He's not doing what God wants him to do.
He's just doing what he wants to do right.
Again, nothing wrong with being a successful farmer.
Nothing wrong with being successful in business, nothing
wrong with doing well and working hard and and seeing
things happen. But in the end, you've got to
recognize who's, who's actually enabled that to take place.
So here's the problem. And so and so God has a
different perspective and he says, what if you died tonight?
That's what he's saying to him. What if you died tonight and you
had replaced God with earthly goods?
That's the point. What what's going to happen to
you? How valuable is your earthly
wealth when you die, right? Who's going to get it then?
Remember the the man's original question and complaint and
statement about his brother? Daddy's died, the stuff's left.
Who's going to get it? And he's going to say what's
going to happen then? And so he says it's this greedy
heart is a foolish heart because in making his plans for the
future, this farmer showed he was living as if there was no
God to whom he would ever be accountable.
And that's foolish. So money can lead us into almost
a Scrooge like existence in which we believe it's the answer
or it's the goal of everything. But we know that life is
fragile. Life is frail.
We're just a mist, we're a vapor, we're a breath.
So this very night, your soul might be required of you.
Your soul will be demanded. Now I want you to pay close
attention what I'm about to say because this is a big
theological deal. You need to understand that what
that means is it carries the idea of a loan, OK?
In other words, get ready for this.
Life is a loan that must be returned.
Your life is just a loan. It doesn't belong to you.
It was given to you and it will be recalled one day and it's
going to be returned. Your life is just alone.
That has to be returned. Look at verse 19 and it says,
and I will say to my soul, so you have ample goods laid up for
many years. Relax, eat, drink and be merry.
In other words, I'm in complete control of eternity.
My soul, your soul does not belong to you.
It's a gift, and no matter how hard you think you've worked, no
matter how hard you think you've achieved, no matter how hard you
think you've done in this earthly existence, it's all
going to be recalled one day. Life is a gift.
And one day God's going to say, I'm going to take that right
back. Thank you very much.
It's mine. I gave it to you.
The Lord giveth. And we come from dust, and to
dust we shall return. You can understand this is a
gift. What a wonderful gift.
What an awesome gift. This is the time we get in order
to trust in Him, to know Him, to serve him, to be saved, to
become a believer while we're in this little timeline called
earthly existence. But there's going to come a time
when it is no more. And earthly riches have an
incredibly major weakness. Earthly riches have no
purchasing power whatsoever after death.
None. You can't buy your way out.
You can't pay your way out of hell, no matter what they used
to do in church history. Have you ever heard of
indulgences? One of the reasons why the great
Reformation took place is some of the corruption within the
church, where rich people were donating land or donating money
or donating armies or donating jewelry to the church, and they
would get grace in in repayment. You would get so much grace, so
many years off of purgatory, so many years toward heaven because
you paid for eternity. The problem with that is it's
just not biblical. It's not true.
You cannot buy the currency needed to get to heaven.
And so again, there's nothing wrong.
We, we're, we, we've looked in our last episode about working
hard. We're supposed to work hard.
We're supposed to provide, we're supposed to earn so that we can
give and so that we can invest. So there wouldn't be good
stewards. But if we depend upon that and
we think somehow we now own life and I'm in charge.
So you just kicked you just kicked Jesus off the throne and
you put yourself there, You put your bank account there or your
house or your yacht or your and it's not going to buy your way
out. So the rich man can enjoy a few
years of of misty, vaporous pleasure on earth.
But that's that's poor exchange for eternity.
Jesus says verse 21. So is the one who lays up
treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.
So it's better than just the opposite.
It's better to be rich toward God.
And now listen, you got to understand what these words
mean. It's better to be rich toward
God than to lay up literally to hoard.
That's what the word means. Don't be a hoarder things.
Don't be hoarding things for yourself because it won't
matter. It won't matter.
And those who are rich toward God lay up treasures for his
Kingdom, and they find security in him rather than in stuff.
It doesn't mean that we don't need stuff to survive.
We we'll need some stuff. We need some food.
We need a shelter. We need to be able to provide.
But, but that stuff isn't the answer.
So when the books are settled, those who are hoarding
possessions for themselves are going to fail to have those
possessions that are left to enjoy and will actually matter
when it comes to eternity. Teresa and I, and I don't know
if she'll remember this couple or she will when I start telling
the story. But in one of the churches I
pastored, we had an older couple who were hoarders.
I mean, if you've ever seen those TV shows, these people
were worse. And this older couple were
hoarders. And I would try to go visit
them. I physically could not get into
their home. You would go into their home and
there's little passageways. And I'm just way too large for
that. I'm, I'm, I'm surprisingly
abnormally large and I couldn't get in there and neither could
they after a while. And so they lived in their car
out front and could not live in their own house.
And after a while the car didn't work anymore.
So they were living in a broken down car parked in front of
their home while they couldn't get in their house.
And I tried and I tried to get them to accept help and we
offered to go in and do everything you can imagine, but
they were so focused, so distracted.
Obviously there was some some mental illness involved with
that in their life, some things that were not healthy, but they
struggled with that and they weren't enjoying any of it.
Think about that. It was all locked up in there,
but they weren't enjoying any of it.
So what value is it right when my mom and dad died, which they
died separately, but not too many years apart really.
And when my mom and dad died, my brother became the executor of
the estate because he lived closer and, and, and, and we had
a house. My family home was a home that
my family had lived in for over 100 years.
And every single drawer, nook, cranny, under every piece of
furniture, there was something. And my brother and I had to have
hard conversations about we're not going to become the
caretakers of the Newark Museum, you know what I mean?
And I remember just kind of offloading all of that stuff for
for pennies on the the dollar just so that we wouldn't have to
have that stuff anymore. You know what an amazing thing,
the things that we think are so important, so covetous people,
those are in that spectrum. They, they just want more and
more and they want what you have.
They want what you have. There's almost, there's almost a
robbery concept, almost thief like tendencies.
I want what you have and I'm going to figure out how to get
to what you have if I can. All right, but don't focus your
life upon trying to be rich in regard to the Bank of the barn.
Jesus says you've got to be smarter than this and you've got
to focus on eternal things, be rich in your relationship with
God. That doesn't mean you don't
farm. That doesn't mean you don't
harvest. That doesn't mean you don't
work. But he says, listen, you've got
to have a priority here. You've got to remain in focus,
right? And so we need to be very
careful about this. But Jesus wasn't finished.
He wasn't even close. Look in 22 verse 22.
And he said to his disciples, Therefore I tell you, do not be
anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your
body what you will put on. For life is more than food, and
the body more than clothing. Consider the Ravens.
They neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor
barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you
than the birds? And which of you, by being
anxious, can add a single single hour to a span of life?
If then you're not able to do a as small a thing as that, why
are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they
grow. They neither toil nor spin.
Yet I tell you, even Solomon and all his glory was not arrayed
like one of these. Can't you just imagine he's just
looking at flowers when he's telling them that?
But if God so clothes the grass which is alive in the field
today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more
will He clothe you? Oh, you have little faith and do
not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be
worried for all the nations of the world seek after these
things, and your Father knows that you need them.
So a third thing we need to see here is that money or the
pursuit of it can lead anxiety. And we've had different
episodes, different sessions on stress, anxiety, worry, those
kinds of ideas and these lessons.
If you'll notice, you may not realize this, but all the
lessons, all the episodes of help all connect together.
So my advice for those who are listening to a podcast or those
of you who have missed being here live, that you go back and
you put it all together. There's a holistic picture of
life that's being painted for you in this series.
It's best to listen to all of them to get that complete
picture. But in order to achieve that
peace with God, but but trust God to help you to take care of
the essentials. That's what Jesus is saying.
Anxiety or worry are not part of God's menu for living.
So let the Holy Spirit lead in your decision making process and
trust Him to lead you to a meaningful life.
And thank Him when He blesses you.
Give Him credit for your revenue, give him credit for
your job, give him credit for your blessing.
And if God has blessed you, we, we've had friends and church
members over the years who are very, very wealthy, wonderful,
godly people. And they were so generous in
their giving. And you can just see why God was
blessing them because they, they turned around and use that as a
tool for the Kingdom. We've also known people who are
dirt poor like us. I, in my very first pasture, I,
I, we cut firewood to have heat in the winter.
And if it weren't for the people who drop off firewood and some
vegetables every now and then, I like beans and cornbread.
The beans and cornbread about 7 days in a row.
You're getting a little tired of the beans and cornbread, you
know what I'm saying? We've lived that life.
And of course, you know, I've worked around the world with
people who couldn't scratch 2 pennies together to make a cent.
Some of the poorest people on the planet, but some of the most
joyous, glorify thankful people for every single thing that God
has blessed them with. I've told you the story before,
but my favorite honorarium of all time ever sharing in a
church was in the largest refugee camps in the world with
the South Sudanese and old red dirt tin roof, tree branches
holding that roof up. No electricity.
That would be unheard of. And we worship together and
worship together. And after the service, they
asked me to come and stand in front of the pulpit.
And I thought the service was over, but they were just getting
started. And the women of the church
began to chant and sing and dance down the aisle.
And they gave me that live chicken.
And so I held that live chicken in one arm, shaking hands with
everybody, thanking them for being there.
We took that chicken home with us and ate it the next day.
And let me tell you, that's the toughest chicken I've ever had
in my life. I don't know what that chicken
had been through, but it was merciful.
It was merciful to for him to give his life for the gospel.
I'm telling you, Teresa actually gave me a little toy rooster, a
little toy chicken that I keep in my office to remind me of my
favorite honorarium. Listen.
And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour
to his span of life? What are we accomplished by it?
Absolutely nothing. And so we can't fret over what
might happen. Life is worth much more than
that. It's a gift, it's an investment.
So there's some problems with money, but let's also learn some
principles. Let's let's move off the
problems and let's learn some some principles that'll help us.
So look at verse 31. It says instead, So note that
transition, but instead instead do this, don't do that, do this,
seek his Kingdom and these things will be added to you.
It's a huge word instead, not that way, but this way Jesus
says, and so here are just a few things he says seek God's
provision. That's the first thing.
Have this goal. This is the primary goal,
Accomplish this goal. Be a growing disciple in God's
Kingdom. We're going to provide
definitions for that. We're going to provide
directions for that. We're going to provide
destinations for that in just a few weeks.
We're working on, in fact, pray for a meeting coming up on June
17th where we're meeting together in a huge workshop and
we're going to be coming out the other side with some
discipleship language. So do the work that God gives
you and allow him to provide you with purpose.
Allow him to provide you with direction and the resources to
fulfill that purpose, right? He's here to help you.
He's here to, to, to give you the resources that you need.
It reminds me, this is a true story.
I want to know a pig farmer. And, and I was out there and he
raised pigs. That's what he did.
He was a, a, a pig farmer and he raised big pigs.
You know, you ever seen a really big pig about the size of
Volkswagen? Some of them you feel like.
And he raised big pigs. And I was out there one day with
him and he picked up a baby pig. And that, you know what, what
you do when you pick up a, what that pig does when you pick up a
baby pig. Anybody here have pigs?
Yeah. Start squealing Their their
their little mouths off and so that little pig just is
squealing away and within a minute he had about £2600 Mama
pigs come running toward him all squealing.
Leave my kid alone. Help was coming.
So just squeal a little bit and see what God does for you
because we have mighty resources.
He goes on in chapter 12, verses 6 and seven, he says they're not
5 sparrows sold for 2 pennies and not one of them is forgotten
before God. Why?
Even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
Fear not, you're of more value than many sparrows.
I've just made it easier on God with my head.
That was a joke. Sometimes the timing's not
there. Sorry.
Or listen to what Paul writes to a church that just seemed to
struggle with all kinds of things.
He wrote to the church at Corinth in Second Corinthians
98, he says, and God is able to make all grace abound to you, so
that having all sufficiency in all things at at all times, you
may abound in every good work. And do you see those all's in
every. This is a God who can provide.
He's a God who has you. He's a God who understands what
you need and can help you. And so he goes on.
Jesus continues in 1232. Fear not, little flock, for it
is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.
So not only do do we recognize that we need to seek His
provision, but we can also be secure in His pleasure.
Everything of true value. Now listen to me.
Everything of true value in your earthly existence is given to
you by God. Anything else is temporary.
Anything else is fleeting. Anything else will be sold for
pennies on the dollar. But God gives us true value, so
we need to surrender our fear. Tie these lessons together.
Work hard with the opportunities He gives you.
That's part of your stewardship of life.
Work hard, earn what you're supposed to earn, be the best
employee at the at the company, earn what you can, but also
trust the Father because he seeks to give you a Kingdom and
he's gone to prepare a place for us in that Kingdom and we can
bank on it. Listen, the delight of his life,
the delight of God's existence, which is the whole purpose of
our existence, is, is to find ways to not just give us daily
needs, but to give us His Kingdom.
We are joint heirs with Christ, and we don't need to worry about
the small stuff. In an obscure passage, perhaps
from the Old Old Testament, listen to Habakkuk chapter 3.
Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit beyond the
vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no
food. The flock be cut off from the
fold and there be no herd in the stalls.
Doesn't sound very good, does it?
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my
salvation, because it doesn't depend upon my earthly
circumstance. This is, it doesn't depend upon
my state of earthly being. It doesn't sound like they had
very much in earthly terms, but they had the Lord and that was
plenty. It was enough for real joy.
And we need to be careful. So be careful about trying to
keep up with the Joneses. Don't try to keep up with them.
They're not paying their bills anyway.
They got everything on a credit card and and owe everything to
that anyway. Don't try to keep up with the
Joneses. Instead, listen to what he
writes to the church at Philippi Philippians chapter 4.
He says in verse 12, I know how to be brought low and I know how
to abound in any and every circumstance.
I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger,
abundance and need. And then he goes to verse 19
eventually, and my God will supply what everything, all
things. He'll provide every need of
yours according to his riches, His riches in glory in Christ
Jesus. My life isn't dependent upon my
riches. My life isn't even my own.
I've been bought with a price I no longer live.
He lives and I depend upon his riches right now.
Listen to how Jesus concludes his lesson for us.
We we've discussed some of the problems that we've seen some of
the principles, but we need to go one step further.
So let's talk about some practices.
Here's some practices practices. That's the word sorry for money.
Chapter 12, verse 33. Sell your possessions and give
to the needy. Provide yourselves with money
bags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that
do not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
So so dedication to Jesus is more than simply becoming worry
free. Not that simplistic, not that
shallow. It's loving and living like Him.
So here are a couple. Here are a couple of practices
#1 invest in sacrificial service.
He in fact, remember what Paul said about the Macedonian
churches. He's, he's trying to help the
church at Corinth by giving them a good example from other
churches. And so this is what he says for
in for in a severe test of affliction.
And what In other words, they were hurting.
They, they weren't wealthy. They weren't overflowing with
abundance in the earthly terms, but listen to this in in a
severe test of affliction. Their abundance of joy and their
extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on
their part. In other words, part of what
part of what the apostles had to do at some point is take up an
offering. They took up a collection
because the the, the believers back in Jerusalem were having a
very hard time and they needed help.
And so they were actually collecting from other churches
and the churches of Macedonia stepped up.
Even in the midst of their own struggles, even in the midst of
their own problems, they stepped up.
They were incredibly happy, though desperately bored.
And so that pressure triggered something totally unexpected.
Instead of saying we can't, they actually had an outpouring of
pure and generous gifts. See.
So, So don't be tempted by your earthly money bags.
Don't be tempted by your purses that will just grow old and rot
and be ruined. We need purses that will never
ruin. We need heavenly treasures
because earthly treasures are susceptible to thieves.
And I'll probably spend too much time telling you stories about
me and my life, but I, I, I, I want most illustrations to just
be authentically personal and real.
My childhood home was broken into at least three times in my
lifetime, maybe more before that because it was in the family for
so long. But I remember 3 different
burger, burger, that word, whatever that word is.
I remember 3 different times people robbed us.
Justin. I'll edit that out later.
He really won't Burglary. Thank you very much.
God bless you. Thank you all.
Good night, everyone. I used to stutter as a child.
You'd be amazed. Anyway, it's always fascinating.
So my, my childhood home was broken into at least three times
that I, I can remember. I've been robbed twice at
gunpoint personally. You, you know when a man has a
Vietnam era M16 barrel resting on your heart and he says, I
want all the chickens from your camp.
You know what you do? How would you like those
stacked, Sir? Would you like them vertical?
Horizontal. How can I load those for you?
You give them all your chickens. I've been pickpocketed.
Teresa remembers that one. And then Teresa and I have had a
previous home on the edge of inner city when we were working
with St. gangs and police officers and some inner city
situations. We had our previous home, they
literally took a sledgehammer to our front door, busted the front
door in, pulled in a van to the garage and literally emptied the
house. They even took the only copy of
our wedding video. And so they took everything.
Everybody say, oh, that's right. I mean everything.
Oh can openers, I mean everything.
I later found out it was a street gang that was just
testing whether or not I'd stick around or not, but they didn't
give me my stuff back so and so. With all that being said, you
all may not want to hang out with us.
I don't know. All I know is don't become too
attached to your stuff. Don't let it be your God.
Don't let it be the leader of your life.
Instead, invest your resources into Kingdom work.
Give so that others may be blessed.
Give it so that God can bless you.
You know, it's kind of like Mark Twain once attended a church
service where a missionary appealed for funds to evangelize
overseas. And after 10 minutes of a
description about the unhappy plight of the lost overseas, he
said I wanted to give $50. And then he said the preacher
kept on another 15 minutes. And that gave me time to realize
that $50.00 was an extravagance. So I cut it in half and at the
end of another 10 minutes I reduced it to $5.
And when at the end of an hour of speaking the plates were
finally passed, I was so annoyed.
I reached in and helped myself to 1/4.
Heavenly treasures give no cause for worry.
Therefore, let me give you some keys to managing your money.
Very simply, we have to recognize God as the owner of
all of our money, and we're simply a steward.
That's true of life as well as money.
We need to commit to, to giving a first fruits tithe faithfully
and regularly to His Church because that represents #1 #2
helps us represent number one. We give a first fruits tithe
offering because that's what they used to do long before the
law, long in the early part. I'm reading through Exodus again
right now and every first born is dedicated to the Lord and,
and our tithe just represents that.
That's all that is. It's representing that every
single thing I have, every single thing I earn is really
yours. Thank you for allowing me to
keep part of this so that I can provide for my family, so that I
can use it to invest in in earthly things.
But I want to give a portion of that back at the very beginning
to acknowledge that I recognize that this is all yours and that
you're loaning the rest of this to me and I appreciate it.
In fact, there was a synagogue in New Jersey.
You may not know this about synagogues, but they'll
actually, they actually have do's.
And so there's a synagogue in New Jersey.
This is in the news that recently sued some members for
back dues. And so when joining, members
actually sign a contract for goods and services in the form
of annual dues which cover those expenses.
And a court ruled a synagogue is free to sue its members for non
payment of dues. Where's the finance team?
I just thought I'd bring this to our next meeting.
Don't worry, I'm not getting any ideas.
You're welcome. And those of you listening to
the podcast, keep listening. It's not over yet #3 just
remember your responsibility of discipleship to your family.
Now, now listen to this, this very real, significant point I
want to make. Remember that your families are
your, your, your primary base of ministry.
And part of your discipleship responsibility is to take care
of your family. Part of what we talked about in
our lesson on work is we are to provide.
We should do that. And so I do know families and
churches and I've known them who are in constant financial
trouble because they actually gave away too much.
They would actually give away, they couldn't pay their bills or
take care of their own families properly.
But when they encountered somebody in need or or heard of
something, they gave away what they didn't even have.
So there's, there's a balance of responsibility and discipleship
here. So after you meet your basic
needs, not necessarily your wants, but your basic needs,
then then we think about how we can invest to help others.
But you have a discipleship responsibility to your family.
If if you're single to yourself and we need to take care of our
families, number 4, then we can give sacrificially to meet the
needs of others and to support additional Kingdom work beyond
the tithe to special gifts and offerings, which you all dingo
would do a good job of. So, so don't worry about what
you what you have or or don't have to give.
That's not the amount's not the issue at all.
It's proportion. It's in proportion to everything
that you've received right. How can I work through this
balance and priority? Because giving the stewardship
idea is just an act of worship. Money management is an act of
worship. See, these are gifts from God.
So God didn't or Christ didn't say.
He never said you can't serve God and have money.
That's not what He said. He says you can't serve both God
and money. So priority #1 is serve Christ
and be that steward. And so we want to invest in
sacrificial service. Verse 34 of Luke 12 says for
where your treasure is there, where your heart be also.
So the second thing, the second practice we've talked about for
a minute is to investigate your heart.
So it's not the extent, it's not the amount of wealth that a
person has. It's not the extent of 1's
possessions. It's it's the place that it has
in your life. It's the priority it has in your
life. It's the direction of your
heart. Is, is it heavenward or is it
earthbound? That's what Jesus is concerned
about. It says you need to choose where
you want to store your treasure. Your, your heart.
Your heart will focus on where your treasure is.
Ignore God and and spend all your physical, emotional and
mental energy on the world's goods and on earthly success
like my family did. Or or trust God and spend your
efforts on Kingdom matters. We we have no right to be proud
of our money. It's going to be gone soon
anyway. One way or the other, we should
be about the business of investing in the Kingdom, that
that's where our heavenly treasure is accumulated, right?
That's where we can actually store up.
See Augustine or Augustine, depending upon what part of
North Carolina you're from, says where your pleasure is, there is
your treasure. Where your treasure is, there's
your heart, and where your heart is, there's your happiness.
And so if you really want to find Shalom, you really want to
find peace, you need to recognize that where your heart
is, is going to give you and lead you to that place.
And so the things that affect your heart can be your friend or
your enemy in this search for peace.
If our goal is money, Satan's served.
If our goal is the Kingdom, our money becomes ministry currency
and God's honored by that. And so think about how you use
what you have. He'll make certain we have
enough. God is not broke and and I mean
God can make money out of rocks, but we have to think about how
we're investing. There was an actual sign in a
hospital that said this is this is not even a joke said due to
current budget cutbacks. The light at the end of the
tunnel will be turned off until further notice.
It's an actual sign. We have to trust in him.
The lights are never turned off. I always, whenever I'm in this
passage, I, I often think of my grandfather's business.
And I think when it came time to shut down that office and we
actually sold the office to the Cherokee Nation and we had to
deal with an 1880s safe that that the building was actually
built around. It was a freestanding safe very
much like you would find on an old railway.
Think of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid or something.
I mean, it's just like one of those old safes you'd find on a
rail car that somewhere he had obtained before they built the
building and they actually had to put that in there first
before they could build the walls.
And we had to figure out what are we going to do with this
three ton safe, right? Are we going to bust out the
cement blocks? Are we going to take?
Because that's what the building was made out of.
It wasn't a wooden structure. It was cement block everywhere.
Are we going to bust out the blocks and the windows and the
doors in order to get the safe out?
Well, for years we didn't know what was in the safe.
As kids, you can imagine we were mesmerized by that.
You know, I'd go in the office and I was playing Cowboys and
Indians or something and that, you know, I was going to be the
safecracker, you know. And for years we didn't know
what was in the safe. Dumber than that, nobody had the
combination to the safe. So for years we didn't know what
the combination was. So finally, no joke, in a drawer
someplace, scribbled on the bottom of something, somewhere
with the combination to the safe.
I mean, it's Al Capone time. You ready?
We're going to open up the safe, and we're going to find gold
bars. What are we going to find?
Silver coins? Civil war might.
What are we going to find in there?
Because my grandfather was, you know, born in 1879.
What are we going to find in the safe?
I'll never forget the Vance vault.
Dun, Dun, Dun. We finally cracked the safe.
Big. I mean, those doors are that
thick. I mean, surely there's something
valuable being guarded in here. Surely there's something
important. And and we open up the door.
I mean, it takes two of us to push the doors back.
The safe. Safe is as tall as I am.
It's a massive thing. We're pushing it back.
And you know what's inside? Dust.
The most highly protected dust in Cherokee County, Oklahoma.
And so not only was there nothing in the safe, but we
still had to pay to get the stupid safe moved out of the
building with a crane. Funny our perspective in it.
Let me go back to the beginning. How do we define value?
How do we label something as important?
How do we discover whether or not we've been successful?
How are you measuring that? Are you envious?
Do you covet? Or are you just trying to
survive because you don't have enough?
Truly, literally, we could have both ends of the spectrum in
this one room. People who don't have enough to
pay their next bill and people who can't don't even know how to
pay a bill because they have someone else do it for them.
What is valuable to you? Jesus was just trying to help
them to understand that here I am right here with you.
I'm right here in your midst. And what I'm saying to you about
the Kingdom of God, that's value.
That's what's important, Not how much you have, not how much you
don't have. Because I promise you, your soul
is not your own. Your life is not your own.
And as I've shared in multiple illustrations with you, we have
no guarantee. We have no idea how long, what's
going to happen next. When I was in school, after I
was a believer, there was a kid who sat next to me named Phil,
and Phil used to just irritate the fire out of me.
He knew I was a Christian and he was not.
And not only would he poke fun at me, he would sit there and
flash pornographic things in front of me in class just just
just to irritate me, just to egg me on.
There are days I just wanted to pick up Phil and toss him out of
the room in the name of Jesus. But but God convicted me and
says you need to share the gospel with Phil.
So I, I, I, I, I was praying that night and I, you know,
tomorrow I'm going to share the gospel with Phil.
I go to class, Phil's not there, and he's not there the next day,
and Phil never comes back. Phil would ride his bike to
class and Phil had been hit by a truck and killed the very night.
I was praying about leading him to Jesus this very night, this
very day. You don't know your soul belongs
to Me. Your life is alone.
Be very careful where your focus is.
Be very careful where your heart is.
Be very careful what you're seeking so desperately that you
seek Him first. Father, thank you for life.
Thank you for this gift that we do not deserve nor could we
create. Father you, you are the miracle
worker who brings life. And Father, I thank you that you
give us these years sometimes just a few moments.
You know, as I get older, Father, every cliche about
growing old and time become more true, flying by.
Just yesterday, just yesterday, Lord, I was just, just just
yesterday. My kids were were a vapor, a
mist. But Father, what a wonderful
mist you've given us. What a wonderful, vaporous
opportunity we have to live and to live abundantly, to live with
joy, to live with purpose, to live in relationship with you.
The honour, the privilege of knowing you, of praising you, of
thanking you, of giving you the credit for this thing called
life and anything and everything, anything possibly
good that we might accomplish, whether it's it's something in
the church or something at work or something at school,
anything. Father, we give you all the
credit. Thank you for loaning US time.
Thank you for loaning us breath. Thank you for loaning us
heartbeats and opportunities. And Father, because we're still
here right now, because we're still here in this second, we're
still here in this moment. That means that we're not quite
done, that you still have purpose, you still have
investment. You still have reason for us
being here. And Father, if you, Terry, if
you don't blow the trumpet, if you don't bring us home and
we're still here tomorrow, that means there's a reason.
And Father, I pray we invest in that reason.
And Father, I thank you for jobs.
I thank you for work. I thank you for money.
I thank you for resources. I thank you for the opportunity
to feed my family, to take care of my bills.
I thank you for that. But Father, never let that over
shadow my responsibilities to you and to one another, to the
Kingdom. And so, Father, thank you so
much for this opportunity just to be in your word for a minute
to talk about you, to talk about how you are the provider and the
sustainer, and we owe everything to you.
Father, help us to remember those verses that we have been
purchased, we have been redeemed, we have been bought
back, and we no longer live, but Christ lives in US.
And Father, I pray, Lord, that we will live our lives that way,
that we will be testimonies. Thank you, Father, for the
privilege of gathering in this place.
For those who are listening online, I pray that if there
anyone, anyone who's listening to this and they recognize that
the priorities of their lives are not in proper order, that
they're all messed up, that they're seeking the wrong
things. Much like my brother declared on
my mom's deathbed that he was living for all the wrong
reasons, even as he had money and resources, mansion, yacht,
everything, he knew that was nothing.
So, Father, I pray that we find real value.
I pray we understand it and we appreciate it and we thank you
for it. Father, thank you for your word.
I pray you'll bless us. Thank you, Father, for those
listening online, wherever they are, I pray that if you're
speaking to their hearts that they'll reach out to us at the
church, that we might reach back out to them and help them.
For those who are here, live that before they leave that they
would take one of us by the hand, and we might pray together
and talk together about what you're laying on our hearts.
So, Father, thank you, thank you, thank you that our barns
are full, our crops are good, but thank you, Father, when
they're not just as much because it all belongs to you and it's
all for your glory in Christ's name, Amen.
God bless you all. Thank you all so much.
Thank you so much for listening today.
And I also hope that you'll go to
ourwebsite@englewoodbaptist.com as well as our app and find many
other resources that will bless you and your families.
Thank you once again.