The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 2: Money

Episode Date: November 5, 2017

An idol demands sacrifice. - When MONEY is your idol it will SACRIFICE your relationship with God, people, and peace. - When JESUS is Before ALL things in our lives, HE made the sacrifice and we receive a relationship with God, His people, and PEACE. “ He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Jim Elliot

Amen, amen. How we doing, church? Doing all right? Everybody's looking good. If you got your Bibles, hope we do, grab them. We're going to be in 1st Timothy chapter 6 and Matthew chapter 6. We'll start in 1st Timothy, and then we will back up to Matthew. And so obviously, based on that video, today we are going to talk about money. But everybody look at me and just relax, all right, take a deep breath. At the end of the service, we're not going to take up any kind of special offering or there are no pledge cards. There's nothing like that.

In fact, if you've been coming to 1122 for a while, you know that we don't even pass that offering place. And part of the reason, a big part of the driving force in that is 2 Corinthians chapter 9, the Bible says God loves a cheerful giver that you should not give under compulsion. So I don't want to compel you to give that way. And also in the Bible, you bring to God. You don't take up from God. He doesn't take up from us. And so it also says in 2 Corinthians chapter 9 that each person should give what they have decided in their heart.

So I would highly encourage you to go ahead and write down what you had decided in your heart before you heard the sermon what you're going to bring back to God. If that number is zero, then you should deal with that with God. But the idea here is that we are talking about smashing idols, and I don't want you to respond in generosity to a sermon. I want you to live generously in response to the gospel. And so we're going to talk about money, and so many times in our world, the things that we think we own begin to own us,

and my hope through the gospel of Jesus Christ, is that as we unpack what Paul says to Timothy and 1 Timothy and what Jesus says in the sermon on the mount, that the grip that worldliness and American consumerism has on us would be let go. You see, last week I briefly mentioned that there are really just four root idols. Control, comfort, power, and applause. Control, comfort, power, and applause. And part of the reason I want to talk about the idol of money is because the way we spend money

or the way we use money will often reveal to us what deep root idol is going on in our life. For example, if you always use money to make sure things always go your way, you may have a control issue. If you use money to control your employees, to control your family, to control your spouse, then you may not have a money issue. The deeper issue may be the idol of control. Or if every time you have more money, you think more is mine and you always use money to buy more comfort things for you, then you might have the idol of comfort. But you would never say that. You would say, no, no, I just really like nice things.

Well, everybody thinks they're not like nice things. Whether you're drinking silver oak or PVR, everybody thinks it's nice. You understand? Then we all think that we like nice things. If you use money to equal status, like if you try to display your status by spending more money, then what you really might be worshipping is the idol of power. Or maybe if you spend money to impress other people, people, then the idol that you really might be worshipping is the idol of applause, because the reality

is this. Some of you are driving cars that you don't even really like that much. You just like how much your neighbor liked it, so you bought it. You're living in houses that you don't even, you don't feel like you chose the neighborhood. You feel like it chose you because it means something in everybody else's eyes if you live there. And you would say, well, I'm just keeping up with the Joneses. Well, listen, the Joneses are going to hell, so I would watch it, all right? And if your name's Jones, just trust Jesus. You don't go to hell. All right. So, It's just true. You see, here's what an idol does.

An idol is a false God, and a false God always makes promises that it just can't keep. And what money promises is it promises success or significance. That's what we're going to talk about next week. And it promises safety, and it promises security. And the problem is it just can't provide those things. You could have all the money you ever dream. You could be fully, fully invested in your retirement, the house could be paid off, the school loans, everything could be paid off. and you will not have safety or security that you think it provides.

You could get one phone call from the highway patrolman and it changes your whole life. You could have one doctor's visit and it changes everything. You could have all the money you ever dreamed of and all I'm saying, money's not a bad thing, but all I'm saying is it can't do what it promises you that will do. You see, money is giving to us by God for His glory and our joy. that money is the currency by which we glorify God primarily in three ways. This is why God gives you money. Number one, in sowing into his kingdom, with the expanse of the gospel and gospel justice to the ends of the earth.

That's one. He also gives us money to be a blessing that if we have more than we need, that we help people that don't have all that they need, we bless one another. And in so doing, Jesus says it's more blessed to give than receive. that as you go closer and closer to Christ, that becomes more and more important to you. And then the third reason is to celebrate His grace, to celebrate His grace. It's not just like some percentage is God, that all of it, all 100% of what God has given us, should glorify Him in sowing into His kingdom and blessing one another and in celebrating His grace.

And so we're going to talk about the idol of money. go to 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 6. Timothy is written by the Apostle Paul. He's an older preacher, writing to a younger preacher, who's a pastor of a church in Ephesus. And he's like, all right, Timothy, when you preach to people, you have two categories of people in your congregation. People that want to be rich and people that already are rich. And so he's going to give God-inspired instructions on what to say to these folks. So 1 Timothy, chapter 6, verse 6.

He says this, but godliness with contentment is great gain. but godliness with contentment is great gain. When he says godliness, just imagine this. You put your head down on the pillow at night and you feel good. You have a clean conscience before God. So that with contentment is great gain. Now, regardless of what you believe about Jesus, the Bible, etc., imagine what it would be like to be truly content. I mean, just imagine for a second.

Like breathe in, breathe out, and imagine that all is well in your world. that when you woke up this morning, you were really good with the way you looked. You were cool with it. We were like, awesome, that's awesome. You were good with the clothes you have, the house you live in, the car you drive, the job you have. You were really content with your children, imagine that, with your spouse, with everything in your world that you truly had contentment. On Monday night, I'm putting JP to bed. He's my 11-year-old.

And I like to ask him heart questions, not activity questions, because I want, especially as a boy growing up to a young man one day. I want him to be able to talk about his heart, especially with me and others. And so I asked feeling questions. How did you feel about this weekend, that kind of thing? Anything make you mad, sad, happy, angry, that kind of deal. And he goes, Daddy, this was the best sports weekend of my life. I go, yeah, well, tell me about that. He goes, well, on Friday, he pitched in a baseball game.

He won on Saturday. He won on Saturday afternoon. We went to Everbank Field and watched the glorious Georgia Bulldogs do what they did. Praise God, the greatest game I've ever been to in my life. Can I get a... All right, and so that was awesome. He went with me. Then on Sunday, he pitched in an all-star game, pitched two shed-out inning.

So everything went well, and he just goes, Daddy, even the Jaguars are playing good. So what is he saying? He's saying, like, I'm content. But what he's talking about is a circumstantial contentment. Because that week, those four days, everything went well sportswise in his life. And if any of those things change, then so would his contentment. And so just imagine, though, what if you had a contentment that wasn't circumstantial? What if you had a contentment that was supernatural?

that's what the Bible offers. We'll get to it in 42 minutes and 12 seconds. But Paul, in Philippians chapter 4, he talks about a supernatural kind of contentment. From a prison cell, he jocs down to these words. And he says this, he says two things. He says, it's a secret, but you can learn it. And so imagine that regardless of your circumstances, that you could breathe in, you could breathe out, you could lay your head down on the pillow at night, and truly say, regardless of the circumstances,

around you. Regardless of your job, how much you owe, how much you have, don't have, whatever, and you could truly say it is well with my soul. This is what the scriptures offer through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, money promises things that it cannot deliver all, but only the one true God can. And so Paul says, but godliness with contentment is great game. Verse seven, for we brought nothing into this world, and we cannot take anything out of this world. My daddy used to quote this all the time. He said, boy, the Bible says I brought you in this world, I'll take you out. I was like, no, I think that was Bill Cosby. The Bible says something else, all right? It says, what the Bible is offering here is perspective.

You brought nothing in. You're not taking anything with you, okay? There's no trailer hitches on a hearse. They're irrelevant. Nobody needs to take a U-Haul to the cemetery. Why? Because it's all staying here. It's all staying here. Everything you think you own, you don't own. You don't own anything. I don't own anything. We are merely stewards of something for a little while. everything we have, we'll stay here, and we'll take all your stuff when you're going to sell it in a host closet. So you're going to tithe some way, one way or the other, all right? It's all going to the Lord. And so, it's just true.

So with that in mind, with that in mind that you brought nothing in, you're taking nothing out, verse 8. But if we have food and clothing, with these, we will be content. To which we ought to say, okay, really? Is there anybody here at that level of contentment that you would just go, all right, a cheloup in some pants, and I'm all set. That's all I need. But wouldn't it be amazing? Wouldn't it be amazing if just the minimum to make it through life that we would be content with that? Verse 9.

But those who desire to be rich. Okay, let's be honest here. I know you can be honest in your last church, right? That's why you're here. Let's be honest. Anybody desire to be rich? I'll go first. Man.

All right. The reality is we are rich. We'll talk about that in a minute. You know what I desire? Er. Rich er. Rich, fine. Rich er, better.

That's what I like. See, it's er. Er is better. And we do. We get this things happen in us. And he says, so watch out all of us that desire to be rich or rich er. Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation into a snare. Here's the problem with desire to be rich.

It's a trick. It's a trap. It's a lure. It's a snare. From the beginning, the enemy has been creeping around trying to trick us. And one of the lures, one of the snares that he uses is a desire to be rich. If you'll remember in the book of 1 John, John says, Do not love the world of the things of this world.

For all this world has to offer is the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. The lust of the eyes means I see something and I want it. But as I take hold of that thing, it begins to take hold of me. He says, watch out. It is a trick. You say, the thing about a lure, if you go bass fishing, as you should.

You live in Florida. If you're not, you're wasting your time. So that's why God made you live here. You should do something about that. And so when you fish with a lure, it is alluring to the bass. The problem is it's got a big hook. And the same thing is true with the lust of the eyes, the desire to be rich, because it's a trick, it's a trap into many senseless and harmful desires

that plunge people into ruin and destruction. To which you go, well, not me. I'm just trying to make a nice living. Okay, anybody knows somebody that lost a relationship over money. Anybody know somebody? The family used to be really close and then grandma died and when they got to the will there was a disagreement and now these parts of the family don't even do Thanksgiving together anymore. This is what he's talking about. Anybody know people that they launched a business together and everything was fine when they were broke and they had nothing. But then they started making some bank and they couldn't agree on the percentage and who did what and one guy sold another guy out. And these two guys, they don't even talk to each other anymore.

I mean, come on, man. You see how this isn't just theological concept? These are actual events that, be careful, man, because those who desire to be rich, we fall into a temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge us into ruin and destruction. First ten, for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Now, it does not say that money is the root of all evil, but a love of money. You were not created to love money. You and I were created to love God and love our neighbors and to use money to love God, to love God, and love our neighbors. But the problem is, if we begin to love money,

then we will also shift and begin to use God and use one another to support our love for money. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. It is through this craving, underline that word craving. See, that's like an appetite word. It's through this craving. A love of money is a craving.

It's an appetite. Here's the thing about appetites. They will never be fully and finally satisfied. The other thing about an appetite, It says now, it says more. And if you feed an appetite, it does not satisfy it. It grows the appetite. You know this to be true.

I know this would be true. One of my friends, you know him too. Pastor Ryan Kwan, he comes in every year or so and he preaches here. Passes the church in San Francisco. He used to be a competitive eater. Like one of those dudes that would eat 57 hot dogs on 4th of July. You know those guys? In a minute.

And I'm like, bro, what do you win? Guess what you win? Hot dogs. Ha ha. You get a lifetime supply. hot dogs. That must be like 10 trillion hot dogs. If you can eat 57 in a minute, I don't know how you eat how you eat them all your life. But they do, okay? And I ask him, so how do you, how do you train for that? You do not train for that by starving yourself. You're trained for

that by eating, eating, eating. He would eat multiple pizzas at a time. He would eat pounds of watermelon because it expand your stomach and then it goes away and you can eat it again. And one time he ate 13 Burger King Western Whoppers. 13. And we wants and he want a t-shirt. You see, it's a craving. It's just a craving. And the more you feed it, I'm telling you, the bigger, bigger, big. No matter what you make right now, most Americans think, if I just had 20% more, then I'd be all set. I'd be all set. But 10 years ago, if somebody who told you what you make right now, then maybe you'd be like, wow, that'd be awesome. But eventually it's not awesome, right? Because if you spend all you have on you, you will

never, ever be satisfied. It is a craving. It goes on to say that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. You see, what Paul is saying to Timothy is, hey, man, people don't want to be rich. You better warn them. Better warn them. If that becomes an idol in their life, I'm telling you, it leads to ruin and destruction. In fact, anytime we at church talk about money, there's always some people that leave. And they always leave and say, you know what, the money just, I mean, the church just wants my money.

No, everybody I've ever met that said that, what they're really saying is, I want all my money. I want all my money. And the problem with that is when money is an idol in your life, it will let you down. It will trick you. It will ensnare you. It will bust up and break up what God has in store for you. And so the reality, it says, some have wandered away, wandered away. Every single one of us, particularly when it comes to money, we are prone to wander.

Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. And if we wander away from God, we'll tend to wonder towards something else. especially, listen, we live in a culture where people much smarter than you and I spend billions of dollars a day to get us to buy into the lie of American consumerism, which says, if you buy this stuff, it will make you more valuable. And it's just a lie. It will let you down. Even if you make all the money you ever hoped and dreamed you could make, it will not do what only the one true God can do in your life. And so then when you get down to verse 17, now Paul's going to talk to the rich people. Paul says, Timothy, all right, so talk to the people that want to be rich, which is most to all of us. And then there's some people that have already made it, verse 17, so talk to them for a minute.

As for the rich in this present age. By the way, what's the problem when the Bible says, all right, rich people pay attention? Nobody ever thinks is talking to us. I mean, I look at this. I'm like, I know some rich people. Y'all need to read your Bibles, all right, because I'm just a poor old country preacher. That can't be me. You know, rich is relative.

Now, we don't think we're rich because we don't feel rich. And the reality is that rich is just a relative term. And I've told you this a million times, but I think it's important information. Do you know that if your annual household income is $35,000 a year, you're in the top 1% of richest income earners on the planet? So congratulations. Most of you in the room, you're making bank. And I'm always waiting for the one guy of black.

See, I told you, Martha, we knocking it down, 35K. Hey, rich. If you make $25,000, you're in the top 10%, that's an A when I went to school. So you're A level rich. If you make $25,000 or more, that is us. So as for the rich, which is most of us in this room, all right? Like if you've got a car, you're rich.

If you matched up your shoes with your belt today, you're rich. Okay, if you have those kinds of options, then we're rich people, okay? And it says, so as for the rich, in this present age, charge them not to be haughty. Okay, if you're in your 20s, that's not haughty, it's haughty. Okay, those are two different things. It means don't think too much of yourself. Don't look at your bank account and the things that you spend money on and go, yeah, that's me, man, I'm awesome. Because the Bible would be like, bro, you ain't that awesome.

How do you think you made that money? And I know, some of us would be like, because we're Americans and individualistic, and we would go, whoa, well, I worked hard. when everybody else was partying, I was studying. When everybody else clocked out at five, I stayed till 10. Well, yeah, you should work very hard as unto the Lord. But what it's saying here is, but you began with the things that God gave you. Like, you didn't pick your parents. You didn't manage the educational and vocational opportunities that made you rich.

You didn't get to pick the country you lived in, the time where we live. I mean, you didn't get to pick any of those things. Every single thing we have is a blood-bought gift by God for us, for His glory, and our joy. should be grateful not entitled. And if you are haughty about the money that you make, then you look silly, you look silly to heaven. I think what this verse is implying is, is if you are haughty about whatever riches and resources you have, you look like the teenage boy in Pontivina driving his mom's B&W. Nobody looks at that guy and goes, that guy is awesome. We all look at that guy and go, nope, that guy's a turd. No, he's a turd. The girl's at his school thinks he's a

turd. Everybody knows he's a term. His mom thinks he's a well-polished, beautiful turd, but we know that dude's a turd. And so don't get up there and rev your engine. What you ought to do is get to the light, roll down the windows and go, this isn't my car. We go, we know, bro, we know. Drive on, turd. All right, because his mom and dad worked really, really hard to provide him with something that he didn't necessarily earn. In the same way, for the rich in this present age, charge us not to be haughty. Don't think you're that awesome, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of rich. You see, here's the problem with riches. There's no problem with them in and of themselves.

The problem is, is we take our hope and we put our hope in riches because it cannot do for us what we hope that it will do. It cannot provide significance. It cannot provide security. It cannot provide safety for us. So don't do that. Why? Because they're uncertain. They're uncertain.

Anybody remember 2008? Listen, man, this was written. And this was written from a jail cell 2,000 years ago, and yet the apostle Paul saw 2008 coming. Remember a man in seven, everybody's building a house, and it was worth three times more than it was when you swung the hammer on the first day? Everything's going awesome. And then what happened? Pop. And then anybody that had put their hope in riches, they were let down.

Why? Because it is just uncertain. And so who's to say, who's to say, regardless of how much you have right now, who's to say you're going to have enough 10 years from now? You're not. You may. You may not. way, you put your hope in God, why? Because he will never leave you because he is certain. So it says, so don't set your hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God.

In other words, put your hope in God, put your trust in God, put your faith in God, put your significance, put your security, put your salvation, put those things in God. Why? Because he is certain. Every time I see this, man, I get this image in my head of trust or faith, like a kid, man. You wake up every day and you've got this big ball of hope and you can put it in your bank account or you can put it in the Lord. One of them will let you down and one of them will not. And when you put your hope in God, he will never let you down. And he doesn't necessarily promise to give you everything you want, but he will give you what you need and what you need is more of him. He's got the whole world in his hands. And I know I've told you this 10,000 times. I'll tell you 10,000 more. But when I see these verses, my mind automatically goes back to me like in the first grade going fishing with my dad. We went fishing every weekend. Every weekend.

We go to the Little Petey River between Dylan and Florence. Florence was like the big city where if you wanted to go to the mall, then that's where you had to go to. And we didn't go like big fancy fishing like some of you. We had a John boat that my dad, Joseph Perry Martin Jr., and his dad, senior, mate. And I'm the third, JP's the fourth, we're really not us, whatever, okay? And so we would go fishing every single weekend.

And you know what I worried about? Nothing. Why? Because my daddy was with me. He had everything under control. We'd ride around in the boat. I'd sit up front. He'd sit in the back.

My brother Russ would sit on the cooler in between us, and he'd do all those dad jokes. How fast are we going? We're going wide open. You know, that kind of jump? Where'd you catch that one? Right in the mouth. You know, all that stuff?

It's what we'd do every weekend. And we'd fish with cane poles and a box of crickets, and we didn't know catch and release. That's what communists did. We ate what we called, all right? Everything, whether it was a catfisher or a brim, whatever it was. If you called it, you ate it. That's how we did.

And, man, I didn't worry. Did I worry about a fishing license? No, I don't know that he did either, but I didn't worry about it. Did I worry about how we were going to get there? No, our 73 Chevy with three on the column. We'd hop in that thing and take off, man. It had an eight-track cassette player. Somebody would Google it, okay?

And we had one eight-track. Johnny Cash ring of fire. We'd listen to it the whole way. Up hell into a burning ring of fire. And it smelled like a ring of fire there, too, because he smoked like a freight train. And we'd open that little triangle window so we didn't suffocate to death, all right? straight up my brother who's a cop now which makes me laugh would stand in the middle of the bench seat

the whole way right he'd just stand there why were we worried about safety no man my daddy had that move right there get back all right he had to get back move with the robo arm in case we hit the brakes too hard and i've told you this one time i'm fishing for an hour and later and i found the seat belt between the seats i was like daddy what's this he's a boy took that thing back in there it's going to fly around hurt somebody okay daddy that's it man so how silly would it be in the first grade if I were to look at my heavenly father, or my earthly father, who wanted to take me fish in and be like, nah, I got this. I got this.

I'd be totally in over my head. And yet so many times, man, we make a little bit of money as compared to the creator and giver of all good things. And we look at him and we got, no, I got this. Listen, bro, you ain't got this. Don't put your hope in the uncertainty of riches because it is a hopeless endeavor. Even if you make all the money you ever hoped and dream to make, it will not give you what you thought it would give you. But put your hoping God.

Why? Because he richly provides us with everything to, what's that next word? Enjoy. He is a good, good father who loves to give good gifts to his kids to enjoy for his glory and our joy. Listen, the prosperity gospel is a lie and the poverty gospel is a lie. The gospel needs no adjective. fine on itself that God made him who was without sin to be sin for us that we would be made the righteousness of God. We just need him. We just need him. And everything that he has given us is to

enjoy. And so we should enjoy giving back to God. And we should enjoy saving for the future and for future generations. And we should enjoy spending all the rest of it. We just don't spend it all on ourselves. You see, the reality is that as a Christian, you should enjoy life more than the non-Christian. Hey, listen, if you're here and you're not a Jesus follower, you know, and you're just here for whatever reason, right, she said, in order to go to lunch or there, you've got to come to church, whatever it is, welcome. But listen, man, my steak tastes better than your steak. Why? Because I'm an adopted son of the most I got. And when you eat a steak, all you can do is enjoy the steak. That's as far as yours goes. But if you're a believer, if you're a

You're a Christian, and you slice into that bone-in ribby, and then you begin to eat it. You begin to understand that the creator of all things made my mouth, made our mouths work in such a way where taste buds would interact with a medium rare steak like Jesus would have us eat it. By the way, do not ruin God's creation with overcooking. That's a different sermon. But when it does, then you can say, bless the Lord, all my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. You see, as a believer, our worship does not terminate on the created things, but it elevates to the creator of all things. So listen to this, church people. If you aren't enjoying life, you're not doing the Christianity thing right.

You've misunderstood the gospel. That following Jesus doesn't have to be miserable. Even if your circumstances are miserable, then you understand that he is more than enough. And my circumstances do not dictate my joy, but Jesus does. He will never change. And so we are to not put our hope in the uncertainty of riches, but to put our hope in God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. And then that's the first piece of advice.

Don't think you're awesome. Put your hope in God. And then verse 18, day, this is rich people. This is most of us. They are to do good and to be rich in good works, to be rich and good works. to be rich in good works, that you're not only supposed to be generous with your money, you're supposed to be generous with your time towards God. We've made this super easy.

In just a few months, we're going to launch our fourth campus in Arlington. Amen? Anybody here live in Arlington? Praise God. We're moving in the neighborhood. And so we need you to be rich and good works, to do good, which means this. On your bulletin, if you'll open up your worship bulletin, there's a little flap over here, and it just says serve. We need to add about 600 people to our serve staff over all.

all of our locations as we launch into Arlington. So not only are we to be generous with our money, we are supposed to be generous with our time and our talents. And some of you, you don't even have to have a wonderful talent. Like if you can hold a door open. If you know the difference being open and closed, then congratulations, you're gifted and you can serve. And so a part of what it means to smash the idol of money and success and power

is to humble yourself and serve. And so for the rest of the sermon, just read this, fill out the information, check it. And it's perforated, which is Hebrew for, to tear away. And so, I don't know if it is, but that's what it means now. Okay, and you tear this away. And at the end of the service, you drop it in a giving box on your way out.

And this week, somebody will call you about taking the gospel to Arlington or any of our locations because we need to add about 600 serve staff, right? And so what we're doing is what Timothy says here. They are to do good, to be rich and good works, to be generous and ready to share. To be generous and ready to share. Anytime the Bible talks about generosity, the biblical minimum for financial generosity is 10%. It's called the tithe. It just means the first tenth.

That's what it means. And so, let me just ask you this. Are you generous or are you stingy? Are you generous or are you stingy? Now, I've never met the person in my life that sat down in my office, 25 years of ministry. Nobody's ever sat down and said down and go, you know what my problem is I'm greedy. Never. Because we can see it in everybody else.

We can almost never see it in ourselves. And so if the idea, just think about this, regardless of what you're going to do, does the idea of taking the first 10% of your income and bringing it to God, does that freak you out? Do you think, I could never do that? And if that's you, I just want to ask. I'm not asking you to change anything today. You need to ask this of your own soul. What is wrong?

What are you afraid of? it would be mismanagement of the money that God has given you. And listen, I'm not even saying to this church. If you don't trust me, whatever, pick some gospel-saturated movement to invest into the kingdom of God. But if you're a parent, if you're a parent, and you gave your oldest son $10, $1 bills and said, I want you to take one of those dollars and give it to your little sister, and he was like, I don't think I can do that. Wouldn't you think, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, I don't think you understand how this works.

You're not doing this right. And so does that freak you out? And if so, what are you afraid of? What's going on in here? How have you managed your life in such a way that the first and best that was given to you by God that you can't reflect His goodness and greatness by giving it back to him? Because I'll tell you, when you get in financial trouble, what will happen is you'll ask God, God, would you please give me more money?

To which I would ask you, if you were God, would you give you more money based on what you have been doing with the money that he's already given you? and what would it feel like? Because listen, God doesn't need your money. He doesn't need your money. He's doing just fine. In fact, he already has all of your money. Because in 100 years, you're not here. He and your money still are.

He's got it all. And so what, can you imagine? Imagine being in the kind of financial freedom where you really did love God, love your neighbor, and used money. And at the end of every month, you weren't looking for more money, but at the end of every month,

you were saying, what are we going to do with all this money? Did you know that's God's desire and hope for you? That you would do good, you would be rich in good works, you would be generous and ready to share. Verse 19, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future. It's talking about heaven. So that they may take hold of that which is truly life. That true life isn't true life until you begin to know Jesus and live like he lives.

You see, as you become closer and closer to Jesus, if you're going to do this Jesus thing and you abide in him and he abides in you, what will begin to happen is that what you consider true life will begin to change, and it will not be in the accumulation and spending of money. It won't be. But the things that Jesus valued, you will begin to value. For instance, you'll begin to value the party more than the house. Do you know Jesus like parties? For some of you, you need to hear that. Okay, you're like, I know I'd like Jesus.

Right. Jesus like parties. And some of us, what we do is we, when we're trying to make, we kind of negotiate with God. God, if you'll let me in this house, I'll use it for your glory. And then the moment we get in there,

we're more concerned about the walls and the paint than we are the people that come through the doors. But as you, can you imagine being freed of that kind of anxiety and loving the party more than the house? You'll begin to love the rides you give more than the ride you're in. You just will. You see, because eventually, man, you know, you get that car and eventually it's just a car.

It's just your car. It's got french fries in the back, smells like you. It's not that big a deal. But what begins to happen is you can begin to use that to pick up your friends, bring him to church. The closer you get to Jesus, you'll begin to appreciate the smile of a friend way more than what they think about the clothes you wore that day. The closer you get to Jesus, you'll begin to appreciate the people you serve way more than the places that you go. The closer you get to Jesus, you'll begin to appreciate the laughter around the table and care less about what table, the restaurant that you're eating. in is in. You see, what begins to happen is from the inside out, the blessings just, they're just

different. And there's freedom in that. There's great freedom in that. You see, Jesus taught a lot on money. He taught a lot of money. Jesus taught more on money than he taught on heaven, hell, and salvation all combined. Why? Because the stakes are that high. And so, if you got your Bible, back up to Matthew Chapter 6, and I want to show you where Jesus talks about money. And the reason I want to look at Jesus's words here is because I'm afraid this could be a blind spot for American evangelicals. That we may have, we may be buying in to just American consumerism and not understand that is at great odds with what it means to be a follower of Jesus. So Jesus says this in Matthew 619, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth.

And you think, well, who's doing that? I'm not doing that. We probably are. Most of us are. Did you realize that there are 33 million storage units, individual storage units in America right now, 33 million storage units? Check this out. That there are 7.3 square feet of storage unit per person in America, which means every American right now could stand in their very own storage unit. That blows me away. It doesn't impress you at all? I don't care. This blows me away. I mean, we might be storing up for ourselves treasures on Earth. The average home has 300,000 items in it, most of which are on the floor of our kids' rooms, but it's there. That home sizes have tripled in the last 50 years while family size is cut in half.

That 3.1% of kids in the world live in the United States, but yet our kids own 40% of the toys of this world. Now here's the thing. We look at that and be like, those spoiled kids. Kids don't buy their own toys. Are we damning our kids by setting them up to live? worship to idol of money? Because what you worship, you serve, man. And are we? It's really scary. It is really, because Jesus says, listen, honestly, Jesus said it's hard for rich people to go to heaven. It's hard. It's hard to get to heaven from Jacksonville because there's too much money in the way.

And so he says, don't store up for yourselves treasures on earth. Now here's the problem. Average American gives 1.9% to charity and feels great about it. Most Americans are rich and feel generous. okay but the reality is most Americans feel like they're not rich and they're actually not very generous that's a scary proposition and so it's easy to see in everybody else it's almost impossible to see yourself i walk in our walk-in closet that is the size of my college dorm room right and i look at gretchen's side of the closet and i go holy baby how many shoes do you need do they like reproduce when we are not here i mean honestly what is going on here how much is that enough because I only got enough shoes that I need, right? She's got 10 million. And then we walk into

my office and I have 14 deer mounts. And she says, how much is enough? I'm like, that's different, man. I don't know what you're talking about. That's just different. And guess what I'm going to do tomorrow? I'm going to go deer hunting, all right? I got camo for camo and it's crazy. She makes fun of me because a couple of my friends will understand, but I don't like to mix like mossy oak with real tree. And she's like, baby, you care more about what you look like in the woods than you do when you preach to 10,000 people. I'm like, I don't know. You can't be mixing up. That's crazy talk.

It's called a blind spot for a reason. And so Jesus says, don't lay up for yourselves treasures on earth. We're moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroy and we're thieves to not break in steel. So listen, how do you lay up treasure in heaven? What's the only thing you can take to heaven? People.

That's it. That's all you can take to heaven. That's all you can take to heaven. So do you know why we are relentless about launching churches around the world and relentless about launching campuses around this city because it is our effort to lay up for ourselves treasure in heaven. The only thing we can take to heaven is more people, and we think the most God-glorifying thing in the world we can do

is have more people glorifying God. That's why we are relentless about opening campuses at Bay Meadow in Arlington, everywhere, everywhere. Why? Because we want to store up, how silly is it, to spend all of our money acting like we're going to live here forever? Can you imagine if you went into a Holiday Inn Express on a Friday and you called him and said, hey, listen, I don't need to upgrade here.

I'm going to put in some granite countertops and some, you know, some hardwood floors. Mr. Martin, you're checking out on Monday, but I know, I like nice things, and so I think, I think I want to upgrade. And you're like, hold on. That would be a very poor investment. Why would you invest all of that money? You're only going to be here for a little while. So why would we invest all of that money in the temporary things of this world if we're only going to be here for a little while? And we should enjoy it for the glory of God, and we should leverage you.

The little bit of time we have and the little bit of opportunity we have to lay up for ourselves treasure in heaven, which means we invest in kingdom expanding things so more people go. Verse 21, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Where your treasure is, there your heart. It does not go the other way. It's not like if my heart is there, then my treasure follows. The Bible says that your treasure goes first, then your heart follows your treasure. You see, if I came out and I took your wallet and I walked around with your wallet for the whole service,

guess who's not taking their eye off of me for the whole service? If I left the stage and went behind this wall, some of you'd be like, that's fine, you just Twitter or something. All right. Not the brother whose wallet was in my hand. He'd be like, hey, where'd he go? Right? Because your heart follows your treasure. The best example I've ever seen in my life is in 2003 when I moved here, my boss, Pastor Jerry Swett from Beats that planted us.

He was a Florida fan. Through and through, he was a Florida fan. Okay? Nobody's perfect. And so years later, a few years later, two of his children went to Florida State. And you know what began to happen? When those checks did not go south, those checks went west. It created a hinge in his elbow.

That's what happened. You pay all that money, and that goes, okay, there it went, all right? That is. He paid a lot for that hinge, but that's what began to happen. Why? Because his treasure went there, and his heart follows. So, man, you want to know about my relationship with the Lord? Don't judge this 55 minutes of my week, which some of you do.

You know, you're like, oh, he just knows the Bible, knows the word. He brings them. I mean, look at his Bible. He's got underlines and highlights and just memorizes the scripture. And God would be like, yeah, that's cool. You really want to know where somebody's heart is? Don't check this book. Check their checkbook. Because that's where it goes. And so where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. Part of the reason why we try to be, I mean, we're just generous to the point where it hurts is because, man, I want God to have all of my heart, absolutely all of my heart. And God doesn't need your money. He doesn't even want your money. He wants your heart. And he understands that your heart is connected to money. So he says,

where your treasury is there, your heart will be also the eye of the, the eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness? Verse 24, no one can serve two masters. No one can serve two masters. To which we'll say, hey, money's not my master. Okay. Then you tell it what? to do. Take your whole next paycheck, give it away to some charitable organization. Well, I can't do that because I got bills. The Bible says the rich rule over the poor and the debtor is slave to the lender. So by definition, we have masters. We have pre-decided that this money is going to tell us what to

do instead of us telling it what to do. And God wants you to have freedom, total and complete freedom. No one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other, you cannot serve both God and money. Jesus is saying the number one competitor for your heart is money. He doesn't say nobody can serve both God and the devil. That seems like it makes sense. But he gets more practical than the devil. He says, nobody can serve both God and money because he knows that the things that we

reach out and try to take hold of begin to take hold of us. And the things that we own begin to own us. And if we're not careful, we will fall into the trap of worshiping this idol. Verse 25, therefore I tell you, don't be anxious about your life. Let's love how Jesus tells you how to feel. He goes, hey, are you worried? Uh-huh. I got bills.

I got tuition. I got payments. He goes, okay, so you're worried about that? Yeah. Stop. Okay. Well, how do I just stop? He goes, this is how.

He goes, don't be anxious about your life, what you're going to eat or what you'll drink or about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? We'd be like, sure. And then, Jesus, in this brilliant move, because he's the master teacher, they're standing on a mountain. That's why it's called the sermon on the mount. If you come to Israel with me, I'll take you there and be like, here he was. And so he's outside, and I think birds flew by and he went, look, birds, and everybody looks at the birds.

And in a minute, he's going to go, look, lilies, and everybody looks, and there's flowers. And when he talks about the birds and he talks about the flowers, he is talking about the two types of people there are on this planet when it comes to money. There are savers and there are spenders. That's just what they are. There are savers and spenders. And most often they fall in love with each other and they get married and they fight about that for the rest of their life. Can I get a witness? All right.

And so, when he's talking about the birds, he's talking about the savers. He says, look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather in the barns. And yet your heavenly father feeds them. And much to the chagrin of pita, he says this, are you not of more value than they? The people are more important than animals. Here's what he's saying to the savers. if you are finding value, hope, and security in a number on a computer screen that represent your bank account,

you're putting your security in the wrong thing. Now, the Bible talks about saving to bless your kids and their kids. But when you do this in an extreme way, what you're doing is you're removing God from the center of your life, and you're putting you in the center of your life and saying, I'm going to take care of my own security. And just, I'm telling you, only you and the Lord know if this is true of you. If you check that bank account all the time and a number makes you feel a certain way, on the inside, watch out, watch out. You may be trusting in the wrong thing. And all the spenders are like, you get them, pastor, all right? We should just be eating steaks. All right, well, he's going to

talk about us too. Verse 27. And which of you, by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And every doctor would say, actually, you'll subtract it. Verse 28, and why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field. Here he's going to talk to the spenders. He says, how they neither grow, how they grow, neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon and all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothed the grass of the field, which is today alive and tomorrow was thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, oh, you of little faith?

And so if you're a spender, and every time you get a little bit more, you think more is mine. And you go, if I could just have the new car, the new pants, the new house, I would be fully and finally satisfied if I could just get another half bath. Then he's saying, okay, listen, man, check out the lilies. they don't spend a dime and God clothes them more radiantly than King Solomon. You see, the problem with the spender is not spending.

The problem with the spender is if you are trying to find your satisfaction and significance and the things that you own. And so everything new you buy one day will fade and a relationship with the Lord will not. You see, in the most extreme ways, the savers and the spenders, the fundamental problem is that you've taken your eye, we've taken our eye off of the mission of God. The mission of God is the glory of the power. God and we've put us in the middle and we either save to make us feel better or we spend to make us feel better.

That is a big problem. We should save and spend for the glory of God because when you know him, everything changes. There's a couple right now that's on our staff and they're raising money to adopt a child. Everything changes. They eat differently. They live differently. They vacate. Everything's different.

Why? Because there is a greater mission in their family right now and every dime they can scrape up is to adopt this kid. That is the same mission that we as followers. of Jesus our own. Every single one of us are raising money for adoption to bring all the kids that will be adopted into the family of God unto him, and it should change everything about everything about the way we spend money. He says, therefore, don't be anxious saying, what shall we eat or what should we drink, or what shall we wear for the Gentiles seek after these things, and your

Heavenly Father knows that you need them all. In other words, he said, listen, when you either save all for you or you spend all on you, you're acting like an atheist. And we would go, no, no, I'm not an atheist. I love Jesus. I'm like, okay, I know you sing with your hands up in your eyes closed, but you spend money like you don't even believe there's a God in heaven. But, very famous verse, 633. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. And all these things are not houses and clothes. All these things are security, significance, and satisfaction. That's what will be added unto you. See, around here, we call it before all things. We stole that from Colossians chapter one, that he is before

all things. That God is first, Genesis 1-1, that God loves first, first John 4-10, that God went first, Romans 5-8 and John 316, and we bring to God our first and best because he first loved us by giving us his best in Jesus Christ. Verse 34, therefore don't be anxious about tomorrow for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Again, my goal here is not that you would respond in generosity to a sermon, but you and I would have the freedom to live generously in response to the gospel of Jesus Christ. After last week's sermon, one of our deacons sent this text to me. An idle demands sacrifice.

I waited all week for more, maybe a little commentary. Can you help me understand? That's all it said, okay? And I couldn't get that one statement out of my brain. An idol demands sacrifice. You see, because an idol is a false God, and a false God demands sacrifice. And so if money is your idol, it will demand a sacrifice.

And if money is your idol, here's what you will sacrifice. You will sacrifice a relationship with God, a relationship with people, and you will sacrifice peace. It's just true. That's like water is wet. It is just true. If money is an idol for you, you will sacrifice your relationship with God because you will be willing to do things that are against God's plan and purpose for you.

You will lose character and integrity for the sake of money. You'll cut corners and cut people to get there. And God will not bless disobedience. It will cost you. a relationship with God. And it will cost you a relationship with people. I'm telling you, man, you miss tucking in those babies a bunch of times. You miss a bunch of ball games. Why? So you can go and make more money for what? Honest to goodness, for what? Man, for 15 years, I did high school and college ministry. I never met the 20-year-old college student that hated his dad because he stayed

home and didn't make enough money. I met a million of them that had deep wounds in their hearts because their dad was chasing money over chasing down his relationship with his boys and girls. You'll sacrifice. And one day you'll look back and go, what have I done? It'll be over, man. It'll be too late. And you will sacrifice peace. You will.

You will sacrifice peace. In 2013, I bought a new truck. I'd never had a new truck in my life, okay? I bought a 2013 Ford, all right? And let me tell you this. Do you know, before that I had some beaters, man. You know, people go, is that your hunting truck? I don't know.

That's my everything truck. Okay, that's just what I'd ride in. It smells like deer because sometimes deer ride with me. Okay, so that's just it. It's what I got. You know what I worried about when I had that truck? Not much. When I would pull into a parking spot, I would rub you to get in good and be like, leave a note.

You know, seek you first. All right, something like that. Don't worry about it. And then I got the new truck, and things begin to change, man. You start pulling into a parking lot. You're like, where am I going to park? I need a trolley to get where I'm going because I had to park way out there because all of a sudden I got anxious about stuff.

If money is an idol, I'm telling you, it will demand a sacrifice. It will sacrifice. You will sacrifice your relationship with God, relationship with people, primarily your family, and you will sacrifice peace. Now here's the crazy thing. That's what a false God demands. The one true God, pay attention. He made the sacrifice.

He requires a sacrifice, but he is the just and the justifier. He made the sacrifice. And so when Jesus is before all things, then there is no sacrifice to follow him. It's like sacrifice being thirsty, sacrifice being hungry, to be fed. You see, when Jesus is both, you know, when Jesus is before all things, then. before all things in your life, he made the sacrifice. And what we get from that is a relationship with God, is a right relationship with God's people.

And we get peace that transcends or surpasses understanding. In other words, we get a peace that even when the circumstances aren't the way we hope, that it is well with our soul. So if you don't know Jesus, you'll never know peace. You might know peaceful circumstances. That's the best you can hope for. And so Paul, 2,000 years ago from a jail cell, he writes this. I told you I'd get to it.

Philippians chapter four, starting in verse 11. He says, for I have learned to be content. By the way, the Greek word for content is like your Kia, which kind of makes me laugh because we've got an IKEA coming down the road. And I think you're going to seek the wrong things, but good luck. You might lose your soul. Good luck. For I have learned to be content, whatever the circumstances.

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. And I have learned, I love this, I have learned the secret of being content. Here's what he says. It's the secret, but you can learn it. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in wanting. And then he tells us the secret. This is not a verse about scoring touchdowns. This is a verse about contentment in Christ. I can do all this through Him, through Jesus, who gives me strength. That is where supernatural contentment is found. I pray that the power of the Holy Spirit would help release your grip on the things of this world and it would release the world's grip on you and that we would smash the idol of money and that we would worship the one true God whose name is Jesus. Would you please stand and pray with me? Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we know that you love us and that you are first and you went first and you sent your son Jesus on a rescue mission for him and Jesus, I thank you that though you were rich, you made yourself poor that we could be made right with you. And God,

we pray against the idol of money. Every single one of us are prone to wonder towards the things of this earth, the shiny objects of this earth. Lord, I pray, I pray that we glorify you with everything that you have given us. That we are generous people because of the generous gospel. That we bless one another by helping people with needs when we see them. And that we enjoy all of it to your glory. Lord, I pray for the person right. now that is defensive, Holy Spirit, would you just crush that wall of hostility and released,

release the grip that the idol of money has on their heart so that they could be free to know life that is true life, a life in Jesus Christ? We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. And church, just like I promise, there's no special offering now. We're going to do the thing like we do every single week. Every week we give us an opportunity to bring back to God our first and best, because he first loved us by giving us his best in Jesus. You do that on your phone, you can do it on our website, you know how to do that.

And then we pray. And if the Spirit of God has been to convict you, man, you should praise God for the conviction of the Holy Spirit. And maybe you need to come down and say, Jesus, forgive me and empower me to live generously. And then we sing. We join our voices together to sing that Christ is enough. So let us sing and let us bring and let us pray. Let us respond.