The Focus of Your Finances
Teach us to Trust • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 2 viewsWe live in the truth that God is the giver of everything and has provided and will provide for all our needs. We will no longer stake claims to what is God's and learn to live in his blessing and provision. So, How do we change our focus from the falsehood of riches to faith in God? How do we learn to trust God more than money?
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
We are asking Jesus to “Teach us to Trust.”
Humanity has the knack of taking the simplicity of life and making it so complex. I often wonder what it was like at the creation of Mankind. Before God created Adam, He created a world that cleans and replenishes itself. He then makes a garden with plants that have seeds in themselves for reproduction with rivers and streams for water. And then God places Adam in this garden of Eden with a commission to keep it, subdue it, and multiply it. It was Adam and Eve's paradise: no worries, anxiety, or stress. There was no buying or selling, no need for money. God had provided all the necessities of life.
But when sin entered the picture, life became complicated. Paradise was lost. It took sweat and toil to work the cursed ground and produce the necessities of life. Eventually, The selfishness of society created money systems. We no longer wanted to share God's creation but hoard it for ourselves. Each family staked their claim on God's creation as if they could own it and possess it, leading to fighting and wars among people.
On August 11, 2023 CNN reported families are spending $709 more in July than they did two years ago. It’s touch for everyone right now. One of the hats I get to wear hear is presenting the annual budget to the elders for review and approval. I’m finalizing that process right now. You have heard me allude to the fact that these last two year have been tough on Reliant. What you might not know is after the first quarter of the year We all took a 5% housing cut and had to lay off Kim as the office manager. As i’m writing next years budget I will asking for $202K for 4 employees. That’s an average of $50,500.
Your faithfulness to the Lord and your commitment to tithe has full impact on your ability to take care of your pastors and their families. I’m not trying to guilt you. When you withhold from the Lord because times are tough you have direct effect on the pastors that care for you. Everyone of the my staff are worth $70k a year if not more. But we do what we do because we love Jesus and we love you. I need to you get this. I need you to learn from Jesus how to trust the Father. We will do what we need to do and we will be faithful to the Lord. I’m asking you to do the same thing. There are faces and families behind the dollars you give. It doesn’t go into a black hole.
Humanity had become so entrenched in the money system they believed it was the supplier of everything. Now, it was "money that made the world go round," not God. People no longer trusted in God but this idol of money and commerce. And so we find ourselves today, still worrying, still fighting, still consuming, and staking our claim on God's creation: one big ball of anxiety.
We can't change the system humanity created, but we can change our attitude toward it. When Jesus returns, He will set everything back into its original order as He stakes His claim as King of kings and Lord of lords. If we listen to the message of John, If we receive the gospel of Jesus and come back into a relationship with the Creator God, he removes all these worries, fears, and anxiety. We live in the truth that God is the giver of everything and has provided and will provide for all our needs. We will no longer stake claims to what is God's and learn to live in his blessing and provision.
So, How do we change our focus from the falsehood of riches to faith in God? How do we learn to trust God more than money?
When you focus on riches you take your eyes off the Lord.
When you focus on riches you take your eyes off the Lord.
A False Security of Treasures
A False Security of Treasures
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
The Widow’s Mite
The Widow’s Mite
41 And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. 42 And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. 43 And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. 44 For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
“She had a heart for the house of God.” Jesus recognized it and recorded it for all eternity.
“She had a heart for the house of God.” Jesus recognized it and recorded it for all eternity.
Earthly treasures are temporal and can not be stored up.
Earthly treasures are temporal and can not be stored up.
Don Evans, “Money is a tool to be used for today. You can’t take it with you so use it and use it wisely.”
16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 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. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
There is no security in earthly treasures.
Jesus calls any man a fool that focuses on riches.
Heavenly Treasures are eternal and can be stored up.
Heavenly Treasures are eternal and can be stored up.
We are rewarded for Righteousness and good works.
People of grace are the treasure of heaven.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
We should be more concerned with things above.
1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
A False Focus of Life
A False Focus of Life
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 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!
The wrong focus can choke out the word of the kingdom.
The wrong focus can choke out the word of the kingdom.
22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.
Focusing on riches can ruin your life.
Focusing on riches can ruin your life.
8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
A False Master to Serve
A False Master to Serve
24 “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 God and money.
When you focus on God your anxiety turns to faith.
When you focus on God your anxiety turns to faith.
A Father who Provides
A Father who Provides
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
More valued than the birds of the air.
More valued than the birds of the air.
26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
More glory than the lilies of the field.
More glory than the lilies of the field.
28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
A Father who Cares
A Father who Cares
31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
A Focus on God’s Kingdom.
A Focus on God’s Kingdom.
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Focus on the kingdom within you.
Focus on the kingdom within you.
20 Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; 21 nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”
Focus on the kingdom in others.
Focus on the kingdom in others.
3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
R-Group Questions:
How do you balance the thought of focusing on heavenly treasures and earthly treasures?
What is a next step that each of you can take to bring the kingdom into focus?
What does retirement for a Christian look like?