Light Side of Money

Sermon Style Sheet

Write that down in your formation Journal

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Sermon Text

Sermon Text: Matthew 6:24-34

Call to Worship

Psalm 33:8–9 CSB

8 Let the whole earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. 9 For he spoke, and it came into being; he commanded, and it came into existence.

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5:41 - 6:24

Passage:

Formation Journal Page Number: 36

Matthew 6:24–34 CSB

24 “No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. 25 “Therefore I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Consider the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they? 27 Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying? 28 And why do you worry about clothes? Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow: They don’t labor or spin thread. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these. 30 If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t he do much more for you—you of little faith? 31 So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. 34 Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Opening Illustration:

Air conditioner in homes I purchased and then I rented a home

time 4:15

Compelling Lie - Felt/Bible revealed need

Summary of last week - we are caretakers. There is a joy in this. We don’t have to worry if God has gotten us under his care. It’s not ours. It’s God’s.

The Joy of being caretakers

You matter to God and your needs are not your problem.

But it is hard to live in this kind of freedom and joy. How do we trust him.

Jesus’s answer to this is that we are to “consider and observe” things. When we get to underlined wordsI want you to say the word out loud.

Matthew 6:26–30 CSB

26 Consider the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they? 27 Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying? 28 And why do you worry about clothes? Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow: They don’t labor or spin thread. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these. 30 If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t he do much more for you—you of little faith?

First, he wants us to consider the birds of the sky. he wants us to slow down our lives and consider and observe.

Matthew 6:26 CSB

26 Consider the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they?

and he give evidence of why this is helpful - They don’t sow or reap, they don’t gather.

My girls took a bird watching class in college and there is an app you can get that listens to the songs of the bird and they can tell you which birds they are. What’s interesting is that I tried it and I was blown away by the different variety of birds there are.

Within 30 minutes sometimes, it will recognize like 10 different bird species. There are weird ones like the black bellied whistling duck. DIdn’t even know that was a thing, but they are there and they are whistling away.

Now, we don’t think birds are that important. We may have fun identifying them and certain birds are protected. But, they aren’t the top animals. Some people have them for pets but they certainly aren’t tier 1 animals. They aren’t dogs. They aren’t cats. That’s tier 1. These are the ones that everyone pretty much loves or fears.

Nobody dreams about owning a black bellied whistling duck the way they do horses. Even hamsters are more beloved and they are just fancy mice.

We don’t think much about them but God does. He sees them and they are important to Him. Not just as a whole, but as individuals. Jesus says a sparrow can’t fall to the earth without God noticing.

And God cares for them. He gave each one a unique sound. He gave them food. He gave them a migratory pattern so that they can fly south when they need to. He engineered them like that.

So here’s the deal, if the black bellied whistling duck is important to God, aren’t you more important than that duck?

Things I am more important than: a duck

But it isn’t just ducks that you are more important than. You are also more important than wildflowers

Matthew 6:28–29 CSB

28 And why do you worry about clothes? Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow: They don’t labor or spin thread. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these.

Clothes - in those time were harder to come by

I’m going to level with you -I’m not a big lawn guy. I mow the lawn but that’s about it. Sometimes when it rains people are like, great! my yard needs the rain. I think, dang it! Now I have to mow the grass!

But one thing I’ve learned about weeds is that they grow pretty easily. And some of them are really pretty. They have nice flowers. They are different colors too. Purple and yellow and all that. They are great.

But here’s the deal, they flower is decorating a weed that useless. That’s the difference between a weed and a plant. We want plants. You go out to your vegetable garden and you pick the weeds. You throw them away. We spray them with chemicals to kill them. We don’t like weeds.

So here are these weeds, that nobody likes. And what does God do when he created them? He gave them a pretty flower. He didn’t have to do that. He could have made them ugly. Some of them are. But he gave a lot of them something colorful and beautiful. But they are worthless. We take them and throw them away.

Why would God go to all the trouble of giving these weeds a beautiful decoration?

I think it was to teach us something. If God would cloth weeds - how much more would he make sure you have clothes to wear?

Listen, you are more important than weeds and wildflowers

God is going to take care of you!

Now, why is this important? Because one of the ways the enemy tries to get us under the boot of money is to convince us that we aren’t loved by God. To try to convince us that God is overlooking us.

So jesus wants us to preach to ourselves. He wants us to talk to ourselves. Consider the birds. Observe the flowers. Know that you are more important than that!

Look at how creation went. God created everything. Stars, the moon, oceans, plants, animals.

And he paid special attention to all of them. He cared about all of them. Each individual animal. After each day of creation, god reflects on what he made and says, “it is good.”

But then he crowns off his creation by creating humans.

Genesis 1:26–28 CSB

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female. 28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.”

Listen, you are more important than ducks, than wildflowers, you are more important than any animal or star. than anything else. God loves humans the most!

But sometimes, that’s not super helpful because it can be too general. Sometimes, it feels like, Ok God loves humanity generally, but what about me personally?

That’s why I love Romans 8:32

Romans 8:32 CSB

32 He did not even spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything?

This was really helpful for me during a difficult time, when we were really suffering financially. We had moved to North Carolina and I didn’t have a job.

Here’s what it means… the gospel

their homes are gone, their food is gone, their clothes are gone, everything that concerned them is gone, but they are not gone. Because we all have souls that will last forever!

Long after their earthly concerns are forgotten their soul remains.

If you don’t know where you will end up

It means that God isn’t holding out on you. He is going to take care of you.

That’s the real power of verse 32

Matthew 6:32 CSB

32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

It’s your heavenly father who knows what you need. Not just some random. Not someone who doesn’t care but your father.

And he owns everything in the world. And he promises to take care of you.

And that’s the joy of living as a child of God. That’s the joy of living free from the rule of money and from being free from worry. You were bought with a price. You matter to God and your needs are not your problem.

That frees us up to really seek first the kingdom

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 6

33 But seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.

And this is where things can get really fun. If your mind wasn’t filled with worry about money - then you don’t have to live to build your own kingdom you can really seek after the kingdom.

One of my prayers for this sermon was that you would start to dream about how you can impact the kingdom. That’s what we said last week: How can I position myself for the kingdom. I want you to dream and have an imagination for that.

Who can I reach? who can I pray for?

I talk to a lot of people and I hear this:

SO I dream we can be a place

No matter the economics, ethnic background, or if they have a colorful past

We have been blessed with Special Needs families

Support groups, home school support, missions trips, a ministry training center…

There is no telling what God will do, if we stop serving money through the power of the resurrection and start living for his kingdom together.

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Telling the story

Hadden Robertson - The Big Idea of Biblical Preaching

Chapter Markers:

What Type of Story (different plates)

What is your City?

What is your Dragon?

What is worth defending in the old city?

What's your best line of attack?

Defining the Enemy

test

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Hitting the Wall (why we fail)

test

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Victory in Jesus

test

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Text:

Lord’s Supper:

On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 

Benediction:

The LORD bless you and keep you;

the LORD makes his face shine upon you and be gracious to you:

The LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.