Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

Claustrophobia is the fear of being in a small space or room and unable to escape or get out.

It can be triggered by many situations or stimuli, including elevators crowded to capacity, windowless rooms, hotel rooms with closed doors and sealed windows, small cars and even tight-necked clothing.

I didn’t think I had claustrophobia until I moved to Pembine, WI.

My wife and I loved it... for the first month.

The thick Wisconsin forests reminded us of the beautiful Rocky Mountains near the Continental Divide.

But that beauty sure got old after a month.

We couldn’t ever see more than about a couple hundred feet in front of us while we were outside or driving around because of the trees.

Sure, Colorado has trees, but it is also partially a desert so there are plenty of clearings that stretch for many miles.

You can actually see the horizon on the outskirts of the suburbs!

A month after moving up here, my wife and I had to find some clearing anywhere away from the Dunbar forests.

We had to find our way out of the trees!

We had become claustrophobic from the trees!

WHY? BECAUSE I didn’t have enough space, I DON’T HAVE ENOUGH SPACE.

Oh, yes physically I had plenty of space, but somehow mentally I did not.

Space is good!

It gives us freedom —and somehow even mental freedom to be thoughtful and purposeful in how we live our lives.

We make good choices when we have space.

Perhaps it is because space is the opposite of all the pressure we have in our lives.

In our adult Sunday school Hour, we were to go through a new series starting in Genesis.

We started this series for a couple weeks, and the Lord deviated us (for a time) from that series in order to address more urgent matters, and so this morning we even addressed the doctrine of the Trinity—which does tie into Genesis, but was not part of my original plan—and that is okay!

Why? because lately, the Lord really is showing me that this is His church and not only my church.

So, today for the main service, we're starting a new mini-series that's all about making space in our finances so that they don’t restrict our ability to live the lives God is calling us to.

We will return to Revelation Chapter 6 in a couple weeks, but our Lord wants us here now.

To live that life now, we need to make room in our minds and hearts to understand how our relationship with money and possessions can affect our ability to be good stewards of God’s gifts.

THIS SERIES IS ABOUT MAKING SURE YOU HAVE SPACE TO BE WHO GOD IS CALLING YOU TO BE and there is certainly no killer to enjoying that space like pressure.

And, as many have said in the past: THERE’S NO PRESSURE LIKE FINANCIAL PRESSURE

Right now, a few of us feel like we are stuck in the middle of this endless forest of money management and we cannot see very far:

Some of us feel trapped.

We might be too embarrassed to ask anyone for help, or to find directions for us, and that we’re in the thick of it.

We don’t have enough room - and that impacts our ability to work, rest, or even to think clearly.

We need to create MENTAL SPACE.

Most of us have money habits that come from a lifetime of both good and bad money lessons.

Take a moment, and think about your earliest, most influential memory of having and managing money.

It could be of actual money, it could be of possessions or even status.

Don’t think too hard, just go with the first thing that pops into your head.

Write that down in your notes on the back side of the bulletin.

Those early memories shape how we think about money even today.

Even if we have had really great money lessons in our lives, even if your sitting here saying, “Pastor Josh, I have good money management skills” we still have a lot to learn about how to balance our spiritual health with the pressures of the world we live in.

Are we really using our money as God would have us?

There is scripture in the Bible to guide us and so that is what we ought to look at this morning.

Transition:

I want to look at one of the parables of Jesus that many of us are familiar with:

This parable illustrates not only the benefits of being a good steward but also helps explain why financial management can be so challenging.

As we walk through this parable, we're going to see a lot of principles to understanding our money and facing financial phobias.

Scripture Reading:

Turn to Matthew 25:14–30

If there is one thing to pull away from this is TO BE ENTRUSTED with SOME THING MEANS to be TRUSTED with things.

The master entrusted his resources to his servants/his δοῦλος/ his slaves.

To be entrusted with something means that someone--the One--trusts you with something.

The question then becomes: “am I faithful with what I’ve been entrusted with?” Well… it takes space think about this

Transition:

To have more this Financial Space, we must very first understand...

I. Everything we have belongs to God

In our case here today, YHWH sees us as being worthy of His trust, and He has entrusted us with our skills, talents, and even possessions here on earth.

These “talents” were never owned by the slaves, they were from the Master, and the money belonged to the Master

That changes how we view our responsibility for our possessions--It’s the difference between being the homeowner verses being the tenant.

The tenant (in this case servant/slave) is responsible to be a good steward of the property they are possessing, but the landlord is the one who owns the property, both before the tenant occupies it, and after the tenant leaves.

it is not just with money:

Even Our TALENTS & SKILLS We Have Belong To GOD

Ps 24:11

Now, at this point, you may be thinking, "Does God really own every penny that I’ve earned and I worked hard for?”

YES! “Well… that doesn’t seem too fair.”

If you think about it, whatever you do to earn that money is also a gift from YHWH.

The talents, skills, and even opportunities that allow you to earn money are only yours because God willed it.

He's been your enabler, your investor, your entire life, whether you knew it or not.

The fact that everything belongs to God is great news for all of us here today.

When we let it sink in that we are just here to manage the property of our lives, not be the owner, it can be a relief.

YHWH IS THE BEST PROVIDER

Sometimes we can feel like what God has entrusted us with is not enough.

When we are struggling, it is hard to think of the little we have as a blessing.

There is a passage in Matthew that applies to those times:

These things can dominate our thoughts, it dominates the unbelievers,

but our heavenly Father already knows all our needs.

So what are we to do when we lose all hope of keeping financially afloat?

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

As we accept this idea of every good thing coming from God, it makes space to really live in gratitude for what we have, and what an honor it is be trusted with it.

It reminds us that our faith and good management of God’s gifts will result in his care of us.

It is both humbling and empowering to acknowledge that we are not the owners of our possessions, but just the managers/the caretakers.

Transition:

So, the first principle is to live the truth that everything in my life actually belongs to God and has only been entrusted to me for a time.

The second principle we get from this parable is that God wants us to be good managers of what He has entrusted to us.

II.

God Wants Us to Be Good Managers

Look at this next verse (v.19) in the Parable.

The motivation for us to invest what YHWH’s given us is really that moment of recognition, and of cheering, and joy on that day Jesus says to us, "Well done good and faithful servant."

God wants us to be good stewards of His gifts here on earth that we might enjoy/be happy with our Master.

The first step of that we’ve already done - we’ve trusted Him to be a good master.

The next step is to be good stewards of His gifts.

This is something we can all strive to do better.

It goes beyond being good with numbers, or being an entrepreneur, or having a scary, unnatural understanding of hedge funds.

Becoming a good manager of our finances and being a good steward of God’s gifts is something we need to be diligent about improving every day.

YHWH also provides us wisdom and guidance in how to be good managers

If that is true, WHY DO WE FAIL TO BE GOOD STEWARDS?

Before we get to what this parable teaches us about being good managers, let’s take a look at the servant with the one talent in vv.

24-25

“…and so I was afraid…”

Fear of judgment made him hesitate and fail, Fear of failure is what caused him to “play it safe” Fear of loss made him hesitate to risk But before you cast you judgement on him consider: when you only have one talent, one, dollar, it seems like a lot more to risk and to lose.

Most of us have felt like this servant at one point in time or another.

Whether we have a lot or a little, we can find ourselves acting out of fear of judgement, fear of failure, or fear of loss when we make choices — especially about our finances.

The way to reduce fear is to bring light to them.