4. Property Manager

Property Manager

I Chronicles 29:

- We began this series by saying that most of our lives didn’t quote turn out how we dreamed they would as kids…

… In fact, we can’t even say our 2020 has turned out how we hoped it would…

- And when we come to realize how far our lives are from our hopes and dreams we tend to feel STUCK… STUCK in a situation… a relationship… a job… a marriage… a life that we just wish things were different…

- And our culture tells us that the only real way to get UNSTUCK is for us to Run Away.

- If you just make a decision that fits better with who you really are you’ll have better outcomes.

- Get a new job… a new wife… a new family… a new sports car… make a new start…

- Rediscover that old self that was so alive and vibrant and full of dreams…

- And a lot of us have done exactly that… but as I’ve said for a couple of weeks now… everywhere you ran your problems followed you… b/c you were the common denominator.

-And no matter how many times you decided to run your problems just happened all over again.

- But we looked at this verse where the Apostle Paul says…

Slide

Romans 12:2 NLT

“Don't copy the behavior of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.”

- Essentially Paul is saying... “Guys… come on… its not that you have a decision-making problem… you have a thinking problem.”

- Because every decision you’ve ever made has been the result of a way of thinking...

… “So, you want to change the outcomes of your life?... Then you have to make different kinds of decisions… but these different kinds of decisions always require that we have a renovated way of Thinking…

—————————————————————————————————————————————————

- So, over the last couple of weeks we’ve started to look at some simple truths that if we embrace them they will begin this process of renovating your thinking… and ultimately the outcomes of your life.

#1 God knows what’s best for you better than you know what's best for you (Explain)

#2 Every Person you come into contact with is someone that were so valuable to God that He paid the ultimate price for them. (explain)

—————————————————————————————————————————————————

- Well today the TRUTH we’re going to look at addresses how you and I view money…

- Now for all of you who just checked out… and said… “I told you we shouldn’t have come to this church… it’s just like every other church… all they talk about is how I should be giving them my money .”…

- I need you to listen to me… The TRUTH that we’re going to talk about today is not so

much about giving… in fact if you’re willing to embrace this TRUTH about money… you will actually have more money than you have now… not less.

- Can anybody get on board with having more money… I thought so.

- Now let’s be honest... For the most part your financial decisions are not a mystery are they?????

- You wear your financial decisions… you drive your FD… you live in your FD…

- Some have been good decisions and some have been bad… But they are all obvious.

- But whether you’ve made good financial decisions or bad… every decision you made came from a deep-seated belief you have about money.

Maybe your belief was that money is the most important thing… OR not important at all…

Maybe your belief was that you have too much money… OR not enough…

Maybe your belief was that it’s fun to spend money… OR it’s fun to save it…

… but every financial decision you’ve ever made came from a belief you have about money

- So what Paul is telling us is… “If you want to change the financial outcomes of your life…

… maybe having more left at the end of the month…

… maybe living out from underneath all that credit card debt…

… maybe having greater margin in our finances…

… you can’t just change the way you decide about money… you have to change the way you think and believe about money.”

- Last week we brought up the well-known phrase… “If you always do what you’ve always done… you’ll always get what you’ve always had?”

- And Paul is telling us… This principle applies to your finances too...

- If you continue to think about money the way you think about money today… THEN next year… 10 years from now… 20 years from now your finances will look the same as they do today.

- And here’s the deal… it doesn’t matter how much money you make… you will always feel as broke as you do today.

So Romans 12:2 NLT

“Don't copy the (financial) habits of this world… but let God transform your financial outcomes by changing the way you think about money.”

—————————————————————————————————————————————————

Turn with me to 1 Chronicles 29

In 1 Chronicles 29 King David was the King of Israel…

… The Israelites served the One True God and unlike today where God’s presence is every where at this time God's presence was connected to the Ark of the Covenant… You remember Indiana Jones found it in his 2nd movie… Right?

- Well because the ark was so important it was kept in a special room in the church.

- Now the church building back then was nothing like the building you’re in today… in fact the church at this time was essentially a big tent that could be set up and torn down all

depending on where the Israelites were.

- Now David Loved God... in fact God said David was… “a man after My own heart.”

- Well here King David is living in this Ginormous castle and as he’s walking around one day he looked out of his 12th story window and it dawns on him… “Here I am living in this Ginormous castle… and my God… The One True God… is living in a tent.”

- All the surrounding nations had built these huge temples for their pagan gods and the One real God was living in a tent…

- So David says… “I’m going to build a Temple for God that is second to none.”

- His architects design this amazing building and came to David with the final bill…

... well even though David was the king he didn’t have the money it would take to build this temple so he decides to hold the very first church building campaign.

- And it’s in this campaign to build this amazing Temple for God that David lays out this 1 simple financial truth that we’re going to talk about… and it’s repeated throughout the OT and the NT... But it was King David who first said it…

Slide

1 Chronicles 29: David is talking to all of the Israelites and says… (4– 15 NLT)

“Using every resource at my command, I have gathered as much as I could for building the Temple of my God. Now there is enough gold, silver, bronze, iron, and wood, as well as great quantities of onyx, other precious stones, costly jewels, and all kinds of fine stone and marble.”

Slide

- David is saying I’ve used all of my kingly influence to collect all of this stuff to build the temple… BUT

“Because of my devotion to the Temple of my God, I am giving all of my own private treasures of gold and silver to help in the construction. This is in addition to the building materials I have already collected for his holy Temple.”

- In other words, “This money has nothing to do with King David… this money that I’m giving now is out of my personal bank account… because I am committed to giving my God a home.”

Slide

Vs.5-7

Now then, who will follow my example? Who is willing to give offerings to the LORD today?"

- OR… is anybody else here going to join me?

Then the family leaders, the leaders of the tribes of Israel, the generals and captains of the army, and the king's administrative officers all gave willingly.

Slide

Vs 10-15

“Then David praised the LORD in the presence of the whole assembly: "O LORD may you be praised forever and ever!...

NOW LISTEN HERE IT COMES...

Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O LORD, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as the one who is over all things. Riches and honor come from you alone, for you rule over everything.

Slide

Power and might are in your hand, and it is at your discretion that people are made great and given strength. We thank you and praise your glorious name!

But who am I, and who are my people, that we could give anything to you? Everything we have has come from you, and we give you only what you have already given us! “

- You see David understood something that we forget A LOT… in fact the cause of all of my financial problems and all of your financial problems is because we forget this 1 simple truth…

GOD OWNS IT ALL!... Everything you have came from God and you are simply a manager of His resources.

- Now I know that a lot of you just got very nervous… and your knee jerk reaction is to push back…

… “Well I’ve worked hard for everything I have…”

… “No one ever gave me anything… except a hard time…”

-And we go back to that comfortable place in our belief system about money that says… “It’s all Mine!”

- BUT give me a second… Mr. Self-Made man or Ms. Independent Lady… is this concept really that unfamiliar to you????

—————————————————————————————————————————————————

- How many of you had your own room when you were growing up?

- When our girls were really young, they had to share a room… and it was so fun to watch

them when they were able to have their own bedrooms…

Day 1 they put signs on their doors saying Maddie’s room… Jocelynn’s room.

They put an approved list of people who could come in.

They had a list of rules that had to be followed in their room.

I mean you all did the same thing RIGHT?… That’s MY room.

“Mom she went into MY room without permission.”

“You get in trouble and your mom says … “GO to YOUR Room.”

Or the clothes pile so high that you can’t find the dog and your mom says…“Clean YOUR room.”

- IT WAS YOUR ROOM… You were the King/Queen…

BUT…

… Did you ever wonder why your parents were allowed to go into YOUR room anytime they wanted?

OR Why when they said… “Go clean your room” you had to do it?

OR Why when your relatives came in from out of town you were kicked out of YOUR room?

Do you want to know why… BECAUSE IT WASN’T REALLY YOUR ROOM… IT WAS THEIR ROOM…

… They just gave you the responsibility to manage that room for them.

How about this… We all spent a lot of money to purchase our homes didn’t we?

- We spend all kinds of money to upgrade and replace and make OUR home look good.

- We invite people over to OUR home.

- THEN twice a year LaPorte county sends this bill that says…

… “Guess what Roger… THIS ISN’T YOUR HOME!”

- “Well Pastor that technically isn’t true”… Okay then don’t pay those property taxes a few times and see what happens.

- King David is saying, “This truth not only applies to your bedroom and your property and your fancy golf clubs… this TRUTH applies to everything in life… including your money… “IT ALL BELONGS TO GOD.”

- NOW remember what I told you a few weeks back… that “Truth is Truth whether you want to believe it or not…” and the Truth is “GOD OWNS IT ALL”

- With that being said… I understand that it may take some time to wrap your mind around this truth…

… BUT once you work through the PAIN of replacing your old way of thinking about money…

“It’s all mine…” with this renovated way of thinking that … “God owns it all”… something

miraculous begins to happen.

… all of the sudden you will have no need to WORRY about money any more…

- B/c if you’re no longer the owner… it’s not your money… which means it’s no longer yours to worry about.

- And let’s be honest… there’s a HUGE difference between OWNING and MANAGING?

ILLUSTRATION: Let’s say you and your family choose to fly out to the land of No Covid for a much needed get away…

- You get to this dream land and you rent a luxury car and a swanky place to stay…

- You are now responsible to care for this car… fill it with gas… lock the doors… don’t park in a NO Parking zone… BUT if that car were to break down… the engine blows up… the tires wear out… GUESS WHAT… it’s not your problem is it??? B/C you don’t own it…

- You call the rental agency and say… How about you bring me another car… preferably one that works.

- There’s a tremendous freedom in that isn’t there?

- Let’s say the rental agency tells you…

“Every 3rd night we want you to leave the doors unlocked and the keys in the ignition.”

- Sounds crazy right…. BUT who cares… it’s not your problem… you don’t own it.

- If it gets stolen…. They bring you another car.

- David is saying this is the deal with our money too.

- God has given us the money that we have… so we need to use it responsibly…

… BUT at the end of the Day it all belongs to Him anyway.

So, what this means is we have no need to worry when it seems God is asking us to do something CRAZY with His money.

… B/C if His plan blows up and the car gets stolen… the step of faith doesn’t pan out…

… GUESS what… it’s His problem, not yours, and He’s going to give you MORE of His money to

manage… and do you want to know why?

… B/C you were responsible enough to obey Him the last time when He asked you to use His money for something other than yourself.

- NOW for those of you who are still really concerned about this… I want you to turn to

Slide

Matthew 6:32-34 NCV

“The thing you should want most is God's kingdom and doing what God wants. Then all these other things you need will be given to you.

Here’s the deal… these words are in Red right… that means it’s Jesus saying this… And here’s what He’s saying…

“ROGER listen to my promise… IF you will do the things that I am asking you to do with the money I’ve entrusted to you… with the time I’ve entrusted to you… with the talents I’ve

entrusted to you… with the people I’ve entrusted to you…

… IF you will just do the things I am asking you to do… All those other things that you worry and fret about… I’m just going to GIVE those to you.”

- “Yeah, I have the resources to just hand them over to you… BUT BEFORE I do that… I need

you to take what I’ve entrusted to you and use it the way I have asked you to.”

Then He finishes the verse off by saying...

“AND don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will have its own worries.”

Is anybody here interested in living a life where you don’t worry about money?

- Bills don’t scare you… braces don’t scare you… car break downs don’t scare you… college doesn’t scare you… retirement doesn’t scare you…

- God is saying… “Then let me transform the way you THINK about money!”

- “Let your deep-seated belief about money be that I own it all anyway and I distribute MY wealth to you on the basis of your willingness to invest my money where I ask you to.”

- “AND then as a result of your faithfulness and obedience… All that other stuff I’ll take care of it.”

- Imagine what that would look like in your life…If you truly believed (not just said) “God Owns it ALL”

- How would your life change?

Can I tell you what is guaranteed to happen?

- You would find your finances UNSTUCK

BOW HEADS