Introduction:
What is Money?
- Money is a Tool .
How do I know this tool has become an idol to me?
- It causes me constant worry and anxiety.
Ecclesiastes 5:12 - Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.
- It gives me hope and security.
1 Timothy 6:17 - 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
- It pulls me away from the faith.
1 Timothy 6:10 - 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.
Matthew 6:24 - 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.
- It causes me constant worry and anxiety.
- Money is a Spiritual Gauge .
Matthew 6:21 - For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Read also: Matthew 19:16-22, Luke 19:1-10, Luke 3:10-14, Luke 12:13-20
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:50-00:51
What kind of a church is this?
00:53-00:55
This is a church that stands on four pillars.
00:57-01:00
We proclaim the authority of God's Word without apology.
01:02-01:04
We lift high the name of Jesus Christ in worship.
01:06-01:09
And we believe firmly in the power of prayer.
01:10-01:13
And we share the good news of Jesus with boldness.
01:15-01:23
So before we get to proclaiming the authority of God's Word, let's believe firmly in the power of prayer.
01:23-01:29
And I'm going to ask that you would please pray for me, and I will pray for you as we turn to God's word together.
01:29-01:30
All right, let's pray.
01:35-01:40
And all of God's people said, amen.
01:41-01:43
For the next four weeks, we're talking about money.
01:46-01:51
I wasn't expecting cheers, but I paused just in case.
01:51-01:54
And you're like, well, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, hang on a second preacher boy.
01:54-01:56
Why are we talking about money?
02:00-02:01
I just wanna be crystal clear here.
02:02-02:09
This is not an SOS series at all.
02:11-02:19
You know, a couple of weeks ago, we were talking about, we made the appeal because we were trying to meet our fiscal year-end financial goal, remember that?
02:21-02:28
Well, I'm happy to announce that we have met our financial goal for our fiscal year-end.
02:28-02:31
Yeah. (congregation applauding) Praise the Lord.
02:35-02:38
So this is not SOS, all right?
02:39-02:41
This is not coercion.
02:43-02:47
I'm not trying to squeeze a dime out of anybody.
02:50-02:53
If you do not wanna give, don't give.
02:53-02:54
It's just that simple.
02:55-02:56
And look, I don't know who gives what.
02:57-02:59
We have a whole financial team at our church.
03:00-03:02
Andrew Rupert is our treasurer.
03:02-03:03
They handle all of that.
03:03-03:07
I have no idea who gives what in this church aside from my family, okay?
03:08-03:11
So I'm not trying to squeeze you for a dime here.
03:13-03:17
If you don't want to give, then don't.
03:17-03:19
And I mean that sincerely, just don't give.
03:22-03:29
And you know, I had to look it up, and I'm embarrassed to say, you know what our last series was on money at Harvest Bible Chapel?
03:29-03:30
Do you know what year that was?
03:30-03:32
That we had a series on money?
03:32-03:35
I'm embarrassed to say this, 2015.
03:39-03:39
Not great.
03:40-03:43
That means we're way overdue to talk about it.
03:45-03:47
Why are we doing a series on money?
03:47-03:53
Well, did you know the Bible has like 2,350 verses in it about money and stuff?
03:53-03:53
Did you know that?
03:55-03:57
That's more than faith and prayer combined.
04:00-04:04
You're like, yeah, Pastor Jeff, but I don't know if you were with us during this worship set.
04:04-04:11
I was, but we were talking about Jesus and we were singing to Jesus and we were celebrating the Lord's Supper.
04:13-04:16
You know, Jesus talked more about money than he did about anything.
04:18-04:18
That's true.
04:19-04:23
More than heaven, more than hell, more than spiritual rebirth, Jesus talked about money and stuff.
04:25-04:32
In the book of Matthew, Jesus talked about money 88 times, in Mark 54 times, in Luke 92 times.
04:34-04:40
In fact, one person I listened to this week said 15% of Jesus recorded words were about money.
04:42-04:43
Did you know that?
04:44-04:49
Oh, in Jesus parables, you know, Jesus told the stories to illustrate spiritual realities.
04:50-04:53
He had 38 parables, 16 of them.
04:53-04:57
16 of 38 were about money and possessions.
04:59-05:02
Like, so why are we having a series about money?
05:04-05:10
Apparently, if you take God's book at all, it's something that we need to take a look at.
05:12-05:13
So what is money?
05:14-05:17
Let's just, here's what I wanna do today.
05:17-05:26
I just want us church to take a giant step back and re-examine this concept of money.
05:29-05:35
You know, a couple of months ago, As I was cleaning up, I found something and I thought it was so interesting.
05:36-05:39
In fact, here's what I thought was interesting.
05:39-05:44
I was gonna throw it in the garbage, but then I'm like, no, no, no, hang on a second.
05:45-05:45
You know what I found?
05:46-05:47
I'll go to your eyes.
05:48-05:50
This, don't get too excited.
05:51-05:53
This is a Chuck E. Cheese token.
05:56-06:00
And it's a stamp 2005.
06:01-06:03
Like I said, I was gonna throw it away.
06:05-06:15
And then I stopped myself and I really started looking at it and I really started to think a lot about this token.
06:19-06:24
And I get to ask you, church, does this have value?
06:27-06:28
Does it?
06:30-06:34
I hear a lot of very insecure answers.
06:36-06:37
Does this have value?
06:39-06:45
Well, I would say it probably doesn't have value to anybody sitting in here.
06:46-06:51
But do you know if I went back to Harvest Academy right now, right?
06:52-06:57
Those kids would beg for this thing that I was going to throw in the garbage.
07:00-07:09
And I was also thinking about this, and I think I heard somebody say this, but you know, this definitely doesn't have any value here.
07:11-07:14
If you were going to use this at all, where would you have to go?
07:16-07:18
You'd have to go to Chuck E. Cheese, right?
07:19-07:21
And you're like, okay, Pastor Jeff, what about to you?
07:21-07:23
Does this have any value to you?
07:25-07:27
Well, I just told you, I'm gonna throw it away.
07:27-07:29
I got to thinking about that.
07:29-07:30
Does this mean anything to me?
07:31-07:33
Well, 40 some years ago it would have.
07:35-07:44
And then I thought, well, maybe again in my life when my kids were little, it would have value.
07:46-07:52
But right now, this thing doesn't really mean anything.
07:53-07:58
this little metal circle.
08:01-08:05
So what about this coin?
08:07-08:08
This is a silver dollar.
08:11-08:14
And I'll be upfront with you, I had no thoughts of trashing this one.
08:15-08:17
This one was given to me by my grandfather.
08:21-08:22
But does this have value?
08:24-08:27
Oh, okay, we're a lot more confident answering that one, aren't we?
08:29-08:32
This would have value to anybody sitting in here.
08:34-08:41
But let's be honest, if I went back to Harvest Academy and I went to the kids and said, which one do you want?
08:41-08:43
Which one do you think they would take?
08:44-08:47
They'd probably take the Chuck E. Cheese corn, wouldn't they?
08:49-08:49
Right?
08:52-08:59
It's interesting though, this little metal circle, does it have value?
09:02-09:12
Well, if I went to a Thai village, a wheelbarrow full of these wouldn't mean a thing.
09:16-09:20
Isn't it strange how these things work?
09:22-09:26
and what determines whether or not they have value.
09:26-09:27
Isn't that strange?
09:30-09:32
But you know what's really strange?
09:33-09:46
Is when you consider that God wrote a book and so much content of the book that God wrote is about this.
09:50-09:51
So what is it?
09:51-09:52
What is money?
09:54-10:01
Well, really, money's just an object that simplifies trade, right?
10:02-10:08
I mean, think if we didn't have currency, how would we exchange goods?
10:09-10:16
I would have to trade you something that you would see value in, and I would want something from you that I see value in, we'd have to trade.
10:17-10:20
But if we didn't have currency, we would have to trade like real stuff.
10:20-10:22
And like our family, we used to have chickens.
10:22-10:24
So I was thinking about the chickens.
10:24-10:29
Could you imagine if that was my item of trade, that I wanted to get a new shirt.
10:30-10:37
So I went to the store and I had all these chickens under my arms and said, how many chickens is it gonna take for a new shirt?
10:40-10:42
Like that's mighty inconvenient, isn't it?
10:43-10:43
Yeah.
10:44-10:47
Plus how do I know the person selling the shirt even wants chickens?
10:50-10:51
(congregation laughing)
10:51-10:55
So this is how money works.
10:56-11:04
We all have to collectively agree that this little piece of metal has value.
11:05-11:08
We have to agree on that because here's how it works.
11:09-11:13
If we don't all agree that this has value, then it has no value.
11:14-11:20
It doesn't mean anything Because the truth is this doesn't have any inherent value in it at all.
11:21-11:22
Can't eat this.
11:24-11:25
This can't keep you warm.
11:27-11:28
There's no inherent value.
11:30-11:31
You know, it's like gold.
11:34-11:37
You know, this ring is made of real gold.
11:39-11:40
You're like, ooh.
11:41-11:43
I'm like, it has no inherent value.
11:44-11:45
You can't eat this either.
11:47-11:49
This can't keep you warm.
11:51-11:54
Like, well, why does this gold ring have value?
11:58-12:12
Well, it's only worth something because people have said, of all the rocks that we dig out of the earth, this one just happens to be worth something.
12:13-12:14
Isn't that strange how that works?
12:16-12:23
So why does God talk so much about this?
12:23-12:26
Why does God talk so much about this?
12:27-12:27
Why?
12:28-12:36
If this is just a tool that we have to simplify trade, really what business is it of God's what we do with it?
12:42-12:53
And I know as soon as you talk about we're having a sermon series on money, I'm sure there were people that groaned, and I'm sure that there were people that rolled their eyes, and I'm sure there were people that were like, can we be somewhere else for the next four weeks?
12:54-12:56
And you know why that is?
12:58-13:03
It's because most people don't see this the way that God sees this.
13:04-13:05
That's why.
13:08-13:18
Look, I've been around the track a few times, And I know as soon as the church starts talking about money, people get sideways.
13:20-13:23
And people say some ridiculous things.
13:24-13:25
Here's a ridiculous thing.
13:26-13:32
Some people are like, "Oh, so what are you saying, God needs my money?" Yeah, yeah.
13:33-13:34
God needs your money.
13:35-13:36
The owner of everything.
13:37-13:39
The one who can create things by speaking.
13:40-13:45
You know, my God has $6 trillion just in the cup holder of his Lamborghini.
13:47-13:50
God does not need anything from you or me.
13:51-13:53
So dispel with that foolishness.
13:54-14:08
But another one that I think is even funnier is when a church brings up money, I hear people say this, and I know there might be somebody visiting with us today that's like, "Oh, this is my first time visiting Harvest and they're talking about money!" But I hear this all the time.
14:08-14:16
People say, "I don't know why churches "are always asking for money." You know, that's interesting.
14:17-14:41
People go to church and they expect to be in a building that has heating and air conditioning and running water and a staff to lead worship and a pastor to give a message and their kids to have Goldfish crackers and coloring pages and they want coffee, you know, the good stuff, not the cheap stuff, right?
14:41-14:43
We're talking Starbucks, not Big Lots.
14:43-14:44
And we want the good stuff.
14:46-14:48
Definitely not Pantera bread coffee.
14:48-14:49
We want the good stuff.
14:50-14:56
But people walk into a church and they expect all these things, but it shouldn't cost any money.
14:59-15:01
Where then, well, then where does it come from?
15:06-15:07
I thought it was interesting.
15:07-15:18
People come to church, I see people sitting here with their kids and some people come to church and they're like, pastor, tell me what to do with this human life God has entrusted to me.
15:18-15:23
And then those same people will say, don't tell me what to do with my money.
15:25-15:26
Isn't that interesting?
15:29-15:30
People get sideways.
15:32-15:34
People get confused about money.
15:34-15:35
That's why we're doing this series.
15:35-15:36
People get confused.
15:36-15:38
I read a great quote this past week.
15:38-15:49
Martin Luther said that man is like a drunk, falling off the right side of the horse and gets back on and falls off the left side of the horse.
15:51-15:52
Like, what's he talking about?
15:52-15:56
He's talking about our propensity to go to the extremes.
15:58-15:58
That's how people are.
15:58-16:00
We go to the extremes and we talk about money.
16:01-16:02
There's gonna be extremes here.
16:03-16:06
There are gonna be people that are like, You know what, money is evil.
16:06-16:07
The Bible doesn't say that.
16:07-16:11
Money is evil and we shouldn't have anything to do with it.
16:11-16:12
We should all be poor.
16:14-16:16
We're the drunk that fell off the right side of the horse.
16:16-16:21
And then there's other people that are like, you are a child of God, so you should live lavishly.
16:22-16:26
And we're the drunk that fell off of the left side of the horse.
16:30-16:31
People are confused about it.
16:32-16:36
And people are so deluded about money.
16:37-16:40
You know, you see it in the political ads now, don't you?
16:40-16:43
Gotta go after the rich, right?
16:43-16:43
Go after the rich.
16:45-16:47
I get a newsflash for you.
16:49-16:49
We're all rich.
16:52-16:52
We are.
16:54-17:03
Do you realize you're in possession of things right now The King Solomon never could have even imagined.
17:05-17:06
You have that.
17:12-17:19
But when we talk about money, we are so quick to excuse ourselves from getting on track with what God said.
17:22-17:28
You know, you get up and you talk about tithing and someone goes, "Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, tithing, that's Old Testament, Pastor Jeff.
17:28-18:07
"A, a, a, a, a, a." Like, "Okay, well what about sacrificial giving?" "Well, I don't really have that to give." "Okay, well the Bible says that we should avoid debt." You're like, "A, a, a, a, no." "Everybody uses credit cards, Pastor Jeff." "Well, the Bible says that we shouldn't be hoarders." You're like, "A, a, a, a, I don't really have "that much, Pastor Jeff." And I'm like, "Okay, then at what point "does the Bible say anything about money "that we should apply?" And that's what I want to do today is just have us rethink what this is.
18:08-18:10
What is money?
18:12-18:13
Just two things today.
18:14-18:16
Not even really getting a sermon today.
18:16-18:19
You're getting an introduction to the next three.
18:20-18:21
So what is money?
18:23-18:26
You have to see it the way God sees it.
18:27-18:31
As far as we can see biblically, money is two things.
18:31-18:33
You need to look at it the way God does.
18:33-18:34
First of all, write this down.
18:34-18:35
Money is a tool.
18:37-18:38
Write that down, money is a tool.
18:38-18:39
You know what this is?
18:40-18:41
This is a tool.
18:45-18:48
'Cause you see, if I was to ask you, okay, money, is it good or evil?
18:50-18:57
I know there are people that would say, When money's evil, the Bible says, money's the root of all evil.
18:58-18:59
Bible doesn't say that.
19:02-19:04
So is this good or evil?
19:05-19:06
The answer is neither.
19:08-19:09
This isn't good or evil.
19:10-19:13
This is like a gun.
19:13-19:14
Is a gun good or evil?
19:16-19:17
Neither, it's a tool.
19:18-19:18
What about a hammer?
19:19-19:20
Is a hammer good or evil?
19:22-19:23
Neither, it's a tool.
19:23-19:24
What about a knife?
19:26-19:27
Is it good or evil?
19:28-19:36
See, in all of those things, guns and hammers and knives and money, it's all in how it's used.
19:39-19:42
It all depends on the user.
19:44-19:53
See, you can take money and you can use it to buy Bibles or to build a church.
19:53-19:56
And somebody would come along and say, "Yeah, that's good money." No, it's not.
20:01-20:20
The giver is doing good with the tool because that same money can be used to buy drugs, a prostitute, a weapon to murder someone.
20:20-20:23
You're like, "Oh, that's bad money." No, it's not.
20:25-20:28
The user is doing bad with the money.
20:30-20:32
But you have to see, church, this is just a tool.
20:34-20:46
But the key difference between this tool and other tools is this, and you've gotta get this down, because a wrong attitude about this tool will destroy your soul.
20:52-20:58
You're like, "Well, how does that happen?" Listen very closely because your soul depends on this.
21:01-21:12
You can see this as a tool to serve yourself or as a tool to serve God and others.
21:18-21:23
And if you use this as a tool to serve yourself, this becomes an idol.
21:26-21:33
And this has led to the destruction of so many people.
21:35-21:42
I mean, just take a spin through your Bible and look at how many people whose lives were destroyed because of this.
21:44-21:47
Remember Taken Akin, the book of Joshua?
21:49-21:59
or Balaam, Delilah, Judas Iscariot, Ananias and Sapphira.
22:02-22:04
A wrong attitude towards this can destroy you.
22:07-22:13
And I think maybe that alone merits a discussion on money.
22:15-22:17
So how do I know this tool has become an idol to me?
22:18-22:20
I want you to jot some things down.
22:20-22:21
We're gonna see what God's word has to say.
22:21-22:25
How do I know that this has become an idol?
22:25-22:28
Oh, there's so many red flags.
22:28-22:29
I just wanna give you three.
22:32-22:35
How do I know this has become an idol to me?
22:35-22:38
Letter A, it causes me constant worry and anxiety.
22:39-22:39
Here's a clue.
22:40-22:43
It causes me constant worry and anxiety.
22:44-22:47
Look what Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 5.12.
22:47-22:53
He says, "Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much.
22:56-22:59
But the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep." You see what he's saying?
23:00-23:09
The guy that goes out and works hard and earns, he goes, "That guy's sleeping well." But the guy that has so much is just laying in bed, worried about his stuff.
23:12-23:18
I need to ask you, you know, How much worry and anxiety do you have in your life over money?
23:20-23:29
If money is constantly consuming your thoughts, if it's constantly occupying your attention, then it might be an idol.
23:34-23:36
What about the other side of the coin, pun intended, letter B?
23:38-23:40
How do I know this tool's become an idol to me?
23:40-23:41
Here's the other side of it.
23:41-23:42
It gives me hope and security.
23:44-24:13
1 Timothy 6, 17 says, "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." That's the other danger for money, is we look to this to be the thing that gives us hope, security, confidence, a feeling of wellbeing.
24:18-24:31
When Jesus taught us to pray, remember the line, "Give us this day our daily bread." How many of you have sincerely had to pray that God would provide you food for the day?
24:36-24:37
Like, I don't really need to pray for daily bread.
24:38-24:43
In fact, if I'm being completely transparent with you, I don't really need to ask God for anything.
24:44-24:49
Because I have this, I get what I need.
24:50-24:54
And after a while we start to think, what do I really need God for anyways?
24:57-25:00
And when our hearts go in that direction, guess what?
25:00-25:01
This has become an idol.
25:06-25:07
That leads us right into letter C.
25:07-25:08
It pulls me away from the faith.
25:12-25:14
It pulls me away from the faith.
25:14-25:19
This can lead you away from Jesus Christ.
25:21-25:23
Look at 1 Timothy 6:10.
25:23-25:28
"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils." Do you see that?
25:28-25:29
He didn't say money's evil.
25:30-25:33
He says the love of money is the root of all kinds of evils.
25:33-25:48
He says it is through this craving "Some have wandered away from the faith "and pierced themselves with many pangs." This can pull you away from the faith.
25:49-25:55
You know what, I need to skip church today because I really gotta focus on my job.
25:55-25:56
I gotta focus on my work.
25:56-25:58
I gotta earn some, I'm gonna skip church.
25:58-26:01
I can't get involved in small group.
26:01-26:07
I have this stuff that I don't have any time to enjoy except during small group time.
26:09-26:10
I want to enjoy my stuff.
26:10-26:12
I can't serve in the church.
26:12-26:14
I can't go on a mission trip.
26:14-26:17
Why? I have all this stuff to take care of.
26:18-26:21
How am I possibly going to leave the country for a week or two?
26:21-26:24
Who's going to take care of my stuff?
26:24-26:28
Do you see how money can lead you away from the faith?
26:31-26:33
Those are red flags, my friends.
26:34-26:38
that this is a dangerous tool.
26:39-26:51
Because Jesus warned us that this tool can lead you away from God, and you will have this temptation to even replace God with this tool.
26:53-26:59
That's why Jesus said in Matthew 6, 24, "No one can serve two masters.
27:01-27:06
"He who either hate the one and love the other, or he'll be devoted to the one and despise the other.
27:09-27:28
Look at this last line, he says, "You cannot serve God and money." And I think in our minds, when we read that verse, we wanna sort of change the phraseology there and say that what Jesus was saying was, you shouldn't serve God and money.
27:30-27:31
He didn't say shouldn't.
27:33-27:38
He said, "You can't." Like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, why?
27:40-27:45
"Why can't I?" For the same reason that a woman can't have two husbands.
27:46-27:47
That's why.
27:50-27:59
Jesus also said that this is a tool that can be used for good.
28:01-28:04
And we're going to be diving into that over the next two weeks.
28:06-28:09
But today, I just want you to see this for what it is.
28:12-28:31
It's a tool and everything that this can do, whether it's to bless someone or destroy ourselves, everything that we can do with this depends entirely on the choices that you're going to make and how to wield this tool.
28:33-28:34
So money's a tool.
28:37-28:42
Secondly, money is a spiritual gauge.
28:45-28:48
Money is a spiritual gauge.
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You know what a gauge is?
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A gauge is just something that gives you information, right?
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Like when you were driving to church today, Your car has gauges.
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And understand the gauge in your car that tells you how fast you're going, that gauge doesn't determine your speed.
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That gauge reflects your speed.
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That gauge is giving you information about your speed, right?
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And that's exactly what money is.
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This is a gauge.
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Matthew 6, 21.
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Jesus said, "For where your treasure is there, your heart will be also." And I know we wanna flip that verse around and say, no, no, no, where your heart is, that's where your treasure is.
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But that's not what Jesus said.
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This is an objective test.
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You know, if you came to me, you're like, "Pastor Jeff, you know where my heart is?
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"My heart's with missions." Oh, oh, I have such a heart for missions.
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I would say, "Well, how much do you give to missions?
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"How much money do you give to missions?" And you're like, "I don't really give money to missions." Okay, well then your heart's not with missions.
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You're like, "Well, how can you say that?
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It's not my opinion.
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That's what Jesus said.
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Jesus said where your treasure is, that's where your heart is." They're like, "Oh, Pastor Jeff, I love this church so much.
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My heart is with this church.
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Do you give to this church?" Like I said, "I don't know, but you know and God knows.
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Do you give to this church?" If you're like, "Well, I'm being honest with you, I really don't give to this church." Well, then your heart's not here.
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Again, not my opinion.
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This is Jesus' opinion.
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It's an objective test.
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Like, okay, Pastor Jeff, well, where is my heart?
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You seem to be the expert on where my heart is.
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Well, I'm not, Jesus is.
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You're like, where is my heart?
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I would say, show me your checkbook.
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If you show me your checkbook, I'll tell you really quickly where your heart is.
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Because Jesus said, you find your treasure, you find what you spend your money on, there is where you're gonna find your heart.
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because money's a spiritual gauge.
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Turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 19.
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We're gonna look at a few, we're gonna look at a few accounts that illustrate exactly what we're talking about here.
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Money's a spiritual gauge.
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Matthew chapter 19.
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Let's go look at four stories here.
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You're gonna see money's a gauge.
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Matthew 19, picking up in verse 16, it says, and behold, a man came up to him, to Jesus, saying, teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?
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And he, Jesus, said to him, the young man, why do you ask me about what is good?
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There's only one who's good.
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If you would enter life, keep the commandments.
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And he said to him, "Well, which ones?" And Jesus said, "You shall not murder.
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You shall not commit adultery.
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You shall not steal.
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You shall not bear false witness.
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Honor your father and mother.
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You shall love your neighbor as yourself." The young man said to him, "All these I have kept.
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What do I still lack?" Jesus said to him, "If you would be perfect, go.
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"Sell what you possess and give to the poor, "and you will have treasure in heaven, "and come follow me." When the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
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Let's stop here for a second.
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You know, we would have handled this young man way different than Jesus.
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If this young man would have come to any one of us and said, "What do I have to do to get eternal life?" You know what he would say?
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We would say, "Just believe.
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"That's all you gotta do, just believe." That's not what Jesus said to him.
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Jesus said, "You know what you need to do?
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"Sell it all, give it away, and follow me." Like, wait, wait, wait, is that the path of the gospel?
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It was for this man because Jesus knew that this man was way too attached to his stuff to allow Jesus Christ his rightful position as Lord.
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We can't enthrone God until we dethrone idols.
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Another anecdote here, turn over to Luke chapter 19.
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Turn to Luke chapter 19.
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Luke 19, here's another encounter of Jesus.
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Quite a contrast to the previous.
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It says, "He entered Jericho and was passing through.
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And there was a man named Zacchaeus.
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He was a chief tax collector and he was rich.
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He was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd, he could not because he was small of stature.
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So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way.
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And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today." So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully.
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And when they saw it, they all grumbled.
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"He's gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner." See, tax collectors weren't very popular because they'd steal.
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They would weigh overcharge and pocket the difference for themselves.
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When the people saw Jesus hanging out with Zacchaeus, they said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, I thought Jesus was supposed to be some righteous guy.
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Why is he hanging out with this piece of garbage?" Look at verse eight.
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Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor.
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And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold." Wow.
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And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house since he also is the son of Abraham.
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For the son of man came to seek and to save the lost." You see, in this story, One simple truth I want to highlight, Zacchaeus repented with his money.
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Like how do we know he was legit?
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Because Jesus said salvation has come.
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Jesus is a pretty good judge of those kinds of things.
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But you see Jesus in both of these stories, He gauged their spiritual condition based on how they viewed money.
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Did you see that?
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One man loved it so much, Jesus said, "If you're gonna follow me, you gotta get rid of that." And he walked away.
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Another man who spent his life accumulating it.
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"Volunteered to give it away." And Jesus said, "He gets it." Let's look at a couple more.
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John the Baptist.
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Remember John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Christ?
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He had one message, right?
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Repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
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Well, let's look at that message.
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Go to Luke chapter three and verse 10.
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Luke chapter three and verse 10.
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We're just gonna look at verses 10 through 14.
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And the crowds asked him, asked John the Baptist, he's going around saying, "Repent, you need to repent." The crowds asked him, basically, can you be specific with us?
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What then shall we do?
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Look at John's answer.
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It says, "And he answered them, "Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none.
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"And whoever has food is to do likewise." Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, "Teacher, what shall we do?" And he said to them, "Collect no more than you are authorized to do." Soldiers also asked him, "And what should we do?" And he said to them, "Do not extort money from anyone by threats "or by false accusation and be content with your wages." Isn't that interesting?
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John says, "Repent," and they're like, "How?" Every single point of repentance that John the Baptist called them to had to do with money and stuff.
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Isn't that interesting?
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Nobody specifically asked John about money, But his answer was all about money.
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Why?
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Why?
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Because money's a spiritual gauge.
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One more.
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Go to Luke chapter 12.
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This one is a story that Jesus told.
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Luke chapter 12.
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Verses, we're gonna look at verse 13.
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"Someone in the crowd said to him, "'Teacher, tell my brother to divide "'the inheritance with me.' "But he said to him, "'Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?' "And he said to them, "'Take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, "'for one's life does not consist "'in the abundance of his possessions.' "And he told them a parable saying, "the land of a rich man produced plentifully.
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"And he thought to himself, "what shall I do for I have nowhere to store my crops?
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"And he said, I will do this.
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"I will tear down my barns and build larger ones.
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"And there I will store all my grain and my goods.
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"And I will say to my soul, soul, "you have ample goods laid up for many years.
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"Relax, eat, drink and be merry." But God said to him, fool.
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This night your soul is required of you and the things you prepared, whose will they be?
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God called him a fool.
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What is a fool?
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It's somebody that either doesn't recognize the truth or chooses to ignore the truth.
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You know, if I called you a fool, we'd probably just brush that off.
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Like, who are you?
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But if God calls you a fool, you think about this man in Jesus' story.
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He's probably somebody, if he was alive and here in our day, we'd probably look up to him.
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Like, wow, look at this guy.
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Look how much he has.
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He has so much.
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He has to build more warehouses to hold his stuff.
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We revere this guy.
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But God called him a fool.
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Why?
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What made him so foolish?
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Look at verse 21.
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This is the point.
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Jesus says, "So is the one who lays up treasure for himself "and is not rich towards God." What made him a fool was the fact that he didn't handle money in a godly way.
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He looked at this as something to stockpile for himself instead of using this to serve God and to serve others.
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And God says, such a person is a fool.
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So what's the point in all these stories, the rich young ruler and Zacchaeus and the people that John the Baptist spoke to.
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And even this guy in the parable that Jesus told, what's the point?
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The way that you handle this reveals who you really are.
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It doesn't matter what you say.
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It doesn't matter how you try to appear.
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According to God's word, your character's revealed by what you do with this.
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And I have to ask us, church, if John the Baptist walked in today into this building, or if Jesus Christ himself came here to gauge our condition based on our attitude towards money, what would they say?
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And I think for a lot of us, what they would say is, "Money's where you need to repent." Could you bow your heads with me, please?
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Just bow your heads.
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You know, when we talk about this subject, I know immediately there's an emotional reaction and there's people digging their heels in or starting to line up the excuses why this doesn't apply.
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And I'm sure there's emotional reactions to this.
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But really the only reaction we should have is, is this true?
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the Father in heaven, I pray that you would open our eyes.
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And I pray God that we would repent, because so many of us have looked at money as a means to take care of ourselves and get what we want.
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(congregation murmuring)
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And we become overly obsessed with it, whether we have it or not.
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Father, I pray today this first step in reevaluating what we do with your stuff is looking at these two core truths of your word, that money is just a tool, but it's also a gauge that shows us where our heart really is.
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So Father, I pray that you would grant us repentance, and that over these next few weeks, we would discover the joy that comes, the freedom that comes, and the sweet provision from You that comes when we choose to worship You, even with our wallets. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 19:16-22, Luke 19:1-10 (Optional: Matthew 6:21, Luke 3:10-14, Luke 12:13-20)
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Why do you think money so easily becomes an idol? What do you do when you realize it has become one in your life?
Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell everything and give to the poor before he follows Jesus. Is this the command for everyone who wants to follow Jesus? Why or why not?
The man in the parable in Luke 12:13-21 seemed like a good businessman, and it didn’t seem like he did anything inherently wicked or evil. Why - exactly - did God call him a “fool”? How does this lesson apply to you and I?
Breakout
Pray for one another.