Sermon Title: Glorify God Through Your Money Management Habits Sermon Text: Selected Texts October 25, 2009

Transcription

1 Sermon Title: Glorify God Through Your Money Management Habits Sermon Text: Selected Texts October 25, 2009 Introduction: {Play Stewardship video to open} Welcome to this third and final message in our series, Why Money Matters to God. The testimony you just heard captures some of the key principles we have been refreshing ourselves in during this series. In light of what some are calling the economic crisis of a century, an economic Pearl Harbor, or a financial tsunami, including the collapse or near collapse of some of largest financial institutions in American history, we all have reason now to ask: How can I best weather this economic climate and be better prepared for future storms? At the risk of being called a cynic, I for one, do not believe it is wise to count on the federal government to find the solution. I believe that you and I must take this current situation and treat it as our wake-up call and resolve to get our financial house in order. And as I have been suggesting to you in this series, each of us must consider afresh God s ways of thinking about and managing the money he has allowed us to have. Because God s principles will enable us to weather this current financial storm and position us to weather the inevitable storms in the future. If I read my Bible right, the very money management habits we need now, are what God has been calling us to from the beginning. So far in our series we have seen two clear reasons money matters to God. First, money matters to God because it reveals who is Lord of your life. It s the acid text of where you are placing your trust. Second, money matters to God because it resources his work in the world. This morning I want to talk about the third reason money matters to God. Money matters to God because how you and I manage it can be a powerful testimony to our culture. Today I want to invite you to consider five money management principles that I believe God has been calling us to from the beginning. They can help us respond to this current economic unrest and better position us for the future. And as you and I align our money management habits with the wisdom and teaching of God, God will be glorified and people will take note and it will be a powerful testimony to them. Chuck Bentley, CEO of Crown Financial Ministries wrote, Our motivation should be to get our own house in order and prepare to serve those around us who are neither prepared or expecting the challenges we will face. The real antidote to our economic woes lies in our heart in our beliefs in our values in our faith in God. Keys to managing your money in a way that glorifies God in our culture

2 Principle #1 Ask God to Help Make your money management challenges and decisions a matter of regular prayer. While you are on your knees, make our country s economic challenges and decisions a matter of regular prayer. Regardless of what you think of politicians or policy makers currently in leadership, pray for them. Philippians 4:6-7 invites us to pray for our financial decisions and challenges. It says, Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Every means every. Even Jesus, when he gave us a model prayer, included a prayer about daily provision and needs, Give us this day, our daily bread. The reality is; money and how you and I manage it is a major theatre of spiritual warfare. There is a battle going on for our affections and trust and we have to keep in clear view that money management is a spiritual issue. So, you need to make your money and your money management habits a matter of regular prayer. The most glaring error in all the news reports, public debate, and political rhetoric is that I have yet to hear any leader make reference for our collective need to look beyond ourselves for a solution and turn to God Almighty. Yet, when I read of our political leaders identifying the root cause of this meltdown as greed, it is as if we have forgotten that greed and its resulting consequences is a heart problem, not a policy problem (Chuck Bentley, The Bible teaches that money is not the solution to money problems. In fact, the Bible says that whoever loves money never has enough, that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil (Ecclesiastes 5:10; 1 Timothy 6:10). And Jesus said, Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions (Luke 12:15). "All he ever wanted was more. He wanted more money, so he parlayed inherited wealth into a billion dollar pile of assets. He wanted more fame, so he broke into the Hollywood scene and soon became a filmmaker and star. He wanted more central pleasures, so he paid handsome sums to indulge his every sexual urge. He wanted more thrills, so he designed, built, and piloted the fastest aircraft in the world. "He wanted more power, so he secretly dealt political favors so skillfully, that two U.S. presidents became his pawns. All he ever wanted was more. He was absolutely convinced that more would bring him true satisfaction. Unfortunately, history shows otherwise. This man concluded his life emaciated, colorless, sunken chest, fingernails in grotesque, inches- long corkscrews, rotting black teeth, tumors, innumerable needle marks from his drug addiction." Anybody want to guess? Howard Hughes died believing the myth of more a billionaire junkie, insane by all reasonable standards. It's the same story. You've got to ask yourself the question: If Howard Hughes had pulled off one more deal, made one more million dollars, had one more powerful politician in his hip pocket, would it have been enough? Would it ever have been enough? (

3 Most people think the answer to their money problems is I need more. But, God s way is to manage what you have. Some people think, I m in a mess, I m in a hole and if I just had more things would be better. But, what happens is when more comes they just get into a bigger mess. Please realize: If you don t learn how to manage what you have, when you get more, the problem won t get fixed it will get bigger. Here s the reality: Money problems are, at the core, heart problems and can only be solved by a change of heart initiated by repentance. Turn in your Bibles to 2 Chronicles 7: At the special service of dedication of the Temple, the Lord appeared to Solomon and gave this promise to the people, When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:13-14, NIV). Making our money management challenges and decisions a regular matter of prayer is so crucial as a first principle here. Because it s a spiritual issue and it s a matter of the heart where you must allow God regular access so he can form in you his desires for your money management habits. He can keep you trusting him and he can empower your obedience. As we ask God for help in this, ask him to provide the courage to pursue a new American Dream. Principle #2 Pursue a New American Dream This morning I m inviting you to consider that one of the reasons money matters to God is because if you manage your money according to God s principles and wisdom, it will be a powerful testimony to the culture around you. No matter what economic storms come at us, as Christians we must show the world that what holds us together is not a political system, as great as it may be; it is not capitalism, as great as it may be; nor is it even the democracy that has made this nation great. Instead, as believers, we need to show by how we live that what holds us together is: Living out of our motto printed on our coins: In God We Trust. The real economic recovery needed is the recovery of the Biblical values we hold dear. Call it "The New American Dream - Living Within Our Means," a concept as old as the Scripture itself. It was God who from the beginning taught us to: 1. Honor God with our wealth. 2. Save but do not hoard. 3. Get out of debt. 4. Invest wisely and steadily. Simply put, God wants us to live within our means so we can be free from financial bondage and all the stressful fallout that comes with that.

4 Many people say that they cannot give when in fact they are actually saying they cannot bring themselves to give without a reduction in their standard of living. Yet, sacrificial giving is exactly what the Bible invites Christians to do. Proverbs 3:9 says, Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops. Then Paul coached the early Christians in giving by saying, Now about the collection for God's people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income (1 Corinthians 16:2). You see giving for the Christian is to be intentional and deliberate. We are to model a bold way of living to the culture around us. We must model a refusal to use the money he provides on ourselves first, giving him only the leftovers, if there are any. Our giving practices are to say loud and clear that we are committed to giving to God first as a way to honor him as our Lord and adjust our standard of living after that. In Order to pursue this new American Dream each of us must commit to becoming cultural contrarians. Principle #3 - Become a Culture Contrarian Craig Blomberg, in his book entitled Neither Poverty nor Riches, urges Christians to become culture contrarians which amounts to resolving to not get caught up in the materialism and spending habits of our culture. And he offers some suggestions on how to do it: Guard against getting caught up in spending money the way so many in our culture do. Look for teachable moments to remind yourself and your kids of the lies, half-truths of the advertising that bombards us daily. Seek to embrace simplicity and do with less of the many items most Americans believe they can t live without. Psalm 37:16-17 says, It is better to be godly and have little than to be evil and possess much. For the strength of the wicked will be shattered, but the Lord takes care of the godly. Refuse to go into debt for anything other than property or education. Do not assume that you need the size or quality of lavish home entertainment items that many Americans crave. Save on cooling or heating your home by turn your thermostat down in the winter and up in the summer. Buy only the clothes you really need by a maker that gives a good value. Eat out less often. Many Christians who are well to do were asked to answer anonymously on note cards the following question: If you knew you would have 20% less income next year, what area of your current budget would be most affected? The most common answer each time was Money for eating out. So, if that s true then why not voluntarily cut back, without being forced to, for the sake of giving? (Blomberg, Neither Poverty nor Riches, p footnote) These are just a few beginning ideas of ways to begin to be a culture contrarian. Fundamentally it means seeking ways to do divest ourselves of our unused or unnecessary possessions, to make budgets to see where our money is really going, to exercise self-control and delayed gratification

5 out of thanksgiving for all that God has blessed us with that we never, ever deserved (Blomberg, p. 252). Dan s class, end of November one session seminar - Living life for le$$ Snoopy, one time, was sitting on top of his doghouse, and it's Thanksgiving. He's bitter in his spirit because Charlie Brown and the family are having this huge feast inside their house, but Snoopy is stuck on his doghouse with only dog food. And he's kind of grousing about that until this thought occurs to him, and he says to himself, "It could be worse. I could have been born a turkey." Now, I want to ask you to remember that little phrase, "It could be worse." And if you take nothing else from this message, take that one with you. To get your warmed up to become a culture contrarian, I want to give you a couple of exercises for this one, for the rest of the day. When you leave this room, you're going to go out in the parking lot and get in whatever vehicle you drove here in. And you're going to be tempted to think, "If I just had another car, a nicer car, a new car, a bigger car, a more expensive car, I'd be content," because we get bombarded with that message all the time. But today, in the spirit of being a culture contrarian, you're not going to think that. Instead, today, you're going to open the door of your car, get inside, and say to yourself with great passion with tremendous passion and conviction stay with me, friends. With enormous conviction, you're going to say to yourself, "IT COULD BE WORSE," because it could be. It is for a lot of people. When you drive that car to wherever you live your apartment, your condo, your house, you're going to be tempted to think, when you walk inside the door, "I'd be content if I just had a newer house, nicer house, bigger house, better house," because we're bombarded with that message all the time, but not today. Today, in the spirit of being a culture contraian, when you come to the door, before you step across that threshold, you're going to stop and you're going to say to yourself with great passion, "IT COULD BE WORSE," because it could be. Tomorrow morning, when you wake up and you roll over and you look at your spouse, you're going to say no, just kidding Don't do that one. Principle #4 Shift your Dependency God warned us that we must never place our fundamental hope in anything or anyone other than Him. Idolatry is seldom even mentioned in our culture any longer. It has become the norm to replace our dependency on God with an exalted view of education, wealth, athletic ability, travel, entertainment, or power. But the Bible repeatedly coaches us to shift our dependency from the blessings God provides to God as the provider. Hebrews 13:5-6 says, Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.' So we say with confidence, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?' "(NIV)

6 This passage comes with a warning and a promise: money will leave you, Jesus will not. Place your hopes and dreams in a temporal idol and you will have temporal hopes and dreams, but place all of your hopes in Him and He will never disappoint you. John Ortberg wrote an excellent book on managing your money God s way and he called it, When the Game is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box. In it he tells this story: My grandmother taught me how to play the game monopoly. Now, my grandmother was a wonderful person. She raised six children. She was a widow by the time I knew her well. She lived in our house for many, many years. And she was a lovely woman, but she was the most ruthless Monopoly player I have ever known in my life. Imagine what would have happened if Donald Trump had married Leona Helmsley and they would have had a child. Then, you have some picture of what my grandmother was like when she played Monopoly. She understood that the name of the game is to acquire. When we would play when I was a little kid and I got my money from the bank, I would always want to save it, hang on to it, because it was just so much fun to have money. She spent on everything she landed on. And then, when she bought it, she would mortgage it as much as she could and buy everything else she landed on. She would accumulate everything she could. And eventually, she became the master of the board. And every time I landed, I would have to pay her money. And eventually, every time she would take my last dollar, I would quit in utter defeat. And then she would always say the same thing to me. She'd look at me and she'd say, "One day, you'll learn to play the game." I hated it when she said that to me. But one summer, I played Monopoly with a neighbor kid a friend of mine almost every day, all day long. We'd play Monopoly for hours. And that summer, I learned to play the game. I came to understand the only way to win is to make a total commitment to acquisition. I came to understand that money and possessions, that's the way that you keep score. And by the end of that summer, I was more ruthless than my grandmother. I was ready to bend the rules, if I had to, to win that game. And I sat down with her to play that fall. Slowly, cunningly, I exposed my grandmother's vulnerability. Relentlessly, inexorably, I drove her off the board. The game does strange things to you. I can still remember. It happened at Marvin Gardens. I looked at my grandmother. She taught me how to play the game. She was an old lady by now. She was a widow. She had raised my mom. She loved my mom. She loved me. I took everything she had. I destroyed her financially and psychologically. I watched her give her last dollar and quit in utter defeat. It was the greatest moment of my life. And then she had one more thing to teach me. Then she said, "Now it all goes back in the box all those houses and hotels, all the railroads and utility companies, all that property and all that wonderful money now it all goes back in the box." I didn't want it to go back in the box. I wanted to leave the board out, bronze it maybe, as a memorial to my ability to play the game. "No," she said, "None of it was really yours. You got all heated up about it for a while, but it was around a long time before you sat down at the board, and it will be here after you're gone. Players come and players go. But it all goes back in the box."

7 And the game always ends. For every player, the game ends. Every day you pick up a newspaper, and you can turn to a page that describes people for whom this week the game ended. Skilled businessmen, an aging grandmother who was in a convalescent home with a brain tumor, teenage kids who think they have the whole world in front of them, and somebody drives through a stop sign. It all goes back in the box houses and cars, titles and clothes, filled barns, bulging portfolios, even your body. This is why we must shift our dependency and never place our hope and trust in anything other than him, the living God who said, never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. Principle #5 Grow Deep for Stormy Days Ahead As simple as it may sound; our nation is starved for truth, for the security of unchanging principles and policies that work. That truth is found only in knowing and applying God s Word. For the days ahead, we must anchor our souls in truth like the comfort found in 1 Chronicles 29:11-12: Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. 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. 12 Wealth and honor come from you alone, for you rule over everything. Power and might are in your hand, and at your discretion people are made great and given strength. These are some key principles that God has been calling us to form the beginning. And they are exactly what we need to navigate this current economic downturn and be better positioned to endure likely storms ahead. In addition, when you manage your money in these ways your life becomes a powerful testimony to a culture thatis looking for solid hope and lasting truths. Practice these principles and God will be glorified in your life and for the lives around you. To provide more tools for you we have a two classes coming up for you. Surviving Financial Meltdown, a 5 week Adult Sunday Seminar Living life for less, a one session Adult Sunday Seminar Details in your Worship Guide Challenge.as I close this series I d encourage you to run straight at this stewardship area in your life. It would be so easy to let the issues we ve raised in this series fade to the background in your life. Don t let that happen. Use this time as a time to put your professed trust in God to the test. Make it clear who owns you first, let your giving declare loudly that God is your Lord not your money. God wants to use your giving to resource his work in the world And he wants to use your generosity to be a powerful testimony in world that has put their hope in their wealth which in these days is shifting violently.