How many of you have made one of those Dumb, WWIT dec. in life? how many w/ money?
For us to disentangle the whole money issue we need to get to the root - we’ve gotta look at the root issue of what causes us to make poor choices, stupid dec. - we could look at things like budgeting, or the details of how to go about investing - but if we don’t look at the root of what causes us to get in this
predicament time and time again then we’ll just go right back there
Sometimes roots are hard to extract, particularly in this area of our finances
Brief Insight: There is little difference in the financial
behavior of those INSIDE the church as opposed to those OUTSIDE of the church
Here’s why we can say that - b/c most church-going people struggle in this area just as much of those who do not make God a priority in life
The root is GREED
If I were to take an informal poll of those in the church I would venture to think they’d say Greed is wrong - however most people would also say, I’d like some more money
- let’s just see (hands)
How many of you wouldn’t mind having a little more money?
“I’m not greedy, I just want more money”
This is why this is good to talk about in this series, b/c we’ve all been there - we’ve made some bad choices/dec w/ our cold hard earned cash
I think most of our money problems and poor dec. come down to - What holds us captive? it is our selfish wants and desires and that boils down to greed, materialism
which brings us to the challenge of Jesus
The Challenge: I am RESPONSIBLE before God for the
way I live in regards to the money I have
You see God, the Creator of the Universe has this competing rival - and it is anything we put above Him - which always boils down our wants and desires and the root is Greed
From the Lips of Jesus
• How money has a power over us
Matthew 6:19-24
But here is Jesus talking about how we need to make wise dec. concerning our money and then He sticks in v.22,23
and then right back to making wise money chioces/dec.
We probably ought to ask, “What in the world is that ‘eye thing’ doing right in the smack middle of making wise money dec. ?
“Jesus said, ‘The eye is the lamp of the body. If your
eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.
But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of
darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how
great is that darkness!’” Matthew 6:22-23
one level it’s very simple - if eyes work and light is on you can see all around - where chairs are and so forth...
If you eye isn’t working, even w/ a whole lot of light all around the room, then in a real sense you’re still in the dark.
right now you’re thinking, “Thank you Bible Scholar”
So to get some better perspective let’s look over to Luke where He also mentions the eye lamp thing then He goes on - look at
“Then Jesus said to them, ‘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
What’s He talking about? Greed materialism - same stuff over in Matthew 6
Definition of Greed:
Inordinate DESIRE and/or DEPENDENCE on money and/or material things!
What’s that mean, ‘inordinate’ anyway
let’s unpack that, but write this down first
Jesus’ MAIN Point: Greed/Materialism has the peculiar
ability to BLIND me, to distort the way I SEE things in this world
Greed has the ability to blind you/me and the ability to distort everything, every choice, every dec. that we make
1st: Greed/Materialism has the power to blind me
to GREED & MATERIALISM!
If we were sitting there during the sermon on the mount - Matt. 6 and heard Jesus talking about making wise money dec. then the eye, lamp, light thing, then back to money we’d probably be thinking, “I don’t get it, what are you talking about, why did you put that in there?”
What I think is interesting is that Jesus is trying to get us to think
about this. But were saying, just tell us what to do
But Jesus wants us to really look at this
You see the thing here for us is this is the one issue in our world we see diff. than every other issue - that’s why Jesus says, It’s a problem of the eye -
Jesus never had to say to anybody, watch out you might be committing adultery - they know they are - they don’t say, gee whiz you’re not my wife - that doesn’t happen right?
but Jesus had to shout, watch out!
why b/c greed hides, it blinds us like nothing else
people may confess all kinds of things, lust, internet, bad behaviors, anger... but you never hear confessions of greed - why?
we don’t think that’s an issue - “Me - Greed?”
“I don’t make that much money” - we think of rich people right?
Here’s the thing, we all know somebody, friends, family, that are much more extravagant and excessive in their use of money than we are - isn’t that true - and thats all it takes - just to know somebody thats way out there in their use of money - so we say,
Me greedy, no way and Jesus says, watch out!
b/c most our dumb money dec. had to do w/ our selfish wants and desires, greed or materialism
2nd: Greed and materialism keeps me from
ASKING HARD QUESTIONS about my lifestyle
we don’t like to think about that - there’s always somebody we know who makes 3, 5, 10 times the amount of money we do - so we just don’t think we’re greedy
and we don’t think we need to ask the hard ?’s
like
Do I really NEED to SPEND this much money on this?
do I really NEED to spend that much money on those jeans?
do I really NEED to?
we don’t ask those tough ?’s and sometimes, alot of times that’s where the cc debt comes in
Are there ways I could save money in order to give more away?
Are there ways that I could be more generous?
As much as we don’t like to talk about it or hear about the money issues like this - Jesus talked about it all the time.
It’s in the Bible more than anything else - I wonder why?
B/c God knew how much we were going to fight against and struggle in this area
• Why money exercises power over us
“Jesus said, ‘For where your treasure is, there your
heart will be also.’” Matthew 6:21
The Point: The place where your heart really RESTS is revealed by money!
So what happens is we make unwise dec. b/c of where our heart really is. We think about ourselves.
in dealing with self, we use our heart, w/ others our head
we need to reverse that.
but what happens when we don’t reverse that is we make dec. based on our personal emotions and wants - here’s some
Money is a way…
...of gaining SIGNIFICANCE
we base our significance on our income, where we live, where we eat, dress - in reality people aren’t watching you that closely, they don’t really care, we care, that’s why we make those dec.
our sig. comes only in God
...of providing SECURITY
19"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. Matthew 6
once again - security only found in Christ Jesus
• How we can break its power over us?
“Jesus said, ‘But seek first his kingdom and his
righteousness, and all these things all these things
will be given to you as well.’” Matthew 6:33
The Point: REVERSE the order of my normal
choices and decision I make regarding money
re-prioritize
here’s how:
First: GIVE TO GOD
Second: PAY MYSELF
Third: PAY MY TAXES
Fourth: GET OUT OF CONSUMER DEBT
Fifth: LIVE OFF THE REST!
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