The Elephant in the Room: What Jesus Says About Money

uh welcome to journey church we're in a series would you just say with me it is the elephant in the room this is the stuff we don't want to talk about now today's elephant is so big that some marriage is split over this elephant there are many misconceptions regarding this elephant some people spend their entire lives working for this elephant the elephant in the room today is money money money money oh it just seems like the whole world revolves around money songs are written about money oh the government gives you money and then the government takes the money away the government prints money the government spends money they don't have

oh we're told everyone says it money does not make you happy oh but like spike milligan some of us are just saying oh just give me a chance i'll prove it to you that money doesn't make me happy how many of y'all feel like that i'll just just give me a chance to prove to you money doesn't make me happy and today as we talk about money you might think what does money have to do with the church everything you know the bible talks a lot about money jesus talked more about money than heaven and hell combined more than half of his parables were about money parables are fictional stories with the truth jesus is the master storyteller and and there must be something to be said about money and that jesus talks so much about

this and as we begin to understand the principles of how money impacts our lives what we see in the scriptures is how we deal with the physical that is money tells us where we are in the spiritual where our hearts are jesus said for where your treasure is there your heart will be also so we can start to examine our lives by looking at what are we spending money on that's going to reflect where our heart is so today i'm going to give you seven life lessons about money seven things i've learned about money i would love for you to take notes there's a card in front of you if you're watching a home go get out a pen and a pencil or if you got your phone take notes on there i want us to learn about money so let's dive right in life lesson number one

money is not evil money is not evil oh maybe you've heard it said money is the root of all evil some say that and they say they're quoting scripture and that's that's because in the context we find a scripture in first timothy 6 where paul is speaking to younger timothy about money and he tells us in first timothy 6 10 he tells us for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evils so money is not evil it's the love of money that leads to not just some evil all kinds of evil what paul the author is trying to tell us as as we read about this is that if we find our meaning in money we have lost what

god's purpose and plan is for our lives you are made in god's image you're not made to serve money you're made to serve god you're not made to just live for money you're made to to love and to learn who god is this author is stressing this point so that we would see that we we must go after god but because if we go after the things of this world it will cause a world of problems in the prior verse he says this but those who desire to be rich fall into temptation into a snare into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into rune and destruction you see if you desire to be rich you pour your heart into this you pour your energy into this it won't lead you to more life it actually leads you to more problems it leads you to to more temptations and with more money comes

more problems and so we have to examine our lives what am i living for see money is not evil but we've got to understand money is not all that matters i love the wisdom of proverbs how it says this in proverbs 23 verse 4 and 5. do not toil to acquire wealth don't just work to get wealthy be discerning enough to desist when your eyes light on it when your eyes are on money it is gone and suddenly it sprouts wings flying like an eagle toward heaven don't you love that description about money some of you are all wondering where's my money gone it grew wings and flew away you worked for it and then you where'd it go that's why when the government prints money they put an eagle on it just to remind you it's not going to last

right see some of us think the money will last forever we think this this has got to this got to work this is what i'm working for but but as the scriptures teach us this this principle that money will not last we we've got to look in our generation just go back to 2008 in the great recession when people lost money some were willing to take their lives by suicide because of money some marriages were split people got divorced over money some people got depressed and went into a serious depression because of money when we put our hearts in the wrong things we lose what god wants for us which is a relationship with him so we ought to be careful because money is

fleeting but yet the author tells us in first timothy 6 but godliness with contentment is great gain for we brought nothing into the world and we could take nothing out of the world see when you die you're not taking your bank account you're not taking your car you're not taking your house you're taking nothing with you to heaven the only thing you could take with you to heaven are other people when you share jesus with others it's an investment that can last forever and this author tells us what what every one of us long for deep down inside every single one of us long for contentment we want this some of us think that if i had more money then i'd be content if i just had enough money then i'll be content but it's godliness with contentment that would be great to go to god to trust him so life lesson number one is money is

not evil but the love of money is life lesson number two this one's gonna hurt just a little bit debt is dumb now i'm not saying if you have debt you're dumb some really intelligent people with debt but debt is dumb and we live in a nation of debt from the micro level we live in a nation that most people today are in debt most people believe they have to have a car payment to have a car you do not have to have a car payment to have a car you can actually have a car that will get you to where you want to go but it might not be the car you want but you've got to determine do i want to live this way see we live in a nation that's not just the individual peoples with that even our government is in debt even the government spends

money they don't have i learned about debt early in my freshman year of college i was 18 years old on campus i i found that the credit card companies go after you they set up these tables and they put these two liter bottles of soda out on these tables and they entice you to come on over would you like one of these two liters of soda well sure i'd like one of those just fill out this credit card application and you get a two liter bottle of soda one of my first credit cards i ever got was a credit card company that was offering a free t-shirt at 18 years old that sure sounded good so i got the credit card i got the free t-shirt and i started to use a credit card your car breaks down and you don't have the money you put it on the credit card then you take that money trying to pay off the the car and now you don't have money for groceries so you put it on the credit card and then i married a wonderful woman you

know men always marry up and i married an intelligent one we got married and i had a credit card debt she looked at me said how could you have credit card debt i said it's easy she looked at me and said why would you spend money you don't have i said because i don't have money you see i i grew up in poverty and if you keep the mentality of poverty you will always be poor and so she started to teach me you do do not spend money you don't have if you can't fix your car now you don't have a car so you got to decide you got to determine what you're going to do with your money and and that is done the wisdom of proverbs tells us this the rich actually rules over the poor and the borrower is the slave of the lender so if you take money that's not yours you're a slave to the lender it could be a credit card it could be a family member it could be

a friend it could be a student loan some of us are slave to our student loans for years and decades to come and the reason the scripture is called a slave to the lender is you don't have the financial freedom to do what you want with what's yours you owe someone else so you're no longer able to give generously you're no longer able to say god how can i glorify you but rather you have to pay the person you owe your god never desired for us to be in debt he set up principles where all people would not be in debt you could read about this in leviticus 25 deuteronomy 15 god actually designed it where people would not be in debt it was a wonderful principle that every seven years every seven seven years there'd be this wonderful plan that your debt would be set free and it was more than just that debt

would be set free the slaves would be set free if you had land that you lost it was given back to you see god had a plan for his people to have liberty to have life to have freedom that we would experience jubilee in our lives but if you have debt you're held back from being who god wants you to be he wants you to experience the life that he has for you jesus said in john 10 10 he's he says the thief and he's referring to a real enemy satan the thief comes to steal kill and destroy satan wants to stop you from experiencing life but jesus said i came that they may have life and have it abundantly the devil would love for you to be in debt and to stay in debt jesus would love for you to experience

all the life he has for you not not just a financial freedom he wants you to experience the whole life that he has to offer in you so if there's one thing i could say regarding debt being dumb you can get out of it i don't care how big your debt is where your debt is you can get out of debt god sent me here to tell you today that he is greater than any debt you have my god is greater and when you get on your knees and seek him and you want to honor him and you want to get out of debt he can even do in his economy what the world can't explain if you're willing to give god your debt he's willing to give you what he's able to do and he's the miracle worker but it starts with you saying i want to honor you i'm not going to do this on my own because as dr phil would say how's that

working for you start somewhere go to a plan we live in the information age there's so many tools that can help you go to dave ramsey financial peace university dave ramsey will tell you you got to have an emergency fund so when your car breaks down don't use that credit card then just take some baby steps you don't need to take big stuff baby steps little baby steps just start paying off that debt it'll snowball next thing you know debt is gone i like how he tells us if you right now would live like no one else so later on you could live like no one else you might not be able to have what you want but it's not is it worth going in debt for is it worth going in debt for that vacation so you come back and and fight over the debt that you got in for that vacation no it's not worth it live like no one else you could live like no one else

here's life lesson number three you reap what you sow this is called the principle of sowing it's really simple but it's woven throughout the scriptures if you're not praying you will not see answers to prayer if you're not working out you will not have the muscles you want sometimes we're surprised why don't i have what i want and the principle of sowing just goes something like this you reap what you sow if you don't scatter the seed you won't have a harvest if you don't water it it can't grow and some of us are asking god to bless our lives when we're not showing up doing what god wants us to do we live in the age of quick fix we want a shortcut and galatians 6 7 tells us do not be deceived

god is not mocked for whatever one sows that will he also reap see we'll be accountable to god you can get rich quick or you can't watch a youtube video today without someone selling you some scheme to pay for this and and somehow you'll get rich faster than if you just work hard and take time there's a principle there it's a farming principle you don't just plant the seeds and it just grows up you got to wait you got a toil you got to pull the weeds but i'm telling you the right time the harvest is coming so it is when when we serve god in every area of our lives including our finances we're going to see god work i don't know if anyone here was like me in school but whenever the teacher would say today we're taking a test my question every time was

what test it was always a surprise i felt like every test was a pop quiz because when i was taking notes i wasn't paying attention and when i got my report card it was full of c's and that c was not for a champion that see was the product of the lack of productivity i look back now and i regret it i look back now and say i just wish i would have been more disciplined i wish i just would have worked hard i wish i would have understood that that what you put into it you're going to get out of it and some of us are wondering where is god and god's looking at you say i'm right here if you'd be want to show up i want to teach you character i want to teach you something great in your life jesus said this in matthew 25 verse 29 for to everyone who has more will be given and he will have an

abundance everyone shout abundance abundance but from the one who has not even what he has will be taken away jesus is not just talking about money here he's talking about your life what are you doing with your life what do you do with what he gives you the opportunity your energies your mind what are you doing with your life because if you can be faithful with what god's given you he can entrust you with more see if you take jesus seriously jesus will seriously work in your life you've got to show up you've got to work you've got to recognize everything is actually god's the psalmist says in psalm 24 verse 1 the earth is the lord's and the fullness thereof the world and those who dwell therein it's all actually god's your house your car your clothes your

shoes it's god's so next time you get a dent in your car you just go to god and say there's a dent in your car when your kids need braces you just turn to the lord first and say lord your kids need braces you see when when the scriptures teach us everything's god's it doesn't mean you do nothing it means you bring god into your life in everything that all of a sudden you realize actually we're partners in this this is actually his and when i show up god shows up psalm 12 28 verse 2 says you shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands you shall be blessed and it shall be well with you you reap what you so let's look at life lesson number four giving is great

i know that some of you all showed up at church today and you heard we're talking about money and thought oh great i showed up on a money day i brought a friend to church on a money day i don't this is a a trick let me tell you a little story i i didn't i did not grow up in the church none of my family grew up in the church i started attending church at age 15. i loved church i just couldn't get enough of it every sunday i go to church i was really close with my grandparents i'd go to my grandparents house after church and my grandpa would say something like this did they pass the plate what meaning did they take an offering and i would always have to tell my grandpa yes grandpa they passed the plate and then he would say something back and he he meant good intentions he wanted to give me counsel he said watch out all that church wants is your money and i realized earlier some people believe that all the church wants is their money now if you're wondering why why would people believe that because if

you look around and you don't have to look that hard there are a lot of scandals in church and many of them have to do with money so when this church got started one thing i determined to do because of my grandpa i said we will not pass a plate we won't pass a pass a bag we won't pass a bucket i want to make sure that the offering is not an obstacle to jesus now we still take an offering but we don't do it publicly so don't worry today we're not passing a plate or a bucket or bag we're not taking an offering we want you to honor god with your life you see giving is not a duty it's an opportunity to worship god it's an opportunity to watch god work in your life you see this isn't this isn't a trap this isn't a pastor's plan this isn't even the church's idea it was god's idea you know the last book of the old

testament the old testament is everything in the bible before the birth of jesus the new testament everything in the bible after jesus and the last book that god leaves us with is malachi and malachi chapter 3 god is speaking through the prophet malachi and he says this starting with verse 6. for i the lord do not change if you've got your own bible i would underline that i would highlight it i would circle it god does not change in a chaotic world a world of uncertainties the one thing we can be certain of god is still god he's still in control no matter what's happening there's one thing you could hope in and trust in is that the lord does not change therefore you god says o children of jacob are not consumed he's talking about his people from the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and you've not kept them

return to me and i will return to you says the lord of hosts the lord is teaching the principle of sowing you're not getting what god wants for you because you're not doing what god's asked of you and the great thing about god is he's the god of new mercies every morning they're new every morning god's given you an opportunity to return to him the word is repent it means to change your thinking completely change your thinking and god says i want to give you an opportunity to return to me but you say how shall we return if you're looking for an excuse you will always find one either the church wants your money or you don't have time or there's always a reason to say this is why i don't want to get right with god but god always has an answer will man

rob god verse 8 yet you are robbing me but you say how have we robbed you in your tithes and contributions you are cursed with the curse for you are robbing me the whole nation of you bring the full tithe into the storehouse that there may be a flood in my house and thereby put me to the test says the lord of hosts if i will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need oh listen to this verse 11. someone needs this today i will rebuke the devourer for you so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil and your vine and the fields shall not fail to bear says the lord of hosts if god is for you who can be against you then all the nations verse 12 says we'll

call you blessed for you will be a land of delight it says the lord of hosts so here's what god says if you would just come to me with ten percent if you would just give god the first ten percent now a tithe comes from the hebrew word which means ten it's the first ten percent not the last ten percent not the ten percent in the middle if you would give god the first fruits god says test me in this and i'll show you now in the scriptures many numbers have symbols the number 10 is a is a symbol for a test or or god's judgment we see this throughout the scriptures let's let's do a test today can we do this you're going to see a pattern all right how many plagues were there placed on egypt by god shout it out

great job how many commandments how many times did god test the israelites in the wilderness hey you're picking up on this how many times were jacob's wages changed jesus told the story in matthew 25 of these virgins preparing to to for the for the groom how many virgins were there good job how many disciples were there ah that was a test some of you got it and some of you didn't i was just seeing if you were listening this was a test so 10 10 is significant 10 is where we trust god with what he's given us god's giving you an opportunity to see him work he can do greater with your 90 percent than you can do with a hundred and he said he's saying test me in this

now somebody say well it's not in the new testament pastor where jesus came to fulfill the law i'm not sure we have to do that but it's interesting that the lord would put that as the last book of the bible but jesus himself he did not say do not tithe in fact when he was speaking to the religious in matthew 23 verse 23 he says woe to you that's the last thing you want to hear from jesus woe to you scribes and pharisees hypocrites for you tithe meant and dill and cumin these religious people were even tithing their herb garden some of us are asking well what should i tithe on everything they're even tithing their herb garden and jesus says but this but you've neglected the weightier matters of the law justice and mercy and faithfulness these you ought to have done tithe without

neglecting the others justice mercy and faithfulness jesus did not say don't tithe jesus is saying if you're gonna tithe and give god honor then you ought to look like god you ought to act like god wants you to act god never asked you to give so that you'd be religious he asked you to give so that you could trust him and then trust him you start to look like him where all of a sudden you love mercy you act justly and you're faithful you walk humbly with your god and you do all that because you trust god for who he actually is so that we we see god working our lives you know there's two types of people when it comes to tithing one person says this i can't afford not to tithe i trust god with everything the other person says this i can't afford to tithe let me just speak to that louder person for a moment the one that says i can't afford to tithe i'm not saying you're a bad person i'm

not saying you don't love the lord but i am saying you're missing out on experiencing all that god has for you so some of us want to say i don't have enough money to tithe well i'm telling you that when you show up god shows up as well you've got to start somewhere let me tell you a story last year we went through this book of malachi and we did what's called a tithe challenge at journey church we said this if you'd be willing to test god because he said to test him and you tithe for three months you give god your best to 10 for for three months and if at the end of three months you're not seeing god working your life the way you expect him to work or there's no change we'll give you back a hundred percent of that tithe we'll give it literally all of it back to you and we heard story after story of people trusting god for the first time one particular couple they were in debt

they were incredibly indebted they said we can't afford a tithe but we're going to do this challenge because pastor is telling us and if we can't afford it we'll get the money back they started tithing by the end of three months they were entirely out of debt they could not afford to buy a home and after six months they bought a home god showed up in a way they said none of this even makes sense they started thinking differently about their money they understood where every dollar was and they started giving honor to god and god shows up you see you reap what you sow i love how r.g letourneau once said i shovel it out and god shovels it back but god has a bigger shovel you see i've experienced that over and over i told you about when i entered marriage i had debt and my wife thought i was dumb i mean she thought the debt was dumb and

one of the things that we had to learn early in our marriage was to tithe and i'll tell you we were poor we were broke she was a high school teacher i was a youth pastor making a whole bunch of money and uh we joined our our our money together and this is what we looked we said how can we do this we don't have much money and i'll tell you it was it was a definitely a conversation of conflict in our house in those early days and we started giving to god and ever since that time we have witnessed god show up over and over and over story after story like what the proverbs say when it says one gives freely yet grows all the richer another withholds what he should give and only suffers want see when you're holding tight to something you can't even receive what god wants to give you but when you open up your hands to the lord all of a

sudden you think you're given to god and god's like i'm going to give you back i'm going to give you more jesus says in luke 6 38 give and it will be given to you good measure pressed down shaken together running over will be put into your lap for with the measure you use it it will be measured back to you well i believe giving is great and i don't want to twist you or manipulate it to do so as paul told the church in corinth he said this each one must give as he's decided and his in his heart not reluctantly or under compulsion for god loves a cheerful giver you don't do it because the pastor tells you the person next to you do because you want to give because giving is great you do it because you want to be more like god there's no greater giver than god

god is the ultimate giver oh consider this when jesus tells us in john 3 16 what did he say for god so loved the world that he what he gave his only son what a great gift that he gave he gave us jesus so that whoever believes in him will not perish but but have eternal life he is the ultimate giver and we just begin to practice who he is so here's what we learned so far that that money is not evil debt is dumb you reap what you're sow giving is great here's the next lesson in money learn from the lord you really should you should learn from the lord the bible is amazing it actually covers everything we need in our lives god has given you everything you need to know him to grow in your faith it's amazing you need help with money the bible's full of lessons about money

you need help in your marriage it's full of lessons you need help in your singleness you you need help in your your parenting your business the bible's absolutely incredible where you should learn from the lord you should learn about what jesus taught us you should learn the lessons of jesus his lessons are amazing like when jesus told us if if someone's hungry you can give a man a fish for a day and he'll be full but you could teach a man to fish and he'll eat for life jesus didn't say that that was a test it's a great proverb but it's more of a fortune cookie i want you to know the words of jesus i want you to look at the words of jesus because they're life-giving god himself gave us his words now you wonder where do i learn about the words of jesus there are four biographies in the bible matthew mark luke and john all four biographies teach about the

life of jesus where you can learn from jesus you could look at his own teaching so that you can test and say i'm not sure that's in the bible there's a lot of people quoting scripture that's not scripture a lot of people twisting the words of god because jesus did say this in luke 12 15 jesus said to them take care be on your guard against all covetousness for one's life your life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions it's like jesus was looking into our lives in the 21st century and said this your identity should not be on instagram when you covet what other people have you are missing what god wants to do in your life and it could be anything it could be someone else's car it could be the rug in their house it could be their makeup it could be their good looks it could be anything when you put your

your purpose and your meaning and possessions you miss what your life is actually all about you got to guard yourself because all over you're going to get mixed messages the government's going to say play the lottery you could win big you know what the lottery is it's a tax on the poor the government is saying you should get a quick fix you give us money and there's not a chance in the world you're going to get money they don't say that but in the tiny tiny fine print and if you look at the lives of those that do win the money through the shortcut it's typically not life-giving abundantly it's it's miserable but something happens when we honor god even with the little that we do have and we start to honor god with our giving we're actually blessed paul when he wrote to the leaders not wrote he was speaking to the leaders in in ephesus in acts chapter 20 and as

he's talking to these leaders he says this in acts 20 verse 35 in all things i have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak so god allows you to use your resources to help others and remember the words of the lord jesus so jesus said this how he himself said it is more blessed to give than to receive this this is an awesome principle you want to be blessed you can't give what you don't have and if you're a slave to a lender you're not able to give the way that maybe you would want to give i want to look for just a moment at two myths regarding being wealthy some would say that being wealthy is evil the other would say that if you really love the lord you're going to be wealthy both are wrong you can be poor and love the lord and honor god and glorify god

even in poverty which is most of the world by the way and you can also be incredibly wealthy have tons of money and love the lord and honor god and give him glory with your finances so it's not an either or what we want to do is say how do i give god the glory in my life it's not wrong to be wealthy it's not we see it from the beginning of the bible to the end abraham jacob david solomon job be careful though with that wealth comes more problems job was incredibly wealthy and lost it all yeah he got it back even more so in abundance but do you really want those problems it's not just men who are well wealthy remember lydia the the entrepreneur it was more than just that there's barnabas who was an investor he sold his stuff he got the

nickname son of encouragement there's matthew philemon and the list goes on how many of y'all remember the sunday school lesson about the wee little man remember what his name was zacchaeus and he climbed a tree what kind of tree was it sycamore tree some of you grew up in the church oh zacchaeus well he was interested in learning about jesus but he didn't know jesus he wasn't changed by jesus but undoubtedly he had a lot of money and jesus sees zacchaeus just like he sees you and says i want to come to your house jesus goes to zacchaeus house and and after spending time with jesus zacchaeus life has changed he says i'm going to give back and jesus says hey today salvation has come to this house now did salvation come to the house because of the giving that zacchaeus said he would do no it's because when you are transformed by jesus it shows on the outside

so you see someone who's grumpy who has no joy who has no peace that holds back their finances and they call themselves a christian they may not know the same jesus that we read about in the bible something changes with jesus in our lives jesus wants our whole life our mind our money he wants our relationships that's why there's no elephants in the room with jesus he just cut straight to the heart you got an issue let's deal with it if he can defeat death he can do anything in your life oh but you say ah jesus doesn't know about all the taxes i have to pay oh yes he does he talked about that too there's one example where there was a trap regarding taxes and matthew 22 15 then the pharisees those were those religious leaders again

they went and plotted how to entangle jesus in his words so matthew tells us in verse 17 tell us then what what you think jesus is it lawful to pay taxes to caesar or not ain't nobody like to pay taxes that's a trick jesus are you going to tell us to pay taxes or or not pay taxes but jesus aware of their malice said why would you put me to the test you hypocrites show me the coin for the tax they brought him a denarius and jesus said to them whose likeness and inscription is this they said caesar's then he said to them render to caesar the things that are caesar's and to god the things that are god's and when they heard it they marveled and they left him and went away see god's not going to ask you to break the law and not pay your taxes but i'll tell you this when you trust god

you're going to get god's size stories oh what do i mean by god's size stories they just don't make sense god's economy is not like our economy oh listen to this story matthew 17. when they came to capernaum the collectors of the two drachma attacks went up to peter and said does your teacher not pay the tax he said yes and when he came into the house jesus spoke to him first saying what do you think simon from whom to the kings of the earth toll or excuse me from whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax from their sons or from others and when he said from others jesus said to him then the sons are free now he was using the earthly example as a kingdom example if you have a king with kids in the

house the king does not charge his own kids taxes it's those outside the house now while we're on earth we realize that we're not in heaven yet so verse 27 however not to give offense to them go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel take that and give it to them for me and for yourself and peter went and did just that he went fishing the first fish he caught he opened the mouth and there was the coin come on you follow jesus weird things are going to happen you trust jesus money's going to show up in places you didn't expect it to show up this is a place all the fishermen in the house ought to be like amen i gotta go fishing honey it's i gotta pay our taxes

i'd say the way god works in one person's life may not be the same in another person's life peter's story is not your story but god will show up when you honor him because god wants the best for you he doesn't want to hold back the best god's plans are better than our plans god doesn't want you to be anxious he doesn't want you to worry he wants you to honor him and when you do it aligns everything in the sermon on the mount jesus said in matthew 6 verse 19 through 21 do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy where thieves break in and steal but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither rock moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal and then here's that verse for where your treasure is there your heart will be also i love this because we all know at

least many of us know that when something is stolen from you is there anything more violating than that when someone has taken what's yours what you've worked hard for back in the day in my youth i had a geo tracker do you know what that is it's like a generic jeep you can't afford the jeep so you get a tracker right and it's just this little car it had a soft top and i put a nice stair and remember when you cared about stereos in your car people don't really care anymore but it has a cd player in it i mean it was a big deal right i had hundreds of cds you know because before the mp3s and before the bluetooth and and i had this stereo that was stolen i was so mad it's like i worked for that and then i got a new stereo i put a new stereo and one week later that stereo was stolen yeah i quit putting stereos in that car i put the old one back in is what i did but this is what jesus said you can live

for something in your life that cannot be stolen this is but you can have so much meaning in your life that your energy your mind what you live for you can live for something greater than stuff how how do you do that well jesus tells us in matthew 6 33 he says but seek first the kingdom of heaven and his righteousness and all these things will be out of you your alignment your purpose will will be his you see if you don't allow jesus to work in every area he will not be the lord of all he's either lord of all or his lord not at all but when you seek him first start your day off with him you go to him you go to god you pray about every decision you make every word that you say you go to god with every penny that you have when you honor god all of a sudden

you see that life that jesus has for you do you see what i see that we can we can learn from the lord he has much to say if you'd be willing to get into this word and his word get into your heart it will change everything there's hundreds maybe thousands of more lessons that i can share with you but that's why life lesson number five is learn from the lord the next lesson is probably the most difficult here today because we always see it in others but we never see it in ourselves and it is this greed greed is like a virus now we've all learned a lot about viruses in the last year right here's how viruses work they're invisible in fact you don't even know you have a virus that you do have until the symptoms come out and usually comes out days later that's how greed works greed is in your life you don't even know you have greed until your life

falls apart you're miserable and you infect others with it as well and all of a sudden you wonder why you're in the place that you are see when you take a covet test to see if you have that particular virus they shove a stick so far up your nose you start to cry right and you all got it i got it too you know i was like it just makes you water in your eyes it's like that's not the greatest way to find out i have that virus i'll tell you this sometimes the holy spirit needs to go up into a heart and it makes you cry sometimes just to tell you that something's in your heart that shouldn't be there and you got to recognize that in the nation that we live in we have this silent greed that we celebrate buying stuff to get the economy going and then we buy stuff that we don't need to impress people we don't like and that's what the government celebrates and says that's a strong

economy keep keep spending money but jesus warned us in mark 8 36 what does it profit if a man gain the whole world and forfeit his soul you are made for more than stuff you're made to to know god you're made to experience him there was once a young wealthy religious man that came to jesus those are all the things that we'd celebrate right this guy has over 100 000 followers on instagram on top of that he's religious oh come on this is the guy all the girls want right he comes to jesus and matthew tells us behold a man came up to jesus saying teacher what good deed must i do to have eternal life and jesus said to him why do you ask me what is good there's only one who is good that's god if you would enter life keep the commandments how many commandments are

there remember 10. so so he said to jesus which ones and jesus started listing the commandments you don't know them well how about you shall not murder you shall not commit adultery you shall not steal you shall not bear false witness honor your mother and father you shall love your neighbor as yourself he starts going through all these lists of commandments and the young man said to him all these i have kept what do i still lack jesus said to him if you would be perfect go sell what you possess and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come and follow me when the young man heard this he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions listen listen the problem was not the money the problem was his heart jesus was asking him a lesson he was

teaching him a lesson how good is good enough to get into heaven is it following all the rules is that how you get into heaven no this is a heart issue if there's something stopping you from a relationship with god you have to get rid of that which is stopping you it could be the love of money it could be bitterness or unforgiveness it could be a whole slew of things and jesus cuts straight to the heart and says if you sold everything and you followed me wouldn't that be enough you've got god in the flesh saying come follow me learn from me talk with me walk with me touch me this is the guy that can turn a few fish in a few lows and feed thousands that's the guy you want to hang out with this is the guy that walked on water and creates surfing and invites others to participate as well that's the guy you want to follow

this is the guy that in the beginning before anything was spoke and it happens he creates something out of nothing and yet the story tells us this man walked away sad because there was something stopping him from a right relationship with god and so i just ask and say what's stopping us from following jesus is there something in our lives that we're just saying i can't give that up god wants you to experience all that he has to offer see the problem is not money it's our hearts and no one is exempt from greed poor people are greedy wealthy people are greedy young people are greedy elderly people are greedy even religious people jesus said in matthew 23 25 woe to you scribes and pharisees hypocrites you don't want jesus saying that to you

for you clean the outside of the cup and the plate but inside your life are full of greed and self-indulgence when jesus spoke to the church he was speaking to the church in laodicea the very ones that he said you're lukewarm i want to spit you out and he said this for you say i am rich i've prospered i need nothing not realizing you're actually wretched pitiable poor blind and naked here is what jesus is dressing your lack of dependence on god your greed is stopping you from experiencing true life because money will never truly make you happy solomon the wealthiest man alive at this time he writes this says he who loves money will not be satisfied with money nor he who loves wealth with his income this also is vanity

vanity is emptiness and when you think you need money you think you need more money and more money but there's a warning to those who just want more money there's a warning to those who want to just be rich as paul tells timothy he says as for the rich in this present age which by the way that's us charge them not to be haughty nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches but on god who richly provides for us with everything to enjoy you know god gives you everything in your life to enjoy whoo you see that sunrise this morning that's for you okay you missed it tonight sunset that's for you every breath that you breathe come on every breath is to praise the lord everything god's not withholding from you he wants you to to enjoy what he's giving you look at verse 18.

we are to do good to be rich in good works to be generous and ready to share thus storing up treasures for themselves as a good foundation for the future so that we may take hold of that which is truly life that's the purpose that you would really know what life is about it wouldn't be the american dream it wouldn't be the instagram dream it would be the jesus dream that i want his life so far the life lessons day money is evil debt is dumb you will reap what you sow giving is great learn from the lord greed is like a virus and the last one is the most important and i realize i'm out of time but the ultimate elephant comes from jesus mouth you cannot serve both god and money too many people want their cake and they want to eat it too if i could just have a little bit of jesus over here but i could still manage my own money

over here jesus wants everything he wants every bit of your heart he wants you to trust him with everything and as long as you make money more important than jesus you will never experience that abundant life but when you serve jesus you start to see what he sees and the ultimate testimony of following jesus is is that your perspective changes you start to see yourself the way god sees you you start to see other people the way god sees them what does god see well he cares about three things when it comes to our money here's the first is he cares about the poor and all of a sudden you have a shift that you want to care for the least of these proverbs 21 13 says whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered see god wants us to be a part of the solution

the second thing god cares about his family he cares about your family i love how paul writes in the first timothy says but if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his household his family he's denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever we should love what god loves what does god love he loves the poor and he loves family you know what else god loves the church romans 12 13 says contribute to the needs of the saints who are the saints those that have believed in jesus and seek to show hospitality we are better together you know when you come here and you give to journey church this is your family you give in many ways you bless a lot of people you know these lights we have to pay an electric bill i know that's crazy huh the electric company doesn't say hey you're doing a good job we're just gonna waive the fee for your election but no

we have to pay for the electorate bill we gotta pay for those donuts you love to eat we make this a hope house this is god's house we want it to be a house of prayer we want to be a comfortable place where you invite somebody in that is a part of a we are better together and when you give you care about what god cares about he loves the poor he loves family he loves the church and so much more you see god ultimately is in the transformation business he doesn't ignore the hard stuff the elephants in the room he wants our hearts to be like his so what do we do with the lessons we've learned today we start somewhere you make a plan you start by going to god jesus tells us for which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the costs whether he has enough to complete it otherwise when he's laid at foundations not able to finish it all who see it begin to mock him saying this man began to build and was not able to finish

see it's time for you to count the cost when you follow jesus it will cost you everything and you make a plan you begin to budget you begin to have a plan you go to god you get on your knees you pray you seek god in all your ways you trust in him with all of your heart you acknowledge him in all your ways and you say god i want you just work in my life and when you do god meet you there because here's one thing i know about our god he wants you to be rich i don't know why there's not a big shot of amen there i think the problem is because i just talked about money but here's a reality god wants you to be rich in spirit he wants you to be filled up with the spirit he wants to walk by the spirit he wants you to walk by faith you know what god wants you to be rich in is grace here's my last scripture i want to share with you today ephesians 2 verse 6 and 7. we're told and god raised us up with him and seated us with him in

the heavenly places in christ jesus that's enough to wake up and say god has a purpose for me to know him i get to be with god forever one day i'm going to be glorified one day i don't have to worry about anything anymore so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in christ jesus who i don't know if you missed this or not he's rich in grace he's rich in grace he gives grace upon grace upon gracie god doesn't care about what you did last night his mercies are new this morning he's ready for you to look forward to what he has planned for your life he doesn't care what you did in your youth or your 20s he doesn't care what happened in your 40s he cares right now for your heart oh he's rich in grace

jesus is the fullness of grace and truth so it all comes down to do i take jesus seriously am i willing to give him the glory for what's happening in my life because the bible says if i do nothing i'm gonna i'm gonna reap nothing poverty laziness breathes poverty so today i say what am i going to do for the lord i can't keep ignoring this elephant i can try but it's just going to keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger so today right where you are would you close your eyes i want us to talk to god prayer is simply a conversation with god it's between you and the lord when we pray we talk to god and we listen to god and you can start any time you never have to stop praying so i want to just ask you this where are you at with god if you want to follow jesus

maybe for the first time today or you want to come back to the lord you've been away for a long time right now pray in your heart lord jesus i trust you i want to follow you for the first time in my life i surrender it all forgive me of my sins help me help me to follow you when you pray that prayer you receive the gift of the holy spirit god himself is with you he'll never leave you he'll never forsake you god has given you the gift of salvation that is eternal life in heaven when your heart stops beating you go to heaven if you made that decision today i would love to celebrate with you would you just raise your hand and say i prayed that prayer today or maybe i came back to the lord for the first time in a long time praise god anybody else here today amen praise god love it no one is more happy than the lord when

you say i'm coming home i can't do this on my own i'm done living for myself anyone else here today if you're watching online there's going to be a host that gives you a link we want to celebrate with you we want to pray for you anyone else just slip your hand up praise god amen thank you jesus yes god i thank you for those today that decided i need you would you bless them would you pour your favor out upon them may they be confident that because they believed in you with their heart that they would confess you with their mouth even when it's hard because you died on the cross for our sins and you rose again we can follow you lord i don't only celebrate those who came to you for the first time i pray over your church set us free from the slavery of being in debt god would you move in your church that we would honor

you with with our whole lives god would you do greater things just i can only imagine what would happen if we as a church took you seriously so god move through your church i pray protection over those that have been deceived by money god give them discernment give them wisdom give them knowledge give them understanding of who you are you're such a good god i love you lord [Music] well today we pray in jesus name if if you're able we want to sing one last song i know it's getting late and i'm going to ask if you're able to stand to your feet this is a response time i want to ask you right now would you take god so seriously if there's something in your life you need to give to god if you need to return to him today if you need to repent of sin if you've made money you're god if you have debt in your life you want to see gone i'm just going to ask would you put both

hands in front of you open palms as if you're giving god your whole life and you're willing to receive all that he has to offer just as we sing this song that we would take him seriously and don't rush out of here pastor david will dismiss you after this song but this is your response tell them confess it right now make a commitment to god i want to honor you i want the generations after me my kids and my kids kids i want them to see you god we want life in you jesus we know that's found in you and you alone we repent of our sins we we ask for forgiveness that we sought the things of this world more than we seek you change our hearts to be more like you jesus we love you lord thank