Here is the manuscript from the first message I preached last Sunday on the Road to Financial Freedom, called "Who's in Control." I don't have the digital file yet to put up the audio, but if some of you missed it, you can always just read it. (For those of you who don't know, I usually manuscript my messages and then wean myself off of it by Sunday morning. Thus, I don't get up and just read the manuscript and I always reserve the right to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and stray from the prepared notes.) Anyway, here goes...
Matthew 6:19-34
April 13, 2008
You’re probably familiar with the name Alfred Nobel. Every year an award is given in his name, the Nobel Prize, to individuals making the greatest contributions in the areas of chemistry, physics, medicine, literature and peace. What you may not know is that in 1888, Nobel’s obituary appeared in newspapers across the country. One headline read, “Merchant of Death is Dead.” You see, Alfred Nobel invented dynamite. Therefore, when he died, his obituary described a man who got rich by helping people kill each other. There was only one problem. Alfred Nobel was not dead. His brother died and an editor confused the two identities! You can imagine how taken aback Alfred Nobel upon realizing that this was how he was going to be remembered. He didn’t want to be remembered this way. So for the rest of his life, he dedicated himself to using his money, using his wealth, in ways to better humanity. And when he died eight years later, he left his fortune, $9 million dollars (in the nineteenth century) to funding an annual award that would be given to others who benefited humanity, the Nobel Prize. You see, Alfred Nobel had a change of attitude. His attitude towards money changed. His attitude towards wealth changed. And because of that change of attitude, we remember him today in a positive light.
This morning we are beginning a series on financial freedom. Now financial freedom is not about getting rich. Nor is it solely about tithing. We’re going to talk about tithing a little bit, but financial freedom is more than that. Financial freedom is about being free from financial bondage, learning how to make Biblical financial decisions and having the right attitude about money and wealth. Did you know that in the Bible, there are 2,350 verses which talk about finances and possessions? The Bible has more wisdom on finances than Forbes, Fortune, Money Magazine and the Wall Street Journal combined! And when we begin to looking into what the Bible has to say, do you know what we learn? We learn that the most important factor in financial freedom is not how much money you make, or how high your bills, but what is the attitude of the heart? Before we talk about dollars and cents or how they are spent, we must first address the attitude of the heart. Most Christians need a change of attitude when it comes to money. In America, we spend $1.20 for every dollar we earn. We have $600 billion in credit card debt, averaging $8,300 per family. We save only 2.2%, less than what we saved during the Great Depression. And the average Christian in America gives not 10% but only 2.6% to their local church. Financial stress is one of the leading causes of divorce. We need a change of attitude.
This morning, we are going to hear from Jesus’ own words what should be our attitude towards our finances. I want us to see three things that our attitude towards money should reflect.
1) My ALLEGIANCE to God’s AUTHORITY.
A proper attitude towards money begins with an acknowledgment that God is the owner of all, controller of all and Lord of all. But if we aren’t careful, how we view money will begin to effect others areas, including how we relate to God.
In fact, Jesus mentions three areas here that money will affect. Money will affect my PASSIONS in life. Read verses 19-21. [Read text.] Now we’re all going to be storing treasures, figuratively, one place or another. The issue is not “if” but “where?” In fact, the Greek word for “store up” and the Greek word for “treasures” come from the same root. It’s like Jesus is saying, “Do not treasure your treasures.” By treasure, he means anything with a price tag. If you treasure earthly things, Jesus said that moths and rust will erode them and thieves will steal them. No matter how much money you have and no matter where you put it, your money can be taken away from you or you can be taken away from your money. But notice that last statement, because here is Jesus’ point. “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Remember this statement. “My heart always goes where I put my money.” That’s true. My heart always goes where I put my money. Now we’re not talking about required giving. Jesus is not saying that if your power bill is high, your heart belongs to FL&L! He’s talking about our investments. He’s saying that when you invest your money into something, a piece of your heart goes with it. If you invest your money, or spend your money on entertainment, your heart, your passions will be in entertaining yourself. If you invest in your hobbies, over time your heart will be there. If, however, you invest in God’s work and God’s church, if you invest in missions, for example, you’re going to develop a heart and a passion for missions! If I really want to know where your passions and priorities in life are, I only need to look at your checkbook or checking statement. Because my heart always goes where I put my money.
Not only does money affect my passions in life, but money affects my OUTLOOK on life. Look at verses 22-23. [Read verses.] Many times when we hear these verses, it’s in talking about the things we allow our eyes to see and the need for purity. We talk about the movies we see and the books we read. That may be fine, but I believe that Jesus is talking about something else. On the one hand, in both the verses before and after, Jesus is talking about how we view money. So that is the context. Furthermore, when Jesus said, “If your eyes are good” (some translations say “single”), the word he uses for good is often translated generous. Five times Paul uses this very word in telling his readers to be generous. So when Jesus says “the lamp of the body” he’s talking about your outlook on life. When we are generous…in other words when we learn to see money as a tool that we use and not a thing we possess, our whole attitude on life changes. Instead of being full of the darkness of materialism, it’s like we are full of light.
A man named Ron Blue tells the story of visiting a village in Africa and asking a Christian worker there “What is the biggest challenge you face in reaching that village?” He was surprised to hear him answer “materialism.” Mr. Blue thought, “How can these people be afflicted with materialism? They have no cars, no television, no satellite dishes. How is it so?” The villager said, “Ron, if a man has a mud hut, he wants one with cow manure. If he has one made of cow manure, he wants one made of stone. If he has a thatch roof, he wants a tin roof. If he has one acre, he wants two.” And then he said this, “Materialism is a disease of the heart. It has nothing to do with where you live.”
Money will affect my passions in life, my outlook on life and my LOYALTY in life. Look at verse 24. [Read verse.] Jesus did not say “You should not serve both God and money.” Nor did he say, “You better not serve God and money.” He said “You cannot.” It’s an impossibility. You are going to serve someone. The issue is who or what? There is an important principle here that you’d better grasp. The primary competitor with Christ for Lordship of your life is money. You get to decide whether you’re a master over your money or a slave to your money, but it will be one or the other.
My passions, my outlook, my loyalty, all of these things point back to my allegiance to God as the ultimate authority in my life. If He is my authority, if Christ is Lord, then my attitude towards money, finances and wealth will reflect that allegiance.
2) My CONFIDENCE in God’s PROVISION.
Verse twenty-five says “Therefore I tell you" (because your allegiance is to God and not to the dollar). For the people in Jesus’ audience, the things they needed were very basic. They needed food and they needed clothing and most of the time, they didn’t know how they were going to get either. So Jesus begins with these basic needs and shows them why they can trust God to meet those needs. [Read verses 26-30.]
Everything in creation and everything in nature tells us that God provides for His own. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all that I haven’t seen.”
Look at the birds. God has no problem providing for them. He feeds them. Look at the grass. God puts clothing on the grass. You know why God can feed the birds? God can feed the birds because God owns the birds. You know why God can clothe the grass? Because God owns the grass! Psalm 24:1 says, “The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;” Psalm 50:9 says, “9 I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, (We don’t give in order to meet God’s needs. God doesn’t have any needs.)10 for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. 11 I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine. 12 If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.” A proper attitude on money begins with the understanding that God owns everything and therefore, it is his responsibility to meet our needs.
George Mueller was a great pastor of years ago. His autobiography is probably the most inspiring work on prayer ever written outside of the Bible. In his autobiography, Mueller approached a man who’d been absent from church for some time. The man proceeded to tell him that he was working sixteen hours every day. Mueller suggested that he work less in order to make time for the Word of God, prayer and church. The man said, “'But if I work less, I do not earn enough for the support of my family. Even now, whilst I work so much, I have scarcely enough. The wages are so low, that I must work hard in order to obtain what I need.'” Mueller answered him, “'My dear brother, it is not your work which supports your family, but the Lord; and He who has fed you and your family when you could not work at all, on account of illness, would surely provide for you and yours if, for the sake of obtaining food for your inner man, you were to work only for so many hours a day as would allow you proper time for retirement.”
Listen, I’m going to say something that will surprise you. It’s not my job to provide for my family. It’s my job to work, to work hard and to work honestly, but it’s not my job to provide. It’s God’s job to provide for my needs and my family’s needs and He takes that job very, very seriously. In fact, one of the common names for God in the Old Testament, Jehovah Jireh, literally means “The Lord provides.” The very name of the Lord means that He will meet my needs! Psalm 37:25 says, “I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.” No farmer would feed his chickens and not feed his children. Yet we would think that God would feed the birds or air and not feed His children? You see, when we worry about whether or not God will meet our needs, we’re really doubting His ability to meet our needs, or we’re doubting His willingness to meet our needs.
God may not provide for you the same way He provided for me. When the Israelites were hungry, He sent manna. When Elijah was hungry, he sent a raven. When the 5,000 were hungry, he multiplied a boy’s lunch. But in every case, the Lord provided. My attitude towards money should reflect my allegiance to God’s authority, my confidence in God’s provision and…
3) My COMMITMENT to God’s WORK.
Look with me at verse 33. Seek first. That means before you seek food. That means before you seek clothing. Seek first what? The Kingdom of God and His righteousness. God’s work in this world and God’s work in you. You’ll never have a proper perspective on money, wealth or finances until you embrace this truth: You exist for God’s Kingdom. You exist to be a part of God’s Kingdom, to support God’s Kingdom, to build and grow God’s Kingdom and you exist to see God’s Kingdom grow in you.
We have a name for the person who does just that. We call this person a steward. God owns it all and He’s entrusted His wealth to you in order to manage it to promote the Kingdom of God. You are a steward.
If you are going to be a Kingdom builder, if you are going to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, there are two extremes you’re going to have to avoid when it comes to money. If you’re taking notes, you’ll see a chart on the back of your outline that you might want to fill out. This may be the most important thing that I have to say to you this morning.
The two extremes are these. One extreme equates godliness with POVERTY. This person believes that in order to be godly, you must be poor. They’ll take a vow of poverty because they think that this is a key to being the man or woman of God that He wants them to be. On the surface, this sounds good to some, but it isn’t Biblical. The Bible cites numerous examples of men who were wealthy and godly. Abraham was a godly man and he had considerable wealth. David was a man after God’s own heart, yet he too had considerable wealth. One extreme is equating godliness with poverty.
Another extreme is equating godliness with PROSPERITY. We hear this often. Much of the preaching that takes place on TV and on the radio is along these lines. They believe that if you aren’t wealthy, you must not be faithful. You must not have enough faith. You must not be in God’s will. This too is unbiblical. The Bible says that God prospered Joseph, even during times of his life in which we know he was not prosperity financially. God prospered him spiritually.
In between the extreme of equating godliness with poverty and prosperity is the Biblical attitude of stewardship. This person understands that godliness is not about whether I’m rich or poor, but whether or not I am a faithful manager of whatever resources God has entrusted to me.
Each of these three views has something to say. Look at that chart. The person who equates godliness with poverty says that possessions are evil. Therefore, I should rid myself of them. This attitude says I work to meet my basic needs. That’s all. This attitude says that godly people are poor and that ungodly people are wealthy. The attitude also says that I give because I must. Not because they get to but because they have to. Finally, this attitude says my spending is fearful and joyless. They purchase as little as possible, no matter what the need or cause.
The person who equates godliness with wealth has something to say as well. This attitude says that possessions are a right. They think they have the God given right to be rich. This person says I work to become rich. That’s always the goal. This attitude says that godly people are wealthy and ungodly people are poor. Again, they think if you’re poor, something must be wrong with you spiritually. This attitude says I give in order to get. In their minds, there’s always a string attached. If they give to the Lord’s work, it’s because they are expected some exponential return on that money. And finally, for this person, my spending is carefree and consumptive. Because they think they have a right to be wealthy, there is no restraint in their spending.
Finally, the steward speaks. Here’s the man who is seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. This is who I want to be. What does this person have to say? This person says that possessions are a responsibility. They see everything they own as something they’ll give an account for before God. A steward says I work to serve Christ. Whatever the job, they do not job, not in order to meet needs or to get rich, but because that job is a ministry and they’re doing it for the Lord. The steward says that godly people are faithful and ungodly people are unfaithful. Again, it has nothing to do with dollars and cents. The steward says I give because I love God. It doesn’t matter whether or not they ever get it back. The love of God is what motivates them to give. And finally, for the steward, spending is prayerful and responsible.
Now in the next three weeks, we’re going to talk about how to be prayerful and responsible in the money that we make and the money that we give and the money that we spend. We’re going to talk about debt and borrowing and saving and investing. But it all begins with the heart. And until the heart is right, the checkbook won’t be right. And there’s only one person who can make the heart right and that’s Christ.
We’re going to pray and as we do, I know that there are some of you here today who long for financial freedom. For some of you, your finances are out of order because your spiritual house is out of order. You know who you are. I want to pray with me. “Heavenly father, I admit that it starts with the heart. And I acknowledge that the attitude of my heart is way off. One look at my checkbook reflects that my allegiance is not with You. I have failed to trust You to meet my needs. I have taken matters into my own hands. I have made decisions that were against the counsel of Your holy Word. I haven’t concerned myself with Your Kingdom. I humbly ask for your forgiveness. I ask you to show me in the weeks ahead the steps that I will need to take in order to honor You in my finances and have financial freedom. I plead for Your grace to help me and I thank You in advance for all that You are going to do. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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