Beauty And The Beast Pt.4 Series

INTRO: How many of us liked math when we were growing up? I remember in college, before being called into the ministry, I was going to get a math degree. But I realized I could not make it through Calculus 3. I just could not understand it.

It’s like today living in a society that teaches us one thing but the things of God teach us another.

Let me give you a quiz in math to see how well you do (no writing or calculator). 1000 + 40 add to it 1000 + 30 add to it 1000 + 20 add to it 1000 + 10 = 5000. Wrong – it’s 4100.

Do you see how confusing it can get? When we speak about heavenly math it can get even more difficult. Before I get to this let me review for those who have been here.

We began going through a series called "Beauty and the Beast." Behind a bill or coin you’ll find either a beast or a beauty. How do we bring out the beauty of the dollar, God’s provision, and crush the beast? By exposing the lies with the truth and acting on the truth.

Some of these lies (myths, fairy tales) we have looked at so far are:

1."More will be enough."

2."Character does not really count."

3."Possessions are powerless."

Today concludes the series on the beauty and the beast. The myth we are going to look at today is "Giving Means Subtracting."

TITLE: Beauty and the Beast – Part 4

TEXT: Matthew 6:19-24

I. In our society today we live in a capitalistic system.

A. Our culture is very materialistic.

-In an average week Americans spend 6-7 hours shopping and only 40 minutes playing with their children.

-A few years ago there were more people who declared bankruptcy than people who graduated from college.

-By the time you’re 20 years old you will have seen 1 million commercials. Our consumer oriented society fits well with our sinful nature.

B. Jesus knew the difficulties of money and possessions in our spiritual walk. In 1/6 of the gospels and 1/3 of the parables Jesus spoke about money and possessions.

1. Jesus gives us a spiritual truth in the text today. "You cannot serve both God and money."

-A powerful truth. Do you know what it means in the original Greek language? "You cannot serve both God and money."

2. It’s amazing in our culture how we are trained to accumulate things and keep them.

* It teaches giving means subtracting, that my portfolio decreases when I give, that my assets go down (untrue).

-Scripture teaches if I give I’m not subtracting from my portfolio. I’m really adding to it.

Thought: How can we learn giving does not mean subtracting? It can only be accomplished by giving.

TS: Let me talk about 5 keys that will help.

II. Key of ownership.

A. Story of a woman who lived in northern California. She had been taking some self-defense classes. One evening she was coming out of the store after doing some grocery shopping. As she got closer to her car she noticed four rough looking guys sitting in her car.

She remembered all that she learned in her self-defense classes. She reached into her purse and pulled out her big handgun which, by permit, she was allowed to carry. She walked up and pointed it at them and told them to get out of the car. They did so with tremendous speed and took off running. She got in the car shaking terribly, got her keys, and tried to put them in the ignition but she could not get them to fit no matter how hard she tried.

She got out of the car, looked around, and saw the same type of car (model, year, color) a few rows over. So she went over to that one, opened the door, put the keys in the ignition, and started the car. She drove to the police station to turn herself in. As she began to explain her problem to the man at the desk, he leaned over and looked down the hall at four guys who were filling out a report about a carjacking that had just taken place. The charges were dropped.

Point: This lady got into trouble when she approached this vehicle that did not belong to her and pretended it was hers.

1. It’s the same with us. We get into a lot of trouble when we think something is ours when it is not.

-This teaching the Lord gives us shows what can happen when we think it’s ours.

-Enslavement of the heart.

-Enslavement of the mind.

Vv. 22-23 speaks about an eye. God’s word often uses the eye to represent the attitudes of the mind.