Practices The Necessary Choices (Part 1) Series

Practices, The Necessary Actions

#moneymatters4

Good morning MGCC!

Welcome to week 4 of our 5 week series of conversations called, ‘Money Matters.’

Money what? Money matters…!

And it really does right?

AND HEY – do you what or who else matters you!

I matter to God!

And that’s all

That matters to me!

OKAY – let me read 3 passages of Scripture and then we will pray into our conversation…

Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.25 Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. – Matthew 7:24,25

Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. – John 13:7

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. – James 1:22-25

Prayer

AGAIN – this is week 4 of Money Matters…

WEEK 4 – of unpacking the following formula…

Attitude + Principles + Practices = Freed Up Financially

AND REMEMBER – that to be freed up financially

= no longer being a slave to money

= no longer being a slave to… money worries, money stress, money desires, money worship, money lenders…

= no longer being a slave to the myth of more, but rather finding your contentment in your relationship with Jesus

= no longer being a slave to the ever elusive and ever changing ‘status symbols’ of this world, but finding your ultimate status is being a – chosen people, a royal priesthood, a people belong to God. I MEAN – I don’t know but being a child of the Sovereign King of The Universe seems to be the Ultimate Status Symbol

NOW…

In week one we unpacked the first variable in our equation, ‘Attitude’ which led to us making 5 declarations…

THAT - for many of us is a new way of looking, of thinking about Money.

• Money is not the answer

• I am rich

• None of my money belongs to me

• It’s okay to enjoy money

• Money Can lead to real life

AND – for the last 2 weeks we have been unpacking the 4 foundational principles that MUST be driven down deep into the bedrock of our hearts and minds if we are to be freed up financially…

Gratitude – Contentment – Trust - Humility

• Being grateful that God is both our provider and redeemer

• Finding contentment in our relationship with Christ and not in the pursuit of more

• Trusting that God gots us and Trusting in what God tells us in His word about money

• And humbling ourselves like Jesus before God, finding our status in Him

AND LISTEN – if you have missed any of these messages…

I cannot encourage you enough to check them out

• On our website

• Maple Grove podcast on iTunes

• Google Play

• Maple Grove Facebook page live fed

NOW – this morning we are going to begin unpacking the final variable in our formula for being freed up financially…

Practices, The Necessary Actions

HOWEVER – before we do that…

There is something else in our formula that I think is worth mentioning…. The plus sign.

OKAY

Think about the sign that we use for addition and what it communicates. NOW - the plus sign is an operation, a function.

UNDERSTAND – attitude and the principles of (gratitude-contentment-trust-humility)… can and must be acted upon.

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. – James 1:22

UNDERSTAND B/S – the 4 practices that we will begin unpacking this week are rooted in the Word, of God…

AND WE – must do them, not merely listen to them.

ONLY THEN – will we be blessed.

ONLY THEN – will we be building our financial lives on the bedrock of God’s truths.

YEAH – the plus sign is important…

I MEAN – think about it…

When Jesus walked this planet he often used the plus sign.

AND – what I mean by that is that Jesus often required people to take action, to do something, to act on His words to be healed.

• The blind guy in John 9 had to go to the Pool Siloam and wash his eyes, he did, and then he could see.