It's All God's Series

It’s All God’s

November 4, 2007

Various

We’ve been convinced that if we could have more, if we could have what we wanted, if we own something more, possess something more, if we could get more stuff . . . then our lives would be happier.

In the past week, have you seen the price of gas? How are we going to pay for gas and keep the same style of living we are trying to attain? It’s one indication of the sky rocketing costs we’re incurring just to make it from day to day. It’s gotten so bad one gas station changed the way SHOW GAS SLIDE they’re advertising the price of gas.

One researcher has suggested that every 7 seconds we’re given the message that our lives are measured, based on our stuff. What we have, what we own, how we present our stuff to others is a measure of who we are as people. And it’s easy to fall into that trap.

A person by the age of 20 has seen over 1 million commercials. And what’s the purpose of those commercials? They are designed to remind you, ever so subtly, that your life is not yet fulfilling, you’re not content, your life doesn’t have what it needs, but you could everything you need . . . if you would purchase whatever is being sold. So we end up chasing stuff and more stuff and even more stuff.

We keep chasing this stuff, because we believe our lives are empty without it, and as a result . . . money and possessions become a huge obstacle for us. Maybe that’s why, if the stats are correct, 92 % of us in the room are in some financial trouble and 65 % of us, are in serious trouble. Even if we have our finances in control, even if financially we’re doing okay, according to every survey money is something that creates a lot of anxiety and stress in our lives.

That’s why the Bible talks a lot about money and possessions. Money can get a hammerlock on our hearts. Here is the interesting thing about money.

Money has the ability to be a good treasure.

But it also has the ability to be a trap us and be destructive.

Money has the ability to help,

but money can certainly hurt.

Money can unite. It can bring people together.

But who among us doesn’t know of somebody who has seen a relationship destroyed over money?

You see, money is actually neutral. It’s not good and it’s not bad. It’s how we deal with it that causes the problems, and that’s why the Bible speaks so much about this issue, because money and possession become our treasures, and they get a hold of our heart.

I want to ask you a couple of questions this morning. If you would just raise your hands on these. How many of you own your own television set? Okay. How many of you own your own car? Okay, that’s pretty good. How about you own your own home? All right.

Here’s what you just said. If you raised your hand for “I own my own television,” you’ve said, “I owe nothing on that television set. It’s not on my credit card statement, I don’t have that plan at Best Buy where that $2,000 television is going to be paid over the next 16 years at $10 per month so I can own the television.” That television is paid for completely.

If you said you owned your car that means you don’t make a car payment, that you aren’t paying some financing company or bank.

If you own your own home, you are saying there is no mortgage or bank debt or other way that you are financing the house — your house is completely paid for.

You see, otherwise, you don’t really own it, somebody else does. They’re letting you use it. In fact, you may have made a significant investment in it. You may be the one who controls what you do with the house, how you decorate it, but the truth is you’re the owner, you’re a manager. You don’t own your house. Somebody else has title to it and until you’ve completely paid for it, it isn’t yours. If you don’t believe me, don’t make any payments for the next 3 months and see what happens!

You see, when we get to the very bottom of things, we don’t own anything, God owns everything. That’s a biblical principle. In Psalm 24:1, David said, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” A couple of Jesus’ stories were about managers and stewards, not owners. In other words, God has entrusted things to us. They are under our control, they’re under our management, we get to decide how they’re utilized, but it’s God who owns them. When it comes to our money, it isn’t ours — it’s God’s.