What’s In Your Wallet?
Part 1 – Let’s Make A Deal
What’s in your wallet? A wallet is more than just an accessory or fashion statement. In reality I believe that if you examine a wallet carefully you can discover what is most important to a person. We tend to put our most valuable things in our wallet. That is what we are going to examine over the next three weeks. We are going to use our wallets to put a microscope on the two most important things in our lives.
So as promised, let’s look at my wallet. Now I have some miscellaneous items in my wallet that aren’t really going to be the focus of our discussion. For instance I have some business cards, a tip calculator, and of course my list of the Louis Lamour books I have read. I know you didn’t know your pastor was a red neck. But when you weed through the miscellaneous items you basically find that on the left side of my wallet I carry cash. Not much of it mind you, but what I do have is on the left side. On the right side of my wallet I carry my credit cards and my pictures. The funny thing about my pictures is how they have changed over the years. It used to be that I had pictures of all my friends from school. Now all my pictures revolved around two little boys and one particular woman.
Hey this kind of reminds me of something when I was growing up. Come on everybody get your wallet out. I know I am getting ready to show my age, (yes I am a product of the 80’s) but do any of you remember the game show Let’s Make a Deal? Do you remember the premise? People would dress up in crazy and flamboyant outfits and try to get Monty Hall to notice them. Then he would ask people in the audience to find a particular item in their wallet or purse and if they had the item they would win cash and or trade that cash on a chance to find out what was behind door #1, door #2, or door #3. Often they would give up $500 or $600 for a goat or a wheelbarrow full of dirt.
Let’s give it a shot. I have $10 for the first person that can bring me a picture out of your wallet of you and your pet. I have $10 for the first person that can bring me a coupon for a pizza place out of your wallet. I have $10 for the first person that can bring me a picture of you from your wallet with a mullet.
Our wallets contain our lives. If you wanted to, you could take my wallet and probably yours and categorize all the main items contained there in two ways: Family and Finances. This morning I want to work backwards a little. Normally you discuss specifics and then you summarize. However, if you will allow me I would like to begin this series by summarizing everything we are going to talk about during this series and then over the next couple of weeks we will get real specific in those two areas.
Text: Exodus 8:20, 25-28; 10:8-11, 24-26
20GOD said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning and confront Pharaoh as he goes down to the water. Tell him, ‘GOD’s Message: Release my people so they can worship me. 25Pharaoh called in Moses and Aaron and said, “Go ahead. Sacrifice to your God—but do it here in this country.” 26Moses said, “That would not be wise. What we sacrifice to our GOD would give great offense to Egyptians. If we openly sacrifice what is so deeply offensive to Egyptians, they’ll kill us. 27Let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to our GOD, just as he instructed us.” 28Pharaoh said, “All right. I’ll release you to go and sacrifice to your GOD in the wilderness. Only don’t go too far. Now pray for me.”
8So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. He said to them, “Go ahead then. Go worship your GOD. But just who exactly is going with you?” 9Moses said, “We’re taking young and old, sons and daughters, flocks and herds—this is our worship-celebration of GOD.” 10He said, “I’d sooner send you off with GOD’s blessings than let you go with your children. Look, you’re up to no good—it’s written all over your faces. 11Nothing doing. Just the men are going—go ahead and worship GOD. That’s what you want so badly.” And they were thrown out of Pharaoh’s presence.
24Pharaoh called in Moses: “Go and worship GOD. Leave your flocks and herds behind. But go ahead and take your children.” 25But Moses said, “You have to let us take our sacrificial animals and offerings with us so we can sacrifice them in worship to our GOD. 26Our livestock has to go with us with not a hoof left behind; they are part of the worship of our GOD. And we don’t know just what will be needed until we get there.”
Pharaoh tried to get Moses to make a deal. He tried to negotiate with him. He tries to get Moses to throw the dice and try to win.
The truth is there is still a Monty Hall out there today. He is trying to get us to accept the unacceptable, to forget the unforgettable, to negotiate the nonnegotiable, and to touch the untouchable. He convinces us to sale eternal for the temporary. All on games of chance. We gamble away our souls, our families, our goods.
I want us to look at the 3 areas Pharaoh challenges Moses with because this the same deal that our enemy tries to make with us.
Now if you will give me a little latitude this morning I realize that the first area Pharaoh is a stretch to attach to the items in your wallet. Except for the fact that you could say what is in your wallet ties you to this world. It constantly reminds you that you are tied to this world, its systems, and its limitations. I remind you that we have been told that we are to be in the world not of it.
That is the first deal Pharaoh tries to make with Moses!
1. Deal # 1 - Serve God in the Land
Don’t ever really leave the land. Just stay here and serve God. Just go a little ways out. Don’t go too far. Just stay where you are in and still serve God. Stay in bondage but serve God. Just add Jesus to your lifestyle. Don’t really change your lifestyle, your desires, your ambitions, your habits just stay in the land. Add a bumper sticker and a fish but don’t change your language, your drinking habits, your going habits, or how you live your life. Stay in the land. Don’t get radical and make any real change. Just serve God in the land.
But what we fail to realize is that if we stay in the land, if we stay in the system we stay in bondage. That is why a few weeks ago I read to you Romans 12:1-2 which commands us to be careful not to be conformed to this world or as the Message Bible said it, (Slide 10b) “2Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.”
You cannot serve God in the land. We are either sold out or we are not. We are either with Him or against Him! There is no middle ground.
Devil would try to get us to believe that we can stay in the land. Laugh at the same jokes, still be filled with lust, hate, prejudice, and have a loose tongue, be consumed with pride, envy and just because we attend church it is OK. But Moses knew and we need to know that you cannot serve God and stay in the land. We are commanded to come out from among them and be ye separate.
Our wallet may tie us to this world, but we must not be trapped by this world.
2. Deal # 2 – Leave Your Children (family)
Pharaoh says, “Let’s make a deal Moses.” You can leave but you must forfeit your children. Leave them in the land. Freedom? Yes, but at what cost? An entire generation would have been left in bondage and lost. The future forfeited for a few years of freedom. I am reminded of Isaiah 39.
5Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Now listen to this Message from GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies: 6I have to warn you, the time is coming when everything in this palace, along with everything your ancestors accumulated before you, will be hauled off to Babylon. GOD says that there will be nothing left. Nothing. 7And not only your things but your sons. Some of your sons will be taken into exile, ending up as eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” 8Hezekiah replied to Isaiah, “Good. If GOD says so, it’s good.” Within himself he was thinking, “But surely nothing bad will happen in my lifetime. I’ll enjoy peace and stability as long as I live.”
The Word of the Lord comes to Hezekiah and says that because Hezekiah has disobeyed God that all the children will go into captivity in Babylon. Hezekiah’s response is the Word of the Lord is good because I will have peace in my day. What? What is good about that Word? Peace for me, but my children are lost.
But the same thing is happening today. Parents are enjoying lavish lifestyles while they mortgage their children’s future. Parents bow to addictions while telling their kids to live right and then they wonder why the children struggle.
We allow our children to miss church for anything – from homework to house work and while we do it we teach them that intellectual education is more important than spiritual education. That sports is more important than the spiritual. We teach them that a full calendar takes precedent over church.
Parents have experienced God and our kids have experienced wiis. Many of our children have never really experienced God for themselves. Did you know that over 7 million children who come to church every week have never been saved! We are leaving our kids behind!
Yeah, you got your dance on, your praise on, your gift got to be used and displayed but what about your kids? Sure you have left bondage but have your children?
When was the last time you laid your hands on your children and prayed for them? When was the last time your confronted your children about their issues? When was the last time you confronted your children about their music or their choice in friends? You kids don’t need a psychic, counselor, a pastor, or diary to fix their problems. What they need is a parent that will get full of the Holy Spirit who will pray with them, spend time with them, listen to them and guard them against the attacks of the enemy.
We can’t sell our children out!
I am reminded of the story of 2 paddleboats.
Two paddleboats were leaving Memphis at about the same time. They were traveling down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. As they traveled side by side, sailors from one boat made a comment about the slow pace of the other boat. Words were exchanged, challenges were made. And the race was on. The competition was fierce. One of the boats began to fall behind because they didn’t have enough fuel. There was plenty of coal for the trip, but not for a race. As the boat continued to drop back a quick witted sailor took some of the ship’s cargo and tossed it into the ovens. The sailors saw that the supplies burned as good as coal so they fueled their boat with the supplies they had been assigned to transport. They won the race but burned their cargo.
What good does it do if you win the rat race we call life, but you burn your cargo? What good does it do you if you win the popularity contest, get the promotion, get the bigger house and the fancier car if you burn your cargo? What is our cargo? What have been assigned to transport on this trip? Our family! We cannot become like Hezekiah and say as long as there is peace in my day (my beat, my music, my comfort zone) and lose our kids.
Who is working harder to get your kids? You or the devil? All I know is this, “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord!” I refuse to leave my family behind. I refuse to move into freedom and sale my kids into bondage in the process! We will talk more about family and children next week.
3. Leave Your Flocks and Herds
Pharaoh says, “Moses, let’s make a deal. You can go, but leave your flocks and your herds with me.” Hey, that sounds like a good deal. Cut your losses and get out while the getting is good. You can always start over. But Moses understood that if the people left their treasures they would eventually come back to Egypt. Their bodies would be free, but their hearts would be in bondage.
That is why in Matthew Jesus says, “Where your treasure is your heart will be also.” Jesus knew that how we handle our wallet will determine whether or not we will be free or not.
We have become trapped by materialism. We all want more. We will gamble away what is in our hand now to see what is behind Door #1, Door #2, or Door #3. We need bigger and better everything. If we fail to bring our assets, our finances, and our treasures out of the land (the world’s system) and learn to operate according to God’s laws of economics we will remain in bondage.
God has some very specific things to say about money and we will look at them more specifically in a couple of weeks. But let me say now that His laws are backwards to what the word says. The world says horde you get. God says, Give and it will be given unto you. World says give only when you have to. God says, I love a cheerful giver.
Too many of us have our hearts so engaged in the pursuit of things that we find ourselves in bondage. We must learn to take our treasure out of the land. I am reminded of legend of the Roman Emperor Charlemagne. Legend has it that he requested to be buried setting upright, holding his scepter, with his crown on his head, his cape on his shoulders and an open book on his lap. All of this to signify his power and his riches. He was buried in 814 A.D. 200 years later Emperor Othello wanted to see if Charlemagne’s requests were carried out. His team of men reportedly found the request carried out except now the scene was gruesome. The crown was tilted. The mantle was moth eaten, the body disfigured. But open on the skeletal thighs was the book Charlemagne requested. The Bible was open and one bony finger pointed to (Slide 15) Matthew 12:26 which says, “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world yet forfeits his soul?”
If you gain it all and lose your soul what have you gained? In order for us to be free we must learn to handle our treasure according to God’s plan, principles, and rules.
Our enemy wants us to make a deal. Stay in the land – don’t really change. Stay as close to the world as possible. Leave your family behind. Go free, but forfeit your cargo. Leave your treasures in bondage and you will stay there as well.
What’s in your wallet? What is most precious to you? What is most important? I want us to have prayer this morning as we enter this series because I am going to get real specific in these areas of the next few weeks.
Prayer –
Families (children) – Make a commitment that we will guard our cargo. Some of you have cargo that aren’t even blood relatives. Friends and singles that God has put in your charge.
Finances – that as we begin to get real specific we will handle our treasure according to God’s standards rather than the worlds.
Come out of the land.
