This is my wallet. I have had this wallet since I was in 7th grade. I got for Christmas from our family’s German exchange student, Eike. She lived at our house for a year and this is the wallet that she gave me.
It is from Germany. In fact, it had a little German piece of paper in it until it went through the washing machine. It is still in here, but it is torn up.
I have had this wallet for 12 years this Christmas. I have never used another wallet, then this one.
But, that almost wasn’t the case. When I was in 8th grade, I lost my wallet. With $85 in it! And for about 9 months, I did not know where my wallet was.
I had recently gotten paid for my awesome job of chasing foul balls at baseball games. At that time, $85 was probably the most money I had ever had in wallet.
BUT… it was gone. I looked everywhere for it. I even offered a reward to my family to whoever found it. No luck. And so for about 9 months, I had no wallet. I had no $85. It was of sad.
But I learned a very important lesson during that time, money is nothing. It comes and it goes. Don’t worry about money.
Eventually, my older sister found my wallet in the side of the couch. It had slipped down somehow. So, I paid her the $5 reward and I had my wallet back.
But… I would be ok if I had never found my wallet. It is just money. And to this day, I don’t really worry about money.
I don’t like spending money. But, I never worry about it. There will always be more money in the world. And God will always provide.
So, we have been talking about I HEART New York. We have been discussing different things that we love. And sometimes, we love these things more than God.
We talked 2 weeks ago; about how sometimes God calls us to leave the safety and comfort of our home to go somewhere else. And often, we love our home.
We always want to be safe and always want to be comfortable. And many times, God tells us to step out of our comfort zone and move somewhere new and we say “no.”
Then, last week we talked about our cell phones. And how we love our cell phones. Our cell phones are our connection to the world and our communication with our friends and families.
If we were to be completely honest, there are times when we love our cell phones more than we love God. Our lives are wrapped up in these little, handheld telephone devices. Our lives need to be wrapped up in Jesus.
You can probably already guess what this week’s “I HEART” is. I HEART MONEY!!!
As Americans (and humans), we love money. Money buys stuff. Money is power. Money makes us popular. Money gets us friends. Money makes us rich. Money makes us happy.
Don’t be fooled when you hear that money can’t buy happiness. Money can make you very happy.
If you have money, you can buy whatever you want. You can buy clothes, games, entertainment, houses, cars… money can buy you anything that you could possibly want. And having what you want makes you happy.
But there is a difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is a feeling because of what is happening to you. The situation you are in makes you happy. Joy is a constant emotion.
Joy comes from loving and being loved. Joy comes from relationships. Money can’t buy joy.
It is a proven fact that people who have less money are more joyful. They don’t have or want stuff to fulfill them. They have relationships with people.
Money can buy happiness, but it is only temporary.
We are going to look at the Bible today in Matthew 19. It is almost the exact same situation as 2 weeks ago. A guy comes to Jesus to follow Him, and Jesus gives him a crazy response.
Matthew 19:16… Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” Why do you ask about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One that is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.” “Which ones?” the man inquired. Jesus replied, “‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’” “All of these I have kept,” the young man said. “What still do I lack?” Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.” When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Then Jesus said to His disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven.”
So, this rich guy comes to Jesus. He wants eternal life. He wants to live in heaven with God. He wants God.
He is not so different than you and me. If you are at church, then you have at least some interest in knowing God. Otherwise, you are kind of wasting your time.
There is something special about this guy though. He was rich. He had money. You and I have money. We are filthy, filthy rich.
You may not think you are rich, but if you live on more than $2 a day you have more money than 53% of the people on Earth right now.
Have you ever wondered how you can sponsor a child in Ethiopia for less than a dollar a day? It is because they have nothing.
Half of the people in the world don’t have cars, and if they did they would have to choose between buying a gallon of gas or eating and having medicine that day.
The fact that you put on clean clothes this morning means that you have more money than 99% of people in history.
You and I are not poor. We are not broke. We are filthy, filthy rich. We have so much money that we have this thing called retirement. Most people in this world don’t retire.
So, we are very similar to this guy in that we want to know God and we have lots of money.
He asks Jesus, “What must I do to have eternal life?” How do I get to heaven? What do I need to do spend eternity with God?
And what is Jesus’ response? Follow the commandments. Jesus just tells him what the Old Testament says.
And the rich guy says, I have done all that. I followed all the rules. I have kept the commandments. And then makes a statement that is kind of shocking.
What still do I lack?
He had followed all of the rules. He kept all the commandments. He did it all… BUT he knew that he still wasn’t there.
What still do I lack?
Do you ever feel this way? Do ever feel like you are missing something with God? This guy who never broke the rules felt that it wasn’t enough. AND IT WASN’T.
So, Jesus continues and tells him to sell all of his stuff and give the money to the poor… then follow Jesus.
This is something that the man is not willing to do. He ends up leaving Jesus sad. He loves his money more than God.
And Jesus ends with this verse… Then Jesus said to His disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven.”
Guess what… it is hard for a rich man or a rich woman to enter heaven. It is hard for me to enter heaven. It is hard for you to enter heaven. Does that verse scare you? It scares me?
In fact, in the next verse Jesus says how hard it is… Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
Imagine this camel, which is about 3 times as big as a human… trying to fit through the eye of a needle that I can’t even get thread to go through. It is impossible.
What Jesus is saying is that it is impossible for a rich person to get to God. Why? Why do you think that Jesus says it’s impossible for you and me to have eternal life? We don’t rely on God for anything. Our money can provide us with everything we need. We don’t NEED God.
I was reading a book this week and the author asked a question… he said “what are you doing in your life right now that requires faith?”
If the answer is nothing, then why do you need God? You see, we don’t NEED God. We can do it all ourselves. We can provide for ourselves. God doesn’t get us food and water and shelter. We get those for ourselves. Our money gets those for us.
Too often, we have the same response as this rich guy. We say I love God, but I love my money more. I care about the poor people in this world, but I care about my own desires more.
In GC-squared, what is the great commandment? Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and Love your neighbor as yourself.
Which did the rich guy love more, God or his money? His money. Did the rich guy love his neighbor as much as himself? No.
So, did the rich guy actually follow all the commandments? No.
And my fear is that I am the same way. I feel bad for poor people, but that doesn’t get them fed. I want to help out, but that won’t give them a place to sleep.
I HEART MONEY. I love money. And the Bible says that the love of money is the root of all evil.
Just this week, I was at Taco Bell and they asked if I wanted to donate a dollar to feed 4 children. And you know what my response was… it was no thanks.
I was polite in telling the lady at the register that my money is more important to me than for 4 people on this earth having a meal. That ain’t right.
I loved myself more than I loved my neighbor. So, you know what I did?
Friday for lunch, I went to Taco Bell and donated $1 dollar. I didn’t even eat lunch; I chose to go hungry and gave my food to 4 people.
I think that if I am going to teach you Biblical principles… I need to live them out. I cannot be a hypocrite.
My money all comes from God. And He can have it.
Is $1 going to change the world? No, but it will start to change my heart. It will start to let me know that I need to love God more than my money, and I need to love my neighbor as much as I love myself.
