Principles, The Essential Foundation
#moneymatters3
(much of this is based on Gary Johnson's Book, 'Too Much')
OKAY – let’s do this…
Week three in our series ‘Money Matters.’
MAN – it’s been fun so far, hasn’t it?
HEY – do you know what has been crazy and pretty surprising to me about this series on ‘Money Matters?’
THAT - I’ve gotten so many positive comments and encouragement the last few weeks, about these conversations.
AGAIN – what we are doing in this series is we are unpacking this formula that will lead us to being 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 worries…
Attitude + Principles + Practices = freed up financially
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 – last week we began looking at the second variable in our formula… Principles, The Essential Foundation…
AND – we hammered home the extreme importance of foundations by looking at some pretty dramatic images of buildings that collapsed because they were built on a bad or faulty foundation, like…
11 story apartment building in Shanghai
5 story department store in Ghana (9 killed)
UNDERSTAND MGCC
Gratitude is a foundational principle that God’s people must drive down deep in order to be freed up financially.
AND LISTEN – the force, the power that will drive gratitude down deeper and deeper into the bedrock of our hearts and minds… is REMEMBERING.
REMEMBER what?
REMEMBER like Moses reminded God’s people as they were about to leave the land of lack, and move into the land of plenty, the land of more….
REMEMBER
#1 that is your provider, and
#2 that God is your redeemer
QUESTION – are you grateful or are you taking for granted God’s provision and his redemption?
Could you, or should be more grateful for both?
NOW THIS MORNING – (12/3/2017… the first Sunday of the last month of 2017) we are going to look at the remaining 3 foundational principles to being freed up financially…
The first is…
Contentment
In an old black-and-white movie named Key Largo, a gangster played by Edward G. Robinson, whose life is filled with violence and deceit, holds a family hostage. Someone asks him what drives him to lead this kind of life—what he wants. His face clouds over; he is not a reflective man and doesn't know how to answer the question.
One of the hostages, played by Humphrey Bogart, suggests an answer: “I know what you want. You want more.” Robinson's face brightens. “Yeah, that's it. That's what I want. I want more.”
UNDERSRTAND B/S – this guy believes the myth of more, the myth that one day more will be enough. AND LISTEN – IF we believe this myth, we will spend our lives looking for The Next Thing.
NOW…
It might be a car, or a promotion, or the love of a beautiful woman. It might be, depending on our age, an iPod, or a BMW, or Tickle Me Elmo.
BUT REGARDLESS – of what it is here’s the deal
WE WILL - keep hoping that The Next Thing will be ‘IT.’
WILL – be what? WILL BE - the source of true satisfaction for our souls.
AND - for a few minutes, or perhaps days, we experience true soul satisfaction. BUT THEN - it wears off.
AND B/S - it always wears off.
NOW - Michael Drosnin wrote a book about a man whose name became synonymous with the hunger for more.
He wanted more wealth, so he built one of the greatest financial empires of his day.
He wanted more pleasure, so he seduced or paid for the most glamorous women money could buy.
He wanted more adventure, so he set airspeed records and designed, built, and piloted the world's most unique aircraft.
He wanted more power, so he acquired political clout that was the envy of senators.
He wanted more glamour, so he crashed Hollywood, owned studios, courted stars.
AND THEN - Drosnin tells how this man's life ended:
He was a figure of gothic horror, ready for the grave.
Emaciated, only 120 pounds stretched out over his six-foot-four-inch frame … thin scraggly beard that reached midway onto his sunken chest, hideously long nails in grotesque yellowed corkscrews….
Many of his teeth were black, rotting stumps.
A tumor was beginning to emerge from the side of his head … innumerable needle marks….
Howard Hughes was an addict. A billionaire junkie.
AND LISTEN - here's the question: IF Howard Hughes had pulled off one more deal, made one more million, tasted one more thrill, WOULD IT have been enough?
NOW SHE - was the most admired and desired of women in the world.
I MEAN - every woman envied her; every man wanted her.
SHE - had beauty, money, wealth, and so much fame that decades after her death— people still know her name…
BUT TRAGICALLY - Marilyn Monroe died alone, died of her own hand. AND - here's the question: IF she had had one more hit movie, one more magazine cover, one more sexual relationship with a powerful man, WOULD IT have been enough?
I think we all know the answer.
NOW – is a book in the bible (The book of Ecclesiastes) wriiten by a guy who devoted much of his life…
TO - this search for The Next Thing, this search for contentment.
AND LISTEN – he was in a unique position to go after more.
UNDERSTAND – Solomon had wealth, power, and abilities that exceeded anyone else alive.
AND – throughout his memoir of you will, the phrase “I devoted myself to …” keeps coming up in his book.
NO – this guy did not dabble…
INSTEAD – he went ‘all in’ in this pursuit of IT, of the next thing, of more…
He writes, “I thought in my heart, ‘Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.’ - Ecclesiastes 2:1
Solomon threw such lavish parties that one day's food supply for the palace included thirty head of cattle, one hundred sheep, five hundred bushels of flour, deer, gazelles, and exotic poultry.
He surrounded himself with beauty: parks, gardens, vineyards, and houses.
He constructed a palace so magnificent it defied description. Solomon's home took a construction crew of 150,000 thirteen years to build.
It was a really nice house.
He liked music, and since there were no iPods, iTunes, Pandora, or Spotify back then, he collected an orchestra of every known instrument and drafted all the finest singers in his day to serenade him at mealtimes.
He accumulated one thousand wives and concubines.
He indulged his every appetite.
“I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure.” - Eccelesiastes 2:10
AND HE ALSO - tried out-achieving everyone.
I MEAN - he built his nation up to the greatest prominence it would know. He earned more than twenty-five tons of gold a year.
AND AFTER – his life long pursuit of IT, of more, of the NEXT thing… what was his verdict:
I turned my head and saw yet another wisp of smoke on its way to nothingness: a solitary person, completely alone—no children, no family, no friends—yet working obsessively late into the night, compulsively greedy for more and more, never bothering to ask, “Why am I working like a dog, never having any fun? And who cares?” More smoke – Ecclesiastes 4:8 (MSG)
All a man’s labor is for his mouth and yet the appetite is not satisfied. – Eccelesiastes 6:7
Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless.
– Ecclesiastes 5:10
B/S – for 3000 years Solomon has been telling God’s people… warning them…
“Yeah, go ahead and try. You can walk down that road as far as you want to. I did. But in the end I (the smartest guy who ever lived) who went farther down that road than you ever will
found out that none of that was IT.
Nothing had brought me lasting soul satisfaction.
It was all meaningless.
HEY – you know MGCC…
Maybe our insatiable natures are telling us something very important. LISTEN - if we are never completely satisfied with all this world has to offer, perhaps we were made for another world.
PERHAPS - our contentment is to come from some place else.
NOW – contrast Solomon pursuit for IT, for more…
With another guy’s pursuit of something better.
A pursuit that lead him to true and lasting contentment.
A GUY – who consider all of his worldly accomplishments and achievements garbage that he would gain that which is better, Christ.
Check out what Paul wrote from a prison cell.
It’s crazy… Solomon has no contentment living in a palace and here is Paul drowning I contentment in a prison cell.
I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.
I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
Philippians 4:11-13
QUESTION – what was Paul’s secret to contentment?
Christ.
NOW – he had to learn it, he had to work at it.
BUT – Paul got arrived at a place, that Solomon never did
Contentment, Paul says, is an acquired skill. “I have learned the secret of being content.”
Philip Yancey writes of a spiritual seeker who interrupted his busy, life of going after IT, to spend a few days in a monastery.
“I hope your stay is a blessed one,” said the monk who showed him to his simple cell. “If you need anything, let us know, and we'll teach you how to live without it.”
Author Robert Hasting stakes us on an imaginary train ride that goes something like the following:
Tucked away in the recesses of our mind is an idyllic vision. We see ourselves on a long journey that crosses mountains and plains.
We are on a train, and out the window is an endless procession of cars motoring down nearby highways, children waving up at us from crossings, cows grazing on distant hillsides, fields of corn and wheat curtseying in the breeze, lakes and rivers, city skylines, and village halls.
But we don't really notice. What we keep thinking about is the final destination. We will arrive at the station to marching bands and waving flags.
Once we get there, our dreams will be fulfilled. The jigsaw pieces of our lives will finally be assembled, the picture will finally be complete.
In the meantime, we restlessly roam the aisles, checking our watches, ticking off the stops; always waiting, waiting, waiting for the station.
Always wishing the train would go faster. The name of the train is more. The name of the station is satisfaction.
“When we reach the station, that will be IT!” we cry.
“When I'm eighteen.”
“When I buy a new 450SL Mercedes!”
“When I get the next promotion!”
“When I lose enough weight.”
“When we get married and have kids in the house.”
“When the kids grow up and get out of the house.”
“When I have paid off the mortgage.”
“When we can afford a second house.”
“When we finally retire and all the pressure is off, then I will live happily ever after.”
We keep thinking that a train called more will get us to a station called satisfaction.
What if trying to pursue satisfaction by having more is like trying to run after the horizon?
Why would we ever expect more to be enough here, if this is not our home?
What if the train is called contentment?
What if the station is called heaven?
What if the station is real and is to be the object of our truest and deepest longings?
THEN - we will see God face-to-face.
THEN - our longings for glory, beauty, love, and meaning will be fully realized.
THEN - the restless human race will finally cry out, “Enough!” And God will say, “More!”
I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. - Philippians 4:11-13
Trust
Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. – Psalm 20:7
(And remember ‘the name’ = person and purposes)
On July 30, 1956 President Dwight Eisenhower approved the joint resolution of the 84th Congress to make “In God We Trust” the official motto of the United States and to require that it appear on all currency… And within in a year it did.
YEAH – in know it seems crazy now, but our nation declared that we were trusting in God, AND - to be honest, there really were a good reasons for doing so.
Here’s why.
OKAY
Think about life in the mid-1950’s.
Although World War II had finally come to end, world conflict continued. A war flared up in Korea, and another one soon began in Vietnam.
These occurred in the context of a larger war that raged without the shooting of guns or the dropping of bombs.
The Cold War was being fought between two super-powers” The United States and the former Soviet Union.
Two ideologies - democracy and communism went head to head. The Soviets championed atheism, teaching millions of school children that God did not exist.
America countered by declaring the opposite – ‘In God We Trust.’
AND WHILE – international conflict raged between these two belief systems, another struggle arose quickly at home. It involved our national motto. YOU SEE - “In God We Trust” became hotly debated between Americans.
IN FACT - this conflict continues today…
AND - over the years lawsuits have been filed against the motto by individuals and organizations - claiming that it violates the establishment clause of our Constitution (that out federal government cannot establish a state religion).
BUT EVERY - lawsuit has failed as the courts have determined that the motto does not promote or establish a state religion.
YET – “In God We Trust” is not merely about a motto.
IT IS – about a way of life.
AND B/S – trust (like gratitude and contentment) is a foundational principle that we must embrace if we are to be freed up financially.
GET IT?
If you have a coin or a bill, pull it out…
YES – our coins and our currency declare “In God We Trust.”
BUT – do we?
I MEAN - can you and I declare the same thing and really being telling the truth?
INSTEAD – we tend to put more of our trust in our jobs, our paychecks, our insurance, our credit cards, our savings and investments…etc.
Our modern day versions of horses and chariots.
YET – do we realized and acknowledge that God is the one who really supplies us all that we have.
QUESTION…
Have you ever been without a job, a place to call home, a car to drive, food to eat?
Have you ever been at the end of your rope, not knowing how you would survive just one more day?
NOW – if we are honest, many of us have been – and still are – consumed with worry because we’ve not learned to trust God.
AND LISTEN – as we consider ‘TRUST’ this foundational principle for being freed up financially…
I want to look at 2 important ways (actions) that you and I can take that will drive TRUST deeper and deeper into the bedrock of hearts and minds…
#1 Trust That God’s Got You
In Matthew 6:24 Jesus says,
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,
(therefore, what’s it there for. Jesus just finished up talking about how we cannot serve both God and money)
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?
Not once but three times, Jesus commands to stop worrying. He didn’t suggest or advise them to stop worrying. He commanded them to. The Greek grammar here means, ‘to stop doing what you are already doing.’
This would have been hard for them to do. Everyday life in the ancient world was worse than anything we know today, even compared to life in developing nations.
People lived in dark, one room houses that typically had no windows. They were smoky because of the fire in the middle of the room, and they were damp and smelly because of a leaky roof.
The odor could also get quite bad because people smelled of sweat, urine and feces.
The streets, were full of mud and human and animal waste…
How could they not worry over the next meal or their next drink of clean water? How could they not worry about getting another cloak after the one they had wore out, becoming nothing more than a rag….
26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
(actually worry does the exact opposite… worry produces a litany of medical problems – chest pains, acid reflux, ulcers, sleep disorders, high blood pressure and more… worry subtracts years from our lives)
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.
If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.3
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. – Matthew 6:25-34
B/S - worry…
• Erodes this foundational principle of trust
• Declares that God is not trustworthy and His Word is not reliable
• Is extremely unproductive
• Is not trusting God in the present when He has been so faithful in the past….
Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. – Psalm 20:7
We need to trust that God’s got us – in order to drive trust into the bedrock of or hearts and lives… so that we are making financial decisions based on trust in God and not worry.
So, do you trust that God’s got you?
#2 - Trust In What God Tells You
Specifically rust in what God tells you in regards to money and finances…
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. – Proverbs 3:5,6
UNDERSTAND MGCC – when it comes to our money and finances much of what God says, that we trust what He tells us, that we take Him at His word, that we acknowledge him (not hey I see you over there, but follow him) in all of our ways.
We need to acknowledge Him and trust what He says, when he tells us…
• That money is not the answer
• That no of our money and stuff is ours
• That we are rich
• Where true contentment is found
• About debt and saving for the future
• About the relationship between money and our hearts
• About tithing and giving our first fruits to Him
“Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’
“In tithes and offerings.9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.
Malachi 3:8-10
Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. – Psalm 20:7
We need to trust that he’s got us
We need trust what he tells us
OKAY – now for out 4th and final foundational principle to being freed up financially…
Humility
What was the first sin ever committed?
It wasn’t when Adam and Eve picked fruit from a forbidden tree. It was when Satan wanted to be like God – when he wanted to possess the status of God.
UNDERSTAND - the first sin committed was pride (satan), and so was the second (Eve ate the fruit so she would become like God, status…)
AND B/S - pride remains a sin in each of our lives to this very day. Proverbs 16:18 states: “Pride goes before a fall and a haughty spirit before destruction.”
As we talk about humility and pride… I want us to consider this concept of status…
Status (noun) the position of an individual in relation to another or others, especially in regard to social or professional standing.
AND UNDERSTAND B/S – if we are going to be freed up financially… we must deal with issue of status because much of what people in our culture buy is driven by pride, self promotion and a desire for status…
• We want to turn heads.
• We want to impress.
• We to be noticed.
Friday morning I made this post on my face book…
SERMON HELP...
what are some things that people will spend a lot of money on (even go in debt for) that ARE really just STATUS SYMBOLS, meant to turn heads and get people to notice us, telling them we that have arrived... and are hip, cool, super-fly and trendy.
28 people commented with things like…
expensive cars, big houses, designer clothes, fancy watches, big diamonds, elaborate weddings, education, exotic vacations, the latest electronics…
Boats, campers, I think may fall into that category. Also vacations....can as well. Not to say you can’t have this stuff....but people can go way over board with everything mentioned in the responses in this post – Ed Decoursey
I am driving a BMW rental and I feel myself wanting people to be impressed, it's sad. Its not worth the devilish behaviors it comes with. – Kevin Danker
QUESTION – can making purchases to up your status… cause you any trouble financially?
Have you ever bought something that you didn’t really need and really couldn’t afford, just to boost your status?
You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. – Philippians 2:5-11
he made himself nothing…
This is a Greek word meaning “to empty.”
How did Jesus empty himself…
He did not demand honor, rank, or title…
Though He was entitled to all the privileges of being fully and completely God, Jesus emptied himself of his status and claim to heaven’s riches.
Jesus made a deliberate decision to give and not to get, to serve and not be served, to submit and not to dominate, to not even have a bed upon which to lay his head.
Jesus emptied himself of status and He calls on us to the same…
But how do we do that…?
Let me suggest 2 things that should help
A prayer to pray, and a truth to embrace
First a prayer to pray… (St Francis of Assisi)
O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, hear my prayer
From the desire of being esteemed, deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being loved, deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being praised, deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being preferred to others, deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being consulted, deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being approved, deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being humiliated, deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being despised, deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being rebuked, deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being criticized, deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being forgotten, deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being ridiculed, deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being wronged, deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being suspected, deliver me, Jesus.
That others may be loved more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be esteemed more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That in the opinion of the worlds may increase and I decrease.
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be chosen and is set aside,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
Amen.
Now a truth to proclaim…
You are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. – 1 Peter 2:9
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
- 1 John 3:1
