Re-Deed Your Heart: Steward Vs. Owner Series

Keeping the Beat: Heart Healthy Giving for Heart Healthy Living…Part 2:

Re-Deeding Your Heart: Steward Vs. Owner

Luke 6:27-38, I Corinthians 6:19-20, Deuteronomy 8:18

Before going to Europe on business, a certain man drove his Rolls-Royce to a downtown New York City bank and went in to ask for an immediate loan of $5,000. The loan officer, taken back, requested collateral. The man replied, "Would my Rolls-Royce work?"

The loan officer promptly had the car driven into the bank’s underground parking for safekeeping and gave him the $5,000.

Two weeks later, the man walked through the bank’s doors and asked to settle up his loan and get his car back. "That will be $5,000 in principal, and $15.40 in interest," the loan officer said. The man wrote out a check, got up, and started to walk away.

"Wait sir," the loan officer said. "While you were gone, I found out you’re a millionaire. Why in the world would you need to borrow $5,000?"

The man smiled. "Where else could I safely park my Rolls-Royce in Manhattan for two weeks and only $15.40?"

Last week we began a series entitled “Keeping the Beat: Heart Healthy Giving for Heart Healthy Living.” We discovered some very important principles and truths from the scripture which I want to quickly review with you as we begin today. If you’re following along in your outline the first thing you’ll see is that healthy living requires healthy giving. That’s the premise of this entire series. We can’t live healthy spiritual lives unless we establish healthy giving patterns. That’s why we’re spending time dealing with this topic.

We also discovered that faith and finances are inseparable. We looked at several scripture passages where a person’s view of their finances was indicative of their spiritual condition. We found out that one out of every six verses in Matthew, Mark, and Luke deals with money. And we discovered that if we are to have the kind of healthy spiritual lives that we desire to have then we must examine this area of our lives.

And finally, the focus of my sermon last week was that the heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart. We discovered that the Bible tells us that our hearts are evil and that we are in need of a transplant, which occurs when we enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ. But we also discovered that while we become new people when we become Christians, we are subject to the same spiritual heart diseases as anyone else, including the leading heart disease: the love of money. If we weren’t, then the church wouldn’t be in the condition it’s in today. If our hearts were in the condition they should be in then every church would have more than enough money to accomplish the work it’s been called to do. But that simply isn’t reality.

Today I want to ask you to consider adopting a new paradigm of thinking. I want to challenge you to look at yourselves and your possessions in a new light and ultimately I’m going to ask you to re-deed your heart and your possessions into some else’s name. Let us pray…

One of the leading obstacles to the church accomplishing the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ is a mindset that is typical to most Americans: The more I HAVE the more I AM. Isn’t that the message that’s portrayed to us throughout our entire lives? We’re made to believe that the nicer we dress, the better car we drive, the bigger home we live in, and the more money we make - the more we are; that our worth is dependent upon our wealth.

We are taught this mindset at a very young age. I was shocked last year when my 4 year old daughter came home from school concerned about her clothing, that it wasn’t “cool” enough and appalled when I heard her making remarks about the clothing of other children.

Even at a young age we’ve been brainwashed into thinking that our self-worth is determined by our possessions and appearance.

And this line of thinking only gets worse as we grow older. While as children we want to have the newest toys or video games, as adults we want to have the greatest car or home. We do everything we can to keep up with those around us. Why? Because somehow we think that those “things” will make us feel more important.

Over 2,000 years ago the author of the book of Ecclesiastes realized the futility of such thinking. I want you to open up your Bibles with me and turn to this little book that we looked at a few weeks ago when we were talking about relationships. If you were to open your Bibles to the center you’ll find the books of Psalms and then Proverbs. Ecclesiastes follows Proverbs. Turn to Ecclesiastes 5 and let’s look at verses 10-15 and see what the Bible has to say about this kind of thinking. Let’s look at this passage: