The Giant Of Money Problems

The Giant Of Money Problems

Calvary 5-18-13 Ecclesiastes 4:1-8 Matthew 6:19-24

I am indebted to Andy Stanley for his sermon on Breathing Room for some of the concepts and ideas in this message.

Today is Pentecost Sunday. Let me tell you briefly how Pentecost Sunday came out in the church. Jesus had come and preached to people for about 3/12 years and did all kinds of miracles to show God’s love for people and to prove He was the Son of God. Some religious and political leaders got very upset over Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God.

They got together and had him killed on a cross which is what we mean by the crucifixion. Three days after he was put in grave, God raised Jesus from the dead, and Jesus started preaching and teaching again for about 40 days. He told his followers that he was going to send them a Comforter to take His place and that this Comforter would lead them into all truth. He told them to wait in Jerusalem until after the Holy Spirit had come upon them and they would receive power to be His witnesses to others.

They had no idea of what Jesus was talking about until after they had watched Jesus go back into heaven. Pentecost is the day that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit upon the church and the group of believers received power for their lives and the church came into being. There were about 120 people in a room who began speaking in other tongues to preach the gospel to foreigners. The Holy Spirit came upon them and gave them a boldness and wisdom that they had not known before. That same Holy Spirit is available for each and every one of us today who gives his or her life to Jesus Christ.

When we think of the Holy Spirit doing things in our lives, we often think of Him ministering to our spirits, healing our bodies, and comforting us during our times of loss or grief. But Jesus said the Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth. All truth belongs to God, and God wants us to be wise in every area of our lives.

We have been doing a bible study series on Facing The Giants. I want to take one of the giants out of order from the series and that’s Facing The Giant Of Money Problems. The Holy Spirit wants to lead us into truth about money, because we spend more time worrying about it, than probably anything else. We worry about what we will eat, what we will wear, and where we live. These worries are all traced back to money.

Now today, I want you to relax as we talk about money. I’m not going to ask you to commit to tithing. I’m not going to ask you to make a pledge. I’m not going to talk about our financial situation as a church. I’m going to tell you something that can help you to enjoy your life when it comes to money. It does not matter if you are a Christian or not, this is something that can help you if you listen.

Now Solomon who lived thousands of years ago, is the first one that identified what used to be called the rat race. The rat race is a race in which everybody is trying to outdo the other person by making sure they have the latest, the biggest, the fastest, the quickest, the largest, and the mostest compared to everybody else. It gets to be absurd. Solomon said, “And I saw that all toil and all achievements spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless. a chasing after the wind. In other words, the moment someone has something, we want one too, but if we can get a better one, we’ll take that one instead. We can’t enjoy our things unless we know someone knows that we have our thing. The only problem with living like this is that it never ends. Have you tried chasing the wind. You run over here it stops. You run over there it stops. You just can’t keep up.

When we look at the giants of money problem, most of us think that the solution is simple. Give me some more money and that will solve the problem. You may not believe this, but it probably won’t. Chances are, you will be right back in the same situation before your know it all over again. Unless you understand what we are going to look at today. The Holy Spirit is interested in your peace of mind. Lack of money destroys our peace of mind.

If you go to the grocery story with cash and your bill comes to $53. 69, there is no tension when you open your purse and see three $20 bills which comes to $60.00. You hand off you money and the love of Jesus is shining through your face as you say hello, receive your change and say goodbye to the cashier.