06.01.2014 Transformed - How to be Financially Healthy

06.01.2014 How to Be Transformed in Your Financial Health from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

SermonAudio

Luke 16:1—13
16:1 Now He was also saying to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions. 2 And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ 3 The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg. 4 I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me into their homes.’ 5 And he summoned each one of his master’s debtors, and he began saying to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ And he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He *said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ 8 And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light. 9 And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.
10 “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. 11 Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? 12 And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 13 No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
Lord, thank You for the opportunity to come before You in worship – You hear us when we pray and You have a work You are doing in each of our lives. You love us and Your grace abounds in everything – help us to receive Your grace and to understand love and mercy and what we have been given – and to be grateful. There is so much that can cause us to be drawn away and ungrateful, but help us to remember what You have done – to be able to say, bless the Lord, O my soul and to not forget any of His benefits.
This is the 6th of seven weeks of 50 days of transformation. This is the sixth area – financial transformation.
I am no financial expert. I am not a financial consultant. I won’t pretend to be one – but there are plenty out there – and plenty of programs that deal with stewardship/budgeting/saving/debt (how to avoid and get out of it!) and if you have never been through something like that – I would recommend that you do that. Today’s focus is to have a biblical attitude toward money.
Our verse – the theme verse for the time is Romans 12:1-2
We have been looking at the fact that we are either being conformed to society or transformed into the image of God.
The focus is on not being conformed to the world, but on the way Christ and God would have us do things. I believe this is the number one area where we conform to the culture and the world – in our use and attitudes toward finances. In my opinion – II think all of us are blind to the cultural influences in this area and how much they affect us.
I have been through several of the financial stewardship programs – and I think you should do them – but even they have been influenced by our culture. I think we misread scripture in relation to finances because of the powerful, unbelievable influence that culture has on our lives. Jesus attitude toward money is counter-cultural – subversive – and in many ways is in direct opposition to our consumeristic culture. We need to develop this attitude.
Subversive – I don’t mean dishonest – I mean, like Jesus said – as shrewd as serpents but innocent as doves. Jesus is always turning things upside down – and it is the same with finances – to reverse the order of what we determine to be accurate.
5 subversive attitudes toward money and wealth.
Ownership vs. stewardship.
Luke 16: 1 Now He was also saying to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions. 2 And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’
What the parable is saying – the rich man is God – we are the manager – we have been given God’s possessions/resources/money – and we – this goes against our culture that says – it is MY money and I’ll do whatever I want with it! I made it! It is MINE! And God is saying – no it is not – it is Mine – you simply have a stewardship – you are the manager of what I have given you – it is all Mine.
What happens – because of tithing – a good thing – a biblical thing – we say – 10% is God’s and 90% is mine – but that is not true – 100% of what we have is God’s! You, yourself, do not belong to yourself – you belong to God – your body belongs to God – you are not your own – therefore glorify God in your body.
This steward misused it – because it is all God’s – we need to understand that the finances/resources/talents/things we have – belong to God and we should not waste or squander it. The manager wasted it – squandered the master’s possessions. We tend to be poor managers of what God has given us. We can become poor managers of what God has given. If we understand it is God’s and we are manageing it – we have a different attitude toward it.
Some of the big ways we mismanage – uncontrolled spending – failure to budget. – Impulse buying. Debt. Spending money we don’t have.
When I do a wedding ceremony – sometimes I joke “Til debt do us part” – that is a reality for many – finances are one of the main reasons for separation in marriage.
We fail to prepare for the future.
Second attitude – Financial transformation begins with making a choice.
Luke 16: 13 No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
I think there is a choice – God is saying that here – there is no middle ground – you are either serving your possessions or you are serving God. The pressure in our society is so great to serve possessions in wealth that we need to continually make a decision to serve God – and not possessions and wealth. I think the default choice for us is serving wealth. You do not have to be wealthy to be serving wealth – you can be dirt-poor and still be serving wealth. It has nothing to do with how much someone has.
How do we know how we have chosen? What occupies your mind? What brings anxiety? What do you just think about? Guard your heart/mind/ for from it come the wellsprings of life.
What do you trust in? Where do you search for security? Where do you get your security?
I had a friend back in college – and a tree had fallen on his car – and he said – Lord, look what you did to your car!
It all belongs to God! God – what are you going to do about this bill?! Just like the money is not yours, so the bill is not yours! It is a change of attitude.
Identity. You can tell what you have chosen by where you place your identity – your net worth does not determine your self-worth.
Devotion – where do your dreams lie? Do you dream about winning the lottery? Your dreams tell you what you love
3rd – Luke 16:10-12
10 “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. 11 Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? 12 And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?
Money from Jesus perspective – is a very little thing. How many would say that our society looks at it that way? Hardly any!
Did you see the front page of the Beacon? The big bucks that the CEOs of the top companies in Akron make – “It is good to be at the top” was the heading and it listed their multimillion dollar yearly incomes.
Money is a very little thing. But on the other hand – being faithful with what God gave you is a very BIG thing. Money itself is almost irrelevant – but being responsible with it is enormous. Money is false riches – it makes wings and flies away, the Bible says. Everything breaks at once, right? Right when you think you’re getting ahead.
The US government – in keeping with this verse – money takes wings and flies away – they put the eagle on money! Your money is flying away!
Here is another thing. It starts with being responsible –good managers with our money – but it doesn’t end there. If it ends there, you have conformed to the culture. If you are a phenomenal manager and that is where it stops – you are conforming to the culture – because that is hoarding and stockpiling – the point is so that we can gain spiritual riches and spiritually wealthy. You don’t manage money to become rich – you do it to gain true riches – by being faithful with those things that are insignificant –
When we talk about being conformed to the image of the culture or to Christ – two things will lead to the first – loving money and failing to become a good steward of what God has given us – maybe more than anything.
4th attitude – Luke 16:8
8 And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light.
He is not praising what he did – undercutting the bills – he acted shrewdly –
Make friends with your money.
We are to use our possessions – finances and things – to build relationships that will last forever.
You might ask – what does that mean? Taking someone out to lunch and sharing the gospel with them? That is part of what it means. It means taking all of ourselves and giving it to the service of Christ and the gospel – to become gospel people with all that we have and are.
We were at a wedding last weekend – Brian and our son Tony grew up together – I coached these soccer teams when they were little – Adam Murray is one – and through the years – in coaching these things – with the purpose of reaching these families for Christ – and about five years in – one of the families – sat down and told me he came to Christ – it was weird – John went to school with one of our members here. And then another kid came back after his first year of college – and he told me he came to Christ!
Two years ago Tony got married and all these families came to the wedding – and these families all heard the gospel – and they came up and told me what a wonderful wedding it was. One of the dads of a cross country kids was getting remarried and he asked if I would perform the ceremony. Another’s mother died – and they called and asked if I would do the funeral. In all these things – they hear the gospel.
Last weekend, the bride’s grandfather performed the ceremony – he broke down twice – started crying – that would happen to me, it is one thing to do your son’s wedding – but to do your grandkids’….
And Tony got up to do the best man speech – and he shared about their spiritual friendship – and all these people heard it again. And I think that is what it means to give all you are for the service of the gospel.
Fifth
Luke 6: 20 And turning His gaze toward His disciples, He began to say, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh…
24 But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full.

Now, Dallas Willard explains this – one of the most misunderstood passages – because we turn everything into Law – like this is a law telling me to get poor, or poor in spirit – but what He is doing is taking the values, attitudes, perspectives on finances and is turning everything upside down. We would say that the poor are Unblessed. But Jesus is saying – if you are poor, you are blessed. Jesus is saying – if you are rich and if that is what you are putting your value in – you are to be despised because you have lost everything in getting rich. What does it mean to gain the whole world if you lose your soul?
Those we perceive to be unblessed are really blessed. The blessing is not in the condition – there is no blessing in being poor. The blessing is in the kingdom being made available. You can be poor and not avail yourself to the kingdom and you are not blessed.
We don’t say – woe to you who laugh now – laugh no more! That is not what he is saying g- but when those are the things that matter to us – being happy – having what we want – being satisfied with food – those things become our masters and we have lost it.
Philippians 4: - in some ways it is Paul’s interpretation of the Beatitudes – because the Bible does not say that there is something wrong with being rich – it is not an issue of how much you earn, but what you do with it and what you love.
Paul says in Philippians 4: 10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity. 11 Not that I speak [a]from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. 12 I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. 13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
Are you making Christ present and available – and our love must be fully devoted to Him. Let’s pray.
Lord, it is never easy to think about finances – to talk about finances, especially in church. You said, if we are faithful with them, we will be given true riches – spiritual responsibility – and we can use what you have given to welcome people into heaven. What an honor it would be to someday hear, “I am in heaven because of you.”