10.14.2012 Margins/Boundaries - Healthy Attitudes toward Money/Finances

SermonAudio
Lord, thank You that You are the beautiful One Whom we love. We come here to worship You that You might be honored – would receive praise and glory from our lips and lives. May we allow You to do the work inside of us that You long to do. You have a great work You wish to do inside of us – and are longing for a deep and intimate relationship with us – help us to believe that – that You want to be with us and relate to us – and to live in such a way to make that happen. Teach us this morning – by Your Spirit and power – control each word and thought that Your transforming work might take place inside of us. I also pray for Annette and Alan as they head off to Mexico for the mission trip – bless that trip – give safety – and that they would be used for the glory of the gospel.
Margins - Creating space – making necessary time for God. From that flows time for the other things that matter most. Today we are going to look at Finances – margins in money –
What are we doing talking about money? Money is not the most important thing at all – but it seems to influence everything else in life if we don’t have a handle on it. The love of money – filthy lucre, unrighteous mammon – is a base thing – a low thing – an earthy thing. But we tend to elevate it – so it has an impact on the other areas of our lives –
You don’t have margins in Finances if you are spending more than you are taking in. That is when you lose margins. I am NOT going to do a financial seminar – I am not going to talk about stewardship – there are good books out there – we did a series a few years ago – Financial Peace, or Peace, Love and Finances – but I urge all of you – be wise – have understanding – be shrewd in the use of our finances – but today I want to talk about how to live Biblically regarding money – how to have margins with our finances. Primarily, I want to talk about attitude – having a biblical attitude about money and things.
Everyone’s financial situation is unique. There is not a ‘one size fits all’ – there are those who follow the rules and regulations and it doesn’t always work. For others, they follow the rules and it seems to work. But there are always those circumstances in this world where everything goes haywire.
Growing up – I heard – buy a house – don’t waste money in renting. And really – we knew that when you bought a house – you could expect it to increase in value. It was like a given – would always happen – but try telling that to someone who bought a house 7 years ago. You can lose everything you’ve done tomorrow. You can lose it all in one day.
That is why – I want to focus our attention on a biblical attitude toward finances. Matthew 6 has several verses on this. About 2 years ago, we did a Sermon on the Mount series…
Matthew 6:19-21

There are several negative attitudes we are told not to have.
The first thing to understand – money and things are temporary – they can be gone at any moment –
Paul said – do not put your trust in the uncertainty of riches. There is no certainty with money – It makes itself wings and flies away. It almost gives the sense that wealth and money have their own will to get away from you. So number one is to recognize it as temporary – not something we can count on at any time. Do not trust in the uncertainty of riches. Do NOT! Do not trust or count on it or depend on it.
And here is says – do not store up treasures on earth – where catastrophes are a guarantee at some point. The next thing – he tells us not to treasure money and things. Treasure – value and esteem. These are hard passages to work through in our society. These are very hard to teach – it is easier to go through stewardship – it is much more comfortable. These passages of Jesus are not as comfortable in our culture. It doesn’t say – maybe you shouldn’t – it says – Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth… Do not focus your attention on this. Then he says – Do not store it up – Now, what does He mean there? How does that relate? Well, I think what He is NOT saying – not that we aren’t to prepare for future needs – if you know you have to make a mortgage payment, you need to save for it – He is not saying that. That is faithfulness. Even saving for an adequate retirement is faithfulness. But we know there is a difference between that and storing up. More like the guy who built the bigger barns – Eat drink and be merry – and BOOM – it is gone.
We use the word HOARDING. I think He is talking about hoarding here – when we seek security in our savings. When we seek independence in our bank account! God wants our security to be wholly in Him – not in how much you have in your bank account. But all security – because tomorrow we know that it can all end – it can be gone like that. We can’t seek security in it.
It is the attitude He is looking at – Second – independence from God. We want to be financially independent – but sometimes it means trying to be independent from God – not needing to trust Him.
From Richard Foster – a Celebration of Spiritual disciplines
Because we lack a divine center, our need for security has led us to an insane attachment to things. We really must understand that the lust for affluence is psychotic. We crave things we neither need or enjoy. We buy things we do not want to impress people we do not like. This society permeates even our mythology. The modern hero is the poor boy who purposely becomes rich, rather than the rich boy who voluntarily becomes poor.
Matthew is saying of Jesus – Look at Me, and learn to live like that.
There IS a positive here: but store up for yourselves treasure in heaven. There is a positive – here is the focus – don’t put your focus on finances, but on your relationship with God – treasures in heaven – store those up. In context, this means – generosity – in chapters 5-7 – we see that – generosity – and the type Jesus calls for is a radical generosity. It is hard to teach these things – when you read it – it is a so far radical example from what we live and it is hard to imagine these things. Treasure is also good works and gospel ministry. The 3 G’s – I tried to think of a fourth, so it could be like the new iPhone – but think of Generosity, Good works, Gospel ministry – and you won’t go wrong –
You’ll be storing up treasures in heaven.
22 "The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. 23 "But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
We use our eyes to see – to focus – and if we are focused and good, we are right on point.
If your eyes are unhealthy, the body is full of darkness. This is in the context of finances.
Whenever the Bible uses this concept – of eye/- it is speaking of greed/hoarding – self centeredness of things.
Matt. 6: 24 "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
We are told – you cannot – it Is not possible – to serve God and money. It is absolutely impossible to do it – to let money and things control the focus of our eye –then it is impossible to serve and love God.
Yes, this consumes our thoughts – all of us – it just does – that is why Jesus spent so much time on money. It has always been this way – not just here in America. He is hammering on storing up money – and then He says,
25 "For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, [as to] what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, [as to] what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing?
He goes to those who have no capacity to store up – He says to the poor – don’t be anxious or worried about it – that is just as bad as the storing up or hoarding. That is difficult to hear – especially if you are struggling. And the point is – the Pagans run after all these things – and God knows that you need them – so the reason we don’t need to serve money is because God knows our needs and wants to meet them.
26 "Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and [yet] your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? 27 "And which of you by being anxious can add a [single] cubit to his life's span? 28 "And why are you anxious about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, 29 yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these. 30 "But if God so arrays the grass of the field, which is [alive] today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, [will He] not much more [do so for] you, O men of little faith? 31 "Do not be anxious then, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'With what shall we clothe ourselves?' 32 "For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you. 34 "Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. [Each] day has enough trouble of its own.
Focus – SEEK – what do you treasure/love/serve? Focus – eye focused on God – the 3 G’s –
Say you are going on a trip to Colorado – and you have 24 hours of boredom – and then beauty – and along the way – you have to stop at many places – and while you are on that trip – those are the little things – you are not focusing on the restaurants or the restrooms or gas stations – yes, you need to temporarily focus on those things – but it is not about those things – it is the end journey – we are pressing toward that goal – seeking first His kingdom and righteousness.
Practically speaking – 3 things to help you – what we have received we need to see as a gift. What you have from a financial standpoint – it is easy to think you worked really hard for it – but even so, God has given it as a gift. He gave you the power to work hard – or the intelligence to get your degree or start that business. It is God’s business to care for what we have – not ours. That is His job – and that does not mean that we are CARE LESS – but it is His job.
Third – what we have should always be available to help others.
Prov. 22:7
Debt is the great thief to financial margins. It masters our thoughts. When you are in significant debt, it becomes the master of your schedule/time/ and eventually, master of your spirituality.
It is a biblical principle – try to keep your spending – spend less than you make. That is about the only solution there is – and that is not to say it is easy – but debt will get all of us if we allow it to.
We spend more eating out than most countries’ GNP.
Proverbs 30: 8 Keep deception and lies far from me, Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is my portion, 9 Lest I be full and deny [Thee] and say, "Who is the Lord?" Or lest I be in want and steal, And profane the name of my God.
He is talking about living simplistically in a manner that fits our income. We need to lower our lifestyle expectations. In pointing to America – he would say Lower your lifestyle expectations!
Another thing – we need to develop good work ethics – and teach our children to as well. That is not wrong – that is biblical also – working hard – working smart – being wise about work and degrees that they get – if they go to college. It is all valuable – stewardship principles – all valuable and important. What I am saying – Biblical principles go beyond stewardship – that is just one small segment.
One last quote – that does not mean either that we jump into asceticism. That is the opposite – trying to look lousy with junky looking clothes.
Asceticism and simplicity are incompatible. Asceticism renounces possessions – simplicity sets money and things in their proper place and perspective.
You can be financially astute/have margins/ and still be as selfish as all get out.
Luke 16: 9 "And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the mammon of unrighteousness; that when it fails, they may 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 "If therefore you have not been faithful in the [use of] unrighteous mammon, 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 hold to one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."
At the core, it is about the 3 G’s - Generosity, Good works, Gospel ministry – Let’s pray
Lord, teach us to be generous – that You Lord might be honored. Help us – to learn to put money and things in their proper perspective. We are constantly bombarded and it is difficult to do this. But we make ourselves available to learn from You – teach us to have a Biblical attitude – a Jesus attitude – toward wealth. In Your Name we pray.