SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Mana Church Stafford Podcast, where we're all about equipping God's people to change their world.
SPEAKER_00: We're thankful you're here, and we're praying that this message encourages you to love God, love others, and love the world more fervently than before.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let's get to it.
unknown: Thanks, David.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, worship team.
SPEAKER_02: How are we doing today, manna church?
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
SPEAKER_02: Y'all worship was good.
SPEAKER_02: Man, I love getting into the presence of God.
SPEAKER_02: It's so nice.
SPEAKER_02: Um, well, if I haven't had a chance to meet you, my name is Jake.
SPEAKER_02: I get the pleasure of being the pastor here at Mana Church.
SPEAKER_02: And um, if you joined us.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, thank you, Sophie.
SPEAKER_02: I gotcha.
SPEAKER_02: Appreciate that.
SPEAKER_02: If you've been joining us for any amount of time, you know, we just finished a series called DTR, Defining the Relationship, where we were talking about what it means to be a part of a church body.
SPEAKER_02: And um several of you want to thank you for making a commitment saying, hey, man of church is my church family.
SPEAKER_02: And so lots of you did that.
SPEAKER_02: We actually did get some questions from other people about, hey, I I know I tapped and I got the link, but I didn't have the link later on.
SPEAKER_02: So Courtney sent it out in an email to everybody this week.
SPEAKER_02: It'll be in the email again this coming week, and then on our website, there's a there's a link that you can click if you want to do that after the fact.
SPEAKER_02: But I'm excited because man, we're gonna do some amazing things.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna change the city, we're gonna change the nation, we're gonna change the world.
SPEAKER_02: We believe that that's one of our missions, and I know I speak for every single one of the staff and the leaders here.
SPEAKER_02: Like, we're excited to have you guys with us.
SPEAKER_02: Um and so last week, one of the points that I tried to make, I hope I communicated it well, is that church is the place we go when we have questions about some of the biggest issues in life.
SPEAKER_02: When we don't know how to manage our marriage, where do you go to help you with that?
SPEAKER_02: You can go to a counselor, you can go to Chat GPT.
SPEAKER_02: Lots of people use Chat GPT now for counseling.
SPEAKER_02: It's it's interesting.
SPEAKER_02: Um, you can go to all kinds of places, but man, the Bible teaches us what what marriage looks like.
SPEAKER_02: When you have conflict with people, where do you go?
SPEAKER_02: Church is the place to go.
SPEAKER_02: When you have all kinds of other issues in life, when you have trials and tribulations you face, when you're sick, when your kids are going kind of crazy off the reservation, where do you go for that support?
SPEAKER_02: When you need people to go to war with you for an issue that you're dealing with, where do you go?
SPEAKER_02: Church.
SPEAKER_02: And so we're gonna kind of pivot now because when it comes to money, I would say it's a similar thing.
SPEAKER_02: Where do you go to know how to handle it?
SPEAKER_02: And maybe you have a good financial advisor, maybe you trust them, maybe you kind of don't, you treat them a little suspicious, like how many fees are they gonna take?
SPEAKER_02: What I would like to suggest at the outset here is the same book, the same institution that tells us how to handle marriage and tells us how to handle conflict and tells us how to parent and tells us how to walk through all the struggles of life, is actually the same place we go to find out how to handle money.
SPEAKER_02: And you and I both know that if you have a bad relationship with money, it's gonna cause all kinds of issues in your life.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you are sitting here and you've got a little bit of an issue right now because you're like, dang it, Jake, I brought a friend this week.
SPEAKER_02: You had to talk about money.
SPEAKER_02: I know we had uh 38 people, I think, in our newcomers lunch last Sunday, y'all.
SPEAKER_02: Isn't that awesome?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's great.
SPEAKER_02: We had 38 people there.
SPEAKER_02: It was crazy.
SPEAKER_02: We had to bring in extra tables.
SPEAKER_02: Super cool.
SPEAKER_02: I know they're really excited to be here uh for their second week and be like, wow, Pastor Jake's talking about money.
SPEAKER_02: Um I'm also painfully aware that one of the top three reasons people don't want to come and try church is because they believe they just want my money.
SPEAKER_02: And there are probably some churches out there that do.
SPEAKER_02: We are not one of them.
SPEAKER_02: All right?
SPEAKER_02: That's just not just not us.
SPEAKER_02: It's not how we do it.
SPEAKER_02: Um so I'm gonna set you at ease right now before we get into the content of what we're talking about today.
SPEAKER_02: There's no big ask at the end.
SPEAKER_02: All right?
SPEAKER_02: We're not gonna take up offering, we're not gonna do anything special.
SPEAKER_02: I just want to teach you something from God's word.
SPEAKER_02: Is that cool?
SPEAKER_02: So if your anxiety level is here, like, dang it, I kind of want to get up and walk out.
SPEAKER_02: Just lower it a little bit.
SPEAKER_02: Let me be a little bit of a thermostat.
SPEAKER_02: Let's lower the temperature.
SPEAKER_02: Nobody's gonna ask you anything.
SPEAKER_02: We don't have phones that they're gonna go to, and I'm some TV.
SPEAKER_02: We're not on TV right now, we are on YouTube.
SPEAKER_02: So there's no telemarketer or anything like that.
SPEAKER_02: Um, this is very much a message where we don't want something from you.
SPEAKER_02: We do want something for you, though.
SPEAKER_02: Desperately, desperately, I want something for you in this area because it causes so much trouble.
SPEAKER_02: And I think that's why Jesus talked about it so much, because he knew how big of an impact for good and for bad management of money would do to us.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you know this or not.
SPEAKER_02: I looked it up because I'm a pastor and it's my job.
SPEAKER_02: Um, there's over 2,300 verses in the Bible directly related to money.
SPEAKER_02: That's almost 10% of the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: And maybe you didn't know this.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus talked more about money than he talked about prayer and faith combined.
SPEAKER_02: That's kind of crazy.
SPEAKER_02: Like I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_02: That was interesting.
SPEAKER_02: 15% of his words were about money, treasure, riches.
SPEAKER_02: 16 of his 39 parables, that's a lot, had to do with money.
SPEAKER_02: So if he's gonna spend that much time looking at it, I feel like we should.
SPEAKER_02: I looked back in November every year.
SPEAKER_02: Um, I work with the teaching team and we kind of plan out what we're gonna talk about for the year, so I went back and looked.
SPEAKER_02: We've spent 3% of our time talking about money.
SPEAKER_02: So if Jesus spent all that time talking about it and we only spent 3%, I want to make sure we align a little bit more with him, and I don't want us to be weak in this area.
SPEAKER_02: So this is just a it's a discipleship issue.
SPEAKER_02: So so here's the truth I want for every single one of us.
SPEAKER_02: I want you guys to all walk, and I personally want to walk, in the freedom that God has for us.
SPEAKER_02: I want us to go from financially strapped, which is where most of us, most of us can find ourselves at one point in our life, to financially free.
SPEAKER_02: And the reality is most people, it's not that they don't want to be generous, they're just strapped.
SPEAKER_02: They just don't know how because they have so many other things that are competing.
SPEAKER_02: They're not stingy, and so we're gonna get really, really practical in this series.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna have some resources for you later on, they're gonna be on our website, you're gonna be able to find them.
SPEAKER_02: Um, we're gonna give you great, great ways to learn better financial practices.
SPEAKER_02: But today what I want to do is I want to start with the foundation of how we manage finances, and it's the heart.
SPEAKER_02: Financial freedom starts with the condition of your heart.
SPEAKER_02: If you don't hear anything else I say this message, if you tune out for the rest of it, but you get this one point that I'm gonna make, then I'm gonna spike the football and do my touchdown dance, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Ready?
SPEAKER_02: Here it is.
SPEAKER_02: If you're taking notes.
SPEAKER_02: God doesn't need your money.
SPEAKER_02: He just doesn't.
SPEAKER_02: He wants your heart.
SPEAKER_02: God doesn't need your money.
SPEAKER_02: It's just not a thing.
SPEAKER_02: Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus talks about money, some.
SPEAKER_02: Um Sermon on the Mount was actually one of uh people think that it may be a sermon that he preached dozens and dozens and dozens of times.
SPEAKER_02: We just have it recorded in this one specific time in the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_02: And in chapter six, it's Matthew, Matthew 5, 6, and 7.
SPEAKER_02: In chapter 6, he talks about three specific things that every believer should do, and it's gonna release a lot of goodness and a lot of positivity in your life.
SPEAKER_02: It's gonna unlock blessings.
SPEAKER_02: And there are three great things.
SPEAKER_02: One of them is prayer.
SPEAKER_02: He talks about the way we should pray and the way we shouldn't pray.
SPEAKER_02: He talks about fasting and the way we should fast and the way we should not fast, and he talks about generosity, the way that we should give and the way that we should not give.
SPEAKER_02: Because our actions a lot of times aren't necessarily quite as critical as the heart behind them.
SPEAKER_02: So I'll give you an example, and I think you guys will track with me on this.
SPEAKER_02: Um, I've got a neighbor, he's a super kind guy.
SPEAKER_02: Um and his wife moved in, I don't know, a couple years ago.
SPEAKER_02: And um they're they're nice people.
SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, we don't run in the same circle, they're about 20 years older than Daniel, probably 30 years older than us, actually.
SPEAKER_02: And oftentimes I'll see him out there working, and he'll have like big bags of stuff he's doing, moving around his yard, or or you know, he'll he'll be you know salting his driveway when it's snowy.
SPEAKER_02: And so what do you do when you see someone who's elderly and they're doing that?
SPEAKER_02: You go help them, right?
SPEAKER_02: Or if you're me, you grab one of your four sons and you say, hey, go help him.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: So we do that.
SPEAKER_02: Both me and the boys.
SPEAKER_02: But would it would it be interesting, or would it change the context if I had people coming over to my house and I noticed that his yard was was was unkept, and I said, Hey, we need to go mow his yard.
SPEAKER_02: It's still a really kind thing.
SPEAKER_02: He would probably still be super grateful that we mowed his yard.
SPEAKER_02: But the heart behind it actually changes the activity completely, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_02: Like you wouldn't look at that and be like, wow, the Johnsons were so kind.
SPEAKER_02: They went over and mowed their neighbor's yard for him.
SPEAKER_02: You'd be like, wow, the Johnsons are that's kind of self-serving.
SPEAKER_02: And it's the same way when it comes to prayer, when it comes to fasting, and when it comes to giving.
SPEAKER_02: God's not concerned with the thing, He's concerned with your heart.
SPEAKER_02: This is what Jesus says, excuse me, in chapter 6, verse 19, he says, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
SPEAKER_02: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm just gonna stop right there because it's interesting, he's telling us, put things in an account that you can't watch the balance grow.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't I don't have some heavenly app I can go to and see what my account balance looks like.
SPEAKER_02: But he's saying that's where you should store your treasures.
SPEAKER_02: And the reason is because your heavenly account is not impacted by which political party is in office.
SPEAKER_02: Inflation doesn't hurt my heavenly account balance.
SPEAKER_02: If the housing market crashes, guess what?
SPEAKER_02: It don't matter.
SPEAKER_02: My heavenly account is gonna stay the same.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, it might even get stronger depending on how I react.
SPEAKER_02: So he's saying, put your treasure there, and this is why, verse 21, he says, For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
SPEAKER_02: So money's not evil, but money reveals.
SPEAKER_02: It points to where your heart is.
SPEAKER_02: It reveals that, it reveals what we value, it reveals what we prioritize, it even reveals what we live for.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, I've said this before: if you show me your bank account, I'm gonna show you what's important in your life.
SPEAKER_02: And if you look at my bank account, you're gonna find out I really value Chick-fil-A.
SPEAKER_02: I just do.
SPEAKER_02: And you're gonna find I value Jesus, I value his church, I value missions.
SPEAKER_02: You're gonna find all those things if you look at my bank account.
SPEAKER_02: And if you look at your bank account, it's gonna it's gonna tell you that.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, Billy Graham, he said it this way: he said, Tell me what you think about money, and I will tell you what you think about God, for these two are closely related.
SPEAKER_02: Again, God doesn't need your money.
SPEAKER_02: God's not after your stuff.
SPEAKER_02: Our church, this church, we're not after your stuff, we're not after your money, actually.
SPEAKER_02: God's after your heart, he's after your soul.
SPEAKER_02: And the reason is because of this.
SPEAKER_02: Matthew 6, again, the same chapter he says, No one can serve two masters, for he will either hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
SPEAKER_02: So God doesn't want to share the throne of your heart with anybody because he doesn't want you to be in this love-hate, devote, despise relationship between him and something else.
SPEAKER_02: Can't live for God and live for wealth.
SPEAKER_02: You can't do both.
SPEAKER_02: There are times where you can kind of pursue wealth and then realize, like, oh my goodness, I gotta go back.
SPEAKER_02: I gotta focus on God more.
SPEAKER_02: Because if you focus on money, what's gonna happen is you will begin to despise God and be frustrated when money doesn't give you what you want.
SPEAKER_02: What you trust in, what you're motivated by, that's what's on the throne of your heart.
SPEAKER_02: Another word for putting money there is idolatry.
SPEAKER_02: It's anything that becomes more important in our life than God.
SPEAKER_02: Anything that takes God's spot on the throne of our heart is an idol.
SPEAKER_02: It's one of his biggies.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, it's probably his biggest.
SPEAKER_02: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind.
SPEAKER_02: All like love God.
SPEAKER_02: Put him there.
SPEAKER_02: Not anything else.
SPEAKER_02: And the word that Jesus uses in Matthew 6 is actually an Aramaic word called mammon.
SPEAKER_02: It just means wealth, riches, like like all that stuff.
SPEAKER_02: And there's a there's a spiritual undertone to it because the way that he describes it is not like it's a God, but we treat this inanimate thing like a God.
SPEAKER_02: And all of us have probably done it.
SPEAKER_02: And while money is lifeless, Satan, the enemy of your soul, would love to trap you into serving it and making a mockery of God.
SPEAKER_02: You see this in Romans.
SPEAKER_02: Paul talks about it in Romans 1.
SPEAKER_02: He talks about, man, you you worship lifeless things like birds, beasts, things that men created.
SPEAKER_02: You worship it.
SPEAKER_02: Money is just a thing that people made.
SPEAKER_02: But we worship it sometimes.
SPEAKER_02: And it actually, the enemy of your soul would love it because it makes a mockery on God.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm gonna tell you, um, a lot of people when they preach on this subject, I'm gonna go on a little bit of a tangent here, they preach it in such a way that it causes a lot of hurt to people.
SPEAKER_02: Anybody ever heard of the prosperity gospel?
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
SPEAKER_02: So I'm not gonna talk about specific churches or specific people, but I'm gonna talk about that specific way of talking about this issue.
SPEAKER_02: That message is give and you will get.
SPEAKER_02: If you give money, then you'll get money.
SPEAKER_02: If you sow a seed into my ministry, that's where you get the televangelists, and they're like, just sow a$5 seed or a$5,000 seed into this ministry, and you're gonna get a tenfold reward.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know why they have a country accent, but they do.
SPEAKER_02: Um He's like, God wants to bless everybody.
SPEAKER_02: Everybody, He wants to give everybody riches, everybody gets a new car, everybody gets a nice house, everybody gets a private jet, everybody gets all the vacations.
SPEAKER_02: You just gotta sow that seed in.
SPEAKER_02: And if you do that, then you'll get this back.
SPEAKER_02: Some of anybody heard that?
SPEAKER_02: You heard a preacher preach that?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that that's that's bad.
SPEAKER_02: Because what it does is it takes a truth of the gospel, which is the truth of the principle of sowing and reaping, and it twists it.
SPEAKER_02: Because there is a very real principle of sowing and reaping.
SPEAKER_02: What you sow, you will absolutely reap.
SPEAKER_02: What you put into the ground will pop up with something.
SPEAKER_02: And that's both good and bad.
SPEAKER_02: If you sow generosity and kindness and all these good things to the people around you, you're gonna reap something from that.
SPEAKER_02: It may not always be proportionate, but you're gonna reap from that.
SPEAKER_02: If you sow discord and conflict and gossip and infighting, guess what?
SPEAKER_02: It's gonna produce a fruit.
SPEAKER_02: And it's not gonna be a good fruit.
SPEAKER_02: And see, what happens with the prosperity gospel is instead of working greed out of your soul, it actually works greed into your soul.
SPEAKER_02: Because it tells you if you just give money to this pastor or this church, then you're gonna get something.
SPEAKER_02: That's not the point.
SPEAKER_02: God doesn't want you to give things so you get things.
SPEAKER_02: That that's that's you totally miss it.
SPEAKER_02: And so then when we don't get things after we do give, then we get frustrated at God.
SPEAKER_02: Well, you said this, this preacher stood up and said this, but it didn't actually happen.
SPEAKER_02: It's it's it's terrible.
SPEAKER_02: Because mammon, money, promises things that only God can give to us: identity, security, significance, joy, peace.
SPEAKER_02: Mammon, money never, ever, ever can deliver on its promise.
SPEAKER_02: Not fully.
SPEAKER_02: You might think, man, if I had more money, more people would listen to me.
SPEAKER_02: I'd have more influence, my marriage would be better, I'd just be happier.
SPEAKER_02: Check this.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus never told people that they need more money.
SPEAKER_02: Think about that.
SPEAKER_02: Never did it.
SPEAKER_02: Never did a lame man, a blind man come to me and say, come to him and say, Have mercy on me, son of David.
SPEAKER_02: And he's like, Oh, guys, give him some money.
SPEAKER_02: That's what he needs.
SPEAKER_02: If that was the solution, Jesus wouldn't have come as a carpenter, he would have come as a banker.
SPEAKER_02: He didn't.
SPEAKER_02: And so that's not the answer to our problems.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is the answer, and he wants our heart.
SPEAKER_02: Ecclesiastes 5, it says this whoever loves money never has enough.
SPEAKER_02: Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income.
SPEAKER_02: If your heart's all bound up in it, you know, the appetites, it's a weird thing with appetites, is the way to manage your appetites is actually the ones that you want to grow, you feed, and the ones that you want to shrink, you starve.
SPEAKER_02: A lot of times you think, man, I just got this appetite.
SPEAKER_02: If I just satisfy it, it'll go away.
SPEAKER_02: It's the opposite.
SPEAKER_02: When you feed an appetite, it gets bigger.
SPEAKER_02: And so if you feed this love of money, the appetite for money is gonna get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.
SPEAKER_02: And it's gonna mess up your life, y'all.
SPEAKER_02: And I do not want that for you.
SPEAKER_02: Hebrews 13, 5 says, keep your life free from love of money and be content with what you have, for he has said, I will never leave you or forsake you.
SPEAKER_02: Isn't that interesting?
SPEAKER_02: He's saying, You want money, you love it, but I'm always here.
SPEAKER_02: Money will try to steal the throne of your heart.
SPEAKER_02: Money tried to steal my heart.
SPEAKER_02: Now, if I could just share a story for you guys.
SPEAKER_02: Um, I used to be a defense contractor, and I was doing pretty well.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, I watched as other people who were on the same track at me, the same the same trajectory as I was, they were doing really well.
SPEAKER_02: And I watched as as they made more and more money, and I thought, wow, that's the same place I'm headed.
SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm gonna get I'm gonna get into that same sort of stratosphere that they are financially.
SPEAKER_02: It looks really nice there.
SPEAKER_02: It looks good.
SPEAKER_02: And you know what happened?
SPEAKER_02: It got better.
SPEAKER_02: Like it just got better.
SPEAKER_02: We won more contracts, bigger contracts, like multimillion dollar contracts, just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
SPEAKER_02: And I remember, I thought to myself, wow, this feels so good.
SPEAKER_02: I finally feel stable.
SPEAKER_02: You ever felt that way when your bank account's at a certain level?
SPEAKER_02: You're like, ooh, I finally feel stable.
SPEAKER_02: It's just safe.
SPEAKER_02: I feel secure.
SPEAKER_02: It was good.
SPEAKER_02: I thought it was good.
SPEAKER_02: Then something crazy happened.
SPEAKER_02: My world got flipped upside down, and all of it went away.
SPEAKER_02: And I remember I had a conversation with God.
SPEAKER_02: I was walking on the beach because I had the money to afford to go on a beach vacation.
SPEAKER_02: At least I thought I did.
SPEAKER_02: I'm walking on the beach early in the morning, and I'm having a conversation with God.
SPEAKER_02: And I said out loud, God, why would you do this?
SPEAKER_02: Why would you let this happen?
SPEAKER_02: Why would you let it happen?
SPEAKER_02: That was supposed to be our stability.
SPEAKER_02: And in that moment, I know I say God talks to me, and some of you are like, What does that mean?
SPEAKER_02: I didn't hear an audible voice, but it might as well have been audible.
SPEAKER_02: In my soul, as I'm walking, as I'm saying this to God, I'm so frustrated, my heart's all tied up in it.
SPEAKER_02: And the Holy Spirit speaks to me and says, I thought I was supposed to be your stability.
SPEAKER_02: And it shook me.
SPEAKER_02: I realized what I had done.
SPEAKER_02: And then the Lord said, And I haven't changed.
SPEAKER_02: My circumstance changed.
SPEAKER_02: My financial situation changed.
SPEAKER_02: But God has always and will always be my stability, and he never changed.
SPEAKER_02: My income went from really high to really low.
SPEAKER_02: I went from making more money than I've ever made to making no money, which was less than I'd ever made.
SPEAKER_02: But my stability didn't change.
SPEAKER_02: And that truth liberated my soul from something that I think the enemy wanted to use to set up as an idol to steal God's glory and to steal his purposes.
SPEAKER_02: It changed the way that I think about it.
SPEAKER_02: And what I want for you is I want you to have that same freedom that you can walk in, that you don't worry paycheck to paycheck.
SPEAKER_02: You don't worry that there's there's too much month and not enough money.
SPEAKER_02: God has good things for you in this area.
SPEAKER_02: When you let money get a hold of your heart, it leads to all kinds of evil.
SPEAKER_02: And you might be like, Yeah, Jake, I know, I know.
SPEAKER_02: Money is the root of all evil, or love of money is the root of all evil.
SPEAKER_02: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_02: That's actually not what it's.
SPEAKER_02: Says.
SPEAKER_02: It says, the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
SPEAKER_02: Is what it says.
SPEAKER_02: First Timothy chapter 6, verse 9.
SPEAKER_02: Those who desire to be rich, that was me.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's you.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's been you.
SPEAKER_02: Fall into temptation, into a snare.
SPEAKER_02: It's like a trap the enemy set for you.
SPEAKER_02: Into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
SPEAKER_02: For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
SPEAKER_02: It's through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
SPEAKER_02: Can you imagine walking away from the faith because you love money?
SPEAKER_02: How senseless is that?
SPEAKER_02: You're storing treasure here and you walk away from eternal treasure.
SPEAKER_02: And if the love of money could cause that, man, I want to stay far, far, far away from it.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, money is just a thing.
SPEAKER_02: And it's a thing I use, it's a thing you use.
SPEAKER_02: I use it to provide food for my family.
SPEAKER_02: I use it to pay for my bills, my house.
SPEAKER_02: I use it to pay for our cars.
SPEAKER_02: I use it to pay for our vacation if we go on them.
SPEAKER_02: I use it for all those kinds of things.
SPEAKER_02: I also use it for the church.
SPEAKER_02: I use it to support missionaries.
SPEAKER_02: I use it to be generous to people.
SPEAKER_02: Money's just a thing.
SPEAKER_02: It can be used for good purposes or bad purposes.
SPEAKER_02: A way to say this is it's okay to have money.
SPEAKER_02: It's just not okay for your money to have you.
SPEAKER_02: There are godly wealthy people.
SPEAKER_02: There are ungodly wealthy people.
SPEAKER_02: There are unrighteous poor people.
SPEAKER_02: There are un there are righteous poor people.
SPEAKER_02: It's indiscriminate.
SPEAKER_02: Money doesn't dictate whether you're good or bad.
SPEAKER_02: It's all a matter of the heart.
SPEAKER_02: And your heart can only have one true love.
SPEAKER_02: It's not just for money.
SPEAKER_02: You can apply this to career, fame, relationships, hobbies, anything.
SPEAKER_02: If it's going to steal your heart, get rid of it.
SPEAKER_02: This is what Jesus said.
SPEAKER_02: This is crazy.
SPEAKER_02: He said, How difficult will it be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God?
SPEAKER_02: He says it in Mark, he says it in Matthew, and he says it in Luke.
SPEAKER_02: Must be kind of important if all three of those decided to write it down.
SPEAKER_02: And if you look at this verse, if you look at this, here's something interesting.
SPEAKER_02: Just juxtapose it.
SPEAKER_02: He didn't say this about anything else.
SPEAKER_02: He didn't say, How hard will it be for the sexually immoral to enter the kingdom of heaven?
SPEAKER_02: He didn't say, How hard will it be for angry people to enter the kingdom of heaven?
SPEAKER_02: He didn't say, how hard will it be for people who are deceptive, who lie, to enter the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_02: He said, How hard will it be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of heaven?
SPEAKER_02: Because it's going to try to steal the throne of your heart.
SPEAKER_02: And there's only one person that gets to sit on that.
SPEAKER_02: It's Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: So how should we relate to money?
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to try to land the plane here.
SPEAKER_02: Hopefully you guys agree that money is after your heart.
SPEAKER_02: And that's the big idea.
SPEAKER_02: The other big idea that's at least implied from what I've been saying, I think you guys probably know this, but God is smarter than you.
SPEAKER_02: And me.
SPEAKER_02: He's smarter than all of us.
SPEAKER_02: And letting him dictate how to handle money isn't just something we do because he's got rules and he tells us to do it.
SPEAKER_02: We do it because it's wise.
SPEAKER_02: If he's smarter than me and he's telling me how to do something, I should probably do it.
SPEAKER_02: If I had an engineer telling me how to build something, I'm like, nah, I think I'm gonna do it my own way.
SPEAKER_02: That would be dumb.
SPEAKER_02: So I don't want us to be dumb when it comes to dealing with money.
SPEAKER_02: We should use it in a way that honors God without allowing it to steal our hearts.
SPEAKER_02: Like technology.
SPEAKER_02: We don't work for technology, we let technology work for us.
SPEAKER_02: And for money, we don't work for money, but we let money work for us.
SPEAKER_02: It reminds me of a uh a quick story.
SPEAKER_02: So there's a bunch of guys at the gym, they're all working out, and super loud, lots of stuff going on, and one of their phones rings.
SPEAKER_02: And so dude picks it up, he's like, Hello.
SPEAKER_02: Hey baby, um so I'm at the jewelry store, it's loud.
SPEAKER_02: Can I can't hear you?
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Sorry, we're at the gym.
SPEAKER_02: What what what do you need?
SPEAKER_02: I'm at the jewelry store, and you know how much I really, really wanted this necklace, and and I really want to buy it.
SPEAKER_02: Would it be okay if I got it?
SPEAKER_02: Okay, how much is it?
SPEAKER_02: $3,000.
SPEAKER_02: Oh,$3,000.
SPEAKER_02: He looks around, the guys are like, what?
SPEAKER_02: You know what?
SPEAKER_02: You go ahead and treat yourself, honey.
SPEAKER_02: Buy that.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, while you're at it, why don't you go ahead and get some matching earrings too?
SPEAKER_02: And the wife's like, What?
SPEAKER_02: Oh, this is good.
SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna double down.
SPEAKER_02: Well, hey, um, thank you, babe.
SPEAKER_02: I love you so much.
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, um, I was driving by the dealership and there's that Cadillac, that new version of Escalade that I saw, and I really, really, really have been wanting it.
SPEAKER_02: There's only one left, and I saw it's on sale.
SPEAKER_02: It's only$90,000.
SPEAKER_02: Do you think maybe, like, maybe I could go by and talk to them and get that?
SPEAKER_02: You know what?
SPEAKER_02: Anything for you, baby.
SPEAKER_02: $90,000 is not too much.
SPEAKER_02: And the guy's like, what?
SPEAKER_02: And then she said, she's like, one more thing, one more thing.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, okay, one more thing, babe.
SPEAKER_02: You know, my mom has really been having a hard time and she really wants to move in with us.
SPEAKER_02: Um, do you think maybe like she could come and stay with us for a month and then we'll see what happens after that?
SPEAKER_02: Listen, don't ask me anything else, but okay.
SPEAKER_02: Call your mom.
SPEAKER_02: I love you, baby.
SPEAKER_02: I love you too.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, you're the best.
SPEAKER_02: I I I love you.
SPEAKER_02: Bye.
SPEAKER_02: The guys are like, what in the world?
SPEAKER_02: He's like, I know.
SPEAKER_02: Anybody know whose phone this is?
SPEAKER_02: So here's the truth.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the truth behind that story.
SPEAKER_02: It is super easy to be generous with stuff that's not yours, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02: It's so easy.
SPEAKER_01: It's why politicians have such an easy time spending all our money, right?
SPEAKER_01: It ain't theirs.
SPEAKER_01: They just spend it.
SPEAKER_01: Spend it, spend it, spend it.
SPEAKER_02: And this is the biblical truth behind that.
SPEAKER_02: We manage money as stewards, not owners.
SPEAKER_02: We're a steward.
SPEAKER_02: We're not an owner.
SPEAKER_02: We don't own the money.
SPEAKER_02: And a steward, it's not a word we use.
SPEAKER_02: A steward is just uh uh someone who oversees the management of another person's affairs.
SPEAKER_02: That's all it is.
SPEAKER_02: And again, we probably don't use that language very much.
SPEAKER_02: Think about it this way: a steward is like a babysitter or a nanny.
SPEAKER_02: When you drop your kids off with somebody else, when they come over to your house, they're stewarding your children while you're away.
SPEAKER_02: And hopefully they're doing it with love and concern, and they're doing it very, very well.
SPEAKER_02: If they do it poorly, what are you gonna do?
SPEAKER_02: You can't watch my kids anymore, right?
SPEAKER_02: If they do it well, what are you gonna do?
SPEAKER_02: You're probably gonna use them more, right?
SPEAKER_02: Like you test out babysitters before you give them more responsibility or more opportunity.
SPEAKER_02: We did that.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, we had six kids, we had a lot of babysitters.
SPEAKER_02: But that that's what you do.
SPEAKER_02: You you kind of test it.
SPEAKER_02: And if the steward of your kids, think about this, if the nanny started to say, Well, I told them they could or couldn't do this, and it was not consistent with what you wanted, what would you do?
SPEAKER_02: I would fire them.
SPEAKER_02: When it comes to your finances, you are a steward, you're a nanny.
SPEAKER_02: God is the owner.
SPEAKER_02: And and everything comes from him.
SPEAKER_02: So just just a just a few principles as it relates to stewardship here.
SPEAKER_02: And I got a couple verses we're gonna skip over them in the back, so just follow with me.
SPEAKER_02: Biblical stewardship, there's an understanding of at least three things.
SPEAKER_02: Number one, God is the owner of everything.
SPEAKER_02: He owns it all.
SPEAKER_02: This wasn't my earth, I didn't make it.
SPEAKER_02: This ain't my school, I didn't build it.
SPEAKER_02: These ain't my clothes, I might have paid for them, but I didn't make them.
SPEAKER_02: God owns everything.
SPEAKER_02: All of it.
SPEAKER_02: It's it's his.
SPEAKER_02: Number two, everything that we have has been given to us by him.
SPEAKER_02: Like there's nothing that we have that we got all on our own.
SPEAKER_02: And this is where a lot of people will push back to be like, no, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_02: I earned that.
SPEAKER_02: I worked hard.
SPEAKER_02: I I put myself through school, I got the degree, I I did, I did all the the long hours.
SPEAKER_02: Um, man, I I fought for that contract that we won.
SPEAKER_02: I I I sat through training, I suffered under some terrible bosses, I saved and saved and saved, and then was finally able to buy that house?
SPEAKER_02: Like I earned that.
SPEAKER_02: I would ask you, who gave you the health to be able to get up every day and go to work?
SPEAKER_02: Who gave you the intellect to be able to study in such a way that you could learn what was necessary to do that job?
SPEAKER_02: Who gave you the drive and the perseverance to be able to push through some challenging situations?
SPEAKER_02: It wasn't you.
SPEAKER_02: You're not that good.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not either.
SPEAKER_02: It all comes from God.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, he he mentions this, the Lord does, um, when he's talking to the Hebrew people, because they were slaves and they were getting ready to go in to take the promised land, and he warned them.
SPEAKER_02: Because especially people that have rags to riches stories, they they take ownership and like I did this.
SPEAKER_02: And God knew the Hebrew people would suffer the same potential emotional and thought disaster.
SPEAKER_02: And so he warned them.
SPEAKER_02: He said, When you go into this new land that I'm that I am giving you, it's gonna be good, it's gonna be prosperous, milk, honey, you're gonna have peace, it's gonna be so cool.
SPEAKER_02: Be very careful that you don't say, I did this all on my own.
SPEAKER_02: And then he puts an exclamation point on it, Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 18.
SPEAKER_02: He says, But remember the Lord your God, for it's he who gives you the ability to produce wealth and the tax on and get gain.
SPEAKER_02: God's the one that gives any of us the ability to do that, it all comes from him.
SPEAKER_02: Third thing we need to know about stewardship the resources God has given us are assets to be invested into his kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: Again, so my kids, if I'm if I'm letting you shepherd my kids, it's because I'm raising them in a certain way and I want to send them out to do things.
SPEAKER_02: This is God's planet, it's his universe.
SPEAKER_02: And so he's giving you things to advance his kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: And that means a lot of different things.
SPEAKER_02: It means it means trying to be wise with your money and provide stability for your family.
SPEAKER_02: It means being generous, it means investing in in good things, it means not spending money on frivolous things.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna talk about all those, we're gonna get super, super, super practical.
SPEAKER_02: And what I want you to understand is if you are faithful with whatever he's given you, little or much, he will trust you with more.
SPEAKER_02: He will.
SPEAKER_02: Luke chapter 16, this is what this is what he says.
SPEAKER_02: One who is faithful in a very, and maybe you have very little, is also faithful in much.
SPEAKER_02: One who's dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.
SPEAKER_02: If you then have not been faithful in unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?
SPEAKER_02: If I let you watch watch my dog and you didn't do a good job with it, I'm not gonna trust you with my kids.
SPEAKER_02: Not gonna do that.
SPEAKER_02: And if you've not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?
SPEAKER_02: Be faithful in a little bit and you're gonna be given more.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm not trying to stoke an attitude of greed in you.
SPEAKER_02: Don't don't fall into that trap of being like, okay, so I'm gonna give to get, or I'm gonna, I'm gonna do well to get.
SPEAKER_02: Like that that's not the point.
SPEAKER_02: The point is to unthrown, to dethrone money from the place in your heart and put God there.
SPEAKER_02: Just be like, hey, you're in charge.
SPEAKER_02: I just do what you say.
SPEAKER_02: That's how I'm gonna, that's how I'm gonna spend all my money from now on.
SPEAKER_02: God, He is the owner of everything.
SPEAKER_02: And when we live our lives that way, when we when we understand that we follow this principle of stewardship, it's gonna position you to do amazing things in the kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: It's gonna give you liberty in a way that you have never had it.
SPEAKER_02: Many of you have have financial stress right now that is pressing on you.
SPEAKER_02: One of the biggest problems in marriages is arguments over finance.
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't matter if you're you're brand new, it doesn't matter if you're marine online at one of our micro sites, if you're out in Omaha, it doesn't matter where you are, if you're young or old, money is something every single one of us use every single day.
SPEAKER_02: And so understanding how to manage it is important.
SPEAKER_02: And the Bible has some really, really good answers.
SPEAKER_02: So come back next week.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna get super practical.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna give you some really healthy ways that you can start to manage your money.
SPEAKER_02: We we're gonna talk about this for a couple more weeks.
SPEAKER_02: So if you're a guest, we don't talk about money every week, but we're gonna talk about it for three weeks.
SPEAKER_02: Alright?
SPEAKER_02: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_02: Let's bow our heads.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, God, we thank you that you own it all, Lord.
SPEAKER_02: We are merely stewards.
SPEAKER_02: And Father, uh, I pray that you would give us a heart of a steward.
SPEAKER_02: And you would help us to eliminate any sort of an attitude of ownership, God, over the things that you've trusted us with, God.
SPEAKER_02: May we move from being financially strapped to financially free, God.
SPEAKER_02: I pray this series, Lord, that you plant some seeds in some people's hearts, that you shift some thinking, God.
SPEAKER_02: Even right now, Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Set yourself up as the king of our heart.
SPEAKER_02: Just like we worship today, God.
SPEAKER_02: You alone are worthy.
SPEAKER_02: You alone are worthy, God.
SPEAKER_02: It's why we worship you when we have little, it's why we worship you when we have a lot.
SPEAKER_02: You always deserve all the all the all the praise, God.
SPEAKER_02: And so we give you glory today.
SPEAKER_02: We worship you today.
SPEAKER_02: And everybody said, Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, the worship team's gonna lead us for a little bit.
SPEAKER_02: If you want to stick around and praise, you can.
SPEAKER_02: If you need prayer, come down front.
SPEAKER_02: There'll be people down here to pray for you.
SPEAKER_02: Don't leave if you need prayer for something.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Mana Church Stafford Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: If you would like to connect with us, you can find us on the web at manastafford.church or download the Mana Church app to listen to our new episodes as they become available.
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SPEAKER_00: We would also love to meet you in person.
SPEAKER_00: If you are local, our services take place each Sunday at 10 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: We pray you have an amazing week and we'll see you next time.