The Danger of Plenty - James 5:1-6

Money has a way of shrinking our world until all we can see is our comfort, our upgrades, and our “next” purchase. We start by flipping the script on who counts as rich, using a global wealth comparison that makes an uncomfortable point: a lot of us are doing far better than we think, and that reality comes with weight. 

We then open James 5 and take the warning seriously without turning it into a simplistic “money is bad” message. James targets the kind of wealth that hoards, self-indulges, and ignores real human need, and we connect that to modern life where luxury can look like normal routines: DoorDash, Amazon, financing everything, constant lifestyle creep, and even the quieter form of greed that hides behind obsessive saving. If money is a tool, it should serve love and mission. If money is a master, it will demand our trust, shape our identity, and dull our dependence on God. 

The turning point is the gospel. Jesus did not use his riches to stay distant from our need; he became poor for us, gave himself fully, and rose again. That changes the motive for Christian stewardship, generosity, and giving: we do not give to earn God’s love, we give because we already have it in Christ. From there we get practical with personal finance for Christians: budgeting, tracking spending, investing wisely, living below your means, and building habits that de-influence consumer culture. If this helped you, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s stressed about money, and leave a review with the most challenging takeaway you heard.

Transcript

Interactive Warmup On Wealth

SPEAKER_00 0:00

If you don't know me, my name is Gian. I have the privilege of leading and teaching here. And today we're gonna start off a little bit different. We're gonna do something a little bit interactive here. We've never done this. So I feel like that high school teacher who's trying something and I'm I'm praying that it works. Um, Kevin, can you can you pop that up for me? All right. If you could scan that QR code for me, we're gonna we're gonna scan it. This is but this is not Kahoot, by the way. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. The code is ED0P. But once you scan the QR code, it should be clear to see. I think you can see it now. Your phone should be able to pick it up. So the first question. Alright, yeah. So the first question is when you think of rich people, who comes to mind? Asians crazy. Who? We said who? Crazy rich Asian is crazy. Shake Paul. People who are ignorant with their wealth. Celebrities, Zach. Alright, guys, the question is wait, wait. You some of you are are Mr. Beast, okay. So the question, the questi I'm trying to be serious for a moment. The question is when you think of rich people, who, guys, who comes to mind? Guys, it's not done yet. Listen, if you just connected, now when you think about rich people, what words come to mind? And let's keep this PG. Alright, please. Alright, alright, alright. So you guys are seeing the words yourself. Alright, next one, one more. There's one more. What do you think rich people should do with their money? Give it to me is hilarious. Share it with others, mainly me. Venmo.com slash A B team is crazy. Alright. We got I think we got the general idea. So let's just, besides the give to me, which is hilarious. Most people do think, hey, alright, we should give our money away. So um I will uh Kevin, can you pull up that other website? We're

The Global Reality Of Rich

SPEAKER_00 2:15

done with uh the questions here. I know, I know, I know, guys. So minimum wage in Rhode Island is $15. It's $15. Imagine you worked 40 hours every single week at $15, and you did that by 52 weeks, you would have $31,200. And then you can hit calculate. So you're if you make minimum wage, meaning you're like a high school student or you know, right out like your part-time job, you're richer than 93% of people in the world, and you're you make eight times the global median income. Now say some of you, some of you are starting like your your first internship, your first job, you get paid more than $20 an hour, and say you make $50,000 a year. Let's just do $50,000 for fun. You're richer than 97% of the people in the world. All right, some of you, you finish college, you get the degree, you go, you become a corporate baddie, and all of a sudden now you're making 70 grand a year. Can we go? You're richer than 99.1% of people in the world. Then there's some of you who are the grinders. Some of the like y'all are doing DoorDash while working full time, and then you got a side hustle starting a job. Say $100,000. You're richer than 99% of people in the world. Now, this website isn't a Christian website, by the way. It it's calculating the average cost of goods and your salary. Um, but it's it's pretty crazy to see. You see, we've been so influenced to believe that the rich people are those that we saw on the first slide. While there were some funny ones, a lot of times people do think of the rich as those people who have a lot of money in Hollywood, celebrities. They think of Elon Musk, they think of Bill Gates. But the reality is when we compare how we live to the rest of the world around us, and even for most of human history, Americans live in unprecedented wealth. No one in this room is ever gonna go hungry. None of you will worry about clean water. Most of us drove here in cars, and most of the world doesn't have cars. Most of you have phones in your pocket that are worth worth more than $600, and you have money in your bank accounts. And this is the crazy thing, some of you make this kind of money, and you live at home and you don't pay rent, you don't pay a single expense, and so you just make all your money and it's your own. And so, for all

Naming Church Money Skepticism

SPEAKER_00 5:05

intensive purposes, we're rich. And for the last few weeks, we've been in the book of James, and we're nearing the end. We're in the last chapter, and we come to these six first verses in chapter five, and they're intense verses. And it has to do with us and our relationship with money. In fact, the warning starts off with, listen now, o you rich. And so as we read through this, we can pretend that money is this morally neutral uh thing, but in reality it's not. Money has weight to it. Throughout the entire Bible, money has this potency, this spiritual type of lure that if we're not careful, it will enslave us, draw us away from God, and then ultimately consume us. And we see this throughout the whole narrative of the scriptures. It's only when we rightly understand money and ourselves that we can begin to use it well and be guarded. And so that's what we're gonna talk about today. Everyone's favorite topic. We're gonna talk about money. And so, right off the rip, I want to acknowledge something because um, if we don't name it, it may linger in the back of our minds and it's gonna distract us. I know some of you are brand new to church. It is your first time coming, but you grew up in New England, and so in New England, many of us grew up Catholic or around Catholic culture, and we are aware that there has been scandals in the Catholic Church regarding money, abuse, power, and a long list of other things. And while we are not Catholic, I understand why some of you might feel skeptical when anyone talks about money in the name of Jesus. And this isn't just a Catholic issue, this is also a Protestant issue. Online, you'll see people who who promise you, if you give them money that they will cover your mortgage, that you will be healed. They make all these promises in the name of God to get money and extort money out of people, and that's wrong. That's wrong. We also see pastors who who live in opulence, who who drive uh in in, who have private jets, who drive really nice cars, wear really expensive clothes. And so this is not just a Catholic issue. This is this is this is also an issue that we see across the board. And so I I just want to say that there are people who have lied, manipulated, and stolen money in the church, and it is wrong. It is wrong. And so I understand your skepticism. In some ways, I even encourage it. We should care where money is going, we should care how leaders handle money, we should care when the name of Jesus is used to pressure, guilt, or extort people. But I want to be really clear don't use the failures of sinful people as an excuse to ignore what the Bible teaches. Because the Bible does have a lot to say about money. In fact, scripture speaks about money in all kinds of ways, it talks about wealth, it talks about generosity, it also talks about greed and possessions. And yet, ironically, we avoid talking about it in church because it feels taboo. It feels like one of those things we can't talk about. Outside of here, man, if someone tells you how to spend your money, you're happy. The minute you walk into a church and someone talks about money, all your sensors go off. You're like, something has to be wrong. And the church often will steer away from talking about it because of the long list of issues that we just talked about. And so they're scared of being caught up in that or being associated, so they'd sometimes steer away from it to be guarded. But it would be wrong for us to avoid something that Jesus talked about, that the Bible talks about so clearly. And so tonight we're gonna talk about money candidly, not because we want something from you, but because God has laid out something for us in the Word, in His Bible. And I just want to be clear, I just want you to know there's there's not gonna be an offering basket at the end of this, there's not gonna be a QR code you scan. I I just want you to really understand what the Bible has to say about money, specifically in this passage of James. And so we're gonna be honest, we're gonna be practical, we're gonna, we're gonna dig into what the text says, but I just want you to really just as we we think about the things we just saw on those first three slides, let those linger. I know there was funny for for some moments, but there is this reality that we are rich, and so there's a weight and a responsibility. Uh Uncle Uncle Ben, Spider-Man's uncle, right, said it best with great power comes great responsibility. And so we're gonna bear that today. And so we're gonna pray, we're gonna ask God to do something that we can't. And so, Father, Lord, we just thank you. Right now, I I I want I I want to ask that that you would just soften our hearts to hear about your word. Lord, this is this is a message that you have prepared and put forth in your word, and it's important that we hear. So, Lord, give us ears to listen. Give us eyes to see. Change us from the inside out.

James 5 And The Warning

SPEAKER_00 10:15

Father, do what only you can hear tonight. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. So, if you have your Bibles, we're gonna continue on in James, and we're gonna be starting off in James chapter 5, verse 1. Give you a moment. It's really warm up here, by the way, guys. Um, if I have to stop and take water, forgive me. Um, yeah, we'll start right here. James 5, 1. Now listen, you rich people. Weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. That's really intense. So, what's happening here? We're gonna stop for a moment. Who is James addressing? And this is important that we we really say because I know we preface and we talked about rich people and how we're the rich people. But this scripture is not just a blank statement that all rich people are bad. That is, that wealth is inherently bad. That would contradict so much of scripture. So when we read the Bible, we have to make sure that we are reading it in the context that they would. And so there are there are people in the Bible who had wealth and were faithful to God, so clearly God wouldn't be talking about them. But at the same time, in this time, there was people who had lots and lots of money. And we're and we're uh like essentially defrauding their workers. And so we have to be careful when we think, all right, this is the qualifier, this is talking about rich people who defraud workers. Oh, clearly that's not me because first you might say the excuse is I'm not rich. Well, clearly we went through that that that calculator, and it's clear that we have a lot, that we are rich in the sense of monetarily. Now, the question we have to ask as we go through the text, is this speaking about us? We have to we have to slow down, we have to see, all right, is is am I this rich person that James is talking about? You can't just put it off to the side because you don't meet the qualification right off the rip. And so let's keep going here. James continues, your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes, your gold and silver are corroded, their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Now, if you've ever read the Bible before or you read through the Gospels, you'll start to see something familiar here. This is an allusion to Jesus' word in the Gospels, and I I wonder if some of you recognize it, because in Matthew 6, 19 to 20, it says, Do not store up for yourself. This is Jesus speaking, by the way. Do not store up for yourself treasures on earth where moths and vermin destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourself treasures in heaven where moths and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. And so James is showing us the judgment side of Jesus' warning. Jesus first gives us the warning in the gospel, and now James is pronouncing judgment on those who did not heed that warning. Jesus warned, do not store up for yourself treasures on earth, because of the treasure of this world does not last. He says, Moths eat it, rust destroys it, thieves steal it. And James is saying, This is what happened. You chose that which does not last. You depended on it, you made it the aim of your life, and now it has come to nothing. That last line says, You have hoarded wealth in the last days. And Jesus' line right after in verse 21 says, For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. You see, James is not just saying you had wealth, he is saying your wealth revealed your heart. You chose what you would depend on, you chose what would make you feel secure, and yet on that day it will come to nothing. And not only that, but the amount of earthly treasure you stored up now serves as kindling, as evidence against you. We're like the little kid, if you've ever been around little kids, if you you try not to give them dessert and you you leave the room and you say, Don't eat it, and they'll what will they what they're gonna do is they're gonna eat it, and then they'll be like, No, I didn't eat it, and what do they have? They have frosting all over their face. We're like the little chubby kid with frosting all over our face, saying, No, we're not rich. We're not. But the evidence is right there, and this verse is saying all the stuff that you have, everything that you have that's sitting at home, that's rotting and being wasted away, that this serves as evidence against you. It rots because it sits, and worse off, it's sitting during the last days. Last week we talked about what if tomorrow is not promised?

unknown 14:58

Right?

SPEAKER_00 14:59

We should say, as the Lord wills, but if tomorrow's not promised, if the Lord could come back or it could be our last day, and we're letting stuff waste away, when we should be using it for the kingdom. We think about the parable of the rich fool where the dude builds storehouses and he says, I have done everything I need, I'm gonna store all my stuff away. And the Lord says, You fool, today your life has been asked of you. And so the issue is not that they had wealth, the issue is that they depended on it. And this is the danger of the time and the place where we live. We slowly start to depend more and more and more and more on what we have than in God. And it's subtle. Like if you're hungry, what do you do? You go to the pantry, you go to the fridge, and if there's nothing there, you grab your keys or you go, or maybe you're a little bit more bougie and you just order something on DoorDash. Right? If we get sick, what do we do? We go and buy medicine. We got the sniffles, we got a headache, what do we do? We pop some Tylenol, some ibuprofen, our body hurts. If we need clothes, we go to the dresser and there's nothing in the dresser, then we go to the closet that's also full of clothes. And if there, if there's nothing there that we find, what do we do? We go online and we order some more. If it's hot, we turn on the AC. If it's cold, we turn on the heat. If we're bored, if we're lonely, if we're anxious, we pull out our phones and we scroll and we scroll and we buy something sometimes. You know, we go on Amazon, we window shop. We've all been there. And here's the thing slowly but surely, like a frog being boiled, our sense of dependence is dulled more and more. And that's the scary thing that medicine, food, clothes, technology, convenience, these are all good things. These are really good things. They're gifts from God, and yet such is that the human condition, our sinful hearts, that we start to depend on the gift more than the giver. And so James continues, he says, Look, the wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty, warrior God. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence, you have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter, you have condemned and murdered the innocent one who was not opposing you.

Hoarding Exposes The Heart

SPEAKER_00 17:21

Now, I am not aware of anyone in this room who has workers in a field and are depriving them of pay. Most of you don't have I don't think anyone in this room has workers in general. There might be one or two. And even if you did, we have laws against this kind of stuff, right? So it'd be really easy to just move past this and say, Well, there's nothing for me here. But when we're reading, we're reading the text and we're in the context, what is it trying to say? Like what is what is the text getting at beyond the very literal meaning? Because the very literal meaning is important and in the context of that time, but sometimes we we have to we can't just move past it. We have to see if there's something there. And we are not making it up, but we're we have to analyze the text. And so the text is saying this you who have had much had a responsibility to help the one who needs, and you did not. Instead, you lived in luxury and self-indulgence, and God the warrior has heard their cries and will bring about justice. And now that seems a bit harsh because you're like me, and you say, I don't live in luxury. Have you seen my car? It is falling apart. I haven't robbed anyone of what they're due. This cannot be about me. And so in the beginning, I said I'm going to be candid. And I know there's a good chunk of you who really think this isn't you. And so we're gonna deal with some of the pushback I can imagine hearing from some of the people in this room. The first one is I don't live in luxury. Now, this one I get. Because it's really easy, as we mentioned earlier, to look on TikTok, to go on Instagram with and see the person with the really big house, the nice car, the picture perfect, everything, and think, well, that's luxury. That's luxury. That's the death. What the people in Hollywood did, that has to be luxury. And clearly I don't have that, so I'm not living in luxury. But like I said, this is a subtle thing. The co the goalpost has moved so much that even in luxury, even as we live in this luxurious life, we are convinced that we are not in it. And yet I think most of us do live in it, and so I'm gonna out myself as I'm about to out you. I'm gonna I'm just gonna be just direct. How many of you in the past week have door-dashed something or eaten out by a show of hands? Okay, how many of you woke up and said, Man, I did not sleep that well last night? I'm gonna go buy a $7 coffee. Or got bright, or or or or for that what if what if you're not a coffee person and you said, I'm gonna wake up, I'm gonna get an energy drink today? Alright, more hands. Let's go, let's go. How many of you have ordered or received something from Amazon in the past week? Okay, how many of you have a car in Amazon that's so full that everything just keeps moving to save for later? Okay, we got more people. How many of you pay for multiple streaming subscriptions? How many of you have gone to Target just because you were bored and wanted something? Okay, you see? Are you are you seeing the pattern? We say we don't live in luxury, but friends, we do. We spend so much unnecessarily, and some of you don't even hide it, uh hide it. It's like LARPing, you know what LARPing is? LARPing is really a perfect way to describe how we live. We see something online and we're constantly trying to keep up and fit in, even when we can't afford it. You wear the expensive brand clothes, you buy the newest tech, like a new iPhone comes out and you say, I gotta get it. You spend hundreds on makeup drops, you spend hundreds on cologne, you spend money on video games and things you do not need. Some of you, you're like, I can't, I have to shop at Whole Foods, only Whole Foods. You finance the car, you finance, you finance, you finance, you get thing after thing. You're convinced that you need this and this and this and that. And we've become so focused on living comfortably, on living especially Aesthetically on living cutesy and demure or portraying success that we've missed the point of life. And Jesus says in Luke 12, 15, he says, and he said to them, it's almost as if he knew, he said to them, Take care and be on your guard against all covetousness. For one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. Do you see how our culture at its very core goes against this? Our culture says accumulation, wealth, things. That's where life is found. And that's the lie of money. And I listen, friends, it's not fair. You have billion-dollar companies. The whole our whole economy is based on consumption. And so we grow up in it. We're so like the frog boiling in water. We're so accustomed to it that we don't even notice it. How many people in here have I seen that they they finance a car and because that's what their parents told them to do, and that's what their their parents did, and their parents' parents? It's just become a normal thing to live above your means. But not all of you are like this. Some of you don't spend a lot. Some of you count every dollar, you live very minimally, you're really good at saving, and you do the responsible thing. In the words of the internet, you are locked in. You invest, you take care of the things you have, and this is great. This is awesome. I want to commend you on that. And yet, I want to say there is a danger in this as well. If you're not careful, because this is what starts to happen. You start to check your bank account

Luxury Feels Normal Now

SPEAKER_00 23:40

regularly, you start to check your investments account, your 401ks, your HSA, and they give you this sort of comfort. That number gives you a sort of peace. And so you you value your money and you're probably like, I earned this though. I worked hard for this. And because of that, sometimes you become reluctant to share or to be generous with it because you think if I could make money and handle it, why couldn't they? They must be stupid. There must be something wrong, or they just clearly aren't thinking because I clearly was able to do it, so why can't they? Or another excuse I hear is well, you know, once I have more money, right? This is the one that most most guys say, once I have more money, then I will be generous. I just need to get my my eggs in a row, and and then I will be generous. And while that sounds really, really admirable, people who say that rarely do become generous later. Because why would you give then if you don't give now? If you don't give in your little, why would you give in your much? You see, the love of money comes at us in different ways. For some it looks flashy, and for others it's silent. And yet, in the context of the verse, it's the same root. We know that there is a real need in this world, and we could, if we wanted to, make a difference, so why don't we help? Why don't we sacrifice? And it's because we're not as free from the love of money as we think we are. You see, for some of us, money is how we prove we matter, so we spend it to look successful, to feel included, to keep up, to be noticed. For others, money is how we feel safe, it gives us security, so we hold it tightly, we save obsessively, we check our accounts constantly, and generosity starts to feel like a threat because deep down you're putting your hope in money. And James is pressing on both. He says, whether you waste it to feel alive or you hoard it to feel safe, money has your heart. And the scary part is we can call both of these things wisdom. If you spend all your money, you call that enjoying life. And if you save all your money and you hoard it and you're stingy, it's called being responsible. And while you complete the needs that God has put right in front of us, and this is where James starts to cut really deep because the issue is not simply did you steal from someone? The issue is did you have more than you need while someone else didn't have enough and you still decided to choose yourself. And that's what James is confronting a life that says, as long as I'm comfortable, as long as I'm entertained, as long as my future feels secure, I don't really have to think about the person in need. And our God says, I hear them. He says, James says, the Lord Almighty, the warrior God. Your translation might say the Lord of Sabaoth, uh, B-A-O. It's not the same thing as the Lord of the Sabbath. It the Lord of Sabaoth means the warrior God. James says, the Lord Almighty, the warrior God hears the cries of the vulnerable and he's going to bring justice. So, no, you may not have a worker, uh, workers in the field. You may not be withholding someone's paycheck, but the question is still there. Are we using what God has given us to love people and make him known, or are we using it to insulate ourselves from needing God and seeing others? You see, James is talking about the reality that all the early church understood that Jesus is coming back and he's coming back to judge. My dude's coming in with tatted up on the thigh with a sword of fire, and he's going to judge. He's not coming to play games. And if Jesus is coming back, we have to meet view our money in that reality, in light of that reality. Jesus said in in Matthew, in that same passage, in verse 24, he said, No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. And for those of you who are new, learning, curious, or maybe you've just forgotten, why does this even matter? Who cares what we do with our money? You see, if there is no God, if you're in here and you believe there is no God, then it doesn't matter at all. Use your money however you like, as you well please, drink and be merry. If there is no God. If there is a God, but He's that kind of universe, the God is just the universe or karma, or getting it, it still doesn't really matter. Because you don't have to use your money. You could just be kind of a good person. That's kind of vague. Everyone has a different definition of what a good person is. So it doesn't, it still doesn't really matter. You can't stand on anything. But if the God of the universe, Jesus Christ, if that's our God, if that's who he is, then everything changes. Because Jesus is the God who, though he had all the riches, though he lived in the heavens, he didn't cling to it. He did not use his glory to separate himself from us. He did not look at our poverty, our sin, our need, our helplessness, and say that's their problem. No, what did he do? In his riches, he came down, and for your sake he became poor. He left heaven, he took on flesh, he made himself like us, and he lived a life that we could not live. He obeyed where we failed, and he loved where we were selfish. He gave where we held back, and then he went to the cross and took on himself the punishment of our sins. For every time you've been greedy, selfish, lied, been angry, gossiped about someone behind their back. For every time you clicked on that video, for every bad thing that you can imagine that you've done that you know you've done, he took that punishment on the cross. And this isn't this is important because at the cross, Jesus didn't just give us an example of generosity. It wasn't just an example, he gave everything. He didn't give some of it and be like, look, I'm covering some of their sins. No. He gave all of himself for you and me. He took what we deserved so that we could receive what only he deserved. He took our sin and he gave us righteousness, he took our death and he gave us life, he took our shame, and he gave us sonship and he took our poverty before God and gave us the riches of his grace. And then this is the crazy part, this is the clincher right here. He rose again. He proved that sin is paid for and death is defeated. And this is not metaphorical. This is not like, oh, like he, you know, he raised again and like kind of in bit. No, he literally raised from the dead. The tomb was empty. And because of that, sin is paid for, death is defeated, and anyone who trusts in him is forgiven, they're made new, and they're brought into the family of God, they're adopted. And so when we talk about money, we're not talking about how to earn God's love. We're not talking about how to prove we're good people, we're not talking about a religious checklist where God says, give enough, serve enough, sacrifice enough, and then maybe I'll accept you. No, the gospel says the opposite. The gospel says you are accepted because Christ gave himself for you, he gave everything for you, and you are loved because Christ loved you first. While we were still yet enemies of God, God loved us. And so now we give not to get God, but because in Christ we already have Him. We give because He gave, we serve because He served. We sacrifice because He sacrificed, we love because He loves. If Christ is now our treasure, then our money becomes simply a tool. For the first time in our life, money can actually become what it's supposed to be and always has been a tool. Not an idol, not a master, not a savior, a tool, a tool to love people, a tool to meet needs, a tool to bless the poor, a tool to support the work of the gospel, a tool to show that the world, that our hope is not in what we have, but in the one who gave himself for us.

The Gospel Changes Why We Give

SPEAKER_00 32:05

We can finally see money rightly. And this is really important because I'm gonna move into the next part of the message here, and it's gonna be really practical. And and here's what I don't want. I don't like it happens every single week without fail. The gospel is completely ignored, and someone goes to the back and is simply talking about all the things that they have to do, and they have no idea what the gospel is. If you have no idea what the gospel is, please, this next part you can tune out, just chew on what I just said. Because this this next part is helpful, it's for sure, it'll help all of you, but it's not the aim. The aim is not just to be a better moral person, the aim is to know Christ and to be known by him, and that's only through the cross, and that's only through faith. There's nothing that we can do for that, and so we're gonna get real practical now. All right. So, how do we use our money practically? First, we need to recognize that we're stewards. So, what does that mean? It means that the money that we've been given is not ours. The money that we are given is borrowed to be used and to be managed. And so, when we think of money that way, when we think of money as something that has been given to us by God to manage, then we have to start to recognize that all our resources, not just money, all our resources and our opportunities have been given us to what purpose? Why has God given us money? Why has God given you talents? Why has God given you the job that you have? Why has God given you what you have, who you are? Why did he do that? He's done it to make much of him wherever you are, to advance the gospel. Whether that's in your workplace or in your home or in your family, some of you are gonna make crap tons of money. You're gonna make money, money, money. And you have been privileged and given something to steward, and some of you have been made really, really talented and really, really smart. And those are also gifts to use for the kingdom, and there's a range of everything in between. So everything is to be used to steward, not to own. And so the way we steward our money is first understanding what's coming in and what's going out. This is really simple. This is, I'm an accountant, this is what we do. We we track money where it's coming in. So your paychecks coming in, how much do you make, how much do you make regularly, and what are you spending it on? So there's some practical apps. There's like apps like Rocket Money, there's apps like Every Dollar, there's apps to budget. You should have a budget, you should uh understand how much money is coming in and how much money is going out, and you should be able to keep track of this. That's what a good steward does. Secondly, a good steward makes it grow. So now we're gonna borrow from some of our finance for those who are locked in. You should look on how to invest. And I'm not talking about crazy investments and investing in individual stocks. I'm talking about something like a regular ETF. If you have 401k match at your work, max that out. If you have an HSA FSA, max that out. If you have a Roth IRA, max that out. Your money should be growing. Your money should be used to save and grow. So that's one way. So one way is to know what's coming in and out. Once you know what's coming in and out, you're making sure that your money is being used and working to grow. So that why, for what reason? Again, all of it is under this umbrella of making Jesus known and knowing him deeper. And so, next one is you spend intentionally. Once you're you know what's coming in and out, and you know you have your money being saved, and now you have spending money, you have to be intentional on what you spend on. You have to think about it. If eternity is at hand and people's souls are at stake, maybe you don't need a sweet treat every other day. Maybe you don't need five things of $200 colognes. Maybe you don't need to go on DoorDash and pay the extra fee when the place is five minutes down the street. Maybe you drive. You know, or maybe you eat in. There, there's different ways, but you got to start to think uh how do I spend intentionally? And this is the last one is you need to work hard. Guys, I don't know if you understand this. You can say all you want about the United States of America, but this is really a place where you make an unprecedented amount of monies. I just showed you how much the minimum wage worker makes compared to the rest of the world, and it's crazy. And so something that I learned growing up is I was around a bunch of immigrants, illegal immigrants. You know what they did? They worked hard. They worked really hard. You know for what purpose they worked hard? To to be able to simply meet their needs and then to send money back. They worked for the sake of helping others. They lived below their means, and I think this is like some of you guys, like you need grit. You need grit. I love you, but you need grit. What is the what is helpful about you going to five Bible studies in a week and you're broke? I love you, but you have the you have to consider and be a good steward of the opportunity that you have. And some of you say, but like, yeah, like but you know, I'm trying to no work. You've been given the privilege. Don't neglect, you know, the gathering, don't like neglect life group, don't neglect the important things. But at a certain point, you have to work, not just for yourself, but for the sake of others. In Ephesians 4 28, it says, let the thief, right? This is talking about someone who has come from stealing, but the principle stands, let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, right, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Guys, you're not gonna be 20 your whole life. Your bodies are are not gonna last. And right now, I I I want to speak specifically to men. You have the capacity to work really hard, and a lot of you choose pleasure. And if I could go back in time, and I'm speaking to myself, if I could go back in time and work harder, I would have. Not at the sake of my of our spiritual lives, but understand that a lot of you can work harder. Video games at night, like you you could be working. Uh just uh uh unordinate amount of Bible studies throughout the week, and you say, and then you go to life group and you say you're broke, that doesn't make sense. Go to work, find a job, work for a minimum wage if you have to. It's not about you. Your body is not your own. You were purchased at a price. That's what it says in 1 Corinthians. The Holy Spirit indwells in you, it gives you the power, the supernatural strength to work, work like work hard. And so now that we're

Stewardship Starts With A Budget

SPEAKER_00 39:10

working hard, we're we're managing our money well, what do we do? Now we we get to be generous, right? We get to be generous. So, what does that look like? Yes. If you need one, please contact Clug or and Ethan Piang, they will they will hook you up. Um so now, this is funny, that's hilarious. Um being generous. So a lot of times people talk about tides in church. Talk about, hey, it's commanded, it's in the old testament. First of all, tides, yes, there is a tithe in the old testament, but the tithe is not everything. The tide was simply 10%, that was the baseline. In fact, in the old testament, if you added up all the tides and just and just the monetary giving, like the they they would give regularly in different festivals and different and in different years, it was like a whole thing. If you calculated the amount that they gave, they gave on average 23.3% of their income. That's 23.3%, and that's not even including the fact that they had things in place where they would you can't even count the cost, where they would leave food on the fields, they wouldn't go over it a second time, they wouldn't be efficient for the sake of the poor so that they could eat. And that was costing them profits, but they did it because God had commanded. And so the tithe is not something that we have to do. But we see the baseline of what's in the Old Testament, and we should consider what the New Testament says about giving. I'll give you the first one. It says we need to give cheerfully. This means that we need to give, not grumbling or complaining, like, man, I can't believe I have to give money. No, that should never be our attitude. We give again because we we were given so much, and so it should be from a place of joy. And if we're not at that place, we need to we need to sit with God and we need to take his command seriously. It says, hey, do not give with grumbling or complaining or compulsion, right? Some of you get really hyped up in a moment, you're like, I'm gonna give all my money. No, that's not it either. You you thoughtfully consider what it looks like to give, and you do that cheerfully. And then number two, which is gonna feel at odds at times, it says you give sacrificially. Sometimes giving is going to cost you. Like some of you are like, yeah, you know what? Sure, I'll throw a couple dollars in the basket, and that's not bad. But I think often we don't, we're like, yeah, just because I can do this cheerfully, and we don't think about giving sacrificially. Like there's people who have real needs. The gospel, there's billions. Now I'm not, I'm I'm I'm not exaggerating, there's billions of people who don't understand the gospel, and our money gets to be used in a way to spread that. And so you need to get understand giving sacrificially, and I I consider whether I should share this or not, but for the sake of I will, is like in my life, there have been I I've never really, I haven't struggled with maybe this side. I I'll I'm I'm gonna struggle with the next one that I'm gonna tell you guys, but I've never struggled with the the giving part. But there have been moments in my life where I'm like, man, if if I hadn't given, man, I could have, I could have done so much with that money. And all the every time I start listing off the things I could have done in those in those low moments, it's always selfish things. It's not things that I actually needed. I said, Oh, if I didn't give, maybe I could, I could drive a nicer car. Maybe if I didn't give, I could, I wouldn't have to be so cramped in our in our in our small apartment if I if I didn't give. But every single time I've done that, I'm just like, man, I'm so selfish. Because look what what what God has done, what that that which he has let me use. Like he's he's allowed me to to bless people and see fruit in their life. He's allowed me to do these things, he's allowed me to be generous. And the Bible says it's better to give than to receive. And there's moments where I'm just being honest with you, I don't always believe that. There are low moments, spiritually low moments, where I don't feel that. But I promise you guys, when you give sacrificially, it's always worth it. You're never gonna look back and regret it. In a low moment, you might you might think selfishly for a moment, but then it goes and you have joy again. Next is you give proportionally. As you start making more and more money, you don't go by a set dollar amount, but you consider a percentage. If you're married, you you if you just got married, some of you you know this. You sit down with your significant other and you say, All right, well, what percent do we want to give? What do we feel comfortable with? And no matter how much we make, we're gonna give that percentage. And so it's important that we do this before we get to that point. And you I'm just being transparent, you're younger, you can be way more generous. Cost you nothing. You live at home. Your meals are paid for. You don't know what it's like to pay utility bills. None of you have ever had to open up an R RI energy account. You don't know what any of that's like. Some of you do, but not all of you. And you have the capacity to give more than maybe the married person does. And yet often it's it's the opposite. You we when we're single, we live lavishly and we live for ourselves. And when we're married, we're like, man, I wish I could have given more. But we can't. We don't have the funds right now. And so you set a percentage and you move accordingly. And I don't know if you this is just a challenge, but in like when you do your 401k, if any of you know what that's like, um every year you have the opportunity to up it by a percentage. We often when we we think of getting more money, what do we do? We upgrade our lifestyle, we upgrade how much we save, we upgrade how much we invest, and a little, and we rarely think about how do we give more? And so we should always be thinking about that. And um, all right, now, and so what does that look like now that we we know what percentage we have? It we give monetarily, like we actually give. How do we do that? Who do we do that to? Like, first, and I'm just again, I said I'm gonna be really candid, I'm gonna be practical. It costs money for you guys to sit in here. The AC might not be working, but so as well, because it was fixed earlier, someone had to pay that. So every time you come here and you eat food and you drink water, someone paid for that. And if you've been coming here regularly, like someone is paying, whether you you you think about it or not, for you to be in that sea. For the electricity, for the water, for everything we do, someone is paying for that. Our pastors need to be paid. Don't worry, I'm not I'm not full-time staff. Our pastors need to be paid. And I'm not talking about just this church, like this church specifically. I'm talking about wherever your home church is, please give to them. If you go there Sunday after Sunday and you're not giving to them, that that doesn't add up. That that's the body you're a part of. You're not a guest, you're not an attender.

Work Hard So You Can Share

SPEAKER_00 46:11

You are part of the body. You you gotta get some skin in the game. And so that's the first place you give. You give to your local church. Secondarily, you give to missions. Now, that our church, the way we have it set up is we have missions, missions of the month, but there's also missions outside of that. Uh, Pac, uh, a few weeks ago we had um a missionary here from the Middle East. And he's literally going into places where it's illegal to be a Christian, where it's a danger to share it. And he's relying on the generosity of all of us, the church, to do what? To fund that. He has to pay for food, he has to pay for stay for his family, and he's not living in opulence, guys. He's he's he's in it. He's in it. And and what's really cool is one of the stories he told us is that because of the generosity of people in this place, in one of these places, they were able to establish a hospital and because of people's generosity, and by establishing that hospital, when war hit and they were trying to take all the all the all the Americans out, all the foreigners, when they took that guy out that set up the hospital, you know what they said? We we can't afford to lose him. We got to bring him back. And so they brought him back to keep the hospital, and that guy is sharing the gospel in that scenario. He's helping people, he's building a hospital, he's shaping their economy, and he's sharing the gospel. We get to partake in that when we when we give to missions. And there's plenty of good missions that we can give to. We can we can talk after if you want to give to that ministry in particular. There's also the International Justice Ministry, uh, which helps with sex trafficking and child trafficking around the world and child labor. There's so many organizations and missions that you can give to. The next one is your family and your community. Your family, for some of you, needs help financially. Now, it doesn't mean that that's a blank check and that you just give them everything at their beck and will, but rather that in a real time of need, you you are there to step up and provide. The Bible says that he who neglects his family is worse than an unbeliever. That we have a responsibility to share and be generous with the people who are are of our kin. And also, if you're in life group, your community. And if if you're f if your community member is going through a rough time, like you can give to them. It doesn't have to be grand, but you can give to them. And I I've I've always thought, like, man, like the church is really awesome because as I as I grow, if God blesses me with something, I get to lift other people up with me in my community. And I want to do that because I know their hearts, and I know that if I bring them up with me, they're going to give more too. Like it's it's a it's uh Pac uses the word all boats rise. Is that is that the right word in Pac? Similar enough, close enough. Um and so we get to do that. But here's the thing when we get if we give to our community or we give to our family, again, it really is not a blank check. We're talking about, hey, like sometimes people have really bad spending habits, and we hope that they're doing the first two, that they're being good

Cheerful Sacrificial Proportional Giving

SPEAKER_00 49:40

stewards, that that they are trying to be generous, and that uh again, like we're we're not trying to enable really bad habits. And so always be thoughtful and discerning about that, talk about that with with the people in your life groups. Um, but that's an important place. And the last one, this is this is my favorite way to do it, is you get creative. Have fun. Host people, like have people over and make them a dinner, make them food, like get creative, host a movie night, do like or or bless someone, but buy them a coffee, send them just a meal if they're going through a rough time. Uh, me and Michaela, we like to do this thing. We have a fun fund. And our fun fund is how can we bless people in a fun way? And and and how can how like that that's something that we like to do. We enjoy doing that. We like to think of like, oh man, how can we bless people in a really fun way? And sometimes it looks grand and sometimes it looks small. If you know me, I love grand, but that's that's me. That's that doesn't have to be you. And then the or a blessing fund, you know, whatever, whatever you want to call it, it's just a fund that you have readily available to help those in need. So that might look like the the homeless dude on the corner. And guys, there's no limitations on this. Like, I I when you realize that you can give and it's a fun thing, like some of you are like, Man, I see that homeless dude on the corner and I feel bad. Let me give him five dollars. Don't don't just give him five dollars. Why don't you go to the store, buy, get, get a backpack, get toothpaste, get towels, get go the whole nine yards, have fun, and share the gospel. Like, you get to have this is a fun thing. Um, if you're dreary about giving away your money, you don't understand the joy. It it really is like the funnest thing you could do giving away your money is is is it's there's nothing like it. There's there's nothing like it. It's it's so great. That's why people who are who aren't even Christians love philanthropy. Because the Bible's word does ring true. It is better to give and receive. I know I keep saying that, but it's so important that we understand that. And this is my last point is purposely live below your means. This one is is kind of straightforward, but like shop cheaper, you know. You don't need to get everything at Whole Foods. I get it, it's organic, I get it, you're crunchy. But man, you did like you're paying like two times the regular amount. For what? For for appearance? I get it. It's really nice when you go in, they got the sprays on the on the veggies, it feels fresh. It's an experience. Don't shop at Target, don't do grocery shopping at Target. That's a really bad idea. Like, look to save money, shop cheaper, and don't uber eat everything, don't door dash everything, don't eat out every single day. You we've been told it's so normal to do that. It's not normal, guys. It's it's only become normal in like the last five years. Before that, everyone ate at home. We all know that phrase that our parents used to say, There's food at home. Yeah, there is. So let's eat it. Let's let's use that. Secondly, own less stuff. Right? We we we have so much stuff. We have closets full, we have dressers full. We like, I don't know if this if this is just a me problem, but I have I have an overflow of laundry that's clean that I don't ever put away because my dresser and my closet are full. That's like a normal thing. We have so much stuff. We have stuff collecting dust, we have stuff that we can give away. That we, if you want to be more entrepreneurial, you can go on Deepop and Vintage and sell your old stuff. Like, but we don't need this much stuff. We don't need something from Amazon every single week. You know what's a really hard challenge? Try not spending money for one week on anything that's not necessary. Like literally buy your groceries and try not spending money for one week. See how that goes. I guarantee you, two days in you're gonna crack. You're gonna you're gonna convince yourself that you need something. We don't need this much stuff. And here's the cool thing: as you start to have less stuff, as you start to like get rid of stuff, you're gonna realize, oh, I actually don't need this much stuff. Stuff starts to lose its power. There's something really cool that happens when you when you when you clean and throw stuff away. You're like, oh, it's it's just things. I don't need this. There's not life in these, but we hold on because we think someday I'll use it. No, just get rid of it. Number three, buy you. Some of you, I know this is really easy because you're like thrifty and you're cool and you go to Sabres and you go through the whole whole thing. I get it. Well, some of you though, you like expensive stuff. You love really luxurious stuff. Like you go shopping at the place where you gotta spend like $90 on a shirt. You don't need to do that. I promise you, no one at work ever notices what you're wearing. You could wear you could wear the same thing two days in a row, and no one's gonna be like, I used to do this in high school, I'd be like, man, I can't wear the same same thing two days in a row because people are gonna notice. Here's a news flash no one cares. No one cares what you wear. You could wear a black shirt for

Live Below Your Means

SPEAKER_00 55:10

the rest of your life and jeans, and no one's gonna notice. I promise you. And the last one, and this and this was where we'll close, is de-influence yourself. I said earlier it's not fair because we're facing off against billions and billions of dollars trying to influence us, convince us that we need something. It's the very fabric of our economy, right? You you're literally sold a problem every single day on TikTok, on Instagram. TikTok shop doesn't make it any easier. Like it's it's crazy. Everything wants you to buy something, spend money here, spend money there. And so we have to de-influence ourselves. For some of you, it you gotta delete Amazon. You gotta delete, you gotta delete TikTok, Instagram for a while. You gotta delete DoorDash. You you gotta you gotta really consider, like, and again, this don't you don't have to do these things, but if you're a follower of Jesus, Jesus said um in Romans, Paul says, Um, do not be conformed to this world, but by the renewing of your mind through the word and his spirit, be made new. Let your mind be made new. Again, uh we're so allergic to like Christian pragmaticism. Like, we if I tell you something, you might be like, that's legalism, though. Do I really have to? We come the best lawyers. Listen, you don't have to do a single thing that I've said today. But if you want to live the life that Jesus has called us to, if you want to live that kind of radical life, it's not going to be easy. It's not going to be comfortable, it's not going to be convenient. Jesus said, if you if anyone wants to follow me, pick up your cross and die. I'm not saying the things here are easy, and you might have a million and one ways to justify around it, but I'm telling you, there's more at stake. Eternity is at stake for people here in the USA and around the entire world. And so we're gonna just pray. We're gonna close out. If you have any questions, if you want to talk through some of these things, I'm here. There's people in the back as well to talk through it. But we're gonna pray, Father. Lord, you've given us so much. We have so much, Lord, and and it would it would be it would be foolish of us not to thank you for that. So Lord, thank you. Thank you for for us not knowing want and need. Lord, that you you've through your grace allowed us to live the lives that we have. And yet, Father, I I pray that you call us

Prayer And Practical Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 58:10

to enter into suffering with our brothers across the world, our sisters across the world. That we wouldn't live selfish lives, but that we would steward that which you have given us for the sake of others. Lord, I pray for the person here who's who's justifying and trying to move past the conviction. I pray that they would sit in that. But Lord, I pray that they wouldn't be mad that they wouldn't feel shame, Lord. But rather they would feel your grace calling them to more. That you've you that on the cross you've forgiven that. And so, Father, use use use us. Use our generosity to change Cranston. Use our generosity to change Rhode Island, use our our generosity to change uh that the lives of the missionaries that that we're supporting in the Middle East and around the world, Lord. Lord, we want to see your kingdom come. We want to see your will be done. And and you've invited us, you've you've been gracious enough to allow us to be part of that. And I pray that we would step up to the plate, that you would empower us to do so. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, guys. Well, listen, we're not gonna be outside. Um, but if you really want to go outside, you can go outside. There's a whole yard there. I know some of you like to play hacky sock and other things. Um, but please stay hydrated, come in. Um, if we do go outside, if we can just make sure this store.