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us this morning and teaching us this morning. So would you welcome Rob Spencer. All right, well, good morning. It is wonderful to be back and hanging out with you all. And I I like an excuse to uh see my my dear friend Mike. But I don't have to come here to see him. We hang out other times as well. This isn't just it. He's like he keeps inviting Rob back so he can hang out with him. But uh no, not quite the case. We get to hang out with each other. But it's wonderful to have them back. And so wonderful though to be with you. I enjoy being here because I love watching the growth of the church over the last year or so, seeing how God is changing and bringing new faces. So every time I get to come here I get to see some new faces and sometimes I get to see some familiar faces that I haven't seen before. Familiar faces. Look at that. As soon as I say the word, my I have to look at my boys now because they make fun of me because I say certain words wrong. And growing up in Pennsylvania I wasn't taught how to speak properly. I say the word familiar instead of familiar I put an F in or an R in there. I'll say familiar because I just kind of run it together. So every time I say familiar, I have to look over and those guys all look at each other. Even when I say it correctly they look at each other who could it's great to have kids. Anyway, no it is great to be back with you. Great to be here and uh what a joy it is yeah and we're seeing God do some great things up in the Harrisonburg area and through throughout that region that God has allowed us to be a part of uh many churches that are struggling that were able to send guys in uh doing pulpit supply ministry helping out with churches um and then to to see even that has blossomed into church plants that's what's going on in Elkton. We stepped into Elkton Free Will Baptist Church about a year or so ago um and uh they were struggling a bit and they said can you help us out and uh so last Sunday I got the privilege of uh having our first service off campus uh in the Elkton community we held an Easter celebration we're finishing a facility there so we're not able to quite meet there every week um but we had uh over a hundred people gathered for the launch service of the the Easter launch service I should say for Elkton so it's really cool to see what God is doing. When I got there about a year ago there were eight people left in the church. So it's exciting to see how Crosslink and others are getting behind what God is doing there and to be a part of it. I'll tell you God blesses those who sin. So my dear brother who went who just is coming back now from Jamaica is that what we said um where are you at brother? James was that right Jameson Jameson welcome back man thank you for serving the Lord in that way man God blesses those who are willing to go out on mission also those who are willing to be open handed and send people out on mission. God blesses the church that's a sending church um so it's exciting to be with you this morning I am going to be in the book of Matthew chapter six so if you have a Bible you can start turning there you see it up there Matthew chapter six verses 19 through 24 now here's the deal I get the privilege to speak on a topic that wasn't told to me you have to speak on this, all right? Sometimes that happens and I'm all right with that but Pastor Mike said hey whatever you want what do you think and I I prayed a little bit about it and thought you know here's a topic that most people don't want to hear in the church we don't like to hear about in our own lives. And so your pastor did not twist my arm to preach on this he did not offer me chicken wings after church although he should have um but I said I think I would like to speak on this topic because if we can understand what the Bible has to say about this and apply it to our lives it will revolutionize how we live here and now and here's a word two words I should say joy and freedom that typically do not describe this area in most of our lives the area I'm talking about is money. If I said to you describe to me your personal finances not many of you would say joy and freedom right that just doesn't happen I I mean that's not how we think of our bank account that's not how we think of our day to day that's not how we think of oh it's time to pay the bills joy and freedom that is just not what happens. So what does the Bible have to say about this? And what I love about this subject is Jesus spends a whole lot of time talking about this subject and and when Jesus talks about something over and over again we might want to take notice actually studies have been done to say that 15 upwards of even 20% of Jesus' teachings are on money. Like so that should grab our attention but the problem is with money in the church is we don't like when the church talks about money. And if you're a visitor here this morning welcome we are glad you're here again Pastor Mike he wasn't like you need to talk about money because we need people to give me money. You know that's not how it works. People have this miss like this idea that we pass the offering plates and Pastor Mike's in the back room going one for me, one for God one for me and another for me. You know that's not how it works, all right? So if you're a guest here this morning this church is still in existence today after hundreds of years or thousands I don't know how long this place has been around. Billions of years uh this church has been here but it's still here and still in existence because of the fact that the church is has systems they care for how they spend their money. All right so there's a budget in place. People vote on a budget they put things in place there's accountability okay so this isn't a message about Pastor Mike wanted more money so he asked his buddy to come in there talk about money. Not how it goes. But people like to make fun of preachers and money I heard this joke there are uh there are some kids in a uh schoolyard and they're hanging out playing and uh the one kid says you guys never believe it I bet you my dad makes more money than yours and then one kid said oh tell me about it he said well my dad scribbles some words down on a piece of paper he calls it a poem and then he submits it to these people and they they'll pay him like 20 bucks for that poem. And the other kid says that's nothing my dad writes some words on a piece of paper and he calls it a song he turns it in and they'll send him like $200 and the other boy says oh that's nothing I got you both beat. My dad scribbles some words on a piece of paper and he calls it a sermon. It takes eight men to collect all the money and carry it out of the room like that's funny. That's a joke. All right but that's what we think about what happens with money all right and and this isn't you know this isn't something to we can joke about it but the reality is God cares very much about how we spend our money and what the church does and he spends a whole lot of time and it's not just about money it's actually about generosity. So it's a lot larger than the subject of money but why Jesus dives into finances so much and talks about them so much is it because he realizes that's what drives our heart. Like we can talk about being generous with our time and we can say oh I've got some time over here I'm gonna come to the church and I'm gonna serve or I'm gonna go into the community and do this with my time. We can talk about being generous with our talents like God's gifted me to be a musician or to greet people at the door to teach Sunday school or to work in the financial area of the church or to work in administration. God's blessed me with these things. God's given me these gifts and we'll be generous with that and yes we should be generous with our time and our talents but Jesus speaks to treasure so much more than that because how we spend our money and what we think of what we have in our bank account and where it comes from actually determines whether or not we live a life of joy and freedom that can define us in such a way that we look different than the rest of the world around us. So Matthew chapter six let's dive in here today. Matthew chapter six starting in verse 19 if you're physically able I'd love for you to stand in honor of the reading of God's word this morning. Matthew chapter six verses 19 through 24 says this do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroys and where the thieves break in and steal but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys where thieves do not break in and steal for where your treasure is there your heart will be also the eye is the lamp of the body so if your eye is healthy your whole body will be full of light but if your eye is bad then your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great the darkness Verse 24 No one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to one and despise the other you cannot serve God and money. May God add his blessing to the reading of his word you may be seated I simply want us to dive in and answer this question this morning why does Jesus talk so often about money? Well we can see it in this passage. So first of all your money reveals your heart first of all your money reveals your heart it is your affection it reveals your affections so the verse 19 and 20 through 21 said do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth or rust or uh destroy or thieves break in and steal but lay up for yourself treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroy where thieves do not break in and steal where your treasure is there your heart will be also as you live in this world if we're not careful and intentional in how we live as followers of Jesus Christ we'll begin to look like the world around us we'll begin to act like the world around us we'll begin to care and value the things of the world around us these are what the Bible calls temporal things these are the here and now not the now and later so we'll notice as we begin walking and living in this earth oh I like that I like that I like that I want that I need that you know the difference between wanting and needing how quickly that gets out of hand my wife will say things to me because she doesn't quite understand the word investment she'll say oh and my wife is great she will allow me to buy anything I want and if I point at something as like I like that oh you should get it it doesn't matter how much money we have or don't have it's you should get it and she'll say this that pair of pants would be a good investment investment? Really? I don't know if that's an investment or not well okay maybe not investment. You know and we just we have these things that we begin trying to continue to uh make ourselves believe that we need the things when we really want them but we began if we're not careful it reveals our heart motive and we begin to look like the world around us. The question is will we desire to look like the world or do we desire to look like Jesus and a Christ follower? Will we live differently? So this verse says where your treasure is there your heart will be so store for yourself treasures in heaven and this is not talking about the temporal this is talking about the eternal and there are things that are here and now but also are eternal because the kingdom of God is at hand. We are living in the kingdom of God right now. Jesus told us the kingdom's at hand the kingdom is here the kingdom is upon you. So we are living right now so it's not just talking about saying oh this isn't really about money or this is just investing in the church. No, we're living in such a way that the things that we do and the way we direct our money can affect right now but also at the same time it's affecting eternity. So how are we living and looking differently than the world around us now I'm going to spend the rest of my time most of the rest of my time on this next point because it doesn't just point to the problem it actually points to a solution. Why does Jesus talk so often about money? First your money reveals your heart it reveals where your affections are second your money reveals your vision it's about direction. So your money's about affection your money's also about direction let's look at verse 22 in verses 22 and 23 again it says the eye is the lamp of the body so if your eye is healthy your whole body will be full of light but if your eye is bad your whole body will be full of darkness if then the light in you is darkness how great is the darkness what does this have to do with money right it almost sounds like Jesus is changing the subject for a minute he's like money let's talk about your eye and light and darkness now let's go back to talking about money again. If you were in that crowd in that day that was mostly who Jesus was talking to were a Jewish audience they would have very understood very well that Jesus was driving home a point that they were very familiar with. Familiar that here's what it is you're welcome guy um so here here's what it is this idea of a healthy eye or a good eye and or an unhealthy eye or a bad eye was actually a Jewish idiom you can go back through uh other scriptures through the Old Testament and you can find places where this is talking about the difference between what these eyes represent and throughout scripture you see it in the book of Deuteronomy you can see it in Proverbs if you want to have a better conversation about it afterwards come to me I'll give you some biblical references and we can talk about it. But they understood this to be about this if you had a bad eye it was a representation of stinginess of selfishness of not allowing yourself to be a giver basically so you were selfish and you were greedy and that was a lot of the times this idea of I was connected to that. And if you had a healthy eye, what it was Jesus was talking about here because they would have known it because it was throughout the Old Testament it was the idea of your healthy eye means that you're generous. You're looking outside of yourself and you're doing other things. So the idea here is Jesus is talking about this in comparison to light and darkness. Like if you're walking in the light and you want to be in the light then the way and perspective and the thing that lights up your path the vision that you have is going to be lit up by living a life of generosity if you have no vision you're gonna be living for yourself. If you have no direction you're gonna be living for yourself but if you want direction in your life you have to live a life of generosity because this is more than money it's about generosity when we plant churches through the crosslink family network of churches what makes them a crosslink family network church isn't a name on a building first of all it's unified Jesus Christ is our Lord and we're we're planting a church for that. But part of that are we have five core values and we say within these core values this is what makes your church to be in line with what we are desiring and what we see God blessing one of those values is gospel generosity what does it mean to be gospel generosity? Like how would that look in our life? How does that look in our church? And as we evaluated how God was blessing at Crosslink, one of the things that we saw God blessing over and over and over again was the church's open handedness to say whatever God puts on our plate, whatever God puts in front of us, we want to be able to say yes to it. We want to be able to say yes and not no unless God has made it absolutely clear through prayer, which is another one of our uh uh core values that we want to be able to say yes to it. Even if we don't even understand how we're going to fund it or do anything with it, we're gonna say yes because God put it in front of us. We're prayerfully going to consider it and there's not going to ever be a position where we're put in that we say no because of finances because they're not ours. If God says yes then we say yes and God provides why is that important because generosity sets the vision in the direction of a church generosity sets the vision in direction of a church and we call it gospel generosity because that is what the gospel is all about generosity. Jesus Christ sacrificially came from heaven to earth he generously stepped out of heaven gave of himself completely humbled himself and walked among men he generously lived a life on this earth loving other people showing mercy generously showing compassion generously healing the sick and the blind jesus went and generously taught the truth of God his father he generously lived among his disciples he generously walked among us and then he generously laid down his own life for the forgiveness of the sins of the world for anyone who would believe on him he offers forgiveness he generously gave of himself then he died went into a grave we celebrated this last week in Easter and he rose again generously now offering new life to anyone who calls on his name like that's generosity model. That's gospel generosity why would we think we should live any our lives any differently than how Jesus lived his life like why would a church ever think that we should operate in a way that's outside of gospel generosity we exist because God generously gave and we have a mission to continue generously giving what God so freely gives to us so this is about our vision it's about setting direction you say all this talk about money I just don't have any I'd love to be generous with my money Pastor Ra if you saw my bank account so what do we do instead we say I don't have any money I can't just be generous with that so I'm gonna give more of my time or I'm gonna give more of my talents that God has given and that's how I'm gonna be generous I'm gonna tell you something that is wonderful be generous with your time be generous with your talents but these aren't either or this is about all of it this is about everything being generous with what we don't even have why God continuously talks about money is it because he wants your money yes I I'd probably preached it sometime and I would say no to that. Now the idea is God the right way to say that might be this does God need your money no he does not need your money does God want your money yes why because when you give him all that you have even of the little you have that came from him and he takes that and he multiplies it and uses it and it says in your own heart I'm willing to trust God that even when I give of what I don't have he will multiply and bless and he will care for me. What's what's funny about raising kids um I always love to be a good illustration I will say when they were younger they looked a little different than they do now and not only height wise and other everything but but they just acted a little different because after younger I've got some good kids. I've got some kids that Love the Lord, love each other, love their friends. But when they were younger, it was a little harder to train them. I mean, we come out of the womb. I think our first word for most kids is no. Um, the other word is probably mine, right? It's just this selfishness. Like, if you ever taught kids the share and they're sitting around and they're like, mine, mine, mine. They're grabbing their stuff and pulling it toward them. That's how my kids were like that. We tried to train them out of that and do that, but it took a while to get there. Like it and I remember not only just fighting over toys, but what was funny to me is I went up one night to their room and they're trying, they're supposed to be getting ready for bed, and I saw Jack standing. They had bunk beds, and Jack was standing on the step of the bunk bed, and he says, It's mine. Get off, Levi. It's mine. And he's pushing Levi down the little bunk bed stairs. It's mine, it's bunk beds. There are two beds there. This isn't really hard to figure out how to share. And I said, Well, you're both wrong. It's mine, it's actually mine. I paid for that. What job did you guys get to make this? And Levi said, I'm gonna sleep on the floor. And he grabs his blanket and he lays on the floor, and I picked him up by the back of his pants and I said, Get off my floor. That's my floor. You didn't pay for that floor. Like, these are the things. And I wonder sometimes if God isn't looking down on us, and I'm gonna pause just for a minute to say, I really appreciate the room that I have up here to roam around. I'm really enjoying this. Whatever happened back here, man.

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This is nice. All kinds of do you roam around a lot now, Mike? Yeah, you do. You need to do some running.

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Yeah, that'd be good. Anyway, so I wonder sometimes though, is God looking down on us as his children? And we're fighting over all the things, and we're saying mine, and grabbing and pulling in to possess things, and God is looking at us, shaking his head, saying, You're fighting over what's not even yours. You're arguing to own something or share something or to be generous with something that was never yours to begin with. He's asked us to be good stewards of his resources. Everything we have comes from God, yet when we get, we often grab it and hold on and don't let go.

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That's not a gospel generosity mindset. It changes how we live and we will live in darkness. Our eye will be unhealthy if we live in a greedy fashion.

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There are a couple verses here for the sake of time. I'm just gonna hit one of these with you. Listen to this. Proverbs 11, 24 says this one gives freely yet grows all the richer. Another withholds what he should give and only suffers once. Let me read that again. One gives freely yet grows all the richer. Another withholds what he should give and only suffers once. Verse 25, whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and the one who waters will himself be water.

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God calls us to pure motives in our giving. In 2 Corinthians, it tells us that God is looking for cheerful and generous givers. It points to our heart motives.

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Money reveals our affection, then money also reveals our direction.

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Lastly, money reveals your master. It's a reflection. How does your money reflect who you are to the world around you?

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Matthew 6, 24. No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God in money. I've sometimes read Jesus' teaching in a place, and just like his disciples, something, I'm reading something, and my question is, what does that mean? And then the next verse will be his disciples pulled him aside and said, Jesus, what did you mean? So I don't feel like I'm in bad company here. I'm reading sometimes going, wow, what I don't get that. Jesus was sometimes cloaked and clouded in how he taught because he wasn't revealing everything quite yet. There were things that Jesus taught that we won't completely understand, I think, until we get to heaven one day and are illuminated. Right now we see dimly. One day we'll see clearly when we get to heaven. But Jesus was mysterious in some ways. Let me tell you though, in this way and in this subject, Jesus was not mysterious or clouded. No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to one and love and despise the other, you cannot serve God in money. It's about as clear as it gets. What you value, you will reflect. What you value, you will reflect. So if you say you love the Lord with your lips, but how you live your life is not open-handed, is not a channel of blessing, but is tightly gripping to every dollar you get because you're afraid of where the next one's gonna come from. It doesn't reflect the heart of God.

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You're not reflecting the gospel generosity of Jesus Christ. Are you a reflection of Jesus? How you spend your money reveals your master. Is it a reflection of the gospel?

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Now, here's what I'm not saying. I'm not saying don't pay your bills. I'm not saying, oh man, I had this $5 sitting over here and I was no one can pay a bill with $5 anymore, I don't think. I had this $500 and I was gonna make this payment. Pastor Rob said I should be generous and give that money away. I'm not talking about being unwise with your money. I'm talking about evaluating how we spend our money. We need a place to live. Do we need that place to live?

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We need a car to drive. Do we need to drive that car? I'm saving for a vacation. Maybe that vacation would be better spent as a mission trip. How do we view our money? How are we allowing God if He's really gripped our heart to drive every area of our life? It's about generosity.

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I I call this message our generosity needs velocity. If you know me at all, you know I like to rhyme. I like to drop a rhyme every once in a while. You're welcome. Our generosity needs velocity. But I did this one very much purposefully. Here's the definition of velocity. Velocity is the rate of change of an object's position with respect to time, incorporating both speed and direction. All right, I'll read that again. Velocity is the rate of change of an object's position with respect to time and incorporating both speed and direction. So what's this object that we're talking about? If our generosity needs velocity, then the object here we're talking about is our generosity. Okay? So we'll read this in. Velocity is the rate of change of our generosity's position with respect to time. What's time speaking of? Eternity. Like, if our generosity needs velocity, what this means then is that we need to begin to look at our generosity in such a way that it is impacting not just here and now, but it's impacting eternity. So we need to change our mindset on what time is, which time is most important, things that are here and now, and building up treasures on earth or building up treasures in heaven. So not only is it about respect to time and eternity, but it says if you want to change, if you want to have velocity, it's incorporating both speed and direction. So the question is then when do I start being generous?

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How do I change this?

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Now like speed speaks of timing. Like here, right now, I make a decision to say I'm gonna live different in now direction. I know the direction I'm gonna go. I'm gonna point my money and my efforts toward things that are kingdom-minded, heavenly minded. I'm gonna have gospel generosity.

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It looks different than how most of us think of our finances. So what if you've been a bad steward? What if you've had a bad or a stingy eye?

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And not just individuals, but this is a challenge to the body of Christ the church as a collective group of people.

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How are we reflecting gospel generosity in our church? Some churches have mutual funds and CDs. I'll end with this. I've been privileged with the opportunity to go into many struggling churches.

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I have yet to have walked into a struggling church that doesn't have money in their bank account. They're not struggling because of finances. Some of the churches that I've walked into have had hundreds of thousands of dollars in their bank account and they've got a couple people sitting in the pew. And what they keep saying is, well, we've been saving money for a rainy day.

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Well, it's pouring.

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It doesn't get much rainier than today for you. And what they're finding is, though, they have all the money to solve the problem that they need to solve. But the church isn't unhealthy because it's in a poor financial position. It's unhealthy because it's in a poor gospel position. They lived their whole life thinking if we just keep reining in our money and putting it in this storehouse over here and building another barn to put more storehouses and to build up more collections and more treasures over here, then God will honor us because we're being wise stewards and will help the next generation and the next generation and the next generation to be able to pay the light bill at the church. The problem is this building isn't a church. The people are the church. We don't exist in order to keep the lights on in buildings and to paint buildings and to paint walls and to put roofs on buildings and to have enough money to replace the air conditioner. These churches are dying and falling apart with mountains of money in the bank account because they've stopped taking the gospel outside of the walls of the church. They've stopped being generous with what God gave them and they started clenching their fists saying, This is how I please the Lord. The problem with the clinched fist is, yeah, nothing gets out, but nothing gets in. How will your church be known? Will it matter that your church has sat in this position, in this place, in this neighborhood, in this community for hundreds of years or whatever it's been that you've been here? Will that matter? Will people look at your church and say, that's a healthy church? I haven't had conversations with Mike about how much money you have here. Maybe you don't have anything. Maybe Mike has sucked you dry.

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I don't know. But here's what I want to say. You're not known for what you have, you're known for how you give.

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Because it's a reflection of the heart of God. Like, what are we doing with what God has given us? Individually, yes, please evaluate your own position financially and say, I have to be a giver. I have to allow God to have control of what I have because it's his anyway. How can I honor him? How can I bless him? How can I give? But this isn't about giving more money to the church. This is about positioning each one of us in a place to say, everything I have comes from the Lord. He has put me here to be a gospel channel of generosity to the world around me. How can I be a conduit of blessing?

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And oh, the joy and freedom that comes with that mindset. I said joy and freedom would never describe my financial situation. It can today. If you just say, God, it all comes from you.

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Use me as a conduit of blessing to others. The joy and freedom that comes with that decision as individuals and as a church, God will bless. And He'll keep blessing, not so you can hold, but so you can give more, you can do more, you can send more missionaries, you can plant more churches, you can go into this community and reach those who need Jesus.

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Our gospel or our generosity needs philosophy.

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Let me pray. Lord, thank you for our time this morning. God, I praise you, you are good.

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You are good.

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Lord, I think these are not always the easiest messages to hear, because they're reminders where we may be failing. Although there may be some in here that are just yes and amen. Because you've positioned them, Lord, to be givers. To be generous with their time, talents, and treasure. Lord, thank you for those people. Lord, use them to inspire others around you to be givers. Help us all to reflect. Lord, if there's anyone in here that doesn't know you as their Lord and Savior, that's where the generosity starts from eternal life. Lord, may today be a day of salvation. Lord, if their heart is not turned to you, they said, I've never heard that Jesus died on the cross for my sins or heard it and haven't believed it, and now I want to live for him.

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Lord, may they make a choice today to say, Yes, Lord, I will give you my life. And I'll follow after. Lord, may you use the first Baptist of Stand to reflect the heart of Jesus in this community and in the world around us. We thank you for your precious.