Rethinking Money - Contentment - Josue Villa

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Well, we're in this series talking about money. And I know that no one gets really pumped up about money sermons. I know that. I've preached before, and um you just feel it. You just feel the tension. And I know, like, after you know, we also invite people to come and pray, and I and I know that when we're gonna preach money sermons, like less people come forward uh to ask for prayer, but I encourage you, okay? You can pray about anything after we're gonna invite everyone to come and pray afterwards, but um feel don't don't feel strange about it. We don't want you to feel strange, but I always wonder why we feel strange about talking about money at church. It's strange to me because we talk about money everywhere else. We talk about it with our friends, with our family, with our coworkers, with strangers. We talk about it when you know what we did for the weekend where we ate at uh uh last weekend, and we just talk about it all the time, except we don't like talking about it at church. We don't just don't like mixing the subject of God and money. Often hear people inside and outside the church say, Well, Jesus never cared about money. He never asked anyone for money, so why did the church do that? Now, the church actually spends a whole lot of time teaching about things like the gospel. We just spent eight weeks talking about the gospel. We we spent time talking about grace and love and forgiveness and reconciliation, relationships, family life, fellowship, maturity, serving, evangelism, so many things to teach. But in reality, we don't really talk about money that much as people think. It's hard, you know, but it's actually hard to open the Bible and not find teaching about money. It's so hard, I dare you, just open it and you'll find something about it. The Bible is filled with teachings on the dangers of money and how we should use money wisely. For example, this is just an example, it's not the message, but Proverbs 17.18 says, Proverbs has a lot of wisdom on how to use money. Uh Proverbs 17, 18 says, it is the poor it is poor judgment to co-sign a friend's note to become responsible for a neighbor's debt. I was gonna ask for a show of hands, but maybe not. But how many of you have ever cosigned a loan and been burnt? I have before. But the Bible warns us about it, it's right there. There's so many warnings, there's so many teachings throughout scripture that would save us so much grief when it comes to way to the way that we handle money. Jesus also talked about money all the time. It was usually in the form of warnings, though. For example, for example, Matthew 6.24. And I just want to let you know when we're talking about money, and when I when we talk about money, when the Bible talks about money or Jesus talks about money, it doesn't just mean your salary, okay? It represents everything that money is attached to: possessions, your house, your food, drink, transportation, clothes, entertainment, vacations, and on and on and on. In fact, last week's message, we heard that Jesus, the one who never talks about money, actually said this, Matthew 6, 24. No one can serve two masters. I was being sarcastic there. 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. What Jesus was saying is that the money issue cannot be ignored. Jesus often, if you have your worship God, we're gonna fill in the blanks there, but Jesus often talked about money because it can easily become our master. Money and the way we handle money is actually a spiritual issue. So we have to talk about money at church. We have to rethink money because money and everything attached to money can easily master our lives. Money can easily master our hearts, master our emotions, master our fears and doubts, and we're just so tense about money. Why? Because it's our master. Jesus says it can easily become our master. And when we allow for money to master us, then it replaces God in our lives. Jesus says, it's either going to in your life, in my life, it's either going to be God or money. God or money that have control over your heart. Now, I suppose that most of you are here this morning because you want to love God. You want to serve God, don't you? Right? That's why you're here? All right, good. Good answer. So today I want to start by asking this question. From whom or what have you learned your attitude towards money? From whom or what have you learned your attitude about money, your philosophy about money? Maybe it's your parents, maybe it's just family, maybe it's the culture. Or is it God? Who teaches you about money? Do you want the culture and the world to shape the way uh your attitude about money, the way that you think about money, or do you want God to shape the way you think about these issues? Which one? Culture or God? Great answer. So let me just tell you, if you want God, if you want to honor God with your possessions, with your money, let Jesus help you rethink your attitude and your practices with money. If you're open to that, let's start with this with this thought. One day, Jesus was teaching a large crowd. His disciples were there, and just hundreds, maybe even thousands of people were there listening to him. They love to listen to him teach. Well, suddenly this guy from the crowd just jumps out and blurts out a question. Well, it was not really a question, it was more like a statement. And he said, Jesus, tell my brother to evenly give me half of our dad's inheritance. Tell him to do that. Don't we do that with Jesus often when we pray? We don't really ask, we we tell him what to do. And and Jesus, instead of giving him an answer, he used this moment to teach the crowd. A great teaching. Luke 12, 15, he doesn't respond to the man, but he responds to the entire crowd and he says, Beware. Don't be greedy for what you don't have. Real life is not measured by how much we own. You hear that? Don't be greedy for what you don't have. So today I want to talk to you about contentment. One of the reasons all of us struggle with the way we handle money and how we fail to honor God with it is because of the lack of contentment in our lives. As Jesus puts it here, we get greedy for the things that we don't have. Now, if we're honest about it this morning, if we have our hearts wide open, we're not very content people, are we? We always want more. We want what we don't have, we want things that are better and prettier than the ones we have. Nick talked to us last week about upgrades. We're at iPhone 6, I think. Is it? Right? And I know in our culture, thanks you for laughing at the joke, but uh, I know that in our culture we often laugh at money issues, don't we? We laugh about guys, we say, oh, the wife spends all the money and she's in charge, and I'm just here following. You know, we we we tend to laugh a lot about these money issues, but actually Jesus says that we should take these issues seriously because money issues affect our relationship with God. Jesus said real life is not measured by how much we own. Real life is not about how nice your house is or what kind of car you drive or how big your TV is or what brand of clothes you wear. He says, these are real dangers in thinking that that's what life is all about. And Jesus says, that's now how God evaluates your life. So let me ask you, why is it so hard to live a life of contentment? And I'm putting myself in that category. It's hard. Well, first of all, I think it's this that we've been talking about. Everyone wants more. We have these appetites that we just want more, we want more. Now I want to make sure to make it clear that the Bible does not condemn wanting more out of life, having a godly kind of ambition, right? But when it comes to material possessions, there is something within us that is constant that constantly wants more, more material stuff. This week I read a real estate survey by Julia Harris conducted in 2010, and it showed that the average American family in the 1950s, in the 1950s, families were bigger than they are today. But the average American home in the 1950s was 983 square feet. In 2010, the average size of an of an American home, anyone want to guess 2400. Even though families are smaller now, except for Nick's family. But most other families are smaller. Now I'm not judging anyone, I'm not judging Nick or anyone or what kind of house you have, okay? But you know, I grew up in the 1980s, and our house was 950 square feet. There was one bathroom for six people. Mornings were terrible. Now, today I have three kids and uh one less than my parents, and I live in a 1900 square foot house. So I'm part of the trend. Now let me ask you, what do you think happens with all that extra space? That's right, we fill it with stuff, and when the stuff no longer fits inside the house, where do we put our stuff? Where? In the garage, right? And when it doesn't fit in the garage, we have to move our cars, right, out of the garage, and we have to park them outside. And we keep accumulating stuff, and then someone came up with an idea, a brilliant idea, because the stuff we own no longer fits in the house or in the garage or in the attic, storage buildings, and you will notice storage buildings all around us, they're just popping up. Why? Because we own so much stuff. And Jesus says, that's why you have to big build bigger barns. We keep buying things that we think will give us contentment, but they don't. Another reason it's hard to live a life of contentment is our culture and the monster that is called marketing. Advertising actually is designed to make us feel discontent. Ads and commercials promise that if you just make one more purchase, you will find life and a better quality of life and happiness. American marketing and the culture has shaped the way we think about money and possessions. It's told us it's okay. You want more? It's okay. Even if you can't afford it. You can just pay it off in the future, even though Jesus tells us the future is so uncertain. Another reason for discontent is that it's hard to be content when you continually focus on what you don't have. It's hard to be thankful and joyful and appreciative of the things, the blessings that you do have when you're focused on what your friends and neighbors have that you don't have. The TV in our living room I bought back in 2007 on Black Friday. Yeah, I was part of the crowd back then. Um I got in line at like three in the morning over there at Target and 37-inch TV. Now, when I go to my friend's house to go watch a game, the the images are so much clearer now. I went to Carl's house to watch The Longhorns the other day, and I was like, man, that that is so clear, isn't it, Lindsay? Lindsay, right? You agree with me, right? You know it's and I started thinking, I need a new TV. I need a new TV. Mine's so small, it's fuzzy. See, that's that's the problem. Discontent. That was a problem with the original sin, wasn't it? God told Adam and Eve, you can have look, look at look at all these trees. Look at all that fruit. You can have any of it. Except for one. Don't focus on this one. And which one did they focus on? That one. The Bible teaches us that if we are to follow Jesus, that's our desire, isn't it? It's our desire to follow Jesus wholeheartedly. That's my desire. The Bible teaches if we are to follow Jesus seriously, then we need to learn and develop contentment in our lives. Turn to 1 Timothy chapter 6. Nick preached from this last week, so I'm gonna preach some verses from before that. 1 Timothy chapter 6. I'm gonna read two through verses 2 and 3 and then 6 through 10. Paul says this to Timothy as he's training him. He tells them, I want you to teach the church all these things, you know, things about life, about family, about the church, on how to choose leaders in the church. So many things to teach them. And then he closes off his letter to Timothy by teaching him, also teach the church one more thing. Teach them about money, teach them about contentment. And he says this to Timothy. He says, verse 2, teach these things, Timothy, these things, Timothy, and encourage everyone to obey them. That's what I want to do this morning. I want to encourage you to obey them. He says, Some people may contradict our teaching, but these are the wholesome teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. These teachings promote a godly life. Yet true godliness, verse 6, yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can't take anything with us when we leave it. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content. Listen to this, verse 9. But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows. There's three biblical truths that I want to share with you from this scripture about lasting contentment. I want to talk to you about lasting contentment. Not contentment for just a week, not just contentment for this week, but lasting contentment, okay? Number one is that contentment, Paul says, is possible and it's good. Contentment is possible and good. You see, the enemy in the culture will continue to lie to us and tell us that contentment is not possible unless you have the latest and greatest. But Paul says, no, true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can't take anything with us when we leave it. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content. Paul says, we have to rethink these things. And he reminds us, we brought nothing into the world, right? We were born naked with no job. And we will leave the world with nothing. Now, some people try, actually, I've heard of some people that try to take their stuff with them. I read about a man who was buried in his fancy red sports car. Now that's cool, sort of, but it ain't gonna move. I don't know if you knew that, but it's just gonna stay there. But for followers of Jesus, because we have Jesus, because we have the best treasure we can have, because only he satisfies all our needs, because only he can fill the whole the hole that we have in our hearts, because we have the best thing that God ever gave the world, because we have him. If you make Jesus your treasure, if you make him the object of your worship, if you make him what's most valuable in your life, Paul says that's the secret of being content. If you don't have any of the stuff of this world, but if Jesus is your treasure, if he is your love, he says you can be content with whatever your circumstance. Let Jesus be your treasure. In fact, in Philippians 4, he taught the same thing to the church up there. He says, I can do all things through God who gives me strength through him who gives me strength. Now we misuse that verse a whole lot. You know, if we want to get an American idol, if we want to be a professional sports star, like we can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Actually, Paul was talking about contentment. He says, whether I'm hungry, well fed or hungry, whether I have things or don't have things, he says, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength because Jesus is the treasure. Number two, contentment, contentment frees you from loving money and its power. Contentment frees you from loving money and its power. First Timothy 6, 9 and 10 says, But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people craving money have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows. Friends, what Paul is trying to say is money has power, it can have power over us. Don't be fooled. It can control us, it can control those emotions, it can control fear and doubt and all these things. Now you don't have to have a lot of money for money to for you to love money. In fact, Paul says it's people who want to get rich. Now, friends, one of the responsibilities of pastors and elders in the church are to make sure that people don't wander away from the faith. Now, I'm pretty sure all the leaders here at this church, I know one thing. We don't worry about any of you walking away from Christ to become a Muslim or a Buddhist or a Mormon. I I've never worried about that. That you're gonna just leave Christ like that completely. But I know I do worry about what Paul talks about here. That people who crave money, more stuff, a better paying job, working overtime, because you have to pay for all the stuff that uh that desire will lead you astray from Jesus. Now there's nothing wrong with getting a better quality of life. Okay, don't hear me wrong. But it's the craving for that stuff that if we allow it will lead us away from our faith, from the true faith in Christ. And Paul, just like Jesus warns us, this contentment and the love of money has power if you let it, it can destroy you. Hebrews 13, 5 says, Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have. Because God has said, Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. Now that's pretty clear, isn't it? Keep your lives free from the love of money. Be content with what you have. You see, throughout scripture, we're told that as followers of Jesus, we are to be content with our current situation. Whatever the situation, if you have Christ, find contentment. This applies, this contentment actually applies to not just money issue, but every area of our lives. You know, pastors usually do two kinds of counseling, at least in my experience, it was this we're either counseling single people that are discontent with their single status, or we Counsel people who are married and are discontent with their marital status. Right, Nick? It's like it, and the Bible actually teaches us in 1 Corinthians chapter 7. You can read that later. Even in marital situations, he says, whatever your marital situation, if it's difficult, if it if it's you want something else, just be content with that for right now. If you're single, it's just be content. Make Christ your treasure. If you're married and you don't like your spouse, the Bible says, find contentment. Ask God to give you contentment in that. Don't leave them. Whatever your marital status is, be content with that. But we're talking about contentment and money, aren't we? And contentment keeps you from loving money. Now I know that no one likes to admit that they love money. So let me ask you, how do we really know if we love money or not? Well, here's one way that I've have found it to be true in my life. When I hold on to it and I don't want to let it go. Because I think it's mine. It's my money, so no one is going to tell me what to do with it. That might be an indication of the love of money that we think it's ours. But if you're a Christian, one of the fundamental beliefs that we have is that money in our account and the stuff we own is actually not ours. It belongs to God, that it all belongs to God. That we are stewards, that we're managers of what God has entrusted to us. Any of you here managers of a business? You can raise your hand. Yeah? Manage money, you need you manage other people's money. Are you ever tempted? You know, you probably uh make deposits and count money and all these things. Are you ever tempted to at the end of the day take the money? Not many, if you're a good manager, you're not tempted, right? Why is that? Because it's not yours. You know that it's not yours. You're you're managing, you're stewarding it for someone else. And that's how it is. What we have, what we own, what God entrusts us with, it's actually His, and He gives us to us for us to manage. And when we come to believe, to truly believe, and understand that we are only managers of what God has given us, then we can let go and be generous. For the last 10 or 12 years, there's this couple uh here in the northern part of the city that we've known, I've known for about 20 years, and uh they have done very well in life financially. And every Christmas they they send a large check. Not to us, but well, they send it to us, but they always write this note. We want you to bless some families in the church with this money. They say maybe some single moms, some families that are going through a rough time in the church. Just just bless them. And so uh every Christmas I look forward to that. I know that that check's coming, and I look forward to that because I get to distribute it and and and help someone else. And it gives me a lot of joy to do that. And and why is that? Because I I know it's not mine, it's been entrusted to me to pass on and bless other people, and that's how it is. That's that's how God views the things that He gives us. He wants us to manage it and to manage it well, and until you can truly see that, that you are not the owner of the things that you have. And unless you can't see that, you won't be able to release them. You won't be able to give them away generously and joyfully. The Bible says God loves a cheerful giver. Why? Because that giver understands. See, contentment frees you from the love of money. God says you can give it away. Because I have promised that I will never leave you. I am your treasure, I will never forsake you, I've never let you go hungry. Number three, lasting contentment comes from investing in what really counts. Lasting contentment comes from investing in what really counts. Jesus said in Matthew 6, 19 through 21, he says, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. What Jesus was saying is, none of your stuff will last. The things that you bought for thousands of dollars quickly become worthless, don't they? The car you buy for $20,000, $25,000, when you try to get rid of it, it's worth close to nothing. In fact, the first car that I ever bought when I graduated from college and I got a job and it was a good paying job, and then my thinking, because my thinking was shaped by the world, well, I'm a professional now. I deserve a brand new car. And I went out and got a brand new car. Back then it was $15,000, Mitsubishi Galant, black, beautiful, the way I always wanted it. Well, I drove it took me about six years to pay it off. And after that, I shared it with my sister. She went to college after that, and she drove it for about four years, and at the end of it, she returned it and it just like fell apart. I tried to sell it, nobody would buy it, and um, in fact, it just took completely broke down. I had to pay a tow truck to just take it away to the junkyard. And I think about it, $15,000 plus interest in the junkyard. I think that's why Jesus says, don't lay up treasures for yourself where moth and rust destroy, and where it ends up in the junkyard. Jesus says, invest in something that will not end up there. Store up treasures in heaven. Use what you have, every dollar, every penny, every possession you have, to love God and to serve others. You have a nice house, don't feel guilty about it. Be content with it. But what if we used it for God's kingdom? Bible says practice hospitality. Why don't you host a life group where people can come and experience Christ and share life together and use what you have to bless others? You have an extra car? Don't just let it sit in the garage. Let someone who doesn't have a car use it. If you have little or you have much, use it to share with others, to serve others, to help people know the love of Jesus. That's how you store up treasures in heaven. Friends, we're investing in this for children. It's not, yeah, it's buildings, but that's not the ultimate investment. We're investing in that we're gonna see them, know Christ, and go to heaven. Right? That's laying up, storing up treasures in heaven. Jesus says, use your wealth. If you have wealth, don't feel guilty about it, but use it for others. We're talking about true riches. Jesus said in Luke 16, 11, if you have been not been trustworthy in the handling worldly wealth, because we're managers, right? We're handling it for God. He says, Who will trust you with true riches? It is important to Jesus. Let me ask you, is that important to Jesus how we handle money? Yes. Shouldn't we talk about it at church every once in a while? Yes. Because if you can't be trusted with the worldly wealth, with your salary, with your possessions, can you truly be trusted with true riches? I don't know about you, but I want to be trusted. I want to find out what those true riches are. Friends, to conclude, is this thought. Your true riches are actually found and can only be found in Christ. That's where the true riches are. Second Corinthians 8 and 9 says, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, have you ever thought about it? If he owns it all, so the Bible says he owns it all. He's God is rich. Yet for your sakes and my sakes, he became poor so that through his poverty we might become rich. Aren't we rich? Aren't we rich people? And if you have Christ, you're a rich person. He left all the riches, he left all the comfort of heaven and became poor for our sakes. He went to a cross and he died a poor man. They even took off his clothes, and he died for our sins so that you and I could have it all. When I was in college, a group of about 20 students, um, the university we went to Mexico on a medical mission trip, and we purposefully went to the poorest areas, uh, the people living in the landfill. And and it was like the saddest thing I've ever seen. Kids were a dump truck would come and they would run and they would get scraps from from the trash to eat. It just broke my heart. And these people were living in cardboard boxes and things made out of scrap. And and I remember uh we would go and serve, and uh we took some doctors and some uh nurses with us, and we would provide for their medical needs, and then we would teach them about Christ, and we thought we were there to help. And um one thing that just changed my view of things forever was they were so thankful that they wanted to just show their gratitude and and and give us gifts. I mean, they would go back to their shacks and find whatever if they had a glass of water that they filled from the race, uh they would they had these containers and the rain would come and they would fill that. That was their water. They would come and want to share a glass of water with us. And of course, as Americans, like, no, no, thank you. But I learned there to never turn down what someone offers you out of gratitude and love. I learned that. So when you offer me something, I'll always take it. Alright? You see, for them, sharing wasn't going to make them any more poor. They were already poor. So it was easy to give things away. Remember when Jesus said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Friends, when it when it comes to the physical world, we're not poor. But Jesus says, we do have to be poor in spirit, we do have to be humble in spirit to receive Christ and to receive his true riches. Friends, if you have Christ, just know that you can be content. It doesn't just last for this week, all right? Please don't make it last for one week. But lasting contentment comes from knowing him. If you don't have Christ in your life yet, and there is a discontent in your life about relationships or um your situation. Friends, I promise you. When you make Jesus, when you receive him and you make him the treasure in your life, everything else seems petty. That's why Jesus says, I can be content. Whatever my situation, I can be content. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. We're gonna take communion at this time. If you have trusted in Christ, if you've made him the Lord of your life, we're gonna take communion. And what I want you to do when you go and take that bread and you dip it in the cup, don't you just just say a little prayer? Say thank you. Thank you, Lord, because in you I have all my treasure. Thank you, God, for giving me the gift of your son. And because I'm of him, I am rich. We're also gonna open it up for prayer. Our elders and staff are gonna be up here and welcome you. Anyone who wants to pray, if you have not received Christ into your life, if you've not made him Lord of your life, we want to help you with that. We want to pray with you and help you with your next step. Let me close with prayer. God, we thank you for helping us rethink these issues. We thank you for your word that is true, that has proven to be true for thousands of years. Father, I just ask that at this moment that you would fill our hearts. If there's anyone here that feels discontent about their situation in life, if there's hurt, if that there's emptiness within them, Father, I pray that you would fill their needs this morning. I thank you for Jesus, that through him we do have it all. Father, I pray that we would humble our hearts and to recognize that Jesus is the only treasure we need. It's the only treasure we need. To find hope, to find healing, and to find satisfaction. And as David prayed, Father, in Psalm 23, you are my shepherd. I shall not want. I don't want the things of this world. Father, let that be your prayer. That instead we want you. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.