On Purpose, Pt. 2

Good morning. Great to be back. This is my first time going back to back preaching, I feel a little nervous. It is encouraging that those of you who were here last week actually came back, knowing that I would be up here again.

I am also excited to have a bunch of family here, my wife’s siblings and parents as well. So, all the stories I told about them last week, none of them happened. And what happened last week stays there?

Nah.

For those of you who weren’t here last week, or if you were and it didn’t make any sense, let me summarize.

If you recall, We started by briefly reviewing all of history and talking about what God has been doing since the beginning, how we has been loving and saving us.

And then we said, since God has loved us this much, sending himself into history to live and die and pay for our sins, that love compels us. It makes us see people differently, it makes us live differently. We live like missionaries, because God has chosen us to be the spreader of the message. Carrying the story of his Son to our neighbourhoods, schools and Starbucks.

And we said that basically, what is comes down to is God changing your heart so that you might care about someone or something more than you care about yourself. That’s where we went.

And that was sort of it, I didn’t talk a whole lot about how it goes down, or what it might look like in 2009, or how it looks for families or singles or students or retired people.

And I took some shots, if you remember at people who have a Jesus fish on their car and also drive like a maniac. I need to repent of that because on Friday I was mowing my lawn and a dog walker neighbour stopped by who I had previously met, and we ended up talking about God because of the Jesus fish on our car.
Do I like the decal? No. Does God have a sense of humour. Absolutely.

And I want to pick up the threads of last week by reading a verse and a passage from Romans 12.

First Romans 12:1 - I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Vs. 4 - For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually, members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts (encourages), in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

Now who Paul is going to go after here is two different kinds of people and he is going to get after their heart motivations.

Vs. 1 says this, and we majored on it last week: Remember the mercies of God?
Remember how you were lost, remember how as Titus 3 says that we passed our days in malice, hated by others and hating one another. Remember how we were foolish, how we just did dumb things all the time. Remember how we worshiped created things instead of rightly worshipping the Creator?
Remember?

And remember how God, our God Jesus Christ, came into history, lived the life we could not live, died the death we should have died so that we could be forgiven. Remember?

Remember the God who allowed the gospel to spread from Jerusalem to Asia to Europe to North America to Ontario, so you could know it and be saved?

That is the mercy of God, not counting our sin against us because of Christ, despite all of the junk we do.

When we consider that mercy, the rational response is to offer our bodies as living sacrifices in worship to God.

But you are wondering, what does that mean?

The word body in the greek has a connotation that you take your whole life, not just your church life, not just Sunday, not just after work, but you take your whole life and place it before God and say, “whatever you want. Whatever you want.” We pry our fingers off our own life, we let go of our time and our wallets and our energy and say, God, I am on your mission, not mine.

This is the point: If we are missionaries, as we declared last week from 2 Cor 5, therefore it logically and theologically follows that all of life is mission. Or it ought to be.

This is radical thinking. It changes from waffle thinking, to spaghetti thinking. See, in a waffle world, everything has its own box. I can put a strawberry in this one and butter in another one and syrup in a third and gosh I am hungry, but everything has its place. Nothing is connected.

You know what I mean right? That work is here, and at work I work and I shut up about everything else. And when I get home, I am just a father. And at my kids soccer game, all I do is yell at the ref. Nothing is connected. No thread of mission combines all of them.

We ought to be more like spaghetti, yes we have a thread of work, but it touches and winds around mission. That at work, we work to bring God glory, but we are also on the lookout for ways to love people, to share Christ with them in a real, relevant way.

And when you are taking care of your kids at home, and teaching them and taking them to the park, you are open and willing to seize any opportunity to love on other stay-at-home parents. To make connections with them.

For me, in university, I played on an ultimate frisbee team. Yes it actually exists. And we were good.

And one of the popular past times in frisbee is drinking alcohol. Not just one or two, but in a big way. And my team would throw keggers. And as a captain, I was supposed to be there, support the team. But it creates a dilemma, because I don’t want to get drunk, I don’t want to hit on drunk girls and it is a weird environment with lots of opportunities to make dumb choices.

But I realized as I thought and prayed about it that God was giving me an opportunity. So what I used to do is go right at the beginning of the party, 9:30/10pm and bring a six-pack of rootbeer. No joke. And I would drink them and talk to people.

And the best part was, every party, someone would ask me why I wasn’t getting hammered. Every time. And most times, after a few drinks, someone would ask me why I didn’t have sex before marriage. And every party, I got a chance to talk about why I made different choices and how Jesus had affected my life. And they listened. And it made an impact.

Now before you send me a nasty email - Is my life a prescription for yours? No. But did I take a chance that it seemed God was opening for me? Yes. Cause I am trying to live like spaghetti, trying to find out how different parts of my life wrap around mission and evangelism.

This leads me to where I am going:

TWO Wrong approaches to mission
1. Do nothing Danny
a. Some people out of a zeal for their whole life to be mission, end up doing nothing. They hear me or George or a book talk about the freedom offered by the Bible in terms of how we go about evangelism and use it to say, since all of life is mission, since I am constantly engaged in evangelism, I never want to do anything specific.

That is wrong. I mean for a few of us, we can do that and still have lots of opportunities. My wife Jen is a perfect example. She is constantly meeting people, on our street, at convenience stores, at church, on campus and is having coffee with them.

We come home from social activities and she has two coffee dates booked and I am like, how did she do that? All I talked about is the Leafs and the weather and how cool big sledgehammers are. I don’t even know his name.

She has a natural curiosity about people, wants to know them to love them, to connect with them. She actually teaches me a lot about how it is supposed to look.

But that is not me, and it is probably not most of you, until you practice for a while. I am a little introverted, like my privacy, don’t like to bother people. Therefore, I need to do organized things to meet people, to love them, because I don’t function like that intrinsically.

And so, having the view that you can live without intentionally scheduling mission into your life is probably foolish. Not to mention that you miss out on great opportunities, like for instance, one small group here at Connections decided that at Christmas they wanted to help out a family.

So they made a plan, a plan to contact the London NW resource center and get a reference for a family that needed some help. And they did. They gave them some winter clothes, a bunch of food, had dinner with them. It was awesome. Not only did they show them practical love, but they had a chance to share Christ with them, engaging them on a real level with where they were at.

And there are tons of opportunities all around with lots of different organizations, as well as the fact that making a plan helps keep you accountable. If you say, I will hopefully have my neighbour over for dinner someday, that is unlikely to fly. But if you decide that you will invite someone this week, that is a lot more powerful.

So, avoid doing nothing.

2. Do one thing Doris

The other trap we often fall into is that we place all our eggs in one basket by doing just one and then claiming we are done.

What this often looks like is that people will say, I serve at a soup kitchen once a month, that is my mission. Or I give out bulletins at church, that is what I do. Or I build one house a summer with Habitat for Humanity. Or even, I have a Jesus fish on my car and I played Michael W. Smith really loudly with the windows open, in the winter. And once I do that, I am done.

That is a waffle life! You don’t understand that your whole life is mission. That your whole body is a sacrifice. That you ought to be on the lookout for chances everywhere. Yes, schedule things in, but be open to opportunities.

And this wrong approach is especially intoxicating for people with a touch of obsessive-compulsive disorder, like me. I am not bad, but I like having a plan, I like knowing what is coming next. Spontaneity irks me quite frankly. I am often like, “you are messing up the plan!” Why do you want to injure my soul?

So I love to schedule one thing in and then plan the rest of my life so that mission is not present. But that is wrong, and at the bottom of it, I am just trying to remove my guilt, not worship and love God to my utmost. You feel me on that?

We need a balance, not just doing one thing, not doing nothing, but planning and reacting so that we can live a life fully devoted to God.


Two Right approaches
1. Use your gifts (personality, sp. Gifts)

This is where the passage we read at the beginning really comes into play.
We talked a lot about the different gifts people get, and much can be said and has been said about that, and my point is not to break down all of them and help you analyze who you are.

But the point I want to make, which sounds almost silly, is that we are all different. We are different. God gives us different gifts that when we employ them collectively, it looks beautiful.

Think of the Detroit Red Wings who mercifully lost. I hate them. But they understand something. They are not all Pavel Datsyuk. They can’t all dangle. But what you know is that Lidstrom is going to play 38 minutes, be a rock and never give away chances. You know Holmstrom is going to live in front of the net and annoy Fleury to no end. You know Darren Helm is going to skate around like an energizer bunny and never give up on the puck. And Osgoode is going to be good enough.

They each know their role and they perform it well and that is why they are so annoying. They are good year after year because they don’t rebuild, they just reload with the right parts.

And that should be the way the church functions. That in life, we all contribute a part to the whole. And there is this stupid attitude in church that puts the gift of teaching or preaching as more important than everything else. That if you can preach, you are a rockstar, and everyone else better just give out coffee and bring their friends to hear the rockstar. That is wrong and foolish.

We undervalue so many of the gifts. Like hospitality. It is a gift to be able to host people in your home, to make them feel comfortable and welcome, to love on them. That is a gift and it leads so many people to Christ and we treat it like second-class. If you have that, God bless you, please use it.

And other gifts, like giving. Some people just know how to make money. They seem to fall backwards into it. We had a family friend like this a long time ago. Every time he tried something, it just went crazy. He had the Midas touch. He bought a store, wrote a book, did some renovations - didn’t matter what, he just made piles of money. And that is a gift from God so that you can use the money to help others out, to do wild things like give someone a car or drop off a bucket of groceries, or whatever.

And what every gift has the potential for, and each one of you has the potential for is to use your gift for mission, for loving and leading people to Jesus.

For me, I love playing sports. And for a while, I resisted playing them because I should be doing something more holy with my time. But I realize that playing on a team with a bunch of non-Christians or dropping by pick-up sports at the university is a great way to meet people and a natural door to relationship. I become friends with someone by spiking a volleyball in their face. And I don’t have it figured yet, how it all works together, but I am trying to figure out how God has gifted me and leverage that for mission.

You just need to be yourself instead of trying to be like that guy, or that girl or that family. Be you. Try to do what you feel gifted at and stop worrying that you are doing it wrong. If you love Jesus and are trying to serve him and your eyes are open to opportunities, you are so right. That is right.

2. Try lots of stuff (at church, at work, at home)

This is the part where I dump a lot of suggestions on you, because frankly we are a diverse crowd. I love that, and some of these suggestions are going to seem stupid to you and others will seem crazy and some will be so good, that you want to eat them.

I will hijack George’s blog and post all of this stuff online, probably on the new facebook fan page for Connections and potentially on George’s blog. I will also post some links to good articles.

A. Eat with non-Christians.
A. Everybody needs to eat, why not make a habit of sharing those times with non-Christians? Go to lunch with a coworker, eat in the breakroom instead of alone, invite over the neighbours, do a neighbourhood BBQ. Basically flee from always eating alone or only with other Christians.
B. Walk
A. Not only is it good for your health, make a practice of getting out and walking around. But be deliberate! Say hello to everyone. Strike up conversations. If you have a dog or kids, bring them along, it is a natural opener. Garden outside. You would be surprised how many people walk by. Take interest in people. Ask questions. Pray as you go. This has been awesome for Jen and I in our new neighbourhood.
B.
C. Be a Regular
A. This is another one I have been trying to do, but instead of hopping all over the city for gas, groceries, haircuts, restaurants, coffee, try going to the same places at the same time. Be a regular.
B. We just moved into a place where there is a convenience store and hair salon really close. So now we try to rent our movies from there and get our hair cut there, and we have already met one of the cashiers and a hairstylist.
C. Build relationships with the workers. Ask questions, be interested. Thank them. Tip well.
D. Hobby with Non-Christians
A. You may disagree, but I think it is a good idea to play sports in non-Christian leagues. Pick a hobby or sport that you enjoy and find a place to do it in the city. There is this magazine called Spectrum which lists a zillion leagues and clubs and activities, pick one and try it out. And as you go, pray, be intentional, be winsome.
E. Be with people
A. No matter what you do, you can live with intentionality. If you have an office job, go out with people after work once in a while, show interest in their lives. If you are at home most days, get involved in a mom’s group, or schedule play dates with neighbours.
F. Participate in the City
A. Instead of living like a hermit in your basement, focused on a glowing screen, make a practice of going to fundraisers, concerts, clean-ups, shows. Strike up conversations there. Study the culture so that you know how to engage with it. Love our city, pray for our city. Reflect on what you see and hear.

* by the way, we are doing this a church this Sunday. I think we have 3 or 4 run-ins, that is, as a church we are hoping to attend a couple of festivals this summer. Make a plan to come.

G. Serve your neighbours.
A. I know lots of you here have skills, really practical ones. Like I was talking to my friend Dan who goes here and I mentioned how my brakes rotors were warped and my car jiggles as it stops. And he is like, well I could throw some new ones on for you. Wow. Best friend status.
B. But maybe you can drywall or garden or woodwork or clean up, offer to help your neighbour if it comes up. Or if they are outside working, wander over and see if you can lend a hand.

H. At church
A. We cannot overlook the importance of being on mission while we gather for worship. There is something really moving in seeing a group of people worshipping God and hearing His Word taught. In fact some on you here today came to church not believing and were later convinced in your heart that it is all true. Some of you even do not believe but you come to see what it is all about.

The gathering of God’s people, Christians, is so important for mission. Invite your friends, ask them if they want to come. And when they come explain the stuff that goes on. Lots of things we do are weird, they are going to need a guide.

And to bring things to a close this morning, I want to return to 2 Cor 5, and I want to read you vs. 20. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

Now let me say this, and I want to say it clearly. Mission must include message. Mission must include message. There should be a time in your relationships and in your living that you move beyond actions and beyond food and beyond smiles and waves and you instigate a conversation about what is going on in their lives spiritually, where they are at with God.

There must come a time for that. When you implore them, if they are not already to be reconciled to God. When you explain who Christ is and what he did. And when you wrestle with their questions with them.

Many of the activities and lifestyle choices I described today are just ways to get into others lives. But please, I beg you, and the text commands you, do not forget to implore them to be reconciled to God. That is not just the job of the preacher, but of the missionary also.

And maybe you just need to develop a question that feels comfortable for you - like, hey do you ever think about spiritual things? Or hey, do you ever go to church? Or, what are you doing Sunday morning - would you like to come with me? Or - simply, what do you believe in?

And I am not laying a guilt trip down - this is going to look different for each person. It will take different lengths of time, and you are going to say different things, but remember the mercies of God, his great love for us, his abiding patience for us. And this morning if you don’t know Christ, but want to, please ask. Ask the person who brought you, or come talk to me or someone from the band.

And if you already follow Christ and want some help, let me recommend a connection group. We are doing some over the summer and amping up big for the fall.

Let me say, from personal experience, one of the best ways I have learned how to be on mission, is to see other people. To watch as people in my small group reach out to their friends. To be at their house and see neighbours come by to chat or borrow something. And to ask for help, knowing I am not there yet, but I am working at it.

This is the road forward. And if you are jammed in your Christian life. If it all seems lifeless and dead, the best way to grow is to engage in evangelism and mission. I am convinced that so much of us are stunted, dwarfish Christians is because we refuse to get off the bench and into the game.

Guys, my heart beats so hard for this. I am convinced that if we step out in faith, God can use us in such ways that we will be floored. I love you guys, I want to see you live fully and freely, so let’s do it together.

Let me pray.

On Purpose, Pt. 1

June 7, 2009
Ben Jolliffe

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake was died and raised.

From now on, we regard no one from according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him as thus no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting men’s trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

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What a great piece of Scripture.
Good morning Connections. What a thrill to be back up here. George couldn’t preach this week, so I will take a swing here.

We are on one of my favourite topics this morning and actually we are just doing part 1 of 2. Next week I will be coming back to finish this topic off.
PAUSE
From 2 Cor 5, we see a description of the mission God has for us as Christians. Paul is breaking down what a Christian life, fully realized looks like. But even before we talk about the implications for our lives, we have to take a step back.

Because any right understanding of the mission God has called us to, as individuals and as a church rightly begins with God and not with us. To start with us is a huge mistake. Because none of us has a clue what is going on. But God, our God, the author, creator, sustainer of our universe has all knowledge grounded in him and in his character.

And when we start with God, we realize this, that we are caught up in a cosmic story stretching back into eternity past, and we are just a little piece. We realize that God has been at work in creation and in history. It shatters a small view of God and His mission. Let me unpack that by briefly summarizing all of history in next few minutes. This is going to be quick.

In eternity past, God purposed in his heart to create the world, to create human beings in his own image, and he did. He created Adam and Eve, our first father and mother, and placed them in paradise. Tragically, they sinned against God, as we all do and because of their sin, death entered the world and men and women and the snake were cursed by God.

But in Gen. 3, we see that buried in the curse was a promise, that some day down the road, though the snake would seek to strike at us and destroy us, a Saviour would come to break the curse, and save humans from their sin.

In the meantime, humanity spiraled downward. People continually invented new ways to do evil, godly people were persecuted, stuff got messed up, it was a bad scene. And eventually God chose one man, Abram, and made a promise, a covenant with him, to make a great nation out of his descendants, and to bless all the peoples of the earth through his family.
God held true to his promise, even as Abram’s descendants grew into a nation in Egypt where they were enslaved and finally freed by God working through Moses.

They came to the promised land of Israel and established a country there, survived through a succession of judges/military leaders, then kings, most of whom were terrible, with a few bright spots. One of the bright spots, was King David, who you may know from such films as Veggie Tales, but was perhaps lesser known as a liar, adulterer, murderer and a man after God’s own heart.

And God loved David, loved him, and promised him that from his line would come the Saviour.

The nation continued to struggle and during this time came prophets, not financial ones, but ones with a ph. Inspired by God and speaking his words, they foretold of a Saviour, where and how he would be born, how he would live, how he would die, loads of distinct specific prophecies that made the doorway so small that it would be impossible for anyone to impersonate the Saviour.

And then all of a sudden, the prophecies stopped, for 400 years, nothing. No word from God, no new prophecies. World powers like Greece, Persia and Rome rise and fall. And then a young teenage girl named Mary is visited by an angel, she is impregnated by the Holy Spirit (which is a great mystery) and gives birth to Jesus, the promised Saviour.

Jesus lives a perfect life, fulfilling all the prophecies, and is eventually tortured, mocked and killed, making atonement, paying for all sin of all time for all people. He rises from the dead, appears to more than 500 people, then ascends to heaven.

And the story really takes off.

The 100 or so people who followed him, all of sudden, at the day of Pentecost are filled by God’s Spirit, they start preaching and proclaiming a risen Saviour. Bam, the first day 3000 new Christians. A little bit later, Rome and the Jewish authorities get nervous, start cracking down, force the Christians from Jerusalem.

The Gospel spreads all over Asia minor, a man named Saul, a famous Jew, is saved by Jesus in a roadside throwdown, he changes his name to Paul and starts preaching the gospel all around the Mediterranean.

By 300 A.D. Despite persecution Christianity is still growing, all of the cities in the Roman Empire are more than 50% Christian.

In the 5th century, St. Patrick goes to Ireland and sees many turn to Christ. As a society, we celebrate his devotion to God and zeal for missions by wearing kiss me I’m Irish t-shirts and drinking green beer until we can no longer stand.

I’m skipping a millenium here for the sake of time, but in the 1500’s, a man named Martin Luther and many of his compatriots like Calvin, Zwingli start the Reformation, returning Christianity to its biblical roots.

In the 1600’s and 1700’s Catholics, Puritans and others begin to establish missions in the New World.

In 1732, the first great Awakening spread across North America, bringing many to Christ.
In 1785, the first church was built in Ontario, in Brantford as an outreach to the Mohawk nation.

In 1844, St. Paul’s Cathedral was built in London Ontario, its first church.
In the 2000’s a group of people began dreaming what a church would like in North London.

And in 2007 George Saylor moved here from the USA and gave leadership to what eventually became Connections Community Church, meeting in the Masonville Movie Theatre.

This is where we find ourselves, 2009, in the scope of History. This is what God has been doing since the beginning. He has been on mission, bringing many to the knowledge of Christ. Out of his love he has been saving many.

And the last book of the Bible, Revelation promises that before the end, every nation and people group on earth will have heard the gospel and that in heaven, it is going to be a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic party with people from all over.

The point of that is that God is in the business of saving people. We have a God who sent himself into history to live and die so that we might be saved. God loved us. He just loved us.

And when we sit back for a second, and think on that it blows your mind. The love of God - 2 Cor 5 says that it controls or compels us. The love that spans millennia, that purposed in eternity past to save you, the love with which Jesus came from heaven, knowing he would suffer and die for the junk in your life. That is the love that controls us.
Not easy-in-easy-out love, not wimpy love, but unconditional, sacrificial, unbelievable, undeniable love. This is the love of God.
And it controls us such that when we look at people, we no longer see them as everyone else sees them.

I recently moved to a street that has quite a diverse population. There are houses of all sizes and the street is ethnically and financially diverse. And the thing that drives me crazy, is that I find myself labeling people without even trying or wanting to. I resist it, but it is there all the same. The guy who doesn’t mow his lawn is lazy, the kid who bikes by screaming at his friend is poorly parented.

The old guy who walks his dog while holding a little baggie of droppings is well...

And this happens everywhere with all of us. We all do it. We all label people.

But we ought to view people differently. The Bible says that when we look at the grand narrative of history, when we look at all God has done, how he arranged things and changed hearts so that the gospel would go from Jerusalem to Asia Minor to Europe to North America to London, and that he arranged it so that I would move onto that street, someone who knows and loves Christ. And when God has done all that so that one person might know him, it takes on a whole new meaning.

That person, that kid, the dog-walker is immensely valuable. Not to mention that they are created in God’s image, they bear his mark. And as my wife reminds me, there is a story behind each person. We cannot know what is going on with them.

And if that is still not enough motivation, check out verse 18.
It says all this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

That means that once God saved you, he saved you not just from sin, Satan and death but he saved you to something.

Are you tracking with me?
Most Christians believe we are saved only from bad stuff. We say a prayer, we believe in Jesus so that we get to go to heaven one day. And in the meantime we try to avoid killing anyone or saying swear words. Right? Wrong.

This passage confirms that we are saved from our sins, but we are saved to a life of mission. You are automatically a missionary. It is not an optional part of the Christian life, it is essential. Because this passage confirms that God has chosen this method, alone. This is how it is going to spread.

Vs. 19 - says that he has entrusted to us the message of reconciliation.
Vs. 20 - that God is making his appeal through us.
Vs. 20 - we are ambassadors

Spurgeon, a famous English preacher once said, “A Christian is either a missionary or an impostor.”

That means that when that Jesus fish car cuts me off, God is being represented there. Unfortunately I keep trying to convince my wife Jen to take ours off the back of our car…
That means if you neighbour knows you are a Christian, and you treat them like dirt, you are reflecting God.

I was reminded of this when we moved into our new house. There were two signs on the door. One said, “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” The other said, “no peddlers or solicitors allowed.” I laughed to myself, it just seemed contradictory. We serve and love God, but if you are trying to do your job, I don’t want to talk to you, and get off my lawn too.

All of us are missionaries. All of life is mission. And at the risk of being too blunt, if you call yourself a Christian, the only question is: Are you a good missionary or a bad one?

Does your life reflect the character and love of God? Does the way you spend your money (we just spend lots of time on that)? Does your house? Does the way you treat the cashier or the mailman? Does the way you parent your kids?

Because if you a Christian, if you follow Christ, you are automatically inducted into the ranks. Yes, you are saved from sin, but you are also saved to a life on mission with God.

And I know some of you get this, some of you are on track, you are living this out, but I know many of us struggle with this. To live it out for real.
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And as far as I can tell, there are two great enemies of evangelism and mission: Pride, Selfishness.

And both are misunderstandings of the gospel. See, the gospel says is that you are more sinful than you ever thought, but you are more loved and forgiven than you ever dared hope because of Christ.

But pride or self-righteousness has the attitude that there are two kinds of people in the world, good people and bad people. We need to be a good person and avoid and look down upon bad people. But the gospel says there is only one kind of person, sinful people. Romans 3 confirms that all are sinful, all of us have fallen short.

There are not two kinds of people, them and us. There is only us. We are shipwrecked, we are all busted up.

1 Cor 4:11 says this, “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast about it as if you did not receive it”

The only reason any of us can grow and develop and become more loving is because of Jesus and what he did.

He is the only perfect one. If life were a Western movie, he would be wearing the white hat and the rest of us would all have black hats. We are outlaws by nature and choice.

And for those of you who are eagerly awaiting the new transformers film this June, think of it this way. You are all decepticons. You are all on the bad team, you are a rebel. Only Jesus is perfect

And if you look down at other people because of their lifestyle or sin, or if you refuse to associate with them then you are acting and living in self-righteousness. You have little or no understanding of God’s love and mercy towards you. You think you have pulled yourself up by your own bootstraps and now you have the ability to look down at others from your elevated position.

Remember the words of 2 Cor 5, that once we are Christians, we regard no one according to our old nature. The world may say that they are dirty, or annoying or hard to get along with, but you need to say, so once was I.

Ask yourself these questions:
1. Are there certain kinds of people I look down upon or judge?
2. Do I refuse to engage with non-Christian people in my life?
3. How do my neighbours think of me?

The other sin we often commit is selfishness. this is where I think many of us including me, are. I tend to be selfish with my time, my energy, my money. It is not that I do not have the desire to love and serve and share Christ with people, it is just that I never get around to it.

It is hard, awkward, time-consuming. It is hard to know where to start.

And if I were to bet, I think this is where most of you are mired. You can’t get past yourself. Your desires are good, your intentions too, but you never get into action.

You can call it apathy, or fear or discomfort, but at the heart is that you will not go outside your comfort zone to engage with people who don’t know God. You tell yourself that at work, you should be about work and never engage with people on a spiritual level. You tell yourself that at home, you want to give people privacy, not bother them.

You don’t want to be the weird Christian guy. Can I just say that out loud? That many of us are held back because we don’t want to be that guy… with the t-shirts and pithy quotes and a lawn mowed in the shape of a fish. You are scared of being that guy. No one wants to become Ned Flanders, I think… No one aspires to be annoying.



But no matter what it is that holds you back, apathy, fear, whatever, it is selfish.

This sort of lifestyle is in contradiction to the gospel. God came to earth, lived and died a painful, horrific death so that you might live, and you take that to yourself and ignore God’s words about living your life as a sacrifice. Your life is focused around your own comfort not about God and his glory.

And if no one has ever challenged you on this, let me. You need to grow up in your faith, quit living for yourself and start living for God. You need to start doing hard things, things that hurt, that cost you.

Listen to me - There is no glory, no courage, no legacy, in wimping out your whole life. Is that the sort of legacy you want to leave your kids and grandkids, that you got by and were pretty comfortable? That on your tombstone they write, “she never bothered anyone.” That is a tragedy.

If you have a view that you can be a missionary and not suffer pain, you are sadly mistaken. Jesus promised us that following him would involve a cross, for you. It will always involve dying to yourself.

I used to think that I could find a way to engage with people on a real level and be cool at the same time. That theory is now shot. Because ‘cool’ people in our society are laid back, stand-offish, unengaged. To be cool is to not care. And if you want to ask people about where they are at in their view of God, or if you want to know what is really going on, then you have to put yourself out there and possibly get rejected. And that can look not cool.

The truth is that you will never act until you care about someone or something more than you care about yourself.

And my prayer for myself, and for you, if you are tracking with me on this issue, that one day by the grace and mercy of God, you will care about other people more than you care about yourself.

In summary, Christ has called us to a life of mission. He himself set the example as the first, and perfect missionary. Coming to us to save us. And we follow in his example in going out to our workplaces and our neighbourhoods, and our families, as missionaries. Spreading the gospel of Christ.

Maybe today, you are not even a Christian, you are simply checking things out. Thank you for coming. I am really glad you are here. Please know that Jesus loves you and that he gave himself for you.

For those of you who are wrestling with this issue, we are going to go deeper next week. We are going to discuss what it might look like for us to engage as a church and as individuals with this issue.

And we all need to engage, because George cannot carry the load. George cannot go to work with you, he cannot talk to your friends. You go to your work, you talk to your friends, that is the way it has to be.

But I want to be super practical and give you something to chew on before next week.

For those of you who desire to be missionaries, here are some starter questions to think through. And the easiest way to do this is to imagine yourself moving across the globe to a new country, a new city, a new neighbourhood and imagining how you would be a missionary there, then applying the same principles to your life here.

What criteria would you use to decide where to live?
How would you approach employment?
What standard of living would you expect as pioneer missionaries?
What would you spend your time doing?
What would your prayers be like?
What would you try to do with your new friends?

I cannot give you the answers and the truth is that I don’t have them. I can’t lay out for you what it is going to look like in your life, because it will look different from mine.

One thing you can do immediately, is start praying. Pray for anyone you know who does not know Christ. Start small.

And pray for us too, if you remember. We are trying to teach Christian university students how to be missionaries and it is a tough environment. They get beat up on a lot by the culture. Pray for them that they would love God and stick it out. The university is the best place and one of the hardest places to be a missionary.

Thank you for having me, I would like to pray for you.

Get a Work

Series: Life. Money. Hope.

* Disclaimer- I don't thoroughly edit my manuscripts. They are written with my intent to preach. There will be many typos and grammatical errors.

Today i want to repent and wrap up this series on Life. Money. Hope. We started with the big picture of how we get a grip on our finances. By now you should be able to teach this to me:

Get a grip: Work- Give- Repay- Invest- Spend
Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Work
Proverbs 14:23 All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.

Give
Proverbs 11:25 A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.

Repay
Proverbs 22:7 The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave of the lender.

Invest
Proverbs 13:22 A good man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children.

Spend
Proverbs 21:20 In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has.

Today we go back to the start, and we end with what me say is most important- our earning, our making a living, our work.

Who here has ever had a crappy job? Come on, this one should be a common denominator in all of our lives. It would be a blast to compare stories of your worst jobs and to see who could win. That can be your topic of conversation during the picnic today. I’m going to confess something to you today as we get started- from an early age I was a master at getting out of work I didn’t like, and I have to say there were a lot of things I didn’t like to do. When I was visiting with my family recently my mom pulled out some old diaries. In reading them she noticed a theme, and she began to read through several passages...

On an on the entries went. I wish I was making that up, but I was a lazy sluggard of a kid! What shocked my parents was that they said they never caught on! Somehow I just always schemed my way out of work. But eventually, i had to experience to rights of passage of horrible jobs. I remember my first job working in a retail store. I didn’t even work the front desk- I was a stock boy for a summer. I went into that job full of youthful enthusiasm and joy. I was young, strong, eager to make some money and have a great summer. Before September arrived I was a broken, lifeless shell. They had sucked the joy and meaning from my existence. OK, it wasn’t that bad, but it was pretty bad. It was the all-to-frequent work environment where the manager was kind of a jerk, and so that jerkiness just trickled down through the system, getting worse and worse until it got to the lowest guy in the food chain.

After my first year of study I got a summer job working in a foundry. Some of you have no idea what that even is. Few people today will ever have that job. I grew up in a little steel town and lucked a job at one of the last running foundries. In many ways it was awesome, it was like experiencing a piece of history that we all knew wouldn’t last much longer. In most other ways, it was hot, dirty, dangerous work. At that point in my life I had a pony tail halfway down my back and all the guys, I mean every one of them, called me Fabio all Summer long. I mean, it was kinda of a compliment, I suppose, Fabio being a sex symbol of the 90’s. I really don’t think any of them ever learned my real name.

Everyone should have the joy of a lousy job at some point in their life. You know, that whole, “it builds character thing.” Why does everything that build character have to be so hard? But the truth is that God made you to work! Work should a source of joy, of delight, of purpose, of fulfillment, of profit in our lives. Simply put, one of the most important goals of your life should be to discover the work you were made to do!

So today I want to talk with you about your work. I want to talk with you, mom or dad who’s full-time work it is to care for your kid or kids, work that isn’t valued or esteemed by the culture, yet is so invaluable that the very fabric of our society would fall apart without you.

I want to talk to you who has recently lost their job for whatever reason- you’ve lost your job, your livelihood, and along with it, a huge sense of your worth and value and purpose and self-esteem. You have no idea what the future holds, made you are afraid of what the future holds, and trusting God right now is the biggest stretch of your life.

I want to talk with the person who hates their job. It is miserable, it seems like it is killing you, but you keep plugging along, because you know it’s better to work that not work, you know that you’d simply do what every it takes to provide for yourself and your family. But you sure hope that God has something better in store for your future.

I want to talk with you, kid, you have no idea what you want to do with your life and work. You just haven’t had enough time, enough experience, enough people speaking into your life to help you figure out what it is you are wired to do. You are hopeful to find a career you love that will make a difference in the world. But you also have fear- fear of going down the wrong path, of not discovering what it is you love.

I want to talk with you who feel like you have discovered your calling in work. You feel like you an in the flow with God, you like or even love what you are doing. Maybe you work is your calling- you are doing something that provides your income and is your ministry. Maybe it’s teaching, or health care,or counseling, or a business, or construction or manufacturing or agriculture or community service. Or maybe you are doing something that provides and income and allows you to pursue your calling and ministry in other areas. You see how God has put things together to use you in a variety of areas and ways to do his work.

I want to talk with you who maybe doubts this whole thing. You are still wondering if there really is a plan and a purpose and a calling on your life. You wonder if what you do matters at all or could matter at all. You would love for your life to be such an integrated whole that all areas flow together into a sense of God’s plan, including, and especially in what we’re talking about today, your work.

I want to talk with all of you about this, because all of us will be in several of these areas at different times in our lives. Let me first dispel what is the most unbiblical understandings of work.

Some people think that the point of life, like me as a kid, is to get out of work. I meet with a new financial advisor the past two weeks. This series served as a spring board for me to completely review my financial portfolio- where am I at, where do I want to go, how an I going to get there. This actually provided me an amazing opportunity to talk to someone about my life goals and values, and to gain much wisdom from this man. One of the big things we talked about was my value of giving, my value of being on a a budget to keep spending in control, but for me, to also have the freedom to enjoy my spending. And of course, and what really becomes a financial advisers primary job, we talked about investing.

It is very interesting to me how the goal of many for investing is to get out of work. In fact, he gave me a mug. Here it is- freedom 55. The goal of work is to get out of work by 55. Or earlier- to put in your 30 years and be then “enjoy” the second half of your life.
Now this will be the case for some. Some will have a job that is so lucrative that they can think about leaving one area of work at the age of 55, and moving on to other things. For most of us, this will not be the reality, and should not be the goal.

The goal should be to discover the work that God has called you to do, and to find meaning in that work. Instead of living for the second half of your life, how about making living something you do right now. In Genesis 1 God creates the man and the woman, they fall in love, God tells them to make babies. And, when they are not making babies, what are they to do? Work! They were designed to work and put into a world where work needed to be done. This is called the cultural mandate- that it part of God plan and design that we would be His workers in the world, cultivating the creation.

I want you to think about two questions:

1. If you could DO anything with your life, what would you do? No concern with money right now, this is not about a job. What would you DO with your life? What would you like to do with your 40 plus hours a week, your 9-5, 5 or 6 days a week?
2. Second, and more importantly, What does God want to do through you?

If the two match up, perfect. Thank God. Celebrate. If they don’t, you have something to really pray about and work through. If you can’t answer either question, you have some serious soul searching and ground work to do. If you are in your teen years, that’s fine. Some of us will discover what we want to do and what we know God wants us to do with our lives from a very early age. Most will have to embark on a journey. Get ready to enjoy the ride. If you are just into your working years, you may have found it- great. More likely, you are now, with your first work experience, learning some awesome things about yourself that you’ve never seen before. If you are middle aged, ore beyond, I hope, I pray, you are in a position where you are doing something out of a profound sense of calling. Or you are now very actively working yourself towards the fulfillment of that sense of calling.

This is what the bible says about our work. Ephesians 2:8-10 a favorite passage of many... 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

The foundation of getting our calling for work in place is first getting our salvation secure. The passage reminds us of the core truth and foundation of our faith- we are saved by grace. God graciously, lovingly, mercifully comes to us with the gift of life and salvation. We can not save ourselves. We are not the authors of our lives, nor are we the authors of our salvation. God has come to us in Jesus Christ; Jesus gives us the free gift of salvation. We don;t earn it. We don;t buy it. We are “good enough” for it. Maybe you hate that- you want it to be a transaction- “OK God, i’ll go to church every Sunday, you save my soul. I’ll read the bible every day, OK, every other day, and you save me. I’ll give a few bucks to charity, you save me.” Should you want to worship God, yeah. Should you want to read his word? Yeah. Should you want to give generously? You bet. Should you want to live a good, moral, virtuous life characterized by the things of god like love, joy, peace, patience kindness, goodness faithfulness gentleness self control? Yes, we should want to do all these things and more out of a GRATEFUL RESPONSE to the GIFT of our life and salvation in Jesus.

With the correct understanding of our salvation in place (Gift), God goes on to say in a very direct way what he does want us to do with the gift- good works. or to break it down- Three things I want you to embrace:
Uou are a masterpiece!
Made for good works- God has a job for you!
Which are already in place for you!

You are God’s workmanship. Any artists in the house? Anyone who like to make stuff? Everyone who likes to make stuff knows the amazing sense of ownership, accomplishment, and love that we have for the stuff we make. The music we write, the clay we mold, the wood we shape, the gardens we cultivate- there is something about the stuff we make, that reflects us and for which we have a special purpose. The story is told of Michelangelo when he was preparing to carve David, perhaps the most famous statue in all the world. For more than 100 years a monstrous mountain of marble lay in the courtyard of the Florence monastery. Numerous other artists has mangled and marred the stone in feeble attempts to tame the beast. Then, in 1505 the young Michelangelo laid on the monster and was captivated. For hours and days he sat staring at the beast, and when finally asked when he was going to get to work, he said he already was. He was actively envisioning the masterpiece that would emerge from the now shapeless form. For three years he worked, day and night he worked. Then the world gazed on in wonder as David finally broke free and into life. It is said that some remarked- “the only thing that it lacks is speech itself.”

Many of us fee like a shapeless chunk of stone. But all of us are God’s workmanship. and out of all of us is emerging a thing of beauty, a masterpiece being shaped by the master artist. he is working us into what it is we will be. Now here’s the thing- he can already see it. He can picture it in his minds eye. But the world might not see it yet, we might not even see it yet. For some of us the work will emerge quickly. For others, it will be a long process with a lot of chipping away. But all of us are God’s workmanship.

Let me tell you something about being God’s workmanship. Our God is a very creative being. Our God is able to come up with some pretty amazing stuff. I’ve stood on the top of mountains and swam inside the coral reefs of the sea and I’ve seen a lot of things in between that make my jaw drop in complete and utter awe at the majesty, the beauty, the magnitude and might of our God. But nothing, nothing at all, nothing else in the world compares to the workmanship in each and every one of you. You are not just God’s workmanship, you are his masterpiece, his image bearers, created before eh foundations of the world with each and every one of your days prepared in advance for you, with each and every one of your characteristics set in place for you.

And how many of us have looked in the mirror, and looked at our lives, and wondered to our selves, why am I not like other people? Why don’t I fit in with the crowd? Why am I so weird? And let me tell you, I’ve hung out and paid visits with a lot of you, and you are a weird bunch of people. You draw pictures of me while I preach that are better than most people could ever dream of doing. You do things like Roller Derby. You do things like NOT live together before your married because you think it’s best the best way for you to start your relationship and honor God. You do things like give money to a church that meets in a theatre. You do things like ask me who’s in need, then make anonymous gifts to those families. You do things like taking in needy children that nobody else wants or loves. You do things like wake up before the sunrise and pray for me, and our church, and our city. You do things like going to other countries to help people learn to help themselves. You do things like practice music for hours so another person can experience a few minutes of praise and beauty. You do things like turn down lucrative carriers to care for your kids.

You, you are weird people. You are strangers and aliens in the world the bible says. You are in the world, but not of the world. You are in the world because you have a role to play, a job to do, a work for God’s kingdom. But you are not of the world- you are now investing in the kingdom of God. You trajectory is now toward eternity. Your perspective is different. Your perception is different. Your place is different. Your lives look different and feel different and they are different because you are different. You are weird, and you are wonderful. And the sooner you can learn that, the better off you are going to be, and the better God is going to be able to use you.

Young folks, right now, let me tell you, you are weird, and that’s just the way God wants you to be. You are weird and you are trying to find that balance between fitting in a finding your unique self. So you are testing it our in safe,fun little ways- I’ll try these clothes, or this music, or these sports, and this stuff. Sometime testing out those things can be lots of fun. Sometimes they can lead down dangerous roads. But young people can I just ask you, embrace what makes you truly unique, not clothes that anyone else can buy or a image that anyone else could fashion or music that anyone else can listen to or anything simply superficial like that- embrace Jesus Christ and embrace that you are God workmanship, you are one of God’s masterpieces, and he made you uniquely you- you likes and dislikes, your skills and your lacks of skills, your size, shape, color and everything about you just the way he wanted you to be. Can you embrace that and accept that you are a stranger and alien in the world and that the world should look upon you as a bit weird and that’s just the way god planned it. Can you have faith that God has you marked as a masterpiece!

You are a masterpiece created uniquely by God and for God and the best thing that you could possible do is to embrace the work that you are so that you can do the work that God has called you to do! Embrace what God has worked in you, so you can do the work he has planned for you!

God has a job for you to do. God has a great work for you to do in the world.
A work of art that only you can craft.
There is a song that only you can sing.
A discovery that only you can make.
A business that only you can run.
There is life that only you can bring into the world.
A life that is broken that only you can touch.
Someone who is looking for God, and you are the one who will tell them about Jesus!

This is perhaps the most exciting truth about our God and faith, and yet the hardest to believe. To believe that not only are you God’s workmanship, but that he has then a work prepared for you to do. YOU are that important. YOU are that vital. YOU are that essential in God’s economy, in God’s kingdom, in God’s plan.

How AMAZING that God has a plan for your life. He has created the blueprint for your work already! And yet the intensity of that revelation is almost too much for some people. They think so little of themselves- Who am I that God should notice. Who am I that I should make a difference. Who am I that there is work that only I can do.

We want to fade into the shadows, but God wants to bring us into the light. Maybe not the spot light, not a pedestal for the world to see, but into the light of his will and work in the world. Into the light of his presence and the knowledge that you are about his work prepared in advance for you.

I want to tell you a story about a family that does an amazing work. It’s not so much their work-work. It’s not how they make a living, though it helps pay the bills. But it’s there work. Right now they are fostering a little boy with special needs. A little boy who nobody else wanted, whose own parents were not able to care for him. The parents have now said that they want to put the boy up for adoption, and child services has asked this family to adopt. Now they are praying about this decision. What will it mean to not just care for this boy, but to adopt him? What does it look like for couple to adopt a child some 50 years younger than they are? What does this mean for the rest of their family? Does this mean that they would deny another couple the privilege, that they word they used, the privilege of adopting this precious child?

Folks, that’s what doing the work of God looks like. It makes you weird. It makes you different. It makes you set apart. It makes you a masterpiece in God’s kingdom. It’s not always clear-cut. It’s more often messy. It messes up your routine. It messes up you comfort zone. It messes up the pre-packaged plans you had for your life. it will mess you up and mess you over, but you won’t want it any other way.

We are God’s workmanship, made for works, works prepared in advance for us to do. That is the promise of God that we must embrace in faith to see it begin to play out in our lives. To wake up each day and say God, what it the work you have prepared for today. What it the big picture of work you’ve created for me? What is maybe that work today that you want me to do? The each day we can be about God’s BIG work, and about the little works. I can be about my big picture of work as the pastor of this church, and God can use me for the works of any given day that I am called to do.

Today, I want you to embrace this reality and begin this journey of fulfilling the works prepared in advance for you. Let me propose to you what might be the three greatest days of your life:

The day you were born- may you celebrate the gift of life given to you.

Second, the day you were born again- may you celebrate the gift of a relationship with God that is so profound, so life changing, that can only be described, like Jesus does, as saying you are born again, born spiritual by the Holy Spirit coming into your life, making Jesus real to you, drawing you into a relationship with God. Maybe you know, or will know, the moment it happens, maybe it slowly dawn on you.

Third, the day you come to understand why you were born again. The day or that season when you gain that revelation, that insight, that deeper sense of calling that makes sense of your life- who you are, why you are the way you are, what you are called to do, the works prepared in advance for you.

But folks, each of those days are only the first step into a great adventure of faith. They are not just a one shot deal. Especially the last one. That is the one we grow into the rest of our days not just on earth, but for eternity.

Give a Bit

* Disclaimer- I do not edit my manuscripts- they are written as an outline for my preaching. There are many spelling and grammatical errors.

OK, Quiz time. Right now, in your mind, I’m asking you to put a label on yourself. Don’t think about this too hard. Don’t over analyze this. I’m going to give you three options: Are you a giver, a saver or a spender?

Something popped into your mind immediately, and that was probably your most honest answer. Now if you are here and you are married or engaged or with your significant other, I want you to label them, right now- giver, saver, spender. Now lean over and tell that person what you think they are- no, just kidding. You can have that conversation on the way home. Next week I’ll preach on how to save your marriage after the biggest fight of your lives as that will be necessary after some of the conversations people are going to have. But honestly, what label would you put on yourself if you had to be labeled: spender, saver or giver?

Most people are most motivated, most driven, most identified, and most wrapped up in spending habits. That just statistical fact. It’s what drives me, it what consumes me, it’s what keeps me awake at night. We are spending, consuming creatures. If you are a spender you have to have the biggest, the best, the nicest and the newest. You got a credit card when you turned 18 and you never turned back. You always buy with credit because you don’t have to think about the money you’re spending, in fact, you don’t have a choice because you don’t have any real money to spend. If you’re a spender you have lots of friends, because you have lots of stuff. I mean, I love to be around spenders. They just get caught up in spending, yeah, I’ll pay for it, hey supersize it, hey, thrown in that set of sham-wows! Spenders pimp their rides, their cribs, and have extreme makeovers. Let me be clear that SPENDING IS NOT EVIL. Spending is a part of life, it should be a gratifying and fun part of life to help our selves and our economy. But if you are primarily driven by spending, you are probably in debt, and in trouble.

Some of us are savers. And again, nothing wrong with saving. It’s a part of the equation, and a good part, but if you are primarily driven to save, that can be a problem. You love saving. Nothing gives you more pleasure than saving. Unlike a spender, you pride yourself on your label. You might not flaunt it, but it makes you smile. But you might be so much of a saver, that you’re no fun. If you are a saver to the extreme, your savings are probably your best friend. They may be your only friend. You always let your friends drive, but never help pay for gas. You never offer to pick up the tab. Going dutch on dates is standard operating practice for you, even if you married. You always order water, with lemon, then sweeten it with sugar, then take the sugar packets and stuff them in you pockets, and a few extra napkins to keep in your car. Incidentally, it is from this position that I speak out of. I am predisposed to want to be a saver. My wife is dutch but I out dutch every dutch person I’ve ever met. Honestly, you’d think I grew up during the depression and was raised in abject poverty the way I agonize over spending money. I’ve had to learn how to enjoy spending money not just on fun things, but even on the basics of food and shelter. I am wired to save.

Some of you are givers. Interesting, real givers would also be the least eager to ever label themselves a giver. That’s a dynamic that will become clear when we get into our text. Most people most everyone, regardless of religion, of age, of cultural background, most people intuitively see this value of giving as the best way to live, the best approach we should have with stuff, the most desirable of labels if we must in fact label ourselves. There something in all of us that resonates with giving. Giving resonates with us because one, we understand intuitively that we are where we are today because someone at sometime gave to us. We’ve been given something- given food, shelter, love, protection, resources, opportunities, and we have been blessed by people giving to us.

And because someone gave to us, almost everyone at some point in their life gave to someone else. You gave a little something. Maybe is was just the cookie half of you Oreo when you split it with a friend in the school yard. You gave, and something in you felt so good, so right, so generous, so connected. You gave and something clicked and you knew that most old saying are grounded in profound truth and that yeah, it really is better to give than to receive, because giving did something in me and changed something in me in a way that receiving and spending and saving never has.

Here’s the thing: We resonate with giving because when we give we resonate with the heart of God, who is at heart, a giver. God gives. God gives until it hurts. God gives until he bleeds. God gives and so when we give we connect with the one in whose image we are made, and we are more ourselves when we give. Actually, I’ll put it this way, we are most ourselves when we give. We are most human and most Godly in our giving.

God gives because God wants something for you. This is counter our experience with most people and in most of life. Most people want something from you, especially when it comes to money. The credit card company will tell you that they want you to be free, that they want you to have fun, they want you to have stuff and travel, but we all know what they really want is something from us, not for us. They want us to make the minimum payment so they can get more money from us over the long run.

But God genuinely wants something for us before anything else. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not die but have eternal life. God gave his son, Jesu gave his life not because he wanted something from us, but because he wanted something for us. God gave so we could live.

In a world where basically everybody and everything wants something from us, it’s hard to believe that God wants something for us. But the truth is that this is what the bible teaches- that before anything else God wants to give to us, he wants something for us. THen knowing god is for us, he wants us in a relationship with Him. then once we are in a relationship with him, then, like any relationship, he wants it to move into that place we we both want something for the other. That’s what great relationships are based on! Gods wants life and love and grace and mercy and forgiveness for us, and we want praise and honor and glory for God! We both want something for the other in the relationship. Giving will become then, and essential part of this relationship, of working out what God wants for us, and what we want to for God.

I want to talk to you today about becoming a giver. And to do this we will go to what is perhaps the most famous teaching of Jesus, the sermon on the mount. This is Jesus’ opus, some of his best stuff. He covers the most basic stuff that God desires for us. Because this is so basic this will help us set the tone for this whole concept of biblical finance. The thing is this- Jesus is speaking to a group that has already bought into his message. He not necessarily trying to win them over, he’s leading them along.

SO if you are not sure about all this stuff today- if you not sure about this biblical finance thing and if you’re not even sure about this whole Jesus thing- this is awesome that you are here. Because what you’re about to learn not just what is fundamental to biblical finance, but what is fundamental to what it means to be a Christ-follower. I mean really, this will give you a deeper understanding of what it really means to follow Jesus, to give your life to him, and how that should change your life. And if you’re already a how, if you’ve already bought in, then this is stuff you just need to know and take to heart and take to practice.

In Matthew 5 Jesus has focused on setting some things straight regarding religion. He actually turned religion on its head and taught that it is really about a relationship with God. When he gets to what we label Matthew 6 Jesus starts teaching his followers about how to live righteously. So again, if you are going to follow Jesus, this is what he Jesus wants for you, and what you will want for Jesus- to live a righteous life in the eyes of God and men. How to we do that- three things, fasting, praying, and giving to the needy. But here’s the first thing- giving. The foundation of starting to live a righteous life in the eyes of Jesus is to start with giving. He says this...

First, let’s be clear, this is not for a show. We all know or have seen those who give to make the show of it. They hold the press conference and announce they’re great act of philanthropy. Should we not promote or praise giving? Of course we should. But some people do it for the show, and Jesus says that show is their reward. the implication is that when we don;t do it as a show, we have the added bonus of pleasing God in heaven, and actually gaining a heavenly reward from Him. Later Jesus will bring even more clarity to this when he talks about storing up your treasures in heaven. That’s one of the most amazing things about this life- that here and now we can already start investing in our eternal home in heaven with God.

But he says this in regard to the most basic expectation of following him- when you give to the needy. Not if, when. Jesus presupposes that his followers will begin to emulate his value system, not always his lifestyle, but always his values. And that first value of living a righteous life- giving to the needy.

So the first thing we need to understand about living for Jesus is how seriously he really does take giving to the needy. Now this is I think precisely what excites us so much about Jesus, and what scares us. It is so exciting and wonderful and amazing to have a God who takes seriously our calling to care for the needy. It is so frightening that he chooses us to do it.

Really, we love the idea of a God that wants to care for people. We say yes, God’s plan is to care for those in need. God, how are you going to do that? I’m so glad you asked- you. You are my plan! Oh, snap. So let me get this straight- God you want to care for the needy- yes! And you want me and the other followers of you, Jesus, to be the care givers? Yep. Ok, that’s going to be a bit of a problem. Why? Because, most of us will say, and this is what we are really going to work through- because Jesus, while I love that idea and that value of being a giver, that seems like a million miles away for me.

Folks, that’s our reality. We are called to be givers. Givers to the church, givers to the needy. Givers because God is at heart a giver. But if we are going to be givers, we have got to get a grip on our financial reality. And if we are going to get a grip on our finances, well, a few things. We are going to have to go to the bible to learn what God says about finances. We are going to have to do some hard learning, and some serious unlearning of things the world has told us. IN order to do that un learning, we are going to have to break some old habits and create some new ones. Folks, this is going to go against culture, against the grain of our world, against the grain of our habits. against the grain of some of our beliefs, and it is going to rub us the wring way. There will be chaffing my friends, oh yes.

So I want to talk with PRACTICALLY about what getting on a giving plan looks like. Because God doesn’t just have the value for giving, he has the plan for giving. And it requires DISCIPLINE. It requires getting on a plan. LIke I said, we won;t naturally give- we will more naturally spend or save. So we have to start with a disciplined plan for giving and biblically, it starts with this: Percentage giving off the top.

Well God, since you are the source for all things, and since all things really belong to you, you get the first cut. I’m going give some of this to you. Throughout the bible it’s called the tithe, which is finance talk for 10%. The biblical basis for giving, for everyone, is 10%. The very way that God has structured giving requires us to have a grip on our finances. Because, this is so vital, we can give 10% unless we know what 10% is. So you need to know how much your %.

Some here are thinking, did he just say only 10%, Saylor must have sat out in the sun too long down in Florida last week. But it is 10%. This is the baseline of giving back to God, meaning, you really shouldn’t go under 10% is what God teaches. It is taught so many places, I could overwhelm you with references. It comes up in the laws, in the history of the kingdom, and over and over again in the prophets- bring your first fruits, your first offering, to God. Bring Him his 10%.

Now let me say a few things here-
First, what we know about Jesus and giving is both incredibly freeing, and scary. Jesus is often that way. In the bible we have not record of Jesus asking for money to fund his ministry. That’s not to say he didn’t, we just have no record of it. We do know that Jesus lived simply. He depended upon the hospitality of others. We do know that the disciples had a pool of money that came from somewhere and was used to feed them and fund their mission. We know Judas kept the money. We know that Jesus encouraged the people to give, and to give extravagantly. Some people he told to sell everything they had and give it to the poor. Some people he didn’t tell them to do that, but something about Jesus compelled them to give extravagantly. We know Jesus expected those who loved God to give to the temple, and as we just read, to the needy.

Further, we know that Jesus had very high expectations for how the money given to the temple was used. We know that in a fit of righteous anger Jesus overturned money changers tables in the temple and claimed that they had turned God’s house into a den of thieves. People were not just making a living from the work and ministry at the temple, people were abusing the religious system, getting rich, not honoring God, and suffice to say, it made him furious.

Second, can you give more? Sure. The bible actually speaks about tithes and offerings- that is, your 10% off the top, then what you offer in addition. In the bible after the tithe they gave an additional offering of 10% more to fund religious feasts, festivals, and to carry out a ministry of compassion amongst the poor. So they were called really to give 20% went all was considered- but 10% went directly to the temple- for the priests, for the building, for maintaining the space and basically running the place. Jesus later affirms this for his followers, instructing them to practice the tithe while not neglecting the great causes of the kingdom of God and the actives of the church, which was care, compassion, justice, mercy for aliens, afflicted, orphans, widows and those in need.

We need to consider how we can actually give more than 10%. You need to consider what comes after the 10% directly to God in offerings. You need to consider if you are called to a life simplicity like Jesus was. You need to consider if Jesus instructions to give everything applies to you. You need to consider living off of a fixed figure. If your income keeps rising and rising, you will naturally allow your standard of living to rise right along with it. In fact, most people that have a rising income over time adopt a faster pace in their standard of living. In other words, wealth people are some of the worst for living above their means. Which is why rich people get themselves into crazy situations and extreme financial trouble. So some here in you lifetime will need to set the limit. to say, I’m going to be rich, so I need to say that I can actually live off of this figure, so then, everything else will go towards giving and saving.

A lot folks right now are praying please put me in that category God! I really want to be in that category of earning power! Here my challenge- some of you already are. Some of you are already there, you just don;t know it yet, because you still think that one more income bracket away. But the thing is, you are already 4 or 5 or 10 brackets away from where you were a few years ago. the problem is, you never got a grip on your income that whole time you earning power has been increasing.

Third, Can you give less? Sure, we are free. This is not a salvation issue. This is an obedience issue. God earned our salvation through the work of the cross. Jesus gave himself so we could live. Salvation is a gift from God the bible teaches over and over and over again. A gift, by definition, can’t be bought. You receive salvation as a gift. Once you have received that gift, the bible teaches that such a profound change has taken place that we are new creatures. As we grow as new creatures, as children of God, we mature. We want to deepen the relationship, we want to honor and obey and serve God. And here God is very clear- I want you to give, as I am a giver. I want you to be a part of what I’m doing in the world and a big wonderful practical way to do that is to give. To be blunt, the bible doesn’t say we are going to hell if we don’t give, so there’s your out if that’s what you’re looking for. But the bible is very clear that if we want to please God and obey God and honor God and be a part of what God is doing, then we give. God says I don’t need your money, I can do what I want to do. I’m giving you the invitation to willing give and be a part of my work.

Incidentally, if you don’t like or agree with anything I’m saying, please open the bible and start trying to prove me wrong. That’s a win/win situation for both of us. One, if you correct an incorrect teaching in me, then I grown and that’s great. Second, if you start reading the bible for yourself, then you are becoming more obedient follower of Jesus. So if you’re thinking, hey, does Jesus really teach and expect us to give? Read Matthew 6. Read Matthew 23. Read, and let me know.

Finally, Now let me talk more about this plan for giving. This is a disciple, it takes planning and a practice. And the early you start, the better you’ll be, and the easier this will come. ANd it follows a very predictable pattern in our life. This is fascinating.

We teach this stuff to our kids, and it works out like this- kids, you get a dollar for your allowance to start. And to teach this you should use the dimes. Kids are visual, kids are tactile, they learn best when they can see and touch and get their hands on it. Here’s what we are going to do with that dollar- one dime, 10% goes to God, it goes to church. 10% goes to savings. 80% goes to you. You begin teaching that to kids, and you show them this, and they are like, wow, I get a whole dollar. Remember how exciting a dollar used to be? It’s big money for a kid. You tell that kid they are going to get a dollar, and that of those 10 dimes, one goes to God, and they are like, one goes to God? One dime goes to God. Only one? Well, I want to give god two dimes. Whooa hold on there Billy, you don;t want to get crazy with this- 2 dimes to God, that a bit extreme.

But when you start young, when your kid understands that that dollar is itself a gift to them, then giving some to God makes complete sense. More giving God a dime is like nothing. And the disciple starts. And the truth is, for all of us giving a dime is pretty easy. But let’s be honest, something happens over time. We start to increase our learning potential. We get en dollars, then we say well, a dollar goes to God, and we say, that’s OK, that’s like one thing at the dollar store, but I still get to put one dollar into saving and could buy 8 more pieces of junk.

Then we get our first hundred dollars, and then we say, hey, 10 dollars, while it’s still ten percent, somehow seems like more money, even though it isn’t. Then we make our first thousand, then we get ten thousand, then we get a job that pays 50,000 a year. Then all of the sudden we look at that, and we say hold on a second, 50,000 a year, that means...$5000. Well $5000 is actually a lot of money. I could really do something with 5000 dollars. That’s like, a car, or a new kitchen, or a trip to Vegas, or even a whole bunch of things- Xbox and new shoes and a dinner and a show and an iphone and heck, a new Macbook! That’s some serious money.

But here’s the thing- it’s still just 10%. But what seemed like so little when we were so little and when what we had was so little, now seems like so much. But why does it seem like so much? Now because, when we look at the percentage that it’s any more, the percentage didn’t change, we did. We giving 10% seems like so much because we want so much. We want so much more for us.

That is why it is so important to start this disciple, this kind of plan, early on. Start it when you have a dollar so you’ll do it when you have 10 and 100 and 100,000 dollars because if someone made you stand up in front of a group of people and they said we are going to reveal to you what this person is- a spender, a saver, or a giver, you are going to pray, you are going to hope with your whole heart- oh please let me be a giver. Please let me be a giver.

And the power to be a giver is in your grasp. And it’s the first thing we need to do. And when it’s the first thing we do, it changes our grasp in money, it changes the way we understand and approach and manage our money. It changes our relationship with money. And that is the most important thing of all. It makes us master of our money, instead of our money mastering us. And if we are master of our money, if we are giving the frist part to God, then we are practically doing something to build into our relationship with God.

I’ve been doing a bunch of weddings. I have a very simple pre-marriage counseling plan. Do three things and you will make it as a couple. Do three things and I predict your marriage will not just survive, but thrive. Because if you do these three things you get a grip on the three big marriage killers. Three things you need to have straight and have a plan- God, sex, and money. You better get right with God and be on the same page with God and one another. In other words, you can’t be arguing about God. The best way to do that- agree that you will always be a part of a church. God to church.

Second, get a plan for sex. Get on the same page. And the way to do that, practice natural family planning. Do that and you ‘ll understand how God made you and you’ll have to talk about sex as a couple, and you have to talk about it.

Third, give 10%. From day one as a couple give 10% back to God. And if you do this you will be forced into getting on a budget and a plan for your money.

ANd if you do that, and I’ve heard this story told time and time again now- you will live better off of 90% that is managed right, than 100% that isn’t managed at all. You really will- you will be amazed. You will actually discover that 90% managed right goes so much farther than poorly managed 100%.

Get a Grip

* Disclaimer- I do not give my manuscripts a thorough edit- there will be many spelling and grammatical errors.


Let’s get a grip on what we actually believe about money, and what we do with money. Let’s say there are two camps of people, which in this case, there are. One camp has a firm grip on their money. The other camp, money has a grip on them. Which camp are you in? Don’t over analyze it- got with your gut. Do you have a grip on your money? Do you know how much comes in? Do you know how much goes out? Do you control where the money goes when it goes out? Do you have extra left over at the end of the month? If I said there is a family in great need in our church community because something happened and it was genuinely out of their control and this is now a genuine need, could you say hey, I have extra, I can help?

Or, does money have a grip on you? Money can grip us in many ways- we can be gripped by the love of money. We can be gripped by the lack of money. We can be gripped by fear of money. Does money have a grip on you, or do you have a grip on your money?

We are living in a season where many folks find themselves in new territory, and we find ourself losing our grip on money. Some folks never had a grip on money. They never had much money, they were never taught how to manage money, they have simply absorbed some ideas and believes and practices regarding money, but have never really taken the time to get a grip on finances. Consequently, this group of people is more likely than not in great debt. You have massive credit card bills and car payments and you probably pay rent because owning a home seems like a million miles away.

Some have lost their job and have lost their grip on making a living. Some have lost their life savings and have lost their grip on security. If you are in this position, maybe it’s now apparent to you, that you never really had a good grip on money- it was simply money in, money out. Your grip was more like an open hand and everything just ran through it. Because now you realize you had no plan. You can make it through the month, but after that, well, you have no idea what is going to happen. You can see now that you were really living hand to mouth, literally. And now that nothing is running through your hands, well, you don’t know. Credit cards seem like a good idea. Selling you car seems like a possibility, and you’re starting to think, you know, my kids 8 now, she’s old enough to go out and make it on her own. All the sudden you are interested in learning the spiritual discipline of fasting, and you’re especially interesting in teaching it to you teenage boys. Sons, we’ll only be eating on the days of the week that start with the letter A.

Some have have lost their grip and now you find you are consumed with fear, questions, anxiety. You are fighting about money with your spouse and tensions are running high. You avoid conversations about money because it always leads to a fight, and you think that by sticking your head in the sand that that it will go away, but the creditors keep calling and keep sending notices because that debt isn’t going to magically disappear. Not talking about it is only making things worse. It’s time to talk.

Because all of us want to be in this camp: we want to have a grip on our money. We want to master our money so that our money or lack of money or dream of money does not master us. This is a foundational biblical truth- if you don’t get a grip on your money, you money, by default, is going to get a grip on you. You will, by default, be gripped by money, you’ll love money, you’ll serve money. And the bible says very plainly that you cannot serve both God and money. Getting a grip on our money management is a deeply, profoundly, spiritual exercise. It has incredible, undeniable implications for our relationship and connection with God. We are going to talk about this more in this series, but I’m going to actually mix this up today.

But today I want to be super practical. I want to be practical because ultimately beign practical has profoundly spiritual implications. I want to teach you the most basic, biblical practical thing regarding your money that is going to guide us the next few weeks. If I can get to buy in early on to the practice of biblical finance, everything else that we talk about later is going to make so much more sense. The truth is that if there is anything practical that the bible teaches, it’s finance. It’s some to the most simple, applicable, life changing stuff in the bible. And if I can just plead with you, right now, for this month, buy in. Buy in for the next month. If you buy in to this stuff for the coming month, everything the bible teaches on this stuff if going to make so much sense. It’s going to have a context for you to understand it already happening in your life. You’ll get it, because you’re already doing it.

If you do this stuff I believe, because I’m living it, that you will become a better money manager, in turn you will worry less about money and be more confident about your future. If you’re in debt maybe you’ll even see light at the end of the tunnel. You’ll fight less with your spouse. You’ll feel like a more generous, more intelligent, more organized, more competent person. All of that will filter into and effect basically every part of your life. You’ll feel more connected in a relationship with God, feel better about your relationship with family friends and neighbors.

Then, at the end of the month, if this stuff does absolutely make sense to you, the just go back to your old ways. Just stop. But first, I’m inviting you, give it a month. Give it this month. Give it the next few weeks and see what God starts to do in you.

Some of you already have a sneaky suspicion that your relationship to God and your grip on finance is somehow connected. Some of you know know all too well that lack of money management has the power to wreck your life, to steal you opportunities, to re-direct you future, to actually enslave you and make you feel like a prisoner. Hey, lack of money management can make you an actual, literal prisoner. And likewise, just as poor money management has the power to do that much bad in your life, good money management has that much power to bring good into your life. That is, managing well what you have, whether that’s a lot, or a little, good money management makes all the difference.

So we want to get practical today, and it starts by getting a grip. The bible teaches this over and over and over again. Proverbs 17:1 Of what use is money in the hand of a fool, since he has no desire to get wisdom?

Money is at best useless, at worst, extremely harmful, in the hands of a fool. Last week in the video Dave asked, who here has ever made a foolish decision with their money. Don’t bother answering that, because the answer is every one of us. It may have been just a little foolish- I should never have bought those tickets to fly to Mexico. Why did I buy those acid washed bell bottom blue jeans? But maybe your decision was seriously foolish. And investment with way too much risk. A personal loan to an unreliable enemy (They were your friend at the time). Money, in the hands of a fool, money, without wisdom, money, without a grip, is useless at best, and terribly destructive at its worst.

Jesus told a story about this called the parable of the talents in Luke 19. Talents were a large sum of money. In the story a rich manage gives some money to his up and coming VP’s. each gets 10. When he checks in on them later- which all good money managers do- one double the investment. And other made a 50% return. Then one comes along and says here’s you money back- I stuck in under my mattress because I was afraid. The manager is furious- you could have at least put the money in the bank and earned some interest. Now, because of inflation, that money is worth even less. Things don’t work our well for that guy.

Now some of us, we have been so foolish with our money that if could have only just stuck it in our mattress, then we’d be better off. But we have done even worse. We have practically throw money away, tossed it into the wind, flushed it down the toilet. If God things were foolish and unfaithful just for stuffing money in our mattress, then it’s time we got a much better grip on what it means to manage money God’s way.

Jesus told another story about this Luke 12. It’s a little different. It’s about a man who thought he had totally mastered money. He thought the he had a grip on all of his money, but in truth, Jesus reveals, his money had a grip on him.

This story illustrates a truth that has largely been lost on most people. Having a grip on our money has NOTHING to do with how much money we have. There are many very wealthy people who have lost their grip on money, and consequently, their money brings them little pleasure, and brings God little glory. Likewise there are very poor people who have likewise lost their grip on money, and they too get little joy of our their lack of money, and bring little glory to God. You see, getting a grip on money isn’t about quantity. Our excess of money, our lack of money, our love and hate of money can all get a grip on us. Getting a grip on money means getting past yourself and getting rich toward God.

If we are going to get rich toward God, if we are going to get this kind of a grip, then we need to know 5 simple things. We are going to use our hands and each of our five fingers and learn this in order of importance.

Earn.
Give.
Get out of Debt.
Save.
Spend.

One, earn. Biblically speaking, finances start with earning. Proverbs 10:16 “The wages of the righteous bring them life, but the income of the wicked brings them punishment.” We are called, created, to earn a living wage. We are wired to work. To find satisfaction, joy, meaning and purpose in our work. And what we can’t do is separate our financial picture from our work. Our financial picture should start by embracing the biblical fact that God wired us to work. But not just that, God has a specifically calling on your life for the work you are to do. We are to experience a profound connection with God in discovering our gifts and using them for God and earning a living. For some of us our calling will be our work and will finance our lives. This is the position I am in. I feel like I was just wired to be a pastor- to lead, to preacher, to teach, to care for, pray for and give my life for the body of Christ. I have been affirmed in this call not just because I want it, but that others have wanted it from me and for me. So here I am, earning a living from my calling.

Some are equally called to things not normally considered ministry, but since ministry just means service, they should. Some are called to ministry as teachers, as nurses, as doctors as business people, as artists, as musicians, and the list goes on. Your work is your calling is how you earn your wage.

Some will have a calling that is funded through their work. Some will have a job, hopefully something they love, but they have this real sense that their calling is almost on the side. The apostle Paul the author of some dozen books of the new testament, the man who God used to take the church to the world, was a tent maker so the he could fund his calling to plant churches for a season of his life. The point is, we are created and called to work.

Now what I really want to talk about is the final four.

The second piece of the biblical picture of fiance after earning our wage, in order to get a grip on our money, is to give some of it away. The first thing we need to do to actually get a grip on our money is to give some of it away. This is the most empowering thing you can do with your money, it it the key to mastering your money instead of letting money master you, it is the foundation of making sure God is first on your life and not money, it is essential to being the kind of people we want to be. It is the first thing we should do with our paycheck. It is how we honor God and how we obey his teaching in the bible. We give. We just give some of it away.

Now next week I’m going to get way more into the specifics of giving, but let me mention briefly why giving is so important. I’m not even talking about giving to the church. I will, but I’m just talking about giving. When we make the first thing that happens with the money we earn giving some of it away, this changes everything that is going to follow. When we give some money away, we empower ourselves to truly be the manger of our money. We say hah, money, I own you and really, in the big picture to things, you hold so little sway in my life, that I’m just going to give some of you away. It doens;t matter how much you have, or how little you have, giving some away is the key to the rest of the process because it makes you the manager, it changes the dynamic, it sets the tone of the relationship, it makes you more the person you want to be because you want to be a giving, generous person.

When the first thing you do with money is give some of it away all of the sudden you look at the rest of them money very differently. You look at the rest of that money as a manager. It really is true. If you’re a giver, you know this, you know you manage the rest of your money better. If you have never been a giver to anything, the rest of this process won’t even make much sense to you

Third, the middle finger, Get out of debt. This is the one that immediately follows giving if we are in debt. Notice I say following giving. You must still be a giver, because you must always be a giver. And this is so practical. Because, since poor money management, and more specifically, being selfish started putting you in debt, you can’t get out of debt until you do something to begin rooting out that selfishness in regard to money.

This is the one we are trying to eliminate. We are trying to cut this middle finger out. Incidentally is kind of cool in out culture that the third finger, the middle finger, is kind of an offensive sign, and that this is the one thing we are trying to remove from the financial equation. So just like it would be offensive if I raised my middle finger, we should consider begin in debt an offensive place to be. We should not want to be in this position. I’m not taking this analogy any further, you get the point, what the middle finger represents is bad. We’ll talk more about this later. The next sermon on the Dave Ramsey series is all about getting out of debt. That is his specialty. I’ll post it so you can listen if that’s where you're at.

The ring finger save. Invest. Plan for the future. We already mentioned the parable of the talents. God wants us to plan and prepare for our future and our families future through the wise management of saving and investing our money. Now the two parable together give us the proper balance- unrestrained, selfish saving and invest to amass a fortune for our own glory ultimately will lead to a broken relationship with God. But poor planning without investment is unobedient to faithful Godly living. Those two must be held in balance with one another. Save, but do so in order that you can be rich toward God.

The Pinky, spending. The little guy. The last guy. And that’s just where spending should be. Spending, which consumes so much of our time, thought and energy, is really the littlest part of the picture. The part that comes last. Spending is in NO way evil. Spending should bring us joy and should bring God glory. Spending would also have it’s own little sub-set of rules. We will have fixed and flexible expenses. Fixed expenses should cover the basic necessities of life- taxes, shelter, food and clothing, utilities, stuff like that. Flexible expenses should include such things as entertainment, vacations, hobbies, stuff like that. What you spend in both fixed and flexible expenses should be in direct proportion to what you earn AND what you need. Just because you can afford it doesn’t mean you should spend it. What that means is that our spending should just be driven by what is available to us. We should decide how much of our income we want to make available.

OK, I think this is pretty cool, and the truth be told, I'm pretty pleased at myself for figuring this out. This whole hand analogy of getting a grip on biblical finance really works. The thumb- work, earning a wage. It’s our thumbs that uniquely make humans, and a few other of God creatures, able to do the work we do. It’s our thumbs that allow us to do much of the work of our hands. We begin to get a grip when we get this wonderful, opposable thumb working. It’s unlike the other 4.

Giving. the pointer finger. Giving points the way to proper biblical finance. You want your finance picture and position in life to point the way to God, to point yourself in a good direction. Giving points us toward God.

The middle finger, debt. The one bad guy in getting a grip. I’m talking about being enslaved to debt on depreciating or non-existing stuff. Debt is bad. You should be offended by debt. You should be offended when credit card companies say they want something for you when we all know they only want something from us- our high interest payments on junk.

The ring finger. Saving. The ring finger is at once the weakest finger of the hand, the one over which we have the least control. We need to approach saving in the same way. I will make a promise, a commitment to save for the future. I will make this commitment because it’s the wise way to live. But at the same time, I will not put my faith in these savings. I will not be so wrapped up in my saving that I think here is my strength, here is my future, here is my hope. No, saving is necessary, saving is wise, but saving doesn’t have the strength to save me.

Finally, the pinky. the littlest finger. the last finger. Spending. What comes first in our lives and in our minds, for many, not all, should come last. Spending is just the last part of the puzzle.

And if we are going to get a grip we need to get on a plan. We need to get on a budget. The most basic biblical budget, that most people follow is the 10-10-80 plan. Give 10, save 10, live on 80. We’ll talk more about this, how debt should factor in, and some specific things you need to consider of you make a 6, 7 or more figure salary.

But for now, to start, the most practical thing which all this represents, and what I’m encouraging you to do starting now, is to get on a budget.

Here’s the thing- we all live on a budget. Most of us just have no idea what that budget is. All of you live on a percentage of your income, you just don;t know what that percentage is! Some of you live on 80%. Some of you life on 100%. Some of you live on 180%. Really. There are folks living at twice the level of their income. They are amassing more and more and more debt each and every month.

But if we are going to be a giver, if we are going to get out of debt if that’s where were at, if we are going to save money and live on a spending plan, we need to get on budget. It simply tells us where our money is going to go. Getting on a budget simply says- here’s the plan. Here’s where every dollar is going to go- here’s what I will give, here what I will save, here’s what I will spend.

To make a budget we need to know 2 simple things- determine our income, and determine our expenses. We write down what’s coming in. We write down where is going out. Now a third part is very vital- to actually live by the budget. But first, two simple things. Income, expense.

I know, this is so complicated and hard to understand that you need a Ph.D. in economics. You mean to say I have a certain about of money that comes in? Yes, and its very complicated to figure you. You need to look at that pay-stub. You need to figure out your annual and monthly income.

Then figure out what goes out. Start writing it down. Get a program, use quicken. Use YNAB, use a pad of paper and a pencil and write it down. the date, the thing, the cost. You’ll be amazed, AMAZED, that before the month is over, before you even the a snapshot of one month, you’ll start planning. If you run out of income by the 15th, you’ll know you are in some serious trouble, and you’ll start to work toward a budget. If ou get to the end of the month, and you just make it, then you are going to need to figure out saving. If you get to the end of the month, and there’s money left over, then wow, God has put you in a position to really do something. If you’ve never given a dime away, I encourage you today, to give to God. If you don’t trust me, if you don;t trust this church, give it to another church. Give it to a charity you trust. I just know that once you give, God is going to do something in you, and when that happens, wow. It’s like a snowball rolling down a hill- it gets bigger, it gains momentum, it starts to build itself.

It’s not complicated. It’s not complicated at all. It just takes commitment. it takes a commitment to say I’m going to get a grip on my money. My money is not going to grip and master me. I will take this first step. I will get a grip, and I will see what God will then do in me. Get a grip folks, get on a budget, write down what comes in, what goes out. Because until we know that, well, we’re just being foolish with what God has put in our hands.