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Andy Stanley - Guardrails Part 4 Money Matters · Andy Stanley Sermons

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Every once in a while, and maybe you do this too. I wonder
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what I would have, what I would own, what I would have if
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I didn't know what everybody else owned, and what everybody else had. I
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wonder sometimes how much influence what you have has on what I have. And
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I also wonder sometimes what I would want if I didn't know what everybody else
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already had. And I also wonder sometimes how much more money I would have
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saved if I didn't know what you spent yours on, and if I didn't
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know what everybody else has spent their money on. And then sometimes in the
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deep recesses of my soul, I wonder how much more money I would have
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given away to people who have less than I have if I didn't know what
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the people who have more than I have had. My problem is this,
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I know too much. I know too much about what others have, and
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I know too much about what they have that I don't. And the interesting
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thing about me, not you, is that this information makes me dangerously discontent.
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In fact, this information has the potential to take me off into you
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know, off a cliff on one side, or into a wall on the
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other side. It lures me toward the edge of financial ruin. It lures
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me toward the edge of too much credit card debt. It lures me into
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making decisions that normally I wouldn't make, in decisions I would regret, owning
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things that later on I wish I could sell and get half the money back
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I wasted. It lures me in really dangerous situations financially, and specifically,
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it feeds this this internal appetite. You know, appetites are never fully and
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finally satisfied. That's the nature of an appetite. You satisfy them for a
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few minutes, and then you're over at the refrigerator going, hey, is
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there anything else in here to eat? You never fully and finally satisfying appetite,
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and my appetite for stuff it's an appetite and it grows and it's never
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fully and finally satisfied. So basically, I think I need counseling, and
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I should probably make an appointment. For most of you, isn't that true?
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Today we're talking about Guardrails. This is our fourth in the series on
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Guardrails. And in case you haven't been here, or in case you've just
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always wanted to know, what is the official definition of a guardrail here too.
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Some of you memorized it by now. It's a system designed to keep
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vehicles from straying into dangerous or off limit areas. A system that's created to
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keep vehicles from straying into straying into dangerous or off limit areas. As we've
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learned, and you know this now, guardrails are never placed in the danger
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zone. They're placed in the what the thank you? Yes, the guardrails
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are always placed in the safety zone. The guardrails are designed to minimize damage.
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There's going to be some damage, but it minimizes the damage. We've
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said that guardrails are designed to direct us and to protect us. But the
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point of this series is that the highway is not the only place we need
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guardrails. In fact, you would have avoided your greatest regret. You could
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have avoided your greatest regret if you had had guardrails, maybe some financial guardrails,
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some moral guardrails, some relational guardrails, maybe some guardrails in your marriage,
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maybe some professional guardrails. And we talk about guardrails in this capacity.
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We're talking about personal rules of behavior or personal standards of behavior. You have
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yours, I have mine. I don't have any right in the world to
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tell you what yours should be, but I encourage you to set them up.
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So these are personal rules, or basically, it's a standard of behavior
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that becomes a matter of conscience, A standard of behavior that becomes a matter
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of conscience, that is that I decide how far in this direction I'm gonna
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drift. I decide how far in this direction I'm going to allow myself to
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drift. And when I begin to drift in unhealthy or dangerous directions, it
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sets off alarm bells in my own heart, my own soul, and I
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go, wait a minute, Andy, you're moving too close, You're moving
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too far away. The point of a guardrail is actually to light up our
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conscience before we hurt ourselves and before we hurt other people. A guardrail is
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designed to light up your conscience just you know, alarm bells go off or
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you hurt yourself and before you hurt other people. So today I want us
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to talk specifically about financial guardrails. Now, if you're not a Christian,
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what I'm about to say is so important, so I hope you'll listen real
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carefully. If you're not a Christian, we're gonna look at some things Jesus
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says. And if you're not a Jesus follower, Jesus has no authority over
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you. So consequently, please don't feel like I'm trying to get you to
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do something you don't want to do, or trying to guilt you into something,
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because I have no authority over your life. You're a free agent.
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Do whatever you want to do. But for those of us who are Christians,
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we've already signed on. It's too late. Okay, you have to
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do this. If you're a Christian now, just to let you off the
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hook, most Christians don't do what Jesus is going to ask us to do.
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Okay, So you're in the majority, but you may be in danger,
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okay, because as a Jesus follower, the whole point of following Jesus
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as we say, yes, now what is it you'd like for me to
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do? But if you're not a Christian here's the other thing. It's a
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great time to have tuned in or to be here, because what Jesus suggests
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is something we should all do anyway, but you don't have to. And
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here's the last thing I'll say about that. If you're not a religious person,
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or maybe you're part of another religion, you're not a Christian. My
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opinion, you should always be curious about what Jesus says about anything, Okay,
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where not whether or not you think he's the son of God. You
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should at least be curious what did Jesus have to say about that. You
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don't have to do it, but I would think that you would want to
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know. And then the last thing is this, it's so interesting as a
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pastor and as you know, as a bunch of churches when people come in
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with challenges in their lives, when they want us to talk to their talk,
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you know, to them about their kids, or they come in and
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you can tell they want to talk about something that's kind of dark and they're
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afraid and maybe they've never told anybody before. Did you know that in most
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of those instances it has something to do with sex or money. That it's
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either directly or indirectly related to sex or money. But the fascinating thing is
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this that those are the two areas of New Testament teaching that are most disregarded.
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That the two areas in the New Testament where Jesus taught and his Apostles
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taught the two areas where people have most have the greatest inclination to say I
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don't want to listen to that has to do the New Testament teaches about sex
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and what the New Testament teaches about money. That's why what we're going to
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talk about today is so important. And yet there's something potentially on the inside
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of you that's gonna want to stiff arm it. And I understand that,
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especially if you're not a religious person, because word on the street is the
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Church is against sex and the church just wants my money. I mean that,
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that's our reputation right now. Last week we spent the whole time talking
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about sex. So if you missed the last week and you need to go
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back and listen to last week's message that you can find it on our apps,
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you can find it on our websites. It's easy to find. But
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you need to go back because last week I said, look, the Church
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isn't against sex. God isn't against sex. God created it. Remember my
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little story, you know, once up in time there was no sex,
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and then God said, I have an idea. The angel said, what
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is it? He said, you wouldn't understand. So God God came up
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with this. So the church, any church that's embracing the teachings of Jesus
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specifically, or is trying to be a church that follows the leading, can't
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be against sex, good grief. God created it. And when it comes
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to money, the church doesn't need your money. And the church doesn't want
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your money, or the church shouldn't because here's the deal. Jesus didn't want
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your money. God doesn't want your money, doesn't need your money. But
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God wants something for you as it relates to money. And as we're going
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to discover, Jesus wants something for you as it relates to money. And
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any good church that's trying to organize around the teachings of Jesus want something for
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you as it relates to your money. They don't just want your money now.
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And I say financial guardrail specifically. What I'm talking about is not how
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to stay out of debt. There's lots of programs to help you do that.
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This is not about how to avoid bankruptcy. That's a good thing to
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avoid, but this is not about that. This is talking about something much
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much deeper. In fact, you could be completely out of debt. You
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could have lots and lots of money in the bank and still be in a
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ditch. Financially, you could have all of your You could have your house
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paid off, your car is paid off, college tuition saved up, or
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your kids are done with that and no you know, college debt, no
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educational debt. You could you could be golden financially, and according to Jesus,
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that's why you need to pay attention. According to Jesus, you could
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still have run your financial car off the road and put it in a ditch.
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Because Jesus goes to when it comes to money, the heart of the
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matter. And that's why it's so fabulous. If you're a Christian, tune
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in, you got to do this. Okay, if you're not a Christian,
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hate you get to decide. But here is what Jesus said. Here's
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what he said. One day he's teaching, he says this, no one,
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that would be everyone, no one, No one can serve two masters,
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to which when I read that, I shrug and say, I don't
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even have one master. What are you talking about? To see, Jesus
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is shrewd and he's baiting us in and he says this, either talking about
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masters, either you will hate the one and love the other, or you
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will be devoted to the one and you'll despise the other to it. We
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say, what are you even talking about? You know one other devote despised.
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Maybe you have us confused with someone else. Now the little Greek word
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that's translated master, it's a very interesting little Greek word because when we think
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about master, we think about a boss. This wasn't a boss, this
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was someone who owned someone. And Jesus is saying, this is an issue
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of possession or ownership, that is, you can't be possessed except by one
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thing. Now you've met some people that you might have felt like were possessed
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by multiple things, but that's not what we're talking about today. He says,
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you can't. You can only be owned or be the possession of one
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person or one entity or one thing. You can only have one owner.
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Again, we say, well, that's fascinating, it's interesting, it's logical,
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but nobody and nothing owns me, And besides, what are you talking
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about? And we would expect him to say, you can you know,
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nobody can serve two masters. You can only serve God or Satan. But
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Jesus doesn't say that because Jesus is shrewd, and Jesus is right, because
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he's Jesus. And here's what he says. He says, you cannot serve
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God and money or God and wealth. In fact, the little Greek word
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can mean stuff. You can't serve God and your stuff. You can't serve
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God and money. Now, this is so fascinating because where he goes from
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here underscores this very very important point. And if you're a Christian, you
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gotta listen to this. Okay, here's what Jesus is saying that for Jesus.
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For Jesus, the primary issue, the primary issue regarding money for Jesus
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isn't the money. The primary issue when it comes to money for Jesus is
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mastery, control, ownership. The question that Jesus wonders about as it relates
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to our personal lives. If you're a Jesus follower, and if you're a
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Christian, and if you're not a Christian, should consider this as well as
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this, Do we have money or does money have us? Do we own
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it or does it own us? Do we possess and use it or does
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it possess and use us? And the reason Jesus followers need financial guardrails.
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Is that money and what money promises. Money and what money promises is the
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chief competitor for your heart and for your heart and for my heart. That
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money and what money promises is the number one competitor for ownership over my heart
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with God. And without guardrails of some sort, without guardless of some sort,
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you may never declare banker's rep So you may never have overwhelming credit card
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debt. You may be so good with your money, I mean, you
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may need to be the person that teaches classes on how to manage money.
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But his point is simply this. Without guardrails, you're either going to veer
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off the cliff of consumption or are you going to wreck your financial future into
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the wall of hoarding. One is unbridled desire. Consume, consume, consume,
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consume, Upgrade, upgrade, upgrade, upgrade. The other is unbridle
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fear. What if I don't have enough? What if we don't have enough?
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What if I don't have enough? What if we don't have enough?
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And the root cause for both of these is the same thing. And it's
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a word that we really don't like. It's a word that we can't see
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in the mirror and it's the word greed. Greed. Now, some time
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ago, a bunch of us memorized the definition of greed. I made it
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up, but I like it because it's easy to remember, and I need
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things to be easy to remember. And so I'm gonna give you the first
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part of the definition, and I'm going to see if you can remember the
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last word. Greed is simply this. Greed is the assumption it's all for
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my consumption. Yes, three people got that right. I feel so good.
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I think everybody everybody watching the livestream got at home. We could hear
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you as well. That's right. So what is greed? Greed isn't mysterious?
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Greed isn't you know, some miserly guy counting his gold, you know,
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and he never got married, never had kids, because he's gonna spend
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it all on himself. I mean that we sort of relegate greed to someone
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we don't know, and someone will never be. But greed is simply an
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assumption, the assumption that if it's placed in my hands, it's for me.
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If it shows up in my checking account is for me. If it
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goes into my four to oh one K is for me, If it's part
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of my paycheck or my bonus, it's for me. If it's part of
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my inheritance, it's for me. You know, if I win the lottery,
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obviously it was God's will. What are the odds of that it's for
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me. It is an assumption. It's an assumption. It's an assumption that
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it's all for my consumption. And if I choose, out of the compassion
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that occasionally bubbles up in me, if I choose to give some of what
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is designed for me to someone else, I hope God's watching, and I'm
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gonna give in slow motion in case he gets distrapped. Did you see that?
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Right? So some of y'all do with the bucket, you know,
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most of you can pass it real quick. Then every once in a while
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there's excuse me coming out slow, you know, kind of a thing.
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Right. It's the assumption that it's all for my consumption. Now, it's
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consumed now, spend, consume later. Hoarding consume now it's for me,
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spend, it's consume later. It's because I'm a hoarder. So but either
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way, it's for me. It's for me now, it's for me later.
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And here's the tragedy. And you've never thought about it this way.
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I understand it, because who has time to think about this though? When
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you live that way, whether you're Christian or not, or even if you're
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a part of another religion, When you live that way, you are living
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as if there is no God. You're living as if all there is to
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this life is this life. You're living as if you might as well,
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as Solomon says in the Solomon wrote the Book of Ecclesiastes. His whole point
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was, if all there is to this life is this life. That's why
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Ecclesiastes is hard for us to understand, basically saying under the sun, that's
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his phrase, under the sun, that is, in this life, you
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might as well eat, drink, and be merry, because tomorrow you die.
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And when it's over, it's over. And who cares what your kids
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think about you? When you're gone. You're gone, Okay, who cares
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about your legacy? What's a legacy? You're gone? And all the people
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who have a bad attitude about you because you hoarded it all and consumed it
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all, who cares? Because one day they're gone as well. So eat,
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drink and be married. Tomorrow you die. All there is to this
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life is this life. If that's what you believe, then eat, drink
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and be merry, because tomorrow you die. But if there is something in
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you, if there is something in you, even if it's not the Christian
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version, if there's something in you, you just have this suspicion there has
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to be more to this life, and there has to be something beyond this
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life, then you dare not allow your life to be driven by consumption or
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hoarding, because you're living as if there is no God. It's about me
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now or it's about me later. But then something interesting happens to all of
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us. At some point, Trouble comes along, trouble that you created,
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or maybe trouble somebody else created, Trouble that you created because you're spending got
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out of control, or you bought too much house, or you at least
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too much car, or you know, you got too many loans, you
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know, educational educationally related loans. But something happens that you created, or
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maybe there's financial trouble that somebody else caused. Somebody laid you off, somebody
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lied to you, a partner took the money and ran I had nothing to
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do with you. But either way, do you know what we do even
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if we're not very religious. Do you know what we do when suddenly we
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find ourselves with financial trouble, We do the strangest thing. We pray.
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It may be on your way to the bank, whispered prayer, or it
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may be flat out on the floor. Oh God, my God, my
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God, it's Andy. You have not heard from me in a long time.
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Hello. I have a cross and a star, David and a rabbit's
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foot And what you know, what do I? I just need your attention.
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You know. We pray. And here's what a prayer that is related
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to a financial crisis is. Whether you created it or somebody else created this
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is important when you pray. Here's what you're praying. You're saying, Dear
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God, I would like to invite you into my finances because I have a
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problem, and they'll come right this way. Let me explain my problem in
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case you have I this is an invitation for God to get involved with your
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money. Whether it's you need a job, or you need a break,
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or you need a consolidation loan, or you need mercy at work, whatever
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it is, it's God, I'm inviting you into this area of my life.
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God, I may have chosen the wrong master. So here's my question
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if you're a Christian, and here's my concern if you're not. If you
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think, if you think that you would pray and invite God in to your
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finances if there was a problem, why don't you go ahead and invite him
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in now before there's a problem. Why wouldn't you do that? Why wouldn't
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you invite him to be the master now? Because you know if things get
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out of control, you know, whether you're a pray in person or not,
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you're gonna pray that God would get involved if things go the wrong way.
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So the guardrails or the guard rail, I'm just really gonna give you
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one suggestion, the guardrail against greed. The way that you invite God in
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now before there's a tragedy. The way that you set yourself up for success,
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whether you have a lot of money or a little bit of money.
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The way that you do that is by reprioritizing. This is what Jesus teaches,
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and I'm gonna show you where he says it in just a minute.
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If you are living like most people, your finances look like this. This
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is what it looks like to be mastered by money. Here's why I say
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that live, save, gift. I'm just gonna live and spend my money
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on me, and if I have a plan at work, I may be
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saving along the way. And then if there's any leftover, or if I
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feel really compassionate, or if there's a flood or a tsunami or an earthquake,
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or there's somebody in my community that's in need, then I'll give if
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I have some leftover. But I'm gonna live, save, Give me first,
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me, second, everybody else, including what God's doing in the world
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through the church. Third. When you live this way, you are mastered
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because you are living as if there's no more to this life than this life.
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You are living as if God has no interest or no idea what's going
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on in your life financially, This is how most people live. They live,
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they save, and then they give. Jesus comes along, as we're
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going to see in a minute, and he's gonna say, if you want
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me to be the master of your life, you have to embrace the way
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I see the world in my values. And when you do, you're gonna
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flip this over. This is how you master your money. You give first,
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you save second, and you live on the rest. You give first,
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somebody else first, you save second, and you live on the rest.
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Now, whether you are a Christian or not, and whether you ever
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give any money to this church or not, I'm just telling you. You
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do this and you will send me a fank you note later. I ran
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into a gentleman this morning. He said, Andy, I remember the first
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time that you taught this and we were talking about I said that was nine
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years ago. He said yes, and it had a profound impact on my
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life. I'm just telling you this works, and this came from Jesus.
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Now, whenever the preacher talks about money, everybody gets nervous. You should
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get nervous. Okay. So I'm thinking, okay, how do I convince
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these people I love, and these people that if I knew that I would
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love, How do I convince them This isn't about me, This isn't about
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a specific local church. This is what it means to follow Jesus. So
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I came up with this illustration, and this is absolutely true when my children
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were young. I have three children. When they were young, they're twenty
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months apart. You know, the first one twenty months later, second went
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twenty months later the third and we did not plan it that way, but
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it just all worked out. We were busy, busy, busy, busy
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in those early years. So we had three kids, and when they were
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old enough to understand, we put three jars in all of their rooms and
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we labeled these three jars, give, Save, and Live. And I
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taught my kids as soon as they could understand, when you get an allowance,
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when you do chores, you get money. Grandmama gives you money,
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Granddaddy gives you money. Sometimes Grandmama didn't even know Grandaddy give you money.
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Grandparents are weird like that. When you get money, we want you to
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put ten percent in here. We want you to put ten percent there,
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and then that's bubble gum. And let's go to the drug store and let's
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go to the toy store. That's your money and do anything you want to
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with that money. But the first money, we're gonna split it up nichols
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and quarters and dimes, so you can figure this out. It's kind of
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a math lesson without it being a math lesson. You know, ten percent,
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give save, Live. This one's gonna go up and down. This
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one's gonna go up and down, mostly down. And this one. You're
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gonna watch this jar fill up. Now, here's my question for you.
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Why in the world with the preacher teaches kids to give first, save second,
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and live on the rest? Is it because I want the church to
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get my children's money. No, I could have just taken their money.
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I could have gone in there at night. I could have gone in there
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at night and just emptied it all into a bag, and the next morning,
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I'm like, I don't know, tooth fairy. You know, I
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don't know why somebody came in there and stole your money. You know,
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I don't know what happened right now. That's not is that the church needed
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their money. You know, honey, I had paid that electric but dollars
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and seventy cents we need that. Don't even put it in the jar right
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here to the pastors. And no, it's not because we needed their money.
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I'm telling you why I did not and I do not want my children
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to be mastered by money, because I know where that leads. We all
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know, to some extent where that leads. This is the key to financial
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independence. Independence from the belief that life equals stuff. People who live as
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if life equals stuff live as if there is no God. And here's the
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thing. Come on, no matter what you have, you are always discontent.
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Always. There is no amount of stuff that makes you completely content.
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Why because it's an appetite. And when you're driven by your appetite, unhealthy
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things happen. And let me just tell you, Okay, just the heads
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up. Ninety nine percent of you, probably one hundred percent, but let's
22:56
say ninety nine percent of you. Ninety nine percent of you are going to
22:59
run out of time before you run out of stuff, not one hundred percent.
23:04
Most of you are probably all of you. You are gonna die,
23:07
and there's gonna be a whole lot of stuff left over. You know what
23:11
that means. It means you lived as if life was stuff. It's not.
23:18
Your life is your time, Your stuff is your stuff. Why would
23:23
you live as if life is stuff? And why would you allow your stuff
23:29
to master you and control you? And I didn't want my kids to grow
23:33
up that way. I didn't want them to grow up thinking that way.
23:37
It results in financial independence in the sense that it's independence from a lifestyle that
23:41
relegates God to emergencies. God. You know, you stay right in the
23:45
corner and if I need you, I'll get you. I don't want my
23:48
kids to live in that way. I want them to invite God into every
23:51
single area of their life, including their finances. Independence from this. It's
23:55
really independence from a life independent of God. That's what this habit does.
23:59
This have It ensures that you don't try to live your life independent of God.
24:03
Because for the rest of my children's life, for the rest of your
24:07
life, the rest of your life, for the rest of your life,
24:11
for the rest of your life, money is going to compete for first place,
24:14
and money and stuff is going to compete for your heart and for my
24:18
heart. And I don't want money to win with them. And I don't
24:25
want money to win with you either, But who cares what I think?
24:30
You are, heavenly father, Your heavenly Father doesn't want money to win either.
24:36
I don't want my kids to grow up having to choose between money or
24:38
their personal peace. I don't want them to prioritize money over their marriages.
24:44
I don't want them to prioritize stuff and the acquisition of stuff over their health,
24:48
or over their children, which will be my grandchildren. I don't want
24:51
them to be slaves to consumption. I want them to have stuff. I
24:59
don't want their stuff to have them. That's why I did that. It
25:02
has nothing to do with the church getting their money or their church getting your
25:06
money. Jesus, best we can tell. Never and I don't get any
25:10
ideas. Never took up an offering. I don't want my kids and I
25:17
don't want you to be slaves to consumption. I want them to own their
25:19
stuff. I don't want their stuff to own them. So this is what
25:22
it looks like. You give first, you save second, and you live
25:26
on the rest. That's how you do it. So here, here's what
25:29
Jesus said. He said, no one can serve. No one can serve
25:32
two masters. You'll hate the one and love the other. You'll be devoted
25:33
to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
25:37
And then a few minutes later, in the same sermon, he says
25:40
this. He says, so in light of that, do not worry saying
25:44
what are we gonna eat? Now? You know, we don't worry about
25:45
what we're gonna eat. But that's because we have refrigeration. Back in those
25:48
days, the only thing that kept without, the only thing they could keep
25:52
for very long, was grain and wine, grain and wine. That said,
25:55
everything else rited and spoiled. What are we gonna eat? What are
25:59
we gonna drink? Eat? What are we gonna eat? What are we
26:00
gonna drink? What are we gonna wear? Clothes were extremely extremely expensive,
26:04
and Jesus saying, look, I know you think about this stuff all the
26:07
time. I know your inclination is to worry about it all the time,
26:11
to think about it all the time, he says, But I don't want
26:14
you to do that. And here's why. Because when you worry, worry,
26:17
worry, worry about the future, here's what you're gonna do with your
26:19
hands in your heart. You're gonna close them. And if you're gonna be
26:22
my follower, you cannot live your life with closed hands and a close heart,
26:26
he says. Besides that, for the pagans run after all these things.
26:32
You don't want to be a pagan? Do you now the word pagan?
26:34
We use this term in a completely different context, a different way than
26:37
Jesus man. A pagan in the first century was basically anybody that believed in
26:41
the god's plural as opposed to one God. So for the Jewish people,
26:45
everybody other than the Jews. They were all pagans because they believed in the
26:49
gods, and the gods could care less about people. The God's toyed with
26:53
people, the gods manipulated people, the gods played with people. The gods
26:59
did not care about people. The gods were not concerned about people. So
27:02
the Pagans were constantly trying to bribe the gods to do their bidding. Sacrifice
27:07
animals in some cases, sacrifice children, sacrifice whatever we got to sacrifice in
27:12
order to get the gods to do our bidding. And Jesus says, look,
27:17
if you worry, worry, worry, worry, worry, you're living
27:19
like the pagans that don't even that don't have gods who care anything about them.
27:23
They don't believe there's a personal God that's actually involved in their life.
27:29
And your heavenly Father and this is this is the game changer right here.
27:33
And besides, your heavenly Father knows that you need all that stuff. Now
27:38
here's the thing, Christians, do you believe that Jesus said it? Not
27:41
me? Jesus said to his audience that our heavenly what did he call it?
27:48
Where were supposed to call them? Again? O, your father that's
27:49
it that our heavenly father knows what we need. If your heavenly father knows
28:00
what you need, do you need to worry? And Jesus says no.
28:07
And I'm telling you, the moment you wrap your heart and your belief system
28:10
around the fact that God knows what you need, you have certain you have
28:14
in that moment, earn the opportunity and the right to keep your hands wide
28:19
open. But he says, but, but, but but instead of worrying,
28:27
instead of hoarding, instead of consuming, here's what I want you to
28:32
do. And now he says, get your pen and paper out. Here's
28:33
the plan. Here's what you're gonna do. Here's how you're not gonna worry
28:36
anymore. Here's how you're gonna know that I care. Here's how you're gonna
28:38
know I'm involved. But seek first, that is, put first, reprioritize,
28:45
but seek first. That's reorder, rearrange, rethink, but seek first.
28:51
And then he refers to his father in heaven, But seek first,
28:55
his kingdom and his righteousnes is. Now this word just throws a every time,
29:00
because we don't live in a kingdom. We don't even think there should
29:02
be kingdoms. We don't get kingdom. Here's what Jesus is saying, and
29:04
this is so, so so important. He's saying, I want you.
29:08
I want you to seek the kingdom of my father, and my father's kingdom
29:15
is an other's first kingdom. If you're gonna follow me, it's about others
29:21
first. He is an other's first king who dwells and has developed and is
29:26
creating an other's first kingdom. And the reason it's his righteousness is because Jesus
29:30
taught throughout his ministry that what's right for other people is what's right, what's
29:34
best for other people is what's best. That the Kingdom of God is an
29:38
other's first kingdom. That's all about doing right for other people. And so
29:45
Jesus says, look, if you're gonna invite me into that area of your
29:48
life, if you're going to ask me to be in control of your finances,
29:52
you need to know where this is going to take you. This is
29:53
gonna take you to others firstness. One day, Jesus is on the way
29:59
to Jerusalem, is toward the end of his ministry. All the way Jerusalem,
30:02
his guys are going along. They don't want to go because they know
30:03
that he's probably gonna be arrested, and if he's arrested, they'll get arrested.
30:07
It's just a bad day altogether. But they're hoping. They're thinking,
30:08
well, maybe he's not gonna get arrested. Maybe he's gonna get there and
30:11
got the don't rip off his rabbi robe, and it's gonna have you know,
30:15
big em Messiah, you know, and he's gonna take over. They're
30:18
gonna run roam off. The Pharisees are gonna say, oh, we're so
30:22
sorry, and you know, Jesus is gonna take the temple mount and maybe
30:25
this is the moment we've all been waiting for. So they're having this conversation
30:29
behind Jesus about, okay, so when Jesus takes his throne, when he's
30:32
the new king of Israel, you know what about those little thrones. Who's
30:34
gonna be on the left, who's going to be on the right, who's
30:37
going to be close to the guy. So they're arguing about which one of
30:40
them is going to be on the left or the right, and Jesus overhears
30:42
this, so he turns around and he says, all right, time out,
30:45
everybody under the sycamore tree, have a seat, we got to talk.
30:49
I made that part up, but he has them. He stops.
30:52
He stops there on the way to Judus and this is like a big,
30:53
big deal, and he says, okay, let's go over this one more
30:59
time. My kingdom is not like the kingdoms of this world. He says.
31:06
You know, come on, you've been around. You know that those
31:08
who are regarded as rulers over the gentiles lord it over them. It's the
31:12
little Greek term that means that uses their power selfishly, an abuse of power.
31:18
He says, you know, the gentile rulers, they abuse their power,
31:21
They leverage their power for their own benefit. And their high officials do
31:23
the same thing. They exercise authority over them. And again this is such
31:27
a bland way of translating this. His point was, you know how it
31:30
works in the world. Whoever gets in charge, they're in charge, and
31:33
everybody else has to do whatever they're charged to do. You know how this
31:37
works. And they're like, yeah, we know how it works. That's
31:38
why we want to be number two and number three because you're number one,
31:41
and you know that's exactly we want to be in charge. And then Jesus
31:48
looks at them in the eye, and he says, this is so powerful.
31:51
He says, not so with you, Not so with you. You're
31:57
going to be part of my gang. You want to be part of my
32:00
kingdom, you want to be part of my father's kingdom. That's not how
32:04
it works there. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become
32:09
great? Hey, guys, now, which one of y'all want to be
32:13
great? Come on, they're all like that. I want to be great.
32:15
He goes, Okay, you want to be great, then pay attention.
32:19
If you want to be great, then you must become the servant,
32:22
And whoever wants to be first must be the slave of all. You want
32:25
to be great in my kingdom, You want to be great in my economy.
32:28
You want to be great in the world that I'm here to create.
32:30
Then you don't try to get in first place. You look for a way
32:34
to get in last place, and serve everybody else along the way. And
32:38
before they can raise an objection, he says, four. And here's a
32:43
verse every Christian should memorize. Four. Even the son of Man talking about
32:49
himself, Even the son of Man did not come to be served, guys.
32:53
Even the son of Man did not come to be served, but to
32:55
serve and to give his life. They cringed when he said this, and
33:00
to give his life a ransom for a minute. Hey, guys, you
33:02
think you're better than me, No, Jesus, you're Jesus. Okay,
33:06
No, we're not better than you. Then get in the back of the
33:08
line, because that's where I'm headed. That's why we're going to Jerusalem.
33:15
I'm about to do for the whole world what I'm going to turn around and
33:21
ask the whole world to do for one another. My friends, that changed
33:30
the world. It could change the world again. Selflessness would solve everything.
33:45
Selflessness would solve everything. Selflessness would solve everything. Welcome to the Kingdom of
33:58
God. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and then relax because
34:06
all these things will be given to you as well. In other words,
34:09
if you'll put others first in your finances, of as evidence of the fact
34:13
that you put God first, you've invited God in when you put other people,
34:16
when you put what God is up to in the world first in your
34:20
finances, that's an imitation. Because what you've done when you put God first,
34:22
as you're saying, God, you first, me second. He says,
34:25
Hey, that's the combination. That's the magic code. That's my kingdom.
34:30
That's what I'm all about. Remember the most famous verse in the whole
34:31
Bible, for God, that you fell in the blank. For God so
34:35
loved the world that he that he gave, that he gave, that he
34:40
gave. He says, welcome to my kingdom. And he said, and
34:45
I will take care of you because I know what you need. The way
34:51
that you make sure you have your money, but your money doesn't have you
34:54
as you seek first with your money, the kingdom of God assass