Audio Transcript:

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Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic Church. My name is Jan, I'm one of the pastors here at Mosaic. And if you're new or if you're visiting, we're so glad you're here, welcome. We'd love to connect with you if you'd like to connect with us. We do that through the connection card and the worship guide. If you'd like to fill it out legibly, you can either toss in the offering basket after or redeem it at the welcome center for a gift. We also have an app and you can download at the app store or Google Play, and there's a connection card in there as well. Quick announcement for members and people becoming members. If you'd been notified that you are becoming a member today, we have a members meeting from 1:00 to 3:00 PM. With that said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's word.

Heavenly father, we thank you that you are a loving God. Therefore, you are a giving God. Thank you Lord that you showed us that the heart of love is giving, is generosity. We thank you that you so loved us that you gave us life. And then although we rebelled against you, you gave us your son. We thank you Jesus that you poured yourself out generously, lavishly, extravagantly. You poured out your grace upon us, you offered us grace upon grace. I pray Lord, allow us to receive that grace. Transform us today from one degree of glory to another, from being takers to givers.

Give each one of us a vision for our lives to be as absolutely generous as we can with everything we have and with everything we are in order to reflect you, image you to the world that you are a gracious and giving God. We pray Holy Spirit that you come today and minister to us, speak to us. And even as perhaps we deal with an uncomfortable topic for some I pray, Lord, show us that your plans are so good and that the greatest blessing is to give greater than even the blessing to receive. I speak to anyone that's not a Christian today, I pray, Lord, give them grace to receive grace, to be transformed from being a rebel to a child of God. And I pray all this in Christ's Holy name, Amen.

So we are in a sermon series that we've been calling Tough and Tender: Developing Resilience for Life. And we've been looking at the big topics of life through the lens of the lion, lamb paradox that Jesus Christ is both the lion of Judah and the lamb of God. He was the ultimate tough and tender person. And today, we're talking about lion and lambing our finances. And the big is it takes toughness in order to acquire finances and think about them strategically so that we can be as lamb like with our finances as possible, as generous as possible.

I saw an ad, I saw a commercial yesterday watching college football. Yeah, that's a thing. There's nothing else. So I was watching college football and Northwestern Mutual came out with a commercial. And the commercial, it was a lady who quit her job and then she goes and works for herself. And the message was spend your life living. The Christian message is the opposite of this. The Christian message is because of what God has done for you, God has given himself, the son of God sacrificed himself lavishly. Therefore, we are to invest our lives in giving, giving in a way that impacts eternity. Whenever I do premarital counseling one of the questions that I ask as we're in the financial section is, are you a spender or a saver? That's an important question.

Two savers get married, it's okay. It's all right. Go on vacation once in a while. If two spenders get married, big problems ahead. Big, huge, massive problems. Scripture comes in and says, no, there's another category. Not just spender, not just saver, but giver. Well, today we're talking about money, and I don't know how you feel about that. I know some people respond like this in like, "Oh, again, church talking about money wise, church talking about money. They just want my money." We want more than your money. We do want, but we want all of you. We want all of you because God wants all of you, God wants your whole heart. He wants us to worship him with every fiber of our being because that's what he deserves. And here's the other one, scripture talks about finances all the time because finance is money. It's one of the main idols that compete for our affections toward God.

Jesus gives us 38 parables, 17 of them have to do with finances. There's 2,172 verses in the Bible about finances. Compare that with believing, it's 272. Compare that with prayer, 371. Love, 714 times. This is why idolatry was such a big problem in the Old Testament, not because the people of God were attracted to these little statues, these statuettes. That's not where the power of the idols came from. For example, First Kings 17, Baal is the idol that King Ahab begins to worship because he married a Baal worshiper. And the farmers of Israel start worshiping Baal. They build a house to Baal. And the reason was because Baal was the idol of prosperity. He was called the rider of the clouds. He promises economic prosperity. And when you worship him, the rains, so to speak, came down as oil and rivers ran with honey.

And then God sends Elijah. And Elijah says this to the people, he says, "Stop limping between two opinions, between two faiths." It's not that they had rejected God, they just added the idle of prosperity to God as an insurance policy, just added it to the Pantheon. So the reason why we're talking about finances, the scripture talks about finances because greed is such a powerful force. When's the last time that you repented to God of greed? Greed is always subtle, it comes in and blinds us to its own reality. And it's deep down in every single one of our hearts. And Jesus said, "Beware of all covetousness." Colossians 3:5 says, "Put to death therefore, mortify sexual morality, impurity, passion, evil, desire, and covetousness, greed," which is idolatry. So that's one of the reasons why we're talking about it's one of the great competitors to true faith in a true God.

The second reason is God wants you to be blessed. God wants to bless you, he longs to bless you. We as a church, we want to see this church prosper, we want you to be blessed. But blessing from a biblical perspective, it's an upside down idea. Many of us think of blessing as receiving me more and more. Scripture talks about blessings. Jesus said it's more blessed to give than to receive. So when you pray, "Lord blessed me", the Lord responds and says, "yeah, I want to bless you, but the greatest blessing is to give." I saw that Shaquille O'Neal bought a house for a family whose son, he was shot at a football game, bought him a house. Whenever I read a story like that, man, my heart just melts like Shaquille O'Neal, oh man. Wow, so generous. I just love the guy now.

Whenever you see stories of just lavish generosity, something in our hearts, it's like, "Oh wow." Someone's pays off a single mom's mortgage, things like a philanthropist comes in and pays off everyone's student debt, just wow. Why? Why? Because generosity is written on our hearts. We are created by God to give. We are to live to give. So I'm going to do something a little different today. Instead of expositing one text, I'm going to exposit lots of texts. And the reason being is because scripture gives us a very multi-layered, very multi-faceted theology when it comes to money. So I'll give you three points and then we'll jump in. First of all, from takers to givers. Second of all, lion your finances. Three, lamb your finances. So first from takers to givers.

Points two and points three, I can give you and it'll be a helpful sermon, but it'll be a self-help sermon. Really practical tips because true spirituality always impacts reality. But the reason why Christianity is so different than any other world religion is because of the Gospel. The Gospel transforms us from takers to givers. And theology begins like this, that God is the original giver, he's given us everything. He's given us the first gift of creation that we live our lives, every breath we take, every experience that we chase, every single dream we have, every single desire is within this reality of the ultimate gift, which is creation. The gift of the universe from the elusive subatomic particles to the cosmos that spans billions of trillions of miles.

It's so mind boggling, it's so vast that we got to use light years. How far does light travel in a year? Our universe is about 13.7 billion light years across. And within this universe, God has created us with the gift of self-consciousness that we can take a step back, we can reflect, analyze, meditate upon the universe that we are in. We can think of the universe as an object, and simultaneously think about the fact that we're thinking about the universe. Trippy. Thinking about the vastness of the universe, and then you realize that you are ... And this is what ... says, "I can't but believe in God because of the universe out there and the universe that's within."

So we don't just inhabit this world, we reflect upon it, we develop it. So in that sense, we share in a creaturely way God's transcendence. God also has given us beauty in creation, he's given us pleasure, he's given us relationship. He's given us the greatest gift, which is a relationship with him, the gift of love, relationship with one another. Creates Adam and Eve, our fore parents, puts them in the Garden of Eden, in paradise, everything is incredible. And God says, "Enjoy everything except this one thing. Take from every tree except this one because I want you to give me the gift of obedience because that's what love entails in a relationship with God."

Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." And what do we do? God says, "Don't take, don't eat." Eve takes, she eats. Adam takes, Adam eats. And that's in a sense, we see that is the essence of sin, taking what isn't ours. And then they are transformed into takers. The root of sin, all sin is selfishness, take, I'm entitled, I need, I take, I eat. Then God sees our brokenness, both economic brokenness and all elk. Sends his son, Jesus Christ, the ultimate giver. Jesus Christ gives his life, pours himself out. And before he goes to be crucified and bearing the penalty for our sins, for our rebellion, for our selfishness, he selflessly gives himself on the cross, excruciating physical pain, infinitely more excruciating spiritual pain as he bears the wrath of God.

Then he dies, he's buried. Put before all of that in the last supper, he takes a loaf of bread and he says what? He says, "Take, eat, and do this in remembrance of me." Why? He's saying you took what wasn't yours that led to the fall. I came and I gave what isn't yours in order to save you from the fall. The way that we are saved from our selfishness is Christ lavish, selflessness. And when we come to Christ, we receive grace by just crying out, "God save me. God, I need you. God, forgive me." And he pours out grace upon grace into our needy hearts. And that right there, when you get the gospel, it transforms you from taker to giver. It begins initially and then you grow in that more and more, you mature in that. That's what the Gospel does.

Second Corinthians 8:9, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor so that you by his poverty might become rich every day." Lord, I need you. Lord, I need grace. And it transforms me from taker to giver I receive and now I give. So that's point one that frames our theology of giving. I preached a sermon in our sermon series the beginning of the year in February, I think it was, called Rhythms. And there was a sermon on generosity, really helpful. And if you haven't heard it, I would definitely commend that to you. It's on the app, on the website. And I set up the theology from Second Corinthians 8:9 of generosity. Today, what I'm going to do in points two and three is give some very practical points how we can in our daily walk with the Lord, the lion and lamb, our finances.

Whenever I preach on money, I feel anxiety from some pockets of the room. And one of the reasons is because we have made financial folly. We've made mistakes financially, and perhaps we even sinned financially. So one of the ways that we grow in our financial wisdom in order to give, the way we go, it begins with saying, "Lord, I am a dumb sheep. Lord, speak to me, Lord, guide me." And the Lord is a good shepherd, and he leads. And then also in terms of community, the Lord leads us as we're Christians into a community where we can learn from one another. So we can ask each other, "Hey, I need some wisdom. Hey, help me with my finances." Proverbs 15:22, "Without counsel, plans fail. But with many advisors, they succeed."

One of the things with American culture. If you're from other parts of the world, in some ways it's unique to the Western world. We don't like talking about finances with anybody. We'd rather talk about religion and politics. Let's talk about politics, who'd you vote for? We'd rather talk about that than talk about the real nitty-gritty financial decisions, financial health. And the vision of Christian community from Acts two is that they opened their books with one another. And they say, "Hey, help me with my finances, help me grow in generosity." We practice community systematically through our community groups where you form relationships, study scripture together, pray for one another. And it's also a place where you can ask one another, "Hey, how are you growing in the Gospel of generosity?"

Okay, point two, lion your finances. I'm going to give you seven points here, and you're like, "Hey, what happened to the 10 point format?" I'm already used to it. Don't worry, three more points are coming in with point three. So this is point two with seven sub points, then point three with three sub points. But you get 10 really practical steps. Lion your finances. Number one, be content. Number two, work hard and smart. Number three, live below your means. Four, steward wisely. Five, save wisely. Six, invest wisely. Seven, stay out of debt. First is be content. God calls us to finding satisfaction in him, contentment in him. Now, some people take this a little too far to the point of asceticism. And the pendulum in swung this one this way because people have taken the Gospel and started preaching a prosperity gospel, which is a false gospel that if you give to God, God will give you. It's kind of like a bribe to get God to do your bidding. We don't preach that.

And a lot of people have swung the pendulum over to the austerity gospel where you just live according to what you need and then give everything away. Or to the point where it's like, "I just don't want to talk about money, it doesn't feel spiritual. Let's talk about spiritual things not material things." And it's kind of a skewed perspective. So it begins with spiritual satisfaction with the Lord. Hebrews 13:5-6, "Keep your life free from love of money." He's not saying keep your life free from money, love of money. Money is neural, money is just a tool. But he's saying, "Don't over love it and be content with what you have for he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you." What's that contentment based and rooted and grounded in? It's in the fact that God is our father. So we can constantly say, "The Lord is my helper, I will not fear. What can man do to me?"

My greatest asset in the universe is God. My relationship with God, my greatest treasure, and no one can touch that asset. Second Corinthians 6:0 Saint Paul says, "As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing everything." He's saying financially, I might not be rich, but I'm rich in every single way that matters. And that's how scripture talks about blessing. It's more blessed to give than to receive not because God will bless you in turn financially. Often, he does if you're faithful with the little he's giving you. But his blessing is spiritual, he sends joy, he sends satisfaction.

First Timothy 6:6-10, "But godliness with contentment is great gain for we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it, out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these, we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction, for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs." He says, "Be careful what your heart is drawn to, be careful where your affections are going. Be careful of what you love." And the fight for faith is a fight for desires to trust God not money. Worship God, not money.

This is the secret to being content. It's worshiping God, it's being thankful to God. That's the secret to contentment. God, thank you for life. God, thank you for creation. And God, thank you for meeting my greatest need on the cross in Jesus Christ. And because you met my greatest need and I'm secure for all of eternity, I will be with God. And you've given me the Holy spirit. Now, obviously, you will provide for my lesser needs. Romans 8:32, "He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" We have an eternal soul, and finite things cannot satisfy our soul.

So we go to God and God says, "I'm an eternal God, only I can satisfy your eternal soul." When you find your satisfaction in God, here's how I practically do it. I wake up every single morning with dissatisfaction, every single morning. It's deep inside. And I sit down and I pray, and I meditate over God's scripture. And I think about the Gospel, and I meditate with the fact that my name is written on his hands. Nothing can pull me away from God. And when you meditate on the scripture, spend time with God, all of a sudden he fills you with the Holy Spirit, and you're satisfied.

You have joy, a joy of salvation. And what this does practically, it curves your appetites. And a lot of us just waste money because our appetites are out of control. That's why I begin with contentment. What do I need? I have everything I need, and God spiritually provide for my physical needs. And this is how I grow in satisfaction. Philippians 4:11-13, "Not that I'm speaking of being in need for I've learned its secret is a skillset to develop. I've learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low and how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I've learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me."

Philippians 4:19, "And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus." God promises as a good father to his children, "I will provide for your needs not necessarily your greeds." So my daughter Sophia is 11. She asked me yesterday, "Dad, when can I get a phone?" I said, "When you're 47, 47?" She said, "No." I said, "All right, 46. You don't need a phone yet, not yet. And if we do ever get a phone, it's going to be a flip phone. It's going to be like a $5 burner phone. That's all you're getting." Her needs are met. I know what's best for her. That's how God operates. So finding contentment in the Lord. Number two, work hard and smart. Contentment plus hard work is a powerful combination. And obviously, you've got to qualify this, work in a way where your relationship with the Lord is neglected, where you do not neglect the Sabbath.

The Sabbath is commandment number four right up there with don't murder. Commandment number four is you shall work six days, work hard, but one day you give to the Lord. You rest in the salvation of Jesus Christ and you rest from your own labors. 10% of your time if you calculate it and you take sleep out, 10% of your time you're giving to the Lord, and it's an act of faith. And you're saying, "God, I believe, I trust that you can do more with 90% of my time than I can with 100% of the time." So don't work in a way that neglects to Sabbath the Lord or your health. We are to steward the bodies that God has given us. Proverbs 23:4, "Do not toil to acquire wealth, don't wear yourself out to acquire wealth, but be discerning enough to desist."

Don't work in such a way where you neglect your family. God has given you a family. If he has, then he's entrusted eternal souls for you to disciple and care for and people to care for. So we invest in our families. Don't neglect your church. Don't forget your greater calling as you think about work. Don't neglect the greater ministry that everything that we do is for the glory of God to expand the kingdom of Jesus Christ where we are. And don't forget that your identity isn't in your work. We're rooted and our identity is in God not in our job. Proverbs 14:23, "In all toil, there is profit, but mere talk tends to only poverty." So we are to work, we're to work hard. Ecclesiastes 9:10, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might."

Second Thessalonians 3:10, "If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat." We're called to work. I tell my kids that all the time, they haven't learned that yet. I'm getting ROI little by little. You want to eat, wash the dishes. Colossians 3:23-24, "Whatever you do, whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ." He's talking about work as service. Through our work, whatever our work is, I'm serving Jesus, and I'm serving people. This is my ministry, and I do it with love. I'm providing a service or I provide a product, and I'm adding value to the world. And I do it with love. The other principle here in terms of working hard and smart is that we are to choose a path in terms of work that will lead to most generosity. Most glorify God, and we do that through generosity.

Here's where I get it, Ephesians 4:28, talking about a thief, let the thief steal no longer. Thief was a pagan, thief converts to Christianity, becomes a Christian, transformed from taker to giver. Now, how do you disciple the thief? You tell him, "Don't steal, that's a commandment." But you also say, "Work." Rather let him labor doing honest work with his own hands, but you don't even stop there. Like, yeah, provide for your needs, provide for your household. Don't stop there so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. As we mature in the faith, we're to grow as givers. Work hard for a good profit. I'll just mention this, I've always heard all the money in the world is God's, and it doesn't really matter how people make the money. Don't ask where they got this money, it's all God's anyway.

No, there's bad profit, profit made at the expense of people. And there's good profit, profit made as a byproduct of serving the needs of others well. The common view is make as much as you can, to give as much as you can. And the end justifies the means. But Holy scripture says no. Deuteronomy 23:18, there's this principle embedded in Holy scripture, "You shall bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a dog,: which is a male prostitute, "into the house of the Lord your God in payment for any vow for both of these are in abomination to the Lord your God." This also has to inform the way that we invest. We are to invest in companies that create blessing and avoid companies that cause harm. Avoid investing in companies that engage in predatory behavior and profit at all costs.

Point number three is live below your means, kind of common sense, but it's in scripture so I'll mention it. Proverbs 13:11, "Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it." So the second part of the assumption there is that we are to gather little by little. How do we gather, how do we save? Well, we live under our means. So no faithful Christian, and this is what we're striving for, no faithful Christian lives as comfortably as they could. So I could have nicer clothing, I could have a nicer wardrobe and now go to T.J. Maxx. My kids could have nicer clothing. My philosophy about spending money on kids is, you know how much kids cost? As much as you spend on them, that's how much they cost.

We got four daughters, and my youngest, we haven't purchased one article of clothing for her, only diapers. That's the only thing. She has no idea, it's all brand new to her. I could spend more money on that, but she's not even going to remember. I could have a nicer car, I could have a nicer home, especially if I didn't live in Boston. I could go on more lavish vacations, but I understand that God has called me to be a giver. Therefore, when my needs are met, I set money aside to be generous. Before making a purchase, ask, do I need this? Do I need this? That's a great question. Why am I thinking of making this purchase? Am I thinking of the taker mentality or the giver mentality?

And then Proverbs 13:7 ... By the way, all of these principles are to be held in tension. It's like buoys that keep you financially afloat, so just think about it like that. Proverbs 13:7, "One pretends to be rich, yet has nothing. Another pretends to be poor yet has great wealth." I'd rather be the latter than the former. And not in the terms of I want to trick you, but in terms of this is the lifestyle that I'm content with. And I'm living under my means to be more generous. Four, steward wisely. The idea of stewardship is that obsolete everything belongs to God, everything, and he gives us good gifts. He entrusts things to us so that we work as wise trustees and that we manage everything he's given us well. If you brought in someone, a financial consultant, if you brought them in and say, "Hey, can you help me manage my finances?" What would they say?

Write that down, do that. They'd say something like, "Do you have a budget? Is that in the Bible? Scripture says, "Keep well, "Proverbs 27:23, "keep well the condition of your flocks, give attention to your herds." Obviously, we don't have flocks and herds, but he's talking about your wealth. Do you know how much you're bringing in and how much you're spending? Are you keeping track of your stuff? Are you taking care of everything God has given you? Luke 14 talks about don't build a tower without calculating assumption that we calculate. Proverbs 23:3-4 says, "By wisdom, a house is built and by understanding it is established. By knowledge, the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches." We are to think strategically about our finances, and that assumes, stewardship assumes priorities.

What are my financial priorities? If I look at my finances, do they reflect, does my spending, does my investing, does all of that reflect my values? If I say that I love God with all of my heart, soul, strength, and mind, if I love neighbor as myself, do my finances reflect that? And so the priority number one is obviously God, it's obviously people. But then practically, scripture talks about investing in prioritization. Proverbs 24:27, "Prepare your work outside, get everything ready for yourself in the field. And after that, build your house." It's a powerful principle. Like don't invest in a house before you invest in a career, the way that you make money. If you don't have money to pay the bills, then don't buy new stuff, pay your bills first. The prioritization, steward your prioritization.

What good is it to build a beautiful house and then you don't have money to carry that cost. And then there's no food on the table. And also we are to steward our financial reputation. Financial reputation is important. Credit score is important. But also in terms of financial reputation, I'll add what do your friends think about your financial decisions? They obviously think something, so ask them what they think. Sit down with your friends, people who know you best, Christians in your life and say, "Hey, what do you think about my finances? Where do you see folly in my decisions?" If you gave me that kind of openness, I've got all kinds of advice for you because this is what greed does. It blinds us to that reality. So that's important. Proverbs 22:1, "A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold." What's your financial reputation? Steward it well.

Five, save wisely. Proverbs 21:20, precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling, but a foolish man devours it. Another translation says, the wise man saves for the future, the fool spends everything they get. you're trapped in this paycheck to paycheck, work, spend, work cycle. and we are to save. We are to have some kind of contingency fund, financial advisors say three to six months of expenses set aside. Proverbs 22:3, "The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it." We are to think, "Okay, this is what the future might bring, I don't know, God is sovereign. But he's given me an intellect, He's given me reason. I should set money aside just in case, I should set money aside for retirement." It's wise to save so that we continue to be in position of givers not takers.

Building wealth is wise according to scripture. Proverbs 14:24, "The crown of the wise is their wealth, but the folly of fools brings folly." And again why we're not hoarding up stores of treasures for ourselves is so that we can be even more generous than we are now continuing to grow in generosity. Examples of incredibly wealthy people in scripture, Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, David, Solomon, Job. These people gave generously in their life as they built up wealth and then gave even more generously later on. If you calculate how much David gave to build the temple in Israel, we're talking about over $100 billion, massive amounts of money. Abraham was incredibly wealthy and even before the law came, he tithes to Melchizedek. Why? Because he had saved up, and then he gives to God's work. Jacob promises to God, "If you bless me, I'll give you a 10th." So we see that principle.

Saving also doesn't contradict Matthew 6:19-20. Matthew 6:19-21 says, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal." Don't lay up treasures for yourself here, lay up treasures for yourself in heaven. But one of the ways we do that is by taking earthly treasures and generously giving, generously sacrificing. In Luke 16, it talks about be generous financially, make friends with finances in order like these people, if they get converted, when they see your generosity because that points to the generosity of Jesus Christ in the Gospel, they go to heaven. And in heaven, you have an internal relationship. And verse 21, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

It doesn't say where your heart is, that's where your treasure will be, although that's true too. It says where your treasure is, that's where your heart will be also. Meaning your treasures shape your heart, they shape your affections. Where your money goes, that's where your heart follows. If you invest in a company and you're checking your stock every day, and it's like. Or, "Yeah." It does something to your heart. So invest in eternal things, that's what he's saying. We are to invest in save ... Practically, we see this Joseph, God puts him in number two spot in the kingdom of Egypt. And they save for seven years, seven years of plenty in order to store up an emergency fund for seven years of hunger. And Proverbs talks about learning from the aunt that stores food in the summer for the winter.

One thing I will say, don't save out of fear, don't save out of greed. And don't save out of a desire to be financially independent from God. We will never get to a point where we are independent from God. Revelation 3:17, "For you say I am rich, I've prospered, I need nothing." That's a false statement, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. And six says invest wisely. We see the principle of investment in scripture in parable of talents, talks about investing. Matthew 25:27, "Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers. And at my coming, I should have received what was my own with interest." In Proverbs 31, "The wise woman invests in real estate, invests in business." Ecclesiastes 11 talks about cast your bread upon the waters. And the idea is invest in seven to eight ventures because you don't know what kind of disaster will come, it talks about diversification. And God has weaved this principle of sowing and reaping into the universe spiritually and physically.

Second Corinthians 9:6, the point is this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. Whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. In Matthew 13, Jesus gives us two little parables. And he says, "The kingdom of God is like this." And the reason why it's such a powerful parable is because they're based on genuine financial principles. And it goes like this. Matthew 13:44, "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." Back before there were banks, secure finances, people sometimes saved treasure in fields. And this guy is just digging all of a sudden, oh wow. And then he goes and he's like, "It's not my field." And he goes and sells everything, liquidates everything to invest in this one field because of the treasure inside.

And the spiritual principle is Jesus is our greatest treasure, therefore he's worth giving up everything to get him. But the financial principle is we are to invest in a potential that we see. In verse 45, "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of the find pearls who on finding one pearl of great value went and sold all that he had and bought it." And why do we invest again? It's to be as generous as we can be in the future as well. The good Samaritan sees a person in need and can respond immediately to that need which took finances because he had the finances at hand. Start as early as you can in terms of investment. Why? Because of the eighth wonder of the world.

This is what Einstein called, compound interest. Eighth wonder of the world where your interest off the money that you invested begins to make interest. You're making money off the money, it's a potent force. And then as what we have been entrusted by God, as it grows, we can be more generous. Proverbs 3:27, "Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in your power to do it." Proverbs 13:22, "A good man leaves inheritance to his children's children, but the sinner's wealth is laid up for the righteous." Actually, I called my dad yesterday and I was like, "Hey, pops, what are you thinking about a will?" I'm like, "I've been writing a sermon on finances." He's like, "Oh, that's a good idea." And this is the way he's been thinking. It's like, yeah, inheritance, not just for your kids, but for the ... Not just for the next generation, I'm thinking about the one after that.

And it's not just in terms of money, and we'll talk about this in the final sermon of the series, leaving a legacy. But incredible legacy, like I am investing into the next generation both spiritually and physically so that it continues to bring a return on investment. The other thing I'll mention here is that we are to reduce risk as we age. We get this from Ecclesiastes 5:13, "There is a grievous evil that I've seen under the sun, riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is a father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand." And point seven is stay out of debt. Scripture talks about debt as a trap, that it can be debilitating almost in a sense that we handcuff ourselves with golden handcuffs.

Scripture doesn't forbid, prohibit debt, but it characterizes debt as a form of bondage because that comes at a cost. You gotta pay interest on that debt in order to service that debt. And whatever that interest is, that's time of your life that you have given to another entity. I understand there's good debt and bad debt. First of all, be careful, stay out of bad debt. And if you get in debt, you're going to make a plan to get out as quickly as possible because the righteous persons, Psalm 37:21 says the wicked borrows but does not pay back. But the righteous is generous and gives. We are to pay whatever debts we take out. Proverbs 22:7, the rich rules over the poor and the borrower is a slave to the lender. And then also scripture talks about to the best of your ability, stay away from co-signing because you're taking on the debt of another person.

Romans 13:7-8, pay to all what is owed to them, taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. Owe no one anything except to love each other for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. And this also has to do with working honestly at your job. Don't steal time from your bosses. And also has to do with honest pay that bosses are to pay employees what they are worth. Leviticus 19:13 says, "You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning." James 5:4, "Behold the wages are the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts."

First Timothy 5:17-18, "Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching," preaching as a labor, "and teaching for the scripture says, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain and the laborer deserves his wages." So we have to pay people what they are worth. All of that to say lion your finances. Why? Again, the end goal is we live to give so that we can be as generous as we possibly can be toward God, toward family, and toward people. So first of all, give to the Lord. The Lord has given us everything, he's given us Christ. We are bought at a precious price, it cost him his life and his blood. So we are to give to God.

In the Old Testament, God does give us the principle of the tithe that we are to give 10% of everything God gives us, why? Deuteronomy 14:23, "That you may learn to fear the Lord your God always." That we learn by giving to God a portion proportionately of what he's given us, it deepens our reverence for God. We're saying, God, you've given me everything. This is a reminder that everything is yours, and I'm giving you a portion of it back. Proverbs 3:9, "Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your produce." It's all God's before it's uncle Sam's, first portion to the Lord. And Lord, why do you? He doesn't need our money. But first of all, what this does is it blesses us because spiritually we're reminded it's more blessed to give than to receive. We honor the Lord in obedience. And then also this is God's incredible plan of getting the Gospel out where he saves people, turns them through the Gospel from takers to givers.

And then they give in order for other takers to become givers. Why do we give? God doesn't need, but God chooses to use this system in order to get the truth out. My youngest daughter, and I talk about taker to giver, it's a process of maturity. That's why I want my kids to learn that they are not the center of the universe, but they're takers. I remember the first time I really realized how much my parents invested in me was when I moved out of college and I moved down to DC, and I was working at my first job. For the very first time in my life, I bought my own groceries and I remember how painful that was, "What, $56 on groceries?" And only then did I begin, "Oh, someone's been paying for my groceries for 22 years."

I try to teach my daughters this, my daughter Milana, she is two and five months. I gave her a lollipop this week. I gave her a lollipop, and she's loving that lolli. She takes it, and I said, "Can I have some lollipop? Can I have a lick?" And she says, "No, mine." And I was like, "Technically, no. I just bought that, it's actually mine." She don't understand that part. Then I said, "Oh, so you don't love me?" And then she's like, she comes up to me and she's like. Meaning I do love you but not enough to tithe the lollipop. So we sing worship songs to God, "God, I love you, I love you." Scripture says they honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me.

And this is like, do I really love God when a portion of your finances you give to him? Scripture talks about in Second Corinthians 8:9, talks about giving joyfully because God has lavished his grace. We want to give to God joyfully not under compulsion. I'm not giving because I have to, I'm giving you because I get to. And we do it sacrificially or proportionately. And we do it as a response to the spiritual blessings he's given us. First Corinthians 9:11, "If you have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap spiritual things from you?" So we have to invest in particular in Gospel ministries that bless us and others. Here's how I think about, you're to give to things that you're invested, that you believe in, your spiritually invested in. Here's how I think about my giving.

I believe that the number one way to impact eternity is Gospel ministry where people meet Jesus and for eternity as they will spend with God. So I believe in that. And I believe that strategically, there's strategic ways of getting the Gospel out in an enduring way. And the most effective way of reaching people, enduring way is planting churches. Gospel is proclaimed through churches, the churches remain the root. And then they plant other churches so that ... This is why I give to church, this is why I give to this church. It's hard to make a case you have to give this amount to the local church. But we are as God's kids, we are called to give to build his kingdom here. Here's why I say this, professing Christians in the United States have an annual income of 2.5 trillion. You know how much we give of that as professing Christians in the United States on average? We give 2.5%. Giving among non-Christians to charitable giving in the United States, 2.5%.

And this is all to say that if our hearts have been transformed by God, if we have received the greatest gift that there is, then how are we not more generous than other people? And there's two false extremes when it comes to the tithe. One extreme is I'm going to give 10%, the rest of the money is mine, I can do whatever I want. Within scripture, it says, "No, we are to continue growing in generosity." The other extreme is I'm going to live on necessities, give everything away. And my question is, when does that stop? Do I give away my shower every day? No, definitely not. Am I giving away my coffee? I'm not. Early on in my ministry, I was like, "If you buy a cup of coffee everyday, this is how much money you waste."

It makes me more productive. And more productive makes everything better. God does want us to enjoy life. It brings God pleasure when we enjoy his gifts, and he gives us richly to be enjoyed. John 2, Jesus comes to a wedding and they run out of wine. And he's like, "No, we're not going to waste any more money on wine like that, we're going to give everything away to missions." He's like, "No, fill it up with water." Best wine ever. And if you're a Baptist, grape juice, best grape juice. Nehemiah 8 says, "When we celebrate, eat the fat, drink the wine." John 12, Judas objects, a woman comes in and pours out perfume on Jesus that cost $25,000, and it seems what a waste. And Jesus says, "She will be remembered for all of eternity."

First Timothy 6:17-19, it says, "God richly provides us with everything to enjoy," so we're going to keep that in balance. Number two, we are to provide for our households. First Timothy 5:8, "If anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." So we are to provide for our family because if we don't then someone else has to. So this is the way I think about it, I provide for my kids but I want them to grow into givers. And I think about, okay, I provide for them now, I also got to provide for their education so that they can be givers and grow generosity in the future. Point three is give generously. And this is the final point, the final purpose of why God has given us money is to give.

Luke 6:38, "Give and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over will be put into your lap for with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you." So we are to give to other people. And one of the ways that we give, and this is for the entrepreneurs and the business owners in the community, one of the ways that we give is building businesses in order to provide jobs for other people. And I get this from Deuteronomy 24:19, "When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it, it shall be for the sojourner, that's the immigrant, the fatherless, the orphan, the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you and all the work of your hands."

So he's saying to business owners who've invested, who've taken all the risk, don't maximize profits. You create opportunities to work for the immigrant, the widow, the orphan. So you're giving them not just money for their needs, but opportunity for work. So the gleaning laws as they are called, they required work from the marginalized and provided jobs for them. Jim Clifton, CEO of Gallup says 60 years into our global data collection effort, we may have already found the single most searing, clarifying, helpful world altering fact. What the whole wants is a good job. This is one of the most important discoveries Gallup has ever made, found. Like one of the ways that we grow in generosity is by creating opportunities. So we need to ask if you are a business owner, have I squeezed all the profit out of my proverbial field? Am I treating the employees in my company as labor costs to be controlled or as human beings to be cared for?

And where do we get the wisdom and the power to live like this, live generously, lining our finances and lambing with generosity? We get it from Jesus Christ who gave himself completely. He didn't tithe this blood but gave everything. And that lavish grace empowers us to give. Here at the end, I'll just say this, no one can really tell you exactly what to do in your personal situation. That's why we're so thankful for the Holy Spirit. And when we ask God, God, what would you have, which area in my life do I need to work on so that I can grow in generosity? God gives us that. Brad Hewitt, CEO of Thrivent Financial said, "I describe money as love or service in storable or transferable form." That's what money is, money is a tool to demonstrate love and to serve other people.

Proverbs 11:25, "Whoever brings blessing will be enriched. And the one who waters will himself be watered." Why do we do everything we do motivated by love? First Corinthians 13:3, "If I give away all I have and if I deliver up my body to be burned but have not love, I gain nothing." The points real quick, if you missed any line in your finances, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and lamb your finances. Give to the Lord, provide for your household, and give generously. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the Gospel. We thank you that through the Gospel of Jesus Christ who gave himself for takers, takers can be transformed into givers. And I pray that you continue to grow us and generosity as you pour grace upon grace on each one of us. And I pray this in Christ's name, Amen.