Hello, and welcome to the Faithbrook Church Messages podcast. Whether you're exploring faith, new to faith, or actively following Jesus, we're so glad you're tuning in, and we hope that these weekly messages will encourage, challenge, and inspire you. Life is not meant to be done alone, and our hope is that these messages will lead you into a new and thriving life in Christ. Now let's listen to this message from our lead pastor, Jim Comfort.
Good morning, good morning. Oh, yes, there's a vibe in the church this morning. I'm not sure why there's this vibe going on. Maybe it's a little hangover from Friday Night Sugar Rush, I'm not sure.
Maybe it's because the kids are showing up to their practice for our Christmas concert in December. Maybe there's some great saints who've been praying for the Spirit of God to be in our church this morning, or maybe it says everyone got an extra hour of sleep. Probably that's it, amen, right? Well, it's good to have you this morning.
We're entering into a new series called Making Change, a little bit of change in our hearts and in our mind. It really revolves around the kind of finances. I was doing some research the other day, and found a Capital One survey. A couple years ago, Capital One surveyed people asked them, where is financial stress ranked in all your stress issues in your life?
And they found that 73% of Americans say that finances is their number one stress situation. That ranks higher than stressful politics, work, and even family. Do you think that is true? If you ask marriage counselors, they'll say yes, financial conflict differences is in the top three issues that couples fight about.
That could be a problem. That's why we're wanting to enter into this series called Making Change. See, in Facebook, we do have a value in a vision that we would lead people into a new and thriving life in Christ, a thriving life. We might thrive in certain places, but a lot of times we're not thriving very well in our finances.
There's a lot of anxiety, there's a lot of uncertainty, there's this fear that we don't have enough, or we need more, et cetera, et cetera. So for the next four weeks, we're going to talk about four shifts or changes that we need to make in our relationship with money that will help us thrive, to be more secure with our money, to be more generous with our money. Now right here, this is where I lose a lot of people. This is where I'm like, okay, this guy's, trying to take money from us.
Everyone's reaching for their wallets. Honey, get the kids. This is just one of those preachers that are trying to raise money. We're not trying to raise money here, we're trying to raise our faith.
Because we, God is looking for devoted followers of him, and some of the places that we struggle with is when it comes to our financial management. So hang in there. Did you know that God wants you to experience some security and some freedom and some purpose in your finances, that he loves you, and he wants you to thrive even financially? Did you know that in the Bible, there's over 3000 scriptures that talk about money management, our view of money.
In fact, if you look at Jesus' teaching, you'll see that Jesus also talked about money. He talked about how we handle money, where it should rank in our heart. You look at his parables, his stories, he taught a lot in stories. One third of his stories had to do with money, our perception, our views of where that is in our life.
Why would he do that? Because Jesus and God knows that is one of the most frustrating, tense, anxious things that we have in our life. There's a lot of stress in our life with money. But more importantly, there's a lot in the word of God, and there's a lot of teaching from Christ, because he knows that money is the biggest competition for the first place of our soul.
That God should rank the first in our life. But money is so alluring. Money is so tempting to us before we know it. We put money first, before we forget.
Jesus was notorious for saying where your treasure is, that's where your heart's also. It's where our heart is, where we're gonna find our money. And before we know it, we are bogged down. We're not thriving.
We are frustrated. We are scared with our finances and not managing well. In fact, CNN last year put out an article with this stamp. 76% are living paycheck to paycheck.
Three out of four people in America would say that they are living paycheck to paycheck. You know how scary that is? You know how frustrating that is? In fact, they're saying that the consumer debt is raising.
The average American consumer debt, or credit card debt, is over $6,500. $6,500. You don't make that monthly payment. They're gonna slap on you 22%.
And that interest on that lack of money is gonna compound. And it's just gonna snowball. And before you know it, you're discouraged. You're strangled.
You're struggling in debt and finances. And this is where the love of God comes in. This is what God wants me to speak to you in the next four ways. That he so loves you, that he wants you to have some, from freedom, some hope, some thriving, if you will, in your money management and even trickling down to your generosity.
Now, before you kind of tune me out, just give me a chance. I hope that you would trust me in the next couple of months. You have to realize that the world is gonna talk to you about money. Every day it's gonna talk to you about money.
You just turn on TV and there's gonna be capital one and they're gonna ask you what's in your wallet, right? They wanna know, right? You show up at Coles or Nostrums, you check out and that nice little retail person's gonna ask you about your money. They're gonna ask you, hey, do you wanna save today with a 25% discount?
If you take our credit card, you need to make a financial decision right there. This week you're gonna turn on the morning news and they're gonna have some expert come on and they're gonna be talking about how you can navigate your finances in a better way. The world is gonna talk to you about finances. So why don't you let God have a chance?
Couldn't God have something to say about who even invented finances? And there's some precepts and some teachings in his word that will help us have life-giving practices and perspectives when it comes to our finances. I remember when Terry and I, we needed to learn about finances. We were so giddy, young, and innocent when we got married 35 years ago.
We didn't have much, but we started adulting. We got an apartment together, right? And we had our jobs, little jobs, and we had each had a little older car and we got a joint bank account and we pulled our money, we had some student debt and we didn't have big salaries, but we were trying to manage. You maybe have been there, right?
And how we deal with our finances, I can't remember our big thrills that we had our first major purchase as a couple. And we went to the furniture store and shopped and we found a sofa and was a sofa sleeper. You remember those things? They were a pain and they were, you know what?
We tried to move. You know what I mean? But we could have some people over. I think it was like $300, right?
We were so proud of ourselves. But sometimes we always felt we didn't have enough. And pretty soon I thought, I thought we do this and we can do that and there's conflicts and there's stress. And we just didn't know how to manage money very well.
We were in a series about God's principles and precepts about money management and so we kind of leaned in. And they started sharing about some of the transformation, some of the mindset that we need to have when it comes to finances. And the first change or the first shift that I want to present to you that they presented to us 35 years ago is this shift right here? That God owns it all.
Now I never thought about that before. I just thought, well, I own it all. I'm the one that bought the sofa, right? We're the one that put the money down for our rent.
But really God owns it all. And they gave some biblical evidence for this. For instance, James 1 shares this, every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of Heavenly Light. So if I thought I had any good things, some gifts, maybe someone gave us some wedding gifts, there was good things in our refrigerator.
My car was pretty cool. And according to the Scriptures, God allowed this. God gave these good things, these gifts, everything that's good, our health, maybe our friends, our little apartment, even that little sofa that we bought, it's all a goodness of God coming down from heaven to enjoy it all comes from God. And even our income comes from God.
They shared first Chronicles 29. Yours Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor. Everything in heaven and earth is yours. Now that was a leap for us, everything.
I thought it was us. I'm the one showing up at work. I'm the one that went to school. I'm the one that got a degree.
I'm the one that applied. I'm the one that's slaving away to make this. No, wealth and honor come from you. You are the ruler of all things.
That was a shift. We needed to make change to believe that God owns it all and allowed us to have these things. Wow, well, thank you for the salary that I do have. Thank you that I might have some insurance.
Thank you that I have some people of the parents helped us out or our kids, our bodies, everything from God and he owns it all. And then they went to the next step, the next change. God is blessed and given us and God expects us to be good stewards of what he has given to us. Stewards are what I really wasn't sure what that meant.
Stewardship is another word for being a manager. God is the owner. He's given you the responsibility to manage what he has given to you. Some have a lot more to manage.
Some have a lot bigger income. Some have a lower income. Whatever it is, you're the manager. You're a steward.
So they read Luke 16 that Jesus shares a story to his disciples. There's a certain rich man who had a manager handling his affairs. Now the manager is, in other words, first steward. The owner, the rich man, had this steward handling his affairs.
One day a report came that the manager was wasting the employers or the owner's money. So the employer called him in and said, hey, what's this I hear about you? In other words, he's not doing good. And so he gets fired.
Get your report in order because you are going to be fired. Wow, OK. Well, this guy's serious. I was messing around.
Now I've lost my job because the owner was counting on this manager to be a good steward, to manage well his things. What goes on? The manager talked to himself. Now what?
My boss has fired me. I don't have the strength to dig ditches or to proud the bag. Ah, I know how to ensure that I have plenty of friends who will give me a home when I am fired. And the guy starts being very intentional, begins to crafty, starts getting creative, how he can really save his bacon.
Jesus is telling this story. So he invited each person who owned money to the employer to come and discuss the situation. He asked the first one, how much do you owe the owner? The man would play well.
I owe him 800 gallons of olive oil. So the manager told him, well, take the bill quickly and change it to 400 gallons. Wow. And how much do you owe my employer?
He asked the next man, well, I owe him 1,000 bushes a week. Was his reply here. The manager said, take the bill and change it to 800 bushes. Now, I don't know if that's what the owner wanted him to do.
But at least he got really purposeful. He got very creative here to help him. And Jesus says this, the rich man had to admire the dishonest rascal for being so shrewd. So the guy was cheating the owner, frankly.
But at least he was doing something. And it says he admired the dishonest. He apparently wasn't following Jesus, OK? And he was the new living translation called the rascal of being so shrewd.
At least he was doing that. Jesus goes on. And it's true that the children of the world are more shrewd in dealing with the world around them than they are children of the light. What's Jesus trying to say here?
I think he's a little frustrated because a lot of times children of the light. And if you're a follower of Christ, Christ is the light of the world, we would be in that category, children of the light. And I think sometimes God's like, you know, why we handle money is so sloppy, unintentional. We just barely get through.
We're not proactive. We're not crafty about it. And he's saying, at least people in the world, they're more proactive. They're more intentional and smart and wise when it comes to money and people around them than the children of the light.
So then Jesus says, here's the lesson. He tells the story. Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then when your possessions are gone, you will welcome you into their eternal home.
Here's the lesson he's trying to say. Leverage what you have. See yourself as a steward. Get smart.
Get good and leverage and be a blessing. Before you know it, there's going to be some benefits. There's going to be benefits of people around you, society. And some of that's going to come back to you.
You might even have some friends. And you might even, in this case, this might even have a place to stay when he lost his job. And he would have been homeless. So Jesus is telling this.
And then what we can learn in our first step of change, not only that he owns it, but he has blessed us to be a blessing. You are blessed to be a blessing because God sees us, sees you as a manager of the goodness that you have. If you have anything in your bank account, if your car runs, if you have any decent health, you have some resources and assets and some abilities. He's seeing you just like, leverage that.
Be a blessing. I want to bless you. Give. He allows us to have this blessing and use your worldly resources, whatever you have there, to benefit others.
Now he introduces this whole concept of generosity. Now we know, if we're Christian or not, we know the generosity is a big deal in the Bible. There's all kinds of scriptures that verify this. One of the most famous scriptures is in Acts 20.
Remember the words of Lord Jesus himself. It's more blessed to give than to receive. Generosity. Give.
Give to God first. Give to others. It might be people that are hurting, people that are poor, et cetera. Make generosity a priority in your life.
And by the way, in this thing, he says, eventually, that's to come around. And you will be blessed. People are going to respect you and admire you and for you. Maybe my husband or friends.
Who knows? Now, you have to realize that God was the first one to be generous. God never asked us to do something. He hasn't done himself.
So if you know the nature of God's nature and heart, he was generous when he created this world. He was the designer. He was the architect. And he made some beautiful things.
And every year, we enjoy his creation. How many of you love the creation? The lakes, the trees, flowers, the leaves are changing, mountains, oceans, beaches, all that. He's like, yes, it's all for you.
I want you to enjoy life. Later on, he gave the most precious thing. And that was his only son, Jesus. He incarnated himself through his son, Jesus, saw him go to this world, saw him be rejected and crucified.
And all because that we would wake up to the notion that we would need a Savior, that we cannot save ourselves, because he wants us to be with him for eternity, in heaven forever and ever. So he gave his very best, sacrificed heavily. And then he eventually gives a Holy Spirit to give us the inward power and confidence and faith to endure, to have wisdom, to give us comfort. So we were talking about God, he's very generous.
But Jesus wasn't done in this story. Then he goes pretty personal here. If you are faithful in little things, he says, you will be faithful in a large one. If you are dishonest with the little things, you will be honest, but you won't be honest with a greater responsibility.
And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? So worldly wealth and heaven and spirit are kind of connected here. He's starting to bring us together. If you are not faithful with other people's things, mainly his things, that he's given to you, why should you be trusted with the things of your own?
So Jesus is kind of ratcheting it up. If you read between the lines, he's kind of agitated. He's just so disappointed sometimes that we don't see the blessings that he has given us. We see those are own.
We aren't it, that's all ours. It's not God. He wasn't even involved. And God's like, the whole time I've been involved.
I've given you that brain power, you are smart, you are skilled, you trained yourself, somewhere you got a work ethic man, and you've been promoted and you're responsible, that all that gifting, that wiring, that ability, some of you are super talented. And God has just allowed this blessing to come in your life, not to just blow it on yourself, but to be a blessing. And I think what we see here is God is looking for people who will handle the blessings, who will handle the blessings in the next couple of weeks. We're gonna talk about how we handle the resources and blessings that he has given to us.
And he's really kind of looking, would you be willing to be a blessing? And if I can trust you, I'll probably bless you more in different ways. But he's displeased how many times we waste it, or we don't connect the dots with his spiritual blessings. See, I would submit to you that a lot of times, most of our financial stress in our lives is caused by the failure of exercising good stewardship.
We don't listen, we don't read, but there's a whole bunch of financial principles in the Word of God that will help us thrive, that will help us have some victory, that help us have some security, that help us have some hope and some direction. But a lot of times we don't see ourselves as a steward. We don't even see that he owns it all, we own it all. But ultimately he wants us to see ourselves to be a blessing.
Then he kind of lands the plane here in verse 13, no one can serve two masters, for you will hate one and love the other, you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money, other translations you cannot serve God and money at the same time. Someone has to be first in your life. This is where he's going.
This is kind of where we'll eventually be going. It's not so much about money, it's about our hearts. And money is so tied to our hearts. Jesus said this, man, wherever your money is, wherever your treasure is, that's where your heart's gonna be.
Whatever is important in our life, amen, this is where our money's gonna be going. And we can easily be enslaved to this money, the man, the manager, he was given a lot of responsibility. He was given assets, privileges, he had a salary, but he did not understand what he had in his hand. He didn't understand the gravity and the responsibility that was laid on him.
Now some of you have been given great responsibility. Some of you have been promoted, some of you have some resources, some of you are owners, maybe there's some benefits and resources a little higher than others, and you've gained a little bit of wealth, you've gained some privilege, if you will. But you know what that you've earned, you know how you earned it, but I would suggest this. You don't know why that you've earned it.
You know what you have, you know how you got it, but you don't know why you have it. Now most of the time we're just gonna go to the default, we're just gonna go to the default, oh you have that resources for yourself to make yourself a better life, to follow your dreams, to help your kids, and you can go on vacations and have nicer things, and get this, and we just sucked into this idea that it's for our benefit, the whole time, God's saying, man, you're missing the point. I wanted to bless you, that you would be a blessing to others. It's not all about you.
And if you are untrusted, worthy, he says, about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? If you're not faithful with the blessings I've had with my givings, why should I trust you with others? What's going on here? Do I think, I think, God, Jesus is trying to get to the point, he's not going to give you more blessings if you're not going to be a blessing with it.
I think God's heart is like, I wanna help you, but I need to see if you're trustworthy. I need you to see if it's all you, you're the boss, you made it all, or you've been blessed, and thank you for the money I do have. Thank you for the salary of the job, but the help that I do have, thank you's all you, I'm willing to manage it well. I'm willing to be a blessing.
And so many times God finds this untrustworthy, sometimes even more dishonest, maybe a little bit selfish. Let me try to explain a little bit better, with this play, The Delicious Chocolate Chef Cookies. Any chocolate chef cookie fans here today? Okay, well, somebody, one of our best cooks in the church made these cookies delivered, and they are scrumptious looking things, and I've been blessed to have them.
But God tells me that I need to be generous, yes. And to maybe share my cookies, right, be generous. But a lot of times this is allurement of me, and my fears and my insecurities, we tend to kind of be enslaved to hang in them all, hang onto it, right? For instance, I would like to kind of, ration these cookies all week, so I could have a cookie, bring it to work, every one or two for the rest of the week.
So if I share one or two with you, I won't have enough. See, this is what we do. A lot of times we're like, I want them for myself, because if I give money to God, I give money to the church, and I give money to other people and stuff, I might not have enough, and we live in this fear. And we think to ourselves, well, I'd like to take these home.
I'd like to take these home, and eat these while I'm watching, the Vikings lose to the lions today. That's what I'm hoping for, right? But God's asking me to share, right? And I got a big strap and teenage boy, and he wants cookies, and he's one every day, he goes to school, so I'm gonna keep him for myself, because I need to protect my family.
Now, what are you thinking about me when I see that, right? You're like, get a life, comfort, right? You'll get more cookies, you can share cookies, some of you more have more evil thoughts, like what a big jerk, why don't you share these cookies with wrong with you, right? Why are you so scared to share the cookies?
Because there's other chefs in there, they should be glad to break me more cookies if I ask her, right? This is what we do with our money. I'm like, oh God, I don't know if I have enough, right? I might run out, and if you ask me to share in the cube, right, and I need more from our family, because my kid really likes those types of cookies, my wife likes them, and I want to really please my family, so no, I'll keep them to myself, maybe a piece of it or something, right?
No, we need to share. Anybody like a cookie today, amen? Okay, first couple of people come up, right? Come on up, right?
Okay, now girls, easy, okay? Now, God's in it, you've been a blessing, I'm blessing you, amen? Okay, what does God tell us? To be a blessing to others, so you need to share some of these, okay, take the plate, and there's some right here, you guys share, amen?
See, sharing and blessing is all tied to the kingdom and the heart. Jesus said, you cannot serve God and be enslaved to money, because Jesus knows that money and finances will be the chief number one king or lord of our life, the apostle Paul knew this when he wrote to Timothy, he says, the love of money can be the root of all kinds of evil and problems. He didn't say money is a problem, he says the love of money, because it is so alluring, it's so tempting. See, God's not after our money, like I said, he's after our hearts, because he knows that our money is tied to our hearts, where our treasure is, that's where our spirit, that's where our soul is gonna be.
So somewhere he's trying to ask us to make the change, and making a change is gonna take a heart change. And generosity isn't a financial decision, it's a heart decision. A heart decision to say, you know what? I'm by faith, I'm gonna believe God, you own it all.
Thank you for giving what we have. I wish we might have more, but what I have, I thank you, you've given the blessings to us. And God, I'm gonna make that change, I'm gonna make that shift, that you're asking me to be really wise and good with the money that you've given. We're gonna be diligent, and we're gonna talk about that in the next couple of weeks.
And God help me to be a blessing. I understand now that you're giving me a blessing to help me a blessing to others, and even my family, et cetera. This is where Terry and I, where we started off. We had financial pressures, absolutely, but we just didn't have a compass, we didn't have principles, we just thought, well, what are we gonna do, and whatever makes us happy?
And then God said, really, hey, I'm gonna bless you, I'm gonna promote you, but it's all gonna come from me. I need to see yourself, rest your life, as stewards, and we made that change. We made that shift in our life, that God owns it all. He's gonna be the stewards, and he's expected to be generous.
And we didn't have much, but we started being generous to God. We started being generous to his mission. And we had some fears, and there's been some disappointments, and there's been some frustrates, absolutely. But God has always been faithful.
We have found that you cannot out give God. God taught us to trust him, that he would have our back, no matter how many cookies, and genocery were, God was always faithful to us. And so he's asking us and asking you today to be a blessing, because you've been blessed. Would you be willing to do that?
This week, I wanna encourage you to think about how you could be generous, maybe in some specific way. Just kinda risk a little bit, and give in an unusual way. Maybe it's paying for the person behind you in a drive-through line, just bless the socks off of them, say, how much does there take it behind me, and just pay for it? Maybe you're at the grocery store, and they have some bags for food shelves that you can purchase, I did this the other day, because there's some people are hurting these months in America, and just donate food.
Maybe you can give a bigger tip than usual at a restaurant, just bless them and surprise them in the usual ways, some way that you can be a blessing. Couple years ago, I was introduced to this in this concept of really just being a blessing, being generous, I taught this by a minister up at Family Camp, he was preaching on generosity, and he encouraged us all to do a practice that he does. And that is to carry around a $50 bill, and be prompted by the Holy Spirit, and pull the thing out when there might be a need. And just carry that until God tells you, give that away, and then see how God blesses it back, because what we sow, what we reap.
And so just wait until God replenishes, and then give that $50 back. So I decided to do that, and I tried that out, and for a couple years, I've carried $50 bill, and sure enough, there'd be some situation, a person, right? And I just like this is the time. Let's give that, and then just go maybe for weeks or months, right?
And then all of a sudden, someone would give me $100, or $50 or something, and I'd restore that. I remember one time, I was coming out of this convenience store, and I went around the corner, and there was this lady, she was trying to fill up her tire in her car, and it was hot, and I could tell that she was kind of frustrated, so I said, hey, can I help you? And she said, man, this tire will not get filled, and I don't know what's wrong with it. And so I helped her a little bit, I'm putting the air in, and it's going off a little bit, but not.
And I'm like, oh, this tire's got flat. There's a leak in this situation. This is this tire. I said, man, I think you got a flat tire.
And what you need to do is go get that fixed. I think there's a tire storage just around the corner, and that's going to fix your solution, if you kind of just get it down there. And all of a sudden, she's are crying, and she said, I can't do that. I said, why not?
She said, I got no money. It's the end of the month, and my check's coming a couple of weeks, but I'm just broke, and she was so embarrassed that she could not even pay to get her tire fixed and it's flat. And I just fell for it, right there, of course, it's no brainer. I was like, let me help you.
I had the $50 in my wallet. I said, this will help you, and of course, she's resisting. No, I can't take that. She's embarrassed and it's awkward.
I said, please let me help you. Please let me be a blessing to you. I love saying this, and don't rob me in my blessing. Don't rob me in my blessing.
Let me bless you, right? She took the $50. Thank you very much, and she went her way. I went on my way.
Three, four months later, I'm walking into this restaurant and who's staying in front of me is this lady, she kind of like is the host of the manager or something in this restaurant, and we instantly see each other. And she puts a big smile on her face. And she's, I know who you are. I know who you are.
You're that guy that helped me. And I've been thinking about you ever since. And thank you very much. Thank you very much, you know?
And I was like, oh, yes. That other thing worked out. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I'm doing fine now.
Thank you very much, you know? She's like, I mean, can you think free? I mean, but she offered that, right? That's OK.
And what's been unique is through the years This lady has gone to other restaurants and managed in different places. And once in a while, I'll bump into her. I know her first name, she's my first name. And it's just been a pleasure to have that understanding.
She's doing fine these days. But in her mind, she's like, that's the guy that was used by God to help me in my most desperate times. And I think that's what God's trying to say to us. You have no idea how eternal things will work out.
And now this time in eternal life, if you're willing to be a blessing. And I'm looking to bless you. But I got to trust you to see it as mine, and you steward it, and then you return it. You forward it in a blessing way.
So I want to pray with this one. We all stand, we'll kind of close this out. Unless it's kind of a focus in, close your eyes. I got a couple of questions.
What shifts and changes do you need to make? It's God speaking to you that you need to make the change to see what you have, anything good in your life, that God has given and owns it. It's only by His grace that He's allowed you to prosper, to have, and He owns it. Could you just give Him that authority?
For us, God owned that little sofa. There wasn't much. God owns our cars. God owns our house.
God owns any talents we have. It's all His. Can you make that change today? Secondly, can you make that shift to say, God's expecting me to be a steward?
I got to be more diligent. We got to be more wise. We got to be more generous, because He's trusting us with these benefits, He's trusting us with these resources. Can you make that shift?
And then we pray, Jesus, that you'd help us to find a person or a way we could be more generous just this week, just start leaning into this practice. If you truly own it all, and you expect us to do well with it, God, then help us to push it forward, to love other people, God, and bless other people. And thank you, how you loved us. We go in your grace and your power in Jesus' name.
Amen. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Faithbrook Church Messages Podcast. If you're new here at Faithbrook, we'd love the opportunity to connect with you and hear your story. To connect beyond listening today, we'd love for you to join us in person, or if you would please go to faithbrook.church forward slash connect.
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