Generosity 1.0

Generosity - Greed & Contentment. Message by Dale Meredith at The Red Door Community Church.

Episode Transcript

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Starting on the 19th of February, we'restarting, which will be the first and
the third Wednesday going forward ofeach month, we're starting a Bible
study here called the Word and Way.
6. 30 for a seven o'clock start.
All are welcome to come.
I think we're going to start with thebook of Philippians because that is very

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much on my heart right now and I willbe leading it in case you're wondering.
And so it is going to be a place.
And this is very important people,not just to fill your heads with more
information about the Bible, becausethere is a plethora of that out there
in the wonderful world, but it isa space to chew on the word of God.

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together, to marinate in it together,that it would deeply form us and
transform us, that we would bedrawn into deeper relationship with
God as we study His word together.
And that word together is very important.
It won't just be me downloadinga bunch of information, we're
going to learn about it.
together, because we each bring somethingunique and important to the picture, hey?

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So you're all welcome, and we'rejust gonna, you know, start
it and see how it goes, hey?
Wonderful!
All right, let's get into ournew theme, which is generosity.
Giving is the good life.
Yeah, I knew Chris.
I knew if I waited longenough, Chris would pipe in.
Let's begin by looking at ourscripture for this morning, which

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is 1 Timothy 6, 2 to 12 and 7 to 19.
Okay, so just a little bit of context.
Paul is writing to Timothy here.
He has sent Timothy into Ephesus.
There's some really dodgyteaching going on for the church
in that part of the world.
Paul's caught wind of it.
He's sending Timothy in to correct.

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this false teaching.
And a part of this false teachingis around the idea that, the
pursuit of godliness can leadto great wealth and riches.
Turns out prosperity gospelis not a new thing, people.
It's always been a thing.
So he writes, these are the thingsyou are to teach and insist on.
If anyone teaches otherwise and does notagree to the sound instruction of our

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Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching.
They are conceited and understand nothing.
They have an unhealthy interest incontroversies and quarrels about
words that result in envy, strife,malicious talk, evil suspicions and
constant friction between people ofcorrupt mind who have been robbed
of the truth and who think thatgodliness is a means to financial gain.

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The godliness with contentment isgreat gain for we brought nothing
into the world and we can take nothingout of it But if we have food and
clothing We will be content with that.
Those who want to get rich fall intotemptation and a trap and into many
foolish and harmful Desires that plungepeople into ruin and destruction.

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For the love of money is a root of allkinds of evil Some people eager for
money have wandered from the faith andpierced themselves with many griefs But
you, man of God, flee from all of thisand pursue righteousness, godliness,
faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.
Fight the good fight of the faith.

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Take hold of the eternal lifeto which you were called when
you made your good confession inthe presence of many witnesses.
Command those who are rich in thispresent world not to be arrogant, nor
to put their hope in wealth, whichis so uncertain, but to put their
hope in God, who richly provides uswith everything for our enjoyment.
Command them to do good, to berich in good deeds, and to be

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generous and willing to share.
In this way, they will lay up treasurefor themselves as a firm foundation
for the coming age, so that they maytake hold of the life that is truly.
life.
And so really what this series about canbe found in that last little bit there.
So that we pursue a life of generosityin Christ, so that we are able to

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take hold of the good life, so thatwe are able to live the abundant life
that Christ gain, came to give us.
Simply, we cannot take hold ofthe abundant life of Christ.
We cannot take hold of the goodlife unless we become a people
of deep and profound generosity.
And this is a big part ofwhat Paul is saying here.

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His intent in writing to Timothy, inwriting to the church in Ephesus here.
And these words ring just astrue for us today as they did
for the original audience.
Because at the bottom line, itdoesn't matter who you are in this
world, everybody wants the good life.
We all have different opinions onwhat it might be, different faith
traditions, different world views.
But everybody is living, seeking,wanting, desiring to take hold of life.

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That is truly life to takehold of the good life.
The paradoxically what Jesus and whatscripture teach is that the good life it's
not found in grasping and taking as ourWestern materialistic culture teaches and
infuses into us, the good life is found.
In a life of generosity, in alife of sacrificial and abundant

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and free and cheerful giving.
True life, the good life, isn'tfound in the abundance of wealth and
possessions, is what Jesus himself says.
But it's found in generosity.
It's found in sharing of what we have.
In the free and joyfulgiving of what we have.
Billy Graham once said if a person getshis attitude toward money straight,

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it will help straighten out almostevery other area in their life.
That's a big claim, isn't it?
But if you ponder it, I thinkhe's really onto something there.
Such is the nature of money.
Such is the power of money.
And it's why Jesus talkedabout it so much as well.

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If a person gets his attitude towardmoney straight, it will help straighten
out almost every other area in his life.
Mmm.
Yes.
Just chew on that.
But still listen to me at the same time.
Some of you here Got yourattitude pretty straight, okay?
We are, generally speaking,a pretty generous bunch of

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people here at the Red Door.
But you know what?
Some of you don't.
Some of you got someattitude problems here.
And you know what?
I'm not saying that with any sense ofguilt, shame or condemnation, yeah?
We are all somewhat, I imagine, onsome kind of spectrum here towards
a life of deepening generosity.

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But regardless of where you sit, money issomething that we must, must talk about.
And regularly be willing toexamine our own relationship
with, because it has such power.
And particularly in the materialisticculture in which we live.
It has a great power todeceive and to corrupt.
And the problem is we oftenunderestimate just how much.

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And that is the deceiving nature of money.
It convinces us that it's notthat powerful, that it's not that
important, that we are all good.
It subtly convinces us that we're not,you know, I guess compromising our
integrity and our faithfulness to Jesus.
It is powerfully seductive andthis is why we need to constantly
be checking ourselves and ourrelationship with money and how we're

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going with it before the Word of God.
And so this series isn't aboutmaking anyone feel guilty or
condemned so that you give more.
Okay, there is no baitand switch going on here.
At the end of the day, I couldn't givea flying fig how much money you gave.
Ultimately, it is aboutyour heart before God.
That is the thing that isof ultimate importance.

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But what Scripture so clearlyteaches is you cannot love money
and love God simultaneously.
And so there's a very great opportunityin this series I think for some of us who
perhaps have some anxious feelings aroundmoney, who perhaps have fallen into the
trap of loving and worshipping money.
There is the potential for you toexperience a very great liberation.

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As you come before the word ofGod and what the word of God has
to teach on this subject So whydoes taking hold of the good life?
Why does taking hold of life thatis truly life even really matter?
It's said in this passage ThatGod richly provides us with
everything for our enjoyment.
You know, God loves you and God wantsyou to enjoy life Sometimes I think

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we can fall under this assumption ifwe're going to be serious Christians,
then we've got to have franny littlefaces and be very serious about
everything and be very burdenedand be constantly looking at where
everyone is not doing the right thing.
And we can like, it'slittle curmudgeons, right?
And that's not how Godwants us to live, okay?
God wants us to enjoy this beautiful life.
Yes, should we carry burdensfor the missions of God in this

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world that he has called us to?
Absolutely.
But that doesn't mean we haveto have poo faces about it.
That doesn't mean we can't havejoy in the moment and enjoy the
abundance that He has blessed us with.
When you take hold of thegood life, what happens?
You become a beautiful and powerfulvessel for others to taste and see
and receive life that is truly life.

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You become a conduit for it,a beautiful conduit of God's
good blessings in this world.
That's a pretty fun place to be.
But when you're enslaved and you'reensnared and you're poisoned by a
love of money, you become excludedfrom taking hold of the good
life and sharing it with others.
And I know this soundsextreme, but this is what this

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passage actually testifies to.
You actually, rather than be aninstrument of good in the world,
you become an instrument of evil.
Ooh, that's a big claim, isn't it?
And the reason why we step back from aclaim like that is because in our minds
we take the word evil and we think ofan evil person and we think of somebody
who's a serial killer or who does theseovert, violent, vicious, malicious acts.

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But think of it this way, to have anabundance, to have enough to be able
to bless another person, to make adifference in their world, to alleviate
their suffering, to have enough.
But out of greed or fear of lack or loveof money to withhold that good, that

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is to participate in the ways of evil.
Yeah, you might not be activelyengaging in a malicious act towards
another person, but you are withholdinggood, and that is to participate with
the forces of evil in this world.
And again, this is not to shame,guilt, condemn, but this is just to
shine light on the ways that we canbe deceived in this area of money.

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So imagine, imagine for a moment with me,if greed was suddenly eliminated from the
human heart of every person on the planet.
Everybody was suddenly abundantlycontent with having enough, and there
was a freedom and a rest in that.
And then they were so freeto go, Oh, you have a need?
Well here, I have an abundance.
Come share what I have.
Oh my gosh!

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The suffering that would beeliminated across the face of the
earth if greed ceased to be a thing.
A contentment came upon everyhuman heart and pushed out every
inclination towards greed to graspand to hold and to keep for oneself.
Oh, it's quite powerful.
John Mark Comer in his Practicingthe Way series on generosity,
which I can highly recommend.
And if you haven't, as we do gothrough this series, if you feel

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a bit of a conviction in thisspace, you think this is something
I need to pursue more in my life.
This practice of generosity, this postureof generosity, a heart of generosity.
I would just Google it, practicingthe way generosity, the teaching
is really, really great.
But he says there's a key taskof our apprenticeship to Jesus.
If you would call yourself a Christianin this place this morning, you are
an apprentice to Jesus, a follower ofJesus, learning how to become more like

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Jesus, learning to do what he did in theworld, to be how he was in the world.
One of the key tasks as apprenticesof Jesus is to discover the
joy of living a generous life.
Have you discovered the joyof living a generous life?
Some of you have, right?
You love it.
It is your very great joy to be a giver.

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But some of you, you'restill not quite convinced.
You're still kind of holdingon to those purse strings, to
money, to wealth, possessions.
And again, as I said before, there isa very great opportunity through this
series, I believe, if that is you.
If money has a hold on you in a waythat is not good or godly or life
giving, there is liberation for youas you come before the Word of God.

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So the theme of today's messageis this, I'm going to talk
about greed and contentment.
And so how contentment protects usfrom the prison of greed, frees us to
live a life of cheerful generosity,and enables us to take hold of the
life that is truly life, the abundantlife that Jesus died to give us.
So let's begin by lookingat some questions to probe

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and tenderize our hearts.
Fun?
Okay, again, not condemnation, not shame.
Curiosity.
Okay.
So let's approach thesequestions here with curiosity.
Okay.
This is not a, Oh, I'm so bad.
I'm such a bad Christian.
All right.
That kind of posture is never goingto motivate you into godliness.

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All right.
All we got to do is be curious aboutwhat's going on in our internal
world and then bring it before Godwhere we see it's out of alignment
without guilt, shame or condemnation.
Okay.
God already knows anyway.
So what is your primaryfeeling about money?
Even as we've started talking aboutnow and we've talked about generosity,
have you started to tighten up?
Um, so is it fear?

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Is it anxiety?
Is there guilt around money?
Is there shame around money for you?
Is there desire?
If you're, if you're really honest,really honest, okay, and I'll say this
as well, because we're really good atthis, you know, the hardest deceitful
above all else, really good at answeringquestions like this about, in response
to, I guess, how we would like to beperceived, rather than how we truly

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are, and that gets us nowhere either.
Just be honest.
Okay, if you've got an issuewith money, just Yeah, no,
I've, I've got an issue with it.
It's not great.
Okay, and then we, thenyou can move on from there.
Would you say that you have anabundance or a scarcity mindset?
Okay.
What is the story your financialworld tells about where you
believe the good life is found?

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Because your spending and your savingsand your debt tell a story about
what you believe about the good life.
Mmm, think about that one.
All right, next.
Do you trust God toprovide all your needs?
You know, in, in full transparency,this is a big one for me.
I don't.

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So this has been very confrontingand challenging for me.
I found there is, there isplaces I don't naturally trust
God to supply all my needs.
I feel like I have to supply someof them myself because I don't
know that I can fully, that,Fully trust that God's got me.
Okay, in all honesty.
Yeah, and so this seriesis good for me, too.
Yeah, I do not have this nailedpeople, not by any stretch.

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So do you find yourself wanting moremoney than what you currently have?
How many of you do the lotto fantasy game?
Oh, no, but I give a lot of it away.
Hmm.
Yep.
Okay.
Anyway, just ponder it withoutguilt, shame or condemnation.
Just curiosity.
If you do, Why is what youcurrently have not enough?

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That's a fun question, isn't it?
Why is what you have, if you'realways thinking I need more,
why is what you have not enough?
If you have food and clothing enough,as Paul wrote to Timothy in that passage
we just read, why is that not enough?
How comfortable would you be to allowa trusted friend to view your finances?

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Like, would you, you know, happyto, somebody to come along?
If we knocked on your door, Adam andDale, would you show us your budget?
Ha ha ha, ooh, the nervous laughter.
But we should be willing to, right?
We should be willing to, if there's noguilt, shame or condemnation, if our
identity and our salvation is not attachedto this, and money is a very dangerous

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thing, we should be inviting other peopleinto our financial world as an act of
safety and protection of our own hearts.
But are we willing to?
Are we willing to?
This is good, isn't it?
Poke, prod, tenderise, smash, mash, mash.
Again, curiosity, not condemnation.
All right, so let's look at the trapof greed for a moment that, Paul
talks about as he writes to Timothy.

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So 1 Timothy 6, 6 to 10.
Those who want to get rich fall intotemptation and a trap and into many
foolish and harmful desires that plungepeople into ruin and destruction.
For the love of money is aroot of all kinds of evil.
Some people eager for money havewandered from the faith and pierced
themselves with many many griefs.

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So what exactly is greed?
A greed, greed is an insatiable desire formaterial gain, for more than one needs.
It's a desire to accumulate money,power, security to such a degree that
it can supersede moral integrity.
And even one's spiritual integrity,again when we talk about greed, it can
be a slippery thing because in our mindswe imagine somebody that's greedy, they

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writhe around on a bed of cash and youknow, they hug their money and they just,
you know, we, we go to extremes, right?
But it is this lust.
For money, for possessions.
And it can be subtle, itdoesn't always look overt.
And it's often revealedin moments of testing.
Have I shared my Audistory with you guys before?

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I know I shared it in youth, but Idon't know if I shared it in church.
Okay, so towards the end oflast year, I met Audi, just
because, you know, I love Audi.
Um, good different, right?
Good different.
And anyway.
Go through the checkout, and, youknow, that's an experience, isn't it?
Whew, whew, whew, whew, anxiety inducing.
Um, and, um, obviously it was a newgirl on checkout, and she was very

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flustered, and didn't really seem toknow what she's doing, and anyway.
I paid, and just had a feeling that, Ijust thought I better check, so I get
home, I check my receipt, and it sayson the receipt that I paid 100 cash.
I was like, I did not pay cash.
I tapped.
Okay, I checked my credit card.
It didn't go through my credit card.
It's like over 100 worthof groceries, right?

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So suddenly the little, little devilappears on the shoulder, goes, Ooh!
100 of free groceries!
Winner, winner, chicken dinner!
And then the other little thing popsup, little angel, the conviction.
You go, is your integrity worth that?
What are you going to do about that?
What about that poor checkout girl?

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Clearly it was her first shift.
Her till is not going to reconcileby over a hundred dollars.
That's not going to reflect well on her.
What might the consequences for her be?
And so there's a moment of testing, right?
What are you going to get into?
The voice of greed?
Or the conviction and theintegrity of the spirit.
And then we have these littlemoments of testing, don't we?

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So even if it's just a few bucksof missed, you know, change, you've
paid for something and you get moreback, what are you going to do?
You're just going toquietly take it as a win?
What about your tax return?
How, what do you do there?
Are you completely integrouswith what you claim?
Or do you go, Oh, no one will ever notice.
I'm just going to claim a bit extra.
Oh, not as a Christian.

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You do not do that, my friends.
No.
We are witnesses in this world.
Do not give into that.
It is not worth selling your integrityfor a few extra bucks that you can't
even take with you when you die.
Yet, how often are we tempted,the seduction of it in the moment,
to take it as a little win?
And we've sacrificed our integrityand our witness in that moment.

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And again, this is not to shameor condemn, this is just to
shine light on the truth of theseductive nature of money and greed.
Alright, and again, what is importantto note with all of this, it's not
saying that money and material comfortsand possessions are a bad thing.
and that enjoying them is a bad thing.
Alright, we can easilyhear that, can't we?
We think, we can think that'ssome kind of virtue in poverty.

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Alright, a person in poverty is nomore virtuous in and of themselves
than a person who has wealth.
Yeah?
Because a person who has, who is inpoverty can still last after money just
as much as somebody who has wealth.
Yeah, it's not a matter ofwhether you have money or not.
It's all about your posture towards it.

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So the warning is, if you lovemoney, if you want to get rich,
if you love it whether you haveit or not, you are trapped.
That is what Paul is saying here.
This passage speaks to boththose who are rich and those
who aren't but they want to be.
So verses 6 to 10 are for thosewho don't have money but want it.
Verses 17 to 19 are forthose who do have money.

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So money has the power to poisonour lives whether we have it or not.
And so the word here, healso uses this word foolish.
They fall into a trap and intomany foolish and harmful desires.
The word for foolish here, whenthe Bible talks about foolishness,
it's talking about someonewho is wise in their own eyes.
Someone who is blind to truthand is blind to reality.

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And so the desire for money,it deceives and it blinds us to
reality in soul destroying ways.
So two ways that it can blind us.
It blinds us to who we truly are andit can blind us to what we truly have.
So how does it blind us to who we are?
So in verse 17, Paul writes,Command those who are rich in this
present world to not be arrogant,nor to put their hope in wealth.

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Money can make us arrogant.
And again we go, oh no, I'm notarrogant, because an arrogant person
is this kind of person, right?
And we we have this image, thiscaricature in our mind, and we
don't fit that, so we're good.
Right?
But arrogance at its core is just havingan overestimation and overconfidence
about one's own abilities and capacities.
And when the area of money,Deuteronomy 18, does a beautiful

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job of describing this.
And it says this, he gave youmanna to eat in the wilderness,
speaking to the Israelites.
Something your ancestors had never knownto humble you and to test you, so that
in the end it might go well with you.
All God wants at the end of the dayis that it would go well with us.
God is not a meanie tryingto make your life hard.

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He wants it to go well with you.
But you may say to yourself, mypower and the strength of my hands
have produced this wealth for me.
But remember the Lord yourGod, for it is He who gives you
the ability to produce wealth.
You know, we sit here in this room,some of you might not feel wealthy, but
let me tell you, chances are you are.

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You know, we talk about this when we talkabout money where we sit in the spectrum
of global wealth and we're all doing okay.
We're all in like the top atleast 10%, most of us probably
in the top 5%, all right?
But we like to compareourselves to the billionaires
and go, I'm not a billionaire.
I'm not rich.
Well, you compare yourself to theother 95 percent of the world.
And yeah, actually, you are.

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So this word is for you.
When Paul writes to Timothy, hesays, Command those who are rich,
that this, this, this, this is us.
You know, there's a, seriously,goes through some people's minds.
But anyway, there is a websitewhere you can go to, you can plug
in your annual income, and it willtell you how long it takes Gina
Reinhart to earn your annual income.

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So apparently it takes Gina about half anhour to earn our combined family income.
All right.
So we look at Gina andgo, Oh, Gina's rich.
I'm not rich.
Yeah.
But, but, you know, but, but look at theother 90 to 95 percent and hear that this
word is for us and hear that we need toguard our hearts because we are the rich.

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We are the rich, but it has thepower to blind us so that we
don't see ourselves in this light.
You know, he says, Paul writes, forwe brought nothing into the world.
We can take nothing out of it.
We came into this worldnaked and vulnerable.
We leave it in the same state andin the in between we can live life
in a somewhat neurotic pursuitof trying to cover ourselves.
And one of the foolish traps ofmoney is to convince us that if we

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have enough of it, if we're rich,then we're covered, then we're safe.
But it's a fig leaf, it'sfolly, it's foolish arrogance.
Not, every, all the money in theworld cannot cover you from the things
that can truly destroy your life.

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Money cannot cover you, it is a fig leaf.
And yet, it foolishly deludesus into thinking it can.
You know, for me, and, and again,just a moment of transparency,
for the last couple of years, forthe first time in our financial
world, we have had, like, savings.
Okay?
And this is, this isquite a novelty, right?
God has always provided for us.

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And, and yet, we have this savings.
And now my, I find I now have thissense if I'm not careful, I'm covered.
I've got savings.
I'm covered.
I've got superannuation.
This could all go tomorrow.
It's a house of cards.
There is no security in having savings,in having, it's a myth, it's foolishness.

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It convinces you I'm covered because I'veearned enough money myself to cover myself
so that I am not vulnerable anymore.
This is a picture of the garden, right?
What happened to Adam and Eve?
They suddenly realizedtheir vulnerability, started
putting on some fig leaves.
Oh, we're covered now.
And God's like, oh, no, you're not.
Here you go.
Here's some proper covering, right?

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That's what he says to us all.
He has us covered.
Money does not have us covered.
It's one of the lies it is.
It tells us that it has us covered.
You know, we cannot earnour salvation through money.
We can't earn eternal life through money.
We can't cover ourself from deathby money, but God can, God can

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cover us and God has us covered.
So number two.
It blinds us to how much we have.
So like drugs, where the consistentconsumption of drugs leads to an
increasing tolerance and thereforethe need for more to experience that
same hit, that same amount of relief.
When you do make a bit more money, you canafford to go buy and do more things that

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you couldn't do before or have before.
And these things are luxuries,not necessities, because you
got by without them before.
And quickly, luxuries become necessities.
You need more and morejust to feel normal.
And what used to be aluxury is now a necessity.
You know, I was just reflecting on this,because I'm old enough to remember a time
where air conditioning wasn't a thing.

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Like, we didn't grow upwith air conditioning.
And somehow we endured summerhere in Perth, year in, year
out, without air conditioning.
Not even in our cars didwe have air conditioning.
And we certainly did not have itin the demountables at school,
where we just sweated, right?
Days on end.
You don't have air conditioning.
Oh, okay.
Um, and yet it's becomea necessity, hasn't it?

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It is a rare thing to find a homethat does not have some form of air
conditioning in it now, because whatused once used to be a luxury has now
become a necessity, and so society goes.
You know, air travel, like.
That was a luxury back when I was young.
We had family on the East Coast.
How did we go visit them?
We hopped in the car, didn't haveair conditioning, and drove two and a

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half days non stop to go visit them.
Because flight, air flightwasn't an option, right?
It was a luxury that.
It wasn't a necessity.
And so it easily, luxury easily becomesa necessity and then we end up on this
hamster wheel of always having to havemore to feel like we've got enough.
There's a book um, by the titleof The Psychology of Money, which

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is quite an interesting read.
And then it was this little story,which I thought was really good.
So at a party given by a billionaire,Joseph Heller, who's a famous American
author, and he was a guest at thisparty, he was informed by a fellow guest
that their host, a hedge fund manager,had made more money in a single day
than Heller had earned from his widelypopular novel, which had sold over

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10 million copies over its history.
So Heller, the author,he responds to this.
He says, yes, but I havesomething he will never have.
I have enough.
I thought, oh, that'squite profound, isn't it?
Imagine if somebody just came, knockedon your door and said, here's enough.
You now have enough.
And you're like, oh, thank you.

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I now have enough.
How would that change how youlive, how you view the world?
But somebody has comeand given you enough.
The person is, the enoughness is Jesus.
And it's because of the blindingand seductive nature of money.
This is why Jesus says inLuke 12, 15, Watch out!
You know I say that because he shouts itin the text as an exclamation mark, right?

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Watch out!
Be on your guard againstall forms of greed.
Why does he say it?
Because it's so insidiousand it's so subtle.
So you, we've got tobe on guard against us.
Against it.
And again, it's not condemnation thingbecause anytime we are given over to the
ways of greed we are missing out on theabundant life that Christ came to give us.

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We're missing out on thetrue and the good life.
We've been deceived.
You know, is that story?
In Matthew 19, six, verses 16 to22, in this rich young ruler, he
comes to Jesus and he says, what goodthing must I do to get eternal life?
Why do you ask me what is good?
Jesus replies, there'sonly one who is good.
If you want to enter life,keep the commandments.
Which ones?

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The young man says, and Jesus says, Don'tmurder, don't commit adultery, don't
steal, don't lie, honour your mother andfather, love your neighbour as yourself.
All these I have kept, the young man says.
So interesting, doesn't it?
He doesn't stop there, he goes, Oh good,I've done all those, see you later Jesus.
The young man knows he stilldoesn't have it, doesn't he?
Despite his obedience, he knowssomething is still missing.

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So he says, what do I still lack?
What do I still lack, Lord?
Next, Jesus answered, If youwant to be perfect, go sell your
possessions and give to the poorand you'll have treasure in heaven.
Then come and follow me.
When the young man heard this, he wentaway sad, because he had great wealth.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, Truly,I tell you, it is hard for someone who
is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.

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Again, I tell you, it's easier fora camel to go through the eye of a
needle than for someone who is richto enter the kingdom of heaven.
So if we hear Are the rich.
Yeah, we gotta, we gottahear these words, right?
And feel the weight of them, okay?
And realize that Jesus sees moneyso much more clearly than we do.
And he sees the danger of it.

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And he sees how it calls to our heartsand says, follow me, I will give you life.
Worship me, I will give you life.
And when we do that, we endup ensnared and enslaved.
And we gotta be so vigilant.
Jesus took it really seriously.
So, so must, so must we.
And what is so tragic about this scenario,is that here's this young guy, who

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knows he's missing out on something.
But his heart is so attached to wealth andmoney, that he can't walk away from it.
He can't let it go.
So if Jesus was to come beforeyou today, And go, you know, all
that savings you got, all thatsuperannuation you got, go give it.
How would you go with that?

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You know, these are good thoughtexercise, again, not to breed guilt,
shame or condemnation but just tomeasure our own attachment to our
financial wealth and the hope andthe trust that we are putting in it.
Is our super, is our savings, isour earning capacity our saviour,
our assurance, our security?

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Or is our heavenly provider?
Or is our heavenlyfather our true provider?
Alright, so how do we escape this trap?
How do we become people of deep,joyful, sacrificial generosity
who've taken hold of the good life?
As Paul says here, Godlinesswith contentment is great gain.
And the words great gain hereactually means mega wealth.
So he's saying godliness with contentment,that is what true mega wealth is.

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Not dollars, not assets, not possessions.
Contentment.
Contentment is where true value lies.
Contentment is true wealth.
Contentment is true riches.
Contentment is a superpower, people!
It is a superpower!
Oh, what joy it is to live in aposture of contentment in this life.

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Contentment positions us forgenerosity because it just
frees us to be able to give.
We're not held by these things.
They don't own us.
We're just free to be conduits for it all.
Discontentment positions us fora life of grasping and taking.
Have you ever come acrossa content, greedy person?
Have you ever come across amiserable, generous person?

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They just don't go together, do they?
And without contentment, withoutbeing able to enjoy and rest in what
you have, the enoughness and thegoodness of what you have already been
blessed with, money will destroy you.
It will rob you of the gift of just beingable to enjoy and appreciate the richness
of this life that God has given you.
With contentment, money and wealthsimply become tools and means to share

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and bless and to see his kingdom come.
And just think about how many parentsYou know, we had to resist this as well
when our kids were younger, but howmany parents are unable to just enjoy
their kids because they're so strungout trying to earn enough money to
get that bigger and better house, thatfamily holiday that we just simply must

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have because we're missing out by notbeing able to take our kids here or
there, and so they enslave themselves.
to debt and to this level ofearning capacity that they think
they need and then end up missingout on the very precious thing
that is right in front of them.
And we don't get time back.
We can never buy it back.

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Once it is gone, it is gone.
And this is why it's so evil andso deceptive because it robs us of
the true blessings in life, whichis the people right in front of us.
When we are so anxious by ourfinancial worlds, that we cannot
just embrace the good that we have.
That is a very great sadness, indeed.

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That is a very great sadness, indeed.
Particularly when we have beenblessed with so, so very much.
And this is the beauty of contentment,because content, to be content, is
to be satisfied with what you have.
And when you are satisfiedwith what you have, you're not
ruled by an impulse for more.
Are you?
That impulse isn't controlling you.

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If that more comes your way, yay, great.
You've got it.
To enjoy and share.
Beautiful.
And if it's not there anymore, ohwell, I was content before and this is
what Paul says in Philippians, right?
I have learned.
He learned it.
He learned it to be content inwhatever circumstances, whether it
was to be in need or to have plenty.

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He learned the secret of being contentin all situations, whether well fed or
hungry, whether living in plenty or want.
And how did he learn this?
He says it here, I can do all thisthrough him who gives me strength.
Genuine contentment is not selfsufficiency, it's Christ sufficiency.
That's where it's found, in allowingChrist to be your sufficiency.

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You know what?
We're going to bringthis home now, soonish.
We are in a war, ultimately.
Yeah, we did a spiritualwarfare series last, last year.
We're in a war, and so much ofthat war is about a war of trust.
Are we going to trust Jesus?
Or are we going to trustthe ways of this world?

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Who or what will we follow?
Who or what will we trust in?
And it's not just our own fleshthat we battle with in this war.
You know, we have a very real enemyalways seeking to seduce us to place
our trust in other things like money.
And so we need to be wise tothe enemy's schemes in this.
The subtle ways that he seduces us inthis place to give our worship over.

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to money, to mammon, asJesus would call her.
These seductive forces areso strong in our culture.
We live in a culture that exists, oureconomy exists on our discontentment.
Advertisers have to keep us discontentso that we will keep buying,
that we will keep going into debtto have more than what we need.

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Our economy thrives on it.
You remember years ago.
Just, just starting to be aware ofthe effect that, junk mail could
have on our levels of contentment.
Because every week, you know, itrocks up in bountiful quantities,
junk mail, in your letterbox.
And so you start to look throughit and you're like, ooh, ooh, ooh.

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Now it's, I guess it happenson social media, right?
You're scrolling through stuffand different things pop up.
Ooh, that looks good.
Ooh, I think I need that.
And you didn't even know thisthing existed five seconds ago.
And all of a sudden it's gonefrom not existing to a need.
Click, click, click.
Bye, bye, bye.
And so with, with, back in theolden days when it, you know,
it was just discontentment mail,that's what we started to call it.

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Discontentment mail.
And it just went straight in the bin.
We didn't even look at it.
And then we put a little thing on the,it was funny, put a little, a little sign
on the front, you know, no junk mail.
Which Charlotte made thesign out of junk mail.
Out of letters cut out of.
Junk must look like, you know,a serial killer letter, but um,
Still, it is discontentment mail.

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Yeah, so when you're scrolling and theseads pop up, they're discontentment ads.
They are there to breed discontentin you so that you will buy, be wise,
be wise, be wise to the schemes.
Alright, how do we get contentment?
Finally, this is coming to an end, people.
How do we get contentment?
There are three reasonsthat we can be content.
So Jonathan Edwards, back in the 1700s,he wrote this in one of his sermons.

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And I have mentioned thisbefore, but it's really great.
If we can ground ourselves in these threethings, that will lead to a glorious
amount of contentment in our lives.
These three things, the reasonwhy the follower of Jesus can be
content in any and all circumstances.
Firstly, your bad thingswill turn out for good.
Romans 8 28.
Your good things, number two, yourgood things cannot be taken from you.

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Your treasure is in heaven where itcannot be stolen or lost or eroded.
Your good things such as eternal life,the love of God for you, you are covered.
These things cannot be taken from you.
And thirdly, the best is yet to come.
No matter where you are today, you havenot reached the peak of your existence.
The best is yet to come.

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Imagine if we believed those three things.
We would just be people of the mostglorious contentment, we'd be not.
Alright, next, how we get contentment.
We take the gospel of grace,and we drill it into our hearts.
To see all as grace, and all as a gift inthis life, to be received with gratitude.
Just puts us in a posture of such gloriousfreedom where we are able to receive.

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We don't have to grasp.
We don't have to take.
We receive all as grace, all as gift.
And we trust because God gave whatis most precious to Him for our sake.
We can trust He's got us covered.
Yeah.
We can trust that He will provide for us.
We can trust that He is our shepherd.

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Therefore we shall not want Wecan trust that He will richly
provide us with all that we need.
In Romans 8, he who did not spare his ownson but gave him up for us all, how will
he not also graciously give us all things?
Will I have enough can be thequestion that consumes us.

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Yes, with Jesus, yes, you will.
Yes, wow, that's joyfullyliberating, isn't it?
If only we'd believe it!
Contentment leads togenerosity, but you know what?
The reverse is also true.
Generosity leads to contentment.
Both are true.

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So, if you find you strugglewith just being content and at
peace with what you have, Startto practice acts of generosity.
Don't wait to feel it, you know.
Do it awkward.
Do it afraid.
Do it so it stings and it hurts.
And then you'll find,oh, the joy of giving.
I was listening to one guy thisweek, he's an engineer, and I love,

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engineers are a crack up, right?
Because they're so intentional abouteverything and they measure everything.
And so this guy had, you know, had, asan engineer, had applied his engineering
mindset to the act of generosity.
And so everything was measured.
And, um, but he, but the way hedescribes it was, he says, when
I give, I feel God's pleasure.
When I engage in acts ofgenerosity, I feel God's pleasure.

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And to feel the pleasure of God, wow,that is a beautiful, beautiful thing.
And let me tell you, when you're stingyand you're bound up in fear of money
and love of money, you know, you aren'tfeeling the pleasure of God in that place.
And one way to start is just to start.
By giving.
Yeah?
Sometimes we think, oh, I'vegot to feel it before I do it.
No, no, no, no, no.
These bodily acts arereally, really powerful.

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What we do with our bodies, itcan actually transform our hearts.
And we often think, no, no, myheart has to transform first,
and then my body will follow.
No, do it.
Just, just start this week.
Take a certain portion of moneyaside, start small, if this is very
scary for you, and go, God, who?
Where?
What?
How can I be generous with this?
You know, we have set aside, you know,we're both accountants by background, and

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so we're very, you know, practiced withour budgeting, and that has been a very
great blessing in our lives, particularlyfor a large portion of our lives where
finances were pretty, pretty tight.
And, um, But we have this portionof money that's set aside, each
pay, that is our giving money.
That's beyond our tithes, that'sbeyond our offerings, that's beyond
our giving to Compassion and all theseother ministries that we sow into.

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It is just money that sits there so thatwhen the moment comes, oh yeah, okay,
yep, we'll buy these people dinner.
Oh yeah, we will do this for that.
You know, yep, we'll sponsor a coupleof youth leaders to go to camp.
Because, you know, weare intentional about.
We have a, the bucket,the generosity bucket.
And it is good to beintentional in that way.
So start to practice acts of generosity.

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Just where you're at, with what you can.
Another way, start to curateyour own heart in that
posture of God is my provider.
So every time you take that littleplastic card and you tap it, go,
thank you Lord for providing forme that I am able to pay for this.
Thank you, Lord, foryour abundant generosity.
Thank you that you are my provider.

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You are my shepherd, I shall not want.
If you did that every timeyou tapped, because let's
face it, how often do we tap?
Quite regularly these days, don't we?
The magic little card.
Tappy tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.
And if we were to actually say a littleprayer of gratitude every time we did
that, how might that change our posture?
Simple, simple, simple little thing.

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Cultivate an abundance mindset.
This is my challenge, okay?
In all honesty, again, I tendto have more of a scarcity
mindset than abundance mindset.
I tend to focus more my attention onthe lack than I do in the abundance.
And
there's, Jesus says
this in Matthew 6, 22.
He's talking about the eyeas the lamp of the body.

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He says if your eye is healthy, yourwhole body is going to be full of light.
But if your eye is unhealthy, yourwhole body will be full of darkness.
If, then, the light within you isdarkness, how great is that darkness?
And what that means, what thatsaying meant, what it meant to the
people of the day, it was about yourview of the world, whether you had
a scarcity or abundance mindset.
So if you had good, agood eye, a healthy eye,

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it meant, you were
one who looked out atthe world and you saw.
of God.
You saw the abundance of this world, andthat would fill your body with light.
The mindset of abundance.
But then, the bad eye, the one indarkness, looks out and see a world
of scarcity, and is ruled by fear.

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They can't give generously, becausethey're too preoccupied with getting
and keeping, and their heart isweighed down by earthly treasures that
ultimately just rot and rust anyway.
So, If you would say maybe I have moreof a scarcity mindset than abundance
one, perhaps that is something you needto shift your perspective on and start
to behold the abundance that exists.

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There is enough.
There is enough.
He is the God who takes theloaves and the fishes and makes
it not just enough, but abundantlyprovided through that little bit.
So even if you look out and yousay, there's not enough, there's
not enough, I've got a graspfor, for mine so that I'm okay.
No, he can make loavesand fishes multiply.
He's Okay, it's gonna be okay.

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It's gonna be okay.
Again, lean into joy, lean into gratitude.
Joyful people aren't stingy.
Yeah, they're generous, right?
Joy just breathes.
And we, and you have joy becauseyou have the Holy Spirit and
a fruit of the Spirit is joy!
It is there for you to lean intoand embrace and live out of.
If only you wouldacknowledge it and choose to.

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And join yourself with joy each day andgratitude greases the wheels for that.
Doesn't it?
As you wake up and you go, thankyou for that breath in my lungs.
Thank you for another nightof dwelling in safety.
Thank you, Lord, for thegift of indoor plumbing.
Thank you, Lord, for refrigerators.
These little things wetake for granted, right?
But are yet so good.

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So good.
Clean water.
Oh, my gosh.
Amazing.
So much to be gratefulfor, to rejoice about.
And remember this, and I thinkthis is the key thing that God
wants to get into our hearts today,is that He's got you covered.
He's got your back.
You know when somebody, um, paysfor something for you and they

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say, yeah, I've got you covered?
He's paid.
He's got you covered.
You can lean into that.
You can trust him.
Take off the fig leaves of your finances.
They've not got you covered at all.
You can trust him.
Be at peace.
Let that anxiety go.

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That you have to grasp andhold and get enough to be okay.
You don't need to.
He's got you.
Covered.
He's got you covered.
That is so great, isn't it?
All right, let's finish.
Teen, do you want to come on up?
Let's finish with this scripturehere from Hebrews 13 verse 5.

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Beautiful little summary of allof what we've just talked about.
Keep your lives freefrom the love of money.
And be content with what you have,because God has said never will I
leave you, never will I forsake you.
I have got you covered.
Amen?
Alright church, how about you stand?

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Let me quickly pray,
and then we'll end in worship.
Father God, Lord, help this word to sinkdeep into our hearts, that we would be so
free in our trust in you as our provider,
that wealth, possessions, money, justwould have no hold on our hearts.

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We would see it forwhat it truly, truly is.
Just a means
of blessing, of advancing your kingdom.
Open our eyes.
Lord, help our eyes to be good.
Help us to look out into this world, tosee it as a world of glorious abundance.

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Lord, lead us into deeper places of trust.
Lord, for the ones who might behere today, so bound up by love
of money, it has me so anxious.
I know it has a hold on me.
Holy Spirit, would you come andthrough your gracious and kind
conviction, would you lead peopleinto places of freedom and liberation?

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Free our hearts to be so generous.
Free our hearts to honouryou with our finances.
Free our hearts to be rich towards you.
Free our hearts to see the need inthe world and just be so willing.
to respond and so joyful that wehave the means to be able to respond.

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May our hearts rejoice truly,not in that we have money,
but we have ability to bless.
Shift our mindset, help us to takehold of life that is truly life.
Amen.