June 2, 2025 • 37 mins
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
All right, you can have a seat.
Hey, it's good to be with you.
Just a couple announcements,just as we kind of get into
today.
Welcome to June.
It's June 1st For those of youwho are seniors.
See a couple of you guys in theroom.
You guys are graduating thisweek.
Congratulations on finishingyeah, finishing the easiest part
of your life.
(00:22):
Cheers, yeah, finishing theeasiest part of your life.
Cheers, yeah.
Today.
If you haven't heard, it lookslike a handful of you heard,
because you're coming nextservice, but we have our annual
church meeting at 1245.
If you want to come be a partof that, it's also members.
If you're not a member, you'realso welcome here Tomorrow.
There's a ton of people whohave been interested and just
(00:42):
want to get in community, whichis so important.
We are kicking off ourcommunity life tomorrow.
It's not too late to hop in thelittle thing in front of you in
the chair.
You can scan one of those, orthere's a spot out in the lobby,
so don't want you to miss outon that.
Even if you can't come over thesummer.
To all of them, I want toencourage you to get into
community.
And then this is also my gentle, friendly reminder we are only
(01:04):
two weeks away and we are nothaving service.
We are going to serve thecommunity.
We're doing our annual serveday, so if you want to sign up
to be a part of that, we aregoing to unleash compassion.
We're trying to see 500 of useveryone, kids we have stuff for
everyone to participate in thatyou would just donate the time
(01:24):
that you typically would donateto a Sunday morning to going and
serving collectively as a group.
We can do that together andjust a really fun way to get to
know other people in the roomand in this space.
So that's June 15th.
We're not going to be here.
Please don't get mad at me whenyou show up here and you're
like I forgot.
So set a reminder on your phone, do whatever you need to do.
Technology is great.
(01:52):
I will continue to remind youshamelessly so that way I don't
get angry emails, sweet.
So we're in the home stretch inthis series today and, if you
have no idea, if you don't haveany idea, if you're just joining
us actually for the first timetoday, I'm glad you're here, but
this has been a new season, notjust a new series, but a new
season of generosity.
We've been talking aboutgenerosity and talking about
this all-in initiative andreally what it's all about.
And what we've been doing iswe've been exploring what it
(02:14):
looks like to maximize ourgenerosity, both individually
and collectively as a group, sothat we can have a wider impact
in this area.
And we've actually beenentrusted with a lot for a long
time.
Last week you guys got to hearfrom our founding pastor, pastor
Ken, and just what we've beenentrusted with over time and the
(02:37):
steps that we're taking, howpeople went all in, and what we
want to do is we want to begreat stewards of what we've
been entrusted with.
And, if you haven't been withus, we've been taking a pretty
in-depth look at the differencebetween cultural generosity and
New Testament generosity, whichthey're vast and I don't have
(02:59):
time to recap it all in thismoment, but here's what I say
you all are here, I'm here, weall are here because a group of
people different groups ofpeople over the last three
decades decided to go all in,just as this opportunity that we
have.
And we have been asked.
(03:19):
We have actually been called tobe fishers of men, not just
keepers of the aquarium, andI've said this many times before
already in the series what dofishermen do?
Fishermen are constantlymending nets and fixing those,
and then they're casting netsand wider nets and ultimately we
get to see that Jesus fills thenets.
It's just our job to mend andto cast and to cast wider nets.
(03:42):
We've done that over the yearsand we've been using these three
words to kind of exemplify whatwe're talking about.
This first one is transformation.
We have been focused fordecades now on creating
excellent spaces fortransformation, for people to
experience a transformativemoment.
Acts 15, 19 talks about that.
We don't want to get anythingin the way from people
(04:02):
experiencing the love of Christin an encounter with Jesus, and
that includes even just ourspaces.
We want to have these excellentoutward facing spaces in all of
this area, and so we get to domending when it comes to
transformation, and there'supkeep and there's fixes and
things that we need to do.
The other word is expansionthat we want to always be
(04:23):
thinking about expansion.
One of those things forexpansion is expanding our
transformation spaces.
Here's a quick little sneakwhen we first designed this
building back in 2016, it wasdesigned to have.
Actually, these walls aretemporary, they go down and it's
like mezzanine seating up thereso we can have greater spaces
for greater impact for thecommunity and these spaces of
(04:44):
transformation.
We want to expand that and pushour vision out, cast our nets
wider.
The third word is innovation.
We have got to be focused oninnovation as culture shifts and
people shift, as we cast widernets.
I've shown you guys a coupletimes we're going to get
neighbors, most likely in thenext couple years.
You can see this picture righthere.
This is where we're going toget neighbors most likely in the
(05:05):
next couple of years.
You can see this picture righthere.
This is where we're at.
It's like, if you're facingthis way, this is like Cowtown.
Over here there's thousands ofpeople that are going to be
coming into this area and so wewant to be innovative and be
prepared for that, as Jesusfills those nets.
The other thing is is I'vetalked to you guys about this
next generation and here's areally sloppy idea of a drawing
(05:28):
of a building on our propertyover by, like the gate, if we
add a facility, that's a bridgeliterally to help people,
because we believe whoever getsthe kids wins the future, and we
have a huge, huge vision forthis next generation, investing
into them and creating a spaceall over the county.
That literally would become apillar where people could begin
(05:49):
to take steps of experiencing atransformative God through these
opportunities that we have.
So today we're just going to hopright in and I'm going to ask
you this.
This is a fun little thing.
I just want you to notate thisin your head which of these
words up here describes yourcurrent relationship with money?
Stressed, jealous, content,fearful, powerless, anxious,
(06:15):
proud, peaceful, depressed,vulnerable, optimistic,
disciplined, unfocused, insecure, confident, thankful.
Now ask yourself, as you'relooking at that is something
standing out to you.
Why did you choose that word?
So just notate that.
(06:35):
So today I want to talk to youabout what I think is the most
relevant question.
That's actually related togenerosity.
It's the most relevant meaning.
It's the thing that most of uswrestle with the most when it
comes to this idea of ourgenerosity, because as we open
up the pages of Scripture and welearn about New Testament
(06:57):
generosity, it's clear that it'sa better way to live, it's
actually the right way to liveand, if you're a follower of
Jesus, that that's actually howwe reflect God the most.
But here's the question that Iwant to wrestle with today,
because I think it's the mostrelevant question.
It's this.
Do I have enough, right?
(07:17):
Do I have enough?
Do I have enough so that I canactually be generous?
Because the thing that most ofus wrestle with all the time
some of you have been thinking,some of you guys have been
processing and, like, I think Iwant to be.
I actually want to be a moregenerous person.
Maybe some of you have beenreally considering and I hope
all of you have been consideringthis how you can be generous
(07:40):
towards this, all in initiative.
And here's the thing you, at thesame time, I get this you are
dealing with over the last fewyears, the amount of economic
uncertainty, inflation, cost ofliving and how it's going up.
And I just want to tell youlook it, I live in the same
world.
You do Like I'm here and manyof us our current obligations.
(08:00):
You have kids, you have kids incollege, maybe you're in
retirement and you're on a fixedincome.
You have other people thatyou're responsible for.
You're responsible for manyassets that you're paying for
regularly on a basis, and abunch of us we have obligations
and many of us actually havedebt.
We have debt and we've madepast decisions, in some cases,
(08:21):
that we wish we hadn't made,that we wish we could have made
different decisions.
And as you consider these pastdecisions and you consider your
current priorities, your currentobligations, as you think about
what your hopes and your dreamsare for the future, the reality
is, the question that you'rewondering is do I have enough?
Like, do I have enough toactually participate in this?
(08:44):
Do I have enough to live andthen give more generously?
And I think that this is theprimary obstacle that most of us
have when it comes to beinggenerous.
And there's other obstacles.
I think many of them sometimescan be excuses or just some sort
of laziness, and maybe you'veheard this before, maybe you've
even said this, and don't beoffended because I've said these
(09:06):
things too.
Sometimes you think, when itcomes to giving to an
organization or towards thechurch, you think is my money
even gonna make a difference?
Like, do they even need mymoney?
You walk into this place andyou look around at all the
people here and you're like dothey even need my money?
They probably don't even needmy money, right?
And some of us think, or we seeorganizations and we go like, I
(09:33):
bet there's a whole bunch ofadministration fees right here.
I bet that there's people thatare working here and they're
just making a whole lot of money, or something's going on here,
or what's the financialaccountability of these places?
And here's what I would say toall.
Those are excellent questions.
These are the questions thatpeople ask.
But good organizations, healthyorganizations that are doing
good work, have answers to allof those.
(09:54):
And the truth is, if you don'tbelieve in a certain
organization because you thinkthere's questions, then find
another one.
Generosity is not about findinga good cause and finding a good
organization.
There's plenty of those outthere, but these are the things
current obligations, kids,assets, debt that actually
trigger us, this idea of worryaround actually having enough,
(10:18):
which is going to be traced tothese three things beneath this
question of enough, which isfear, appetites and ego.
Fear, appetites and ego.
And as you think about yourcurrent financial picture, as
you think about your ability tobe generous, you think about
these three factors, all thesefactors.
(10:39):
Right here, you think of allthe objections, all of the
questions, the whatabouts, thewhat-ifs.
These can all be categorized inthese three different things.
Because here's the deal At theheart of fear is actually not
having enough.
Not having enough, will I haveenough for me?
Will I have enough for tomorrow?
Will I have enough for myfuture?
(11:01):
I don't know if I'm going tohave enough, and so we have a
hard time giving because I'mafraid I'm not going to have
enough for my future.
I don't know if I'm going tohave enough, and so we have a
hard time giving because I'mafraid I'm not going to have
enough.
And if I give too much away now, I can't get it back.
Or you don't want to.
You know, go to theorganization and be like hey,
remember that money I gave you,can I get that back?
Right, that's always kind of anawkward thing to do.
So beneath this question offear is this question of am I
(11:27):
going to have enough?
And the truth is that you knowthis.
Like, if you have enough,whatever that is, and you got to
a place where you felt like youhad enough, you'd be way more
generous, wouldn't you?
But what is enough and how muchis that?
And how do I get this split tothat place?
Because here's the deal.
Those are all connected toappetites and we all have
appetites and there's thingsthat we want to purchase, that
we want to get and that we wantto obtain, because our appetite
(11:50):
is all about happy, not beinghappy.
I need to feed my appetitebecause I'm not being happy.
See, fear is around not havingenough, appetite is around not
being happy enough, and so if Iget this thing, if I accumulate
this certain thing, I'll behappier.
I think that maybe this willmake me more satisfied.
And the truth is that theseappetites, they are never fully
(12:13):
and finally satisfied.
They drive us in our life.
And then, lastly, we have ego.
This isn't about not havingenough.
This isn't about being happyenough.
This is about I'm not fulfilledenough.
Trying to prove something, I'mtrying to accumulate so I can
feel a certain way about myself,I can feel good enough about
(12:37):
myself.
And here's the problem when itcomes to these obstacles, when
these obstacles, we never reallyend up getting to this place
where I'm like wow, I think Ihave enough right.
And the reason and this is realtalk today, none of us want
enough.
Do we Like?
None of us want enough.
(12:58):
Because what do we want More?
We always want more.
We don't want enough.
Like, who wants enough?
Like you tell your kids whoa,whoa, whoa, you got enough right
.
And what do they say?
They're like no, no, no, Idon't want enough, I want more.
Right, and that's all of us.
We never grow out of wantingmore.
(13:18):
And the truth is is thatthere's these obstacles.
They actually have arelationship with more.
Because fear, we feel like weneed more.
We need more to feel safe.
So I'm prepared for my future,our appetites.
This is an easy one.
We just want more, like we wantmore.
(13:41):
And maybe you're here today andI'm not trying to offend you
Maybe you deserve more than youhave received.
But part of the reason that wedeal with this is anytime you
feed the things that you need orwant or that you deserve.
Here's the ego.
One Like ego is the easy one.
Want or that you deserve.
Here's the ego.
One Like ego is the easy one.
This is also hard.
(14:01):
It's deserve Like we think wedeserve more.
Here's the thing you want more.
You feel like you deserve more.
You actually feed this and itgrows and it grows this desire
for more.
And the more you have, the moreyou feel you need, and the more
you need, the more you feel youwant and you feel like you're
even more than that, and thenit's like I deserve this, and
(14:24):
that's why these challenges,these dynamics that we can
experience in our lives, this iswhy it can have so much power
over us when it's all about whatI need or I want or I deserve.
And this is a climate.
This is a climate that it isalmost impossible for generosity
to exist within, impossible forgenerosity not just to live,
(14:47):
but to even grow in this context.
So what's the antidote to this?
Well, this is a question I wantto deal with today.
What is enough?
And how do I know when I haveenough?
Is it even possible to findthat?
Is it possible to resist thispull?
Because most of us deal withthis?
And Paul, the Apostle Paul, heactually writes this letter to a
(15:09):
guy named Timothy who's dealingwith leading this group of
young Jesus followers, and heactually addresses this.
So if you're with me today, youcan hop into 1 Timothy, we're
going to sit there for a minute.
He addresses this idea ofwealth from very different terms
, and so here's the context.
Paul is writing to Timothybecause there's this dynamic
(15:30):
that's taking place where thesereligious leaders they're
already there, specificallyJewish religious leaders and
these religious leaders wereexploiting their position for
financial gain.
They were saying, hey, we'resupposed to trust God for
everything, but they werethemselves trusting in financial
gain and trying to leverage thesystem and leverage their moral
(15:52):
authority for their ownfinancial gain, to gain wealth
for themselves.
So the Apostle Paul, he speaksto this idea and he says, hey,
hey, look, you think thesepeople are godly.
So he takes kind of a shot atthem right here, without fully
insulting them.
He's saying to everybody listen,you're after this great wealth,
you're after this great wealth,but true godliness with
(16:16):
contentment is itself greatwealth, of great worth.
Now some of you look at thisand we go like true godliness
and we're like, well, that'snever going to be me, like this
isn't for me.
But here's the thing this isn'tabout being like super
spiritual, this isn't aboutpeople having everything
together and if you think aboutit, godliness is just
(16:38):
representing the things of God.
So if you really want torepresent the things of God,
then it isn't about achievingsome level of spirituality.
This is just simply like yourlife reflecting God by the way
that you live and being content,and that is of great value to
you and the world around you.
(17:00):
Now, this word contentment,right here, this is a word I
want to focus on for just asecond.
It's a really interesting one.
It only appears twice in theentire New Testament as it's
written.
It was a common cultural wordamong the Greeks at the time,
but it was not a common biblicalword.
The definition would be likethe perfect condition, or life
(17:23):
being a perfect condition, whereyou have no need for aid or
support at all.
And so some of you are thinkinglike, yes, if my life was in
perfect condition, I would bemore generous.
Right, if I was in a placewhere I didn't need or I didn't
want anything, I didn't have todeal and feed my appetite and my
(17:45):
fear and my ego.
If I didn't have to deal withconstant feelings of need more
and want more and deserve more,I would be more generous.
But that's not the kind ofgenerosity he's talking about.
That's not the kind ofcontentment he's talking about.
It's actually a little bit ofthe opposite of that.
If we keep reading, he saysafter all, we brought nothing
(18:06):
with us when we came into theworld and we can't take anything
with us when we leave.
He's basically thinking youthink riches, you think money
that the religious leaders aretrying to amass, that they're
actually putting their hope intoand their trust and then trying
to get this to have some sortof experience of real life.
That's not what real life isabout.
And here's how you know,because when you came into the
(18:27):
world and when you leave thisworld, you leave with the same
amount Nothing.
You were an image bearer.
Nothing, you were an imagebearer.
You were born to represent theGod who created you.
And so if wealth, if stuff, isthe source of your contentment,
your fulfillment, you'remistaken, because he sends you
(18:49):
into this world with nothing andyou're going to leave with
nothing.
And then so he says this so ifwe have enough food and clothing
, let us be content.
And at this point the air goesout the room Ugh, good talk,
thanks, paul.
He's basically saying I mean,this is wild for us to grasp,
(19:10):
right, we're just not.
We're not made this way.
He's saying if your basic needsare met, you should be content,
meaning it's a choice.
Like you think about it.
If your whole goal, if youronly worries, was about having
enough food and enough clothesto clothe you and to clothe your
(19:31):
family, I mean, isn't it true?
You could be wildly generous, Imean extraordinarily generous.
But we associate contentmentwith a feeling.
It's not a decision.
And Paul says whoa, whoa, whoa.
Let us choose to be content.
(19:52):
But that's not how we thinkabout contentment.
We think contentment in termsof how we feel and when we don't
feel content, when we don'tfeel like we have enough In fact
, we don't think that we haveenough.
Here's what we do.
We worry, we worry like crazy.
And we don't worry just aboutfood and clothes At least most
(20:16):
of us don't, you know this.
We do worry about, like, reallyunderstandable things, and
again, I told you, I live in thesame world you do.
I'm experiencing the same thing.
We have understandable reasonsto worry.
I mean, look, I pumped gas theother day.
I don't even want to tell youabout it.
It was not a good experience,right?
Healthcare you know that.
The stock market, pick yourthing.
(20:37):
Mortgage rates, aging vehicles,college tuition we're headed
into that realm ourselves.
And here's the thing rates,aging vehicles, college tuition
we're headed into that realmourselves.
And here's the thing they causeus to do one of two things.
You'd say like yeah, well,because of that, I need to save
up.
Or you'd say no, no, no, no,because of that, I need to spend
.
I need to spend now, beforeprices go up.
(20:58):
I need to get it while it'sgood, right.
And so the worry leads us in oneof two different directions.
That either leads us to save orto spend.
But here's the problem Neitherone of them actually resolves
the obstacles, the fear, theappetite, the ego that
ultimately leads us towardsworry.
And here's why Because nomatter how much you save,
(21:19):
ultimately what happens is youhave this big egg nest and you
have a bunch of savings.
And then what happens is youhave this big egg nest and you
have a bunch of savings, andthen what happens is you hit a
crisis, right, and then we'reall going to have this happen,
and then the truth is is that noamount of money can fix it.
So what does that lead us to?
More worry?
Right, it's just this cycleover and over, and our worries
(21:40):
increase.
And the reason that you trust itin your savings, you trusted in
this money, you trusted intrying to get this piece of
security, and when you ran intothat crisis that you ran into,
it wasn't enough to solve theproblem in the crisis or the
situation that you were in.
In fact, it actually did littleto nothing to resolve the worry
that you were experiencing and,if anything, you realized that
(22:02):
you were powerless and itincreased your worry and when
you went, looking somewhere else, to be dependent on something
else to deal with your crisis,to deal with that issue in your
life, and then it just went backinto worry.
And if you spend, here's whatyou do.
When you spend what happens iswe get into more debt, right,
(22:24):
and then, when we experiencemore debt, what this does is it
creates a space where, like Ihave no margin I'm not
experiencing any margin and weget into this debt because we
just don't know what tomorrow isgoing to bring.
Like I don't know what tomorrowis going to be like, and so
it's going to be cheaper.
And so then we get ourselves ina place where now I don't have
any margin in our lives.
Then we get ourselves in placewhere now I don't have any
(22:44):
margin in our lives, and thatincreases the stress and the
worries in our lives and thatmakes our worry even greater.
And here's why, because beneathour fear, our appetites, our
ego, is this very real need.
Like I don't want you to justthink about money, like I don't
really care.
I'm just gonna be honest withyou, like it's between you and
the Lord, about how generous youare.
(23:05):
But my heart today, my hearttoday, is that you deal with the
thing that's at the root of thereal worries in the life that
you have, and some of you areseeing it up here on the screen
right now, because it's stealingjoy from your life.
And the truth is, it's stealingjoy from your life, and the
(23:28):
truth is, the truth is, is thatbeneath fear is actually this
issue of security.
It's this issue of security,and beneath appetites is this
quest for satisfaction, andbeneath our ego is this quest
for significance, forsignificance, and all of us,
significance for significance,and all of us, all of us today,
(23:49):
are in a boat where we're eitheron a quest to gain greater
security in our lives, we're ona quest to gain greater
satisfaction in some area of ourlife, we're trying to find, at
some level, this deeper level, asignificance to our life, and
maybe for some of you, it's acombination of all three or two.
But my bet is.
My bet is right now, if youthought about it long enough,
(24:11):
one of these three things youcould probably rank them in
order.
One of these things are at theheart.
They lie beneath the thing thatyou're actually worried about,
like factors like us, keep usfrom like this, keep us from
being content, and then theylead us on this quest for more
stuff, for more, more savings,more spending, more accumulation
(24:32):
.
And this is why people in thatday and people in this day do
whatever they can, just like thereligious leaders.
They were not immune to this inthis time.
This is why they do whateverthey can to just like there were
religious leaders.
They were not immune to this inthis time.
This is why they do whateverthey can to generate more wealth
, and it's because they'veembraced this fundamental idea
that more money equals lessworry.
(24:53):
Come on, you wouldn't actuallysay this, like you wouldn't tell
your friends this.
This is how some of us live.
We think if we could just getmore, like if I just had more
money, more wealth, I'd haveless worry in my life.
And some of you have lived longenough.
Some of you have earned money,enough wealth, to know that more
(25:15):
money does not equal less worry.
In fact, more money oftentimescomes with more worry, less
worry.
In fact, more money oftentimescomes with more worry, like more
stuff to deal with, more thingsthat can break, more things to
deal with, be responsible for.
More and more wealth comes withwondering who my friends really
(25:35):
are.
Do they just want somethingfrom you or they really want to
be friends with you and here'sthe thing, this is the rat race.
Really want to be friends withyou?
And here's the thing, this isthe rat race right here.
This is the rat race.
We get in because we put ourtrust and our hope in money and
our hope and trust in wealth,and then we either save or we
spend and we deal with ourworries and at the bedrock, at
(25:58):
the heart of our fear and ourappetite and our ego that we
have in our life, it alwaysbrings this cycle back to worry.
And actually the Apostle Paulhe says that.
But people who are rich, peoplewho are rich, here's what
happens.
They fall into temptation andthey're trapped by many foolish
(26:26):
and harmful desires that plungethem into ruin and destruction.
And some of you are thinkingright now well, like, make me
rich and see if I can plungeinto destruction.
I would like to try to.
I would like to deal, see if Ican deal with ruin and
destruction in my life.
We get in a mindset right thatmore money decreases my worry
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and makes me feel more secureand satisfied and significant.
All the while, all we reallywant is more and more is never
enough and at the end, it'sactually harmful to us.
And now this all what Paul'swriting here is all the context
for a verse that many of youhave actually heard before.
He continues on and says for thelove of money is the root of
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all kinds of evil, and somepeople craving money have
wondered from the true faith andpierced themselves with many
sorrows.
See, money is not the problem.
We miss this word right herethe love of it.
Why?
Why is it not the problem?
It's how you utilize the moneyand wealth to try to get things.
(27:29):
That money and wealth werenever intended to add in your
life.
It was never meant to be yoursecurity, it was never meant to
be the thing that actuallysatisfied you or made you feel
significant.
So Paul says here's what I wantyou to.
So Paul says here's what I wantyou to do.
He says here's what I want youto do.
I want you to teach those whoare rich in this world and some
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of us are relieved in thismoment as we're reading, right,
you're thinking okay, great,this isn't for me, I am not rich
, right?
I just want you to know.
Nobody actually thinks they'rerich.
As a matter of fact, severalyears ago you can go look this
up, jpmorgan Chase they surveyedrich people and they started
with people with a net worth of$5 million and they asked them
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if they were rich.
And they said no.
And so they said, okay, well,how much do you need to be rich?
And they said $10 million.
So they went to the people with$10 million and they said, hey,
are you rich?
And they said no.
They said, okay, really Well,how much do you need to be rich?
And they said $25 million.
So then they went to the peoplewith $25 million net worth and
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they said, like, are you rich?
And they said, no, we're notrich.
Well, how much do you need tobe rich?
$50 million.
You see where this is going $50million.
No, we're not rich.
And they said $100 million.
And so they went to the peoplewith $100 million net worth and
they said are you rich?
And they said, yeah, we're rich, we're like really rich, like
we're real rich.
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So, until you get to $100million, this is not going away,
like this feeling that you have.
And here's the thing all of uswe don't realize it, but you're
actually rich.
Come on, let's just talk aboutit, right?
You don't realize this, do youknow and you've probably heard
this before do you know that ifyou make $65,000 a year, you're
in the top 1% of income earnersin the world?
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And you're like, well, there'sa lot of writing, there's like a
small print, right?
No, if you make $32,000 a year,you're in the top 5% of income
earners in the world.
What percentage of incomeearners in the world do you have
to be in order to feel rich?
The truth is, you're nevergoing to feel rich, but you are
rich.
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And he says because you're rich.
This is what I want you toteach them.
Teach those who are rich inthis world to not be proud and
to not trust in their money,which is so unreliable.
Their trust should be in God,who richly gives all that we
need and I love this for ourenjoyment.
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Like to enjoy it, not to beproud.
What does that mean?
Not to feel like you can dothis on your own.
Make sure they don't know thatthey can just do this on their
own.
To be independent, not to actlike you don't have to trust
anything or anyone else.
That's what pride actually doesto us.
Pride says I don't needanything and I don't need anyone
.
The apostles, paul says, theirtrust should be in God, who
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richly gives us all that we needfor our enjoyment.
So let me ask you a question.
This is a question of the daywho or what are you ultimately
trusting in for what you need,for your security, to feel
satisfied, to feel significant?
See, here's the problem.
Problem Wealth becomes asubstitute and it actually
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begins to take the place of Godin our lives.
And I want you to see this.
See how we handle our money.
It's not just a financialdecision.
It's actually rooted as a faithdecision, as a faith exercise.
And the decision is, the choiceis will you put your trust in
the riches, will you put yourtrust in the wealth, or will you
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put your trust in the one whorichly provides?
So then Paul actually gives usan antidote.
He says look, tell Northgate,tell the rich people, tell the
rich people, tell them to usetheir money to do good, that
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they should be rich in goodworks and generous to those in
need, always being ready toshare with others, and by doing
this they will be storing uptheir treasure as a good
foundation for the future, sothat they may experience true
life.
Come on, friends, you were madefor this.
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Actually, you were designed forthis, for this.
Are we going to go all in?
That's really the question.
Pastor Ken kind of mentionedthis real briefly last week.
I'm going to just kind of teaseit out a little bit more.
I'm the lobby.
We didn't even hand them to you.
You can go to the next one Outin the lobby.
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I'm going to ask you toparticipate, to take.
We're not giving it to youbecause you don't want to.
I want you to be able tophysically go and take one of
these as you leave today.
You can fill it out today oryou can sit.
I've asked you to pray aboutthis actually the last five
weeks, and many of you have donethis in your small groups, in
your community groups.
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This isn't just a financialexercise, this is a faith
exercise.
And here's how this works.
This all-in generosityinitiative will last these two
years and during this time,every donation to our
organization that's Northgatewill directly support our
transformation, expansion andinnovation efforts.
(32:59):
So this is a spot where you putyour name and all your
information and no one else isgoing to get this.
It gets folded up.
You're going to put it in theboxes, but then here's what you
get to do, and here's part ofyour exercise, and maybe for
some of you guys, this is goingto be a great exercise and
here's the thing I want you togo through this faith exercise,
and even if you never turn inthe card, I promise that this
exercise will benefit you.
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So what you're going to do isyou're going to write what I, or
we, would normally give in ayear.
So, like a lot of you guys, justgot your giving statements.
You know what you're doing, youknow how you're participating.
Plus this is the ask my, ourexpanded annual generosity is
part of this all-in initiative.
So what am I ready to like?
Actually lean in and figure outthis plan and what it looks
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like, this New Testamentgenerosity, and so what that
equals is a number.
And then what you're going todo is you're going to times it
by two so you can see you'rewriting this down.
You can see hey, for the nexttwo years, this is what all in
looks like for me.
And then there's a spot wherewe're asking you because we
really feel like we need to do aone-time gift gifts from our
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stored resources, savings,stocks, property possessions,
things that you can participatein as just a one-off, and we got
a giving page that explains allof this stuff.
It has opportunities toparticipate in all these
different kinds of ways.
And then, lastly, it's hey, Iwant to serve that Northgate, I
want to go all in in that space.
Or I'd like to be in acommunity group, in a small
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group of people that we walkthrough and do life with.
Again, this is not a financialexercise, this is a faith
exercise and I really want youto go through this faith
exercise, even if even if younever turn the card in, but you
should turn it in the card, butyou should turn it in the garden
, and I promise you this willbenefit you one way or another.
Some of you have already takenyours.
You're more than welcome today,at some point in the boxes in
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the room, to turn that in.
Some of you may be ready toturn it in today and then next
week we're gonna have ourcommitment Sunday and then weeks
after that you can participate.
If you're with us online, youguys can participate.
We wanna encourage you becauseyou're participating with us.
So may we go all in all in.
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We're thankful for Courtneyleading us in worship today.
Courtney's a pastor.
He leads a church in SanAntonio, texas that he started,
and it's been a blessing to havehim here today.
I'm actually.
He loves this faith communityand this church.
He's here over the summer.
He's going to be communicatingin a couple of weeks when we're
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talking about the Holy Spirit,the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost,
the Holy Ghost, and I know,would you just pray for this
faith community, absolutely, aswe walk into this next space.
I love it, thank you.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
I'll be honored, father.
Right now, we connect ourhearts, declaring that
everything that you have for usto pursue, everything that you
have for us to build, father, aswe're making a way in the
middle of a place where peopleare just like, what in the world
are you guys doing?
We're standing on faith, we'restanding on your word, god, that
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you will do more than enoughinside of every home, inside of
every family.
So you have us, you got us,we're leaning on you, we're
saying yes because we're all in,because your presence and your
promise is here, and we lean onthat fact.
In Jesus' name, we pray.
Somebody say amen, give Godsome praise in here.
(36:29):
If you believe that, come on.
Yes, lord, do me a favor, standon your feet.
Let's sing this song right here.
All right, you can have a seat.
Hey, it's good to be with you.
Just a couple announcements,just as we kind of get into
today.
Welcome to June.
It's June 1st For those of youwho are seniors.
See a couple of you guys in theroom.
You guys are graduating thisweek.
Congratulations on finishingyeah, finishing the easiest part
of your life.
(00:22):
Cheers, yeah, finishing theeasiest part of your life.
Cheers, yeah.
Today.
If you haven't heard, it lookslike a handful of you heard,
because you're coming nextservice, but we have our annual
church meeting at 1245.
If you want to come be a partof that, it's also members.
If you're not a member, you'realso welcome here Tomorrow.
There's a ton of people whohave been interested and just
(00:42):
want to get in community, whichis so important.
We are kicking off ourcommunity life tomorrow.
It's not too late to hop in thelittle thing in front of you in
the chair.
You can scan one of those, orthere's a spot out in the lobby,
so don't want you to miss outon that.
Even if you can't come over thesummer.
To all of them, I want toencourage you to get into
community.
And then this is also my gentle, friendly reminder we are only
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two weeks away and we are nothaving service.
We are going to serve thecommunity.
We're doing our annual serveday, so if you want to sign up
to be a part of that, we aregoing to unleash compassion.
We're trying to see 500 of useveryone, kids we have stuff for
everyone to participate in thatyou would just donate the time
(01:24):
that you typically would donateto a Sunday morning to going and
serving collectively as a group.
We can do that together andjust a really fun way to get to
know other people in the roomand in this space.
So that's June 15th.
We're not going to be here.
Please don't get mad at me whenyou show up here and you're
like I forgot.
So set a reminder on your phone, do whatever you need to do.
Technology is great.
(01:52):
I will continue to remind youshamelessly so that way I don't
get angry emails, sweet.
So we're in the home stretch inthis series today and, if you
have no idea, if you don't haveany idea, if you're just joining
us actually for the first timetoday, I'm glad you're here, but
this has been a new season, notjust a new series, but a new
season of generosity.
We've been talking aboutgenerosity and talking about
this all-in initiative andreally what it's all about.
And what we've been doing iswe've been exploring what it
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looks like to maximize ourgenerosity, both individually
and collectively as a group, sothat we can have a wider impact
in this area.
And we've actually beenentrusted with a lot for a long
time.
Last week you guys got to hearfrom our founding pastor, pastor
Ken, and just what we've beenentrusted with over time and the
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steps that we're taking, howpeople went all in, and what we
want to do is we want to begreat stewards of what we've
been entrusted with.
And, if you haven't been withus, we've been taking a pretty
in-depth look at the differencebetween cultural generosity and
New Testament generosity, whichthey're vast and I don't have
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time to recap it all in thismoment, but here's what I say
you all are here, I'm here, weall are here because a group of
people different groups ofpeople over the last three
decades decided to go all in,just as this opportunity that we
have.
And we have been asked.
(03:19):
We have actually been called tobe fishers of men, not just
keepers of the aquarium, andI've said this many times before
already in the series what dofishermen do?
Fishermen are constantlymending nets and fixing those,
and then they're casting netsand wider nets and ultimately we
get to see that Jesus fills thenets.
It's just our job to mend andto cast and to cast wider nets.
(03:42):
We've done that over the yearsand we've been using these three
words to kind of exemplify whatwe're talking about.
This first one is transformation.
We have been focused fordecades now on creating
excellent spaces fortransformation, for people to
experience a transformativemoment.
Acts 15, 19 talks about that.
We don't want to get anythingin the way from people
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experiencing the love of Christin an encounter with Jesus, and
that includes even just ourspaces.
We want to have these excellentoutward facing spaces in all of
this area, and so we get to domending when it comes to
transformation, and there'supkeep and there's fixes and
things that we need to do.
The other word is expansionthat we want to always be
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thinking about expansion.
One of those things forexpansion is expanding our
transformation spaces.
Here's a quick little sneakwhen we first designed this
building back in 2016, it wasdesigned to have.
Actually, these walls aretemporary, they go down and it's
like mezzanine seating up thereso we can have greater spaces
for greater impact for thecommunity and these spaces of
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transformation.
We want to expand that and pushour vision out, cast our nets
wider.
The third word is innovation.
We have got to be focused oninnovation as culture shifts and
people shift, as we cast widernets.
I've shown you guys a coupletimes we're going to get
neighbors, most likely in thenext couple years.
You can see this picture righthere.
This is where we're going toget neighbors most likely in the
(05:05):
next couple of years.
You can see this picture righthere.
This is where we're at.
It's like, if you're facingthis way, this is like Cowtown.
Over here there's thousands ofpeople that are going to be
coming into this area and so wewant to be innovative and be
prepared for that, as Jesusfills those nets.
The other thing is is I'vetalked to you guys about this
next generation and here's areally sloppy idea of a drawing
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of a building on our propertyover by, like the gate, if we
add a facility, that's a bridgeliterally to help people,
because we believe whoever getsthe kids wins the future, and we
have a huge, huge vision forthis next generation, investing
into them and creating a spaceall over the county.
That literally would become apillar where people could begin
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to take steps of experiencing atransformative God through these
opportunities that we have.
So today we're just going to hopright in and I'm going to ask
you this.
This is a fun little thing.
I just want you to notate thisin your head which of these
words up here describes yourcurrent relationship with money?
Stressed, jealous, content,fearful, powerless, anxious,
(06:15):
proud, peaceful, depressed,vulnerable, optimistic,
disciplined, unfocused, insecure, confident, thankful.
Now ask yourself, as you'relooking at that is something
standing out to you.
Why did you choose that word?
So just notate that.
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So today I want to talk to youabout what I think is the most
relevant question.
That's actually related togenerosity.
It's the most relevant meaning.
It's the thing that most of uswrestle with the most when it
comes to this idea of ourgenerosity, because as we open
up the pages of Scripture and welearn about New Testament
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generosity, it's clear that it'sa better way to live, it's
actually the right way to liveand, if you're a follower of
Jesus, that that's actually howwe reflect God the most.
But here's the question that Iwant to wrestle with today,
because I think it's the mostrelevant question.
It's this.
Do I have enough, right?
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Do I have enough?
Do I have enough so that I canactually be generous?
Because the thing that most ofus wrestle with all the time
some of you have been thinking,some of you guys have been
processing and, like, I think Iwant to be.
I actually want to be a moregenerous person.
Maybe some of you have beenreally considering and I hope
all of you have been consideringthis how you can be generous
(07:40):
towards this, all in initiative.
And here's the thing you, at thesame time, I get this you are
dealing with over the last fewyears, the amount of economic
uncertainty, inflation, cost ofliving and how it's going up.
And I just want to tell youlook it, I live in the same
world.
You do Like I'm here and manyof us our current obligations.
(08:00):
You have kids, you have kids incollege, maybe you're in
retirement and you're on a fixedincome.
You have other people thatyou're responsible for.
You're responsible for manyassets that you're paying for
regularly on a basis, and abunch of us we have obligations
and many of us actually havedebt.
We have debt and we've madepast decisions, in some cases,
(08:21):
that we wish we hadn't made,that we wish we could have made
different decisions.
And as you consider these pastdecisions and you consider your
current priorities, your currentobligations, as you think about
what your hopes and your dreamsare for the future, the reality
is, the question that you'rewondering is do I have enough?
Like, do I have enough toactually participate in this?
(08:44):
Do I have enough to live andthen give more generously?
And I think that this is theprimary obstacle that most of us
have when it comes to beinggenerous.
And there's other obstacles.
I think many of them sometimescan be excuses or just some sort
of laziness, and maybe you'veheard this before, maybe you've
even said this, and don't beoffended because I've said these
(09:06):
things too.
Sometimes you think, when itcomes to giving to an
organization or towards thechurch, you think is my money
even gonna make a difference?
Like, do they even need mymoney?
You walk into this place andyou look around at all the
people here and you're like dothey even need my money?
They probably don't even needmy money, right?
And some of us think, or we seeorganizations and we go like, I
(09:33):
bet there's a whole bunch ofadministration fees right here.
I bet that there's people thatare working here and they're
just making a whole lot of money, or something's going on here,
or what's the financialaccountability of these places?
And here's what I would say toall.
Those are excellent questions.
These are the questions thatpeople ask.
But good organizations, healthyorganizations that are doing
good work, have answers to allof those.
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And the truth is, if you don'tbelieve in a certain
organization because you thinkthere's questions, then find
another one.
Generosity is not about findinga good cause and finding a good
organization.
There's plenty of those outthere, but these are the things
current obligations, kids,assets, debt that actually
trigger us, this idea of worryaround actually having enough,
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which is going to be traced tothese three things beneath this
question of enough, which isfear, appetites and ego.
Fear, appetites and ego.
And as you think about yourcurrent financial picture, as
you think about your ability tobe generous, you think about
these three factors, all thesefactors.
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Right here, you think of allthe objections, all of the
questions, the whatabouts, thewhat-ifs.
These can all be categorized inthese three different things.
Because here's the deal At theheart of fear is actually not
having enough.
Not having enough, will I haveenough for me?
Will I have enough for tomorrow?
Will I have enough for myfuture?
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I don't know if I'm going tohave enough, and so we have a
hard time giving because I'mafraid I'm not going to have
enough for my future.
I don't know if I'm going tohave enough, and so we have a
hard time giving because I'mafraid I'm not going to have
enough.
And if I give too much away now, I can't get it back.
Or you don't want to.
You know, go to theorganization and be like hey,
remember that money I gave you,can I get that back?
Right, that's always kind of anawkward thing to do.
So beneath this question offear is this question of am I
(11:27):
going to have enough?
And the truth is that you knowthis.
Like, if you have enough,whatever that is, and you got to
a place where you felt like youhad enough, you'd be way more
generous, wouldn't you?
But what is enough and how muchis that?
And how do I get this split tothat place?
Because here's the deal.
Those are all connected toappetites and we all have
appetites and there's thingsthat we want to purchase, that
we want to get and that we wantto obtain, because our appetite
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is all about happy, not beinghappy.
I need to feed my appetitebecause I'm not being happy.
See, fear is around not havingenough, appetite is around not
being happy enough, and so if Iget this thing, if I accumulate
this certain thing, I'll behappier.
I think that maybe this willmake me more satisfied.
And the truth is that theseappetites, they are never fully
(12:13):
and finally satisfied.
They drive us in our life.
And then, lastly, we have ego.
This isn't about not havingenough.
This isn't about being happyenough.
This is about I'm not fulfilledenough.
Trying to prove something, I'mtrying to accumulate so I can
feel a certain way about myself,I can feel good enough about
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myself.
And here's the problem when itcomes to these obstacles, when
these obstacles, we never reallyend up getting to this place
where I'm like wow, I think Ihave enough right.
And the reason and this is realtalk today, none of us want
enough.
Do we Like?
None of us want enough.
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Because what do we want More?
We always want more.
We don't want enough.
Like, who wants enough?
Like you tell your kids whoa,whoa, whoa, you got enough right
.
And what do they say?
They're like no, no, no, Idon't want enough, I want more.
Right, and that's all of us.
We never grow out of wantingmore.
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And the truth is is thatthere's these obstacles.
They actually have arelationship with more.
Because fear, we feel like weneed more.
We need more to feel safe.
So I'm prepared for my future,our appetites.
This is an easy one.
We just want more, like we wantmore.
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And maybe you're here today andI'm not trying to offend you
Maybe you deserve more than youhave received.
But part of the reason that wedeal with this is anytime you
feed the things that you need orwant or that you deserve.
Here's the ego.
One Like ego is the easy one.
Want or that you deserve.
Here's the ego.
One Like ego is the easy one.
This is also hard.
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It's deserve Like we think wedeserve more.
Here's the thing you want more.
You feel like you deserve more.
You actually feed this and itgrows and it grows this desire
for more.
And the more you have, the moreyou feel you need, and the more
you need, the more you feel youwant and you feel like you're
even more than that, and thenit's like I deserve this, and
(14:24):
that's why these challenges,these dynamics that we can
experience in our lives, this iswhy it can have so much power
over us when it's all about whatI need or I want or I deserve.
And this is a climate.
This is a climate that it isalmost impossible for generosity
to exist within, impossible forgenerosity not just to live,
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but to even grow in this context.
So what's the antidote to this?
Well, this is a question I wantto deal with today.
What is enough?
And how do I know when I haveenough?
Is it even possible to findthat?
Is it possible to resist thispull?
Because most of us deal withthis?
And Paul, the Apostle Paul, heactually writes this letter to a
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guy named Timothy who's dealingwith leading this group of
young Jesus followers, and heactually addresses this.
So if you're with me today, youcan hop into 1 Timothy, we're
going to sit there for a minute.
He addresses this idea ofwealth from very different terms
, and so here's the context.
Paul is writing to Timothybecause there's this dynamic
(15:30):
that's taking place where thesereligious leaders they're
already there, specificallyJewish religious leaders and
these religious leaders wereexploiting their position for
financial gain.
They were saying, hey, we'resupposed to trust God for
everything, but they werethemselves trusting in financial
gain and trying to leverage thesystem and leverage their moral
(15:52):
authority for their ownfinancial gain, to gain wealth
for themselves.
So the Apostle Paul, he speaksto this idea and he says, hey,
hey, look, you think thesepeople are godly.
So he takes kind of a shot atthem right here, without fully
insulting them.
He's saying to everybody listen,you're after this great wealth,
you're after this great wealth,but true godliness with
(16:16):
contentment is itself greatwealth, of great worth.
Now some of you look at thisand we go like true godliness
and we're like, well, that'snever going to be me, like this
isn't for me.
But here's the thing this isn'tabout being like super
spiritual, this isn't aboutpeople having everything
together and if you think aboutit, godliness is just
(16:38):
representing the things of God.
So if you really want torepresent the things of God,
then it isn't about achievingsome level of spirituality.
This is just simply like yourlife reflecting God by the way
that you live and being content,and that is of great value to
you and the world around you.
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Now, this word contentment,right here, this is a word I
want to focus on for just asecond.
It's a really interesting one.
It only appears twice in theentire New Testament as it's
written.
It was a common cultural wordamong the Greeks at the time,
but it was not a common biblicalword.
The definition would be likethe perfect condition, or life
(17:23):
being a perfect condition, whereyou have no need for aid or
support at all.
And so some of you are thinkinglike, yes, if my life was in
perfect condition, I would bemore generous.
Right, if I was in a placewhere I didn't need or I didn't
want anything, I didn't have todeal and feed my appetite and my
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fear and my ego.
If I didn't have to deal withconstant feelings of need more
and want more and deserve more,I would be more generous.
But that's not the kind ofgenerosity he's talking about.
That's not the kind ofcontentment he's talking about.
It's actually a little bit ofthe opposite of that.
If we keep reading, he saysafter all, we brought nothing
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with us when we came into theworld and we can't take anything
with us when we leave.
He's basically thinking youthink riches, you think money
that the religious leaders aretrying to amass, that they're
actually putting their hope intoand their trust and then trying
to get this to have some sortof experience of real life.
That's not what real life isabout.
And here's how you know,because when you came into the
(18:27):
world and when you leave thisworld, you leave with the same
amount Nothing.
You were an image bearer.
Nothing, you were an imagebearer.
You were born to represent theGod who created you.
And so if wealth, if stuff, isthe source of your contentment,
your fulfillment, you'remistaken, because he sends you
(18:49):
into this world with nothing andyou're going to leave with
nothing.
And then so he says this so ifwe have enough food and clothing
, let us be content.
And at this point the air goesout the room Ugh, good talk,
thanks, paul.
He's basically saying I mean,this is wild for us to grasp,
(19:10):
right, we're just not.
We're not made this way.
He's saying if your basic needsare met, you should be content,
meaning it's a choice.
Like you think about it.
If your whole goal, if youronly worries, was about having
enough food and enough clothesto clothe you and to clothe your
(19:31):
family, I mean, isn't it true?
You could be wildly generous, Imean extraordinarily generous.
But we associate contentmentwith a feeling.
It's not a decision.
And Paul says whoa, whoa, whoa.
Let us choose to be content.
(19:52):
But that's not how we thinkabout contentment.
We think contentment in termsof how we feel and when we don't
feel content, when we don'tfeel like we have enough In fact
, we don't think that we haveenough.
Here's what we do.
We worry, we worry like crazy.
And we don't worry just aboutfood and clothes At least most
(20:16):
of us don't, you know this.
We do worry about, like, reallyunderstandable things, and
again, I told you, I live in thesame world you do.
I'm experiencing the same thing.
We have understandable reasonsto worry.
I mean, look, I pumped gas theother day.
I don't even want to tell youabout it.
It was not a good experience,right?
Healthcare you know that.
The stock market, pick yourthing.
(20:37):
Mortgage rates, aging vehicles,college tuition we're headed
into that realm ourselves.
And here's the thing rates,aging vehicles, college tuition
we're headed into that realmourselves.
And here's the thing they causeus to do one of two things.
You'd say like yeah, well,because of that, I need to save
up.
Or you'd say no, no, no, no,because of that, I need to spend
.
I need to spend now, beforeprices go up.
(20:58):
I need to get it while it'sgood, right.
And so the worry leads us in oneof two different directions.
That either leads us to save orto spend.
But here's the problem Neitherone of them actually resolves
the obstacles, the fear, theappetite, the ego that
ultimately leads us towardsworry.
And here's why Because nomatter how much you save,
(21:19):
ultimately what happens is youhave this big egg nest and you
have a bunch of savings.
And then what happens is youhave this big egg nest and you
have a bunch of savings, andthen what happens is you hit a
crisis, right, and then we'reall going to have this happen,
and then the truth is is that noamount of money can fix it.
So what does that lead us to?
More worry?
Right, it's just this cycleover and over, and our worries
(21:40):
increase.
And the reason that you trust itin your savings, you trusted in
this money, you trusted intrying to get this piece of
security, and when you ran intothat crisis that you ran into,
it wasn't enough to solve theproblem in the crisis or the
situation that you were in.
In fact, it actually did littleto nothing to resolve the worry
that you were experiencing and,if anything, you realized that
(22:02):
you were powerless and itincreased your worry and when
you went, looking somewhere else, to be dependent on something
else to deal with your crisis,to deal with that issue in your
life, and then it just went backinto worry.
And if you spend, here's whatyou do.
When you spend what happens iswe get into more debt, right,
(22:24):
and then, when we experiencemore debt, what this does is it
creates a space where, like Ihave no margin I'm not
experiencing any margin and weget into this debt because we
just don't know what tomorrow isgoing to bring.
Like I don't know what tomorrowis going to be like, and so
it's going to be cheaper.
And so then we get ourselves ina place where now I don't have
any margin in our lives.
Then we get ourselves in placewhere now I don't have any
(22:44):
margin in our lives, and thatincreases the stress and the
worries in our lives and thatmakes our worry even greater.
And here's why, because beneathour fear, our appetites, our
ego, is this very real need.
Like I don't want you to justthink about money, like I don't
really care.
I'm just gonna be honest withyou, like it's between you and
the Lord, about how generous youare.
(23:05):
But my heart today, my hearttoday, is that you deal with the
thing that's at the root of thereal worries in the life that
you have, and some of you areseeing it up here on the screen
right now, because it's stealingjoy from your life.
And the truth is, it's stealingjoy from your life, and the
(23:28):
truth is, the truth is, is thatbeneath fear is actually this
issue of security.
It's this issue of security,and beneath appetites is this
quest for satisfaction, andbeneath our ego is this quest
for significance, forsignificance, and all of us,
significance for significance,and all of us, all of us today,
(23:49):
are in a boat where we're eitheron a quest to gain greater
security in our lives, we're ona quest to gain greater
satisfaction in some area of ourlife, we're trying to find, at
some level, this deeper level, asignificance to our life, and
maybe for some of you, it's acombination of all three or two.
But my bet is.
My bet is right now, if youthought about it long enough,
(24:11):
one of these three things youcould probably rank them in
order.
One of these things are at theheart.
They lie beneath the thing thatyou're actually worried about,
like factors like us, keep usfrom like this, keep us from
being content, and then theylead us on this quest for more
stuff, for more, more savings,more spending, more accumulation
(24:32):
.
And this is why people in thatday and people in this day do
whatever they can, just like thereligious leaders.
They were not immune to this inthis time.
This is why they do whateverthey can to just like there were
religious leaders.
They were not immune to this inthis time.
This is why they do whateverthey can to generate more wealth
, and it's because they'veembraced this fundamental idea
that more money equals lessworry.
(24:53):
Come on, you wouldn't actuallysay this, like you wouldn't tell
your friends this.
This is how some of us live.
We think if we could just getmore, like if I just had more
money, more wealth, I'd haveless worry in my life.
And some of you have lived longenough.
Some of you have earned money,enough wealth, to know that more
(25:15):
money does not equal less worry.
In fact, more money oftentimescomes with more worry, less
worry.
In fact, more money oftentimescomes with more worry, like more
stuff to deal with, more thingsthat can break, more things to
deal with, be responsible for.
More and more wealth comes withwondering who my friends really
(25:35):
are.
Do they just want somethingfrom you or they really want to
be friends with you and here'sthe thing, this is the rat race.
Really want to be friends withyou?
And here's the thing, this isthe rat race right here.
This is the rat race.
We get in because we put ourtrust and our hope in money and
our hope and trust in wealth,and then we either save or we
spend and we deal with ourworries and at the bedrock, at
(25:58):
the heart of our fear and ourappetite and our ego that we
have in our life, it alwaysbrings this cycle back to worry.
And actually the Apostle Paulhe says that.
But people who are rich, peoplewho are rich, here's what
happens.
They fall into temptation andthey're trapped by many foolish
(26:26):
and harmful desires that plungethem into ruin and destruction.
And some of you are thinkingright now well, like, make me
rich and see if I can plungeinto destruction.
I would like to try to.
I would like to deal, see if Ican deal with ruin and
destruction in my life.
We get in a mindset right thatmore money decreases my worry
(26:47):
and makes me feel more secureand satisfied and significant.
All the while, all we reallywant is more and more is never
enough and at the end, it'sactually harmful to us.
And now this all what Paul'swriting here is all the context
for a verse that many of youhave actually heard before.
He continues on and says for thelove of money is the root of
(27:09):
all kinds of evil, and somepeople craving money have
wondered from the true faith andpierced themselves with many
sorrows.
See, money is not the problem.
We miss this word right herethe love of it.
Why?
Why is it not the problem?
It's how you utilize the moneyand wealth to try to get things.
(27:29):
That money and wealth werenever intended to add in your
life.
It was never meant to be yoursecurity, it was never meant to
be the thing that actuallysatisfied you or made you feel
significant.
So Paul says here's what I wantyou to.
So Paul says here's what I wantyou to do.
He says here's what I want youto do.
I want you to teach those whoare rich in this world and some
(27:51):
of us are relieved in thismoment as we're reading, right,
you're thinking okay, great,this isn't for me, I am not rich
, right?
I just want you to know.
Nobody actually thinks they'rerich.
As a matter of fact, severalyears ago you can go look this
up, jpmorgan Chase they surveyedrich people and they started
with people with a net worth of$5 million and they asked them
(28:11):
if they were rich.
And they said no.
And so they said, okay, well,how much do you need to be rich?
And they said $10 million.
So they went to the people with$10 million and they said, hey,
are you rich?
And they said no.
They said, okay, really Well,how much do you need to be rich?
And they said $25 million.
So then they went to the peoplewith $25 million net worth and
(28:32):
they said, like, are you rich?
And they said, no, we're notrich.
Well, how much do you need tobe rich?
$50 million.
You see where this is going $50million.
No, we're not rich.
And they said $100 million.
And so they went to the peoplewith $100 million net worth and
they said are you rich?
And they said, yeah, we're rich, we're like really rich, like
we're real rich.
(28:54):
So, until you get to $100million, this is not going away,
like this feeling that you have.
And here's the thing all of uswe don't realize it, but you're
actually rich.
Come on, let's just talk aboutit, right?
You don't realize this, do youknow and you've probably heard
this before do you know that ifyou make $65,000 a year, you're
in the top 1% of income earnersin the world?
(29:16):
And you're like, well, there'sa lot of writing, there's like a
small print, right?
No, if you make $32,000 a year,you're in the top 5% of income
earners in the world.
What percentage of incomeearners in the world do you have
to be in order to feel rich?
The truth is, you're nevergoing to feel rich, but you are
rich.
(29:36):
And he says because you're rich.
This is what I want you toteach them.
Teach those who are rich inthis world to not be proud and
to not trust in their money,which is so unreliable.
Their trust should be in God,who richly gives all that we
need and I love this for ourenjoyment.
(29:57):
Like to enjoy it, not to beproud.
What does that mean?
Not to feel like you can dothis on your own.
Make sure they don't know thatthey can just do this on their
own.
To be independent, not to actlike you don't have to trust
anything or anyone else.
That's what pride actually doesto us.
Pride says I don't needanything and I don't need anyone
.
The apostles, paul says, theirtrust should be in God, who
(30:18):
richly gives us all that we needfor our enjoyment.
So let me ask you a question.
This is a question of the daywho or what are you ultimately
trusting in for what you need,for your security, to feel
satisfied, to feel significant?
See, here's the problem.
Problem Wealth becomes asubstitute and it actually
(30:49):
begins to take the place of Godin our lives.
And I want you to see this.
See how we handle our money.
It's not just a financialdecision.
It's actually rooted as a faithdecision, as a faith exercise.
And the decision is, the choiceis will you put your trust in
the riches, will you put yourtrust in the wealth, or will you
(31:14):
put your trust in the one whorichly provides?
So then Paul actually gives usan antidote.
He says look, tell Northgate,tell the rich people, tell the
rich people, tell them to usetheir money to do good, that
(31:35):
they should be rich in goodworks and generous to those in
need, always being ready toshare with others, and by doing
this they will be storing uptheir treasure as a good
foundation for the future, sothat they may experience true
life.
Come on, friends, you were madefor this.
(31:57):
Actually, you were designed forthis, for this.
Are we going to go all in?
That's really the question.
Pastor Ken kind of mentionedthis real briefly last week.
I'm going to just kind of teaseit out a little bit more.
I'm the lobby.
We didn't even hand them to you.
You can go to the next one Outin the lobby.
(32:18):
I'm going to ask you toparticipate, to take.
We're not giving it to youbecause you don't want to.
I want you to be able tophysically go and take one of
these as you leave today.
You can fill it out today oryou can sit.
I've asked you to pray aboutthis actually the last five
weeks, and many of you have donethis in your small groups, in
your community groups.
(32:38):
This isn't just a financialexercise, this is a faith
exercise.
And here's how this works.
This all-in generosityinitiative will last these two
years and during this time,every donation to our
organization that's Northgatewill directly support our
transformation, expansion andinnovation efforts.
(32:59):
So this is a spot where you putyour name and all your
information and no one else isgoing to get this.
It gets folded up.
You're going to put it in theboxes, but then here's what you
get to do, and here's part ofyour exercise, and maybe for
some of you guys, this is goingto be a great exercise and
here's the thing I want you togo through this faith exercise,
and even if you never turn inthe card, I promise that this
exercise will benefit you.
(33:20):
So what you're going to do isyou're going to write what I, or
we, would normally give in ayear.
So, like a lot of you guys, justgot your giving statements.
You know what you're doing, youknow how you're participating.
Plus this is the ask my, ourexpanded annual generosity is
part of this all-in initiative.
So what am I ready to like?
Actually lean in and figure outthis plan and what it looks
(33:43):
like, this New Testamentgenerosity, and so what that
equals is a number.
And then what you're going todo is you're going to times it
by two so you can see you'rewriting this down.
You can see hey, for the nexttwo years, this is what all in
looks like for me.
And then there's a spot wherewe're asking you because we
really feel like we need to do aone-time gift gifts from our
(34:06):
stored resources, savings,stocks, property possessions,
things that you can participatein as just a one-off, and we got
a giving page that explains allof this stuff.
It has opportunities toparticipate in all these
different kinds of ways.
And then, lastly, it's hey, Iwant to serve that Northgate, I
want to go all in in that space.
Or I'd like to be in acommunity group, in a small
(34:32):
group of people that we walkthrough and do life with.
Again, this is not a financialexercise, this is a faith
exercise and I really want youto go through this faith
exercise, even if even if younever turn the card in, but you
should turn it in the card, butyou should turn it in the garden
, and I promise you this willbenefit you one way or another.
Some of you have already takenyours.
You're more than welcome today,at some point in the boxes in
(34:54):
the room, to turn that in.
Some of you may be ready toturn it in today and then next
week we're gonna have ourcommitment Sunday and then weeks
after that you can participate.
If you're with us online, youguys can participate.
We wanna encourage you becauseyou're participating with us.
So may we go all in all in.
(35:16):
We're thankful for Courtneyleading us in worship today.
Courtney's a pastor.
He leads a church in SanAntonio, texas that he started,
and it's been a blessing to havehim here today.
I'm actually.
He loves this faith communityand this church.
He's here over the summer.
He's going to be communicatingin a couple of weeks when we're
(35:37):
talking about the Holy Spirit,the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost,
the Holy Ghost, and I know,would you just pray for this
faith community, absolutely, aswe walk into this next space.
I love it, thank you.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
I'll be honored, father.
Right now, we connect ourhearts, declaring that
everything that you have for usto pursue, everything that you
have for us to build, father, aswe're making a way in the
middle of a place where peopleare just like, what in the world
are you guys doing?
We're standing on faith, we'restanding on your word, god, that
(36:09):
you will do more than enoughinside of every home, inside of
every family.
So you have us, you got us,we're leaning on you, we're
saying yes because we're all in,because your presence and your
promise is here, and we lean onthat fact.
In Jesus' name, we pray.
Somebody say amen, give Godsome praise in here.
(36:29):
If you believe that, come on.
Yes, lord, do me a favor, standon your feet.
Let's sing this song right here.
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