Managing Your Resources [Sermon Notes]

Managing Your Resources
Series: Money Questions
Tim Boettger
Orchard Hill Church
Listen to this teaching online

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Thanks, veterans. Because of your service we get to do what we are doing today. Thanks.

Today we’re talking about money. Some people don’t like it when the church talks about money. But we’ve asked questions of our staff and know that it’s worth it to talk about money. Jesus addressed money issues.

As I read questions from the staff the thought came to mind, “How much does God really care about these questions. After all, it’s just a piece of paper that tells value, how much does God care?”

How important is money to God?

Illustration: Becoming parents

• We became 19 years ago. Life changing
• I had to learn a whole lot of stuff
• You realize that your parents were right about a lot of things. For example, brushing teeth, getting rest, responsibility, learning the ways of God.
• My kids got a full dose of a lot of talking about a lot of different things
• My kids would get sick of it.. “Dad, not again! We can’t hear it again.”
• But because I loved them, I brought up the things that really mattered in life
• Application: If you would look at how much God talks about money, you would see how it’s important to God.

Were we the Bible’s editors, we might be tempted to cut out how much God talks about money and possessions. When it comes to these things, God is sometimes redundant, often extreme, and occasionally shocking. God talks about money more than faith and prayer combined.

This topic really matters to God. There’s over 2,350 direct references to how we relate with money.

God says more about money than he does heaven or hell. Like my kids, you might be thinking, “Okay, enough!”

We only dedicate two weeks a year to money. Not enough. But we’re going to talk about it.

“Jesus Christ said more about money than about any other single thing because, when it comes to a man’s real nature, money is of first importance. Money is an exact index of a man’s true character. All through Scripture there is an intimate correlation between the development of a man’s character and how he handles money.”
-Richard Halverson

God cares deeply about who we are and how we care about money. This is very important to God.

What does God say about the whole picture of money? For that, we will address this question:

According to God, how should we view money?

1 – A Trust

Something that is committed or entrusted to us as a duty or charge of responsibility. We are not owners of a trust, but stewards.

Illustration: I have a friend who lives on a farm and cares for it but doesn’t own the land or livestock. It’s a trust and he’s responsible for it, but it’s not his.

Illustration: A father/son interaction

• Father and son, Jimmy, did work together in the yard
• It was a fun time
• “Jimmy, great job. You get whatever you want for lunch. What do you want?” Father asked
• Jimmy wanted McDonald’s french fries
• They drove to McD’s to order the french fries. Father super sized them.
• When the fries were brought out, they said a quick prayer, and then Jimmy dove in to eat the fries.
• Father was happy to see the boy be happy over something so simple.
• Father reached over to get a few fries for himself…
• His son guarded them
• “No, Dad, these are mine!”
• Dad couldn’t believe what had happened. Reflected on his son’s attitude toward the fries…
• “My son has failed to realize that I am the source of those french fries. I gave him twice the size that he expected. He has forgotten that I am 6’1″ 195 pounds and I have the power to take all the fries. Or if I wanted, I could buy more than he could eat. I can also buy my own.”
• As the Dad thought about it, he didn’t care about the fries. What he cared about was the relationship with his son and how his son viewed him and how is son received the love provided.
• Application: Jimmy had made the mistake that almost all of us make from time to time. We begin to think that what we have is our own. The Bible teaches differently.

Job 41:11 
Who has a claim against me that I must pay?
Everything under heaven belongs to me.

Matthew 25:14-30
The Parable of the Bags of Gold

Illustration: Reporting a message to John Wesley

• “Mr Wesley, your house has burned to the ground. It’s terrible!”
• Wesley replied, “No, no, the Lord’s house has burned to the ground and now it’s one less responsibilty for me.”
• Application: How do you see your stuff? How do you see your money? Who owns it, really?

God has given you a trust. And you’re responsible

2 – A Tool

Deuteronomy 14:24-26 
But if that place is too distant and you have been blessed by the Lord your God and cannot carry your tithe (because the place where the Lord will choose to put his Name is so far away), ²⁵ then exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you and go to the place the Lord your God will choose. ²⁶ Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice.

Illustration: Workbench tools

• Vice grips – Adjustable vice grips are good
• Cordless drill – “What a gift to humanity.”
• Hammer – The most common tool. Can be used for construction or destruction
• Question: Who in their right mind lives for a tool? Who chases a tool their entire lives? Yet, God says this is a common problem

Illustration: Basement flooded

• We got water in our basement this Spring
• I wanted to do the repair myself, but decided not to
• I didn’t have the right tools to do the job of laying carpet
• So, I went to my wallet and pulled out this tool (money)
• You wouldn’t believe how that tool got the carpet in

The tool of money can do a lot of things, good and bad.

Illustration: Fill the Bus project for Haiti

• In October, our congregation used the money tool to put desks in Haiti
• We made dresses for kids in Haiti
• Money is a trust that’s a tool to be used for the needs of God’s people.

Luke 16:9
I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

3 – A Test

This is a test. How will you use the money tool? God is watching.

Luke 16:10-12
“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. ¹¹ So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? ¹² And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?

It is our job in the church not to give our opinion, rather correctly interpret as best we can what is spoken in God’s word.

God has given us money as a tool and we are to use it for his Kingdom.

1 Corinthians 4:2 
Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.

If you cannot be trustworthy with worldly wealth, who will trust you with eternal riches?

This is a test! We live in the richest country in the history of the world! To whom much is given, much is expected. God is watching.

Who will trust you with riches? If you cannot be trusted with someone else’s property, who will give you eternal property of your own?

Last week, Dave answered many questions about money. And he talked about the fact that we are to live all areas of our life for an Audience of One.

In the bulletin is a transfer of title. Read it, and consider going of this, thinking about it with your own heart:

TRANSFER OF TITLE
Date:

I hereby acknowledge God’s ownership of me and all “my” money and possessions, and everything else I’ve ever imagined belonged to me, including my family and loved ones. Instead of seeing myself as the ultimate recipient, I will see myself as God’s delivery person, enjoying what He intends me to keep and distributing what He intends to go elsewhere. I will do my utmost to ask Him and to prayerfully consider how He wishes me to invest His assets to further His kingdom. In doing so I realize I will surrender certain temporary earthly treasures but gain in exchange eternal treasures.

Signed: ______________________

Witness: ______________________

In preparing this teaching, I have been in a heart of repentance before the Lord myself. I have asked forgiveness and asked for God to guide me in how I handle the trust he’s given me. If that’s you as well, ask God for forgiveness.