Fr Anthony Messeh - Faith In Action Part 3 I Believe In God, But I Trust In Earthly Treasures

it is good to be back I hope you guys had a good evening for those who were here yesterday we are just to kind of catch you up to speed in case you weren't here and don't know what we were talking about the topic of our of our outreach nights here today and last night was faith in action and what we're talking about is something a new term that I coined called practical atheist and a practical atheist is something that we saw yesterday that unfortunately hits a lot closer to home than many of us realize in a practical atheist as someone who says they believe in God but lives their life no different than someone who doesn't believe in God so someone who says they believe in God lives basically as if he doesn't exist the example that I was talking about yesterday was if you have someone who moves next door to you a neighbor or something like that who you've never seen before and it doesn't know anything about you and he didn't hear you say you were Christian they doesn't see a little tattoo on your wrist or who doesn't see you wear a cross around your neck could he tell by the way that you handle your business or you handle your life that you're a believer or not believer that you're a Christian or a non-christian we saw yesterday two things that a lot of us believe in God but we don't fear God that we believe in him but we do like the cafeteria-style thing which is like I pick and choose the pieces of God that I want so I like the grace of God I like the promises of God I don't really like the correction of God so we kind of pick and choose and then after that we saw that I believe in God but I don't go overboard for God I don't want to be a fanatic I don't want to stand out and we talked about what it means to be lukewarm and how we don't want that to be us now tonight we're gonna go into a topic that hits everyone in the wallet I said last night the easiest thing to do as you're listening to me here's to talk is to say that's not me that's the easy thing to do the easy thing to do is kind of listen listen listen and say oh thank god that's not really me and that's not really my problem my problem is small compared to the stuff the father he was talking about but the one who really is willing to challenge himself and dig deep inside and really let God challenge him I guarantee you God will reveal areas in your life that need to be corrected and the area that I think is the easiest to brush off and say is not me is this one I believe in God but I trust in money and I trust in earthly riches and I trust in earthly treasures Luke chapter 12 verse 34 says for where your treasure is there your heart will be also none of us will admit it and none of us will say I treasure money and none of us will say I trust in money because all of us have this picture in our mind I say someone who trusts in money you have this picture in your mind of someone and it's someone that's not you maybe you picture like from the Christmas Carol movie the Scrooge guy okay or you think of some guy who's like stuffing bills under his pillow all the time I think of you guys remember the cartoon duck tales anyone see duck tales okay Scrooge McDuck okay with the big barn full of gold and he would swim in it and surf on top of the gold I say yeah that's someone who's trusting money That's not me I don't trust any money I don't have piles and piles of money like that clearly this has nothing to do with me but again I'm gonna challenge you tonight to dig a little bit deeper and to see if this hits closer to home than you are willing to admit this for you Canadians is a $20 bill $20 bill I'm sure you've seen it before I don't know what your money says in your country but on my money in my country it says the following the fine print says In God We Trust says that on every bill In God We Trust I'm going to convince you tonight that even though it says In God We Trust I believe this is false advertising and I believe how much I'm a visual here for you tonight you got two options if who you're gonna trust you guys read this this says GOG this is money I'm gonna show you tonight how these two are constantly constantly at odds with one another and you have to choose which one your treasured is in now I know what you're gonna say my treasure is here this is my treasure I don't treasure this but I think if we dig a little bit deeper we'll see that maybe it's not as clear-cut as we think it is how do we trust in money we trusted money for several different things but two things first thing we trust the money for happiness now again no one would admit this if I asked you raise your hand if you think money will make you happy in life no one would raise their hand you wouldn't raise your hand who thinks money can make you happy no one would raise him but let's say I change the question slightly and I said okay who thinks that maybe just a little bit more money would make them just a little bit more happy how many hands would be up everyone's handed me up and mine would be up my feet would be up and everything would be up I don't trust that money will make me happy oh but you know I had just a little bit more I could probably just a little bit more happy maybe we're putting more trust in money than we realized and willing to admit all of us have this opinions not just us everyone of us in our world has this opinion that the more of these that you get the more happy you can be and when I said it a minute ago I said everyone in our world I don't think it's everyone in the world it's everyone in our world cuz I've been places in Africa where the people over there even though they have a lot less stuff than us they got this figured out and they don't get confused by this because they know that you don't need to have this to have happiness and they live that way only in our world that this confuses us yeah we don't need this to get happy but we really always like it and it does make us put a smile on our face when we get more of these were you confused by this how do I know look around look around at the number people if you want evidence of this that this that we trust this to make us happy look around to the number of people who are not swimming in debt but drowning in debt not in hundreds of dollars but in thousands of dollars why why so many people are in so much trouble in debt I know that there are some people I don't want to offend anyone some people who are legitimately in debt a medical situation or like a family thing okay I'm fine with that I'm not saying anyone who's in debt is bad or anything like that but what I am saying is the vast majority of the debt that we get ourselves into is because we trust that this but this will make us happy and we will get more of this because we're not happy enough and then we're not happy so we need to find more this is we don't have enough of this let's borrow someone else's of these and that'll make us happy and we just get further and further and further into debt what's that that's practical atheism I believe in God but you know I'd really be happy if I had that new phone no I don't trust in money I trust in God but you see the thing is that my car you know when I parked next to all the other guys as cars just didn't know but I believe in God and I trust in God I just needed a new house because I needed more space for God practical atheism another thing we trust in money for we trust money to provide security and this one I gotta be honest this I'm not on the happiness side I don't believe in money to provide happiness it's not me I don't like fly I mean I think I'd share that last night my views towards money okay I don't need flashy things I don't need new things I don't need bigger I don't need better but I like to have these in stacks because it makes me feel secure I'm a saver I don't need like I said the newest things but I like to have plenty of these just in case I'm the kind of guy driving my wife crazy with I got the monthly budget down to the dollar I know exactly how much money you should spend on eating out and if we go over it it's not a good thing I know exactly how much we should save by the end of this year I got the one year plan I got the five year plan I got the ten year plan I got a retirement plan okay I got it all figured out how I pay for the college on paper I got it all figured out having these makes me feel secure now with that said is it a bad thing to save for a rainy day no it's a very good thing it's a very good thing however there's clearly a line where do we cross over into just saving and being wise versus trusting for security and for a lot of us these he's our Savior but this is kind of all sore Savior because this becomes like our practical Savior because when we have it we feel secure gives us freedom gives us hope and we trust in these how do you know if this is you I'll tell you how you know this is you if you're trusting in this for security what happens when you're at home came home from work or school or whatever and you check on the news and you see the stock market dipped again and your retirement plan retirement plan dipped again and what happens when you look around and you see all the things that you're hoping to provide security here mutual funds your stocks you're investing we see those going down that's when you see how much trust you place in these why is this issue so important that I'm gonna take a whole session to talk about something like money which we don't like to talk about we don't like to hear about because I believe with all my heart that money is for us isn't for everyone in the world this is specific to us in North American culture and that in the time that we live in now money will be number-one competitor for your hearts money is and will continue to be the number-one competitor for your hearts that's why we don't like to hear about money but the Bible spoke very directly about money first Timothy chapter 6 verse 10 for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil love of minot money is the root of all kinds of evil money is not evil money's good having these are very very very nice they can do very very many nice things we all like to have them but love of these is the root of all kinds of evil for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows you know the scariest part about these is you think you're following and trusting here and then these you just kind of start to make kind of lure you over here are you not seeing it you're getting further and that's what this verse is saying because of these love of these many people who started off here and following here and this was right there all of a sudden he started to distract and he started to make them stray and then all of a sudden at the end they find themselves and they don't even know where God went money's been number one competitor for your hearts and it will continue to be the number one competitor for your hearts as long as you live what I want us to see here tonight again we don't like to talk about money but Jesus like to talk about money I'm gonna talk about two times where Jesus met a rich person and he spoke very directly about money and it's very easy to remember because it's in Matthew 19 and Luke 19 two encounters Jesus had with people and he spoke about money first one encountered came in Matthew 19 and it was a story of a man who was by all accounts of the definition a good man a really good man like the man is called the rich young ruler he was young he was very successful and not only was he successful in like a worldly sense he was very successful in a spiritual sense like this guy had it all going for him this guy found Jesus and he came to Jesus and he unlike many other people didn't say he'll mink didn't say solve my problems he didn't ask for food or even ask for anything he asked Jesus tell me what shall I do to inherit eternal life oh what a good young man what a good young man this is a good young man it's not like the youth of today care about is there rap music okay this is a good young man this man is coming saying I want inherit eternal life so Jesus says to him good for you young man follow the commandments the young man doesn't stop there the young man says hey you know what Jesus I love the commandments I keep them all I honor my father and mother I keep the Sabbath I don't use your name in vain I I keep the commandment but Jesus I want to know more than eternal life I want to know what do I need to do to be perfect oh what a good man what a good man this is a good man I vote for this guy for president this guy should be the president this is a good man keeps the commandments seeking eternal life desires perfection how does Jesus respond to this good rich man says the following verse 21 jesus said to him if you want to be perfect go sell what you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me I got to be honest how do you feel about this response how do you guys feel about this is this fair like Jesus met prostitutes and he said your faith has saved you go in peace like come on man this guy's doing everything right and Jesus is making it hard for him why is Jesus making it so hard for him like give me kinda some slack do you just said no you want it sell everything none of us would sell it never sold anything this guy tells him sell everything why you know why cuz I think Jesus can see right through him and he could see that while your words are saying this I know where your heart is your words your heart your saying this is your treasure but I can see through you and I can see that this is your treasure that's why the next verse when the saddest verses in the Bible says but when the young man heard that saying he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions he had a lot of money and he said Lord I'm not willing to let go of these to get this this isn't us right it's not us we would never choose money over God right my theory is there not only would we choose money over God we do it on a daily basis how many of us go home and watch hours of TV on our big screen high-definition DVR thingamajig and we watch our favorite shows which cost us so many of these and then when it comes time for prayer just a few minutes here and there how many of us spend more money on coffee than we do on the kingdom of God I read a very very sad statistic sad statistic it made me like want to cry it was speaking about America but I mean I think we're the same even though across the border it said but the average American parent average American parent with kids spends make sure I mess this one up six hours per week shopping and forty minutes playing with their kids six hours a week shopping forty minutes with kids why oh no no we don't trust in these but we spend six hours a week getting as many we get as many of these weekends with six hours a week using these to get happiness and then our kids forty minutes a week what don't you admit it a don't admit it this consumes us we say this consumes us but this consumes us we wake up in the middle of the night thinking how we can get more of these we wake up in the morning so concerned not to lose any more vision we've already lost we spend day after day hour after hour seeking to build up as many of these in our bank account as we can oh no no but we don't trust in money no no we trust in God we don't trust in money let me show you if you trust in money you trust in God which one you where your treasure is there's a financial decline everyone flips out there's a moral decline no one cares financial decline everyone's up in arms and we need to do this so please take action get a new president get a new governor again solving bills and laws ah there's a moral decline everyone his own don't tell me we don't care oh we don't trust in money where your heart is there your treasure will be also this rich Guard said to Jesus Jesus I love you you're the best I believe in you kingdom of heaven I believe I believe I believe but I'm not willing to let go of these and because he wasn't really to let go of these he lost this and that's why the verse right after this you know the verse that comes right after this but maybe you never connected the dots together right after this is when Jesus said how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven now maybe we understand why because maybe we see that the more of these that I have around the more distracted that I get and yeah these are very nice but these are a competitor for God these are a competitor for God and if I'm not careful like this rich young man I may lose the kingdom of God because of these now again you're saying to yourself well that's not me I'm not rich That's not me I'm not rich I'm pour'd oh really I have a problem when you say that your pork I did an entire series back in our church a couple years back and hopefully in the series that you are rich and anyone who tells me that they're not rich I'd like you to look at some statistics you drove here in a car tonight right you live in a house right you have you have more than ten dollars in your pocket now right you're rich you're rich because did you know some astounding facts sixty percent of the world's population sixty percent of the world's population lives on less than $2 per day two dollars per day two dollars wouldn't get us through the Tim Hortons line the majority of the people in this world do they live on less than two dollars per day and you tell me you're not rich you know if you own a car you're in the top three percent of the world's population as far as rich I was having this conversation one time one time and I was in Africa and I had a conversation with someone and it really opened my eyes to the fact how rich I am I was going to visit someone in there and their house was approximately okay I'm seriously I'm not exaggerating approximately like from here to the end of that podium not like this okay not like this okay this little area where I'm in right here okay maybe like nine chairs ten chairs in a square that's their house a house of like a husband and his wife and there's something like eleven kids I'm not joking and that's not uncommon eleven kids and where's the bathroom where's the family and where's the dining room there it is all on top of everything we were having this discussion he was like talking to me back and forth I'll pretend like I'm him and you're you me whatever so you in America and Canada you have a house right yeah you have a car right yeah got a car and then I heared that you not only have a house and a car you have a house for your car so what he said I hear and that in America you have houses for people you have houses for cars I was like you mean the garage you know how many of them would love to live in a garage I can find you entire countries where no one lives in something the size of your garage oh but I'm not rich I'm poor you know why you're saying you're poor because your trust in these that you just want more of these and that's why you never admitted you're rich you're rich you're rich is not bad I need to apologize for being rich I'm rich I God has made me rich and God has made you rich it's a blessing of God it's not I don't need to apologize for but I gotta admit the truth and so I walk around like saying I'm poor I don't got enough of these if you don't think you're rich we can't ask you some questions do you have a toilet that flushes right you have a faucet that brings clean water right you have heat in your house and air-conditioned Wow not loaded tell me you're not rich the young man here didn't realize how rich he was and how all of these were distracting him from God he lost the kingdom this day let's go to our second encounter Luke 19 is a story of another time the Lord met a rich man but this rich man was the exact opposite of the first rich man first rich man I said was a very good man was an upstanding member of society this rich man was a jerk this rich man was a thief this rich man was a bad man he was the most hated man in the entire city his name was the Kia's and Zacchaeus was a tax collector he was short little man short a grumpy little man miserly little man a tax collector back in the day was like legalized robbery if you owe taxes you go to this little tax collector at his booth and if you owe like let's say you old 50 bucks in taxes he says okay you owe 70 you paid the 70 fifty went to the government what do think the other twenty went in his pocket it was legalized robbery and nothing could be done about it everyone hated this man's guts this man preyed on the weak and the poor this was a bad little man y'all know how the story goes Jesus walking into town Zacchaeus was a wee little man a wee little man was he so he climbed up into a sycamore tree so Jesus he could see hey he'll know that song right okay climbed up into the tree wanted see Jesus Jesus saw him said come down here little man jeez had a little dialogue with a little man he's go to the little man's house little man has a party for all his friends and the little man's life referencing what I said last night after this night was ruined Jesus destroyed this man this man was never the same again his whole life was upside down complete 180 he was ruined from head-to-toe look how ruined this little man was Luke chapter 19 verse 8 says then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord look Lord I gave half of my goods to the poor and if I've taken anything from anyone by false accusation I restore fourfold what just happened right there what just happened right there she's just met this little man this greedy little man and the little man said Lord now that I've seen this this has a lot less significance to me right off the bat I'll take half of all a tonne of these and give those away and then what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go door-to-door and I'm gonna find all the people that I stole money from and if I stole 20 from you remember I give you things up 50 you owe 70 I took 20 I'm gonna give you back 80 what in the world just happened what just happened Zacchaeus just lost his mind did a complete 180 life has never been the same why Jesus said just before this or just after this I'm sorry he said today salvation has come to this house today salvation has come to this house it's important that we know we connect the dots the right wait it's not that he gave and therefore he found salvation it's that he found salvation and then he gave makes sense he didn't give and then find salvation Jesus wasn't saying okay let me see give back your money they don't give you salvation Jesus gave him salvation then because he gave him salvation he gave away everything that he had that leads me to the following sentence read it carefully it's kind of confusing one rich man didn't want to let go of his money so he lost Jesus the other rich man didn't wanna let go of Jesus so he lost his money one rich man said this is what he wanted but he was not willing to let go of these so he lost this the other rich man once he saw this so now I'm not willing to let go of this so we ended up losing all of these which one sounds more like you the Bible says Luke 16 verse 13 no one can serve two masters no servant can serve two masters even if he will hate the one and love the other or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other you cannot serve God and Mammon God and money you cannot either you will serve one or you will stab the other but you cannot serve both they're polar opposites look at the Bible is not saying you shouldn't serve God and money or like I don't advise you to serve God and money saying it's impossibility you cannot be done you can't serve both just like you can't be in light and dark you can't be left and right it's either God or money you cannot serve both of them which of these two men sounds more like you one didn't want to let go of this so he lost this one didn't want to let go of this so he lost this don't you find it strange that Jesus never said you cannot serve God and lust you cannot serve God and pleasure you cannot serve God and an alcohol or drugs or sex or anything the only thing he said you cannot serve God his money why because he knew that the number one competitor for your hearts is money the number one competitor for your hearts is money and it's stealing a lot of people's hearts all around us unbeknownst to them again I'm not saying money is bad don't get me wrong I like money okay I'm Pro money okay I'm not anti money I like as many of these as I can get I'm not saying they're bad but what I am saying is the way this is supposed to work we're supposed to love God worship God serve God and then we use money in order to accomplish that we you do the opposite we love money we worship money we serve money and then we use God help us get more of it please god bless my financial situation please God by my retirement plan please got it I don't money to pay the bills and please God my job because I can't lose any more of these please God as if God they just are like our financial slave and it's his job to bring us money we're supposed to love God use money we end up loving money and using God I said in the beginning for those who aren't here those who walked in late easy thing to do is say this isn't me this is for the rich guy down the street this is for the guy said I'm glad that guy listed easy thing to do but maybe you need to dig a little bit deeper and see if there's any truth to this believe me if you're far away from God and your spiritual life has taken the dick don't gloss over this maybe materialism money worldly possessions and treasures has taken some of your heart you don't want to admit it but maybe it's worth some investigation ask yourself the things of this world the possessions the cars the houses the electronics the laptops the iPads the iPhones the I what Evers are they a little extra shiny in my eyes these days are they a little more appealing than they used to be maybe I need to do a heart check and maybe I need to ask myself why that is because when you're close to the king when you're holding on tightly leg Zacchaeus was these don't have as much appeal anymore and if these have a lot of appeal in your eyes maybe need to check yourself and if you don't feel so close here maybe you need to check yourself and see if there's a reason why today we saw two encounters of Jesus with rich people one rich person brushed it off and said yeah That's not me and he lost the kingdom the other rich person said oh my goodness and he changed his life entirely which of the two is gonna be your life story if I had to write your life story as an appendix and somewhere in the Bible with regards to money am I gonna write you in Matthew 19 am I gonna write you in Luke 19 - eh you're more like the rich young ruler monk I say you're more like Zacchaeus you decide the answer to that question I'm gonna assume that you say I want to be like Zacchaeus I want to hold on to Jesus more than I hold on to money how can I tell what would my life look like two things when you hold on to Jesus morning a whole lot of money the first thing you'll notice is that you become strangely content in life why strangely because you become so content that everyone around you doesn't get it and they'll think you're a weirdo first Timothy chapter 6 verse 17 command those who are rich in this present age who's he talking about who's rich in this present age say it who's rich say it like you mean to who's rich I want everyone to say I am rich who's rich who's rich you're rich command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the Living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy trust in God who gives us richly all things to enjoy stop trusting in these to bring enjoyment and trust in God who gives all things richly to enjoy here's what I want you to do if you're not buying what I'm saying here's what I want you to do and I mean what I'm saying if you don't believe and you don't are not convinced by what I'm saying go out there spend your entire life to get as many dollar bills as you can't go get all the coolest electronics go get the newest cars and the newest phones and go get the newest everything go buy the biggest house go out there and and get rid of all your relationships and your family and your friends and do everything you can to have the best job and the promotion and the money go go do all that stuff and then call me when you're on your deathbed when you're all alone on your deathbed as you've sacrificed all your family and friends around you call me on your deathbed and tell me if it satisfies you tell me if it fulfills you if I asked you will this fulfill you I know what your answer you'd say by your mouth the practical atheist is very good at saying this but treasure this the real believer is the one who lives it by his actions not just by his words when I hold on to Jesus I become strangely content things don't shine the way they used to shine anymore and then the second thing that happens when I hold on to Jesus listen carefully this sentence you become irrationally generous irrationally generous when you realize that these things don't provide happiness don't provide security and you realize that he does these have less value this becomes so big this has less value you become irrationally generous because you recognize that you can use earthly / temporary money to make eternal / heavenly investments you realize that you can use these to build your life here what I mean by that imagine that I gave you today I said you know what I'm gonna pull a fast one don't pull a fast here's let me do I give you a stack of monopoly money when I say monopoly money from now on I'm like Aladdin the genie and I can grant whatever wish I want and from now on you can use monopoly money to buy stocks to buy mutual funds to buy investments in banks you can use monopoly money you can go to the near stored pay $2 get a monopoly set and get the 500s okay the orange ones or you can use those as real money and you can go to a bank with 10 of those 500 and say give me 5000 in this company and you can watch that money growing that money come what would you say what would you say today is the greatest day of my life are you kidding me I can walk into a store and use these monopoly money to get stuff I can go down to the Pizza Hut buffet give you four of these and get the pizza buffet I can use monopoly money to buy real stuff on this earth wouldn't that be a great day is there anything greater that'd be the greatest day of my life agree I can take that monopoly money over a Hawaii with me about whatever is I want I may go back to Hawaii again if that was possible that'd be a great day right that'd be a great day well you know what the Bible says the Bible says this first Timothy chapter 6 verse 18 and 19 let them do good this is coming after the verse about that command those who are rich in this present age let them do good that they be rich in good works ready to give willing to share storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come that they may lay hold of eternal life do you get with that tank do you get that what the Bible is saying is I'm gonna tell you a little trick I'm sayin a little secret these as much fun as these are I'll tell you a secret at the end he's all burnt up these don't really have any value they don't have any value at the end of the Monopoly game which is your life all these shrivel up they do they look nice and you can do stuff during the time with a game you can do a lot of things with them buy and sell and trade but in the end you knew nothing but I'll make you a deal just between me and you I'll let you use the monopoly money to build a kingdom in heaven I'll let you use the monopoly money to be able to kingdom in heaven how's that sound how's that sound we should be excited we should be we should be excited and we should be ecstatic because we can use these which have no value to build that which has everlasting value we should be excited but we're not you know why because we love these so much we love these so much that's why when I say this sentence you don't get excited because you don't want to part with these you just want to say that you love here you treasure here but in the end I don't want to trust I don't want to part with these I don't want to lose all these these have no value man you know the only value these have like in monopoly the only value monopoly money is during the game I can have that big stack in front of me and everyone can say oh wow this guy's good a monopoly and we like having a big stack in front of us we like having to ever say oh yeah look at that I got a lot of these look at this stuff and I got this only provides one thing which is that people on this earth that they don't think highly of you I don't think oh you must be great but these have no value and if we really really trusted in God whether we trust in riches this sentence that I just said the sentence up there we would become irrationally generous we would be looking for ways that we can give this away in order to build the kingdom we'd be looking for people in need to help people to be hospitable towards we'd be looking for the people who are hungry people who are thirsty the people who are in need we'd be looking for some kind of mission and we can donate towards we'd be looking for any way we can be hospitable become irrationally generous because we realize that these have no value practical atheism saying that you believe in God but living as if he doesn't exist you own me go straight now I'm sure I've already offended many people so there's no hurting now can't offend anyone else let me go straighten out churchgoers and I preface what I'm saying by saying churchgoers okay you ever heard the word tithe churchgoers only okay that's my preface here and I will say this in our church if you're not a churchgoer I command you do not tithe do not give I don't want your money if you're a guest you come you enjoy no one asks you for money if you're a church member that's different just like if if I come to your house for dinner okay if I come to your house for dinner you would let me eat the nice meal and then you wouldn't like make me wash the dishes okay that's what the kids are Fork okay if you live in this house you roll up your sleeves you wash the dishes but here a guest you eat the meals no one wants anything for me what you want you to enjoy same thing non church members I'm not talking to you right now church goers I'm talking to you who believes in God everyone believes in God who believes in the Bible everyone believes in the Bible there's nothing more clear in the Bible than the God commands tithing and anyone who has a brain and eyes can see the God commands tithing tithe means 10% God commands it in the old and the new it's everywhere it's very clear some statistics North America 21 percent of consistent church goers give nothing to their church 21 percent that means one out of five one out of five people who goes to church on a Sunday to Sunday basis regularly gives zero percent how is that possible and without being a practical atheist how is that possible unless you say I believe in God but I live as if he doesn't exist in our church okay in our church back in DC we have roughly somewhere between 2,000 2,500 members roughly and I would say average attendance on a sunday sunday sunday basis somewhere around between all the different services 1,200 something like that if you would have asked me the number of consistent givers in our church not people who write one time things consistent givers I would be very generous to say 150 2000 members 1200 on a weekly basis consistent givers 150 and that's generous explain that to me practical atheism those who do give of the people that do give consistently isn't again across North America 71% of those who give consistently 71% it's three-quarters almost give less than 2% 71% give less than 2% how in the world can you explain that to me other than people saying I believe in God but I live as if he doesn't exist I believe in God but I don't really fear God because not really gonna obey what he tells me to do I'm just gonna kind of put together my own picture of God that I like cuz I believe in God but really I trust in these to save me you don't like hearing about this subject believe me I don't like talking about it but Jesus spoke about it he actually spoke about giving and money more than you spoke about many other topics more than they spoke about prayer more they spoke about fasting more than you spoke about worship spoke a lot about giving maybe the reason that you don't like to hear it because maybe it's true let's cut to the chase here like let's go let's go deep why you don't like to give those who don't like to give why you don't oftentimes I get the answer of thing is you know I want to and I wish I could be more generous and I want to help this charity and I want to help this person and I want to and I want to but the thing is is that if I did that I'd have to make some changes in my lifestyle that's the point why does Jesus speak so much about money because in order to give you have to make changes in your lifestyle are you getting this the whole point of Jesus coming to this world was to change us and we say I want to give but I don't want to be changed then you don't want Jesus because Jesus came to change Jesus came to change our priorities in life giving takes changing your priorities Jesus came to give us faith and to trust in him giving takes faith and trust in him we want to give without changing and without faith that worked that way maybe the reason he was so important to Jesus is because he had wanted to insist and and and repeat this into our life on a regular basis that I came to change your life I came to change the way you think I came to change the way you live I came to change the decisions that you make but we don't want that we don't want them we don't want to changes we're happy as is you know what often times we do because we want to give but we don't want to change we do what they did in the Old Testament you know what that he's doing the Old Testament for the Bible commanded very clearly about giving the Bible command to them they should give a sacrifice without blemish a perfect sacrifice they had to choose the best of their stuff to give but you know what they would do they do like we do there's my perfect sheep I've got many sheep like him and you know like the market you know is down these days for like my goats and stuff like that so like she for like a high commodity and like you know bills are tight this month and he can really bring me a lot oh how about that scraggly little sheep over there you see that little one the blind one with the broken leg hair in the eyes and something like that let's just give that one Jesus will understand yeah the card is kind God is loving he knows that I want to give him my best like I don't want I really want to but just you know circumstances you know how it is give them scraggly little guy how'd God look at them Malachi chapter 1 verse 8 the Bible says and when you offer the blind as a sacrifice is it not evil and when you offer the lame in the sick is it not evil offer it then to your governor would he be pleased with you when he accept you favorably says the Lord of hosts go ahead give a scraggly little sheep the hair in the eyes the broken legs a blind one go give it to someone else and tell me how go give that to your boss and say Merry Christmas and see how he would treat you you probably lose your job why you treat me any less than that unless you're just saying you believe you don't really believe again I don't want to come across let me tell you what what I do not well this is not the goal for tonight I'll tell you it is not the goal the goal is not to make you feel guilty for having money okay this 20 I pulled out of my own pocket okay okay not many more in there so I'll be the first one to say like I'm holding on to this one okay I do not wanna make you feel guilty for having money I do not want to make anyone feel guilty or ashamed or or or feel John I'm not it's not the goal I promise you that's not my goal my goal is to open your eyes to a great opportunity that you have been giving these are a gift from God they're a gift we do not need to apologize for having them but they were a gift from God and by the same token they are a test from God a test to see what you would do with him the Bible says in Luke 16 verse 10 and 11 he who was faithful in what is least is faithful also in much he was unjust in what is least unjust also in much therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon who will commit to your trust the true riches I don't want you to feel guilty for having money and being rich what I want you to realize that these were designed by God as a test a test of your faithfulness a test to see whether you would be so attached to these that you would be willing to let go of Jesus in order to get more of these these are not just a test of your unfaithfulness but a test of your faithfulness in order to reward you as well the Bible says that if God gives us these and we're faithful in these and we're righteous in these he will commit to our trust true riches these are an opportunity and I'm not trying to make you feel guilty I'm not trying to make you feel judged let's not make you feel bad I'm trying to make you see that you have an opportunity of a lifetime opportunity that so many people in this world don't have God is giving you so many of these which Kingdom are gonna build you gonna build this Kingdom the monopoly Kingdom by yourselves little houses a little little apartments or are you gonna build that Kingdom question I want to leave you with is who here tonight is ready for some true riches who's ready for some true riches the goal isn't that I that I everyone leaves here and gets rid of all their money not what I'm saying okay it's not bad to have money but it's bad when money has you and God is giving us a great opportunity tonight to be rich up there and building the kingdom of God like I can't stress this enough here last thing I'm saying can't stress this enough God takes this matter seriously God takes this matter seriously God doesn't blow this stuff off and I would be so sad if you did you may not think you're rich you're rich you may not think that you trust in riches please don't make that assumption your mama should have taught you never to assume okay get you in trouble don't take this too lightly okay everyone needs to ask himself some hard questions tonight I say I believe in God but I hope I put my trust in God and my treasures with him not in riches glory be to God forever amen

Channel: mauricecyril

Views: 14,698

Rating: 4.7431192 out of 5

Keywords: Fr Anthony Messeh, SMSV, Faith in Action, Coptic Orthodox Church, Practical Christianity

Id: 6PUdLx2RN38

Length: 56min 57sec (3417 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 02 2011